Button Collages

Ever get in a funk with your art ideas?  Lack of sleep, a teething baby, and a sporadically sore back have made it such an effort to pull out the art and craft supplies. So instead of more structured art projects, we've been going the more open-ended  process art activity route.  (Basically I just throw a couple of art supplies on the table and then see what we end up with.)  Recently I pulled out a bunch of old thrifted buttons and gave the challenge to "create art with buttons."  Here's what we came up with!

Invitation to Create with Buttons

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3D DIY Butterfly Cutout Wrapping Paper

Are you a butterfly lover?  Do you know a butterfly lover?  Then you're going to love today's 3D butterfly cutout wrapping paper.  3D?  Oh yes.  The wings pop up, making this the ultimate spring craft!

DIY 3D Cutout Butterfly Wrapping Paper!

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Artsy Origami Butterfly Stick Toys

These artsy origami butterfly stick toys are such a fun spring craft to make with the kiddos.  You get to paint and decorate... and then you get to fold... and then you get to play!

Artsy Origami Butterfly Stick Toys

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Playful and Easy Mathematics with Building Toys (And our favorite math books!)

Wanna know a secret?  In college I majored in Engineering and minored in math.  Eek.  Surprised?  Well...it's true!   I'm a bit rusty now... but I will always have a soft spot for mathematics. There was something about solving a difficult problem that was so thrilling and satisfying.

Now that my son is older, my husband (who is also a math lover) and I have been trying to help him to love math too.  With a new baby at home, I just haven't had time lately to plan math crafts and activities.  (Mucho props to all you homeschooling mamas out there... don't know how you do it!)   But, I've been giving myself a bit of slack and telling myself that it's ok.  We've still been learning math together... just in a more open-ended and playful way.  

Playful Math Learning with Kids

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Fluttering Butterfly Craft!

Hello friends!  Today I wanted to share this really neat fluttering butterfly craft that I recently did with Chuck.  We cut out, painted, and folded butterflies that flutter when you move them!  (We also made some lovely butterfly notebooks too!)  The whole process entertained Chuck for quite awhile, so I thought other kids might like it too!

                                             Fluttering Butterfly Craft

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I know it's winter, and most people are doing winter crafts with their kids, but honestly, I just haven't had the heart to do so.  Our weather is right now in the 60s which is totally bizarre to me.  I'm used to cold, wet, or snowy winters.... not cool, sunny ones.  It's very weird ... but I'm thankful for the sun and warmth!

This butterfly craft was inspired by our local butterfly grove.  Nearby our home is a plot of land where monarch butterflies migrate to during the winter.   How neat is that?  Last week we hiked up to the butterfly grove and saw thousands of butterflies, clumped together in tree branches.  It was a pretty amazing sight.  (And I WISH I could have taken photos of them, but they were just too high up to get a decent shot.)  One of the other children at the park found a dead butterfly on the ground and showed everyone.  Chuck really wanted to find one of his own, but we never did.  So I came up with this craft so that he could have his very own fluttering butterfly.

Looking for kids' butterfly books?

This would definitely be a great craft to go along with any of these great butterfly books!

• Hungry Catterpillar
• My Oh My- A butterfly
• Butterfly and Moth 
• Gideon's Dream 
• From Caterpillar to Butterfly  

Cakesgiving

Are you more of a sweet or savory person?

I've always been a savory type of gal.  I like eating sweets occasionally, but I always have room in my tummy for salty snacks.

(By the way, sorry hubby for devouring that bag of chips the other day.)

Anyway, back to this post.  This Thanksgiving (which shall hereafter be called "Cakesgiving"), everything changed.  Our aunt (yah, the same one that made Chuck's Hungry Caterpillar cake) fully embraced our new dietary restrictions and made a gluten-free triple layer carrot-cheesecake-carrot cake.

Oh.
My.
Goodness.

One bite and I felt myself leaving my body and floating away to sugar heaven.

Carrot cake?  Ooh yeah, it was delicious and moist.
Cheesecake center?  Um, yes please.  It's was creamy with just a bit of tang.
And that cream cheese frosting?  To.  Die.  For.

(Just thinking about that cake now makes my toes curl.)

I never got a chance to get the recipe.  Rats.  But fortunately, I did take tons of photos of her making it.  (This was me "helping" out with Thanksgiving preparations.)  So, dear reader, I present to you some delicious cake photos.

(Warning- If you're on a diet or thinking about going on a diet, please avert your eyes.  Read another post.  Take a walk.  Eat a rice cake.  Just turn away and don't look at the photos.)
  

Ooh, mix it!

Yeah, crack those eggs...

Ooh, sugar...

Softened cream cheese... yuuuuuuuum....

Take a whiff.  Can you smell it?  Yup, that's warm carrot cake fresh from the oven...

I'm totally drooling.  Oh baby, whisk that icing!

Oh. My.  Goodness.   My pulse just quickened...

Ack.  My toes are curling. 

If only they I had taste-o-vision.  Then I could reach in and take one more delicious bite. 

It was really the best cake I've ever had.
Ever.
Ever ever.


Phew.

I don't know about you, but it's time for me to cool myself off with a nice cold glass of milk.

Happy (yummy) Monday!

Hungry Caterpillar Party Part 3

Here are the last of my party photos. 

(We didn't have an actual photo-booth set up, but the guests were still able to play around with the props.  Don't they look so gosh darn cute?)

Hungry Caterpillar Party Part 2

Click here for directions to make your own fruit balloon garland

Special thanks to brave hubby for holding the pinata while kids swung wildly with their bats.

I found it hilarious that the kids brought multiple bats to hit the pinata.

Can I be honest with you?

I initially didn't want to throw Baby Chuck a party.  (Does that make me a bad mommy?  Hopefully not.)  I didn't want a birthday party because I figured Baby Chuck wouldn't really remember anything... so why spend the money or put the effort in?  (Ay, I'm so cheap.)  But then I changed my mind after talking with some relatives.  It only took a bit of convincing and Pinteresting before I was on-board.  (Anytime there's a craft to be made, count me in!) 

Looking back I'm really glad that we did it.  Hubby and I got to celebrate the fact that we kept a baby alive for a whole year.  Wowzers.  Tita Tina, Ana, and I got a chance to craft.  Yes!  Baby Chuck will have lovely photos to look at one day.  Hooray!  And our young guests got a chance to let loose and enjoy themselves. Score!

You know what?  Here's my deep thought of the day:
There are so many tough and sad things in this world.  Life would be better if we threw more parties and celebrated. 

(Thanks Sam for taking these beautiful photos.)

Hungry Caterpillar party part 1

Hi everyone!

Last Saturday we held Baby Chuck's 1st birthday party.  I was a tad bit stressed out with all the planning, but everything turned out well at the end.  Hooray! Everyone seemed to have fun and enjoy themselves.  Thanks to everybody who helped out with the decorations, games, and food!!!

Because I was running around like a chicken without its head, I didn't get a chance to get too many photos.  Here are some shots that hubby managed to snap of our decorations and food:

Made by Tita Tina

 

Made by Tita Tina and Ana   (Click here to see more amazing cakes!)

Made by Tita Tina and Ana

Made by Grace

Click here for directions to make your own multi-colored crayons

     

Hungry caterpillar party prep- Crepe paper caterpillar

Ok, ok, I know what you're thinking.  This post looks like a Hungry Caterpillar craft and didn't I announce in my last post that I was no longer going to do anymore caterpillar crafts?  Well, yes, that's true.  But in my defense, I just wanted to post up this photo of a welcome sign that Tita Tina made  for the party.  Isn't it adorable?  I love his little feet.  I just want to tickle them. 

I have no idea how she made it (and if anyone out there wants to know, just leave a comment below and I'm sure she would explain everything.) 

(By the way, she isn't just a sign maker.  She also makes a-mazing cakes.)

I love how a child's birthday party can encourage us to create and craft things.    

Hungry Caterpillar party prep: DIY birthday banner

Ok, this will be the last of the party DIYs, I promise!  With the party only a couple of days away, we round off our DIY series with a Hungry Caterpillar birthday banner:

It was really simple and fun to make.  I cut out various shapes from cereal boxes.  Then, I just painted them with craft paint "Eric Carle" style and used Sharpie markers to write the letters.    

To see all the items we made for the party, click here

Hungry Caterpillar party prep: DIY multicolor crayons

I struggled with what to put in the children's goodie bags.  At first I was going to give them lollipops because that went along with the theme of the book.  But then I remembered that they were already going to get candy after bashing the pinata.  Images of screaming children on candy highs filled my mind, so I went another route:  DIY multicolor crayons.  (It sort of goes with the theme, right?  Colorful crayons.... colorful Eric Carle artwork? Ok...maybe it's a stretch...  Alright, you got me.  I just wanted to try this DIY out and I needed an excuse... )

Anywhoo... here's what I did:

(1)  I found a bunch of old crayons, ripped off their paper covers, and broke them up.

• Note 1:  My mom actually found these crayons at home...so that means they're at least 20 years old... ehhhh.... I think they're still good)  
• Note 2:  I had a tough time ripping off the covers.  So hubby and I ended up using a scissor to slice the paper right off.  Be careful!  I sliced my finger. 
• Note 3:  It was tough breaking crayons.  (Hmm, I sense a theme here.  I should probably go to the gym and work out my arms).  I ended up using my trusty pair of scissors and cutting the crayons up.  You could probably chop the crayons up too.  But I didn't want to get wax on my knives or cutting board.  

(2)  I put the broken crayons into some silicone candy molds.   (I've seen other people using cute ice-cube trays or cupcake trays.)

• Note 1:  You probably don't want to do this with a beloved tray.  The wax stains the silicone.
• Note 2:  I placed the silicone molds on top of a baking dish because I was afraid of spilling melted wax.  I spilled wax anyway...but at least it didn't get onto my floor.

(3)  Place the crayons into a 250 degree oven.  Bake for about 10-15 minutes (depending on how big  your crayon chunks are).  Watch them as they bake.  Take them out when the top layer is liquidy.

(4)  Once melted, take the tray out and let your melted wax cool and harden. (Mine took about 15 minutes to solidify.) 

• Note:  Melted crayons smell bad.  Really bad.  Open a window.  Wear a gas mask.  Do whatever you need to feel ok with this.... I kept reminding myself that crayons are non-toxic....*cough cough*

(5) Once cool, pop those babies out and admire your colorful handiwork.

• Note:  I placed mine in the  freezer for a bit before popping them out.  Some other blogger said to do that, but I don't think I really had to.

Voila!  An army of rainbow crayons ready to color the world!  Muah ha ha ha.

To see other things that we made for the party, click  here

Hungry Caterpillar party prep: DIY Photobooth props

So first we made a Number 1 pinata.  Then we made a Hungry Caterpillar themed bingo board.  Now it's time for photobooth props!

I've never seen a real live photobooth before.  But, I've drooled over so many online that I wanted to try the whole activity out too. (Has anyone out there ever used a photobooth?  I think you just provide guests with some props and a nice background, right?)  Anyhoo... I'm lucky enough that Tito Ric has real photography backdrops that we can use.  I'm just providing the Hungry Caterpillar themed props.  Old cereal boxes and cardboard boxes (stolen from our building's garbage pile- yay garbage) were used to create these colorful props.  I painted them with craft paint "Eric Carle" style.  Here's how a couple turned out:

(Note:  I really wanted to take photos of all the props, but hubby reminded me that I should leave some surprise for the guests.  So, you'll have to wait to see all the props later!)

The mask looks like a bunny... but it's meant to be the hungry caterpillar.

 I can't wait to see the kids and their parents playing around with the props.

Hungry Caterpillar party prep: DIY Caterpillar Bingo

Here's my second completed project:  Hungry Caterpillar Bingo

I figured I would need more than a pinata to keep our young guests entertained.  I loved playing Bingo as a kid, so I created these Hungry Caterpillar themed bingo boards.  I placed different images from Eric Carle's book into each square.  Here are 11 different 4x4 Bingo boards that I created:

(Note:  Once again, I am not ashamed to admit that I am a big time copycat.  I used copied images to create my Hungry Caterpillar invite.  This time I copied quite a few of my Bingo images from Patty's blog.  Thank you Patty!)  

Hungry Caterpillar 4x4 Bingo

Hungry Caterpillar party prep: DIY Number Pinata

I just realized this week that September is right around the corner.  Eek!  Summer is slipping through my fingers.  Nooo!

Baby Chuck's birthday party is almost here.  I have all these marvelous DIY plans dancing in my head, but I have yet to fully complete one.  Fortunately, Kim is super crafty and creative.  I'm mucho thankful that she was able to help out.  

Here's our first birthday party project:  The pinata! Ole!  (Note:  I've never hit a pinata before, but the whole idea seems very fun.  What? You get to hit something with a big stick?  And it's ok?  And it spits out candy?  Sign my kid up!)  After looking through pages and pages of pinatas, I skipped the paper mache route in favor of cardboard (using this awesome set of directions).  I'm not sure how sturdy the structure will be since we used flimsy cereal boxes.  Luckily, only a couple of young kids will attend our party, so I think it'll be ok.  *Crosses fingers*

I'm not going to lie.  It was loads of fun to make, but it took a looooong time.  We could only work at night when Baby Chuck was sleeping.  (Unfortunately, that meant that we were both also exhausted too.)  Having Kim as my slave helper really helped.   If you were to try this project, I recommend that you get yourself a Kim too.

Here are some photos from our efforts:

I added thicker cardboard to reinforce my flimsy ones.

This was all we were able to accomplish the first night.

Note the ice-cream in the background.  We needed to keep our energy up.

We started from the bottom and then slowly worked our way up.

Delirium sets in.

This is all we accomplished the second night.

And then when I work up the next morning , our pinata was magically completed!  Just kidding, we finished it after another night of work.

Now I just have to fill this baby up and then we can see it in action.