Foil Mermaid Book Mark

A good friend made a beautiful mermaid bookmark for Lu. She absolutely loved it!!! 

She then told us how she made it so we could make one. It was very easy and a great activity for children 4 years and older. 

Glue a piece of aluminum foil to a heavy piece of paper. 

Give child a permanent marker (so ink wont smear) and have them draw their picture. 

Give them a dull fork (Lu used one of our baby forks) and have them "draw" on the foil. 

Cut out drawing. 

Glue to another piece of heavy paper. 

Add sparkles, tissue, sequins... 

Cover with a piece of contact paper. 

Cut out leaving an edge to seal all the glitter and sequins in!

Lu gave this one to me. I smile every night when I open my book and see it smiling back at me!

Afterward I thought it would be cute if we had put a photo of Lu's face as the mermaids face.Next time...

Remember to always date your children's special art pieces and label them if you have more than one child. I will always want to remember Lu was 4 and a half when she made this for me!

Weekend Recap: Making Crayons & Crazy Paper Tube Sculpture

 

We finally got around to making some crayons. It took forever to peal all the crayons! We thought we had a huge bowlful...  Turns out it only made 5 muffin tin crayons. Which is OK since it was a fun activity and the girls enjoyed watching the crayons melt before their eyes. Both girls are having fun using their homemade rainbow crayons.

 

I was trying to make a funky lantern... It is not so much a lantern but I think it came out pretty cool. Plus, the girls think it makes a funny hat. You need a paper towel tube, scissors and a stapler. Paint would make it look festive.

Simple Mardi Gras Mask Craft

My friend Linda came up with this great mask activity. This is one of the those projects perfect for a broad age range. Older kids can get more creative and embellish their mask. Begin with a piece of card stock. Trace a pair of sunglasses that fit your child onto the paper. This will be the back of the mask. The sunglasses will help you determine where the eye holes should be. Pretty clever! 

We knew we were going to create a butterfly mask, so I went ahead and traced my daughters hands on the same side as the sunglass outline.

Next turn the paper over and decoupage tissue paper onto the mask. We added sequins and glitter. Since you do not want glitter or sequins near a child's eyes I covered the paper with contact paper after it had dried. This sealed everything inside. Cut out mask into any shape desired. Attach (tape or hot glue) to a straw. stick, dowel, chopstick... You get the idea.

We went to a Birthday Party last weekend and the Birthday Girl was wearing the cutest headband. I asked her mom about it and she remarked that she paid over $20 dollars for it! Well, being the resourceful mama that I am I went home and whipped this up in 10 minutes for probably a a dollar. We had all the  supplies already. I roughly cut out a bunch of tulle circles by folding the tulle over several times and cutting out all the circles at once. I began by folding the circles into quarters and threading them on the needle. I used about six quarters. Then I just threaded the rest of the circles on, without folding them. I then sewed the flower onto a sparkled children's headband. If I were to do it over again, i would probably make the circles smaller, otherwise I thing it came out cute!

Valentine's Day Craft: Candy Flowerpot

 

Candy flowerpot for your Valentine.

 

The tin buckets, flower lollipops and Valentine's decals I got at the Christmas Tree Shops for about five dollars total. Add the chocolate of your choice for the "dirt" and you've got a cute Teacher gift or Grandparent gift. Lu really enjoyed adding the rub on decals. She and Em used the extras and made Valentine's. 

Note: we used a clean yogurt container with a hole in the bottom to support the flowers. Place container bottom side up in pot, place lollies in hole, and add chocolates.

Pocket Tissue Holder: Bless You!!!

Thought I would try Skip To My Lou's simple tutorial (click here) for a pocket tissue holder. 

My kind of sewing project...EASY!

What a great little "no special reason" gift for someone. 

Think I'll stick a piece of tissue paper out of each one that says, Bless You!

Happy New Year Valentine: Coloring Page & Printable Card

The start of the Asian New Year and Valentine's Day fall on the same day this year. 

2010 is the Year of the Tiger. 

I combined the two to make a unique Valentine's Day Coloring Sheet & Card for your little tigers. Click download on the top of each menu bar. If you don't download it first it comes out sized strangely.

Tiger Coloring Page


The card is situated on the bottom of the page. Don't worry if it looks blank in the box...just scroll down to find the illustration. Also the web address prints normal - it just looks wonky in Scribed. Remember download first then print. After printing, just fold in half and then color or vise versa.

Tiger Card

Twirling Cats & Ballerinas

I found this fun activity over at Bilbified. Kristine is great and so is her blog! Her blog name is inspired by her daughters stuffed Bilby animal. Many of you may already know what a Bilby is - I did not. So we quickly learned what one was. Check in on Kristine and her two sweeties over at Bilbified and see what they are up to.

Instructions: Cut out two figures for each twirling toy. I used two different colors paper so when it spins it looks extra pretty. Glue a bamboo cooking skewer between the two pieces of paper. Let dry. Decorate.

Rub between your hands or fingers to make twirl and spin. Both girls loved their twirling toys. Lu's is the ballerina and Em's is the cat. I did mine free hand but you could find a template or coloring page you want to use.

Watch your kids while they play with this toy. Do not leave young child unattended with skewers...or else! Ouch!

I Heart Bean Bags

Bean bags are so simple to make. The girls love thinking up new games and uses for them. There can never be enough as far as they are concerned. They toss them into anything and everything. You can draw a bullseye onto a large piece of cardboard or fabric for a simple game.

For the heart: I traced a large cookie cutter onto the back side of fabric. Sew two pieces together, right sides facing in, around line. Leave one inch for turning. Trim, turn fabric right side out, fill and sew closed.

Valentine's Day Craft: Sailor Valentines

Sailor Valentines date back to the 1800's. Traditionally made from seashells arranged in intricate designs, usually hearts or flowers.  My version uses noodles dyed with food coloring and heart doilies. Of course if you have sea shells why not create an authentic Sailor Valentine.

Begin by dying your noodles. We made a ton to give away as party favors for a craft themed party. I boxed them up in some stationary boxes and wrapped a strip of paper and ribbon around them. I did write on the back, DO NOT EAT! Just in case...

The instructions for coloring the noodles can be found all over the blogging world. Basically all you need is noodles, food coloring and rubbing alcohol or Purell. Be aware food coloring stains and if little hands are helping you they are bound to get quite colorful. This is especially important for kids who do not like to be dirty. It really bugged Lu that after washing her hands 5X that they were still stained. Plastic gloves can solve this problem.

Next glue your doilies to a piece of card board. Dry and then cut out.

There are two types of kids, one who glues noodle by noodle and is very methodical and the other just dumps the noodles on is ready to make another one. If you have the second kind of child make several of these because they will be ready to move on quickly.

Squirt glue into the center of the heart - be liberal with the glue. Place a handful of noodles in a child safe container and let them arrange the noodles on the heart. I say a handful of noodles because the likelihood of them ending up on the floor is very high. You can always refill the container. After they are finished they can add a little glitter to the top. These hearts can be added to Valentines, attached to a gift or glued together as a hanging decoration (make two, sandwich a string or ribbon between the two, glue, dry and hang.)

Asian New Year Craft: Tiger Lanterns

2010: Year of the Tiger 

Lunar New Year, February 14th

Jazz up the ubiquitous lantern craft with homemade tiger paper. So Easy to do! Start by ripping strips of black construction paper. Hold the paper the long way and start ripping. Strips should not be uniform! Different lengths and widths are good. Just keep ripping until you have a nice pile.

Start gluing down the strips onto orange construction paper. Glue paper in tiger like pattern. See picture below. You can give a child a brush and a cup of glue that has been slightly thinned with water or they can use a glue stick. For younger children, squirt glue onto paper and let child place paper on top an rub flat.

Let dry. For a cylinder lantern just roll and staple or glue. Punch holes in top and thread ribbon or yarn through to hang. For a fancier lantern, fold paper in half the long way or "hot dog bun" way as I call it. Cut shallow slits into the paper about an inch apart. Make sure not to cut all the way through. Unfold, roll and staple or glue.

This technique also works well for Zebra paper. Have fun crafting with your kids!

Valentine's Day Craft: Doilies Garland

Have a happy weekend! TGIF!

Valentines Day Craft: Painted Paper Doilies

Paint paper heart-shaped doilies (available at craft stores) for a colorful and simple Valentine activity.

Place a piece of tape that has been formed into a circle on back of doilies and attach to paper. This will prevent your doilies from moving too much while painting.

Use water color paints.

Show younger children how to use gentle strokes. We call it "giving your paintbrush a bad hair day" when the kids scrub their brushes and the bristles go every which way. This ruins the brushes and makes it difficult for the kids to paint. We don't want that! So if I need to remind them I just say jokingly..."Oh no...bad hair day!!!" Lu always laughs and now she reminds Em not to give her brush a bad hair day.

Painted doilies can be glued to the front of homemade cards or taped to windows or walls as decorations. They would look lovely strung together!

Have fun crafting with your kids!

Printable Valentine Coloring Pages and Cards

Click on picture.

Save to desktop.

Open up from desktop.

Print onto card stock.

Color picture.

Trim using guides.

I'm Legit: Adoption Video

I had the unique opportunity to meet Zara H. Phillips and Daryl "DMC" McDaniels and to be an extra in their video, I'm Legit. Both Zara and DMC are adoptees. Zara is a singer, songwriter, author and director of a short documentary called, Roots Unknown. Daryl is well known for being in the rap group Run DMC. He is also extremely active in the adoption community. The documentary, DMC: An Adoption Story tells his adoption story. To find out more information you can goto www.zarahphillips.com or www.me-dmc.com.

"I'm starting my life on chapter two..."

The song addresses the fact that in many states adoptees have no legal right to their birth records.  Many states have groups working to pass legislation to allow adoptees this right. To find out more information regarding the legislation visit NJCARE.

BEING AN EXTRA

It was a freezing day in Newark, NJ and a group of adoptees and those touched by adoption, ranging in age and race, huddled together to keep warm as we waited for our part as extras. We passed the time by sharing our stories and trying to stay warm.

Mama King with Linnea (the daughter of an adoptee) and Ann (an adoptee)

Although I am in the background for two seconds and am blurry (I'm wearing a pink scarf near the end as Daryl walks by me) I had a wonderful experience that day, despite the freezing tempuratures. My soul was warmed by the wonderful men and women I met and their stories. There is something so intimate about meeting another adoptee. You may not know the names of their children or the town they grew up in but you do know their loss, you feel their unspoken heartache. I left feeling inspired by Zara and DMC and the work they do. Enjoy the video! Don't blink or you'll miss me :-)

I'm Legit