Craft Project: Lily Pad

Today's craft comes from my 2nd grader. She read about this idea in a science book at her school, and she came home to tell me all about it... chomping at the bit to give it a go. These instructions are all hers based on what she read in the science book, I only provided the supplies.

Items needed: green yarn, paper plate, green crayons, a frog,
and tissue paper (not pictured)

Begin by coloring the plate. We used heavy duty
dessert size plates.

Color both sides.

Cut out a pie shaped wedge. I was thinking this might cause
it to sink, but as I type this, she's playing with her lily
pad in a tub of water on the kitchen floor, and it's
holding up.

She asked for a piece of tissue paper to make a flower
on her lily pad, but when I was looking for one, she saw
this ribbon bow, and asked to use it instead.

I punched a hole in the cardboard base of the flower
and tied two pieces of yarn to it. Then I punched a
hole in the plate and pulled the yarn through. This
helps hold the flower in place and give the lily
pad its "roots".

Fill a container with water, or the bathtub, and add plastic
frogs. My 4 year old made one, too, but she didn't want
a flower or roots.

Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling. Psalm 91: 9-10

Bottle Cap Magnets Revisited

My girls and I have already made a handful and a half of bottle cap magnets and necklaces. Today, the neighbor girl and I made some more... only with a slightly different and educational spin. Neighbor girl is 3 and still learning her letters. So today, she helped me make her name in bottle caps.

The method is the same as what we did before... http://jennspeak.blogspot.com/2011/06/craft-review-family-fun-magazine-keep.html, but we're adding a paper element. Before covering  your 1" circle base with packing tape, glue a paper letter cutout to the circle. I just used a glue stick from the kids' craft drawer to attach the letter, then cover the circle, letter and all, with the packing tape.

Then continue with the rest of the previous tutorial, gluing the circle to the inside of the bottle cap and adding embellishments around the letters to make it fun and sparkly. We made her name so she can practice spelling it and arranging the letters in the correct order. Or be extra ambitious and create the entire alphabet for your little one to play with. And then if your child needs an extra E or N for their name, you can easily make the extra letters that are needed.

After we finished making her name, I made an Owl using the same format... I created the body, eyes, ears, and beak with paper, gluing each piece to my circle base. Then I covered it with packing tape, glued it into the inside of the bottle cap and added googly eyes and jewel embellishments.

Of course the final step is to add the magnet and fill the inside with clear drying glue or decoupage to keep everything in place.

Beware that you don’t look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels are always in the presence of my heavenly Father.  Matthew 18:10

Labor Day Bubble Painting

Today is a cool and rainy Labor Day. I'm not complaining about the rain, because we sure did need it! And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the 61 degrees! Can we keep it? Please?

Best of all... I have the pleasure of having my girls at home today. After breakfast and a little bit of playtime, I asked the girls if they'd like to bubble paint today. YESSS!! But... we needed to pick up toys first. My 2nd grader informed me she'd rather go to school... and that could be arranged...

I found this idea from a couple different sources on the Internet. Some made their own solution with dish soap and some used actual bubble solution. I decided to go with the bubble solution because we have a lot, and I recently learned that bubble solution can go bad.

I washed out some jars from my glass recycling bin
and poured out a little bubble solution into each.

For the paint, I used tube watercolor,
but others have used tempera paint.

I diluted my watercolors in a tad of water and added that
to the bubble solution... trying to get a good bold color.

We tried two different ways of bubble painting... blowing bubbles with the bubble wand directly onto the paper to pop and leave behind color, and blowing air into the bubble solution with a straw to make it bubble up and then placing the paper into the bubbles to pop them. And we found both methods to be effective. 

Method 1:

We put our paper in a cardboard box and blew bubbles
into the box to try to keep bubbles from going
all over the kitchen.

With this method, we had the bubbles popping on the paper to leave color behind, and we had it dripping from the wand leaving behind drops of color, each one a neat effect. This method was actually a little more difficult for the girls because they had a hard time getting the wands to co-operate to blow good bubbles for them.

Method 2:

For this method, use a straw to blow (careful not to
suck!) bubbles in the jar and when the bubbles
begin to overflow...

...place your paper into the bubbles to pop them.

I did discover that with the second method, you could achieve the popped bubble look more effectively if you gently place the paper on top of the jar to pop the bubbles, then gently pull it off without scraping across the jar. My girls were scraping across the jar, and while they were getting color on their paper, and were satisfied with the results, they were not getting the defined bubble pop look.

My second grader's artwork

My pre-schooler's artwork

My artwork. You can see with the one on the left,
the bubbles are more defined. I also allowed mine
to dry between colors to try to keep them from
running together.

Before they painted, I cut a piece of 9x12 water color paper in half, then folded each of those in half so we could use our artwork to make and send cards to their grandmothers.

Ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for  your souls. Jeremiah 6:16