Colorful 3D Paper Plate Fish Craft (and our 10 Favorite Fish Books!)

Today I've got another unique paper plate craft to add to our ever growing list of paper plate crafts.  Recently I transformed several paper plates into beautiful 3D fish.  Then, my son and I got to work painting them with all the vibrant colors of the rainbow!

Awesomely colorful, 3D Paper Plate Fish

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Bucket list- Garage sale

It's finally garage sale day! Today we're co-hosting a garage sale at our friend's house.  Hubby and I spent last night packing everything into our car and driving the stuff over.  (It felt like we were playing a really really big game of tetris.)  I really didn't think we had that much stuff to sell, but our poor car was packed to the brim and completely weighed down.  Luckily we were able to squeeze everything in.    

Cross your fingers for us!  We're hoping for a good turn out and some sunny weather. 
    

How to Host a Bob Ross Party (With Adults or Kids!)

Looking for a creative and unique art activity to try with kids and adults?  Well, have you ever thought about doing a Bob Ross themed party?  Here's everything you need to know to paint Bob Ross with artists of all ages!  And bonus: expensive, fancy-shmancy materials definitely AREN'T required!

Everything You Need to Know to Throw a Bob Ross Party

(with adults and kids!)

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2-Ingredient Puffy Paint Fall Leaves

Sometimes I have to pinch myself to remind myself that it's fall.  (I'm just not used to warm temperatures at this time of year.)  Chuck and I enjoyed doing fall crafts back in Jersey, so I thought we should try doing some fall crafts here too... even though it doesn't quite feel fall yet...

During a nature walk, we counted quite a few red trees outside.  Boy, was I surprised!  So we drew inspiration from them and made these two-ingredient Homemade Puffy Paint Fall Leaves!

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Awhile back we had some success making gluten free homemade puffy paint.  But I was feeling kind of lazy and didn't have all the right materials on hand.  Luckily, we found a super easy recipe for puffy paint on several blogs, and tried it out.

I'll bet you could easily make this puffy paint today.  You probably have all the ingredients already at home.

Halloween Doodle Art Challenge

We love doing easy Halloween activities together.  It's a great way to hang out as a family and celebrate the season! Today I'm sharing a really fun art activity that you should try out with the kids.  It's time for the....

Halloween Doodle Art Challenge!

7 Tips for Taking Preschoolers to the Art Museum

Ever take your children to the art museum?  A couple weeks ago my friend and I brought our 3 preschool boys to our local art museum.  Can I admit something to you?  I was kinda  SUPER nervous about how it would go.  Three active boys walking around a building of beautiful, priceless, breakable artwork?  What could go wrong?  (Ha!)

Pre-mom years, I loved  visiting art museums with my husband.  But once I had Chuck... I put aside those visits because of my fears.  But oh, how I love looking at beautiful things.... and oh, how I love making art and crafts with my son.  Now that he's a bit older I figured it was time to give it a try.  So I asked for suggestions on FB... and we bravely visited the art museum with our 3 very active and curious kids.

Guess what?

It went pretty well!  We had fun and the art stayed unharmed!  Huzzah!  So here's a post detailing 7 things that we did to make our art museum experience more enjoyable (and educational) for the kiddos.

7 Tips for Taking Preschoolers to the Art Museum

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(Hey! Who's that boy in the photo?  Not Chuck. It's one of our friends!)

Haunted House and Ghost Paper Weaving

I love a good paper craft.  They're easy, quick to set up, and typically don't require too many materials.  Today's paper craft is a weaving one.  We're making a  Halloween-themed craft inspired by haunted houses and adorable ghosts.

Haunted House Paper Weaving

"Family" Pop Art Coloring Page

Mother's Day is coming up this Sunday!  Kiddos can spend some quality time coloring and practicing their letters with mom with this free printable coloring sheet!

"Family" Pop Art Coloring Page  

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Milk Jug Santa Claus Craft

Got a milk jug lying around?  Well don't throw that baby out!  Instead, use it to make a recycled Christmas Craft!  My preschooler and I recently turned ours into this cute

Milk Jug Santa Claus!

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Easy DIY Kids Spider Costume

We really love reading and it's always fun to create crafts and activities to go along with our favorite books.  Today I'm joining forces with other kid bloggers to present a Halloween Read and Play Blog hop!    This means that today, over 25 kid bloggers are posting great activities and crafts to go along with Halloween themed books.  (You can see links to all the great ideas at the bottom of the post!)  We made a DIY spider costume for our post.  It was inspired by a beloved book character, Splat the Cat!

Easy DIY Spider Costume

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Have you heard of the Splat the Cat Series?  We love these books. For Halloween, we read Scaredy-Cat, Splat!

I don't want to ruin the story for you, so here's just a snippet to explain today's craft.  Splat the Cat's initial costume gets ruined and his mom has to quickly whip up a homemade spider costume from socks and string.

I love the idea of making something from nothing, so we tried our hand at quickly whipping up a spider costume just like Splat the Cat's mom!

Let's get making!   

Free Printable Halloween Agamographs

Ever heard of agamographs? It's optical illusion art that changes depending on how you look at it. I saw this idea first on STEAM powered family. With Halloween coming around, I thought I'd make a coloring sheet agamograph that kids of all ages could try. This would be a perfect after-school activity! No cutting or gluing involved. Just print out the free coloring sheet below, color it in, accordian fold it, and voila! A cool piece of op art!

Free Printable Halloween Agamographs

Sparkly and Googly Eyed No-Carve Pumpkins

Are you feeling the Fall vibes?  Ready to do some easy pumpkin crafts?  If your little guy or gal isn't quite ready for carving pumpkins, then today's no-carve pumpkin option is for you!  Check out these sparkly and googly eyed no-carve pumpkins!

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Rainbow Paper Plate Weaving Project

I've been a bit down in the dumps lately.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe it's because of all of the transitions happening in my life... or lack of sleep... or both.  Hopefully I'll feel better once summer starts.  In the meantime, I've been doing quite a bit of crafting to cheer myself up.  Recently I took my love of rainbow crafts and combined it with my love for paper plate crafts to make... tada!  This lovely rainbow paper plate weaving craft!

Let's Weave a Rainbow!

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6 Fun Fall Preschool Corn Activities

We love fall crafts!  Pumpkins, corn, Halloween, apples, lovely leaves, cooler weather- ahhh I love it all.   If you're looking for a simple way to incorporate some fall vibes into your preschoolers' life, check out this awesome collection of 6 fun fall corn activities!

There are science ideas, artsy ideas, mathy ideas, and even free printables too!

• STEAM Candy Corn Pop Art | Handmade Kids Art

• Preschool Corn Counting Activity with Printable | I Heart Crafty Things
• Cardboard Rainmakers | Pink Stripey Socks
• Candy Corn Pizza Craft | Artsy Momma
• Printable Candy Corn Bingo Game | School Time Snippets
• Corn vs. Popcorn Science for Kids (with Printable Graph) | A Little Pinch of Perfect

Have a great weekend, friends!

20+ Colorful, Rainbow Inspired Activities and Crafts (and books!)

Feeling colorful lately?  Looking for fun and easy rainbow themed crafts and activities?  Or maybe you're just starting to peek around for St. Patrick's Day Crafts?

I've currently got rainbows on my mind.  But, with a new baby at home, we've kinda been in survival mode (aka, crafting... and sleep happen pretty infrequently...)  So, while we adjust to this new norm, I thought I'd comb through the blog's archives to create a roundup of 20+  colorful activities and crafts.
Hope you have fun and get inspired by the posts below!

20+ Colorful Rainbow Inspired Activities and Crafts

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Watercolor and Crayon Resist Notebooks

Even though I don't like clutter, I'm also a secret horder of two things.  One is cardboard.  (Happy sigh.)  The other is Chuck's artwork.... which is a growing problem because we keep painting and I never know what to do with the art that I like.  I hang some up in his room.  I turn other pieces into new artwork.  I also use some for cards and stationary (see here , here, and here for some of my favorites)  Goodness, I even turned one into a magnetic fishing game!  Well recently I began turning his artwork into lovely little handmade notebooks.  

Watercolor and Crayon Resist Notebooks

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These were made from from some old watercolor and crayon resist artwork... and I love them.  They're personal, lovely, and practical.  I use them to jot down all my bloggy and crafty ideas throughout the day.  And oh yeah, they're super easy to make too!  So let's get crafting!

Outer Space Kids Jewelry

As a kid I adored watching Ms. Frizzle.   Her crazy hair, her awesome outfits, her magic bus, her love of science... gosh. What wasn't there to love?  Well, today I'm sharing this awesome STEM inspired craft.  We're tapping into our inner science nerds and making some space inspired jewelry with the kiddos!  (Ok, who am I kidding... this would be an awesome craft for any space-loving adults too!)

How to Make Outer Space Planet and Galaxy Jewelry

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So grab your Sculpey Clay, favorite Magic School Bus books, and visit DIY Candy today to learn how to make your very own spacey clay jewelry!

More Space Themed Crafts

And, if you're looking for more space themed crafts, check out these ideas below!

• Cardboard Roll Model Space Shuttle
• Pie Plate Solar System
• Kirigami Stars
• Straw Rockets
• Cardboard Space Shuttle Climbing Toy
• Lego Space Station Stamping
• Galaxy Light Jar
• Star Painting
• Paint your own Galaxy Umbrella
• Glow in the dark Star Finding Game

Happy making, friends!

Can you draw a face just using one line?

I'm not sure about your family, but sometimes nighttimes with little kids can be pretty trying.  Everyone is grumpy. Everyone is tired. Emotions tend to run high. Patience is worn thin.

Well, we've had a couple of tough nights these past weeks.  Recently I've found that simple drawing activities can put the kids (and me) in better moods.  Here's one easy art activity that we recently tried and enjoyed.  Can you draw a face using just one line?

One Line Face Drawing Challenge

Make a Water Xylophone and start exploring Sound with kids!

Today we're doing another super easy Preschool STEAM activity!  Chuck and I recently explored sound by making our very own......

DIY Water Xylophone!

Let's learn about our brain! (Preschool Science Activity)

Today's Creative Preschool Collaborators theme is body parts!  (So be sure the check the bottom of the post for 4 other ways to teach preschool kids about their bodies!)

Lately Chuck's been interested in learning about his body, so this topic was right up our alley.   Since we have out-of-town guests staying with us for a bit, I designed 5 low-prep and easy activities to help Chuck learn about the brain!

Preschool Science:  Let's Learn about our brain!  

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