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!

These are fairly quick to put together and the girls have loved them! They look great made with fun foam. (Which you can get for less than a dollar at any craft store.) I’ve listed my directions for the basic hat, but feel free to make it your own. You may want to get out your art box and embellish with sequins, glitter, flowers or whatever works for your child.

Materials:

2 sheets of large green paper (or fun foam)

1 sheet of yellow

1 sheet of black

scissors

glue/tape

Directions:

1. Using one of the sheets of green, make a cylinder around your child’s head. You want it to be fairly tight so that it doesn’t fall over their eyes. Tape the seam while it is still around them to get the exact size right.

2. Cut the height down if you want it shorter (I think it looks cute pretty long, I also cut mine on a slant to make it crooked.)

3. Set the cylinder on the other piece of green paper and trace around the base, then make another ring around the base about 3 inches out. Cut out each of the circles (So you should have a ring shape and a solid circle; these will be the brim and top of the hat.)

4. Now set the the circle on top of the tube and use strips of tape to secure it to the sides on the inside of the hat for paper. If you are using fun foam, you will have enough of a lip to put a ring of glue around the edge of the tube and then set the top on. I used a few strips of tape to hold it in place while the glue dried.)

5. Similarly, you can glue or tape the edge of the brim to the base of the hat. If you are using foam, glue around the inside edge and set the cylinder inside and let dry. If you are using paper, it will be easier to tape it on. by putting a few pieces on underneath the brim that will wrap up the inside of the tube (put them on perpendicularly.) You will also want a few pieces around the outside of the tube that are on parallel. Keep he pieces fairly small and put them on so that 1/2 is on the tube and 1/2 is on the brim.

6. Now add a black band and cut out a yellow square for the buckle. Embellish with anything else you want. I think I also used my potato stamp to add a jaunty shamrock with some wire.

Materials:

1 potato (to make 2 stamps)

paring knife

marker

paint (I used acrylic)

paper plate

paper

Directions:

1. Cut the potato in half and draw the design you want on the exposed inside. Keep it simple.

2. Cut out the negative spaces (the parts that you don’t want to be in the final image.)

3. Spread some paint onto the paper plate, you want to it to be fairly thin. Dip and stamp. (I did one leaf for my clover, then painted a stem on.) Now finish as you like.

These turn out so great and are surprisingly easy to do.

Materials:

Tissue paper in a variety of colors

(I also put out a few rolls of crepe paper for more texture)

Liquid starch (laundry isle at your grocery store)

paintbrushes

wax paper

pipe cleaner or cardstock for the body

Directions:

1. Pour liquid starch into small bowls and set out with other materials. Tear off a sheet of wax paper large enough to accomodate your butterfly.

2. Tear (or cut) small pieces of tissue paper and lay down on the wax paper in the design you want for your butterfly wings.

3. Gently brush the tissue paper with the starch, make sure that you get all of your wing wet with the starch.

4. Let dry, then peel off of the wax paper.

5. Use the pipe cleaners or cut a body from construction paper. (Use both, if you’d like.)

6. These look cute hung in the window or perched on a dresser or mirror.

I have had a serious case of the winter blahs lately. It always hits me toward the end of February. (When the flowers are starting to pop out in Oregon and I am stuck in Salt Lake with it’s 23 shades of brown and 72 shades of gray.) I love Utah, but let’s be honest…this is not the most appealing time of year here.

…Enough grousing. What can we do? Today I stumbled onto letterboxing, which looks like a great cure for boredom blues. You follow the clues to find a box with a log book and stamp hidden in various locations all over the country. You stamp your own stamp in their book (like a guestbook) and then stamp the location’s stamp in your book. The stamps are usually handmade, so it is a great art-appreciation activity for your family. Often the sites have a historical significance, so it is also a fun and authentic way to get a little bit of history into the mix. This just sounds perfect! It looks like many of the clues are at the end of a hike, so those will have to wait until springier weather; but I am already planning the details for planting my first box and looking forward to heading to Holladay Library for my first stamp. I will post more on making my stamps later. Right now, I am just excited about this fun new activity and wanted to share!

If you are like me, you probably don’t have Valentine’s yet. (But you do have a desire to make something home-made and adorable, right?) Well, here are a couple of ideas for something super quick and easy, but impressively cute. For a ton of other ideas (50 to be precise, check out Family Fun’s ideas. Which is were I got this first one from.)

Magic Message

Materials:

Construction paper (other types will work too, but you want color or prints. You’ll want 2 colors per card)

Scissors

Tape or glue

Directions:

1. Cut both pieces of paper into a square and accordion fold it to have 4 panels. (It should make an “W” shape from the side.)

2. Open the paper up so that you have a mountain in the center and make 3 cuts (2-3 inches apart) down the center to the fold lines.

3. Cut your other piece of paper into 4 strips. Weave 2 of these strips into the center panels of your card.

4. (This is where it is a little tricky:) Position your paper so that it is in a W shape again. Now pull the two middle panels of on color in opposite directions. The mountain part will open up like a book; smooth these 2 panels down to make the outside of the card.

5. Cut out 2 hearts (or other shapes) and glue or tape onto the bottom 2 panels (these are the ones that are not woven.) Now, when you pull on the hearts, your card will flip open to reveal the inside.

6. Write a message on the outside and then pull open and write the rest. (We said “Valentine, you make me… flip!” and “Valentine, I have to say you are… the best!” Anything will work.)

* On Megan’s we choose to use 1 color and a white page which she drew on (but color on both sides, because they will both show.)

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Bee Mine

Materials:

Paper

Scissors

Markers

Paint

Directions:

1. It may be helpful to cut your paper into a square, but it is not necessary. Fold up the two bottom corners to meet in the center. (This will make a “T” shape with the sides coming to a point.)

2. Fold this in half and round off the top to make a heart shape once unfolded.

3. Now decorate the front and address it with your Valentine’s name.

4. Open the door-like flaps and draw a bee on the inside. (I used paint to make the color pop.) Then write “Mine” next to it and sign. (Of course, this could be done with other messages.)

Here is my version of the wonderful lion dance costume that is used in several of the Chinese celebrations. They are believed to bring luck. This one is a little time consuming and is for older artists, I would recommend above age 8. Keep in mind that your own creativity is key here. Use any material that takes your fancy, don’t feel that you have to follow my pattern too closely!

Materials:

paper plate (I recommend on of the heavier paper ones with a lip)

paint

crepe and/or tissue paper

construction paper

scissors

glue and/or tape (I used both)

embellishments (I used feathers, sequins, and pom-poms)

Directions:

1. Paint your paper plate (I chose orange for the head color and black for the inside of the mouth.) After it is dry, fold it in half.

2. Cut lengths of crepe paper for the beard and mane. For the mane, I left the strips whole (I used 9 strips); but for the beard (I used 2 strips per side and 4 for the center), I folded each strip in half, then rolled it around my hand and then cut up almost to the fold 4 times (to make smaller strips.) Tape them on underneath the center of the mouth and sides tape the mane to the center of the back (folded part of the paper plate) also on the bottom.

3. Take a piece of tissue paper and fold it 4 times length-wise so that it is very long and skinny. Then fold in half width-wise. Cut a few designs (but don’t cut off all of the edge. I cut out a few shallow arcs; which I was able to use to make “fire” for the nostrils.) Unfold the tissue paper and loosely gather it at one of the shorter ends. This will be the “body,” tape it underneath where the mane is. (I used plenty of tape here.)

4. Fold up a piece of construction paper several times to create a stiff strip about 1″ wide. Fold it into a U shape to make a handle. Leave tabs on each side and glue or tape them to the center of the bottom of the head.

5. You could cut out a piece of red cardstock to make a tongue. I wadded up a piece of tissue paper to give it a little more texture. Then I glued it down in several places; shaping it to look like a tongue.

6. I cut a 3″ by 4.5″ strip of cardstock and folded it in half and creased it really well. Then tapped it to the center of the top of the head to form a nose. (Cut a small strip of tape and tape the center down; then tape the sides down as well. I pulled the back part of the nose in a little to make the “nostrils” flare.

7. Next, I cut arcs about the same dimension as the nose piece and rolled them into loose cones. Then I glued a few feathers onto the top edges and taped them down on each side of the nose. Then I glued a white pom-pom in the center; and a sequin in the center of the pom-pom.

8. I took a 3″ strip of tape, and put several of the cut-outs from the tissue paper body on the edge of the tape. Then I rolled the tape up to make a sort of a blossom. Then taped each blossom into each nostril.

9. Finally, I glued a few feathers on top of the “upper lip.” Now your ready to dance!

Make several of these to decorate for your New Year’s feast. They are quick and easy and do not actually light up. They are perfect for smaller artists with help and can be easily done by first graders up alone.

Materials:

Construction paper (1 per lantern)

Tape

Scissors

(Paint. markers, or crayons)

Directions:

1. (If you’d like) draw a picture on your piece of paper.

2. Fold the paper in half length-wise (so that it is long and skinny), Then fold each of the ends back toward the middle so that the size is halved again.(If you look at the end it makes an M shape.)

3. Cut 1 inch slits starting from the folded side of the paper. (Stop about an 1 inch from the top.)

4. Open up the paper so that it is folded in half and cut each slit the rest of the way through. (Your paper

should have slits running all the way from the top (minus an inch) to the bottom (minus an inch.) It should still be completely connected.

5. With the paper completely open, bring the 2 sides together to make a tube. Depending on which side you put out, it will make one of these 2 designs. Secure the seam with tape.

6. Cut a strip and tape each end inside the top of the tube to make a handle. I tried braiding some crepe paper for the handle.

I did this with the preschool kids yesterday and was reminded just how much fun it is to see their faces light up. It really is magic to see how the primary colors mix. I recommend buying or checking out Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh to read with your child first. It goes through the primary and secondary colors in a charming story of artistic mice. After reading the story, try your own painting with a little tempra paint. I recommend saying something along these lines:

“Do you want to do our own painting just like the mice?”

“Let’s do a yellow part” (Squeeze a little bit of yellow onto the page and let them paint it with their brush.)

“What do you think will happen when we add some red?” (Squeeze more yellow onto the page and then add about 1/4 the amount of red as you have yellow. Let them “mix and stir and stir and mix” it.)

Wipe the brush off and do a red part, then mix with blue to make purple. Then wash the brush again and do a blue section, then mix 1/4 blue to 3/4 yellow to make green; talking through the process to help them stay engaged. If your artist is like Megan, these will not be neat little sections. (Although some of the other 3 year olds in her class did have pretty neat pages when done.) Don’t get too worried about how it turns out, let them enjoy exploring the paint. The best thing about this is just how crazy they think it is. I love to tell my kids that almost every color can be made with just the three primary colors. (Black and White are the exceptions.) Let them discover brown, which is made with all three of the primary colors. If they are really interested, you may want to let them try this with crayons and/or playdough. I drew a few pictures from the book for the kids to glue onto their painting (which they  really liked adding and coloring.) However, you should do whatever works for you; just make sure that you both have fun with it!

This kept a few my nieces and nephews mesmorized for a few hours (and made a pretty good sized mess.) It is funny how much like the maker the doll turned out to be. (You’ve got to love the one of Zane, complete with black air-cast–he broke a bone in his foot.) I put out my box art stuff (a collection of everything from sequins and ric-rac to silk flowers and scraps of fabric.) so that they could choose a few different embellishments. Really, you cold do this with just popsicle sticks and yarn; but I have listed the most used other items as well bellow.

Materials:

Popsicle sticks

Yarn (for hair and clothes)

Beads (for eyes)

Small pompoms

Small flowers

Scissors

Glue (We used Aleene’s, but Elmer’s would be fine. Hot glue would be nice because it would dry quick, but I had too many kids around to deal with it.)

Directions:

1. Cut about half way up the center of a popsicle stick. (This is a little tricky; it was fine for my 7 year old nieces, but younger kids would need help.) Gently pull the two halves apart a little.

2. Cut an 8 inch piece of skin colored yarn for the head. Glue one end of the yarn to the stick and wrap it several times around the stick so that it makes a head shape. Tuck the end in or glue.

3. Glue on beads for eyes (you could also cut little bits of yarn and glue them on.)

4. To make the hair, wrap yarn several times around your hand (or something else that is about 2xs as long as you want the hair to be.)

5. Slip off and loosely tie a piece of yarn around the middle of the coiled yarn (hair) and glue to the head. (You may need to hold it down for a bit while it dries.) Cut through the loops at the bottom and trim up as desired.

6. Wrap the body in the color you want for the shirt. (Do this the same as the head, only wrap around once or twice.) When you get to the legs, go completely down one, tie off or glue then start at the top of the other. (You will want to secure the beginning with a bead of glue like you did for the head.)

7. Now embellish: I cut the edge of a sequin to make the mouth, you could also use yarn. We used pompoms for feet and for the body of one dress (the rest of which is a pink feather) and the small flowers were also very popular.

You can make them life-like or, like Weston, you can get a little crazy with it! The kids liked this so much that they quickly progressed to making beds for the dolls, then cell phones, the a couple of just funny designs. They loved this and it can easily fill up an afternoon or more.