Halloween Part 1 - Decorations

Here are two very inexpensive and fun looking Halloween decorations:

1. Silhouette paper bags

Materials: silhouette patterns*, brown lunch paper bags, pencil, permanent black marker, electric tea lights

Directions: Open paper bag; position silhouette pattern in the paper bag. Trace with a pencil. If you can't see the silhouette, hold the paper bad up against a window. Take out the pattern and fill in the pencil marks with black permanent marker. (If you're really confident, use the black marker from the get go.) Insert electric tea light (or two) and place along a walkway or on a porch or wherever.



2. Pumpkin Jars

Materials: Empty glass jars, tape and permanent markers, red and yellow (or orange) food coloring, water, flashlight

Directions: Using the black marker, Design a pumpkin type face on the outside of your glass jar (if you want the face to come off easily, put clear tape where the face is). Drop 3 drops yellow and 1 drop red food coloring in jar; fill with water and put lid on. Place a flashlight behind the jar. Or, if you have a set of them, white Christmas lights strung behind them would look cool, too.

Easy, fun to do with kids, inexpensive, and still festive.

Watercolors and other Kids Painting

My girls love to paint. And I love them painting. It takes a little set up, but then they just paint. It keeps them from being in front of the TV, and it's fun to see. The paintings are also great to send to grandparents!

First off, watercolors. We got our first set of watercolors from a friend when my oldest was 2 or 3. We've gone through many of the plastic tray sets since then. In fact, the cost was kind of adding up. Recently I decided I wanted to get some quality art and craft materials for my kids. Using some Christmas gift money, we went to the craft store. We did it all in one go. If your craft store has weekly cupons and its close enough for a weekly trip, it's actually more economical to do a little at a time.

Here's the point I want to make about watercolors: If you plan on having your kids paint with watercolors fairly often, get the paint in tubes! I have a picture of our set here, next to the plastic tray set we still have. It costs something in the realm of $2.50 for one of the plastic tray sets, maybe $1.50 if you have a cupon. We get probably 8 good uses out of it. The tube set we got cost $13, or $8 with a 40% cupon. Based on what I've used so far, I'll get anywhere from 50-75 good uses out of them. Allowing for the different prices, that's 10-35 more uses for us. Since mommy is the only one allowed to touch the paint tubes, the colors only get mixed up on the palette, and the kids get pure colors to start with every time they paint. Since the paint is more concentrated and doesn't get as overloaded and diluted with water, they also have more control and seem more confident in their creations. The downside: I'm not sure if they're non-toxic. Since my kids don't put paint in their mouths, I don't really worry about it. Not everyone is that lucky, though.

Basically, I'm saying,with little artists in the house, decent quality paints are worth the expense to me. Just wanted to share in case anyone else gets frustrated with the expense of paints for their kids.

On a less monetary note: there are so many fun ways to paint! Or do crafts for that matter. We've started checking out kid craft books from the local library. One I have really liked is Crafty Kids Paper & Paint. It has a lot of ideas you could find online, but my kids like to look through the book and choose what to do. We just did q-tip paintings and paper towel food coloring paintings. Another fun resource is kidscraftweekly. You can sign up for a newsletter to be emailed to you, and it has fun home craft ideas for kids. I just love painting and crafts and coloring for my kids. It keeps them engaged and is so much fun.

Happy painting!

Cardboard Dollhouse/Fort

I meant to get this posted before Christmas. You know, with all the boxes still in the house. But, kids intervened and I completely forgot I'd even started the post. Well, here goes "How to make a Cardboard Dollhouse/Fort":

materials:
*a medium sized cardboard box (like the size of a diaper pack from Costco) - book boxes, t-shirt boxes or other double layered boxes work best as they're sturdier; but if you don't plan on keeping it long any box will do
*razor blade
*packing tape
*stickers, paint, crayons, markers (optional)


Instructions:

Step 1 - Make sure you are working on a surface that can withstand a razor blade... so not your kitchen table. With the razor blade cut off all the flaps from one side of the box. This makes your front opening. I guess if you wanted to be able to close "doors" you could keep on the two long sides, but I don't know if you'd have enough scratch cardboard for the inside. Cut off a short flap from the other side (at what will be the back top side of the dollhouse).
Step 2 - Make a cut through the middle of the top of the box. Then cut little trapezoids out of each side of the cut you just made - about 3, short side of the trapezoid on the cut line. These make the sides off the roof.

Step 3 - Using one of the short flaps you cut off, make a small rectangle. It's going to be the top of the roof, so you want two edges to match the length of the roof sides. Mark on where you cut trapezoids out of the roof sides. With a pencil, mark out trapezoids with the long side on the edges. Cut out the excess. It should look something like the roof top above.

Step 4 - Tape the back of the box together, except the top. Put the top of the roof on the sides of the roof. They should fit without needing tape, but you can tape it if you really want to.

Step 5 - Next comes the inside. Use a small flap you cut off for the vertical line, and a long flap for the horizontal line. You will probably need to make the horizontal flap a little thinner, but keep it 8" longer than what you need it. For both of these pieces, cut a rectangle out of the short edges that is 4" deep and 2" shy of either side. I didn't make mine a full 4" and I was sorry for it. You should end up with a 4" x 2" nub on each of the four corners.

Step 6 - Draw a line through the middle of the "floor" of the dollhouse. Cut out a 2 1/2" slit at either end of the line. You may need to widen it a bit. Put the vertical piece from step 5 upright inside the dollhouse, feeding the nubs into the corresponding slits. Fold one nub to the right and one to the left. Tape down (should be on the very bottom of the dollhouse).

Step 7 - Draw a line down the middle of the horizontal piece you made in step 5, parallel to the shorter sides. Cut 2 1/2" slits like you did in step 6. Put the horizontal piece in the dollhouse. Feed the nubs from the vertical piece into the two slits you just cut, taping one to the right and one to the left.

Step 8 - With a pencil, mark where the nubs of the horizontal piece hit the sides of the dollhouse. You will need to cut 2 1/2" slits at all four marks. After that, feed them through that same way as in step 6 and 7, taping them down.

Step 9 - Have the kids, paint, color, whatever. They LOVE this part.

If you wanted to do a shorter house, like the one pictured below, just skip steps 5-8. It's way easier and the kids may not even care about a second story. I'm sure these same principles could be used to make a cardboard castle, too, if you wanted to get really creative. Feel free to comment about any erroneous or confusing instructions!

Book, Art, Magazine organizers

I found this fun idea in a Family Fun magazine I was perusing while waiting for a doctor's visit. I'm using is to organize my children's coloring books, scrap paper, art supplies, etc. I found that only the absolutely honking big cereal boxes are big enough for most coloring books or construction paper to fit flat, so I also used an empty box that my garbage bags came in. I think it's a great way to recycle and organize at the same time. I bet kids would have fun painting them, too! Or if you wanted to put them up on a shelf, maybe paint them black and find some chalkboard paint (heard of it; never used it) to use on the spines for labeling.

Recipe for Homemade Drums

Materials:

Carpet roll - call some local carpet stores; you only need one, 'cause one will make like 20+ drums
Saw or razor blade
Drill and drill bits
Sturdy string (I used kite string)
Durable plastic "fabric" or leather
Needle
Paint (optional, but way more fun)
1/4"-1/2" thick rope


Here's a pic of the carpet rolls in the garage. Only get one! The rest are just taking up space and filling themselves with silly little spiders. I shouldn't have taken 3, but I didn't know any better.

Take a saw or razor blade and cut cylinder in 10" segments. Around the top edge, drill small holes just big enough for a needle with your string to get through about 2" from the top. Just above the middle on opposing sides drill a bigger hole that the rope can just barely fit through, if you're doing the neck string.

Paint it if you want; put on a non-toxic sealer if you want to make sure the kids won't lick off any paint if you're worried about that sort of thing. Be careful of the holes or just redrill after the paint dries. If you just try to drill after painting, you'll probably crack the paint. I know because I tried.


Cut out a circular piece of plastic/leather that's about 3-4" wider than the tip of the cylinder. You'll sew the plastic/leather on through the holes you drilled. Make sure it's tight. Tie the ends of the string together. Put the rope on so the ends are on the inside. Make a knot so it can't get back through. Sand yourself up some dowels and you have drum sticks.

Have fun drumming!

Homemade Instruments

I just moved to a new area, and I've really missed the musical kids activities that a friend of mine organized. I wanted to do it in my new area, but I don't have that many instruments. A little web searching, creativity, friend brain picking later, and I have three kinds of instruments I'm making: shakers, drums, and wrist bells. I cannot guarantee non-toxicity, though I've done the best I know how. As long as the kids don't swallow a chunk of an instrument it should be fine.

Here are some pictures and a brief description of the first: the shakers. You need a cardboard tube (toilet paper, paper towel), stapler, filler (beans, popcorn, etc.), and duct tape. You can also paint if you'd like, though I suggest a sealer of some kind (silicon spray or decoupage work) to prevent it from coming off with sticky or sweaty little hands.


Here is a picture of a painted shaker (still not completely finished). I forgot to take pictures before I stapled them, but you should be able to see what you do. Staple one side of the cardboard tube. Put in some filler. Close the second opening perpendicular to the first one, and staple. If you want to paint (and seal), do it now. Here's an upclose of the staples:


After your paint/sealer is dry, cut strips of duct tape long enough to cover the staples. I suppose this isn't necessary, but I think it's really important if you want little kids to use them, cause the staples can snag clothes or cause little boo-boos. Here's a picture of one I finished a while ago, and also my 1 1/2 year old playing with it.