Crafty Kid Fun: Eric Carle Collages

Months and months ago, my kids and I decided to try a craft from one of our favorite books, Best of FamilyFun Crafts and Boredom Busters.

It was making our very own Eric Carle Collages. Eric Carle....wow, right? Illustrator of Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? (which has always been a favorite of my children) and author/illustrator of The Very Hungry Caterpillar as well as many many other books. I've always been fascinated with his technique. What a brilliant man!

I couldn't find the craft on FamilyFun's site to link to, but here's a video to help explain it....

We used white printer paper instead of tissue paper. But I'd like to try the tissue next time. It'd be fun to see how this changes the texture of the collage. And I also think it would be easier to layer pieces. I wonder if it would rip easily though. Especially with kids in on the process.

So, anyway....like I said, months ago we started this project. We gathered the paper and the paint and then we rummaged around the house for all sorts of things we could dip in paint and stamp on the paper. We drove trucks through paint and onto paper. We tried old spools. We stamped with the green plastic flower part of fake flowers. We found a star foam shape and tried that. We went wild with paint brushes, letting ourselves splatter the paint in every which way we wanted onto the paper. 

It was quite a bit of fun.

Then we let the paint dry. And we kept meaning to get back to this project. And then....the papers got moved to the basement. 

And forgotten. 

Until Tuesday night! I pulled them out and Sam, Zoe and I got busy (Weston was elsewhere and Emmett was in trouble, sadly, and had extra chores). 

Zoe is struggling to finish her dinner there in the
background so she could get in on the collaging fun. 

It took her awhile to choke down dinner though.
So, she had to finish her masterpiece the next morning.
And for some reason she likes to wear her brother's
old tie-dyed t-shirts for jammies. 

Sam had a great time making this rockin' awesome robot....

Apparently he is mad because another robot pushed him in the back. You think he could just get even with his Laser Eyes of Death....or maybe one of those handy buttons on the front there?

Zoe made a princess.....(you, of course, recognized what it was right away. It's not like I needed to tell you , right? Of course not.) 

And I couldn't be left out of the fun....

I probably should have been doing something useful like dishes or laundry or discovering the kitchen counters I lost 3 months ago....I know they're around here somewhere. I just can't seem to reach them because of the massive piles of junk in the way..... But who wants to tidy things? Nah, cutting paper and gluing is way more fun.

This was a great way to spend the evening with my kids (well, a couple of them anyways....).

I'm planning on putting the kid's pictures up on our museum wall (that's where our artwork goes) and I just might put mine there, too! 

Here's another video about Eric Carle and his fun artistic technique...

Upcycled Sweater Dress Tutorial

Alright. So, I didn't take a before picture of this sweater. I know! So so so not cool. I cruised around the internet trying to find something comparable.

This is similar...

Source: Bonanza

Although you can see that the one above has a row of buttons on the front. And no hoodie. And, well, of course....it's brown.  Ok. This is as good as I could fine.  Moving on...

When I spotted it on the thrift store rack, it was love. I decided to make it into a dress for my wee girl. But I wasn't sure what to do about the big neckline which swamped her little shoulders.

Well, I started by taking it in on the sides and the sleeves all in one go. And also putting in a new seam along the shoulders from the neck to sleeve.  (First I turned it inside out and then pinned it where I wanted the new seams....and... let's hope I first tried it on her to see where I wanted the new seams to go....but I can't really remember.... I actually made this last year and when I finished it, it was too big on her and looked funny. I chalked it up to a Craft Fail. But then Zoe found it a few days ago, slipped it on and I realized it fit and looked good! Yay!)

So, I serged it from the sleeves to the hem and also from the neck to sleeves (is this making any sense?) and tried it on her. (I probably had to take it in a bit more on the sides....)

And then I pondered about that neckline. What to do...what to do?

Hmmmm, what about some darts? Yes. darts. I put one in each side. The Nordic design disguises them rather nicely, I think.

This looks a bit like the outline of a body at a murder scene. Poor sweater....

Can you see the new seam line and dart?

No clue what a dart is? Or maybe you're picturing some yellow foam Nerf darts and wondering how I put those into the sweater dress?  Well, let me help you out. Go check out this Dart Tutorial for more info.

This is a another pic of the new seam and dart, but from the inside.

And there you go. Ridiculously easy. 

A woman's sweater to little girl's sweater dress.  

Comfy.

Cozy.

And super cute. 

Fun Craft for Kids: Bead Buddies

(Alright, I'm moving some of my posts over from a previous blog that I abandoned....poor sad blog. This was originally published in November 2010) 


I had never heard of bead buddies until a few years ago when my oldest came home and showed me a cute lizard he made at his friend's house. A new craft? Well, we just had to try that. Since then my boys have made many many bead buddies. This last weekend we printed out some new patterns and the boys got busy with this fun craft again...



Sam (above) was VERY proud of himself. This was the first time he made bead buddies (mostly) by himself. He made up his own pattern for the snake and corn.



(Some of those still need to be tied off or have the strings trimmed.)




Want to try making some with your monkeys? We get most of our patterns from the Making Friend Site. These are great gifts kids can make themselves. We usually put keychain rings on ours and the kids pop them onto their backpacks. But they could also be ornaments (there are a lot of Christmas designs).

Tomorrow, while my sweet mom makes all the yummy food for Thanksgiving, I will be entetaining the horde of children with crafts. This will be one of them. Hopefully I'll keep them busy for...maybe 10-15 minutes? We can only dream.


ETA: Nope. The cousins didn't even try them last year. *sigh* Hmmmm....and I can't even remember what we did instead....maybe this year I'll trap all the kids at the craft table....Mwhahahahaha!

The Magic of Muffin Tin Meals

I picked up some 6-cup muffin tins at the dollar store this summer. And seriously....this whole Muffin Tin Meal idea is pretty magical....

"Lunchables" muffin tin meal plus bananas

This is a brilliant way to get little ones to sample different foods. Somehow by simply putting stuff in the little cups, it makes lunch much more exciting.

And it's good for me, too. Instead of giving them just a half of a sandwich and some apple slices, this makes me think of a variety of foods to give them.

Here's Molly's "smiling" face for the camera.....

Nice pouty lips, cute girl.

Cheesy tortilla slices, carrots, ranch for dipping, apple slices
and blueberry yogurt.

And guess what? They might not admit it...but even my big kids like lunch like this. I tell you what.  The muffin tins are magic.

Maybe she's thinking, "Nope. Blueberry and ranch
are definitely not the next big flavor combo." 

How to French Braid... Wonky Style...

Yep. I acquired a new skill recently. Wonky french braiding. 

I've been wanting to learn to french braid for awhile now. Finally it hit me....I should look it up on YouTube! And I found this video....

And although I need to practice a quite a bit more, I'm pretty proud of how they turned out....

   (my pictures are being all weird...anyone know why this happens?)

Zoe was so excited about her hair that she instructed each brother when they came home to "look at my french braids!" and her daddy, too. So cute.

Good Times

Sam lost three teeth in three days...

This kid is brave. His dad pulled out the first. But he pulled out the last two. That one in his hand he yanked out while in class. He had a pretty good racket going there with the tooth fairy. 

But because his money begs to be spent, Sam already blew it all on a air-action bubble clam thing for his fish tank. But he couldn't afford the pumps and extension hose. His dad bought them and hid them away until Sam can afford them. So, sadly, it's just a big pink and yellow clam in his fish tank. No bubbles. No air action. 

Molly isn't a big fan of shopping trips to Wal-mart...

Neither am I. Who wants to put me to sleep and push me around the store? 

Zoe felt the need to see how many cheesy tortilla pieces she could stuff in her mouth...

I was rather impressed. I should have counted how many she managed to shove in there. And she even chewed them all up and was able to swallow them. Yep. That's talent, people.

The Ghost of My Childhood Past

I stumbled across this picture on a guy's facebook page who I went to school with a looooooong time ago.


Can you find me?

My son asked if the row of kids at the top were the cool kids. Yes,  they were. :)


And....heh.  I am not with them.  I'm not even sure who the girl is that I'm sitting by. It looks like I'm half-heartedly clapping while casting glances to the side of me. Who was I looking at?


This looks like around 6th grade.....so, about 1989? I bet you're wishing you had a pair of stonewashed denim jeans right now.


A year later I would find myself moving from the humid swamps of southern Florida to the cold mountains of southern Utah. Wow. What a change that was.


If I could go back and have a chat with myself, this is what I think I'd say to 11 year old Erin...


"You're cute. Yes, the pink glasses may have been an unfortunate choice, but you're still cute. And so what if some of the girls are all mega-busty? Be patient. You'll get there (ok. Maybe not the mega part...)"


"Nope. You don't have a closet full of trendy clothes. Find your own style. Who cares what the "cool" this is. And who cares if you don't fit into the mold. Make your own mold."


"Ignore boys. They're stupid. And most of them will only look at the mega-busty girls. They grow out of it eventually....well, a couple of them do. And besides, there is this super handsome tall cowboy growing up on a farm in southern Utah right now. He's busy changing sprinklers, riding horses and 4-wheelers and being too shy to talk to girls. But someday he's going to work up the nerve to ask you out. And it will only be the beginning. You're going to have all kinds of crazy adventures with him and your brood of happy kids. So, keep your eye out for him. Although the first time you see him....it's just not the right time. Wait about 4 more years. You'll have better hair, you won't be 13 and the glasses will finally be gone."


"And about that brood of happy kids....you're going to be blessed with a whole house full of them! They are going to be loud and wild and totally and completely wonderful. You are going to love them like crazy. Be patient with them. Remember what it feels like to be 11. Listen to them. And squeeze them every chance you get."


"Find friends who love you for who you are, ones that build you up and help you feel good about yourself. Don't worry about the mean girls that like to tear others apart to make themselves feel better. You're going to meet quite a few of them throughout your life....everyone does. 'Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." -Eleanor Roosevelt"


"It might not seem like it now, but someday you will have loads of friends who are awesome people. They will inspire you and teach you and be so amazingly great to you. They'll invite you to lunch.  They'll bring you random surprises. They'll want to be in a writing group with you. They'll drop by just to visit and chat. They'll call you up to hear how things are going. They'll get free tickets to plays and invite you to come. And they'll like you for the quirky, happy, creative and sometimes odd person you are. Just wait. It gets better."


"Write more. Write about your childhood, about your hurts, about your happy days. Write about your dreams and your wishes. Write short stories and novels and poetry. And don't throw away the sappy sad "deep" poems you write when you're a teenager. I could really use them when I'm having a rotten day. They'd provide me with a good laugh."


"You're going to move. It will be exciting and so fun. But it will be hard, too. Moving into a small town where everyone has known each other since birth can be tricky, to say the least.  Just laugh. At yourself. And others. And especially at those who like to harass the new girl. It will give you fodder for creating brilliant villians someday. Ok. Maybe not brilliant villians. But definitely evil ones."


"Also....about your hair. Um, yeah, it might take awhile. But eventually you actually like it. I know. Weird. And get this? You start getting perms when you're 13. And then when you're about 29 you stop. And soon after realize your hair is naturally curly.  Crazy, but true."


"Oh...and one more thing. Someday you are going to look at your life and be so so grateful. For all of it. Because it made you who you are. And the wonderful thing is? You really like who you are. So much. And that is a great thing."


If you could go back and tell your 6th grade self something, what would it be?