Family Fun (pottery)

  I received a gift certificate last year to PottsnPaints and decided to share it with my kids.  This was the first time I had ever painted anything and of course it was a first for my kids too.

  We looked at all the shelves to decide which item(s) we were going to paint!

We looked in the clearance section.  

They of course have a big holiday assortment. Halloween, Christmas etc.

How about some dishes?

Everyone choose their items.

Then we were introduced to the color options.

It was so neat to see all the colors.  My kids couldn't wait to select their colors.  They had such an organized system.  Everything was numbered and easy to locate.

Our colors were chosen and it was ready to get busy!

My daughter selected an owl to paint.

My son selected a spider web to paint.

After we were done I tried to explain the process to them after wards.

We left them to be glazed and returned a few weeks later to pick them up.

My kids were so happy first off to see their pieces but they really loved them when they saw how shiny the pieces were.

My son made sure to make his as colorful as he could!

My daughter worked very hard on her details!

I think we had a great day together and we have physical pieces to go with the mementos this time around! 

I hope we do this activity again sometime.  We could make gifts for others, ornaments for the tree or anything.

Find time for your family this weekend and do something special!

Family Fun (Rock edition)

  Over the summer my kids had a blast finding, hiding and painting rocks in our area.    This is such a great time for the family.  The snow and cold weather has slowed things down but not stopped it.

  Hiding the rocks is a one of the fun parts.  We don't always remember to bring them with us to re-hide so sometimes we just re-hide the ones we find. 

We hide them on the sides of buildings!

Under trees in plain site in a high traffic area!

Along the side of a walking path!

Although hiding inside buildings is not acceptable some places are like the library. 

Rock selection is up to the person. 

 Decide what your going to paint and begin painting.

  Sit back and be proud of your rocks. 

Don't be surprised if you even make something that you can't part with.  

The rocks can be painted or made as elaborate as you like.  Even though you may hide them outside or inside the owner can keep them where ever so anything goes on a rock when it comes to the design of them.

Lastly, you have to hide some!  That's what makes this so fun.  It's all about hiding and finding them!

Rock groups are everywhere and if it's not you can easily start one.  Paint a rock and hide it. Start a Facebook group so found rocks can be announced and you can even share clues of where the rocks were hid on there.  

This is a great and somewhat cheap activity to do with your family. Rainy day, inside or outside activity.  Any age can play to because an artistic ability is not necessary.

I hope you enjoyed reading one of our family fun events! If you hide rocks I would love to hear about your experience.

Pot of Gold Craft

  I wanted to make something to give away that represented the upcoming holiday, but was easy enough for kids to help.

  Green is the focal point and everyone wants gold but in this case chocolate will have to do.  Does that about sum up St. Patrick's Day?

                 
  I picked up the pot at Walmart for under $1.00

  Pipe cleaner I had on hand would have rather had gold but silver had to do.

Purchased a spool of black ribbon under $2.00 also at Walmart.


  Paint was 2 for $1.00 also at Walmart, so I grabbed a couple colors and one was the green.

 Hot glue to hold everything together I had on hand!

  No plans for these pots to go outside so I just painted them first.

  Figure out your ribbon placement and cut it appropriately and secure it with hot glue.

  I had to decided based on the size of my ribbon how big I wanted the buckle.  Which was 2 pieces bent into "L" shapes and one piece for the middle.  I then glued it in the middle with the hot glue gun.

  Lastly, I had to add gold to my pot.  This officially completes the pot!  I'm considering to give packets of seeds away on Earth Day.

         Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

W is for Watermelon ( kids craft)

  This week we are discussing the letter w here.  I decided we needed to make a craft and watermelon it was.  Which is almost kind of sad considering my little student doesn't even like watermelons.

  For this craft you may already have the basic supplies on hand.

1 paper plate

Red paint

Black paint

Paint brush

Scissors 

Glue

Q-tip

Green paper

  I selected this craft and made it especially like this to allow different tools and techniques for my son to complete.

  Folding, cutting, gluing, painting and dotting.  They all take a different level of not only patience but also require you to change your thinking, hand and eye coordination and actually watch the creativity of the watermelon be born as he's working on one step at a time. 

Fold the plate in half.  I did this part and made it as even as I could.  Older kids could probably do this by themselves.

Cut the green sheet for the rind.  The size of the pieces don't matter.  So give your little one the scissors and let them go at it.

After the rind was put on we colored the inside red.  I think it probably works better this way then glue first and paint second just based on mess I'm assuming.

After the red paint has dried we added black dots to represent the seeds.  I used q-tips for this part as it would make the dots smaller.  Challenges the little ones with their grip and precision.

The perfect watermelon.  It sits up and painting both sides gives it a nice look.  Of course you could use this piece for naming the parts or incorporating it into a lifecycle of a watermelon.  We discussed the colors and the different parts.  I wonder if the next time I pick it up at the store if he will eat it.

What's your favorite fruit?  I made several pinterest recipes utilizing watermelon last year. Check that out here.

Crafty Turkeys

  As the day is slowly approaching I decided it was time to make the bird.  Of course I have two eager artists but add some paint

and those eager kids are ecstatic!

They love to make art with their hands.
The paint tickles them and they think it's hilarious.

The result of two painted hands is two painted turkeys.

 The only thing needed for this craft is: paper
different color paint
a paint brush
A pair of hands
I then used a crayon to add legs and a beak and goggley eyes!

Gobble, gobble.

Now grab those kids hands and make a turkey keepsake! 

#nablopomo