Doing Art Together: Family Hand Portrait

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This was a homework assignment for Lu. She had to count everyone in the families hands then trace their fingers on a page and number them.  I thought it would be fun to take it a step further.  I had Lu use watercolor paper. She traced every ones hands, overlapping each hand as she went along. I traced them with a Sharpie and Lu numbered them. Then I gave her some watercolors and let her paint them any way she wanted. I think it came out beautiful! What a great family "portrait." I am definitely framing this one!

This would make a great gift for a Mom, Dad or Grandparent!

Tip: I highly recommend you use water color paper. Water color paper won't buckle as much and will hold up better. Also outlining the hands using a permanent marker will make sure the hands don't get lost under all the paint.  You don't need to have your little one number each finger unless you want to reinforce counting.

Homemade Holiday Gifts: Bath Bombs

I am already thinking of teachers gifts for the Holidays.  I have always wanted to try making bath bombs.  I finally wrangled up all the ingredients* and followed the instructions on Instructables.  

It couldn't have worked any better. I had no problems. It was very straight forward. The girls could do the measuring/pouring.

I tried two types of molds. Both worked beautifully. The bombs came out easily.

*Citric Acid was difficult to locate. I could not find it at my grocery store or pharmacy like recommended on line.  I ended up finding it at a health food store. It was a bit pricey. One 4 oz. bottle was almost $6.00. You use the entire 4 oz. in the recipe. If you were more patient you could order it online I am sure for less.

Overall, a fun project! I definitely recommend it. We used grapefruit essential oil for our scent (make sure you get the kind meant for use on the body.) The house smells wonderful!

Teacher Appreciation Week: Part 2

Here is a great idea for teachers, grand parents, family, friends... I heard about this years ago. Probably from Martha! I was excited to finally get to do it. They came out very cute. Lu drew pictures of each of her teachers, I scanned the images, sized them, added the names and layed them out onto one page. I gave the single page to Kinkos and told them to make two 75 page pads. I was charged a cutting fee and a gluing/binding fee. If you can do most of the work for them you won't be charged additional fees for laying out etc. Each pad came to approx. $5.50.

I printed out a band that said thank you and then tied a ribbon around it. Chica and Jo have a great tutorial on how to make your own pads for a fraction of the cost. I found their tutorial a little late. The adhesive you have to order on online. I want to invest in the adhesive about $10 for a quart (which will make a gazillion pads) but the shipping on it is like $7 so I am having trouble rationalizing buying the quart. Chica and Jo sell a 2 oz. container of the padding glue on their site for $7 including shipping. Even though 2 oz. makes a lot of pads it is still only 2 oz for $7 versus $17 for 1 quart. Any of my frugal friends out there let me know what you think the better buy is.

Anyway, they came out so cute and Lu's teachers loved them! I can see making lots of pads for friends and family. What a cute gift for older girls! Tweens are so hard to buy for! Make them their own pads with their artwork on the pad. Tie it off with a bow and a super girly pen!