T.P. Tubes as Card Holders

I know, I know. The very title of this post is giving you heart palpitations. If you feel giddy about composting; get chills on your child's birthday not because of the gifts but because of the cool boxes the toys came in that you just know you can turn into some vague kind of "art"; and save glass food jars because you think that some have a particularly pretty pattern, well, here is a little idea for you.

 

I didn't think of this myself.....I got the idea from the very cool blog maya*made. Anyway, this Maya lady has a strong affection for empty T.P. tubes and security envelopes; I admire her. She uses empty T.P. tubes -- painted, of course, and dressed up a little bit -- as holders for handmade cards. I saved up a bunch of tubes for just this purpose, but then got sidetracked when some internet order of my husband's arrived in the mail stuffed with these crazy-awesome little rectangles of corrugated cardboard. I snatched them up, with the devilish glint in my eye that probably makes my daughter sigh to herself, "Oh, no. Mommy's gonna be makin' me paint THAT thing."

She was right.

Actually, she was engrossed in another project, so I did most of the painting, and then she helped me affix a bunch of paper and felt hearts to the card holders, and she glued on the buttons. And then she wrote her name all over the place like crazy, 'cause she just likes to do that.

 

We used scraps of felt from other projects, so we didn't have to buy a thing for this project, and we still got to show some friends a little V-day love.

So, why am I showing you a project for a holiday that's a month past?....Well, because it's endlessly adaptable. You can use little rectangles of cardboard as holders for any card, gift card, or token of your affection. St. Patrick's Day, a birthday, Administrative Assistants Day (although, if you are at home making things out of scraps of cardboard like me, then you probably do not have an administrative assistant...and if you do, make sure she gets some real nice gift card inside your old T.P. tube, okay?). These are admittedly more charming with the touch of a child, although I made my husband a recycled-cardboard Valentine myself, and he at least pretended to be pleased with it, which was nice of him.

Oobleck!

 

What is this stuff? Is it glue? Is it yogurt? Is it some particularly low-budget brand of Play-Doh? No...it's Oobleck!


This is a story activity based on Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss. In the story, a page named Bartholomew Cubbins must save the day when the king decides he's tired of all the "usual" things that fall from the sky, and asks his magicians to conjure up an all-new substance: "Oobleck." The gooey Oobleck starts clogging up everything and wreaking all kinds of havoc, until Bartholomew comes up with a very simple solution to end the whole mess.....

You can make your own "Oobleck," and it is strange, intriguing stuff. Technically, it is a "non-newtonian fluid," which means that it acts like both a solid and a liquid. When you pour it, it is liquid, but if any force is applied to it, it acts like a solid. So you can squeeze it, and it will feel completely dry; but the second you release your grip, it becomes liquid again!

Or you can run a fork through it, and you'll get dryish scratch marks,

 

but the second you lift the fork, all the Oobleck will ooze back together as if the scratch marks were never there : a little like that wet sand right at the water's edge on the beach.

According to my friend Wikipedia, this is "due to polymers, which are long chains in the structure of Oobleck. When you hit Oobleck hard, the polymers tangle and resist the force. When you push something in it gently, the polymers have time to move, and it acts like a liquid." So there you have it.

We read the book and then made our own Oobleck; it is messy, and you may hyperventilate slightly during the activity, but you will be pleased by how easily it cleans up with water.

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Recipe for "Oobleck"

-- 2 cups cornstarch in a large mixing bowl
-- About 1 cup of water (add a little more, bit by bit, if you want a runnier Oobleck)
-- a few drops of green food coloring so it will be green like the Oobleck in the book

Drop a few drops of food coloring into your water. Then, stir the water into the cornstarch with a fork until it is about as thick as pancake batter. I preferred ours a little on the thicker side.

Set your kids up with a bowl of Oobleck and some spoons, forks, whatever you like -- they will be pretty surprised -- this ain't their mama's Play-Doh!
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Further Oobleckiness:

Here is a rather entertaining, 4 1/2-minute clip from the show "Mythbusters," in which an Oobleck-style experiment (though not mentioned by its literary name) was done on a larger scale, using 200 gallons of water and 1,000 pounds of cornstarch. The segment includes a good explanation of how a non-newtonian fluid works. Adam (a "mythbuster") is able to run back and forth across the surface of what looks like a regular ol' liquid. Older kids (maybe 4 and above) will enjoy this.

"Fast Food"

In recent years, for whaatever reason, funny little pictures made of produce seem to have become popular. I guess there are certain trends you just can't anticipate. Anyway, a friend gave us this book "Fast Food" from her donation pile.

 

and the second Nora saw it, she said, "We should make some 'fast food,' Mommy!"

She especially liked the little tangerine-in-a-banana-boat, shown in the middle of this page:

 

So that was what she asked to make first.

[As a side note, this book's reading level is more for ages 2 or so, but older children can enjoy the pictures, which are very cute. Also, many of the vegetable figures are actually not that complicated, like the cars shown below.

 

So your child can replicate them successfully, while adding her own touches.]

 

We didn't buy any "special" produce for this craft, we just used what we had on hand.

We started by splitting a poor banana down the middle.

Nora added a face to the tangerine/clementine (are they the same thing?) with a Sharpie pen.

Nora's imagination was piqued by this activity. I knew it would be a successful "craft" because she was so insistent on doing it, while I kept dragging my feet (not wanting to waste good produce!). The fact that the banana was half-dead and we only used carrot tops made it easier for me.

She wanted to make a canoe (banana), buoys (carrot tops), person (clementine), hat (bell pepper top), and a crab (slices of bell pepper). Then she asked to make a "celery man" with "ice skates" (strips of bell pepper). This concentrating face makes me giggle -- I think it's the face I make sometimes when getting shoes onto the kids:

Then her imagination kind of went wild and she wanted to make a "big field of grass" using broccoli stems and some old(ish) celery. That lime (below), which looks like an evil horned creature, was my own attempt at a bunny...so I think I'll leave the "fast food" to Nora.

Finished! A wacky craft, but fully compostable! Nora started eating it halfway through -- the little crab disappeared first -- or, at least, its claws, but I wouldn't let her eat the body because she had drawn on it with Sharpie.

Felt Wreath Ornaments

Each year, Nora and I (and now Soren too) try to work on a craft to give as gifts to friends & family.  Last year, Nora threw her little heart & soul into papier mache ornaments.  This year, we're making felt wreaths (sorry if this is a spoiler to any family members!  Consider it...a sneak peek!).

This is an easy and pleasantly absorbing craft that I found on the terrific blog maya*made. 

You need:

-- various colors of felt
-- buttons in different colors & sizes
-- 3 1/2 " embroidery hoops
-- glue
-- ribbon or embroidery thread for hanging
-- pinking shears

Using your pinking shears, cut diamonds from the felt long enough to fold over your embroidery hoop, points-out. Glue the tips together. Keep gluing diamonds along your hoop until you have it as covered as you like.

When the glue has dried, let your child decorate the hoop with buttons. Nora liked putting all her buttons along the tips. In the maya*made design, she placed the buttons along the inside of the hoop. It's interesting how people have different artistic instincts! I let Nora arrange them however she pleased, because this is "her" gift.

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Soren arranged a few buttons too, but then lost interest...so he did have *some* input into the family craft. We call him the Director of Morale.

Salt Dough Ornaments

The other night, we made salt dough ornaments.  It's a rustic little craft that kids can do much of themselves, and since we had water, salt, flour, and food coloring around the house already, we didn't have to venture out into the cold (and Nora, as you can see, could happily remain in her pajamas as she had most of the day!).  I've posted the simple recipe below.  It can easily be halved if you are running out of salt (like we were).  A half-batch made plenty of ornaments to decorate Nora's little Christmas tree. 

The coarser the salt you use, the more it will show up in the dough.  Add the food coloring to the water before mixing it into the dry ingredients.  Also, add your water just a little at a time, because I found that our mixture got too wet very quickly, and I had to add more flour.

Roll 'em out, give your kids some cookie cutters, and maybe a few doo-dads (buttons, craft pasta, etc.) to stick into the dough.  Even my 21-month-old was able to enjoy this!  He became very quiet and focused on squishing the buttons into the dough, but I cannot guarantee such an outcome for all 21-month-olds (or even my own on a different day!).  :)

Please scroll down for the recipe......

 

Is it just me, or are chubby little hands, concentrating on a craft project, incredibly cute?

Salt Dough Recipe

As promised.....pictures & more winter crafts coming tonight.

1 cup flour
1 cup salt
about 2 cups water  (add a little at a time)

Combine your flour & salt well in a bowl. Gradually add water until you have a not-too-wet doughlike substance. Roll out as you would cookies, cut into shapes, and let air dry or bake at 200 degrees for a couple hours til dry (keeping an eye on them -- thin edges may begin to brown before other shapes).

You can add food coloring or glitter to the water to jazz 'em up....

Push in sequins or buttons or colored craft pasta...

Remember to make a hole in the top of the ornament with a toothpick, so you can string up your ornaments!

Specialty Shaped Crayons

A friend of ours recently made a batch of these fun crayons for Nora when we were homebound with the flu. I thought they were adorable. They're also a handy way to re-use bits and pieces of old crayons. You can make these crayons in any shape that you have a mold for, and in any colors you choose. Wouldn't red and green crayons, in a baggie with some ribbon, make pretty holiday gifts for small children?

I'll let my friend Deya tell you exactly how she made them:

You'll Need:

-- Molds in desired shapes, in this case stars ( I used a silicone mold)


-- Approximately 6 crayons per star


Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 250F

2. Cut crayons to about pea size

3. Arrange crayon pieces in molds. I made them all unicolor, but you can combine colors if you like in different designs

4. Put in oven and leave until almost completely melted (residual heat will finish melting last few pieces), +/- 20 min.

5. Let sit until completely cool and pop out.  With a silicone mold this was REALLY easy. But if you use metal kind you can pop in freezer and that will make the crayon shrink enough to make it pop out easier.
 
Draw to your heart's content!

Big Kids and Little Kids

Lately, I've been looking for crafts my kids (ages 1 1/2 and just-turned-four) can do together, and also crafts my older child can make for the younger one.  I'll start with crafts older kids can make for younger kids -- maybe even for upcoming holiday gifts.

Here are a few ideas I've turned up over the past few months.  If you have any good ideas....please share!

"Color Boxes" Big Kids Can make for Babies

Many older siblings love to "teach" their little brothers and sisters things.   Nora was excited about the opportunity to help Soren learn his colors by making "color boxes."  It was even better that my own "little" brother (whom I "taught" many a thing back in the day -- I used to corner the poor child in his walker thing when he was a baby and read to him from an Encyclopedia of Insects -- he still has tremors at the sight of a bug) was in town to help out!  (See hairy arm and sideburns above.)

To make :

--Gather small cardboard boxes and whatever colors of paint you'd like to use (we started with red and green boxes). 

--Paint each box the color you're hoping to teach.  We painted them inside and out, even on the bottom, 'cause we just get a little crazy when we paint.

--When your box is dry, Mod Podge or spray-shellac it so that the finish is shiny and it will open and close easily.  (Note: Conventional Mod Podge dries tacky.  You can use "Hard Drying" Mod Podge or a coat of spray shellac on top of a Mod Podged box, so that the finish is shiny and smooth.)

--When the varnish coat is dry, wander around the house with your older child and have him or her help you gather appropriately colored objects to fill the box!

Nora loves going through the items in the box with Soren and teaching him his colors. 

"Touch-and-Feel Picture" for Younger Siblings

Older kids can design a "touch-and-feel" picture for their younger brothers and sisters, or even make a whole book.  Nora worked on this picture for her little brother when he was about 16 months old.  He loved it, although it's the kind of thing you'd want to supervise a younger child with (I don't think 3-year-olds really understand, you know, safety codes when making a toy for a younger sibling, so we glued things like craft pasta onto Soren's picture -- obviously, this item would be recalled from Toys R Us!...).  But, Nora enjoyed presenting Soren with her picture, and his little fingers were busy exploring all the fun textures.

STEPS:

--Gather materials: 2 large pieces of heavyweight paper; crayons and paints; "feely" materials (felt, pom-poms, fine grit sandpaper, pipe cleaners, anything you think a younger child might like to feel); glue.

-- Let your child design a picture they think their younger sibling would like.  Nora chose "an ocean scene," but then asked me "to draw a car in it because Soren loves cars."  See?  So thoughtful.  ;)

--When the picture is dry, cut holes in it wherever a "feely" material should go.

-- Line up your two pieces of paper.  Wherever you have made a circle in the top sheet, glue your "feely material" to the bottom sheet so that it shows through.

-- When all of your feely items are glued into place and the two pieces of paper are lined up, glue the two pieces together.

--  There!  A fun picture for the baby to admire and feel.  It's so sweet to watch your older child present the little one with a gift!

~~ A few more ideas for Big Kids and Little Kids: ~~

-- Mama's Doodles has a clever and adorable Onesie designed by an older sibling craft.  The big brother or sister colors a picture on fine grit sandpaper with crayons, and then mama irons the image right onto a onesie -- a great gift for a new baby to wear home from the hospital, or maybe a fun present from big kid to little kid for the baby's first birthday!

Play Tips for Different-Aged Siblings

Games "Big Kids" Can Play with Their Younger Siblings

Fairy Houses

We found the book "Fairy Houses" by Tracy Kane at our local library and decided to build one of our own.

This book tells the story of a young girl who vacations on an island off the coast of Maine for a week with her parents. They show her a little spot in the forest where people have been building houses for fairies. Kristen builds her own house and waits for the fairies to arrive...

The back of the book gives lots of great ideas for building your own fairy house in any season of the year. It also gives ideas for allowing creatures other than fairies to benefit from the "fairy houses" -- gathering berries and acorns for birds and squirrels, etc. Nora was instantly inspired and wanted to get right to it, even before breakfast.

Chck out The Crafty Crow's "Fairy Crafts Roundup" for more ideas...

We did break one rule of the fairy house, which was not picking or disturbing any living materials. Nora wanted to pick some flowers to decorate the house. I figured that, since we were in our own backyard, this was okay.

Nora spent a good hour that morning working on her house (yes, she looks a little eccentric here, since she was still in her pajamas and insisted on wearing her gigantic star-spangled sunglasses). Soren just tried to do everything she did. Bless his little heart.

She built a stick wall, "to protect the fairies from predators." She used a magnolia branch for the roof, and dry grass and clover to line the back of the house. She made a "driveway" out of rocks (do fairies drive?). :) Later that afternoon, I remembered our milkweed plant and brought her some milkweed pods. I showed her how to slice them open lengthwise with her thumbnail, and she thought they would make perfect fairy beds. She tucked them inside the fairy house.

The finished, decorated house: