Sunshine

Here is an easy project for Harper's room!  Janis bought me some picture frames at a garage sale when she was in Columbia. First, I took the glass and backs off and found a good spray paint area. 

Next, I spray painted them all the accent color I wanted to use. (Bright yellow!)

After that, I cut out various pieces of scrapbook paper to fit inside the frames. 

Next, I used my cricut (thanks again, Shonn!) to cut the letters for "you are my sunshine". I adhered them to the scrapbook paper so the words "you are my" would each fit into their own frame and the letters in "sunshine" would each have their own. 

Finally, I put the paper back into the frames. 

All that is left is to hang them on the wall! 

4th of July Wreath

Here's an easy and inexpensive wreath for the fourth...

1) get a twig wreath from hobby lobby. 

2) spray paint white:

3) hot glue a bow and initial together

4) attach with wire

5) position your adorable child in front of the door and take a picture for your blog. 

 

Fourth of July Decor

Today we made a craft for some summer decoration. First we got a blank canvas and taped it off. 

Then we painted the top corner with some old spray paint I used for Beckett's oars two years ago. (I did this part.)

Next, Beckett used red paint to paint the canvas. 

Finally, the kids made handprints as a substitute for stars. 

Sorry there aren't more pics of the kids doing this. It required four hands to accomplish, and I only had two. ;) 

Beckett's favorite part: peeling the tape. 

Now we have a moment in time captured and some beautiful decorations for summer holidays. 

Pinterest Picnic

Last weekend was the annual Town-wide Garage Sales...not sure of that's worthy of proper noun status, but anyway... One of the treasures I found was a Little Tikes picnic table for (wait for it!) three dollars!! They are $49 - I looked it up. I had seen an awesome picnic table makeover on Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/pin/119486196336356246/)  and thought this little guy would be a good outdoor seating and eating option for Beckett and his buddies who come over to play. 

Here's how it started:

The first step was to disassemble the parts. Easy-Peasy. They just snapped apart:

Next, I got out the fabric I had purchased last summer to make his playroom bunting.

Gotta love coordination! (I told Shonn it was going to match the playroom and he laughed with an eye roll. Mars and Venus!) Anyway, I "measured" and cut the tabletop piece first. 

I should mention that the Pinterest tutorial suggests spray painting the legs to coordinate. I am not a craft perfectionist and I plan to use this outside where the paint would likely chip off, so I just made sure the fabric matched the legs' existing color. Saved a step! 

Then, I stapled the fabric to the tabletop, followed by the vinyl. (I got the vinyl at Walmart for $3 per yard. There were several options, but this one said "for picnic tables" on it. Well thank you very much, vinyl makers!) 

I repeated the process for the legs, in a coordinating fabric. 

Remember how I said I'm not a craft perfectionist? Well, the corners are HARD to wrap smoothly. Through trial and error,  I ended up wrapping each piece like a present, but it doesn't look perfect by any means. (Oh well!) I did figure out that the less vinyl on the corners, the easier it was to "wrap".

Lastly, I snapped the table back together and placed it outside. Not bad for a $3 table, $6 worth of vinyl, 4 lines of staples, and one blister! The whole project took about an hour. 

Now we are ready for our first picnic party on Thursday! 

Faithful

Here is a lesson about Noah's Ark we made into a matching game.  (I saw the idea on Pinterest, of course!)  We read one of B's favorite flap books about Noah, and then he "spatula-d" the letters off the Cricut mat, colored the ark and helped me cut it out, and matched the animals and put them on the boat.

Coloring the ark. He started to investigate how to peel the paper off the crayons, too.  We might make some melted crayon art with the old ones.

Little Artist

Crafts

Beckett and I have been busy with lots of crafts. He loves to paint and color, and he also wants to cut (!) and glue. Here are some pictures of his handiwork from the past week.

We read Eric Carle's The Grouchy Ladybug (about 22 times) and made a lady bug.

He even painted some letters for Sissy's room!

He put the candy in bags for his Bright Starts teacher and the children's librarian.

He helped put the peeps and marshmallows in bags for his friends at Bright Starts, and then he helped tape on the bag toppers.

Glittering the hand print bunnies. I finally wizened up and we did it over the sink. :)

Our Grouchy Ladybug and Very Busy Spider (also Eric Carle).  He also made some handprint bunnies to send to family. 

He loves to use the "spatula" to scoop off letters from the Cricut mat.  This was for a frog craft that isn't quite finished, but the next picture shows his progress on it...  Look closely... :)

"I don't know why the table is green, Mommy!"

10 Rubber Ducks

Yesterday, Mee Maw Hild read Eric Carle's book to Beckett and then we made a craft to go with it.

I like how B's foot is up in this picture.  He took a 3-hour nap (!) and he had just woken up when we did this project.

He doesn't always like the feeling of things on his hands, but he started to really get into the finger painting...

We added the rubber ducks using a sponge, google eyes, and orange paint for the beaks.

Animal Shapes

Mom took Beckett to the library last week and they picked out a cute animal book by Lois Elhert. The animals are made of shapes and are somewhat abstract. Mom had the idea to re-create the animals, so we did that today. Beckett made a lizard.

Thanks, Mindy!

My friend, mindy, has had 4 children and was on bed rest for two of her pregnancies. She came over on Saturday with a bag of couch-worthy and toddler-approved projects for me to work on. One of the projects was how to make these adorable bows. They only take about 10 minutes and I can do it while Beckett is playing or temporarily occupied and easily stop quickly to play, read, or do crafts with him. I can do them in bed, too, and it's really calming for some reason.

More Artwork

Beckett painted an "abstract" brontosaurus and stegosaurus. He loves painting and coloring.

Handprint Crafts

We made some handprint crafts this week, after Janis made a cute Stegosaurus craft with Beckett on Monday.  She showed me this blog called C.R.A.F.T by Jaime, and it has a post with 59 hand and foot print crafts on it.  They were something I could do from the couch with Beckett, and he loves painting, drawing, and writing.  They turned out really cute!

Beckett now knows his letter M. (For Monkey, Momma, Mee Maw, Moose...)

When I painted the orange paint on his hand, he said, "Feels funny!  Cold, like snow!"