Penguin Potato Winter Craft

We love finding things around the house to create art with.  My younger daughter just loves penguins and I  had her in mind when I found this craft.  We are big into re-using and re-purposing at our home so I used old brown paper bags and cut them up into squares with funky scissors.

** We like to find books on the crafts we are making to turn it into a mini lesson or just some fun reading time so we got out our penguin books after we made the craft.


What you'll  need:

• potatoes- 2 different size pieces. One for the larger black body and one for the white belly.
• non toxic paint-white,orange, and black
• googly eyes, one per penguin
• brown paper bag cut up into squares

Instructions:

• Dip the larger potato piece into the black paint and stamp onto brown paper
• take the smaller piece of potato and dip in the white paint, stamp over the black paint onto the body.
• use a finger to dip into the orange paint and create a beak and the feet.
• glue on a googly eye after the paint is dry

My daughter had so much fun with this project that she decided she wanted to make a whole "penguin family" on another sheet of paper which is what she is doing above.

Dorinda's shop, Raising Green Kids, offers eco-friendly products for your family. Follow her on Facebook and twitter and at her blog.

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Sensory Activity:: Candy Corn Sensory Seek

Who doesn't love a good game of hide and seek? Halloween and Thanksgiving are over and I'm sure y'all have some extra candy corn, Indian corn or candy pumpkins left, no? I know I do! Here's a fun way to use it up without eating all that sugar!


Materials::

• Box/Bag of White Rice (I used just about 2 boxes) 
• Rubbing Alcohol 
• Food Coloring (red & yellow) 
• Large Zip Bag 
• Sensory Table/Water Table/Bucket/Storage Bin...anything really! 
• Candy Corn (the yellow, orange & white kind) 
• Cookie Sheet 

Process::
You will be separating your rice so you can make 2 colors (since the rice is already white, you won't need to do anything to it for the white color...obviously). I'd say I used about 3-4 cups of rice for each color.

To dye the rice, just pour your rice into a zip bag, add a splash of rubbing alcohol and a few drops (I think I used about 8 drops of each color) of food coloring. Close the bag and have either your child or yourself shake it up! I found that to make the orange color it was best to pour the alcohol in a bowl and add the red and yellow first before pouring it into the bag. This gave it an even orange color.

Once you are done coating your rice with the color, spread it out onto a cookie sheet to dry overnight.

Now you can play! Mix the yellow, orange and white rice together in your sensory tub and add the candy corn. Bury the candy corn so it's not visible. You can leave some peaking out for starters.

We used an egg carton to collect all the candy corn Bug found.

She doesn't look too thrilled here, but I promise she was!

Isn't that fun?! Bug certainly thought so!

Like what you see? Come visit my blog Tutus & Tea Parties for more fun with the kiddos and; even some DIYs for you!

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Sensory Activity:: Baby Lotion Body Paint

One rainy day my sister came for a visit and while looking for something to do, we came across this recipe for baby lotion body paint! Since I still have 4 bottles of baby lotion from my baby shower (3 years ago) I though it was the perfect paint to make!

Good times!

Like what you see? Come visit my blog Tutus & Tea Parties for more fun with the kiddos and; even some DIYs for you!

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National Sewing Month:: Handmade Quilts

September is National Sewing Month, and with sewing being a favorite medium of EtsyKids Team Members, we want to share a special month long series sponsored by EtsyKids Team Member, Heather of theSewingLoft.  Throughout the month, talented sewers -  quilters, garment makers, fiber artists and crafter's will be stopping by theSewingLoft blog and sharing their favorite sewing tool.  So far,  Amy of The Quilt Alliance, Becky of PatchworkPosses and Janelle of TrashN2Tees have shared their favorite tools along with amazing projects to help us practice using their favorite tool and get a good feel for why they use it all the time.

The EtsyKids Team is filled with hundreds of talented artists and crafters, many of whom are sewers.  We hope to inspire you with their creative talent this month as we periodically showcase the beauty, versatility and quality of the sewn products our members have to offer.  We also hope Heather's special series for National Sewing Month, will inspire you to sew ... for the first time, on a new or forgotten project, or branch out and try something completely new in the world of sewing.

Modern Quilt in Gray and White Flying Geese Pattern by theEarlyGirl

Chocolate, Blue, Beige Log Cabin Quilt, Full Size, Machine Quilted by Ahmelie

Doll Patchwork Quilt and Pillow by snowflakeboutique

Bunting Quilt by Sweetiebugs

Super Size Modern Baby Playmat by PeppermintPinwheels

Modern Baby Quilt by AudraRoseDesigns

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Easy Oil Paintings

By Cori of Peace, Baby! Batiks

My son and I are working through the alphabet with a “letter of the week,” and when I needed an art project for “O Week” a couple of weeks ago, I turned to this marbleized paper tutorial from Unplug Your Kids. For our purposes, I called them oil paintings.

Here’s what you need:
A shallow pan (I used a dish pan)
Food coloring
Vegetable oil
Water
Thick paper (We used watercolor paper and cardstock)
Dropper

First, mix up the colors. Stir together 1/2 tablespoon oil and several drops of food coloring for each color. Mix with a fork for several minutes to combine the two ingredients. (Next time I will try shaking it, as suggested in the original instructions. It's a little like salad dressing.)

Put just enough water in the bottom of your pan to cover the bottom. (The colors will sink if the water is too deep.)

Use the dropper to put dots of color on top of the water. Don’t be afraid to mix colors, put colors on top of each other, or swirl them around. My son is into mixing colors lately, so he loved mixing the colors together.

When you’re done adding colors, gently place a piece of cardstock or watercolor paper on top of the water. Let it sit there until you see the pattern of colors seep through the paper. Gently peel the paper off, let excess water drain off, and set aside to dry.

Change the water and try again!

We’ve used our oil paintings to make cards, and I’m thinking about getting frames for a couple of them. They’re so pretty!

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Artwork Overload

By Cori of Peace, Baby! Batiks

Kids are prolific artists, and they want every creation hung in your home gallery, whether that’s the fridge, a wall, bulletin board, or, in our house, a door. Every so often I have to take my son’s art down and sort through it – mostly to make way for new art!

Not sure what to do with the creations you take down? Here are some ideas.

Save It
I save the projects I have fond memories of making or artwork that is particularly special or marked some kind of “first”: The first time he drew something I recognized, the first time he wrote letters, the first time he drew a face, etc. I keep these in a folder that is already stuffed full – and he doesn’t start kindergarten until 2013! Time to sort through that folder, I think …

Share It
Grandparents, aunts, and uncles love kid artwork, and chances are their fridges are empty. Share your little one’s creativity by sending artwork to them.

Repurpose It
There are a ton of ways to use your child’s artwork to make other pieces of art. Here are a few of my favorites (found, of course, on Pinterest!).

• Paint Cut Paste shared a great weaving project that would work great for those abstract pieces your kids have made! 
• Another great use for abstract art and early scribbles is to cut it into shapes (or use a punch) and mount it on canvas, as seen at Squash Bottom Babies. 
• I love this idea from Prudent Baby to use your kids’ artwork, tiles, and Mod Podge to make fun trivets or coasters. Great gift idea! 
• Or, cut the artwork into squares and piece it back together as a mosaic. More frameable art! 
• I’m a scrapbooker, so a couple of years ago, I took some of my son’s finger paintings and used them as a background for a scrapbook page about his artistic efforts. 

How do you handle the artwork overload at your house?

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