tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52959194978058643342024-03-15T21:09:57.346-04:00Give Your Octopus a Paintbrush (or 8)Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.comBlogger96125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-51014230263255760262015-05-21T13:59:00.000-04:002015-05-21T13:59:07.457-04:00A Lesson in Colors with Play Dough<br />
Today my 2.5 year old and I made play dough in primary colors, which we then mixed together to make the secondary colors. There's something magical about putting a ball of red and a ball of blue together and watching it slowly swirl together in your fingers into purple. And then brown, because of course after that we mixed them all together (having a two year old is very hard on my perfectionist nature!). We used<a href="http://www.pbs.org/parents/crafts-for-kids/no-bake-play-dough/" target="_blank"> this no-bake play dough recipe from PBS</a> with great results. I actually quartered it because that seemed like A LOT of dough. And it was. A quarter was just right for our purposes. To save you the trouble of the math, here're the amounts we used:<br />
<ul>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLrPiKpDuWiBZ3MlH8AR3MWLAhKisnN1xetsGK6wffTKM83xe4w7bPjq3IA-l60BR3CIF-iZ3kmaNaA43FhZewcnNMAx1nE9hnWKabhCz2JJhfNbppQQJs-YeMMlUqHKDpBad-yK0DqhKw/s1600/05_21_2015+001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLrPiKpDuWiBZ3MlH8AR3MWLAhKisnN1xetsGK6wffTKM83xe4w7bPjq3IA-l60BR3CIF-iZ3kmaNaA43FhZewcnNMAx1nE9hnWKabhCz2JJhfNbppQQJs-YeMMlUqHKDpBad-yK0DqhKw/s320/05_21_2015+001.JPG" width="213" /></a>
<li>1 c. flour</li>
<li>1/3 c. salt (okay, technically, if you quarter the recipe it's 1/4 c and 2 tbsp, but 1/3 worked well.)</li>
<li>1/4 c. water</li>
<li>1 tbsp oil</li>
</ul>
<ol>
<li> Mix it all together. You might need a touch more oil and/or water during the mixing process. </li>
<li> Divide the dough into 3 balls.</li>
<li> Use food coloring to make a ball of each red, blue, and yellow.</li>
<li> Divide each colored ball into 4 balls of each of those colors. 12 balls total.</li>
<li> Mix in different combinations two balls of different colors to get your secondary colors, and two of the same color to get your primary. Dividing it that way makes it so you roughly have the same amount of each color. (Hi, remember me from above, perfectionist?)</li>
</ol>
So now you have six balls of six different colors.<br />
<ol>
<li> red + red= red</li>
<li> red + yellow= orange</li>
<li> yellow + yellow= yellow</li>
<li> yellow + blue= green</li>
<li> blue + blue= (surprise!) blue </li>
<li> blue+ red= purple (sort of, have you ever met a color more hard to mix than a nice purple???)</li>
</ol>
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Tip: If your dough gets a little dry when you're playing around with it, just damped your hands and smoosh the balls around. It'll get right back to its original pliability. <br />
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<br />Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-64313550303344984422015-02-09T21:11:00.000-05:002015-02-09T21:37:35.326-05:00Hugs and Hisses!-- Snake Pencil Valentines<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I admit, I did look for boxed valentines at Target this year. But either I was very late getting to rummage through their valentine stock (It <i>was</i> already February 2nd, gasp!) or it just wasn't very impressive this year (due to the many dumpings of snow maybe?). At any rate, I had two options for the boys' school valentines. I actually think my nature-crazed eldest would have loved the googly-eyed animal ones, but that left superheroes for Fumble, and sadly my boys were in and over them in about two minutes. I can't remember the last time we DIDN'T do box valentines, (maybe back in <a href="http://stuck-on-glue.blogspot.com/2012/02/valentines-bugs.html" target="_blank">2012</a>?), but these options were disappointing. Target could do better than this! We could do better than this! And then I thought, wait, why can't we make our own valentines? Ones we will actually LOVE to hand out!? Also, the idea of not traipsing in and out of drug store after drug store with a crabby toddler in the throes of TWO in favor of creativity was very appealing. I admit it.<br />
<br />
My 7 year-old, Spiff, ranks snakes at the height (and beyond) of coolness right now. He talks about them all day long. And he has immense stamina when it comes to coloring and crafting, especially when it's something he's excited about. So I thought, let's do snake valentines. And of course you can't just give paper valentines any more. They have to come WITH something. So what would look like something a snake would hang off of. Tree. Branch. Stick. PENCIL.<br />
<br />
Pinterest had this <a href="http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/snake-pencil-topper" target="_blank">awesome pipecleaner pencil-slitherer</a> to offer. Pretty awesome. Even though I didn't have enough pipecleaners, this one had me so pysched I was ready to go buy some. But wait. These would mean a lot of work for ME. And these aren't MY valentines. I'm a firm believer that kids should do more of their own gifting. I wanted Spiff to make his own mark. And so this cardstock creeper was born. I printed up a template and he colored them in. All 22 of them. He was so excited about it, I couldn't come down to make a pot of coffee in the morning without having to get some art supply out first. So since he was so excited to do them, I'm so excited to share this craft. And if you have a snake-happy crafter like I do, I hope you enjoy making them as much as we did! <br />
<br />
What You Need:<br />
<ul>
<li>the printable printed up on card stock</li>
<li>hole punch</li>
<li>scissors</li>
<li>crayons, markers, etc.</li>
<li>brand-new pencils for gifting</li>
</ul>
What You Do:<br />
<ol>
<li>Color printed snakes. </li>
<li>Cut out snakes. </li>
<li>Hole punch gray circles.</li>
<li>On back, write your message. We chose "Hugs and Hisses" since it's Valentine's Day and we like a good pun. ;-)</li>
<li>Slide snake onto pencil tip first through the front, colored, side of the tail. gently bunch and slide snake up the snake towards the eraser until the snake looks like it's slithering up the pencil. </li>
<li>Gently fold, head down to lie flat-ish along pencil. </li>
<li>Gift!</li>
</ol>
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<ol>
</ol>
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The Printable:<br />
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Other awesome Snakey Sayings we came up with:<br />
<ul>
<li>"Your Sssssuper!"</li>
<li>"Just Slithering by to say "Happy Valentine's Day!"</li>
<li>"Give me a squeeze, Valentine!"</li>
<li>"You'll make Hisssstory, Valentine!"</li>
</ul>
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<br />Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-73215101686322021092015-01-20T13:33:00.000-05:002015-01-20T13:33:07.482-05:00Baking Soda SnowI love playing in the snow with the kids but we haven't had any this year and it's been too c-c-c-old if there'd been any anyway. Fake snow INDOORS seemed like a good way to have some snow fun despite the lack of real snow.<br />
<br />
I found this great recipe for baking soda snow on <a href="http://mommasfunworld.blogspot.com/2013/01/fake-sensory-snow-that-feels-real.html" target="_blank">Momma's Fun World.</a> This stuff is mold-able just like the real stuff and is completely safe. It is made from two ingredients I already had handy- baking soda and conditioner- so that's always a win for me. And it keeps. Stick it in a tupperware container or, like we did, play with it in a baking dish that has a lid and pop the lid on it when you're through. A month later and it was still in great shape. The pictures show just a half-batch of the snow to give you an idea.<br />
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My 2 year old had such a great time making snowmen (Use twigs or pipecleaners for arms, choc. chips and pony beads for buttons and eyes) and playing treasure hunt in the snow with some buttons and "gems" we have hanging around. (Don't put anything in there you wouldn't want the finish to get "polished" off of- it is baking soda after all.) Both my 5 and 7 year old played with it when they got home from school and loved playing with it just as much. A lot of bang for little buck an little effort. I definitely recommend trying it!<br />
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<br />
What You Need (for a full batch; we only did a half.):<br />
<ul>
<li>3c. baking soda</li>
<li>1/2 c. white conditioner (We used the Sauve Kids 3-1 because that's what we had on hand and it worked great.)</li>
</ul>
<br />
What You Do:<br />
<ul>
<li>Mix it up using a fork or your hands, adding more conditioner if necessary.</li>
<li> Play!</li>
<li> You can pop it in a resealable container when you're done and use it over and over again, though you might have to add a little more conditioner to refreshen it. </li>
<li><br /></li>
</ul>
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<br />Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-8699129576030529802014-12-01T16:06:00.000-05:002015-01-09T12:44:10.311-05:00Keepsake Baby's 1st Christmas Star<div style="text-align: center;">
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<br />
I collected the tags and scraps of the wrapping paper from the presents each of my children received on their first Christmases. From these I made keepsake Christmas stars that we put on our Christmas tree tops each year. One day my kids will take their own special stars and put them on their own Christmas trees when they are adults with their own homes. (I hope!) Here's how I did it.<br />
<br />
I traced and cut out a *perfect* 5 point star out of heavy cardboard (matboard or heavy cardboard from the back of used up notepad will work. I've used both.). I was nitpicky the first star and then every star after that I traced from the original so that I am sure my third kid's star is a lot less perfect. (That's what happens, right?) But, if you want to have a guide or are a little bit of a perfectionist, use a protractor to make a pentagon (the base of your star) with interior angles of 108*. Then extend your lines beyond that until they meet to make your star's points. My stars have a pentagon base with each side being about 2.5" with the end result being a star that has a diameter (you know, if you stuck it in a circle.) of 10". (My high school math teacher sister is cringing I am sure.)<br />
<br />
You could also do something like <a href="http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagstar.html">this </a>and use it as a template for your cardboard.<br />
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Now, let's forget math because we don't need it any more. That's right, now it gets fun.<br />
<br />
Rip and tear your wrapping paper so you have nice larger pieces and smaller pieces to collage on your star. Swab on some modpodge* put down some paper (using the bigger pieces first for a base) and swab over it. Wrap some around your edges and do both sides. It helps to focus on one side and then when that side is dry do the other side. Paste of sticker tags in the same manor.<br />
<br />
Card tags, open and mod podge both sides and let dry. Then modpodge the back onto the star and glue over the right side of the interior (where people usually write) so that the flap can be opened later and the message read.<br />
<br />
And that's it. Really simple and sweet.<br />
<br />
Out of a heavy gauge wire I made a spiral in the shape of a cone that could fit over the top of a tree. At the top I twisted two loops between which would fit one of the angles of the star. Hope that makes sense.<br />
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*You can make your own modpodge with equal parts white glue and water. Shake them together in a jar with a screw top lid.Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-88642688171427941292014-10-30T19:32:00.001-04:002014-10-30T19:32:26.398-04:00Jack O' Clementines<div style="text-align: center;">
How awesome is this? </div>
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A Halloween lunch bag snack that is both nutritious and takes 5 seconds to whip up? Sign me up!</div>
Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-61202638818460508542014-10-16T12:46:00.000-04:002014-10-16T12:46:21.369-04:00Halloween Jokes for KidsThis is not a crafting post but I thought I would share our favorite Halloween jokes! Every day I send a note in my older son's lunch with a joke on it (Admittedly, I repeat them after a couple of weeks. I only know so many good ones.) and this month we've been enjoying the Halloween themed ones. Here's a countdown to Halloween with 15 jokes for 15 days!<br />
<br />
1. -<i>Knock Knock!</i><br />
- Who's there?<br />
- <i>BOO!</i><br />
- "Boo" who?<br /> - <i>Oh, don't cry! It's only a joke!</i><br />
<br />
2. What kind of witch goes to the beach for vacations?<br />
<i> - A sandwich! </i><br />
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3. What does a monster call his mother?<br />
- <i>Mummy.</i><br />
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4. Why wasn't there any food left at the Halloween party?<br /> <i> -Because everybody was goblin'.</i><br />
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5. Why wouldn't the skeleton cross the road?<br />
-<i>Because he didn't have any guts!</i><br />
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6. What do you call a nervous witch?<br />
-<i>A twitch!</i><br />
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7. Why didn't the vampire like the bumper cars?<br />
<i> - They drove him batty!</i><br />
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8. What kind of horse does a ghost ride?<br />
-<i>a night mare!</i><br />
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9. <i> </i>What did the skeleton order with his drink?<br />
<i>-a mop.</i><br />
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10. What do you get when you cross a ghost with a reindeer?<br />
<i>- a cariboo!</i><br />
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11. What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire?<br />
- <i>frostbite!</i><br />
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12. What kind of streets do zombies live on?<br />
<i> - dead ends!</i><br />
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13. What subject is a witch's favorite?<br />
-<i>Spelling!</i><br />
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<br /><i> </i>14. What do you call it when a black cat falls off its witch's broomstick?<br />
-<i> A catastrophe!</i><br />
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15. Why didn't the skeleton laugh at these jokes?<i> -Because he lost his funny bone!</i><br />
<i> </i>Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-75100059651813388582014-10-01T09:34:00.000-04:002014-10-01T09:36:41.903-04:00Peek-a-boo Card: Haunted HouseIt's OCTOBER! That means we really get to dive into Halloween! One of my favorite holidays for sure! Candy, costumes, COLOR! All good things start with C. Cookie Monster and I are of the same mind.<br />
<br />
And CARDS! We love making and mailing cards. They are a great, fun craft and a fantastic way to show your love. Who doesn't like getting a card in the mail? Nobody, that's who.<br />
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This is a neat lift-the-flap card that my octopi and I designed together especially for our favorite people last Halloween. (And I had to wait a WHOLE year to post it, do you know how hard that was for me!? Do you!?)<br />
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It was a fun project the kids really got into and allowed them to put as much craziness into it as they wanted while making a really cool finished product they felt pretty proud of. (So did I, I admit it.) The materials are basic, the result awesome. Just how we like our projects around here.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzBbRNzfIdex4fRkGvsk22D8xLe70USQIsBfE1jkljunJwIAg0Jj32HIT2R2C9_p7-hBdedJHfC0Z0m0uAkFTT1ZJm2WIefDN4oE046m22A3LgljbVb4XTC62-Ukwr3nVx2gWL5M1l8kUA/s1600/10_14_2013+005.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzBbRNzfIdex4fRkGvsk22D8xLe70USQIsBfE1jkljunJwIAg0Jj32HIT2R2C9_p7-hBdedJHfC0Z0m0uAkFTT1ZJm2WIefDN4oE046m22A3LgljbVb4XTC62-Ukwr3nVx2gWL5M1l8kUA/s320/10_14_2013+005.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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What You Need:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Card stock. We cut ours to fit a business envelope when it was folded, so 8.5"x8" or you can use the pre-drawn printable at the bottom if your octopi just want to color.</li>
<li>Gluestick</li>
<li>Exact-o knife or craft knife</li>
<li>crayons, markers, etc. </li>
</ul>
<br />
What You Do:<br />
<ol>
<li>Take your cardstock and fold in half so it's 8.5"x 4".</li>
<li>On the front of the card, draw your haunted house with nice good-sized windows that will be easy to cut, big enough to draw a cute picture inside but small enough to fit a few peek-a-boo windows. We found 6-8 1"-1.5" windows to be a good size but it doesn't really matter so long as there's enough room around the windows to glue and seal up the card.</li>
<li>Unfold your card and putting your card window-up on a cutting surface, cut out the windows on 3 sides (top, bottom, right) so to make flaps that open and shut.</li>
<li>Open up all the flaps and refold the card so you see the underside. Trace out the window openings. </li>
<li>Open up the card and have your octopus color monsters in each of the traced out boxes. It helped my younger octopus if I colored around the windows so he knew what NOT to color. Those areas won't be seen once you seal up the card.</li>
<li>On the inside, glue all around the windows and along all the edges of the card.</li>
<li>Fold the front over the glued inside and seal it up.</li>
<li>Now have your octopus color the outside of the haunted house.</li>
<li>Peek-a-boo!</li>
</ol>
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The printable: </div>
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<br />Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-8942256186221110182014-09-05T16:03:00.001-04:002014-09-05T16:04:26.601-04:00Recipe: Frozen Berry LemonadeThis is a favorite summer treat of ours, but we've been so busy running here and there and everywhere that I had yet to share it with you. Now school has started and there has been a HEAT WAVE. It's been hotter this week and last than it has been all summer it seems. So our new favorite after school treat has been, of course, frozen lemonade in all of our favorite variations. I am sipping some raspberry lemonade goodness as I speak. (Or type. Let's not nitpick.)<br />
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<br />
What You Need:<br />
<ul>
<li>a blender!</li>
<li>half a can of frozen lemonade base, like Minute Maid</li>
<li>2 cups of ice</li>
<li>1/2-1 cup of berries- strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, whatever says, "This with some lemon would be Heaven." And you can skip this and make plain old lemonade too.</li>
<li>cold water</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
What You Do:<br />
<ol>
<li>Put your lemonade, ice, and berries in your blender. Fill with water to make up 4 cups total.</li>
<li>Push the on button.</li>
<li>Cover your ears.</li>
<li>Stop!</li>
<li>Pour and enjoy!</li>
</ol>
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Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-37570626731837645962014-03-31T13:50:00.004-04:002014-09-05T16:05:25.480-04:00Rainbow Cookies<div style="text-align: center;">
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Well, we just had St. Patrick's Day, a bake sale and a preschool rainbow color picnic all in one week, so of course I was on a mission to make something extra festive and brilliant. So Rainbow Cookies it was! There were a couple recipes online but they were either in grams (and I don't have the patience to bother converting to good ol' cups and other measurements that only make sense to Americans.) or YouTube videos (who has the time to WATCH somebody else make cookies?! No thanks!) So I used my brain and my mom's Christmas cookie recipe (which has the bonus of me KNOWING it's delicious!).<br />
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In comparison to my Mom's cookies which require rolling out, cutting, rolling out, cutting, rolling out, cutting, (and baking about a hundred cookie sheets), then frosting in a million colors (Granted, they're beautiful in the end, but I'm over it about halfway through), these cookies were a cinch. The stacking of the colors into an arch-shaped log isn't terribl<span style="color: blue;"><u>y</u></span> thrilling and a little time consuming (about a half an hour to mix the colors and stack the log) but after chilling the log, you're home free with just slicing and baking. And they are ADORABLE! and BRILLIANT! And everybody will want to know how you did it!<br />
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I did this in two days to spare my sanity and what little time I have in a day between drop-off and drop-off and toddler-feeding (seriously this girl eats 5 meals a day.) and then pick-up and pick-up. And, yeah, I'll admit it, I do this stuff during the day because I hate to see my adult time get eaten up by baking for bake sales and picnics. Also, I am blessed with children who think baking time is quality hang time.<br />
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OK, so, really, this is<br />
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<br />
HOW YOU DO IT!<br />
<ol>
</ol>
1. Mix up your butter cookie dough, or sugar cookie dough. To be honest, I'm not sure what kind of dough my mom's cookies are but it works and tastes delicious and that's all I need to know.<br />
<ol>
</ol>
<span style="font-size: small;">Here's the recipe I altered to make the rainbow cookies. The real recipe for Christmas Cookies to follow.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;">RAINBOW COOKIES </span></div>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">1 c. softened unsalted butter</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">1/2 c. sugar</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">1 egg</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">2 tsp vanilla</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">3 cups sifted flour (Honestly, I just stir the flour in my canister before lightly spooning it into the cup, it's less of a pain in the caboose and the results are good.)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">1 tsp. baking powder</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">1/2 tsp salt</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: small;">Cream together butter, sugar, vanilla and egg. Sifte together flour, salt and baking powder. Stir together flour, salt and baking powder. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Add flour mixture gradually to butter mixture.</span><br />
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<br />
<br />
2. Roll the dough into a cone-shaped log. Divide into 6 sections with each ball being slightly larger than the last. (Ignore that extra ball in the background of my picture, I was doing a double batch.)<br />
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3. Put a thumbprint in the middle of each ball and put your food coloring in. I used gel colors. It was a little less messy and the colors are more vibrant. The small ball is purple, then blue, green, yellow, orange, then red is the largest.<br />
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(again, ignore my doubles, I was doing that double batch.)</div>
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4. Roll the purple ball into a log about 1" in diameter. Mine was about 7-8" long.<br />
(In the end the log was about a foot, just so you know.)<br />
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5. With each subsequent color, flatten the ball into a rectangle that will wrap around the log to make an arch. This is about how mine measured out: blue was about 2.5" wide, then green was 3.25, yellow4, orange 4.75 and red 5.5. With each color getting about an inch longer with every addition, because the log gets stretch a little longer every time you wrap a new color. Really smoosh them on there so there hopefully won't be gaps between the layers.<br />
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Keep going....</div>
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Done! </div>
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6. Put the log into the refrigerator for at least an hour. I did overnight, so onto:<br />
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DAY TWO:<br />
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7. Preheat oven to 375*.<br />
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8. Take the log out of the fridge. Cut the ends off, taking off only as much as you can to make a nice flat surface on either end.<br />
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9. Cut the rest of the log into slices 1/4" thick. Sometimes you'll get gaps between the colors, I just kind of smoosh the back together gently, sometimes I rock the log back and forth along the arch to smoosh the colors together more before cutting. So far they don't fall apart after baking so take that for that's worth.<br />
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10. Bake on parchment lined cookie sheets, leaving a little space between them, for 10 minutes or until edges just golden brown.</div>
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11. The bottoms of the rainbows will be a little pushed out, so while the cookies are warm cut off the bottom of each rainbow with a sharp knife to get a nice clean edge. Cool on wire racks.</div>
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I suppose Skittles might sue me if I say "Taste the rainbow," but look at these, how can I resist!?</div>
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Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-35499669001759003852013-07-16T21:10:00.002-04:002013-07-16T21:33:08.133-04:00Felt Bean Bags<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I am surprised I have never made a bean bag for my kids. I mean, they're so simple and easy and the uses in games are endless. Put a bucket in the middle of the room and toss some bean bags in. Carry it between your knees in a race. Throw them through a hula hoop. The reason I came to make some now is an upcoming birthday party with a lack of game ideas. And bonus, after the game, the little guests can take a bean bag home as a favor. And so I set forth.<br />
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What You Need:<br />
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<ul>
<li>Felt in various colors</li>
<li>Thread</li>
<li>Sewing Machine (or do it by hand with a needle, cause you could you know.)</li>
<li>Pins </li>
<li>Beans (I used Lentil because they felt nice and because they are small enough that the baby would not choke if she came across a bean on the floor that escaped during my crafting- and a lot did because I had some help filing the bags.)</li>
<li>Wide-necked funnel (or in my case a piece of paper and tape.)</li>
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<ul>
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What You Do:<br />
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<span style="color: blue;"> <span style="color: black;"> 1. </span></span>Cut felt into squares. I did 4.5" so I could get 2 bean bags out of one 9x12" sheet of felt.<br />
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<span style="color: blue;"> <span style="color: black;"> 2. </span></span>Pin two squares back to back, putting a pin in each corner so the squares don't shift while sewing. (I learned the hard way it doesn't pay to be too lazy not to.)<br />
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3. Sew around three sides and most of the 4th, stopping an 1-2" from the corner. I got on a roll a couple times and just sewed all four sides, so I had to rip some stitches- whoops! Learn from my mistake and stick a pin where you mean to end. Like sew. (I am so funny.)<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFB7ySAF0HfrXdbWBis3JVHN3vNe9GD_CN8qnl4Tz3xqhtFh7ODFtFflP-IhBv05UlIGrHBUbKIDVjxpU2ErEtmTKJ5N96sLN4lZXVZDceX0JuQOsFdhgcJiUw2uzn_LsY2ZToi5u4fvQm/s1600/Untitled-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFB7ySAF0HfrXdbWBis3JVHN3vNe9GD_CN8qnl4Tz3xqhtFh7ODFtFflP-IhBv05UlIGrHBUbKIDVjxpU2ErEtmTKJ5N96sLN4lZXVZDceX0JuQOsFdhgcJiUw2uzn_LsY2ZToi5u4fvQm/s320/Untitled-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">--Excuse my rudimentary drawing. I am terrible about taking pictures when little hands are helping.</td></tr>
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<span style="color: blue;"> </span>4. Insert your funnel (or you rolled up paper cone. Or a bottle with the bottom cut off and the cap off the neck.) in the opening that's left. </div>
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<span style="color: blue;"> </span>5. Pour in some beans. We used about 1/2 cup and some tiny fistfuls for ours. (As an aside the kids loved running their hands in the beans and playing with them.)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMeZGQrnTudo0APf4_gC2ZGpeStfZwPrmRrh8QPc5BQH4P27VjYiW6qViTBwKIw_Sr_m3Wq1_hoQfXmhh12cbAO4PkXlskpzgQamABuce8mMetPzD_Fhyphenhyphenqc9Ep94EUgncWRCYDB5iKH-hM/s1600/07_16_2013+012.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMeZGQrnTudo0APf4_gC2ZGpeStfZwPrmRrh8QPc5BQH4P27VjYiW6qViTBwKIw_Sr_m3Wq1_hoQfXmhh12cbAO4PkXlskpzgQamABuce8mMetPzD_Fhyphenhyphenqc9Ep94EUgncWRCYDB5iKH-hM/s320/07_16_2013+012.JPG" width="213" /></a> </div>
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<span style="color: blue;"> </span>6. Sew the opening shut.</div>
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<span style="color: blue;"> </span>7. Play!</div>
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<br />Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-59515922490071923552013-07-16T20:59:00.000-04:002013-07-16T21:00:11.448-04:00Egg Carton Tulips<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Using individual egg cartons ripped from the box and pipe cleaners, Squidgee and I made some flowers.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicg4Xw1_lBOrcshWtSsSawIbH1ne_Ukz8rJ0z43UDQ6U1G7zWal_zdHJ2ZaA60tP9ntyasDp-edXw6MBH6bZzk5DScgpVZvLUO9za0dMYDjJiZT4cfqmi0IXga6JfuSngqhVj8rS7U2gbz/s1600/06_05_2013+008.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicg4Xw1_lBOrcshWtSsSawIbH1ne_Ukz8rJ0z43UDQ6U1G7zWal_zdHJ2ZaA60tP9ntyasDp-edXw6MBH6bZzk5DScgpVZvLUO9za0dMYDjJiZT4cfqmi0IXga6JfuSngqhVj8rS7U2gbz/s320/06_05_2013+008.JPG" width="213" /></a> </div>
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I love reusing what would otherwise be trash in a craft project. Usually I use egg cartons to hold paint (see that sidebar?) but this time around we decided to paint them instead. (And used a paper plate as a palette instead.) </div>
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Here's What You Need:</div>
<ul>
<li>Cardboard Egg Carton</li>
<li>Craft paints</li>
<li>paint brushes</li>
<li>Pipe Cleaners, yellow and green</li>
<li>Pencil (for hole poking.)</li>
</ul>
Here's What You Do:<br />
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1. Tear egg carton into individual cups,or cut them if you prefer to be neat. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpuuUZXuimm-nm5ZvjIEagqiSnf1JfQ8UDrX_3aYfq6-4VOZyE1zbYwzzL32I52eT_iaW-h2gMxcxYQCOLmvrwhaS7f7Fwb6ynqgAtF2Vp6aoIgPlgQ5urGsTl4PUs9IK8T9gele9U2XTg/s1600/06_05_2013+008.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpuuUZXuimm-nm5ZvjIEagqiSnf1JfQ8UDrX_3aYfq6-4VOZyE1zbYwzzL32I52eT_iaW-h2gMxcxYQCOLmvrwhaS7f7Fwb6ynqgAtF2Vp6aoIgPlgQ5urGsTl4PUs9IK8T9gele9U2XTg/s320/06_05_2013+008.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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2. Have your octopus paint the cups different colors. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxHSzSDbo-EVoF7xHyw1S_K98iQ-iuSoHkg0bk4IJkVoe90EXlU50drlKuI_g8r0_gtovRafyFhPz_pTRciS13KXV0geJhDHO4mLeM_SFHoxynR67cTDyetmLU_4wrdCBbSiZ9Lv1EQ1eg/s1600/06_05_2013+003.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxHSzSDbo-EVoF7xHyw1S_K98iQ-iuSoHkg0bk4IJkVoe90EXlU50drlKuI_g8r0_gtovRafyFhPz_pTRciS13KXV0geJhDHO4mLeM_SFHoxynR67cTDyetmLU_4wrdCBbSiZ9Lv1EQ1eg/s320/06_05_2013+003.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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3. Let them dry.<br />
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4. Punch a hole with a pencil in the bottom of each cup.<br />
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5. Take a yellow pipe cleaner and fold it in half. Insert the folded end into the hole from the inside of the cup so you have a loop coming out the bottom.<br />
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6. Put an end of a green pipe cleaner through the loop of the yellow pipe cleaner. Fold the end down and twist around the other end of the green pipe cleaner to hold it to the yellow one. Push up the twisted "knot" so it's snug in the hole of the "flower".<br />
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7. Twirl the ends of the yellow pipe cleaner around the pencil to make it look more... I dunno, pistil and stameny. (Yeah, I just made stamen an adjective; my high school English teacher and Biology teacher would be impressed.)<br />
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8. Make a bunch and put them in a cup for pertiness. (Excuse me. It's getting late, I get punchy.)<br />
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<br />Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-19904754138069554062013-06-11T21:19:00.001-04:002013-06-11T21:20:45.415-04:00Hole Punch Confetti <div style="text-align: center;">
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We make confetti out of colored scraps of cardboard. It's great for crafts and inside cards and won't haunt your carpet, waiting to attack you like glitter. Also, it's always handy. We just raid our recycling bin with a hole punch.<br />
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Our favorite use for our confetti is as "sprinkles" on this cupcake birthday card. We first made a cupcake birthday card for the 30th birthday of our legally blind cousin 2.5 years ago, so that she could FEEL her birthday card if not see it. Since, if I ask Spiff to make a birthday card, this is what he requests we make. A scrunched up piece of tinfoil, a cupcake top of foam or felt, and a candle and flames also out of scrap cardboard all glued onto a card. And a touch of glitter glue. (Glitter trapped in glue is alright.) Then we go to town making "sprinkles". It's fun seeing cardboard packaging in a new light and getting individual vivid colors out of them. <br />
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<br />Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-16419075035461800482013-06-06T20:37:00.002-04:002013-07-16T21:01:06.584-04:00Pony Bead "Glass" Sun-catchers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf4-tBjVkp9KeAggebXqwf0NY28KCRz8RQgpAvm9T9hou37VySI19Z7cUs8eadNeUI913mHISwNl-Z2ppkgsiVOyCV8FBNXFiezpYkesG1aXXVknSLf0G4-6yIQN5IjXfCkPXD2IqLeFTB/s1600/06_05_2013+026.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf4-tBjVkp9KeAggebXqwf0NY28KCRz8RQgpAvm9T9hou37VySI19Z7cUs8eadNeUI913mHISwNl-Z2ppkgsiVOyCV8FBNXFiezpYkesG1aXXVknSLf0G4-6yIQN5IjXfCkPXD2IqLeFTB/s320/06_05_2013+026.JPG" width="213" /></a></div>
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For Mother's Day (and yes, I realize that was a whole month ago, but that's the life I lead these days.) the boys and I (with the aid of a nap from the baby.) made sun-catchers out of pony beads. It's really simple and they come out very pretty. They're also long-lasting and hard to break. Winning combination. Even the Fox, who does not like to sit for art, loved making them and has since requested to make them for his teachers' gifts at the end of the year.</div>
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Here's What You Need:</div>
<ul>
<li>transparent pony beads (9 mm)</li>
<li>metal muffin tin and/or metal cookie cutters and a metal baking sheet</li>
<li>a grill (or an oven but it gets kind of a fumey for the indoors.)</li>
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Here's What You Do:</div>
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1. Preheat your gas grill to high.<br />
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2. Meanwhile, fill up your muffin tins with patterns (or willy-nilly) of pony beads. Keep it to one layer. Or fill up the cookie cutters set up on the cookie sheet.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVUo4hRUzZf2Ae8D4BoJskyLPDtiVUoyVWE1RDORGKSLlIz6bRfGbJ0dUOPz40RWe91OtD6R1j9JyuGcGLOiBpjd6r2rZjFHfHx4fnRM6mVk9MibaZpP_z7RUjhDjjWa6YxyYP_sJpCjvK/s1600/05_02_2013+011.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVUo4hRUzZf2Ae8D4BoJskyLPDtiVUoyVWE1RDORGKSLlIz6bRfGbJ0dUOPz40RWe91OtD6R1j9JyuGcGLOiBpjd6r2rZjFHfHx4fnRM6mVk9MibaZpP_z7RUjhDjjWa6YxyYP_sJpCjvK/s320/05_02_2013+011.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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3. Heat up your designs on the grill until the beads melt, about 15 minutes. Keep an eye on the cookie cutters because as the beads melt they might seep under the edges and when they cool it's a lot harder to get the plastic out of the cookie cutter. (I've read on other sites that you can do this in a 400* oven for about twenty minutes, but make sure that if you do, to have your windows wide open- the fumes are overwhelming!)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtvylszhfgSYWsjkmGdFYpYDdJ6qqlmf0aDC-UoLePH8gM1UY2oqTQwnkBZLxlJt_ZEJFhzHEG14sHJdmq7EBfVyuNKuQ8uwfjM8aHRI0APoXYdmnjcJN6QRaI1vl3aVcSZYv626qHjopF/s1600/05_02_2013+019.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtvylszhfgSYWsjkmGdFYpYDdJ6qqlmf0aDC-UoLePH8gM1UY2oqTQwnkBZLxlJt_ZEJFhzHEG14sHJdmq7EBfVyuNKuQ8uwfjM8aHRI0APoXYdmnjcJN6QRaI1vl3aVcSZYv626qHjopF/s320/05_02_2013+019.JPG" width="212" /></a> </div>
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4. Cool.<br />
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5. Pop your creations out of their molds. I was surprised how easily the suncatchers came out of the tins. I thought for sure we were going to lose the tin, but just flipping it over and making a quick bang to the underside with a mallet made them pop right out.<br />
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6. Drill a hole in the tops of your suncatchers and string a plastic thread through.<br />
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7.Hang in a sunny spot and enjoy!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDwOp7GveN4IJQ6JpggKRBAz3z7muX-rQjkd_GhDnAhtkJeylUx4WKJdv02YPoWjqUxYLNKtAI1KsGF9CIvC05bvqnnYmqOA3BPfSfJ863t-AxPG4FsXaXYJTRm9HxS4KplqETROmmWHI6/s1600/05_07_2013+016.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDwOp7GveN4IJQ6JpggKRBAz3z7muX-rQjkd_GhDnAhtkJeylUx4WKJdv02YPoWjqUxYLNKtAI1KsGF9CIvC05bvqnnYmqOA3BPfSfJ863t-AxPG4FsXaXYJTRm9HxS4KplqETROmmWHI6/s320/05_07_2013+016.JPG" width="213" /></a> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaifme-xyiymZpv3OCdvDEBWZd-Io-RfjI4eA1KF6lSo0s5y6QA-kIK21WVjNxy7Sq4_W-4s15d1ZbHCn6LHjvtiuLpidG5uAYxVVD2wcQdJJm1TrpvlUo3mYCXPVpwu7b7J3fy6ekxH1z/s1600/06_05_2013+022.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaifme-xyiymZpv3OCdvDEBWZd-Io-RfjI4eA1KF6lSo0s5y6QA-kIK21WVjNxy7Sq4_W-4s15d1ZbHCn6LHjvtiuLpidG5uAYxVVD2wcQdJJm1TrpvlUo3mYCXPVpwu7b7J3fy6ekxH1z/s320/06_05_2013+022.JPG" width="213" /></a></div>
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Making these were a huge hit with my kids and a great gift for the grandmothers (and aunts and teachers and the Fox even kept one for himself that he carried around with him for a week.)<br />
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* No bake-ware was harmed in the process of this project.<br />
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Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-52128757151645095892013-02-06T10:52:00.000-05:002013-02-06T10:52:42.243-05:00Rainbow Crayons<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9-VMWGLv9nbAgXObz0JWPR0KCfMcZ3lJtppvMgLAgAzVw_gFYTX9AnX8FK9rDNbuT2gS-fAf1o3Rchq-brzny-RKT4dnsBb6fBQjMLkysWTw9MgHguOkzTsSFF3AsFhGouqxiXDcgc6mp/s1600/02_02_2013+010.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9-VMWGLv9nbAgXObz0JWPR0KCfMcZ3lJtppvMgLAgAzVw_gFYTX9AnX8FK9rDNbuT2gS-fAf1o3Rchq-brzny-RKT4dnsBb6fBQjMLkysWTw9MgHguOkzTsSFF3AsFhGouqxiXDcgc6mp/s320/02_02_2013+010.JPG" width="320" /></a> </div>
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We love to recycle our broken crayons. It seems a waste to throw them away, but who needs broken crayons!? For our valentines this year we made heart shaped crayons with our old, broken crayons. It's very easy and fun to do and you don't need much to do it! There are a lot of ways to do this, but with all the "recipes" all you need is some old broken crayons and a silicone mold (and an oven.). </div>
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What You Need:</div>
<ul>
<li>old broken crayons (if you have little kids, you have these.)</li>
<li>silicone mold with fun shapes. (You might want to forever designate these to crafting afterward and you can buy cheapy molds at Ikea or Target. I got mine at Target a few years ago in the dollar area.)</li>
<li>Knife and cutting board for very thick crayons.</li>
</ul>
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<br />
What You do:<br />
<ol>
</ol>
1. Peel all the paper off the old, broken crayons.<br />
<br />2. Break them up some more. You may need to cut extra thick crayons with a knife, they're tough to break, but the thin ones are a snap. (literally!) At this point my kids had a great time sorting them into piles of different colors.
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3. Have your Octopi fill the molds with bits of crayons. You can do different shades of the same color, do different colors for a swirly rainbow effect, or do themed crayons like "fall" with reds and yellows and oranges and "night" with dark blues and purples and bits of silver for stars.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBdbh_3CUKGSkWxVvzx6Qai2Xfjl72DZO64yti3U5Drm3iUtnwOvYgPrK1uOuLD8J_ft-8N4QkTyJbIyFZyS_lDBvj2hfqQ6LiKACjMiPtSjYpmlq_kEnpm5IqHv8CZqIVZWx7HbJS4ahv/s1600/02_02_2013+017.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBdbh_3CUKGSkWxVvzx6Qai2Xfjl72DZO64yti3U5Drm3iUtnwOvYgPrK1uOuLD8J_ft-8N4QkTyJbIyFZyS_lDBvj2hfqQ6LiKACjMiPtSjYpmlq_kEnpm5IqHv8CZqIVZWx7HbJS4ahv/s320/02_02_2013+017.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<ol>
</ol>
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4. Put the filled molds into a preheated 200* oven just until the crayons melt. Keep an eye on your crayons. They'll take about 15-20 minutes to melt. The kids had a fun time coming to see them melt at different stages.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgurGSPIoqwP_3sWdG9jiRagxFk8g6jWBtjq_KRCT9MhSFSriF0R5pnOWM9gqj-XyJsOI-JPxdMCGp43pNQ3qi7zao8XzJwP2_JooEc3HgHmAUw-gkUyxSWRYwOT03rRZloqZMPGqTNv_kz/s1600/02_02_2013+006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgurGSPIoqwP_3sWdG9jiRagxFk8g6jWBtjq_KRCT9MhSFSriF0R5pnOWM9gqj-XyJsOI-JPxdMCGp43pNQ3qi7zao8XzJwP2_JooEc3HgHmAUw-gkUyxSWRYwOT03rRZloqZMPGqTNv_kz/s320/02_02_2013+006.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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5. When melted take the molds out to cool on the counter or put in the freezer to speed the process. Be very careful when taking the molds out of the oven, melted wax is very flimsy and super hot!<br /><br />
6. When cool and hard, pop the crayons out of the molds.<br /><br />
7. Color! Or double stick tape to cards made from card stock with phrases like "You color my world" and "You melt my heart" and gift to other Octopi for Valentine's Day.<br />
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*Tip: To clean your silicone molds, spill a little oil in the tray and swish it around. Let is stand for a little bit then scrub our your trays with soap and water. It really cleans up pretty well.<br />
<br />Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-77350066895340263542012-10-07T19:26:00.001-04:002014-09-05T16:09:13.032-04:00Pumpkin Collage Card<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL58mVowWq173pW8X7hHW4X2qP-or-ezlfqvyPSeB5XFV6T3HCTNlIegBATWiJQEFnI_TpkNk7akEvLoMUlqkXYGVKuhO67hgpfXRnymF67ncsCVopddHY9g90CHi9Vl8dyapJmqBKMkF1/s1600/pumpkin_collage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL58mVowWq173pW8X7hHW4X2qP-or-ezlfqvyPSeB5XFV6T3HCTNlIegBATWiJQEFnI_TpkNk7akEvLoMUlqkXYGVKuhO67hgpfXRnymF67ncsCVopddHY9g90CHi9Vl8dyapJmqBKMkF1/s320/pumpkin_collage.jpg" height="219" width="320" /></a></div>
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For this craft we cut a pumpkin shape out of a folded piece of card stock, not cutting around the top fold so it was a card that opened up. Then my octopus glued on orange paper squares on the front and then made a face with cut black shapes. He finished it up by coloring the stem with marker. On the inside he wrote to his friend. Easy peasy. Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-70792731358638885752012-10-01T13:44:00.001-04:002013-02-06T10:53:17.716-05:00Leaf RubbingsThe other day my kindergartener wanted to collect leaves and send
them to relatives. Since I am pretty sure everyone in our family has
plenty of their own leaves falling in copious amounts on their lawns at
the moment, I suggested we do something more artistic with the leaves we
found. We settled on the easy to do and totally satisfying leaf
rubbing. It takes no time at all and not much in the way of materials
and they're ones I'm sure you have.<br />
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What You Need:<br />
broken, unwrapped lengths of crayon (we love a craft that uses these- I hate to toss them, but who needs broken crayons!?)<br />
white paper<br />
flat fall leaves (We made ourselves a little adventure just collecting these.)<br />
masking tape, optional.<br />
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What You do:<br />
<ol>
<li>On one piece of white paper lay out your leaves in whatever pattern you chose.</li>
<li>Lay
the paper you're going to color on flat on top of your leaves Secure it
in the corners with tape. This helps to keep it from moving when your
octopus is rubbing.</li>
<li>Take a broken bit of crayon and rub it along the paper, over the leaves, on its side (not the ends!)</li>
<li>Watch your leaves come out!</li>
</ol>
My
kid really loved doing this a lot more than I expected. It was kind of
like digging for treasure (or fossils!). He never knew which leaf was
going to pop up and the more colors he used the better it came out.<br />
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A neat thing to do with an older kid would be to collect one of several varieties and label the rubbings with the tree species. Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-35446455257775089832012-09-05T11:48:00.005-04:002012-09-21T10:38:32.946-04:00Dying Rainbow Macaroni for Crafts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I just felt the need to dye colorful macaroni and make necklaces with my octopi the other day. It turns out it's not at all hard to do. In fact it's easy and fun and the end result is brilliant!<br />
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We used rubbing alcohol to dye ours but I have read you can use vinegar as well which would be more friendly to kids who tend to put things in their mouths, but from our experience the alcohol worked really well to get vibrant colors. I haven't tried vinegar so I can't say if one's better than the other. <br />
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Pasta is a really cheap product. We bought a couple different varieties for a dollar a box- penne, ziti and ziti rigotti. Anything with a hole will work but the straighter pastas like the ziti rigotti and penne worked best for my 3 and 5 year olds for stringing so consider avoiding elbow macaroni when working with preschoolers.<br />
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This is a quick and easy project that little hands can lend a hand with. The dying alone is a family project. I like a craft where the process is just as fun as the product. Otherwise, what's the point?<br />
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And the projects you can DO with the end results are endless. Necklaces and mosaics. Christmas tree strings. They can be used for sorting shapes and colors and sizes. Counting, adding, subtracting. Practicing fine motor skills of stringing.<br />
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So.<br />
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<b>Here's What You Need:</b><br />
<ul>
<li>pasta with holes, straight tube-like pasta is best (although the slightly curved ziti did dye the best!)</li>
<li>food coloring in red, yellow, blue (and green cause that's how it comes you know!)</li>
<li>rubbing alcohol (we used isopropyl)</li>
<li>ziplock bags (we used freezer bags and they still seeped a little at the zippers, so beware and maybe double up!)</li>
<li>paper towels</li>
<li>1 cup measuring cup</li>
<li>tablespoon</li>
</ul>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieRE74KDRN3NMy9nLvi3DUUlwVFz3qcjuhbl-dWNlmibOF4BEsCsorBG5_A3GElUH5W_f2NCmNjOkP6hFhGQPYhn2dVSLBKEGsawL2OnTWU_e_qG2iWm8iOSl9ih4t0ixsZyRh6WSRqHLT/s1600/09_02_2012+006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieRE74KDRN3NMy9nLvi3DUUlwVFz3qcjuhbl-dWNlmibOF4BEsCsorBG5_A3GElUH5W_f2NCmNjOkP6hFhGQPYhn2dVSLBKEGsawL2OnTWU_e_qG2iWm8iOSl9ih4t0ixsZyRh6WSRqHLT/s320/09_02_2012+006.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Here's What You Do:</b><br />
<ol>
<li>Decide how many different colors you are going to make and get out that many bags.</li>
<li>In each bag, measure 1 tablespoon of rubbing alcohol. (Or even a 1/2 tbs might be fine.)</li>
<li>Drop 10-15 drops of food coloring in each bag of alcohol to make your colors. </li>
<li>Meanwhile have your octopus fill the one cup measuring cup with the pasta(s) of his choice. Heap it on there. Let him dump it all in one of the bags while you hold it up. (Don't let the dye out, yuck!) </li>
</ol>
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5. Close it up realllll tight and let him squish that pasta all around in the dye.</div>
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6. Repeat with all your colors.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMGcsb7QJrsHzHFrsVKOYFn06KJnX7hIFANZah7jT8KgCIJuMoEMd6pcZUPjNcHzrjiaQ8YBMGU0ZREtoLfhjIdC5UGniqTavyxqFhWM0qxiGypiVZTj_k3XXiRBVr_-eXO_F_fwh74UO0/s1600/09_02_2012+009.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMGcsb7QJrsHzHFrsVKOYFn06KJnX7hIFANZah7jT8KgCIJuMoEMd6pcZUPjNcHzrjiaQ8YBMGU0ZREtoLfhjIdC5UGniqTavyxqFhWM0qxiGypiVZTj_k3XXiRBVr_-eXO_F_fwh74UO0/s320/09_02_2012+009.JPG" width="213" /></a> </div>
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7. After they're mixed up really well, lie the bags flat on a paper towel-lined cookie sheet.</div>
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8. Let them sit there for a couple hour, flipping every so often. *We did two and a half hours for the red, orange, yellow and green. But purple and blue just did not come out as well as I wanted (what're you gonna do- pasta is yellow in nature!) so I dyed them a second time in 1/2 tbs rubbing alcohol and more dye and repeated the process for another 2 hours. This time they came out nicely!*</div>
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9. When the pasta has reached your desired hues, drain out the excess liquid from the bags.</div>
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10. Dump each color of pasta in one layer, not touching the other pastas, onto paper towel-lined cookie sheets, plates, whatever.</div>
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11. Let dry. If it's a sunny day put them out there and they will dry in
no time! Our pasta was ready to use in 30 minutes on a hot sunny day.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ_NmfbBkmmwHOpj-FGCEm346eI3bfHmj-8L9CNUJ8TlY0g48nJ1lBLyqDcpezRAE8GinsCEc1AbEsW6WLEJxHgLxDfE82zAOfZ911pQGSY8fKpttYmxR8Pnov7NKJjMYRdZNfy3htj5gM/s1600/09_02_2012+012.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ_NmfbBkmmwHOpj-FGCEm346eI3bfHmj-8L9CNUJ8TlY0g48nJ1lBLyqDcpezRAE8GinsCEc1AbEsW6WLEJxHgLxDfE82zAOfZ911pQGSY8fKpttYmxR8Pnov7NKJjMYRdZNfy3htj5gM/s320/09_02_2012+012.JPG" width="320" /></a> </div>
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12. Admire your beautiful pasta. I couldn't help but layer it all in a big jar like a rainbow. It was just so pretty too look at!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAG9zSkcLWMf8eztEw5MCeaZGHXEt0XZxEEZ6gWFdF5euGdjxMlLqqeuB15JhA11oG-azNGWzN4Gh1G6YrRBbJWjAot_cqlVoL_bH-IPqFjHS402J8Cn-KwFGMP4JKEhi_Ve-XIYfbIvWd/s1600/09_02_2012+019.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAG9zSkcLWMf8eztEw5MCeaZGHXEt0XZxEEZ6gWFdF5euGdjxMlLqqeuB15JhA11oG-azNGWzN4Gh1G6YrRBbJWjAot_cqlVoL_bH-IPqFjHS402J8Cn-KwFGMP4JKEhi_Ve-XIYfbIvWd/s320/09_02_2012+019.JPG" width="320" /></a> </div>
<ol>
</ol>
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<b>Making Necklaces with your Pretty Pasta.</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtXGGt4CVYa1zzkzx8NWyWvTAn-knsWXiwVCgvXmzp7PyCUkEllZXM5jctDFNvArwPX_VzBVl1YJ70GIrucaQMAP3C8I4k0l7kF-EyCiRjAISQMj_ieE2y0pevOXevpMLTnnz3Pvct6L2H/s1600/09_02_2012+017.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtXGGt4CVYa1zzkzx8NWyWvTAn-knsWXiwVCgvXmzp7PyCUkEllZXM5jctDFNvArwPX_VzBVl1YJ70GIrucaQMAP3C8I4k0l7kF-EyCiRjAISQMj_ieE2y0pevOXevpMLTnnz3Pvct6L2H/s320/09_02_2012+017.JPG" width="320" /> </a></div>
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Tie a piece of pasta onto the end of a length of yarn (a couple feet will do it.). Tape the other end for ease of stringing. Let your octopus get to work stringing macaroni. When he's all done, untie the pasta end, leave the pasta there or take it off, and tie the two ends together. Easy peasy.<br />
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Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-2817725303987770082012-08-06T19:10:00.001-04:002012-08-06T19:10:57.800-04:00Campfire Craft<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'm not sure how it happened really. One minute we got the tent out from its hiding place under the couch. (If you don't stow stuff under there you should!) and then we were making a lake out of blue blankets and crafting a campfire out of paper for roasting cotton ball marshmallows. In the end, "camping" became quite the creative production. And it's even better because in a couple weeks I won't feel that badly about throwing it out- provided I can sneak it past the bosses.<br />
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The boy scouts are good campfire builders. We are good pretend fire builders. Smokey would be proud. And this is how we did it.<br />
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What You Need:<br />
<br />
for your fire:<br />
<ul>
<li>red and orange construction paper</li>
<li>scissors</li>
<li>glue and maybe scotch tape</li>
</ul>
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Here's What You Do: <br />
<ol>
<li>1. To make your fire: Cut out flames the long way out of your
construction paper, leaving the bottom edge nice and straight and
untouched. I drew out an easy zigzag flame shape and handed it over to my 4 year old to cut- good practice! </li>
<li>Out of leftover scrap, cut more flame shapes and paste them onto the bigger pieces here and there and wherever.</li>
<li>glue the edge of one side onto the edge of the other side so you have a ring of fire.</li>
<li>Cut out little u-shaped mouse holes along the bottom edge for your "firewood" to go through so the fire stands nice and straight on top instead of falling over. </li>
</ol>
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for your kindling and fire wood:<br />
<ul>
<li>brown paper</li>
<li>glue and some scotch tape</li>
<li>scissors </li>
</ul>
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What You Do:<br />
<ol>
<li>Cut your brown paper into varying widths by 9" or so. Honestly, it's not a science and I have no idea what length we cut. </li>
<li>Roll each strip nice into a stick and glue it closed or tape it shut. We did both. It did not want to stay.</li>
<li>Stick your sticks through the mouse holes you cut in your fire to make it look like they're on, well, fire. </li>
</ol>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj96sqMq6BAJllBvz0JGAGdLXZaGoAlZx_jfvOCoE2FAWzInmYlFzzqeE-Gz0ob8VcqSMkVl5f61xEqYJsomn5o9Ee-LD5wplqWp3sp9u_Zcr8EYNpdLUKlOC3-9OiOBw19dhRl0dh6YOId/s1600/08_05_2012+005.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj96sqMq6BAJllBvz0JGAGdLXZaGoAlZx_jfvOCoE2FAWzInmYlFzzqeE-Gz0ob8VcqSMkVl5f61xEqYJsomn5o9Ee-LD5wplqWp3sp9u_Zcr8EYNpdLUKlOC3-9OiOBw19dhRl0dh6YOId/s320/08_05_2012+005.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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for your marshmallows on a stick:<br />
<ul>
<li>brown pipe cleaners</li>
<li>cotton balls</li>
<li>white electrical tape to keep the balls neat</li>
<li>scissors.</li>
</ul>
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What You Do:<br />
<ol>
<li>Snip your cotton balls from top to bottom but only half-way through so that you can "unroll" them a little. </li>
<li>Wrap the snipped cotton balls around your pipe cleaner. </li>
<li>Wrap a length of white electrical tape around the marshmallow to help it keep its marshmallowy form. (We experimented and did some on the top and bottom of the marshmallows too but really it just looked better when we wrapped the sides of the cylinder in one go and it was way easier to do too.) Now you'll be able to pull on and off your untoasted and roasted marhsmallows to eat right up.</li>
<li>Roast those puppies over your fire.</li>
</ol>
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Who knows, maybe you can even con your kids into taking a nap "under the stars" when they're done. I wish I had! <br />
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<br />Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-2892783515472003602012-07-26T19:13:00.000-04:002012-07-26T19:13:01.666-04:00Printable: Pop-up BirdieWe have a robin's nest in our yard and the babies have just fledged. This is what inspired this pop-up chick in a nest.<br />
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The Printable:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiK31BJmY183xh0lnG8ZiJnLASYiiFyyor1bHgzrZTfPHHV3Qipo7YRX0xBLIp0QTQuS24bf9XRDFD38Sm0YzKO2AgEsgglvDat805FhAFBF-l9b529h8nQ_z3UgmXNFIGJcFPzttpvEut/s1600/birdie_nest+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiK31BJmY183xh0lnG8ZiJnLASYiiFyyor1bHgzrZTfPHHV3Qipo7YRX0xBLIp0QTQuS24bf9XRDFD38Sm0YzKO2AgEsgglvDat805FhAFBF-l9b529h8nQ_z3UgmXNFIGJcFPzttpvEut/s320/birdie_nest+copy.jpg" width="243" /></a></div>
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Print it up on heavy card stock. Color and cut out all the pieces. Don't forget to cut along the dotted line in the nest for the bird to pop up through! Assemble by slipping the bird through the slit from under and behind the nest. Glue the little tab on the back on either side of the pop-up bird's pull tab so that it holds the tab straight but also so that the bird can still move up and down. Do not glue the bird piece at all, just the short tab to the back of the nest. You might also want to reinforce the bird's pull tab with a popsicle stick. Now pull and push the bottom of the stick to make your chick move!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNCdkkDjtyIproyyEDqLB2zz7fdKKEJtMLND12UE08o4UiNL_LuCK8WkoQg_CmKMT4QcqrrH3Qe0Ftc9ZTTLol4zNimNrt27kaMbQbMVyHjXCJACkm0eun3o8Kb5LmRt9UQRPJynaYh9KW/s1600/07_26_2012+018+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNCdkkDjtyIproyyEDqLB2zz7fdKKEJtMLND12UE08o4UiNL_LuCK8WkoQg_CmKMT4QcqrrH3Qe0Ftc9ZTTLol4zNimNrt27kaMbQbMVyHjXCJACkm0eun3o8Kb5LmRt9UQRPJynaYh9KW/s320/07_26_2012+018+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-60637172965280547542012-07-05T10:07:00.000-04:002012-07-05T10:07:19.311-04:00Pipe Cleaner Rainbow<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieT5Kf7tKurobvx-tg_TvhPXOLBh9IOwQGo1MZMCHMrWRrZPc5ZUggjfXY1_i4ekERRxw11jAg5w56LIgU_JXBjPpqRaiTZ9OlMranhPx9xLvfQG9RRhb5PoEkA2LYrIcW1WFJCr60KWgd/s1600/07_04_2012+020.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieT5Kf7tKurobvx-tg_TvhPXOLBh9IOwQGo1MZMCHMrWRrZPc5ZUggjfXY1_i4ekERRxw11jAg5w56LIgU_JXBjPpqRaiTZ9OlMranhPx9xLvfQG9RRhb5PoEkA2LYrIcW1WFJCr60KWgd/s320/07_04_2012+020.JPG" width="320" /></a> </div>
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Whatever you call them- pipe cleaners, chenille stems- they are a great crafting material. They're fuzzy, they're bendy. You can twist them up and twist them together. You can use them for making animals, as stems on flowers (heck, I use them in the kitchen to clean out those nasty straws on sippy cups too.).<br />
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Yesterday, after way too much television, it was time to do something with our hands and creativity. Spiff and I decided we wanted to make a rainbow. But we're pretty bored with paper rainbows. Ah ha, I had just bought pipe cleaners for another project that very morning. Of course there were a rainbow of colors. But gluing them onto paper is pretty boring, and also pretty frustrating frankly. Pipe cleaners don't lend themselves much to the 2D or glue. But they do have nifty bending powers and they do have prickly ends just suited for sticking them into things. Like an egg carton. And, voila, our rainbow craft was born.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPdHAo9558ciS3ss-7q2EvybZyr7XloRWpejqynPB9ZbSxWcpZ2URtXYQ8Vy9fS101zLM4YIFXypsbdtSLmkd9lxCUvrgmKKeDH9LPtsMR__QJKzcuIa3uTznLavC9woXnUPnVYYUC5zR9/s1600/07_04_2012+014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPdHAo9558ciS3ss-7q2EvybZyr7XloRWpejqynPB9ZbSxWcpZ2URtXYQ8Vy9fS101zLM4YIFXypsbdtSLmkd9lxCUvrgmKKeDH9LPtsMR__QJKzcuIa3uTznLavC9woXnUPnVYYUC5zR9/s320/07_04_2012+014.JPG" width="213" /></a>What You Need:<br />
<ul>
<li>Pipe cleaners in the colors of the rainbow</li>
<li>an egg carton</li>
<li>craft glue</li>
<li>cotton balls</li>
<li>an embroidery needle or pencil or paper clip end for poking.</li>
</ul>
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What You Do:<br />
<ol>
<li>Rip the top of your egg carton off so you just have the bumps. Cut the bumpy bottom of you egg carton down the middle the long way so you have a long row of 6 cups. </li>
<li>In each second cup in from the ends, poke a line of holes with your needle for each of your pipe cleaners. This is where we'll shove the ends through. So you'll have a hole for each end of each stem.</li>
<li>Bend the purple pipe cleaner into an arch, push one end through the innermost hole on each side. pull them ends so it'll be small enough to fit inside the next color. Do the same with blue in the neighboring holes, green in the next one, yellow in the next, orange, then red. Adjust the ends if you have to so they fit inside each other.</li>
<li>Now bend up the ends so they tuck nicely into the cup on the underside. Now you have your rainbow.</li>
<li>Let's make some clouds! (Because egg cartons are ugly.) Stretch several cotton balls so they're wispy and glue them all around and on top of the exposed egg carton.</li>
<li> </li>
</ol>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_H3jq8yxFrB-B9MWhaDXb7tUZuKTzUpVyGyooDmpx9n-kirfq7iSf8OS3zDiJtqhyphenhyphenyRqTX6Yttve-YEaI4CyLCYFxOKrv_cikthHLh9Ywczj2cgWyC1gzCijH63p6_pkjWpfo4zEQGLZW/s1600/07_04_2012+007.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_H3jq8yxFrB-B9MWhaDXb7tUZuKTzUpVyGyooDmpx9n-kirfq7iSf8OS3zDiJtqhyphenhyphenyRqTX6Yttve-YEaI4CyLCYFxOKrv_cikthHLh9Ywczj2cgWyC1gzCijH63p6_pkjWpfo4zEQGLZW/s320/07_04_2012+007.JPG" width="320" /></a> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPmvS8Y5kx7yohBvf7PzGeaw1mKe6W8Dfr7j5XeftmbO6rsJ3cAshfSjETedg2B4-Gcay8CI_ems58x8dlVFSrFmdfbuOUizs4juo0OrbY24cKsc0kmthRZR9dmaMMyD8qqY5KCrbBz1rC/s1600/07_04_2012+010.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPmvS8Y5kx7yohBvf7PzGeaw1mKe6W8Dfr7j5XeftmbO6rsJ3cAshfSjETedg2B4-Gcay8CI_ems58x8dlVFSrFmdfbuOUizs4juo0OrbY24cKsc0kmthRZR9dmaMMyD8qqY5KCrbBz1rC/s320/07_04_2012+010.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-83383719879046279412012-06-09T12:31:00.000-04:002012-06-09T12:31:01.829-04:00Hoppy Frog Goodies<span id="goog_297974055"></span><span id="goog_297974056"></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjODXTjVwVN0ybnsvZZTnnomO4rFxQJTjFV7qA5txgfglvwO-MhdN_AM0LdF4YOliobkb2ZD7lZc0QbgkZj0ZBQKCWP2ppVSJpiPZvyBu3108T_qlpE2FG8LJGdYdKDo-7o1BURblBus2AZ/s1600/06_09_2012+015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU92C4EkUqNl2WuP94gh9v3qbGDriHbK3GFuciprdPwmeFXYujY9NLZ7mGj-0V5FQHdIoivscDBSrlBgwSEJHRCel7ffLWtjTM5YvBlLmEeXIjN6XfLCj3A5gS7TQDHtsS3ZCGkjR04GXa/s1600/06_09_2012+015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU92C4EkUqNl2WuP94gh9v3qbGDriHbK3GFuciprdPwmeFXYujY9NLZ7mGj-0V5FQHdIoivscDBSrlBgwSEJHRCel7ffLWtjTM5YvBlLmEeXIjN6XfLCj3A5gS7TQDHtsS3ZCGkjR04GXa/s400/06_09_2012+015.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Spiff is celebrating his summer birthday in school on Monday with the other summer birthday boys. I wanted to give the kids in his class a small little goody for the occasion to go along with the cupcakes. Especially since Spiff's preschool days are over in only 3 days! (Say, what? When did that happen!?) I found a 2 dollar bag of rubber frogs at Target (I know our craft store Michael's sells them too in the toy bin) and we printed these little cards to stick them on. Spiff signed his name on the back of all of them and has decided which kid gets which (we'll see if that works out.) He's excited to hand them out on Monday and I feel like we got a cute, big idea for easy work and cheap money. Win, win!</div>Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-86532053365760629992012-05-26T16:27:00.000-04:002012-05-26T16:29:08.250-04:00Painted Pots<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMtUyWxPf0YG2pIk-HjX9qLAwQa48Pg-7-YTkKz-419ra4m_6pZ3qU-qdtiHLd9c4QBzq93EAbRhIryHJYjPpX40e4IQdg6eu4nLmzgHBsVFrAqbt7IvCZH2nbipDaj2Q2_RbvIkjxNXVE/s1600/05_24_2012+001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMtUyWxPf0YG2pIk-HjX9qLAwQa48Pg-7-YTkKz-419ra4m_6pZ3qU-qdtiHLd9c4QBzq93EAbRhIryHJYjPpX40e4IQdg6eu4nLmzgHBsVFrAqbt7IvCZH2nbipDaj2Q2_RbvIkjxNXVE/s400/05_24_2012+001.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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We used Decoart Patio Paints (I bought a sample pack on clearance in the flower section at our craft store.) on dollar ceramic pots to make pretty pots that can stay outside all summer and sit on our windowsills when winter comes. Supposedly with Patio Paints you don't need to seal the art once the pot is painted. If you can't find patio paints you can use acrylic craft paints, but you might want to put a coat of exterior varnish (such as Ceramcoat) on them. I was surprised at how long this project kept my 4 year old son entertained, and the 2 year old did a bang-up job (thankfully not literally!) too. They also really enjoyed picking out their own plants to put in and potting them. I think I'm going to have the kids paint some of the rocks in my rock borders next to add more color to our yard.Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-38365549374432963102012-05-21T17:22:00.000-04:002012-05-21T17:23:22.140-04:00Easy Pea-sy Garden Markers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's planting season here in New England. Sometimes it's hard to remember where you planted what. We made these cute little garden markers to remind us using just a little patio paint (I bought a sampler pack on clearance in the flower pot section at our craft store) on some leftover shims (you can get a bunch at your local hardware store for a couple dollars.). Now, I do actually know what and where my strawberry plants are especially since they are actually growing actual berries (and poison ivy, too, color me upset!) but they were so much fun to make and came out so cute, I made a marker for them anyway. And my tomatoes too! If you know what grows in your grandparents' gardens, they'd make a great Mother's Day or Father's Day gift too. Cheap, cute and easy peasy.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid8zLf1zjtsodvWQVcdlQdVM0sArtYsMh0kgzKp638rhD4p5BdBcQZ3GvSj-QLruwoy7zC6ZjtXsx02hHDb9NssYKquVnaGzysxvmR71HXsgmb-jX0P-Tk5xJVN-ZbQX3bYtX_OSJ_6Txe/s1600/05_21_2012+020.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid8zLf1zjtsodvWQVcdlQdVM0sArtYsMh0kgzKp638rhD4p5BdBcQZ3GvSj-QLruwoy7zC6ZjtXsx02hHDb9NssYKquVnaGzysxvmR71HXsgmb-jX0P-Tk5xJVN-ZbQX3bYtX_OSJ_6Txe/s320/05_21_2012+020.JPG" style="cursor: move;" width="213" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4VOBhgOA6Mp2-4tpw5DB2vVuEIlsG7GvvLCOhtl0xbInwjPMeREF1uA2fqks1Liw9PxPtHEg3EzKDIFPXgwu1K5naFh3jZ6kQyURNkYP3OZlODB2zwVICWp-cOVyiV-i9GNdwhdJ2A_jq/s1600/05_21_2012+020.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4VOBhgOA6Mp2-4tpw5DB2vVuEIlsG7GvvLCOhtl0xbInwjPMeREF1uA2fqks1Liw9PxPtHEg3EzKDIFPXgwu1K5naFh3jZ6kQyURNkYP3OZlODB2zwVICWp-cOVyiV-i9GNdwhdJ2A_jq/s320/05_21_2012+020.JPG" width="213" /></a></div>Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-25425387819952048252012-05-10T13:56:00.002-04:002012-05-10T13:56:22.087-04:00Paper Butterfly<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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With two sheets of construction paper and a pipe cleaner you can make a pretty butterfly to hang in your window or from your ceiling.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIWmFbF9iflGwmhudM5tp69WDhcd_pR62Ec7iN8kQ5WqU8ueTEU4UBfK_7fFo9Q3_yQjml90CNIDY3NfO-mA4VY8kzW-IHGVlopXYLmW9QUtmW802mmFL7uvnkdY8qgBvXpefetJGE0PQJ/s1600/05_09_2012+004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIWmFbF9iflGwmhudM5tp69WDhcd_pR62Ec7iN8kQ5WqU8ueTEU4UBfK_7fFo9Q3_yQjml90CNIDY3NfO-mA4VY8kzW-IHGVlopXYLmW9QUtmW802mmFL7uvnkdY8qgBvXpefetJGE0PQJ/s400/05_09_2012+004.JPG" width="400" /> </a></div>
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Things You Need:<br />
<ul>
<li>2 pieces of construction paper (or two magazine pages)</li>
<li>1 pipe cleaner</li>
<li>1 piece of string cut to about 30"</li>
<li>scotch tape (optional)</li>
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What You Do:<br />
<ol>
<li>Accordion fold one piece of paper every 1/2" or so lengthwise. (This means, fold and crease from one end half an inch, flip it over, fold it again a half an inch and so forth and so on until you get to the end of the page so that the paper is never closed in on itself and looks like an accordion.)</li>
<li>Accordion fold the other piece every 1/2" or so width wise. </li>
<li>While still folded, fold each paper in half (as in fold the stack of folds you have to make like a "V" -so the two ends meet up and it kind of looks like a fan.)</li>
<li>Now you have two pairs of wings, each set a different length.</li>
<li>Fold the pipe cleaner in half and twist up two inches from the bent closed end, leaving the two ends free. (These will be the antennae.)</li>
<li>Now place the wings in the pipe cleaner so the two loose ends of pipe cleaner sandwich the wings and the wings rest on the top of the twist, or butterfly body. (If you want, tape the wings together first around the middle bends.) </li>
<li>Place the middle of the string here too. That will be your hanger. </li>
<li>Twist the rest of the pipe cleaner up so the wings are set in place, making the top of the butterfly body.</li>
<li>Separate the two "antennae" and twirl the ends.</li>
<li>Tie the two ends of string together to make your loop from which to hang your butterfly.</li>
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Trust me, this is all easier done than said.Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295919497805864334.post-15849831849270504082012-05-09T14:27:00.000-04:002012-05-09T14:27:02.836-04:00Magnets for Mom (or Anybody!)Mother's Day is right around the corner. So you know what that means. Us Moms wrack our brains for crafty, useful ideas that little hands can do to give to the OTHER Moms in our kids' lives. (If we're lucky, Dad will help them do something for us, right?!) This week my octupi and I crafted these nifty magnets. They were super easy and, I think, you can never have too many magnets. After all, you need SOMETHING to with which to hang all the other artwork the kids give you!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHCm5Sl792KfyQNdVeCzQnob7N1G7IDW9kZkIpCg8rFBnRBvd02hUTgTCeiBfC1I8cQz4zIPysv-zcC0fXgRflep2GLDaC_qzPFQoi0Q7xAKTZmtO3hp61j_pao9sszcnX3hPppD-Z0nGL/s1600/05_08_2012+026.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHCm5Sl792KfyQNdVeCzQnob7N1G7IDW9kZkIpCg8rFBnRBvd02hUTgTCeiBfC1I8cQz4zIPysv-zcC0fXgRflep2GLDaC_qzPFQoi0Q7xAKTZmtO3hp61j_pao9sszcnX3hPppD-Z0nGL/s400/05_08_2012+026.JPG" width="400" /> </a></div>
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What You Need: </div>
<ul>
<li>wooden plaques. I found a package of 6 business card sized ones in the wood crating aisle at Michael's.</li>
<li>primer (we do so much room-painting in this house I have a can in the basement almost always) </li>
<li>magnets. Self-adhesive ones are even better. Use hot glue if they aren't self-adhesive.</li>
<li>acrylic craft paints. Yes, it's messy, make sure you have smocks and paper lining your work surface.</li>
<li>water in a jar for rinsing</li>
<li>paper towels for drying rinsed brushes</li>
<li>paper plate for paints. </li>
<li>water-based polyurethane.</li>
<li>brushes for painting and brushes for sealing.</li>
</ul>
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What You Do:<br />
<ol>
<li>A day ahead, prime the wood plaques on one side.</li>
<li> Next day, get your work surface ready for mischief by covering it with newspaper or brown paper. Drip some paint onto a paper plate palette. Get out your jar of water, paper towels, brushes. Lay out your primed plaques.</li>
<li> Call in the beasts to paint. Let the artworks dry overnight (or for another day if you have a paint blobber like I do.)</li>
<li> Brush on two coats of poly, leaving them to dry in between coats.</li>
<li> When dry, stick magnets on the back. </li>
<li>Give away on Mother's Day. Or on ANY day. And maybe even keep one or two.</li>
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<br />Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07440977125290520520noreply@blogger.com0