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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Colorful, Rainbow Train Tracks (inspired by Old Tracks, New Tricks)

Today we're sharing another super easy rainbow craft.  Why?  Because I love rainbows.  And, because I love breathing new life into our old toys.

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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!

Halloween Art: No Carve Colorful Pumpkins

Looking for an easy way to colorfully decorate your Halloween pumpkins this year?  Then this no-carve method is right up your alley!  Here's one great way to make some fabulous, colorful Halloween art with the kids!

Halloween Art:  No Carve Colorful Pumpkins!

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Our 15+ Favorite Easy, Artsy, and Cozy Fall Kids' Crafts

Whenever fall rolls around, I find myself staying at home more, drinking hot drinks, and crafting with the kids. If you're looking for some easy, cozy, artsy, cute, and affordable kids' crafts, check out this list of my top 15+ favorite fall crafts. 

15+ Easy, Artsy, and Cozy Fall Kids Crafts

DIY Mod Podge and Tissue Paper Dragon Eye Book

Last week I shared how to transform old books into spellbooks for Halloween. This week, I wanted to share how I made this creepy jeweled dragon eye book! It's the perfect craft for Halloween, fantasy, and dragon lovers.

How to Make a Dragon Eye Book 

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3D "I Love You" Hand Craft (And our Favorite Books about Love)

It's already February and I haven't yet put up any Valentine's Day Crafts this year.  Oof! What kind of kid crafter am I?

I've just been so caught up in what's happening in our country and world that I haven't fully had the heart or energy to embrace doilies, flowers, chocolate, hearts.... basically anything Valentine's yet.  But today I'm turning a new leaf.  Here's my first Valentine's day craft of the season... these 3D "I Love You" Hands.

(They're not quite hearts and flowers and pun-ny sayings.. but it's a start, right?)

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DIY Agate and Mexican Blanket Painted Frames

I love crafting and making things with Chuck.  But sometimes, I also like to sneak away and paint things by myself.  So at night while he sleeps, I pull out random things and paint them.  Today's post is about one of those nights... and one of those secret painting sessions.  You see, I originally purchased 2 frames for Chuck to paint as gifts... (like he painted this frame here).  But then I couldn't resist their siren call and ended up painting them myself.  The designs were inspired by my love for colorful Mexican blankets and this super easy DIY Agate Watercolor Artwork.

 DIY Agate and Mexican Blanket Inspired Painted Frames

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Tape Resist Dinosaur Bone Art (And our favorite 10+ Dinosaur Books!)

I love it when an art and science combine to create a beautiful and easy kids STEM project. When I was growing up science, math, and art were always treated as fairly different topics.  And I get why they taught us that way... it's easier and we get to dig down deep into each one.  But I wish that my kid self also experienced how all three things topics were linked.  Don't artist use math and science when making art?  Isn't there beauty in math and science? Certainly!  And so my inner nerd and artist gets very excited when my son and I do a project that touches on what seem to be different areas.

Ok... but I digress.  Recently my son and I visited our local natural history museum's dinosaur exhibit and marveled at the size and design of t-rex bones.  (Gosh.  Those are some ferocious creatures!  So glad they don't live today.  Eeek.)  So, inspired by that visit and this awesome human skeleton tape resist painting idea, we made our own very beautiful and scientific tape resist dinosaur bone skeleton paintings! 

Tape Resist Dinosaur Bone Paintings 

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Make marbled paper with shaving cream

Look at what Baby Chuck and I made the other day: 

No, it's not a Rorschach test.  It's a piece of marbled paper.  And guess what?  We made the marbled effect using shaving cream and acrylic paint.  Pretty right?  I think we'll use it to make some Chinese New Year envelopes... or hubby's valentine.  I'm not sure yet  Hmm..

If you'd like to make your own marbled paper, keep reading:  (Original recipe found here)

Materials:
- baking tray
- heavier weight paper (we used watercolor paper, but I think card stock would be good too)
- craft paint (or maybe food coloring would work too?)
- shaving cream (white foam kind)
- old towel
- ruler/ unused credit card

Directions:
1.  Prep your area and child.  Decide where you want to do the activity.  Set up the materials beforehand.  Cover your work area with something to protect it.  Decide where you want to place the papers to dry.  Place a towel near you so that you can easily wipe your hands. Place your ruler / unused credit card near you for easy access.  (This is a pretty messy activity, so I recommend you plan things out first.)

2.  Make sure your piece of paper is smaller than the baking  tray.

3.  Spray your shaving cream into the baking tray.  Use your hands to smooth it around so that you have a nice even layer.

4.  Add in random lines of craft paint.  (We chose reds and yellow, but you could do all sorts of colors if you want.)

5.  Use your fingers to swirl the paint around.  (Note- You don't want a big blob of color.  It looks prettier with swirls).

6.   Place your paper into the tray so that it comes in contact with the shaving cream/ paint mixture.  Lift the paper up.  Wipe the excess shaving cream off the sheet with your ruler/ unused credit card.  Don't let the shaving cream sit too long on the paper, otherwise your paper may get soaked and rip.

(Isn't it neat?  Any parts of the paper that came in contact with the shaving cream will remain white while the parts that came in contact with the paint will get colored.)

7.  Let your beautiful sheets dry.  (Added bonus:  They'll smell shaving cream sweet.)

(Sorry I didn't take any photos of the process.  Chuck and I had fun doing the activity, but I had to keep a close eye on him so that he wouldn't eat the shaving cream.... or wipe it on himself or our couch.)


Update:   I ended up making Chinese New Year envelopes out of the paper.  They're unexpected, thrifty, and lovely.

Pretty Zentangle Flower Art

Spring has finally sprung in our neck of the woods.  Flowers are blooming and everything looks bright and beautiful. Wheeee!  Inspired by the gorgeous weather and an amazing wave art project that I saw on IG, today I'm sharing a pretty, flower-themed kids art project.  These zentangle flowers were very relaxing to doodle and the bright colors make the final results stunning! 

Pretty Zentangle Flower Art

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3D Paper Plate Christmas Trees!

If your kid (1) loves Christmas crafts and (2) painting.... then these Paper plate Christmas Trees are the craft for you! They're so easy to make and provide the perfect "canvas" for little kids to express their creativity and holiday spirit!

3D Paper Plate Christmas Trees

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3 Totoro Crafts

Have you seen the movie Totoro?  We recently checked it out from the library and have already watched it a dozen times!  Totoro is a large, furry forest spirit who helps two sisters adjust to their new home.  My  preschool son loves it because there are no bad guys, the sisters have a really sweet relationship, and Totoro is extremely cute.  So today I'm  sharing 3 Totoro crafts in honor of this great Miyazaki anime!

3 Easy Totoro Kids Crafts  

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Make Matisse Murals with Kids

The more I look at Matisse's artwork, the more it really speaks to me.  I love his vibrant colors and the way his artwork expresses such movement.  Around this time last year, Chuck and I made Matisse Collages from construction paper.  We had such fun making them together... that I thought we could take it to the next level... wall murals!

Making Matisse Murals with Kids

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Yup.  We made ourselves Matisse mural.  The idea was inspired by this gorgeous kate zaremba wallpaper.  (Love, love, loooove!)   Here's how we did it!

Hyper Colorful Painted Paper Plate Flowers!

Lately I've been enamored with paper plate crafts.  We always have a ton of cheap, white paper plates lying around and they're the perfect canvas.  A couple of days ago my son was sick and we stayed home all day.  Fortunately, we kept ourselves busy with Lego, lots of book reading, and two paper plate crafts.  We had such fun painting, I thought I'd share our crafts here.  Here's our first paper plate craft-

Hyper Colorful Painted Paper Plate Flowers

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So what do you think?  I'm in LOVE with how these flowers turned out.  Really, really, gorgeous.  And, (even better), they're really easy to make and paint too!  

Dancing Paper Slinkie Dragons (Free Printable included!)

Happy Chinese New Year!  How will you be celebrating the new year?  Tomorrow I'm going to celebrate in my son's class by giving out red envelopes, reading a fun storybook about the animals of the Zodiac The Great Race, and making these super cool Dancing Paper Slinkie Dragons!

Do these dragons look familiar to you?  Well, I used the same face, legs, and tail from my paper chain dragons and the results came out pretty cool!

How to Make Dancing Paper Slinkie Dragons

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Dragon Wing Preschool Craft (And our 10+ Favorite Dragon books!)

Does your child love dragons? Want to make an easy dragon craft with your preschooler? Then today's cardboard dragon wings are the perfect craft for you! I made these with several young kids and they really enjoyed the process of decorating and designing their wings. 

How to Make Artsy Cardboard Dragon Wings with Preschoolers

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How to make a DIY Computer Wrist Rest (Kid made gift idea!)

Do you use a computer a lot? Do your wrists feel sore?  Lately hubby's been working long hours on his laptop.  Chuck and I were worried because he started noticing that his wrists hurt.  Yikes.  So we whipped up this computer wrist rest for him for FREE!  Yup!  We didn't need to buy anything super fancy because we already owned all the materials.

DIY Computer Wrist Rest 

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Wouldn't this make such a cute and useful DIY gift for kids to make?