Snowman Art

This past week we made some snowman art. We have so much snow on the ground but it has not been "right" for snowman making outside so we decided to make them inside!

We used three sections of a Styrofoam cup for our circles dipped in white paint.
Next we sprinkled white glitter on the wet paint.


After they were dry we used twine for the arms, foam shapes for the buttons, eyes, and nose, felt for the scarf and hat.

May Day was full of surprises for many of our friends and family in town. All of the tots here colored several cups and we used pipe cleaners to make the handles. We stuffed them with popcorn, goldfish, fruit loops, jelly beans, m &m's , smarties, and suckers.

B and his friends had a great time taking them up to the doors and then running away back to the van!

Mother's Day Gift

I was inspired by one of my very favorite magazines, Family Fun to create this hanging bird bath or bird feeder for our Mother's Day gift.

If you don't get Family Fun magazine and you have young kids, you are just ... well you don't even want to know what I think you are. Each issue is jam packed with ideas that are so fun. We always make at least one thing and sometimes several of the ideas they show.

We used a grapevine wreath, terracotta saucers, floral wire, and twine. Optional items were paint and a sealer to spray over the paint.

The grapevine wreaths were just a little big so I used the floral wire to secure a base across the wreath. I thought adding the handprint added a great touch to personalize the gift for the grandmas for Mother's Day.

I tied the twine in three spots around the wreath and knotted them all together at the top to create a spot to hang them from a tree.

This could be used for a bird bath or a bird feeder!

Mother's Day Gift

The tots and I have been working on a project the last few days for their mommies. I painted terracotta pots with white spray paint. The kids used sponges to decorate each pot for their mom. They were able to choose what colors or how many colors they wanted.

Earlier this week we went to pick out flowers for the pots. The boys picked out some striped petunias that were white and purple.

I used black paint to write "Happy Mother's Day 2009" along the top of each pot.

After the paint was dry I used a clear gloss spray to seal the paint.

Since I don't like to post pictures of my tots on here, enjoy this rare pixelated photo of all of them together! They were just so proud of their flower pots!

Painting with Dandelions

Today we read the book Dandelions- Stars in the Grass by Mia Posada.

After reading the book, I let the kids go outside and find 3 dandelions that they wanted to paint with.

The supplies we used were: cardstock, yellow paint, dandelions. That's it.

They dipped their dandelions into the yellow paint and made some beautiful artwork.

Mother's Day Card Idea

Today I made a cute little 3D card for the kiddos to make for Mother's Day. We used cardstock, construction paper, tissue paper, and glue.

I remember making many projects in elementary school out of this scrunched up tissue paper process. I always thought it looked so cool.

The process is simple. You take little scraps of tissue paper (about 1 inch size) and crumple them into little tiny balls. Then you glue. That's it.

I started by making the line down with glue for the stem of the flower. Then I covered that with the little green tissue balls. Next, I added the green construction paper leaves left over from our last project. I outlined the leaves in glue and added the tissue paper here. Then I drew the flower center and then the petals one by one.

This makes a sweet flower for the front of the card to give to mom or grandma on Mother's Day. It would also be cute to do different designs such as a butterfly, heart, or the letters M-O-M.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Even though we didn't end April with showers, it was a cloudy day. We had plenty of rain last weekend however. I can't believe that tomorrow is already May Day.

Today we used watercolor paints on paper plates for our umbrella shapes. I cut out somewhat of a flower shape out of several colors of tissue paper. The kids selected 3 colors to layer to make a flower. They each made 5 flowers for their umbrella. They glued a yellow construction paper circle in the center of each flower. We tucked green construction paper leaves under some of the flowers as well.

St. Patrick's Day Rainbow & Cloud

Today we made a final decoration to hang for St. Patrick's Day. We used paper plates (cut in half), streamers, glue, and cotton balls.

I cut each color of streamer in two so it would look more "flow-y"

Attach the streamers to a line of glue along the cut part of the plate.

Cover the plate with cotton balls.

We hung them on both sides between the living and dining rooms for some color!

A Hand-y Little Turkey

2006 Turkey- made by B

This week I made a new little turkey hand decoration for one of my little guys here at the Tot Spot. I made this with B back in 2006 and we hang it up each year after Halloween. This year when I got it out however, B called it a goose. Okay, so I know my art skills of drawing a turkey body, but my feelings were a little hurt! So, this year, I made the body style of the turkey a little different. One other thing I did differently was that I used googly eyes this time. The first time I just used marker for the eyes. I used washable Crayola Washable Kids Paint and helped him rub his hand in a little dab of paint before pressing down carefully onto white paper. Since he is about a year and a half old, I had to help hold his fingers down as we made the handprints. I have found that if you hold their hand down lightly on the paper for a few seconds before pulling it straight up, instead of doing it quickly, it helps to get a "neater" print. We used 4 colors to make our handprint feathers and stuck them on with glue to make a nice surprise for his mommy at pick up time.

2008 Turkey with handprints by P