Showing posts with label kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kids. Show all posts

Starving Artist Party

A few months ago, my sister in law invited us over for her 7 year old's birthday party.  She hosted the cutest, most colorful party I have ever attended.  I went crazy snapping photos and just realized that I never shared them with you.  I can't take credit for all her awesomeness, but it was too good not to share.

Introducing...Jen's starving artist party!
It was hosted entirely in her back-yard.
rainbow hued streamers and balloons livened things up.
clear paint cans held some sweet treats.

As the kiddos arrived, she quickly got them busy with a little chalk art.
A game of four square also spontaneously erupted.
The chalk project got upscaled into a full blown sand art frenzey.

The kids made their own "sand" by rubbing chalk on piles of salt.

These were then layered into cute little jars.

Creating unique little souvenirs.


 

 It was hard work for our little artists, but they seemed to love every minute of it.
Next, came out the paint brushes.

What kid doesn't love to paint!?




Our hungry artists were then fed a rainbow salad. 
 and what every starving artist eats, pb&j!
Cake time came next.
One kid said it looked like a pile of snow.
But there was a surprise inside that white confection.
An entire Rainbow!
Look at those giant slices!  Every one just had to have the entire spectrum of colors.
Before the guests left, they each received, their own hand made star crayon.
 And a rice crispy treat paint brush.
Kids birthday parties are the best! 

   
XOXO,

Photobucket

Dog days of Summer


It's hot here.  Really, REALLY, hot.  Even the pool seems to simmer.  My AC is working overtime and we're doing are best to enjoy it inside.  But somehow, a girl has to keep the munchkins from having a revolt.  And, spending all day watching Phineus and Ferb isn't going to cut it. (although there's been a fair share of that going on as well.)  So, being me, the over achieving glutton for punishment that I am, I turn to crafts.  Kids' crafts specifically.  I'm not really sure these are blog worthy.  We've had very mixed results.  But, my blog was feeling a little neglected so, I thought I'd share the good, the bad, and the ugly.

First, I'll start with the good: a Fairy House

made completely out of scrap wood and project leftovers.  This turned out better than I expected and the little girl who's room it's going in was so excited about it.  Basically I let her be the designer and I just handled the power tools and the hot glue gun.  She did a great job didn't she.

Next came the bad: Bleach sprayed T-shirts
I saw the idea once to put a shape on a colored t-shirt and then spray around it using bleach.  I thought this would be such a fun project.  I applied butterflies and pokemon characters by request using my vinyl decals.

Then I inserted foil into the shirts to prevent bleed-through.  I handed the kids a spray gun with a mixture of water and bleach and let them go crazy on the drive-way. 

But sadly, after the shirts dried, we discovered the bleach had bled through beneath the vinyl decal removing all traces of a picture.  Maybe less water next time.

I think I'm going to have to redo the images with fabric paint cause those kids were fairly disappointed.  Darn it all!

Finally, the ugly: Paper Mache Pinatas.

I was the most excited about this project.  I mean, who can resist the lure of a candy filled, colorfully painted, festive creation that you're SuPPoseD to beat to a pulp!

But, less than two minutes into the process, the glue filled bowl was knocked to the ground and it splattered EvErYwHerE!  Do you know how tough it is to clean up glue?...Twice!  Ah yes, it happened a second time too.  While I was in the middle of cleaning (that time frame is pretty open since it took a while), I noticed the kids dropping out one by one.  They weren't a fan of flour/water up to the elbows.  So, I got to construct four pinatas almost single handedly.  I kinda wish it was single handedly because I'm still cleaning up glue. 

But they did look pretty cute hanging up ready to dry.  I wanted to paint them like Easter eggs.

A few days, some crayola paint, and a couple bags of candy later, we got to knock the stuffing out of them.  This almost made up for the glue on the floor...almost.

Just in case you are a glutton for punishment like me, here's the recipe I used for my pinata glue.

1 part flour mixed with two parts water.  It's cheap and it worked.

I'd love to hear all about your summer time kid's crafts.  There's one week left before school.  Plenty of time to get messy.

Play Room Art

This last weekend I snuck away with my Mother-in-law for a few minutes to peruse a garage sale on the corner.  So glad I did because I found several canvases in perfect shape for only 25 cents a piece.  I litterally paid for them using only coins from the bottom of my purse.  LOVE it when that happens!

There were a couple of 20" by 16" ones that were calling for immediate action.  This morning they received two coats of black paint.  (I used a semi-gloss interior latex because that's what I had on hand and I figured it would be more durable than my Apple Barrel craft paint from Walmart.  When Light Sabor duals are a daily event in one's house, durability is an absolute must!

Then I whipped out a couple of Alphabet decals using my vinyl cutter and rubbed them on. 


They went from blank canvases to hanging on the wall in just a few hours.  Easy peasy.

I'm going to post the decals on my Etsy shop in case you have a couple of canvases calling to you but need a little rub-on magic.