Cardboard Mosaic Tiles

 

Cardboard mosaic tiles are super easy to make.  Simply apply a thin coat of watercolor paint to any piece of corrugated cardboard you have on hand.  After the paint dries, cut the cardboard into whatever size shapes that works for your project.  This is great for making big tiles for little hands.

Sparkling Play Dough

I finally found a play dough recipe I like!  Makes and Takes has it here. In the spirit of St. Patrick's Day I added a teaspoon of gold glitter to half and a tsp of green to half. I found the glitter at the dollar store. Hooray for inexpensive art supplies!

Mondrian Collage

Today is Danish painter Piet Mondrian’s birthday.  His most recognizable pieces, solid squares of colors surrounded by dark lines and white space, were painted in 1920’s and 30’s.  In homage we made collages in his Neo-Plastic style. 

The prep was easy.  I cut out blue, red and yellow rectangles and black stripes while the Noodle was napping.  When he got up we taped a sheet of clear contact paper (sticky side up) to the living room table. He stuck the stripes then the rectangles onto the contact paper.  We put three sheets of white paper over the pieces and then covered the white paper with another sheet of contact paper (sticky side down), sealing the collage inside.  

This was the first time we used contact paper in this way and we will definitely be doing it again.  It is fantastic for toddler crafting!

Simple Cork Boats

I needed to fill some rainy day time and these simple cork boats were a good distraction.  They started out without sails.  Just shapes cut from a few cork tiles that used to hang on my office wall.  Adrien floated them around in the morning.  Then we decided to make sails.  I cut triangles of fabric, coated them with glue and folded them around toothpicks.  Ahoy!

Marshmallow Snowmen

 

 We bought an extra bag of marshmallows when we were doing the holiday baking.  One bag made a large extended family of marshmallow snowmen. 

Pine Bough Painting

Yesterday we tried painting with a bough from our Christmas tree.  It ended up a mixed media piece with oil pastels taking center stage.  A great craft to close to the Christmas season!

Leaf Rubbings

Last week I made a bunch of paper leaves for the Noodle to toss around inside. So simple!  All you need are leaves, crayons, card stock and scissors.   Make a basic leaf rubbing and cut it out. You are done!

Styrofoam Ghosts

My sister made styrofoam ghosts just like these with her daughter when she was two.  Six years later they are still one of their Halloween decorations staples.  I saw them when we were skyping last week was inspired to make our own ghost family.  This project is really simple.  

Supplies

Styrofoam cups

Twine

Tape

Ball point pen

Directions

1) Draw faces with a a ball point pen on inverted styrofoam cups.

2) Poke a hole in the top of each of cup.

3) Thread a piece of twine through each hole and affix with tape.

4) Hang and enjoy!

Jar O' Lanterns

I saw these Jar O’ Lanterns in this month’s Family Fun Magazine.  They are a fantastic project to do with little little ones.  We opted not to put a tea light inside.