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

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!

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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! 

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!  

Glue Suncatchers

Awhile back I made this lovely apple faux stained glass using black glue as the "lead" and tinted clear glue (affiliate link) to paint colorful panels.  Ever since making that craft, I kept wondering if there was a way to adapt it for preschoolers.  So I came up with this super easy kids glue sun catcher activity.   It takes only 2 ingredients to make the "paint" and you probably already have all the materials on hand!

Super Easy Glue Sun catcher Art with Kids  

Egg Carton Flower Pins

I love seeing kids' homemade gifts.  Don't you?  There's something beautiful about receiving a gift made by tiny hands.  Today several kid-craft loving bloggers and I took on an egg carton craft challenge.  We came up with different ways to craft with  egg cartons.  Since Mother's day is coming up next month, I thought it would be great to make some egg carton flower pins!  Like our styrofoam mosaic tile picture frames, this craft turns "junk" into lovely gifted treasures.

Egg Carton Flower Pins

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Tape Resist Ant Art!

Are you going buggy over spring?  Well, then today the preschool collaborators and I have 5 preschool bug activities that you'll absolutely love.  We've been digging ants lately, so I thought it would be fun to combine art and science to make some tape resist ant art!  

(And if you're looking for even more bug crafts, check out these egg carton bugs and my
fluttering butterfly craft!)

Tape Resist Ant Art!

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Build a Funicular Train

Did you know there were such things as funicular trains?  I learned about them from a train book that my son and I read together.  Apparently these trains are used to move people up and down steep cliffs. Two cars are attached via a cable and one car moves up the mountain as another moves down.  Now of course, you know me.... I just had to try making a funicular train for our lego minifigures.... especially after we enjoyed playing with our cardboard conveyor belt so much!

Let's Build a Funicular Train!

Shiny Foil Process Art

While I love making crafts with my preschooler, sometimes it's just nice doing process art activities with him.  We don't worry about the results.  We just dig in, throw everything into the pot, and see what comes up.  It's kind of freeing really to not worry about the product.

Awhile back we made some rainy day process art,  tissue paper canvas art and Matisse murals together.   Since we really enjoyed those activities, this time I pulled out our aluminum foil and we tried our hand at making some shiny foil process art.

SHINY FOIL PROCESS ART

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Kid Science: Studying Bird Beaks

Now that it's spring, I feel a severe kick in the bum to start doing more nature and science themed activities with Chuck.   There's something really cool about seeing blossoms, birds, bees, and bugs (whoa- bs!) all around.  We recently visited our nearby natural history museum and Chuck spent quite a bit of time playing with a bird beak activity.  It was so simple and fun that I had to share it here!

Kid Science:  Studying Bird Beaks with Kids

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5 Flower + Plant Activities for Preschoolers!

Spring is here! Spring is here!  In honor of this lovely season, here are 5 flower and plant activities that are just perfect for preschoolers!

5 Preschool Flower + Plant Activities

Cardboard Mail Carrier Bag

Chuck recently became interested in letter writing and sending letters through the mail.  So I whipped up this cute mail carrier bag to help encourage his pretend play!

Become a Mail Carrier in Minutes!

How to Fold and Cut Origami Stars

Lately I've just been digging Origami projects.  There's just something so relaxing about folding paper to create lovely things.    For today's post I wanted to share a recent origami project- these folded and cut origami stars.  They are really, really beautiful and of course, super simple to make!  (I'm an origami newbie, so if I say it's easy... it's totally doable!)

How to Fold and Cut Origami Stars

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So keep reading to see how I made them.

Oh yeah.  Guess what?  I took the plunge and actually shot videos of me folding the paper and explaining my process.  I know, I know.  Video is a completely new medium to me and I still have a lot of kinks to work out (like how to make things brighter!)  But, I think the videos explain the process better than the photos.  So I've included them in the post.

How to make Woven Easter Baskets

Easter is tomorrow! And if you're looking for a super easy and cute kids Easter craft.... this is it!  Check out these woven Easter Baskets! 

How to make Woven Easter Baskets

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A friend left her strawberry baskets at our place the other day.  I kept meaning to return them to her, but never got a chance.  Oops.  So they just kept staring at me this past week... whispering, "Craft with me, craft with me."  Well, of course I had to obey their siren calls.

With all their open holes, I knew they would be perfect to practice weaving on!

(By the way- we've done so many weaving crafts over here that this was a nice one to add to the collection:

• Woven Paint Chip Easter Eggs
• Yarn Cup Weaving
• Spring Flower Weaving) 

Painted Tin Can Succulent Pots

Spring has sprung!  Are you enjoying all the lovely blooms popping up around your neighborhood? In honor of Spring, today's Creative Preschool theme is.... plants!  So I wanted to share how we painted and repotted these tin can succulents.

Because this is part of the Preschool Collaborators Series, there are links at the bottom of the post to 4 other bloggers' great ideas for teaching preschoolers about flowers and plants!  (So scroll down to the bottom of the post to check those out!)

How to Repot Succulents in Painted Tin Cans 

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How to make a Conveyor Belt

Does your child like machines?  Then you'll love today's quick craft.  It's a super simple milk carton conveyor belt!

Make a Conveyor Belt

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Woven Paint Chip Easter Egg Banner

Last Friday we held an early Easter get-together at our place.  I wanted to "spring-ify" our place up, but didn't want to spend a fortune to do it.  So during a trip to our local hardware store, I picked up a couple  oh let's be honest, A WHOLE LOT of paint chips.  (I can't help it! The colors... the colors!!!)  And then I wove myself a colorful Easter garland.  :)

Woven Easter Egg Banner

I love how the eggs are just so colorful and modern looking!

So if you want to make this simple and FREE Easter decor, visit DIY Candy for my woven Easter Egg Garland tutorial today!  Plus, you can always find other easy Easter crafts on the blog too! 

Let's keep in Contact!

Check out other fun and easy ideas on my Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts!  (Or subscribe to my email mailing list by filling out the pink bar at the top of your screen.)

Happy creating, friends!

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!

Paper Bag Bunny Pinata

Last weekend we attended a friend's Easter party.  It was so fun!  The kids dyed eggs, played with play dough, went on an egg hunt, and broke open a paper bag bunny pinata.   What?  Yup.  I know, Easter isn't usually associated with pinatas, but I made this super quick and easy pinata from a paper bag to add a bit more fun for the little guys.

Paper Bag Bunny Pinata

To see how I made this cute guy (and the goodies we fit inside), visit MollyMoo for bunny pinata directions.  And if you're looking for more holiday crafts, definitely check out my other Easter crafts (like these fun confetti eggs.)

Let's keep in Contact!

You can always find  fun ideas on my Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts!  (Or subscribe to my email mailing list by filling out the pink bar at the top of your screen.)

Happy creating, friends!

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?

Origami Artwork With Kids

Ever have just a crazy, crazy, week?  I'm sure you have... and last week was mine.  Chuck was sick the entire week and hubby had to work late hours.  So at night I found myself trying to relax by catching up on my favorite shows (currently Brooklyn 99) and folding origami.  Yup.  I'll hopefully have some cool origami projects  (like these origami black cat, origami jack-o-lantern, and origami vampire lips) to show you in the next couple of weeks.

I'm not an origami ninja.  A lot of times projects just don't turn out quite how I imagined.  Lines aren't folded correctly and have to be refolded (again and again).  When imperfect projects are finally finished, it always seems like a shame to toss out the paper.  So I thought to myself, "Why not turn my old origami projects into art?"  And that's how this idea was born!

Make Origami Artwork with Kids

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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

Map Learning with Planes!

When we moved to our new place, one of the first things I bought for Chuck's new "big boy" room was a large world map.  I intended to teach him about all the different places and people in the world.  Well....  lots of other things came up and that dream never quite panned out.  That's why I was excited for this week's preschool collaborator challenge.  It's all about map learning!  Yup.  This challenge gave me a swift kick to the bum to think of an easy and fun way to help preschoolers learn about maps.

I came up with this idea to travel the globe with the Planes and Cars characters!

Let's Learn Geography with Disney's Planes and Cars characters!

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So keep reading to see how I (and 4 other bloggers) taught our preschoolers all about maps!

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!

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!

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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!

Fizzy and Fun Ice Painting

Are you looking for fun process oriented art activities for kids?  As a craft lover, I'm definitely biased.  I tend to pin images of kids crafts.  I can't help it.  There are always cute smiles and googly eyes on everything.  (Happy sigh.)  Yup.  That's my happy place.

But lately, I worry that I'm boxing Chuck in too much.  He isn't always keen to make crafts with me. So I'm trying to let him just explore art materials more... without stressing about what the end product will look like.  (It's hard...but I think it's an important process for both of us.)

Today I'm joining with 34 other kid bloggers to share some fun, process oriented art activities that children will enjoy!  It's a series all about fun and messy exploration.  So check the bottom of the post for a link to all 35 ideas!

Here's my process oriented activity that Chuck and I recently completed together:

Fizzy and Fun Ice Painting 

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How to make Colorful Swing Streamers

Have you ever wanted to find the end of a rainbow?  As a child, I believed in fairies and magic and would always try to find the pot of gold.  While I know now that such a dream is impossible, I still wanted to bring some colorful St. Patrick's day magic to Chuck.  So I created these lovely colorful swing streamers for him to use at the park!

Colorful Swing Streamers

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This craft is perfect for using up any extra tissue paper you might have lying around.  (And if you like tissue paper crafts, check out these easy tissue paper art and cherry blossom tissue paper flower crafts!)

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

5 Preschool Pi Day Activities

Ok.  Pi day is coming up this Saturday.  Are you ready to celebrate it with some fun activities?   Last year I came up with 3 Pi Day Activities for elementary aged children, like making Pi Day Bracelets and making 2 Types of Pi Inspired Artwork!  This year I thought it would be a fun challenge to try to introduce Pi Day to my Preschooler.

Pi Day celebrates Pi, the mathematical constant that describes the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter.  Pi's digits stretch infinitely long, never repeat, and seem to be random.  I really wanted to share my love for math with my 3 year old.  So here are 5 Preschool Pi Day Activities that are fun, easy to set up, and great opportunities for some hands on learning!

5 Preschool Pi Day Activities

Snack Time Veggie Monsters

Is it possible to be allergic to green, healthy food?  Because I think Chuck has that allergy.  Yurp.  Whenever I mention things like "cucumber" or "carrots" he immediately makes a face and says he won't like it.  Every. Single. Time.  Bah!  I'm just hoping this is a phase.

To help Chuck eat more fruits and veggies, I recently tried making snack time more fun and made Snack Time Veggie Monsters!

Snack Time Veggie Monsters

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How to do a Blind Contour Drawing

Have you ever tried doing a blind contour drawing before?  I'm halfway through auditing an art class at a local university and thought it would be fun to share some of the art activities that we're doing in class with you!

How to Do a Blind Contour Drawing

Bunny Toilet Roll Napkin Rings

Does your family have fancy Easter dinners?  That was never really the tradition in my family.  Once I got married, we started attending hubby's aunt's Easter meals.  Boy, oh boy- they were really, really special.  We dined with fancy cloth napkins, silverware, and china.  And we gorged ourselves on yummy ham, savory side dishes, and a large sampling of desserts.  (Wow.  I can't believe I'm actually drooling just thinking about that meal.)

Try as I may, I don't think I'll ever achieve that kind of amazing Martha Stewart-esque domestic achievement.  Cooking for large groups of people freaks me out.  But if we were to ever host a large Easter meal, it'd probably involve paper plates, plastic cutlery, paper napkins, and maybe these bunny toilet roll napkin rings.   (You know, to fancy the meal up just a tad bit.)

Bunny Toilet Roll Napkin Rings

10 Ocean Crafts and Activities

This week's Creative Preschool Collaborator's theme is Oceans and Fish!  I was excited to tackle the theme because Chuck LOVES going to the beach and playing in the ocean.   So keep reading for some ocean themed storybook ideas, 10 preschool ocean crafts/activities, AND 4 other kid blogger's creative Ocean themed activities!

10 Ocean Crafts and Activties

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Magazine doodles- Fun open-ended art activity!

Recently I've been auditing a basic art class at our local university.  It's been awhile since I've attended college (*cough cough* over a decade), and it's been even longer since I took art classes (I think middle school?)  But I'm really enjoying the experience.  The other students are friendly, the professor is an excellent teacher, and I enjoy the opportunity to let go and use the right-side of my brain.


My art course got me thinking about trying to do more bite-sized art activities on the blog. Whaddya think?   I hope to share some fun art activities that our professor had us do in the future.  Today's art activity is one that I came up with after seeing so many inspiring IG feeds where artists incorporate everyday items into a drawing.   Have you ever tried making magazine doodles?

Magazine Doodles- Just add doodles!

Rock Tic-Tac-Toe Game

Ah, oil pastels.  After seeing that they could be used to decorate pumpkins, I thought they would be perfect for creating a cute and colorful rock tic-tac-toe game.

Rock Tic-Tac-Toe Game

Cardboard Airport Runway

Ever since I saw Paging Fun Mom's pizza box airport, I knew I had to make one for Chuck.   I mean, my goodness, what a neat way to use Christmas lights!  So here's my version of a Cardboard Airport Runway.

Cardboard Airport Runway

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I love this craft because it's made from an old box and some Christmas lights.  Plus, we made it together as a family. Chuck and his dad drilled the holes together and I painted the box with him.  (And I think it looks just as nice as any of these airplane runway toys.  Don't you?)

Easy DIY Bubble Ring Favors

I LOVE snow globes.  Last Christmas Chuck and I walked through store aisles shaking a ton up and then watching, mesmerized, as the snow gently drifted down.  It was hypnotizing and strangely therapeutic.

My love for snow globes was the initial inspiration behind these DIY bubble rings.  I thought it would be so fun to wear tiny snow globes on your fingers.  Then you could shake them and see lovely swirling designs any time you wanted!

DIY Bubble Ring Favors! 

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Easy Tissue Paper Art

Ah tissue paper.  It's colorful, cheap, and I've recently discovered, also great for making art!  Recently Chuck and I both used it to create some new tissue paper artwork for his room.

Easy Tissue Paper Art

Can yon tell which one Chuck made?