whatever

glitter and glue.

this is the last craft we did over the school christmas break.
it's kind of christmassy but can just be fun for winter too. 

for supplies:
we used photographs, school glue, paint brushes, martha stewart fine glitter, mini pom poms and pre cut wood snowflakes from hobby lobby...they were like $1.50? or something like that.




they came already painted white.


take a photo you like and draw a circle over it with whatever circle shape that fits your sowflake...we used a drinking glass from our kitchen.




cut out your picture.
then cover your entire snowflake (only one side) in glue.
we poured glue into a small bowl and painted it on the snowflake.



after the picture is on you cover everything with glitter.
(the fun part. :)


you wouldn't have to use the martha stewart glitter but it IS amazing.
everything looks so good with it.
it's pricey and regular glitter would still work....but the MS stuff is my FAVE.


when the glitter & glue was dry we hot glued the mini pom poms around the photo.


they were very fun to make.  
glitter is messy i know but all you need is a hose attachment to your vaccum to clean it up.
and honestly...i like having glitter fall off me everywhere i go around my house.  :)


we made some for our friends...




annie made this one for talby.

i think you could just hang these up around your house all winter...it is not strictly christmas that gets the glitter.

creating with glitter makes me happy.

the end.

happy friday to you.

 

 

throw back craft

i call this a throw back craft because it was based from something my great aunt Liza hung on her wall at christmas time... i don't know where that ended up.
i forgot about it until christmas.
hers was velvet and was covered in pearls and rhinestones sewn to it...in an antique frame.
she hung it above her fireplace.

we created a modern version of liza's tree...using craft supplies she gave to me.
she always sent me home with a box of supplies that she wasn't going to need any more.
she loved to hand sew, preferably with felt, seqins and beads.
i have thousands.

first we painted a canvas all one color. (this is a 16x20 canvas..we used acrylic craft paint)

she had bags of scraps of this puffy bright colored yarn.
so now i have bags of scraps of puffy yarn.
:)
i traced a tree shape (cut from paper) on our painted canvas when it dried
and we hot glued the puffy yarn in the shape.



this big bowl of sequins and beads is a teeny fraction of the stash i have from her. 

then we poured glue into the tree shape.
like.... we used almost the entire bottle of tacky glue.

i poured it out and spread it with a paint brush.

then we dumped the sequins and beads on the glue until every single bit of glue was covered.




the girls were LOVING it!!




it was messy.

but what fun is making art if you can't get messy?!


it's like a game of I Spy.



the gold star sequins were in their own glass pill bottle.
it was the perfect finishing touch.

i hope that we will hang this up every year too...for a long time....and that my girls will remember making it.

it is pretty awesome.

different from liza's but perfect for us.

 

SNOW! and crafts.

 

************************************************

finally.
we haven't had snow for way too long.
even if it knocked out my plans AGAIN today...i am still so happy to have snow.


talby was sick yesterday all day.
so sick.
poor baby...waffle tried his best to keep her happy.  :)

she felt well enough in the afternoon to work on a project with me.
she was so bored all day. 

step one for our ripped paper tree is to paint a background paper.
we taped annie's down because with only one arm the paper moves around a lot.

also i painted paper the night before for them to make sure it was dry enough to work on it all at once.

i used acrylic craft paint (you know...the .97 little bottles in all crafts stores)
for all of the painted paper and annie's background sheet too.



just green paint painted over the whole thing.

when your green paper is completely dry...then you rip your sheet into strips about 1-2 inches wide.



when your background sheet is dry you begin shaping your tree.
we forgot to make a snowy ground.... but it still worked out fine.
rip the strips into the right size to form a tree shape.
we used ten strips total.

it's FUN to rip the paper into the shapes you want!
i love how the ripped edge shows, the white on some sides and how all the strips are uneven.



we also painted paper with different colors to  use for the star, the presents and the ornaments.
we made patterns in the paint by using the pointed end of a paintbrush
and making dots with a pencil eraser dipped in paint.


macaroni and cheese break!


you could use a glue stick but i think school glue would hold better in the long run...the painted paper gets heavy.


add some "snow" with a q-tip or splatter it on.
and some yarn bows on the gifts.
and you have an Eric Carle inspired christmas tree work of art!





talby chose a night scene and used water color for her background.












SO much FUN!!!

i found this idea on Artsonia.

 

************************************************

How about ONE MORE IDEA FOR A GIFT???

for just $20 you can purchase a stove for a family in Haiti and give the gift of coal efficiency!

you can buy a stove "gift card" to give to someone on your gift list!

how much better is that than another tie?

TODAY IS THE LAST DAY 

TO GET A 

STOVE CARD

mailed in time for christmas!!

you can give it to your dad.
you can give it to your husband.
you can say "it's a gift to me!"  and purchase a gift card.

or two or three or ten.

GO TO The Adventure Project TODAY for information.

 

 

snowflakes

 

***********************************************

this first holiday craft was super duper easy but looks really cool.
we made 3D snowflakes!

you will need only pipe cleaners and beads.
we choose silver pipe cleaners and clear beads.
(but you could do white pipe cleaners with rainbow colored beads and it would be adorable!)


clear beads from the plastic crafty bead section at the craft store.
they are like $1.99 a bag or so.


take 10 pipe cleaners and lay one the opposite direction of the other 9.


wrap the 9 together tightly a few times with the one pipe cleaner...twisting to make it stay.


then fan out the pipe cleaners as evenly as you can in all directions.


then we snipped off a few inches from all the sides EXCEPT ONE.


on the ONE tall pipe cleaner...place one bead and the wrap the end into a loop.


next place one bead or more on every pipe cleaner.
they stay on whereever you place them...they don't slide around.
i like that.


we took some of the small pieces that we snipped off and wrapped them 
around the ends of a few of the points...to give it that "snowflake" look.

and that's it!



my kids each made several.
and argued over whose was the best.
of course.

happy crafting!

 (idea for this craft was found here)

 

two crafts...one post!

both of these crafts are made of paper.
nothing else.
you have paper don't ya? 
yes.

so...keep your kids hands busy with one or both of these today.
:)

craft #1 

 
cut a bunch of green patterned paper (or you could use plain green) into skinny strips.

i used a paper cutter.
but you could use scissors.

then i cut some of the strips into smaller sizes.... all different lengths.

then start stacking them. 
random order..random pattern...biggest at the bottom....all the way up to the smallest.


 
glue them down until the tree is complete.





 



Add a star to the top, a brown trunk and circles for ornaments and you are done.

i would add glitter but my kids had moved onto another project.
but if it were MY tree....
there would be glitter on the star and all those ornaments.

...................................

craft #2

for this one you need red, pink, white and black paper.

and glue and scissors.
and a pencil or pen or marker.




the shapes do not need to be perfect in any way.
a rough pink circle and a rough red "triangle" will work great.

glue them together.
and add the black eyes and red nose.


 

 

now you glue on the beard.
we cut strips of white from a big piece of white paper.
any white paper will do.
and as you can tell the strips are not cut fancy or even straight....just strip shaped.
cover the bottom of the face completely.



THEN comes the fun part!!

curl the ends of the strip all the way up to the top by wrapping the strip around a pencil.
(you can even use your finger if you can't find a pencil)

and then you curl...curl...curl.
 

 
that picture makes me happy.



 

 

 
so cute aren't they?!!

and it's just paper and glue!

i love art.

 

girls day

the men in my home (and a friend) went to the chiefs/packers game on sunday....Boy's DAY.

so....
we declared it GIRLS DAY at home.

the day before i got tickets to the Nutcracker.
we got dressed up.
we did fancy hair dos....


and i painted their nails in christmas colors.

 

 

and we went to the ballet.
 
we made it through most of it with minimal "when is this OVER?" whispers.

the girls begged to go to Krispy Kreme.
i tried to convince them of the goodness of starbucks but they were buyin' it.
it's probably better they not go in there yet...we'll leave it that as a Mommy Place.


 



not only do i love their donuts....i LOVE their packaging and signage.
fabulous fonts.





then we went to Justice.
they had their own money to spend.
we were there for over an hour.... calgon take me away.
their music is on a short loop and LOUD.  
but my girls were so happy.



next stop: the bookstore.






the girls sat and read for a long time.
i found a few books for a few people on my list....
books are always a good gift.


and last stop was the big tree for a picture.










it was such a nice day with my two littlest girlies.
they were sweet to each other and to me.
we enjoyed just being together and being girly.

and the boys got to see the Chiefs win.
i hear that doesn't happen too much so i think everyone had a good day!

...............................................

i keep forgetting to tell you about something!
i am a crafty contributor over at alphamom.com
come see my christmas craft we made for her.
we'll call it christmas craft #4.

:)