Sidewalk is a definite staple of summer. The ideal medium for creating roads in your driveway is also used for fine art. Let your artist try fleshing out this fun activity a little. while you’re at it, why don’t you try it too? ;-D Here are some tips for doing sidewalk art:

~Experiment with different pressures to create shading. This can be accomplished by going over the area several times to make it darker. Then use your fingers to blend the chalk powder in. This will give you a more solid covering.

~Try using brushes to spread the chalk dust and create blending and shading.

~Dip your chalk in water before drawing, the application is more paste like and very dramatic.

~You can also try wetting the cement and then drawing on it for a different look.

~Now try coloring (with dry chalk) and then dipping your brush in water and highlighting areas with it.

~If you child loves this, you may want to supplement the usual chunky chalk with colored chalk (for chalkboards) or even pastels to give them a broader range of colors and texture.

~Like other types of art; you just need to play around for a while and pretty soon you will have some great new techniques!

Megan wanted to draw one of her favorite subjects: her beloved cousin Abby and her playing. Here they are surfing, woa daddy!

This project is as fun as it is tasty. It really doesn’t have an age limit as older kids will love creating puffy paintings using paintbrushes and the tinies will go nuts over finger-painting with it. Extremely versatile and super easy–what more can you ask for?

Materials:

1 large tub of Cool Whip

Several small packages of Jello (however many colors you want)

Black or other dark colored paper

Brushes

Directions:

1. Scoop the Cool Whip into as many bowls as you want different colors and stir a tablespoon or so of the Jello mix into each. I used Raspberry for red, Lemon for yellow, Lime for green, and Orange for orange. (I later wished that I had grabbed a Berry Blue for some blue.) Add more powder if needed, the more you use, the brigher your colors will be.

2. Now use your fingers or a brush to scoop and shape your paint into the desired picture. Keep in mind that you want to apply it thickly for good color. Make sure to do a little tasting.

3. Set aside finished pictures to dry. They will stay puffy and smell great!

Michael and I went for post-dinner walk last night and bumped into a few friends who have school aged kids. They were talking about how long the first day of summer (as in “school’s out” summer) was. I thought this would be a perfect time for a project that is bound to take up a few days for the kids… puppets. They are fun to make and fun to play with. And one of the best parts about puppet-making is that there are so many ways to do it! Most people are already familiar with the sock and paper bag methods, which are classics for a reason, but there is no need for me to cover them again. Last summer my art classes made their puppets out of something a little more creative. I guess we could call them found art puppets. Take a look though your kitchen drawers and start collecting paper towel rolls for these theatrical cuties.

Materials:

Toilet paper and paper towel rolls

Items from your art box:

Felt

Cotton balls

Yarn

Beads

Craft sticks, bamboo skewers, or other sticks

Flowers

There are lots of other possibilities-Use your imagination!

Craft glue (I like Aleene’s tacky glue)

Directions:

1. Really, this is a project that you can just go crazy with. But here are the steps for the ones shown:

Opera Singer

1. Place a toilet paper tube inside a paper towel tube and sketch where you want the mouth, then cut the lips.

2. Cut the paper towel tube to the desired legnth.

3. Paint the skin color and the base color for the clothes.

4. Once the paint is dry (about 15 min.) sketch out details and paint (Make sure to pull the toilet paper roll so that the mouth is all the way open and paint all of that as well as making sure the lips line up when they are closed.)

5. Make eyes by gluing a bead onto a cotton ball. Then cut an eyelid shape from felt (and lashes if desired, which are glued just under the edge of the eyelid) and glue over the cotton ball.

6. Make hair by wrapping yarn around your hand several times. Tie another piece of yarn around the wound yarn in one place (Which will hold the threads together.)

7. Trim the hair as desired and glue to the top of the paper towel roll.

8. Tape a stick to the bottom inside of the toilet paper roll. (This is what you will pull to make the puppet talk.)

9. Tape another stick to the inside back to the paper towel roll. (This is what you will hold to hold the puppet up.)

Kitchen Utensil Puppets

Here are a few tips:

Wrap with felt for clothes.

Silk flowers make great skirts.

Salad forks make great royalty. Paint the tongs with gold or silver paint and then embellish.

Whisks make great crazy creatures or aliens. You can tie or wrap fabric or pipe cleaners through the spokes to make hair.

Have fun!

The 4th of July is one of my family’s favorite holidays. We have a great little parade that comes down our street the morning of the 4th. (Complete with homemade floats and dozens of kids on their bikes) On the night of the 3rd, we have our nieces and nephews sleep over in tents on the lawn with their Dads. We project a movie onto a sheet in the backyard and stay up too late having fun. Then all of the moms come over in the morning (hopefully a little rested from their night off) and we eat a giant breakfast before watching the parade. To the point: my cute Mother-in-law always does a fun activity for the nieces and nephews before the 4th, usually we decorate tee shirts. Tonight we did this by spraying bleach onto stencils on the shirts. IT looks great and is fairly easy and quick to do. Here are a few tips to try it out with your little patriots

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Materials:

Tee shirt (A darker color works best. We used mostly red, but navy looked great too. As you can see, the bleached area ended up red.)

Spray bottle with bleach (We started with a 50/50 mix but ended up using a higher concentration.)

Newspaper to put in the shirts so the bleach doesn’t seep through to the back.

Stencils (see Direction #1. below)

Paper towels

A bucket of water to rinse the shirt in was helpful

Glad Press and Seal wrap was also very useful!

Directions:

*Wear old clothes for this activity!

1. Design your stencils. Here are a few methods that we liked: The first was to use store-bought stencils. Layer Glad Press and Seal wrap around the edges of the stencil and press lightly into the shirt to prevent overspray.

Cut shapes out Press and Seal wrap and press onto the shirt, then spray around to create a relief.

Draw a pattern onto a file folder or a clear sheet protector then cut out and use as a stencil.

2. Lay the stencil onto the shirt and hold it down if necessary, while you spray bleach liberally onto the shirt. Lay a paper towel over the top of everything before you pull the stencil off to absorb the excess bleach.

3. Once you have the design you want, let it sit a few minutes until it is as light as you like, then rinse thoroughly. Wash and wear!

*If you have overspray or just want a speckled look, spray the shirt directly with the spray bottle. Less is better here. You can get bigger drops by spraying slowly and a finer mist by spraying firmly and quickly.

*You could use a bleach pen to write, outline, or draw onto the design.

*Embellishing with puffy paint would also work well, perhaps the giltter paints.

This is a great (and quick) gift for Mother’s Day. It does require a trip to the craft store; but that is likely to be the most time consuming part. I did these with my 8-12 year old girls tonight and they loved them…and had a great time putting them together.

.

Materials:

Shrinky Dink for Inkjet printers

jump rings (I like medium size for this)

headpins (in the beading section)

frame bead

large beads (just a couple or so)

black satin cording

.

Directions

1. Prepare your Shrinky Dinks as directed on the package. I suggest sizing your picture about 1.4-1.9 inches. Don’t forget to punch a hole in it before baking!

2. Measure you cord (I just put it around my neck and cut.) Knot the ends and knot the loop end around the frame bead.

3. Attach the picture (shrinky dink) charm to the frame bead with a jump ring.

4. Thread a head pin through one of the beads, then wrap it around the frame and twist.

5. Snuggle your necklace into a hand-made card and you are set!

This is a great low-budget activity that I recently did with a group of girls 8-11 years old–they LOVED it. Megan helped me make my examples, it would be cute to use some of your child’s drawings instead of a printed paper. There are several well respected artisans out there who have made a living from fashioning trinkets out of paper. Experiment with several types of paper. Scrapbooking papers work great, but so do labels, cartoons, newpaper, etc. If you really want to go crazy with it, you can get earring parts, clasps and other findings at a craft store to finish off your pieces. You can glue buttons and beads on, as I have, but paper string and glue are all you really have to have to make some fun jewelry. Try experimenting with adding different things that your child likes. This is a great place to use some of that princess jewelry that has broken, but is too

loved to be thrown away. (Yay for turning it into something new!)

Materials:

Paper (a variety of colors and prints)

Gluestick and/or tacky or white glue

Toothpicks (round work slightly better)

Embroidery floss (Yarn or string will work just fine too.)

Other embellishments, if desired

Directions:

For the paper beads:

1. Cut several long strips that are between 1/4″ and 1″ thick. I liked the look of making one end more narrow than the other to give the bead a step-like texture.

2. If you are using a strip that gets narrow at one end, start with the widest end. Wrap the paper tightly around a toothpick and continue to roll it until you have reached the end.

3. Glue the back side of the end of the strip of paper. (This is where I really like using glue sticks. You can be pretty generous with the glue and it will hold and dry quickly.) Now roll the paper completely up, pressing the seam to secure it well.

4. Slip it off of the toothpick and you have your bead. The longer the paper, the thicker the bead. You want to have the paper be at least a couple on inches long so that it is stiff.

For the flower bracelet:

This is where you can let your creativity run wild! I will give directions for the one that I made, but keep in mind that the sky is the limit. A similar style of bracelet would be cute with paper soccer balls. You could cut a 1″ band and use Velcro at the ends to make a bracelet. You can make a necklace by braiding several strands and lacing in paper beads or tying on some flowers. Just let your imagination go! Since you are working in paper, it is easy to start again if your idea doesn’t work out!

1. I cut out several flower shapes and used tacky glue to glue a button in the center. (and a few beads scattered around.)

2. After they have dried enough to be moved, turn the flowers upside down and arrange them how you want them to be on the bracelet. Now coat the back of the flowers with glue and lay the strings over them however you want the strings to be. I tried to make it so each string was stuck to at least a few flowers.

3. Let it dry. I recommend spraying the finished bracelet with spray varnish. (Which is found in with the spray paint and is only a few dollars.) It will protect the paper and make it a little more stiff–as well as shiny!

If you make something fun, I would love to see pictures!

As I was out for my run this morning, I was spurred on by the view of the apricot trees and forsythias in bloom. I don’t know if it was sentimentality or allergies from the forsythia, but I certainly felt an itch to paint spring trees with Megan. This is a perennial for elementary art projects. Little ones love the novelty of painting with a straw and it is easy adapted for more advanced artists. Similarly, it can take 15 minutes or much longer, it’s a very flexible activity.

Materials:

Paper

Acrylic paint (Tempera will also work)

Straws

Paint well or paper plate

Sandwich bags

Directions:

1. (We did this on the floor so that Megan could get over her painting easier.) Squirt a generous amount of paint into a sandwich bag and add a few drops of water. (Keep adding until it is about the consistency of milk.)

2. Cut off a very small corner and drip a puddle onto the paper. (I recommend doing it about 1.5 to 2.5 inches or so from the bottom of the page.)

3. Put your straw close to the puddle at the bottom and gently blow, directing it upward to create your tree trunk. The paint will naturally want to branch off. Just have fun with it. (I also blew down to make some roots.)

4. Squirt a little paint into a paint well or paper plate (soft pastels will look realistic, but feel free to do whatever strikes your fancy. Megan wanted “Super Why” green, which is her current favorite.) You only need a little puddle, you don’t want it to be too deep. Dip your finger tips in and press them onto the paper to make blossoms on the tree.

4. Experiment with doing different types of trees or up-close views of branches. Have fun!

Advanced adaptation:

Use fabric, yarn or ribbon, or tissue paper to make your own 3D blossoms. Have fun coming up with interesting designs for the blossoms using different materials.

The one to the left is made by punching holes in tissue paper and gluing the punches onto a little mound of glue stick glue.

The one to the right is made by loosely knotting a couple of strings of yarn and then (arranging them while) pushing them into a mound of glue stick glue.

It’s almost April Fool’s Day. Why not have a little fun with your kids? The possibilities are pretty broad for what you can do. You can read about the top 100 hoaxes of all time (among other foolishly fun things.) When it comes to practical ideas though, Family Fun has definitely got it covered. I thought the dinner switch idea was really cute. I think it would be even funnier, to just make one thing sweet. (Maybe just get the peas and carrots.) Then it would be a weird spectrum of tastes. Once, my Mom did a crazy spaghetti dinner for my sister whose birthday is at the first part of the month. (Pamela, maybe you can clarify the details.) Where we had to use all sorts of crazy utensils (potato masher, spaghetti strainer) instead of the traditional fork and spoon. Think serving in tupperware or on platters instead of plates, etc. It was very fun! I think I will do this for my family on Tuesday. ;-D

As for great pranks, I am not sure if I will be doing anything spectacular. I remember my cousins sewing the legs of my Great Grandma’s nylons closed. (She was the kind of lady who loved a good prank.) Anyone else have a great idea?

**Just had to add: I stumbled onto this site and it has a ton of cute food ideas!

How about a little easter basket to share treats with friends this year. This is very easy to assemble. You can cut it and put even a 4 year old to work lacing up the sides. If your artist is a couple of years older, they can probably do the project with only a little supervision.

Materials: (per basket)

1 sheet of card stock, trimmed to a square.

ribbon

scissors (I used regular and scrapbook scissors)

hole punch

Directions:

1. Decide how big you want your basket to be and lightly sketch (or mark the corners of) a square. I stuck a pot-it note in the center of the paper to mark my base.

2. Cut a triangle shape to each corner, this will give you 4 sides. You can make them straight up or angle them out slightly, as I did.

3. Fold each side up and crease the bottom well. Now mark where you need to cut the sides so they will be even when standing up and trim them to the right size.

4. Punch holes about a half inch apart up each side of the flaps.

5. Knot the end of your ribbon and start at the bottom of one corner. Lace up the side and then go to the next closest side. Continue until all of the sides are laced. Knot the ribbon again (on the inside to keep it from slipping out of the top hole.)

6. Punch a hole in the middle of two opposite sides and knot one end of the ribbon (I did a double knot to make it look larger) Thread through from the outside to the opposite side, leaving enough slack to make a handle.) and knot again.

7. Fill with treats and share!

Why do people wear shamrocks on St. Patrick’s Day? Because regular rocks are too heavy! [ba-da-bing!] St. Patrick’s Day is a favorite at our house. (We have 2 favorite St. P. Day birthday girls around.) Since one of them is my sister, we often celebrate this holiday with some birthday fun.)

I have been thinking about how to make the day a kid-fest. (Instead of the traditional beer-fest, which is generally not considered a good idea for kids.) I thought I would share my ideas so far and see what you guys are up to. I am sticking with many of my ideas from last year. Here is a rundown of the day that I have planned:

-Have a leprechaun sneak in. If the weather is not too cold, crack a window and sprinkle a trail of glitter from the window to any little tricks or pranks you want to play on the kids. I am going to lead to the fridge, where that silly leprechaun has turned our milk green. (Do as many or few little pranks as you’d like. I will add them as I think of them.)

-There are a ton of great games at Family Fun to play.

- Make sugar cookies (shamrocks, of course) to deliver to friends. (We can be leprechauns and drop them on the porch, ring and run.)

-Since the potato is so quintessentially Irish, I think it would be appropriate to make cards to go with the treats with potato stamps.

-If that isn’t enough crafty fun (and you know that is what I am all about!) How about making your own leprechaun hats to wear. (Since cookies and cards are more than enough for us, we will probably do these tomorrow so we can just wear them on S.P.D.)

-For dinner, we will be having the traditional green eggs and shamrock cakes (scrambled eggs with some dye and green pancakes shaped like shamrocks.) The Jensens make pancakes for almost all of the holidays, my favorite are pumpkin pancakes. You could do a traditional Irish meal or green mashed potatoes, green

Let me know if you have anything good. I’ll update with more ideas too. In the meantime, have fun!