Painting with Water Beads

My two kiddos love to play with water beads.  I'm not a big fan because it seems like I chase those little beads around the house the whole time they are playing with them.  They are quite bouncy.....

So one afternoon I decided we would try to paint with them instead of just pouring, scooping, etc.  

And it turned out super fun.

It's kinda like marble painting, but better because the water beads bounce all around the paper.  They seem to move a little easier when covered in paint than the marbles do.

Anna really enjoyed it....and Drew enjoyed making a mess, so it was a win-win for us!!

You don't need much paint at all....just a few squirts.  The water from the beads makes the paint the perfect consistency.

I put paper in these shallow plastic containers and they were great for little hands to hold.

See....Drew enjoys just squishing the water beads and making a mess.

It was fun....and a new way to enjoy water beads!!

Watercolor Resist & Reading: Heart Edition

We have been working on reading some simple words recently so this little watercolor resist activity was a lot of fun for my little lady!!  

Super simple, super easy.

And we're still loving hearts at our house...just fyi!!

I started by cutting out some hearts from cardstock and then wrote some words, names, numbers and phrases on the cardstock with a white crayon.

Then I gave her the hearts and water colors and told her to find the hidden word/message.

I did encourage to try to use one color per heart because it makes it much easier to see the letters and word.

Fun, fast, easy and educational!  My kind of activity!

Valentine's ABC and 123

Anna is all about Valentine's day this year.  She asks me almost every day if it's Valentine's yet....or if tomorrow will be Valentine's.  I'm not really sure why...we don't really do anything special.  Right now, she is obsessed with this heart punch I have.  She punches hearts all day, draws pictures on them, writes "I love u" on them, colors them, gives them to us.....

So today, I thought we would do a little "heart learning".  I punched out enough hearts for both uppercase/lowercase letters, as well as numbers 1-5.

We played a matching/memory game with our letters..

We sorted them out by upper/lower case and then matched up the "baby" (lowercase) with the "momma" (uppercase) letters.

And then we matched up the correct number of hearts with each number.

It was fun...she was learning...and I'm sure we will do this again soon!

Color Sorting for Toddlers

We are really big into color sorting at our house right now.  Drew really loves to play with these little transportation counters we have and loves to sort them by color.  He even tries to "trick" us by putting a color in the wrong cup and waits to see if we will notice.  Then he laughs hysterically...which is adorable.

We have several different cups floating around our house and I also made the cups on the right side of the picture using leftover Tupperware and some paint.  

And you don't have to have any particular type of object or counter to make this work for you.  Just gather up some of your little ones toys in the corresponding colors.

Making snowmen...

Wow!

It's been a while since you've seen me around, huh? 

Nothing new here....just staying busy with the kids....trying to unwind from the schedule of the holidays....and trying to enjoy the little moments.

Oh...and I started a new blog.  It's more about my addiction to paper crafts and Project Life and isn't so very "kid-craft-related" but check it out here if you are interested http://stephaniemakes.blogspot.com.

Ok...

We've been doing lots of crafts and activities; none have just made the blog yet!!

This little fun snowman craft came about because we got the slightest little bit of snow last week and my kids are craving more!  They really want to build a huge snowman, but we figured a pretend one was all we would be able to make on a 60 degree winter day.

We started out with some buttons, googly eyes, stickers and pipe cleaners to make our snowman.

Then we used white paint on blue paper to "stamp" circles as the shape of the snowman.  As you can see, Drew is a little more artistic with his interpretation of a snowman.  He was having fun, so we just roll with it!!  :)

Next we added our eyes (lots of eyes in Drew's case), buttons, arms (and legs too for Anna's) as well as some noses.

This is Anna's "snow girl" complete with hands, feet and bows in her hair.

Is this is Drew's snow-monster, I mean man!  

Art and crafts are always fun.  I always love to sit back and let them just create away!!

Play Dough and Stamps

I put together a fun little play dough activity for Anna the other day and it turned out to be a hit.  Who knew that stamps work so well with play dough?  We pulled out our homemade play dough and all of our stamps and went to town!

Our lowercase alphabet stamps were lots of fun and Anna loved spelling out her name (over and over and over again).

I also worked with her on some of the words she knows, as well as some beginning sight words.

Then we pulled out our princess stamps and made some pretty pictures.  She also liked using a pencil to make little dots all over the play dough.

The images were pretty cool.  Try it!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year to all of you!!  I hope 2013 is the best ever!!  

The Top 5

I meant to do this last year, but never really got around to it.  I thought I would give it a go this year!  Here are the top 5 most popular posts on this silly little blog.  Thanks so much to everyone who follows along with our family!

DIY Quiet Book

10 Fun Learning Games Using Plastic Eggs

Momma Made...My Busy Box

Toddler Crafts....Winter

Momma Made Makeup Tutorial

Merry Christmas!

I know it's a blurry photo but it still melts my heart.  These two were so excited to come downstairs on Christmas morning and see what Santa left for us.  Drew's cute little face sneaking around our banister is just so awesome.  Hope all of your Christmas' were magical.

Cardboard Gingerbread House and Gingerbread Men

Another super simple Christmas craft here!

We made gingerbread people and a gingerbread house using cardboard cutouts and puffy paint.

I cut some shapes from a packaging box we had handy.

And Anna used lots of puffy paint to dress up her people.

I finished off our little house since she was running out of steam (and puffy paint).

They took about a day to dry...obviously!  But we had fun making them!!

Peppermint Pretzel Pops

These little tasty treats are so easy to make but so yummy!  Both of my kiddos helped me make them for a cookie party this past weekend!  Seriously....so good!

What you'll need:

Pretzel snaps

Hershey kisses (we used the candy cane kisses and regular milk chocolate)

Red & green M&Ms

Directions:

Preheat oven to 175 degrees.

Place a piece of wax paper or parchment paper on a cookie sheet and lay out your pretzel snaps.

Top each pretzel with a hershey kiss.

Bake in oven for about 5-6 minutes but keep a close eye on them.  After the first batch I found that the ones in the back were way more melted than the ones in the front so I started rotating my pan about 3-4 minutes into the baking.  

After about 5-6 minutes remove from the oven and place an M&M on top of each kiss.

Cool in the freezer for about 10 minutes and you're ready to go!!

Happy baking!!

Christmas Tree Name Craft

This little Christmas craft is similar to the rocket ship craft we did a while back.  It's pretty simple, but great for preschoolers who are learning to spell their name or love to write their name.

I started by cutting out triangles of similar size on green construction paper.

Then I had Anna write one letter of her name on each of the little triangles.

I handed her some glue and she got to work putting her name together and building her tree.

I  made one for my little guy too and he got to smear glue all over the place so he was happy.

We topped our trees with a little star and put them up in our window!

Christmas is getting closer!!  So excited!

DIY I Spy Christmas Ornaments

I searched and searched for what Anna and I could make her little friends for Christmas and I finally found the perfect gift....thanks to Pinterest!

These I Spy ornaments are just too darn cute.  And they are so easy to make!  

Anna and I had a lot of fun filling up the ornaments with cute little Christmas goodies...and Anna really enjoyed just playing with all the little pieces.

I found all of the little goodies in the Christmas section of the craft store.  The store is kind of picked over right now, but they do have everything 60% off so you might just get lucky!!

We used clear plastic ornaments instead of glass since I knew they would be getting lots of handling from little hands.

I used a funnel to pour in filling beads into each ornament.   The filling beads are actually the same little beads they use in stuffed animals and other sewing projects.  They are with the batting and stuffing at the craft store.

I hot glued on the lid after we were finished to make sure all the little goodies stayed safely inside.

And then Anna called out all the little goodies inside the ornament and I typed up a little list to attach to each ornament!

We made a couple extra to keep her and some to give to our neighbors!!  It's a perfect gift for a preschooler!!

Christmas & Winter Crafts for Kids

 We are in the full swing of Christmas here!  I'm busy working on my December Daily album and we are jet-setting up and down the east coast to visit friends and family.  Lots going on and so little time!  We've managed to fit in some fun Christmas crafts and activities but I haven't found the time to upload the pictures yet.  Hopefully soon.  In the meantime, here are some crafts from last year to tide you over!  (You know...for the all two of you who read my blog!)  Links are after each picture.

Hope you all are in the Christmas spirit and are enjoying life as much as we are!!

Christmas Pom Pom Crafts

Christmas Tree Craft

Winter Crafts



Snowflake Crafts