Toilet Roll Mermaid and Hula Girl

We've done dozens of toilet paper roll crafts over here, but this one seriously takes the cake for cutest yet.  Tada!

Toilet Roll Mermaid and her best gal pal, Hula Girl

You can check out the full tutorial for these two super cute toilet roll crafts over at MollyMoo Crafts!

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Make a Colorful Paper Garland

For some reason Spring seems to bring in parties galore.  Birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, boy, oh boy, it seems like every week we're celebrating something new.  Is it that way for you too?  Spring is definitely a happy season for us.  So with that in mind, I came up with this super simple paper garland that you and the kids can easily whip up within minutes!  Tape them up and then poof, instant party!

We're currently digging rainbow crafts over here, so of course I had to make one of every color!

Colorful Paper Garland

Make Pasta Frames with Kids!

Ah, pasta.  It's cheap, always in your cupboards, yummy...and a GREAT crafting material!  Today I'm super excited because my fellow Rockin' Art Moms and I came up with 14 super fun, beautiful, and easy pasta art projects that you can make with your kids!

And... *drum roll please* we want to see YOUR pasta creations and we're also hosting a GIVEAWAY too.  Yippee! So definitely check out the bottom of the post to see the giveaway details and all the other ladies' awesome posts.

Chuck and I decided to use our pasta to decorate painted picture frames!

Make Pasta Frames With Kids!

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How to Make Colorful Kirigami Flowers

Spring is here! La la la! Although our current grey skies don't exactly scream "warm, sunny, bursting-with-new-life weather," today's kirigami flower craft certainly does!

How to Fold and Cut Kirigami Flowers

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Now, I had a lot of trouble naming this craft.  These flowers kinda felt like origami... and yet they weren't quite origami because I used scissors to make the designs too.  Luckily Mr. Google taught me the term kirigami.  It's a Japanese term that basically describes origami that also involves paper cutting too.  Bingo!  So cool right?

By the way, if you love these flowers, you'll also love these

• AWESOME paper stars  
• Lego Snowflakes! 

Mathy Mother's Day Jewelry

Mother's Day is coming up!  So of course, fun kid-made gifts have been on my mind!  Last week we made these darling egg carton flower pins.  I thought they would go great with some lovely kid-made jewelry.  But of course, there had to be a twist!  (A math twist that is!)

Let's Make Mathy Mother's Day Jewelry!  

Glue Suncatchers

Awhile back I made this lovely apple faux stained glass using black glue as the "lead" and tinted clear glue (affiliate link) to paint colorful panels.  Ever since making that craft, I kept wondering if there was a way to adapt it for preschoolers.  So I came up with this super easy kids glue sun catcher activity.   It takes only 2 ingredients to make the "paint" and you probably already have all the materials on hand!

Super Easy Glue Sun catcher Art with Kids  

Egg Carton Flower Pins

I love seeing kids' homemade gifts.  Don't you?  There's something beautiful about receiving a gift made by tiny hands.  Today several kid-craft loving bloggers and I took on an egg carton craft challenge.  We came up with different ways to craft with  egg cartons.  Since Mother's day is coming up next month, I thought it would be great to make some egg carton flower pins!  Like our styrofoam mosaic tile picture frames, this craft turns "junk" into lovely gifted treasures.

Egg Carton Flower Pins

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Tape Resist Ant Art!

Are you going buggy over spring?  Well, then today the preschool collaborators and I have 5 preschool bug activities that you'll absolutely love.  We've been digging ants lately, so I thought it would be fun to combine art and science to make some tape resist ant art!  

(And if you're looking for even more bug crafts, check out these egg carton bugs and my
fluttering butterfly craft!)

Tape Resist Ant Art!

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Build a Funicular Train

Did you know there were such things as funicular trains?  I learned about them from a train book that my son and I read together.  Apparently these trains are used to move people up and down steep cliffs. Two cars are attached via a cable and one car moves up the mountain as another moves down.  Now of course, you know me.... I just had to try making a funicular train for our lego minifigures.... especially after we enjoyed playing with our cardboard conveyor belt so much!

Let's Build a Funicular Train!

Shiny Foil Process Art

While I love making crafts with my preschooler, sometimes it's just nice doing process art activities with him.  We don't worry about the results.  We just dig in, throw everything into the pot, and see what comes up.  It's kind of freeing really to not worry about the product.

Awhile back we made some rainy day process art,  tissue paper canvas art and Matisse murals together.   Since we really enjoyed those activities, this time I pulled out our aluminum foil and we tried our hand at making some shiny foil process art.

SHINY FOIL PROCESS ART

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Kid Science: Studying Bird Beaks

Now that it's spring, I feel a severe kick in the bum to start doing more nature and science themed activities with Chuck.   There's something really cool about seeing blossoms, birds, bees, and bugs (whoa- bs!) all around.  We recently visited our nearby natural history museum and Chuck spent quite a bit of time playing with a bird beak activity.  It was so simple and fun that I had to share it here!

Kid Science:  Studying Bird Beaks with Kids

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5 Flower + Plant Activities for Preschoolers!

Spring is here! Spring is here!  In honor of this lovely season, here are 5 flower and plant activities that are just perfect for preschoolers!

5 Preschool Flower + Plant Activities

Cardboard Mail Carrier Bag

Chuck recently became interested in letter writing and sending letters through the mail.  So I whipped up this cute mail carrier bag to help encourage his pretend play!

Become a Mail Carrier in Minutes!

How to Fold and Cut Origami Stars

Lately I've just been digging Origami projects.  There's just something so relaxing about folding paper to create lovely things.    For today's post I wanted to share a recent origami project- these folded and cut origami stars.  They are really, really beautiful and of course, super simple to make!  (I'm an origami newbie, so if I say it's easy... it's totally doable!)

How to Fold and Cut Origami Stars

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So keep reading to see how I made them.

Oh yeah.  Guess what?  I took the plunge and actually shot videos of me folding the paper and explaining my process.  I know, I know.  Video is a completely new medium to me and I still have a lot of kinks to work out (like how to make things brighter!)  But, I think the videos explain the process better than the photos.  So I've included them in the post.

How to make Woven Easter Baskets

Easter is tomorrow! And if you're looking for a super easy and cute kids Easter craft.... this is it!  Check out these woven Easter Baskets! 

How to make Woven Easter Baskets

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A friend left her strawberry baskets at our place the other day.  I kept meaning to return them to her, but never got a chance.  Oops.  So they just kept staring at me this past week... whispering, "Craft with me, craft with me."  Well, of course I had to obey their siren calls.

With all their open holes, I knew they would be perfect to practice weaving on!

(By the way- we've done so many weaving crafts over here that this was a nice one to add to the collection:

• Woven Paint Chip Easter Eggs
• Yarn Cup Weaving
• Spring Flower Weaving) 

Painted Tin Can Succulent Pots

Spring has sprung!  Are you enjoying all the lovely blooms popping up around your neighborhood? In honor of Spring, today's Creative Preschool theme is.... plants!  So I wanted to share how we painted and repotted these tin can succulents.

Because this is part of the Preschool Collaborators Series, there are links at the bottom of the post to 4 other bloggers' great ideas for teaching preschoolers about flowers and plants!  (So scroll down to the bottom of the post to check those out!)

How to Repot Succulents in Painted Tin Cans 

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How to make a Conveyor Belt

Does your child like machines?  Then you'll love today's quick craft.  It's a super simple milk carton conveyor belt!

Make a Conveyor Belt

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