Elves At Work...

We will be back Dec 1st with lots of great Christmas crafts! We have been busy little elves. Please come back and check in on us for some awesome kids holiday crafts.

Plus we have to walk off Thanksgiving dinner. Even Momo looks like he ate too much! 

Thanksgiving Kids Craft: Paper Tube Turkey

This is called crafting by the seat of your pants. Last week Lu's school had a visit from some live turkeys.  When she got home she wanted to make a turkey. Since we had made several Model Magic turkeys already...I came up with this (slightly wonky looking) turkey idea.

You need, a small section of a paper tube, cardboard circles, feathers, and markers. It was easy for Lu to do fairly independently after I cut out the circles and put slits on the sides of the tube.

The Newest King...

We just adopted a little tiger kitten. We named him after a fellow bloggers daughter. I know, Sharon...the girls just love your daughter's name! I have to be honest that it was their third choice after Mulan and Sleeping Beauty. I nixed both of those. So...Momo won!

Isn't our little Momo just the sweetest little kitty?

We are all in love!

Sick Day Crafts

More often than not, our kids are "in between sick." Sick enough to stay home from school but not sick enough to be bed ridden. So what do you do with an "in between sick" kid beside pull your hair out?

These two standbys work for us. Plus they require little to no prep and minimal supervision.

Decorate A Kleenex Box

Pull together a bunch of stickers, ribbons, foam shapes...

I cut out cute details from cards we get throughout the year and store them in a big zip lock for just this purpose. I also stock up on clearance stickers and gems.

Give your child a Kleenex Box (try to buy ones that are fairly plain) and a glue stick. Let them have at it! Something a simple as personalizing their own box of tissue can entertain your crafty (albeit sick) kid for awhile. You can even add little sayings on the box with Paint Pens. Like "God Bless You!" and "Feel Better!" You may even find that want to make one for a sick or elderly family member or friend as a gift so stock up.

Beading

This is a simple activity for sick kiddos because they can do this propped up in bed or sitting at the kitchen table. They can create beaded necklaces for their friends and teachers they may be missing. The great thing about beading is you can use beads, cut up drink straws, pasta, buttons, air dry clay, model magic.... whatever you have on hand.

Instead of a needle just wrap end of yarn with tape to make a sturdy needle-like end.

Have fun crafting with your kids!

Can you tell, I have an "in between sick" kiddo?

A Thanksgiving Solution or What to do with all those Silly Bandz

I am sure many of you have piles of these plastic little bands littering your house, your car and getting sucked up your vacuum cleaner. Your kiddos have probably moved on to the next craze. So what to do with all those Silly Bandz?

Recycle them of course! When we have a large family gathering usually we put colored rubber bands on the glasses to help keep track of whose drink is whose. This holiday season we will be using our stash of Silly Bandz instead.

Special Delivery

With our new house came a new arrangement... Daddy works from home. It has been several months now and for the most part the girls have gotten used to him working in the basement. We still had lots of little trips or visits down to Daddy. Recently we hung up a mailbox for Daddy. This way when Lu or Em tells me, "I just have to tell Daddy something." I tell them to send Daddy some mail. So far, the mailbox has been working like a a charm. Both the girls enjoy sending mail and their Daddy loves receiving mail. 

We just used packaging from a blanket we had laying around. It had a handle and window on the top cut out (so you could feel the blanket) already. I took out the label, flipped it over and Lu drew the sign. On a rainy day I will have them decorate it with some stickers.

Thanksgiving Kids Craft: Paper Tee Pees

 Thank you for being patient with me while I update the look of the blog. I felt it needed a face lift and then I realized I didn't like it being so busy. So...how many hours later and it looks pretty much the same. Just new header picture. In case you were wondering what the picture is, it is a closeup of this butterfly collage that Lu, Em & I made last year for the Holocaust Museum's Butterfly Project.

Back to business, I signed the girls up for a Native American Customs and Crafts class. They made these cute little tee pees their first class.  Very simple to make for even the youngest crafter.

Trace a large circle using a plate or bowl. Cut in half. Decorate tee pee. The curved edge will be the bottom and the straight edge the top. Tape top half. Fold flaps up.

Older children could research traditional decorative symbols before decorating theirs.

Paper Bag Vest Craft

Remember the grocery bag vest craft from when you were a kid? I think this is my first craft memory now that I think of it! I have a photo of me wearing one at my preschool graduation. I bet there is a picture out there of you sporting one too! 

Well, Lu's homework this week was to make one and decorate it with Native American storytelling symbols.  I am loving Kindergarten! Homework is fun! I cut it out for her and Lulu decorated it. The teachers provided a sheet of picture symbols they could use.

Em made one too!

Pine Cone Bird Feeders

The weather has started to get colder. We even found snow blanketing our lawn yesterday morning. The colder weather brings back such wonderful memories of my cold weather childhood traditions. The girls and I have found we are starting some cold weather traditions of our own.

Walking through the woods in the fall has become a favorite activity of ours. Hearing the leaves crunch under our feet and collecting pine cones. Lu remembered us making pine cone bird feeders last year and asked to make them again. We use Crisco because Lu is out growing her allergy to peanuts. I gave the girls Popsicle sticks to use as knives. I tied a ribbon onto the end of the pine cone. I gave them each a container of Crisco to coat the pine cone with. Then they each had a large plastic container with bird seed in it. The rolled and sprinkled their pine cones with the seed.

Afterwards we toasted marshmallows in the fire place...

What cold weather traditions do you have with your children?

Fall Leaf Napkin Holders

This is a popular fall craft that is so simple and fun to do. Your grade school aged (on up) children will have fun making these for your Thanksgiving Day table.

Cardboard tube, leaves, glue or mod podge, glitter, paintbrush for glue, scissors to trim.

Cut tubes into rings. 

Paint glue onto ring.

Apply leaf to tube.

Paint some more glue on top of leaf.

Overlap leaves using this method.

Don't worry that leaves are hanging over the edge. 

You can trim them after the glue dries. 

Sprinkle on some glitter (if you like.)

Let dry them dry on some wax paper

Trim leaves.

I took this photo before I had a chance to apply an outer layer of glue for a final seal. You may find letting them dry then going back and gluing down the stubborn edges is more manageable.

Creative Guest Blogger at Ucreate Kids

I am guest blogging over at Ucreate with Kids today! I know many of you are fans of Ucreate. They recently expanded and have a great site devoted to KIDS CRAFTS!!! I am so pleased they asked me to guest blog since I am such a fan of both sites. Please pop over and check out this cute recycled MINI PILGRIM HAT craft. Thanks!

Fairy Wings for Annie

Annie is Lu's Lovey. Annie is dressed up, danced with, read stories to and snuggled up to every night. Lu gets teary eyed everytime Annie gets put in the washer.  I say a silent prayer every time I reach in to the dryer to retrieve her, fearful for the day when Annie doesn't make it out in one piece. Annie after all is Lu's first love. A cat this special deserves her own set of Fairy Wings.

Supplies: 18 gauge wire, duct tape, old tights or stockings, elastic, glue, and glitter

Bend wire in half. Create flattened heart shape. Repeat.

Tape wire overlap ends together with heavy duty tape,

Measure length of elastic banding around doll/animal. Cut and knot into loop.

Cut legs of tights. I used infant tights. 

Slide wing into leg of tight.  Pull tight.

Tie tightly together. 

Place elastic loop into center of knot. Tie once more tightly.

Reshape wings.

Decorate with glue and glitter.

Let dry. Tap off excess glitter.

Tadaa!

Recycled Thanksgiving Craft: Pilgrim Ships

I now have an excuse to drink coffee! Check out these cute little Pilgrim Ships made out of a coffee sleeve and coffee stirrer. They make great place cards for Thanksgiving. Kids can write each guests name on the masts and or draw a picture of something they are thankful for.

The great thing about this craft (aside from the fact it is recycled and I get to drink coffee) is that it is so easy! No elaborate production here. 

Step one: sit back and enjoy a nice hot cup of coffee or chai tea.

Repeat (until you have enough coffee sleeves for each guest.)

Don't forget to save the coffee stirrers! 

Find a small cup to trace a half circle in the center. This gives you the ship shape!

Cut out - make sure you cut through to the other side.

Gently pull coffee sleeve open and turn inside out. Re glue.

Also glue coffee stirrer at this time to the same spot.

Clamp to hold together while drying. A clothes pin works well too.

Wipe up excess glue so your clamp doesn't get glued to your ship.

Eyeball the size of your sail to the mast. Fold paper in half and shape sail by slightly angling the sides. The bottom will be wider than the top. Cut slits where shown in picture. I drew lines to show you. You do not need to do that.

Open up sail and have child draw picture and then slide onto dried mast.

Have fun crafting with your kids!

Thanksgiving Kids Craft: Model Magic Tukey

We are starting off November with a Thanksgiving craft. This was a simple, fast and fun craft for my 5 year old. She was able to complete most of this craft herself. She rolled one medium ball (for the body) and one small ball (for the head.) She stuck the feathers, eyes, legs and beak on. It was so easy and entertaining for Lu to make I have a feeling we will end up with a turkey family by the time Thanksgiving rolls around. 

Supplies: Model Magic or air dry clay, feathers, pipe cleaner, google eyes, straw, scissors, 1/2 red gummy candy (optional)  

I fashioned the legs out of one pipe cleaner - cut in half. 

An older child could easily make the legs.

I snipped the end off an orange straw, flattened with my fingers and cut a V shape on one end.

We didn't know what to use for the waddle. Being the day after Halloween I grabbed a bag of spooky gummy Life Savers. I snipped one in half and squished it a bit and stuck it on.

Have fun crafting with your kids!