St Patrick's Day Painting Fun

 Remember that paper roll heart stamp I shared for Valentine's Day? Well, stamp it three times to make a simple little shamrock and a wine cork makes a great stamping tool too! Yes, you must sacrifice and finish that bottle on wine for the sake of your children's St. Patrick's day art fun. Someone has to do it, right?

And lastly, Grayson and my sweetie nephew Nicholas enjoyed stamping with some shamrock cookie cutters. I put an assortment out the next day and Emma made a entire cookie cutter scape. She had fun filling the images in after with markers. This is an easy set-up activity, great for lazy weekend mornings. I have shared this over at Kiwi Crate, join me there.
Can you believe just four more days until we are mid March! This year is flying by.
Happy St Patrick's Day!

3-Year-Old Art and My Boy

It has been on my mind to write about the art I do with this adorable little guy. I don't write about it very often because it's usually very rushed and very simple, but then what art with a 3-year-old is not, right?
Recently, we had a little health scare with G. He had some extensive testing done for leg numbness and pain he had been having and in the end (of what seemed to be the longest road of my life) we found out it was all caused from a gluten allergy. Crazy, right? At one point MS and MD were brought up and you can imagine my fear. Who would have guessed that the pb&J that this guy so loved, was the culprit?! Anyway, my reason for telling this is mostly because I think of my blog as a journal for my children to have one day and also because writing about these things helps me so very much, so thank you for listening.
Sometimes, we take for granted simple things in life like kids that can run too fast or scream too loud; boys that like to wrestle and jump all day long and just being able to watch our healthy children grow up. I realized this when I was being referred to a doctor for a muscle biopsy on my three-year-old son to tell me whether or not he would continue to be that kid that always runs too fast and jumps too hard. 
Thankfully we were able to fix G's problem with simple diet changes, but some people are not so lucky. So, I try and remember this every time my kids are running circles through my kitchen and racing up the stairs. We are lucky, so very lucky.
OK, OK...onto the art!

 

This is one of his favorites. We add foam stickers to a rolling pin and roll it through paint to make prints. I think he appreciates being able to use the rolling pin! Check out full details at Kiwi Crate.

 

Stamping with legos or really anything other than stamps is a favorite for my little guy!  He's an inventor and who needs actual stamps anyway, right? Lego Stamping

 

Yep, those are just foam sheets cut up into shapes and thrown into the bath. Success! He loves it.  Foam Sheet Bath Art

 

Anything that you can turn into an animal wins for this boy! This milk carton turned pig has been a highlight in his life (seriously!)  Milk Carton Animals

 

This is a fun matching game that is simple to put together and loads of fun for the little ones to play. Color Match Caterpillar

 

Lastly, he may not be able to eat it, but he sure can play with it! G is big on sensory fun and it is probably the activity that keeps him busy the longest. Colored Spaghetti Fun

These are some of the things G and I love to do while hanging out and creating some art. He is a busy busy boy and I wouldn't have it any other way because when you are faced with that changing you realize how lucky you are.

My Sweet G, 

I love you more than you could ever imagine.

xoxo

Ocean Sensory Tray

It's amazing what a little colored water and a few toy sea animals can spark in children. Em and G played with this for hours and had an entire story line happening.

 I used a large Rubbermaid storage container and added liquid watercolors to turn our water ocean blue!

 The kids loved to help get this set up. It only takes a few drops of the paint to get that great blue color.

The fun started when the animals started getting names! I love listening to the little stories that a 5 and 2 year-old can come up with. Imaginations are the best toy a child has. What a great way to cool off on a hot summer day!
More details on this and more summer crafts over at Kiwi Crate.

Shaving Cream Bakery

 I keep shaving cream on hand all the time. When my kids are restless and need some fun added to their day, I pull it out and let them explore. It's so wonderful how a simple can of shaving cream can make children so sincerely happy and content. On this day we discovered the joy of a backyard bakery.........

 This is really easy to set up with whatever you have on hand. What I used was a new pack of kitchen sponges (to be our cake layers,) a squeeze bottle, salt shaker (salt and food color makes great sprinkles,) plastic spatula, spoons and dishes for mixing colors and of course the shaving cream!

 They didn't need much instruction. They just went for it, which is exactly what I had hoped for. Kids often learn, discover, and play through touch. I am a huge fan of sensory play--especially when we have had a big week and just need to come back to a calm place.

 I know this mess can be a little discouraging, but that is why we are outside. Afterwards, I filled buckets with water to wash all of our tools (and kids) and brought out the hose for the rest. I involved the kids in the clean-up process as well. I think it teaches them responsibility and gives them confidence to help.

Bliss.

I shared our Shaving Cream Bakery at Kiwi Crate. Head on over for more details.

Minty Green Playdough

St. Patrick's Day is tomorrow! I can't wait to celebrate with a day full of green everything, yummy food and treasure hunts! I will definitely be whipping up a new batch of green minty playdough. This is really easy to make and so much better than store bought dough. Bonus-the kids love to get involved in making the playdough too!

 This recipe is a super easy one...flour, salt, cream of tartar, oil, hot water and of course the "secret ingredient" a frosting creations packet. Check out my full recipe here... Minty Green Playdough.

My kids use everything from birthday candles to rocks to play with their playdough. These things definitely win over any plastic toy tools.
Have a wonderful "green" weekend!!

Rainbow Painting

 March is just a couple days away and that can only mean it is time to break out the rainbow crafts! Can you tell I am excited! This one is pretty much a toddler dream! So fun to see the excitement on little faces as they paint a rainbow.

 For more colorful details join me over at Kiwi Crate.

Happy rainbow making!

Shaving Cream Prints

 Shaving cream is one of my favorite art materials. I don't know what it is about that stuff, but as soon as I pull it out my kids get more excited than if I offered a trip to the local sugary! And we get a much better outcome with the shaving cream.

 If it was hot outside I would just unleash the kiddos to the yard with a couple cans of this fun, but since we are adjusting to a new kind of winter or shall I just say adjusting to a winter (poor socal babies) we opted to be indoors making shaving cream prints.

 I admit, I get a little too involved in this one and Emma has asked me to step away...more than once. Try it, you'll see. I guess shaving cream is fun for all!

 For detailed instructions on this awesome craft, head over to my full tutorial at Kiwi Crate.

 Isn't that gorgeous! But, wait.....

Yes, it got better. So pretty and makes great homemade cards, bookmarks and even wrapping paper. This craft never gets old. It's one of those you just know you'll pull back out for the grand-kids!

Balloon Painting

 We have painted in all sorts of different ways with many different kinds of paint brushes, but on this day using balloons to paint with was a first for us!

 Pretty simple to set up this fun afternoon of creative colorful exploration. Small balloons work best to fit into small little hands.

 I knew this one would be a big hit with Grayson. He is very unconventional and was excited with the thought of using something other then a paint brush to paint with. I like the way that little mind works! Can you see that look of deep creative thought in him?

 Using balloons to paint with is not only fun, creative, exciting and silly, but also makes for the most beautiful painting. I am thinking of having the kids do a big canvas painting with this technique. It would look beautiful in our art room!

Check out my full tutorial on balloon painting at Kiwi Crate.

Painting with Produce

We are continuing to explore with paint this week. This is one of our favorite ways to do so. Join me today at Family Sponge to hear more about our experience with fruit, veggies and a lot of paint!

Paper Roll Heart Stamp

I try to encourage my children to look around and find shapes and colors in everything they see. Since we are just a few days away from Valentine's Day we are on the search for hearts.

 With a simple bend of a recycled paper roll we created a heart stamp. It was easy and fun for the kids to use along with some paints and card stock. The perfect Valentine.

 We shared this fun activity for all ages over at Kiwi Crate.

Frosting Creations Play Dough--Best Dough Ever!

 We use kool-aid packets to make our play dough all the time. It smells yummy and gives our dough some great color. I also love that my children only know of it as a play dough ingredient and nothing more! Haha!

 When I stumbled upon a new colorful flavored packet I had to give it a shot! Have you seen these? They are Frosting Creations by Duncan Hines, apparently used to flavor frosting, but for us a new play dough ingredient! I haven't seen them anywhere but Target so far and they are pretty inexpensive.

 So we gave it a try with our usual dough recipe.
Add 2 cups flour, 1/2 cup of salt (table salt, but not ionized,) 2 tbs cream of tartar, 3 tbs oil and one packet of Frosting Creations. This one is the cotton candy flavor.

 Next, add 1 cup hot water (like boiling temp) and mix it all together. The dough will be pretty sticky, but that's how you want it to be. This is a soft dough.

 Dump it onto a working surface and sprinkle with a little more flour while kneading like pizza dough. Don't add too much flour or you will get a not so soft play dough.

 This is what you want. It may seem too sticky, but it hardens up a bit as it cools.

The kids absolutely loved their new yummy smelling play dough and I definitely like these smells over the kool-aid ones. There is a caramel that I can't wait to try!
Let me know which one you try!