All posts filed under: Art Ideas

Happy Halloween!

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Everyone seems to love Halloween, from little children to big grown-ups. This past Sunday we had our annual Haunted House and it was a hit! We tried to serve as many healthy snacks as we could, which included Clementine Jack-O-Lanterns and bran muffin cupcakes. We were left with only crumbs at the end, so I’m guessing our Halloween Sweet Table was a hit! Here are some pics from the big day! We’ve really enjoyed getting into the Halloween spirit this year, we’re particularly excited about going trick or treating for the first time!! My little one is dressing up as a monster (or a shark, we’re still undecided) and will be walking the Halloween streets for the first time! I’m slightly nervous about the temper tantrums that may ensue regarding the eating of candy, but I’m bracing myself for them. Happy Halloween everyone, wishing you a safe and fun evening!  

Halloween Treats

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Our Annual Haunted House is just around the corner and we’re getting ready by making all our own treats for the event. We are trying to stay on the healthier side of things but it’s not so easy at Halloween. We made organic gingerbread dough for our Skeletons and used a very small amount of brown sugar in the recipe. I did find a recipe after the fact that had no sugar in it, so if anyone has a chance to try it please let me know! For the Ghost Pops you could definitely use sugar free Lollipops. We’re also going be decorating bran muffins to look like yummy cupcakes! One of our healthier snacks will be the return of Clementine Jack-O-Lanterns. A quick and easy DIY project to help decorate your treat table are Mason Jar Mummies. This took me all of ten minutes and most of that time was waiting for the glue gun to get hot enough. I simply wrapped the jar in gauze (which I purchased from the dollar store) and …

Kleenex Box Monsters

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This is an easy DIY craft for you to do with your kiddies! There’s so many great things about this craft, not only is it made using recycled parts it can also be used for fun games after, like skeleton toss or really just about any kind of “toss” you want. Supplies Kleenex box (with plastic sleeve intact) Paint (your choice of colours) Construction Paper White Paper Scissors Egg carton (you just need 2 dimples from the carton) Hot glue Googly Eyes Directions Paint the Kleenex box and 2 sections of the egg carton, let stand to dry. Cut circles (or shape of your choice) out of construction paper. Once paint is dry glue your eyes and shapes on, using hot glue. You can also glue the googly eyes onto the egg carton at this point. Cut teeth out of the white paper and glue to plastic sleeve on Kleenex box.

Back to School Caddy

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So it’s that time of year again, when the leaves slowly slip away, the fall colours come out shining bright. It’s a time for new beginnings, fresh starts and back to school! Here’s a great little craft that uses the 3 R’s (reduce, reuse and recycle) plus has so many uses! I made one for the kitchen with bigger coffee tin cans to store utensils or you could use one in the bathroom for sorting out your stuff. There’s so many options. All you need is 6 washed out tin cans, spray paint (there are environmentally friendly spray paints) a 2×4 (cut down to size), 6 screws, and a handle (which you can buy from any hardware store). Spray the cans, handle and wood with your choice of colour. Once dry, use a metal dowel and hammer to knock a hole in the cans. Screw the cans onto the wood and then screw the handle onto the top of the wood and voila! A perfect organizer!

Oliver’s Big Top Birthday Bash!

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So my tiny, weeny boy, who is not so tiny or weeny anymore turned 2 years old on Tuesday and we celebrated with a circus themed birthday. It was so much fun prepping for his birthday and I enjoyed planning every little detail. Here are some pics from the big day! The sweet table definitely required the most planning and time commitment however, it was tons of fun. Once you have a theme picked out the key to a perfect sweet table is stick to a couple of colours. For the games, we tried to keep them as simple as possible since most of the little ones in attendance were under the age of 5. We had a bean bag toss, face painting, fortune teller, a tent with balls in, a fishing game, tight rope walking and of course a prize booth. To be honest most of the kids threw the balls around, had their face painted and hung out at the prize booth. A couple of them did the bean bag toss. We also …

Great Ideas for Wee Little Hands

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We’ve been very busy with summer camp and our little Tots have been experimenting with all sorts of materials. We’ve been doing a ton of art and sensory activities. Each day at camp we have a new theme and then base our art/sensory activity on the theme. Here are a couple ideas you could easily do at home with your little one. Not to worry if you don’t have access to a proper sensory bin, any shallow container will really do, the dollar store has a great selection! Craft Ideas Boat Pictures Cardboard, construction paper, cotton balls, blue tissue paper, blue, paper plates Zebras Paper plates (cut in half) black construction paper, glue, pompoms, cotton balls Weather Chart This was an easy and fun craft. We’re learning about weather and seasons and so this craft fit perfectly. We traced the kids hands and then helped them to cut them out. They used different colour tissue paper depending on the seasons. For the winter picture they stuck on cotton balls. Materials: construction paper, tissue paper, glue, …

Another Ikea Hack!

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So this one I really have to thank Panyl for. I simply painted the top and sides of the Malm Dresser and then used Panyl’s “limited Oak woodgrain” panels to finish off the piece. Personally I think it’s my best Ikea Hack yet (given that I’ve only done 4 up to this point I think I can claim that statement). Have any questions about how I made this feel free to ask away, I’d be more than happy to share my “Ikea Hacking” secrets with you!    

Rainbow Fun Foam

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This is a great activity for toddlers/preschoolers (or really any kid who likes bubbles). It was easy to make and also worked as a fantastic learning tool as we were able to experiment with mixing colours.  Materials Dish Soap Water Handheld Mixer Food Colouring Large Bin Glass Bowl   Directions Using the handheld mixer, mix 2 tbsp of dish soap with 1/4 cup of water in a bowl. It will take about 2 minutes for the foam to form, at this point you can mix in some food colouring. Scoop out the foam and dump it in your “sensory bin”. For each colour I mixed two batches of the foam. The 1/4 cup of water and 2 tbsp of dish soap actually make quite a bit. I do suggest using this as soon as possible to avoid the bubbles from disappearing.

Making Mistakes

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So this month my son is really into markers, particularly the lids (which is definitely better as it means less marker on the walls however, it does mean that we constantly have marker on our hands). I’m not sure why anyone ever thought that non-washable markers was a good idea (or really my thought should be about what possessed me to buy them in the first place). My son’s absolute favorite thing to do is put the marker lids on his on his fingers (which he then appropriately calls marker fingers) and then tries to play with his toys which inevitably results in frustration since he can’t accomplish anything with markers on his fingers. What gets me, is that he still tries every time. My son is a clever kid, I know all parents think that about their own children, so I’m ok with the eye roll at your computer screen. My question is that how come toddlers will try something over and over again regardless of whether or not they keep getting the same …

Craft Ideas for All Ages!

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I just did a talk on how to nurture creativity within yourself and with your little ones. It was for a great group of moms who were really keen on getting their kids crafting more (my kind of moms). Creativity is so important and will be more and more in the generations to come as standard employment positions will cease to exist and we’ll need to think more creatively in the job market, or for resources, etc. Being creative to children is so natural. Ken Robinson describes creativity and children so perfectly in his famous quote: “we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it”. It’s important we nurture creativity in our little ones as much as we can and we can do so by encouraging them to think outside of the box, to explore and to use their imaginations. Find a space in your house that you can designate to “creating”. Ikea sells the perfect “craft” table for little ones and let them get started! For those of you that have kiddies who …