Sunday, March 29, 2009

Flitteriffic!



This was not a craft, per se, but it was a good bit of procrastinatory fun! I was looking at the Disney Fairies website for fun activities for the Tinkerbell-themed birthday party I'll soon be hosting for my three-year-old. Oh, I found some cute things ... and then got sucked into their design-your-own Fairy application. Ridiculous waste of time! But quite absorbing finding just the right style of wings. :-) So that's me, as a fairy!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Glue, by any other name, is just as sticky.


I can't take credit for this idea, but it's such a good one I wanted to share it! At a recent crafting event, the glue for the kid's project was set out in individual "servings" via bottle tops and Q-tips. The containers really set a cap (ha!) on the potential mess factor, since each child no longer had access to an entire bottle of glue. And the provided tool made it a lot easier for my 3-yr old to make precise applications. (No more giant glops that will never, ever dry no matter how long you wait!)

And maybe my favorite bit? This finally gives me a useful way to recycle all the milk gallon and other bottle tops that the recycling place won't take, even though they take the bottles. Hooray!

Monday, March 2, 2009

Instant Art Gallery!

Ah necessity, the mother of invention! :-)

My daughter is at the age where "ART" features prominently in her life - be it crayon, stickers, packing peanuts dipped in water and pressed on to poster board - you name it! I was starting to feel awash in her various creations, and growing increasingly tired of protecting her art from the exploratory nibblings of her 10 month old sister.

So today during the "something different" that used to be her nap time, we created an art gallery for the playroom. Voila!


I grabbed some stick-up hooks from the garage, a box of brightly colored binder clips from the desk, and a stretch of yarn from the sewing stash, and that was it. We threaded the clips on at regular intervals (about 14 inches apart), and I simply tied them off on loops to keep them from sliding around. I tied off two more loops at the ends to stretch between the hooks.


Super simple! Delighted child! No new slew of nail holes in the walls! So simple, and best of all - very nearly free! :-)