Bubble Wrap Fall Tree Project

Have your little ones create Fall trees using left over bubble wrap.  This is a fun and super easy eco-friendly craft for little ones of all ages.

What you'll need:

                   paper: heavier stock paper works best

                              squares of bubble wrap. mine were about 4x4
         paints-yellow,red,orange,brown
 brown markers or crayons

Directions:

1. If you child is older they can draw their own tree trunk, if they are younger draw it for them.
2. Put a thin layer of each color of paint on a left over lid or reusable bowl or plate.
3. Show your child how to take the square of bubble wrap into their hand and dip it into the paint, then dab up and down on the paper in different spots above the tree trunk.
4. Use different colors to create a fun Fall picture. Enjoy!

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

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Easy-To-Make Wild Bird Feeder

Kids love to learn about nature and a fun way to encourage them to help care for wild birds is to make a simple bird feeder. Bird watching and feeding is a great way to teach your little ones about the many varieties of birds and their habits. Watching the birds bring their friends to this fresh tasty treat is a reward for the kids, as well as, the birds.

Explain to your child that supplementing the food supply of our feathery friends is very important, especially during harsh winter conditions, to help guarantee their survival. Also, please remember that once birds start coming to your home to eat, they get used to the food being there so it’s important to keep feeding them throughout the winter months.

An easy-to-make pinecone feeder is a simple project that even young children can help create. All you need is a pine cone, string, and the food items you will use.


STEP 1: Assemble your materials.

STEP 2: Tie a string around the wider, stem end of the pinecone. Be sure the string is tied tightly so it doesn't fall when the birds arrive.

STEP 3: Mix ½ cup vegetable shortening with ½ cup oatmeal or corn meal in a mixing bowl until well blended. This amount should cover one large pinecone or two or three smaller ones.

STEP 4: Thoroughly spread the mixture over the pinecone with a child friendly knife/spreader or use the back side of a spoon. This is rather messy, so have paper towels handy for hand clean-up.

STEP 5: Pour the birdseed into a pie tin, paper plate or cookie sheet. Roll the pinecone in the birdseed until well covered.

STEP 6: Suspend the feeder from a tree branch where it can be easily seen from a window. Last, but not least, all you need to do is watch for your feathered friends to come and enjoy the meal you lovingly prepared for them!

Thanks to Nancy Keesling of TutuCuteandMoore for sharing this fun project with us.  You can find Nancy on Etsy, where she sells unique handmade clothing and and gifts.  You can also follow Nancy on facebook.

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Creative Shoebox Craft

School has just gone back here in Australia after our long summer holiday. That means new school shoes for the kids and as a result I have a lot of empty shoe boxes.

Here are some creative uses for empty shoeboxes.
1. Kitchen cook top.

 

Then make your very own felt play doughnuts from the DIY instructions from The Sewing Loft.

2. Car Garage complete with car ramp and parking spaces.

Team up with some gorgeous vintage cars from Piccolinavigli to zoom up and down the ramp.

3. Doll House. You could make a separate house like below or get creative and make each shoebox into a different doll house room and join them altogether.

This dollhouse is just perfect for some little kittens to play in the garden like these from Joelles Dolls.

4. Pirate Treasure Chest.

Combine this shoebox treasure chest with a pirate activity set complete with pirate map, gold coins and a pirate hat and eyepatch from Mels Creative Wishes.

5. Pencil Tidy.

Use some gorgeous crochet pencil cup organisers from CROriginals to keep the pens neat and tidy and standing upright.

Guest blog post by Mel
Mel's Etsy shop Creative Wishes, handmade Toys For Creative Play.
Mel Blogs at Melinda's Creative Wishes.

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Re-Purposed Spool Holiday Ornaments

I do a lot of sewing these days and therefore I have a lot of empty thread spools. I've been saving them because I knew that eventually I would come up with a project for them.  After a little bit of surfing on the internet I found some great ideas.  I wanted to find a craft that my girls could participate in and with the holidays coming up I came across a great idea, holiday ornaments.  I found the tutorial on the Thirfty Fun blog and modified it slightly to adapt to what we have in our home and what my girls enjoy using to craft.

What you'll need:

• left over gift wrap paper
• empty thread spool
• glue
• pipe cleaners
• scissors
• small bell ornament

What you need to do:

• Measure a piece of wrapping paper around the spool and cut paper wide enough and long enough to cover the body of the spool.Glue the paper strip to the spool.
• If you would like to cover the top and bottom of the spool with paper as well you can do that by cutting 2 little circles and gluing them on. 
• Thread the pipe cleaner into the bell and fold it in half.  Thread the pipe cleaner through the spool hole. Bend the 2 sides of the pipe cleaner into semi circles so they meet in the middle and twist to secure them together into a circle. 

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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Re-purposed Glass Jar Jack-O-Lantern Fall Craft

This is a fun and relatively quick Halloween craft project you can do with your children.  Save a few glass jars and you can make a whole row of jack-o-lanters to decorate you home.  The directions are simple and you can keep this craft and reuse it again and again for many years.

You will need:
masking tape
clean glass jar
paint or foam brush
orange acrylic paint ( non-toxic and washable)
battery operated tea light
Modge Podge

Directions:
Cut the masking tape into simple Jack O -Lantern face pieces( I made all triangles) and stick onto the jar.
Paint the jar with the orange paint.
after the paint dries pull off the tape pieces
cover the entire jar with Modge Podge so that the paint won't chip.
Put the battery powered tea light in after it's all dry.

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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Upcycled CD Craft: Dream Catchers

What to do with those old CD's that are lying around? Don't throw them away, make dream catchers!  

 This is a fun, crafty way you and your children can re-purpose them.  This craft is pretty child friendly except for getting the holes drilled into the CD's.  

What you'll need:

Old CD's

a drill with a small drill bit

fancy left over string, beads, and feathers from around the house

What you need to do:

• An adult needs to do the drilling.
• Drill 3 small holes at the bottom of the CD and one on the top.
• Have your child cut and attach fancy strings to the lower three holes and tie feathers and beads at the end of the strings. Each string should measure about 1 foot.
• Thread a string through the top hole to hang the dream catcher.

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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Tutorial:: Onion Skin Dyed Eggs

I hope you’ll indulge me for a bit as I share an Easter activity of my childhood. This came from my father and I’m realizing now, that I’m not sure of it’s origin to him … meaning I don’t know if his mother did this technique or if he learned about it and started the tradition with us. But each year he dyes eggs with onion skins. My mother saves skins in a plastic bag all year long for this ritual. As teens we rolled our eyes at the bag of skins collecting in the back corner of the pantry, periodically trying to sneak the eye sore into the trash. Now I understand just how long it takes to collect a bag of onion skins AND how many it takes to dye just a few eggs.

Isn’t the result beautiful! Stunning and no two are a like. If you like, you can then drop these into traditional dyes and see what you come up with. My favorites were green and blue.

You start with a collection of onion skins … the dry crackly brown skins that surround regular onions, raw eggs, and a leg from old pantyhose, a trouser sock, or even the netting onions are sold in works.

Carefully and completely surround each egg in layers of onion skins. Place in the toe of your stocking/bottom of your net. Make sure the egg is completely surrounded by a couple of layers of skins, and tightly packed in the toe. Tie a knot in the stocking, or use a small rubber band to tightly tie off the net. The skins need to be held firmly to the egg while the water to saturates the skins and dyes the eggs. Repeat these steps until you run out of stocking/net, onion skins or eggs.

Place in a pan of cool water, submerge a few times to start to saturate the stocking and skins.  Set on stove and turn on the heat.  Bring to a boil and simmer 1 minute.  Rotate the link of eggs, turning them over part way through the process.

The water will go from clear to yellow, to orange and then red … it’s working!!

Once you’re pretty sure the eggs are cooked, remove your link of eggs from the pot and place on paper toweling to cool. Once they are cool enough to touch you can cut apart the stocking (unless you have the patience of Job to undo each knot) or undo your rubber bands to remove each onion skin egg bundle.




  And this is what you’ll find inside:

So beautiful and unique!  They catch everyone’s eye and make a lovey addition to an Easter or Spring centerpiece given their rich, earthy colors.   So start saving your onion skins and pin this for next year!

By the way, an old homemaking tip from our grandmothers … my mother-in-law said they would add a couple onion skins to the water when they hard boiling eggs to dye.  Apparently, it helps the color dye adhere to the eggs.

Kathleen is a regular contributor to the EtsyKids blog and can be found on Etsy, Facebook, Twitter, at her blog TinyStitches. 

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16 St Patrick's Day Crafts

We hope you have a fun weekend!

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Art Project:: Bubble Wrap Fall Tree

Article submitted by RaisingGreenKids, blog - RaisingGreenRichmondKids

Have your little ones create Fall trees using leftover bubble wrap. This is a fun and super easy eco-friendly craft for little ones of all ages.

What you'll need:
paper - heavier stock paper works best
cut squares of bubble wrap. mine were about 4x4
paints-yellow,red,orange,brown
brown markers or crayons

Directions:

If you child is older they can draw their own tree trunk, if they are younger draw it for them.
Put a thin layer of each color of paint on a left over lid or reusable bowl or plate.
Show your child how to take the square of bubble wrap into their hand and dip it into the paint, then dab up and down on the paper in different spots above the tree trunk.
Use different colors to create a fun Fall picture. Enjoy!

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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!

Follow me:

Blog | Facebook | Twitter | G+ | Pinterest | Instagram | Etsy

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Kids Summer Paper Crafts

When I lived in the UK I was a member of Girlguiding (or Girl Scouts in the US), and often helped plan meetings and activities, especially the craft ones. So I am digging out some of my past projects to share with you to keep the kids busy this summer.

So some summer paper Crafts

Paper Ice Lollies

Print off the pdf design (2 lollies a sheet) and let the kids colour them in. Then cut out the shapes, fold in half and stick together with a popsicle stick in the middle.
Download pdf file

Flip-Flop Matching Game

Print off the pdf file and cut out the squares. For younger children they can just match the colours, for older children they have to match colour, and left and right foot.
Download pdf file

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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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