paint cut paste

one of novi’s little friends is totally into all things outer space. she adores planets and rocket ships, so this was the theme for her third birthday party. we decided to make her a gift that would be outta this world!

the solar system on a string!

novi and i started by making beads with sculpey modeling clay of different spherical sizes to represent each planet. (i added a ring to saturn.) we poked holes in them with a paper clip.

then we baked the sculpey in the oven while opening all of the windows. (as i read the box afterwards, i realized that this stuff is kinda toxic while baking and probably isn’t the greatest material for younger kids. novi colored by a window across the house while it baked.)

once the beads were hardened, we painted the planets all different colors, (and realized that at their most basic hue, many the planets almost follow ROY G BIV!) also, we opted to include pluto in the line-up for old times sake…

carefully painting the beads

after the beads were dry, we strung them onto a soft black cord (like outer space!) and made it into a very cool birthday necklace!

in a ring around the sun

we have comcast cable in our home, and usually novi watches little bear on the nick jr. on demand channel each day after her nap. for some odd reason, they aren’t offering the amaaaaazing winter solstice episode this week. (can you tell i’m also a huge fan of this earthy, sweet show?) instead, the new one for the week includes an episode called “little bear scares everyone.” right up novi’s alley! little bear scares everyone by collecting fallen leaves and creating a mask out of them.

screenshot from "little bear scares everyone"

naturally, novi wanted to do the same as her furry hero. today we went for a stroll in the park, hung out with some mallards, and collected pretty leaves. novi said she wanted to make herself a scary mask with them. now i realize that i could press the leaves or even wax the leaves, but with toddlers, sometimes it’s all about instant gratification, right?

when we got home, we gathered some materials we had around the house. i probably should have used mod podge or some other glue, but i’ve been on a hot glueing rampage since making pine cone ornaments, so i figured it was strong enough to hold the leaves and dries quickly enough. problem is that it’s NOT kid-friendly, so she couldn’t do the glue part of the project.

we cut a shape to fit her face and eyes. we punched holes in the side of the mask, and threaded ribbon through them while the glue was heating up. novi arranged the leaves on the mask (and is a fan of symmetry, not surprisingly.)

then i hot glued the leaves down quickly while novi practiced writing her alphabet on the scrap paper. the glue did dry quickly, and then… novi bear scares everyone!

after doing this, i found a much more elegant way to make a leaf mask online at one of my most favorite blogs, five orange potatoes.

a few months before our upcoming loooong flight across the country with our toddler, i saw a great idea in cookie magazine, dog-eared it, and executed when the time came to whip out a fun mid-flight snack… a crunchy, tasty version of the candy necklace — a froot loop necklace!

all ya need are dental floss and froot loops (or any cereal with a hole in the middle, but froot loops are nice and colorful. uh, admittedly not the healthiest choice.)

morningtime materials

just string the cereal on the floss and tie it around your little one’s neck. the smaller the kid, the bigger i’d make the loop for ease of use and snacking.

on the second leg of our flight, i brought out the rainbow treat and she crunched away, smiling at the novelty of eating a necklace!

flying high on a rainbow of froot flavors

[one of my fav mom-blogger friends, pink and green mama, also did this project recently in her rainbow camp.]