Spiders!

The other day we made these adorable hand print spiders. They do these every year, at just about every school, but I couldn't resist making some of our own.









It was nice to make a craft that we could include the baby in. More of the paint ended up in his mouth than anything, but he had a blast....and it's non-toxic!

Then I made a giant spider web with my 2 year old buddy. I decided to do this part outside, so I wouldn't be sweeping up glitter for the next week. It would have been a good idea if the wind didn't kick up just as he started shaking the glitter.  After some frustration and a lot of good team work, we finished off the web with our spiders and Happy Halloween letters.

April Showers....

This is a poster that I helped the kids make today. We used their handprints as umbrellas and flowers, and their finger prints for rain. The grass was cut by my four year old, and she also had the idea to use her yellow handprint for a sun.

Merry Christmas

These are the hand print Santas the kids and I made the other day. I started by tracing and cutting out their hands on cream colored construction paper. Then I had them paint the fingers white. Next they painted the bottom of the palm and the thumb red. Then they added google eyes, and a cotton ball and pipe cleaner to the hat. Finally I glued them on to green and red construction paper. These turned out super cute!

Rudolf Gift Bags

These are some gift bags that we made with paper lunch bags. I traced and cut out the little nipper's hands and taped them to the back of the closed bags. We drew some eyes and mouths, and glued on red pom poms for noses. Cute and practically free!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Chrstmas Tree

My favorite three year old made this hand print Christmas tree. It was super easy, and would make a nice Christmas present for grandparents. The hardest part was cutting out all the hands. She was able to glue it together and dab on the ornaments all by herself. Her picture is in the center of the star, which is why you are seeing a big white box. I wish we had bigger construction paper.....or she had smaller hands.

Out with the candy corn, in with the turkey!

It's almost Thanksgiving! Here is our latest craft, turkey hand prints.

Boo!

These are some little footprint ghosts that we made a couple weeks ago. Aren't they adorable?

Handy Candy

Today we made handy candy. The candy corns were on a sheet of scrapbook paper I had. I just cut them out and glued them around the hand prints. I think these are really cute.

chickooster

Ok, so I'm not really sure if this is a chicken or a rooster. I was calling it a chicken for the longest time, but then I remembered roosters have the red mohawk. In any case, it's cute, and simple. The head and body are paper plates. The body parts are all made out of construction paper. The wings are traced hands with the fingers stuck close together. The mohawk thingie is a hand print with the fingers spread apart. Obviously this one was made by a three year old, so things are a little out of place, but that makes it even cuter.

Hand Print Fish

This is a cute little hand print fish we made a while ago. The fish bowl is just a paper plate cut in half. The fish is a hand print with a google eye. Notice the HUGE google eye. Thanks mom!

Baby's first Christmas

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.

Fabric Paint

One year for Father's day, we decided to make a tee-shirt, bag and hat. you could make these for someone special any time of year though. The white smudges are where I took out the names. The bag, hat, shirt, stamps, and fabric paints were all from the craft store. The hardest part about this craft is keeping the fabric paint on the intended fabric. I always strip the kids down when using non-washable paints, or have older kids put on an old shirt or a smock. Before diving in with the paints, you'll want to make sure to have a piece of card board in the bag and shirt to keep the paints from bleeding through. We started with the hand prints, then I did the writing, and then the kids 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.

Rudolf the red nosed reindeer

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?