Category: Arts & Crafts

Cupcake Wrapper Flowers

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This is one of those crafts that was really a mommy project, while Travis played with all of the materials alongside me. Children in pre-school on up will love to help you put the flowers together though! When our flowers were finished, Travis loved “planting” them – more on that below!

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To start, I shaped bright cupcake liners into various flower shapes – some with rounded edges and some with points. The cupcake liners were by far Travis’s favorite part of this craft, and he stacked them and filled them with pom poms while I worked.

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For older children, you can trace the shape of the flower to cut, and have them practice with safety scissors.

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Once you have enough flowers, trace a leaf shape on green construction paper and cut out. Kids will love helping to use a hole punch on each leaf.

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Fold a green pipe cleaner in half, and thread one or two leaves onto each. Carefully poke the pipe cleaner “stem” through two or three cupcake wrappers, folding over the end to secure in place.

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We tried gluing pom poms to the center of a few of our flowers, but they didn’t stay on very well. Oh well, they looked pretty even without the embellishment!

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You can display your spring flowers in pretty vases…

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Or plant them in dirt, as we did with an old prop from a Koala Crate.

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Paper Towel Flowers

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Be prepared for several crafty flower posts in the next week or so. I have a case of spring fever, plus another flower-based theme I’m working on (stay tuned for more on that!…). So for starters, here is a lovely and easy flower craft that toddlers will adore.

Watercolor and paper towels makes for an innovative painting experience, because with just a light touch of the paint brush, the color will bleed across the paper towel. Travis had fun testing the limits of this for a little while.

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We were using liquid watercolors for the first time, but you might consider sticking with regular watercolors. I confess, it was this mama who knocked over our yellow for the first spill, and Travis later decided to pour the watercolors back and forth to mix them, which resulted in a spilled cup of blue. So… User discretion advised!

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Despite the silly mess, we ended up with three covered pieces of paper towel to turn into flowers.

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Let dry completely, then invite your toddler to rip the paper towel into pieces – this part is sure to be a big hit!

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I arranged the pieces into three piles, each stacked in order from largest to smallest. Fold up into a flower shape, and secure with a clothespin stem.

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To add a dose of reality to our flowers, we then scented them with perfume! Travis was astounded that our flowers had a real smell, and soon was running all about the house waving them. A great spring craft.

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Paint Up a Storm

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This idea from our April copy of High Five magazine was the perfect project on a gray day as we head into rainy April – what better way to help children enjoy all those April showers that will bring May flowers??

To start, we looked out the window at the stormy day, and I asked Travis what colors he saw, pointing out various tones of gray and deep blue. I asked him if he wanted to paint the day, and his enthusiastic answer was yes!

I set out watercolor and watercolor paper, but first we needed to add our “raindrops”: tear bits of masking tape into pieces, and adhere to the paper; when you remove the pieces later, you’ll have white raindrops left behind.

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Travis barely paused for this step before diving for the paints. He talked as he worked about the various shades of blue he made…

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…and then impressed me by painting “puddles”!

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Mama made her own watercolor while he worked, and we collaborated on a third, ending up with three stormy paintings.

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Let the watercolor dry completely before removing the tape and revealing your “rain drops”.

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The paintings are perfect to transform into gifts. We folded one in half to make a “Cloudy Card” as a gift for his grandpa. A second one we cut into strips to be “Rainy Day Bookmarks.”

Finally, we glued a photo in the center of the third, making a Stormy Weather Picture Frame – the perfect gift for daddy’s desk!

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What other gift ideas can you think of with these stormy paintings? Please share in the comments!

Scented Salt Dough

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Salt dough projects aren’t just for Christmas ornaments – we brought the scent of spring into our house with this neat take on the project!

The first step was to whip up salt dough of course, and Travis always loves projects that involve mixing. In a bowl, combine:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1/2 cup water

If your dough is too sticky, simply add a little more flour. Next we mixed in just a drop of food coloring and kneaded it in, resulting in a pretty marbled effect. Lavender and green felt like the perfect spring shades!

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Instead of Christmas shapes, we rolled and cut our dough into animals like sheep, pigs, and cows. And of course Travis had fun just playing with the dough for a while, and requesting extra flour to make his hands a springtime mess!

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Bake the dough at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.

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Once it cooled, we added the finishing touch – a drop of lavender oil to the back of each piece. After that, the whole apartment smelled like springtime!

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Acorn Jewels

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Although this project didn’t turn out quite as well as I hoped, I still love the idea and want to share!

The first thing you’ll need to make acorn jewels is… acorn caps! We didn’t let winter deter us from heading outside to collect a few. In fact, with all the acorns eaten up by animals, we found lots of large empty caps that were perfect for this project.

Next we needed to wash the winter dirt off of them, so gave the acorn caps a quick bath. This was arguably Travis’s favorite part of the entire project.

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Color in each acorn cap with marker, preferably in a variety of jewel tones and bright colors. We used fabric marker, but I think maybe those Mr. Sketch scented markers would work better.

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Now fill each cap all the way with glue.

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Let sit for 24 to 48 hours – the glue should be completely dried up, and the color will have seeped into it, leaving a jewel tone behind.

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What will you do with your acorn jewels? Please share in the comments!

Stained Glass Apples

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This whimsical creation is a neat way to do stamp painting with your child!

Cut an apple in half crosswise (not lengthwise, as your normally would) – you’ll be able to see the pretty star where the seeds are, which will make for the prettiest prints!

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Squeeze different colors of paint onto paper plates so that each apple half will have a mosaic of colors. Travis loved helping with this step.

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Now dip the apple in the paint, and transfer onto tracing paper. Here’s the key – don’t smoosh the apple around.

Travis got the hang of this so much faster than I anticipated! He really liked the challenge, in fact, of pressing down the apple only once and then pulling up without disturbing the circular image, which is a bit tricky because the apple suctions to the paper. So this project turned out to be great for our motor skill development.

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Once the paint dried, I covered all the apple prints with contact paper (sticky side down), and cut out around the circles.

Travis helped punch holes in the apple circles…

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… and then I laced them together using twine.

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Suspend from a window where the apples will catch the sun!

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Sensory Rainbows

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I haven’t a drop of Irish blood in me, but I’ve always adored Ireland – the literature, the music, the wit, the music, the scenery… Did I mention the music? So I wanted to bring a little luck of the Irish to our St. Paddy’s Day just for Travis’s enjoyment. Aside from making a rainbow snack, we put together this sensory rainbow while talking about the lore of the pot of gold that waits at the end. Now I just need to find a green shirt for Travis to wear!

I drew a line for each color of the rainbow on poster board, and set it aside.

Then it was time to sort our supplies! For the best sensory experience, use a variety of items – we used buttons, pom poms, stickers, beads, pipe cleaners, and more. Travis helped sort, and I put everything into little paper cups by color.

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I decided it would be least confusing to glue on the items one color at a time, so first asked Travis to make drops of glue on the red line and presented him with our red cup of items.

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Once he grasped the idea of what we were doing, he was very determined and excited to decide where each item would go. It was a bit exhausting, so we didn’t finish all in one session, letting the glue dry in between.

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As you work, talk about the textures! Our beads were hard, our pom poms were soft, our buttons were smooth etc. As a final sensory touch, I glued on cotton ball clouds.

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Wishing everyone a Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Butterfly Balancing Act

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This balancing experiment is a nice way to talk about things like symmetry and centers of gravity, no matter how young your child is! They’ll love the beautiful butterfly you make, and absorb just a little science in the process.

First, I folded a piece of white paper in half and traced butterfly wings. Cut out the wings and unfold – you now have a perfectly symmetrical butterfly!

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Now place that paper over something sturdier (we recycled a cereal box) and cut out – this part was definitely a grown-up step.

Travis loved decorating his butterfly with dot paints.

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Once dry, it was time to see how it flew!

Using a little bit of playdough to anchor it, I inserted a straw. This will be the stand for the butterfly.

 

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Tape a penny to each corner of the butterflies wings for weight.

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Now balance it on the straw! You may need to shift a little until you find the center of balance, but once you do, your little butterfly friend will be aloft.

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I confess, I think I was more impressed with the final results than Travis was!

Footprint Butterflies

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Painting doesn’t get messier – or more fun! – than this.

We needed a harbinger of spring with a sleety snowstorm outside, and I thought butterflies would be perfect. First, Travis and I selected blue and green paints, and swirled them together on a paper plate. I was hoping this would give the butterfly a patterned look like in nature, though mostly it just meant we had a lovely turquoise.

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I thought Travis might be squeamish about stepping right in the paint and planned to apply it to his feet with a paintbrush – but he surprised me!

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He let me hold the plate to his foot and mush it around (“It’s cold!”) and then was patient as I pressed his foot down on poster board, angling his toes slightly out, for one butterfly wing. Repeat on the other side.

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We made two butterflies on our poster board, but after that, things would have gotten too muddled. He was having so much fun though that I laid out additional sheets of paper for him to slip and slide and stomp on – make sure to hold your little one’s hand.

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Finally, our butterfly wings were dry; I added in bodies and antennae and Travis drew a few scribbles of his own.

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Send to a loved one as a happy spring card!

Button Tree

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We haven’t let the icy weather deter us from outdoors adventures, including collecting treasures like sticks and winter leaves. But that doesn’t mean we’re not excited to see blossoms on the trees! This adorable button tree is a nice harbinger of spring.

The first step of course is to collect your sticks – head some place beautiful in the summer sunshine for this part!

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Once home, Travis loved sorting through our collection. I quickly realized that he would be way more in to playing with the sticks than shaping them into a tree on poster board…

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…so after he had fun for a while, I took care of gluing our sticks in place.

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Once the glue dried, it was time to add the buttons! Travis was very proud to add big drops of glue and press a button “leaf” into place over each one.

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We had fun choosing which color buttons to place where.

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The final creation was so whimsical!