Here comes the contact paper
All done
xcited, so I told them we could figure it out. I am pretty artistic, so I thought maybe if their mom could just help me make the gingerbread, I could assemble and decorate the thing. So we went to the front counter to get more information, and I realized this might be a little harder than I thought. They were doing a TV and movie theme, and the next day was the last day to turn in contest entries. The one thing that did save my butt though, is that they were only to be judged on appearance. I could have made the thing with toilet water for all they cared. The receptionist even suggested graham crackers.
We didn't win the contest, but at least we did better than graham crackers, and we were very proud to stand next to our Sponge Bob! 
This is a frame we made for Father's Day. I had to erase the cutest part, but oh well. The frame, letters, paints, and dogs and bones were all from the craft store. I let the kids paint the frame and letters outside in their underwear. (wood paint stains) It was a huge mess, but since the letters weren't yet attached it didn't matter. I painted in the spots they missed afterward. Then I glued on the letters and the dogs and bones which came already painted. We put in some cute pictures and Father's day was done.
These are some that we made with lollipops and construction paper. I cut out the heart shapes and had my little buddy first glue the smaller hearts inside of the bigger ones. Then he glued the hearts on top of lolli pops. I attached the leaves with hot glue. They just wouldn't stick with Elmer's glue. I think these are pretty cute and super easy.
These are little bunny cups that we make every year. Sometimes we use craft foam, sometimes construction paper. Sometimes google eyes, sometimes we make eyes out of paper. The pink bunnies actually have little glitter flower stickers for noses. They always get a cotton ball tail though. I like to attach a little to/from tag to the ears. You can pretty much use whatever you have laying around and make a really cute treat to send in for the whole class. Once you get working on these babies, they go together really fast. When they're dry, just fill them with easter grass and throw in some candy or dollar store goodies. These are always a big hit. 
This is a cute little game I made for a Kindergarten and Pre-school Halloween party one year. I like to volunteer in the classrooms and my favorite thing of all is planning parties. I usually set up four or five stations with a game or craft at each one and let the kids rotate around to all the stations. Table top bowling is always something easy to make. The bowling pins are just toilet paper rolls. You can staple any kind of character on them. For Halloween I used ghosts, but I have also done Leprechauns and Reindeer. If you aren't a great artist, you can print pictures of whatever you want. Ghosts are really easy to draw, so I m
ade my own on card stock. They are stapled to the bowling pins. (don't use glue..they will fall apart) The balls are actually squishy little pumpkins I found at the dollar store. You can use little gourds from the grocery store and cut off the stems. For other holidays you can use any little balls you happen to have lying around.
First I had the kids paint the plaques a solid color. Then they chose a different color (we also had some left overs from a previous project) to paint the letters of their name and their hand prints. We made the hand prints, glued on their names, and glazed the whole thing to make it shiny and beautiful. I switched out the ugly ribbon for some nice ribbon I already had, and ended up with a really cute, but really cheap father's day gift! These would also be perfect for mother's day, and you could easily stencil on the kid's names if you couldn't find any little wooden letters.
Not every craft has to be difficult, or time consuming. These are some snowmen that a couple of my little guys put together. They decided out of the blue that they wanted to make snowmen so this is what I came up with. I just cut out all the pieces and let them have at it with a glue stick. One guy wanted a traditional snowman, while the other wanted a pirate snowman. The pirate hat is a little funky, but not bad for something created on the spot. 
I love these cute little popsicle stick ornaments. I've been making them every year for as long as I can rememver with whatever kids I happen to be with. You are suppose to use a red puff ball for the nose, but last year we didn't have any puff balls, so we used a piece of paper and covered it with glitter. The eyes are google eyes (Rudolf is a little cross eyed on this ornament) and the popsicle sticks were painted with crayola washable brown paint. You can use whatever string you have on hand to make a hanger. These look really cute hanging on a Christmas gift in the place of a bow.
This is a cute little homemade valentine I had one of my kids make for her teacher. We cut a large circle (about the size of a paper plate) out of a piece of poster board and put it in a pizza box. Then I put a couple dabs of red paint and a golf ball in the box. She wiggled the box around causing the golf ball to roll through the paint and make cool designs on the paper. When it was dry we wrapped it in plastic wrap and tied the sides off with ribbons to make it look like candy.
This is a cute little ornament I made for a baby's first Christmas. I stamped his hand print in red paint and let it dry, then cut it out. Next I wrote his name and date on the back of the hand print and used contact paper to laminate it. Then I punched a hole in the top and added a piece of pretty silver string to hang it. You can buy contact paper at most office supply stores. It comes on a role and tends to curl up while you are working with it, so make sure you have an extra set of hands to help with that part.
did the stamps, with my help. This isn't just one of those things where you can set the kids loose with the paint and stamps. You really have to work with one child at a time and hold their hand while they're stamping. I'm all for creative expression, but I'm not about ruining anything with fabric paint. Believe me, it's hard to get off of any surface...protect yourself! The hat gets a little tricky with the stamps. You have to put your hand inside the had and make a flat surface under where the stamp is going. Overall this wasn't too difficult and I think it turned out to be a really cute gift. Oh yeah, don't wait until the last minute like I tend to do. The paint takes 24 hours to dry.
Here is a cute little Rudolf I like to make every year. The head is a foot print and the antlers are hand prints. The nose is a puff ball and the eyes are google eyes. It's cute to make one every year and see how the kids have grown. It always makes me sad to see these though, because I think about my favorite boys in the world and how they used to call reindeer ringdings. :( Why did they have to grow up?
This is a really easy fall craft. (I know, more plates) Every year, they sell bags of fake leaves at the dollar store and craft stores. Last year, we used some to make wreaths. You just cut out the center of a paper plate, give the kids a pile of leaves and some Elmer's glue and let em have at it. Then you can punch a hole in the plate and attach a piece of string to hang it up.
