Dancer Paper Snowflakes

Does your child love to dance?  Then these dancer snowflakes are just the paper craft for you.  Dainty, fluttery, and lovely, they are sure to amaze children of all ages!

How to Cut Paper Dancer Snowflakes

How to Make Colorful Kirigami Flowers

Spring is here! La la la! Although our current grey skies don't exactly scream "warm, sunny, bursting-with-new-life weather," today's kirigami flower craft certainly does!

How to Fold and Cut Kirigami Flowers

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Now, I had a lot of trouble naming this craft.  These flowers kinda felt like origami... and yet they weren't quite origami because I used scissors to make the designs too.  Luckily Mr. Google taught me the term kirigami.  It's a Japanese term that basically describes origami that also involves paper cutting too.  Bingo!  So cool right?

By the way, if you love these flowers, you'll also love these

• AWESOME paper stars  
• Lego Snowflakes! 

Paint Chip Color Wheel Inspired Fall Wreaths

Ready for another easy fall craft? Today we're combining my love for color, paint chip crafts, and fall leaves.  We're making Color Wheel Inspired Fall Wreaths!   

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I took an art class last semester and had a lot of fun learning about color theory using the color wheel.  Since we've been learning about fall and the changing leaves, my son and I made this fall wreath together. 

Paint Chip Wall Art

After our relatives left, I really noticed how empty our place seemed.  Although we moved here almost a year ago, I haven't put much effort into making our place more personal.  Chuck's room is the only one that's sort of decorated.

So, I'm going to do my best to add some decorations to the walls.  I'm not too picky, but I do have three requirements for wall art:

1.  It must be bright and happy.
Chuck and I spend quite a bit of time at home.  We need to be surrounded by lovely, happy things.  

2.  It must be removable.
We live in an apartment.  We're not going to live here forever.  I really really don't want to re-paint rooms or fill holes when we leave.

3.  It must be relatively inexpensive.
I'm uber cheap.  One day we'd like to own our own house, so we're slowly saving up.  (Plus, we had a rather traumatic experience with movers breaking stuff, so I worry about expensive art being destroyed.)

Making wall art with paint chips fits all three requirements.  Inspired by A Beautiful Mess's modern paint chip wall art and How About Orange's triangle paint chip art, I thought I'd give paint chips a try.  Here's my result:

Cute Bouquet of Toilet Roll Flowers

Today we have another cute and easy toilet roll craft to make with the kiddos.  Yup! We're turning boring old toilet rolls into cute and fun flowers!

Cute Bouquet of Cardboard Roll Flowers

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Easy DIY Boho Yarn Wall Hangings

Looking for a super easy and fun summer craft for the kids? Today I'm sharing a fabulous yarn craft that's perfect for artsy playdates, ladies craft nights, or family craft time. We're making pretty and simple boho wall hangings on the blog today. All you need is a stick, different color + texture yarns, scissors, and masking tape! So go on a walk with the kids, find some sticks, and let's get crafting!

Pretty DIY Boho Yarn Wall Hangings

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Make Shaving Cream Clouds and Paint the bathtub walls

With all the crazy weather that's been happening around these parts, I thought Chuck and I could try creating some of our own crazy weather... indoors!  So we made a shaving cream cloud and watched it rain rainbows...

Oooh.  Isn't it pretty?

Keep reading to find out how we made it rain rainbows!

Printable Weather Board Game

What's the weather looking like where you are?  It's been raining pretty hard over here, so we've been stuck at indoors quite a bit.  (But we don't mind at all because we desperately need the rain!  Boo, drought.)  Inspired by our rainy weather, today I'm sharing this fun and easy printable weather-themed board game with y'all.  Just print it out, color it in, and play it with your kiddos!

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The Artful Year and Melted Crayon Friendship Rocks

Chuck doesn't always enjoy making things with me.  (What? Yup.)  A lot of days he would just rather that we read books or race airplanes together.   And I'm really trying harder to let go and follow his lead.  But I love crafting.  So I keep putting out those invitations in hopes that he'll join me.  And on those special occasions when he's interested and involved in a craft... boy oh boy... those days are really magic.

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We recently received a copy of Jean Van't Hul's The Artful Year to review.  Jean is an artist, mom of 2, and author of the amazing kids' art blog Artful Parent.  (She's also the author of another great kids' art book The Artful Parent. ) 

In her newest book, Jean shares a whopping 175 family-friendly crafts, and recipes!  The photos are dreamy and beautiful; the crafts span through all the seasons and holidays of the year; and the recipes look really, really yummy.  I love this book.  But those things aren't what I love the most about her book.

What I love the most about the book is her voice.  In the beginning she shares this beautiful quote-

"We need to be more intentional than ever as we carve out quality time together, celebrate in meaningful ways, build traditions and memories and create stronger families.  It's not about doing more.  It's about making choices, fostering creativity, and building family connection."  

Wow.  That just hit so close to home.  I don't want to just make things with Chuck.  Things eventually break down, get lost, or tossed away.  I want to foster creativity.  I want to build our relationship.  I want to make lasting memories.

Ok.  This was a super long intro, I know. But I just had to get that all out there.  Because it really is a beautiful, beautiful book.

Here's the craft that we chose to try out first from the book:

Melted Crayon Friendship Rocks

Cellophane Stained Glass Windows

Who's up for a little color?  Anyone? Anyone? Everything's looking pretty grey here, so Chuck and I made some cellophane stained glass windows.  I cut up pieces of cellophane and then we stuck them to our windows using a mixture of dish soap and water.   

Ahh, don't these hearts just brighten your day?

Keep reading to see how we did this activity...

How to Make Clapper Trapper Toys

Hi friends! How are you doing? I have a small cold, my husband is working from home, and the boys are *thankfully* still happy to be home. If you're like me and looking for easy and affordable ways to encourage creativity and fun, then you're going to love today's post.

We're making cardboard clapper trappers! These nifty homemade toys transform potential energy into kinetic energy and by making loud snapping sounds when released.

How to Make Clapper Trapper Toys

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Giant Dia De Los Muertos Skulls

Do you celebrate the Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos)?  We don't, but I enjoy introducing bits of different holidays to my kids.  Recently I made some giant Dia De Los Muertos Skulls with preschoolers.  They had so much fun with this easy-to-set-up activity,  I thought I'd share it here today.

Giant Dia De Los Muertos Skulls

(A perfect preschool art project for fall!)

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How to Make Best Friend Clay Necklaces

Did you own a best friend necklace as a kid?  One of my friends recently bought a pair for her daughter and best friend.  (They were groovy mood ones.  Girls' jewelry has definitely gotten cuter since I was a kid.)  I was so inspired by the cute necklaces that my son and I made our own clay friendship necklaces.  Aren't they fun?

(And even though these were made for friends, this would be a great gift to make for Mother's Day or Valentine's Day too!)

Easy and Fun BFF Clay Heart Necklaces

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Adorable Woven Cardboard Llamas

Are you looking for an easy weaving project to try with the kids? Well, look no further! Today's llama weaving craft is such an easy and cute way to introduce the art of weaving to kids. Plus, you won't need any special materials to try it out.

Are you ready? Let's get weaving!

How to Weave and Adorable Llama (with kids!)

Mathy Mother's Day Jewelry

Mother's Day is coming up!  So of course, fun kid-made gifts have been on my mind!  Last week we made these darling egg carton flower pins.  I thought they would go great with some lovely kid-made jewelry.  But of course, there had to be a twist!  (A math twist that is!)

Let's Make Mathy Mother's Day Jewelry!  

Crayon Hugger Cards

This past week Chuck attended his friends' (twin boys) birthday party.   I was all set to have him cards for them.... but then we totally ran out of time.  (Does that ever happen to you?  It happens to me all. the. time.)  So the morning of the party, I came up with this really, really, REALLY easy set of birthday cards for the two boys.

Inspired by Lia Griffith's super cute Valentine's Candy Huggers (which by the way, you should totally check out because she includes free templates for them), I doodled up some crayon hugger cards.

Melted Crayon Hugger Cards

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Aren't they adorable?  Here's the super quick tutorial showing how we made them!

Pot o'sushi

Happy St. Patrick's  Day!  

According to Irish legends, leprechauns store treasures at the end of rainbows.  If I were a leprechaun I would store sushi at the end of my rainbow.

I miss eating sushi and I've tried curbing my cravings with homemade attempts, but they never satisfy.

 Sad pseudo sushi

Once the baby pops out, I'm going to (1) hug baby and (2) eat a piece of sashimi.

Will my hospital will serve meals like this?

Chirashi image taken from here

3 Ingredient Slime (Borax free!)

Today's craft is going to be a super easy 3 ingredient slime recipe.  I originally found this slime recipe on fellow Rockin Arts Mom  Blog Me Mom 's site.  (She's amazing and her site has tons of other great slime recipes and crafts...so definitely check it out!)  I had to post this recipe here because it's AMAZING!  Erm... just how amazing?  Well, this past week I made 12 batches of slime.  12 batches!  I know, crazy right?  But that's just a testament to how cool this homemade slime recipe is, and how super duper easy it is to make. 

Homemade 3 Ingredient (Borax free) Slime 

 

Yup.  This stuff kept kids aged 2 - 30 something (erm... ok... me) entertained.  And here are the 4 reasons why it's super AWESOME.

1.  It's Borax free.  No scary chemicals lurking here.
2.  It's "edible."  (You could eat it... although I really wouldn't... unless you want to be "regular.") 
3.  You only need 3 ingredients to make it.
4.  You can make it in the microwave.

Excited?  Now let's get started!

Make a Colorful Paper Garland

For some reason Spring seems to bring in parties galore.  Birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, boy, oh boy, it seems like every week we're celebrating something new.  Is it that way for you too?  Spring is definitely a happy season for us.  So with that in mind, I came up with this super simple paper garland that you and the kids can easily whip up within minutes!  Tape them up and then poof, instant party!

We're currently digging rainbow crafts over here, so of course I had to make one of every color!

Colorful Paper Garland

Kids Map Art- Creating with kids!

If you're looking for an easy art project to do with your kids, this is it.  I love finding cheap treasures from the thrift store and using them to make art with my family.  Here's our most recent project- a painted wooden map.