Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Easy and Spooky Shrunken Apple Heads!

Do Halloween crafts rock your world?  Yes!?  Awesome.  They totally rock mine too.  Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year.  Costumes, magic, candy, gross things, spooky things—I love it all!
Tomorrow is the first day of October and I’m trying to squeeze in as many Halloween crafts as I can before the month is over.   Today I’m sharing a really neat Halloween activity that also doubles as a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) activity too.  We’re making shrunken apple heads! 


Super Easy and Spooky Shrunken Apple Heads


Halloween STEAM Activity for kids- Make shrunken apple heads!

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(Ha! My husband was weirded out my this little guy, but I think he’s just adorable.  Look at that toothy grin!)

Friday, September 18, 2015

Easiest cardboard Rainmakers ever!

Recently my son and I have been talking a lot about the weather.  We're currently in the middle of a horrible drought in Southern California so we desperately need rain.  Since we always have a ton of cardboard rolls lying around (which we LUUURVE using for cardboard roll crafts), we recently made a rainmaker together.  Set-up was simple and it was a snap to put it together.

Here's how we did it!

Shake! Shake!  Make Your Own Rainmaker with Kids!


Make a rainmaker with kids- super easy craft for preschoolers!
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Friday, June 26, 2015

Make Your Own "Exploding" Chocolate Candy

I'm not a candy eater.  But for today's post... I made an exception.  Today is Friday, which means that it's a  Kids STEAM Activity day!  In honor of the fourth of July, we made some chocolate candy that explodes and pops in your mouth!

Yup. You read that right.  While eating these exploding chocolate treats, you'll definitely feel tiny fourth of July fireworks popping in your mouth.  Curious?  Read on!


How to Make "Exploding" Chocolate Candy!

Make Your own Exploding Candy- Super easy and fun recipe where chocolate "explodes" in your mouth!
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Monday, April 27, 2015

Make Pasta Frames with Kids!

Ah, pasta.  It's cheap, always in your cupboards, yummy...and a GREAT crafting material!  Today I'm super excited because my fellow Rockin' Art Moms and I came up with 14 super fun, beautiful, and easy pasta art projects that you can make with your kids!

And... *drum roll please* we want to see YOUR pasta creations and we're also hosting a GIVEAWAY too.  Yippee! So definitely check out the bottom of the post to see the giveaway details and all the other ladies' awesome posts.

Chuck and I decided to use our pasta to decorate painted picture frames!

Make Pasta Frames With Kids!


make pasta frames with kids for mother's day
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Sunday, March 22, 2015

4 Eggshell Crafts

Ah Easter.  It's the holiday where everyone makes crafts featuring eggs and small fluffy animals.  Over the years, I've made Easter egg weebles, Egg carton Wreath Confetti eggs, and even this Cardboard bunny tissue holder .   While looking through old posts, I saw that I have also done quite a few eggshell crafts too!

Eggshells are a great craft material because they're cheap  AND you can easily change their colors. So today let's take a stroll down memory lane and review these 4 pretty awesome eggshell crafts.

4 Crafts to Make with Eggshells

4 Eggshell Crafts to make for Easter with the kids


Wednesday, March 18, 2015

3 Ways to Make Fruit and Vegetable Prints with Kids

Hey!  Are you going to throw away that shriveled carrot?  Got a few limes rolling around in the fridge and not sure what to do with them?  Then today's post is for you!  Today I'm going to share 3 fun ways to make fruit and vegetable print artwork!  And just to give you a heads up... one of the methods combines art AND science together to create prints that .... MAGICALLY APPEAR when you heat them.  Whoa.....

3 Ways to make Fruit and Vegetable Prints!

3 ways to make art with fruit and vegetable prints (including one magical + scientific way!)
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Today several other kid craft-loving bloggers and I are sharing cute and fun crafts involving fruit and vegetable prints.  So scroll down to the bottom of the page for 10 MORE fun and crafty fruit and vegetable print ideas!

Let's get started!


Friday, February 6, 2015

Easy Kid made Valentine Chocolate Gift

Handmade gifts rock.  This week's Creative Preschool Collaborator theme is Valentine's Day!   Since hubby REALLY loves chocolate, Chuck and I made him a special chocolate Valentine's gift.  Shhh. Don't tell him about it.  It's a surprise!

Kid Made Valentine Chocolate Gift  

Here's a fun and easy kid made chocolate gift!
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Aren't they cute?  They look so fun and colorful... almost like cupcakes!  We had a ton of fun making this plate of goodies.  Chuck even enjoyed it more than our Kiss Wrapping Paper!  So  keep reading to see how we made this lovely gift and check out 4 other great Valentine's activities and crafts from the other members of the Creative Preschool Team.


Friday, November 21, 2014

Candy Mosaic Art with Kids

Do you still have leftover Halloween candy?  Eeek. We do.  This week's Creative Preschooler theme is food!  With Chuck's current aversion to painting, I thought it would be fun to use our excess candy and make art with it!  So we made ourselves some lovely, colorful candy mosaic art!

Make Candy Mosaic Art with Kids!

kid Art- Make candy Mosaic craft


It's always special to make art with non-traditional materials.  Some of my favorite food-art projects include our colored salt arttortilla art,  gumdrop flowerscornstarch sidewalk paint, and homemade watercolor paints!


Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Kid Science: Let's Study Seeds

Are you looking for ways to incorporate science into your child's daily life?   Lately Chuck's been really enjoying the television show Sid the Science Kid.  I typically work beside him while he watches tv, but dang it, that show hooks me in EVERY TIME.  They make science so accessible for little kids (and adults too, apparently.)  Plus, I love how they encourage children to be curious, observe, and explore their world. Thanks to Sid, I'm now trying to do some really easy science activities at home with Chuck too.  In fact, here's one fun activity that we recently did together- we studied seeds!

Kid STEM Activity:  Seed Study!


kids stem activity- studying seeds!



Monday, November 10, 2014

Maple Syrup Candy + Craft Fail book review!

Now that the weather is a bit chillier, I thought it would be fun to do more fall and winter crafts and activities.  I loved reading the Little House on the Prairie series as a child and always wanted to try doing the things Laura did.  Last year, we made homemade butter from heavy cream.  This year, we tried our hand at making homemade maple syrup candy!

Let's Make Homemade Maple Syrup Candy!

(using snow-- ooh la la)

Make maple syrup candy using snow and maple syrup! (Great Fall and winter activity for the kids)
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Monday, October 6, 2014

Halloween Sensory Activity- Let's Dig out Bones!

I'm a crafter by nature.  I like painting, gluing, and drawing.  Messy sensory activities just don't come naturally for me.  But since Halloween celebrates slimy, icky, things.... I figured we should do a sensory activity.   So tada!  Today's blog post is all about this Halloween Bone Dig Sensory Activity!

Halloween Bone Dig Sensory Activity


Fun Halloween Sensory Activity- Dig out "bones!"
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I watch the tv show Bones, so I definitely channeled Dr. Brennon and her squints while setting up the activity.  Usually Chuck doesn't like getting his hands dirty, but for some reason he LOVED digging out the "bones" and squishing the "blood" around.

Ok!  Let's get started!


Friday, October 3, 2014

Halloween Ghost Splat Painting

I'm always looking for new and fun ways to paint with Chuck.  Thus far, we've painted with flowerspainted with carsmade homemade body paintmade tortilla artscrape painted, and even made corn syrup paint.   So I was excited when a kids' art teacher recently introduced us to splat painting!  It was such a fun activity that Chuck and I tried a Halloween version at home.

Halloween Ghost Splat Painting!


Make Halloween Ghost Splat Painting

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This week's Creative Preschool theme is Halloween.  So we splat painted these ghosts!  Keep reading to see how we painted the ghosts AND check out the bottom of the post to see 4 other really fun Halloween activities!


Tuesday, September 30, 2014

DIY Pizza Gift Box

Ha ha!  I bet you saw the words pizza and gift box and thought... what is Leslie up to this time?  Is she wrapping things in used pizza boxes?  Eeeeh no.  (Although, I would probably wrap things in new boxes.... ooh, good idea... wait.. focus, focus!)  Here's what today's post is going to be about:

DIY Pizza Gift Box

DIY Pizza Gift Box Container from an old envelope

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Isn't it cute?  Chuck took an extra long nap this weekend so I had time to try out a cool craft inspired by one found in this book.  It's a small gift box that looks like a pizza!  Now you can make your very own unique packaging to match your cool gift.  And bonus- it's made from a used envelope. Yessirree my crafty friend,  this craft has it all. It's cute and good for the environment too.

Let's get started!

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Magic Fizzy "Sand!"

Once upon a time there was a mom who found herself with a very bored child.  He didn't want to play with any of his toys.  He didn't want to play outside.  And he certainly did not want to do any crafts.  Finding herself at her wits end, this mom pulled out 2 ingredients from cupboard and within minutes, whipped up several batches of wonderful smelling Magic Fizzy "Sand."  She then gave her child the sand and he played and played. After he grew tired of the activity, magic mom waved her magic wand and poof!  The sand began to bubble and fizz, delighting the child once more.  And they all lived happily ever after.

Ok.  Full admission time... I was that mom.  And yes, I found myself with a grumpy child.  And yes, this magic "sand" ended up entertaining him for over half an hour (which as we all know, is like years in little kid time.)

Let's Make Magic Fizzy "Sand!"

Super easy and fun activity:  Make magic fizzy "sand" from 2 ingredients.  Let the kids play and then add water to make the sand fizz and bubble!  Cool science and sensory activtity.
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If you find yourself with a super bored or grouchy child, then this activity is for you.  Magic "Sand" is easy to make, smells wonderful, and really does fizz and bubble with water.

Wanna know how I made it?  Keep reading!

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Homemade Finger painted Starry Night

I love Van Gogh's artwork.  The colors, the movement, the textures... wow, wow, wow.  How does someone even do that?  Yowzers.  Gosh, did he make the world so much more beautiful with his art.  *Happy sigh*  Ok, ok... I'm back.  Let's get to today's post!  Chuck and I have explored great artwork in the past by making collages inspired by Matisse and super easy abstract artwork.  So I thought it was high time we tried our hand at making some artwork inspired by Van Gogh.   Except that instead of using real paints... we used some homemade finger paints!  


Collaborative Art Project:  Finger Painted Starry Night!


Finger Paint the Classics:  Make this 3 ingredient homemade finger paint and then paint Van Gogh's Starry Night with your preschooler!
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For months now I kept seeing Kidzaw Master Art Kits pop up everywhere.  (Have you heard of them?  They're kits that provide kids with all the materials necessary to make artwork inspired the great artists.)  I saw great results with older children and toyed with the idea of buying one to try out.  But Chuck's only 2 and I'll be honest, his affinity for arts and crafts varies daily.  Yurp.  So I came up with this cheaper alternative.  The finger paint is super easy to make and you could adapt the design to recreate any of Van Gogh's artwork.

So let's begin!


Saturday, July 26, 2014

Make Toilet Roll Glasses!

Toilet roll crafts are some of my favorite ones to make.  (You can check out our extensive toilet roll craft gallery here.)  Right now we're still living out of our suitcases, so good ol' tp rolls are also some of the few craft items that I still have on hand.  Recently I saw Krokotak's toilet roll sunglasses tutorial and I knew that I really wanted to make my own version.  I've had pineapples and rainbows on my mind lately, so naturally they found their way into this adorable craft.

Toilet Roll Glasses


how to make toilet roll glasses



Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Shaving Cream and Water Balloon Play

Since becoming involved with the Kid Blogger Network earlier this year, I've been introduced to a ton of wonderful new blogs and this new idea called "an invitation to play."  Basically, you provide the child with several objects and inviting him/her to explore the materials.  I love this idea because there isn't a pressure for kids to perform.  They get the opportunity to be curious, explore, play, and have fun.  So, after seeing this shaving cream activity on the Hands on as we grow blog, Chuck and I tried our own shaving cream play... but with an added twist... water balloons!  

Let's Play with Shaving Cream and Water Balloons!


Let's play with shaving cream and water balloons:  Make cupcakes, ice cream, and facial hair

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If your kid likes messy play, baked goods, and facial hair, then this is the activity for you!  Let's get playing!

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Summer Paper Plate Crafts

It just hit me this morning that July 4th is next week.  Next week. Summer is just flying by!  Ahhhh!  So I feel the need to do some summer crafts and that's why I made these super easy paper plate crafts.  I dunno about you, but when I imagine summer, I see outdoor picnics, grill outs, and beach adventures.  These activities usually involve disposable paper plates... which are such a great item to craft with because they're super cheap and super versatile.

Fun Summer Paper Plate Crafts for Kids

Easy Summer Paper Plate Kids' Crafts (Mask, Watermelon + Doughnut Purse)

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So these are my summer inspired paper plate crafts.  They're super easy to make, colorful, quirky, and just scream SUMMER FUN!


Tuesday, June 10, 2014

"One in a Melon" Father's Day Card

Father's day is coming up!  We're gearing up over here by making cards and buying hubby yummy things to eat.  Yesterday I shared this super rad and easy to make toilet roll Father's Day card.  Today I'm sharing a punny Father's Day card with you.  It's a watermelon card (with matching watermelon envelope) that reads "Dad, you're one in a melon!" inside.

"One in a Melon" Father's Day Card

(Hee hee hee, so punny.)

easty "one in a melon" father's day card
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Chuck LOVES eating watermelon and hubby enjoys my punny humor, so this was a perfect card to make.  We had lots of fun painting the card and drawing inside.   

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Kid Science: Make orange soda!

There are so many neat scientific demonstrations out there showing how acids and bases react.  Last year, Chuck and I used vinegar and baking soda to blow up a balloon. Seeing that balloon fill up stayed on my mind for quite some time.  The balloon blew up because of the carbon dioxide released when the acid and base combined.  Carbon dioxide is also what makes soda taste fizzy on your tongue.   So I tried out some kitchen chemistry and created homemade soda, using an acid and base reaction.   

Easy Kid Science:  Let's Make Orange soda!


Make orange soda