paint cut paste

okay, so this isn’t totally a kid-made craft like my other offerings, but little ones can certainly help with this one, and should! so, unfortunately my little peanut has a severe nut allergy (nuts, nut butters, nut extracts, nut oils.) since she’s almost three and is going to (a super-allergy-conscious) preschool these days, the chances of her being in someone else’s care without mommy and daddy around are becoming greater. so i wanted to share this little idea for a safety bracelet with you all who might have kids who need something similar.

all you need are some alphabet beads to spell whatever you want (no nuts, no shellfish, no dairy, diabetic, vegetarian, OR just do something fun like your kid’s name or a fun word instead!) then find a few other random beads from your collection at home (or cheap ones in the craft store.) i used some stretchy beading cord that i tied together (as seen at the amazon link below,) but you could also use beading wire if you wanted your bracelet to have a clasp.

then enlist the help of your child to string beads onto the cord or wire. using the letter beads can help with alphabet recognition and spelling, too – bonus! while we made ours, we talked more about novi’s nut allergy, to make her more aware of it. (whenever she eats something new, she already asks everyone, including me, “does this have any nuts in it?”) i recommend making your little one fully aware of their allergy so they don’t need to rely on a bracelet, but it’s a good additional precautionary measure.

then you’ve got a little safety bracelet that your child can wear to preschool, playdates, etc. where they might have snacks out of your presence. hopefully this will signal to the adults around to be mindful of what they’re feeding your child, in the event that your child doesn’t speak up right away.

this year we are taking part in the annual crafty crow ornament swap! the theme for the year is fairy tales… you know, kings, queens, princesses, gnomes, dragons. but they had me at fairy. always do.

fairies hanging out in our tree

so novi and i went hunting in our backyard for some natural materials to make fairy ornaments out of. we found tons of tiny pine cones.

thank you, trees

we baked the pinecones at 250 degrees for about an hour, to make sure the critters were gone and because the sappy stuff in the cones gives them a nice shiny glow after baking. the house smelled divine! (that’s the closest we’ll come to the real christmas tree smell in our home, as we have cats.)

then we decided to apply a bit of gold paint to the pinecones to make them sparkle, all fairy-like. these cones were going to be fairy bodies!

gilded

with some wood glue, we attached unfinished wooden beads to the tops, to serve as fairy heads. then i hot-glued (hot glue guns and toddlers do not mix) a golden thread and paper flower to the top of each, so the fairies had flower hats and a string from which to hang.after that, we used one of my most favorite art materials ever — garlic peels! (and a coupla red pearl onion peels, too) these make the perfect ethereal fairy wings when hot-glued to the back of the pinecone.

then we had a big fairy family to share with the ornament swap recipients!

we put each safely into a small empty crayon box and wrapped them with coloring book pictures of fairies that novi has colored.

we wished each fairy well in their new homes in new york, pennsylvania, louisiana, new hampshire, and california… and they’re off in the mail now to these new homes and new adventures! so excited to see which 5 ornaments we receive in return… we can take a peek at the flickr group for the swap to see what others made, too… how fun!

the other day, novi was in the mood for modeling, but our cans of store-bought play-doh were ka-put… so we whipped up a batch of our own play dough from ingredients we had in our kitchen. i consulted my trusty mudworks book to make sure i had the measurements correct for the recipe.

• 4 cups flour
• 1 cup iodized salt
• 1.75 cups warm water
• mix in a bowl, knead 10 minutes, play!

we got to work creating the dough. novi helped every step of the way.

after we kneaded the dough for 10 minutes, it was a ball of potential energy waiting to become kinetic. (science nerdddd!)

anything is possible

and it did! novi had lots of fun with cookie cutters and clay tools all afternoon!

(as earthy and homemade as we try to be, the longest stint in her play was when the little bear clay dude was “talking on his iphone to duck.” sheesh.)

little bear talking on his iphone, which clearly needs an earpiece so he can avoid brain tumors

we decided to bake a few of the cut shapes to make (what else?!) ornaments! (this really was not what we set out to do, but it just sort of happened. again. hey, it’s december…) i brushed each one with mayonnaise prior to baking at 300 for one hour. before putting them in the oven, don’t forget to poke a hole in the ones you intend to hang – straws work well for this.

the next day novi painted the ornaments (and her fingers) with some sparkly acrylic paint.

once dry, we strung them with pretty ribbons and beads, and hung them on our tree. (well, a few were packaged in the mail to be delivered to the trees of friends and family… guess what you’re all getting this year…)

okay, it’s the week before halloween, so it’s time to bust out one more (or a couple? we’ll see…) halloweeny crafts. i saw this make-shift monster on the no time for flash cards blog and decided to try it with my little monster.

reason being: we already had all of the materials at home, and we love to repurpose items we already have into art and playthings. also, after doing the monster mash on jib-jab where novi got to play the part of frankenstein, she’s pretty into this particular massive mutant.

all you need is stuff in your recycling bin and maybe a few tokens and art materials you can find around the home:

• an empty toilet paper roll or a paper towel roll cut in half (for two monsters! we did it this way.)
• green & black paint, markers, or crayons (we used watercolors)
• golf tees, beads, or cardboard scraps (anything that can be ear-like)
• googly-eyes, buttons, felt, or construction paper (anything that makes eyes)
• scissors
• glue

paint or color your toilet paper roll about 2/3 green and 1/3 black.

cut slits along the top of the black part and fold them down to make “hair” and paint the folded down flaps.

hair colorist

then poke holes for your golf tees to go through. or, if you’re like us and are not a golfing family, just glue on some beads or cardboard or whatever you have lying around for knobby monster ears. then we used buttons for eyes because googly-eyes didn’t warrant a special trip to the craft store, and why buy new when you can reuse whatcha got? i had beads left over from the stash i found for our leaf garland.

novi drew mouths onto the frankensteins, and our little monsters came to life!

they did the monster mash... waaahooooo...

so this frankenstein is green in more ways than one! (hey, what are blogs for if not for cheesy puns?)

a good friend introduced me last year to what has become one of my favorite seasonal crafts – festive leaf garland! each is so earthy and naturally lovely!

all you need is wire (any bead or floral wire will do,) assorted beads (i love wooden and glass beads for this project,) beautiful fall leaves, and just about 10 minutes of time.

materials

then just string the beads onto the wire (i loop the wire back through each bead a second time to keep the bead in place) and weave the leaves onto the wire, too. easy as pie!

we had a little craft brunch for some friends, and the kids and parents made theirs together. (it’s good to have parents’ help for little ones, especially if your wire has sharp ends.) kids like to choose which leaf and bead goes onto the garland next — they make fabulous designers!

little leaf stringers

so cute to hang across doorways, hearths, on fences all season long!

many of my closest friends are having/have had their second baby this year. to celebrate these new little people entering the world, we have held mother’s blessing ceremonies (or blessingway ceremonies) in lieu of the traditional baby shower. with an older sibling in the mix, it is essential to include them in the celebration, as this is a huge rite of passage for them, as well.

this spring, i prepared an intimate blessing for a dear friend of mine, where her son (then 18 months) participated in an art project for his little brother to be. first, i gathered the prayers, wishes, and blessings from the family’s nearest and dearest via email, and i wrote their words on pretty paper. i cut the papers into small strips. then i painted a mandala for the growing family. in the mandala i painted a symbolic, abstract portrait of the soon-to-be foursome. after that, i visited the family and engaged their son in a fingerpainting project, which he really enjoyed! his mom and dad also helped with the painting for the new baby.

big brother to be

after the finger painting was complete and dry, i glued the mandala to the center of it with the blessings radiating out from there. i put it into a simple frame, and the family now has it hanging in their sons’ bedroom. the energy of this piece encapsulates the words of the family’s family and closest friends, and the marks of mom, dad, and the big brother, with an image from me, as well.

framed blessings

at another blessing ceremony for another girlfriend in her second pregnancy, the group of us created a beaded necklace to bless the big sister to be and honor her new role. first, i handed out small pieces of pretty papers to the group of gathered family and friends. on these papers, everyone wrote sweet wishes and notes to the eldest child. each participant brought or selected a bead to offer, as well.

beads & blessings

we went around in a circle and read our wishes aloud to the child, and offered our beads. after the ceremony, i strung the beads onto a necklace for the big sister to wear, and pasted the blessings into a small book that she can forever cherish.

big-sis-to-be with her necklace & blessing book

there are so many art projects that are involved in mother’s blessings; however, here i chose to share just a few artful ways in which i have honored these joyful new beginnings for the eldest sibling in a family.