The New Art Cart

 This little car {I’ve been told it is a car} is one of the first things M created with his Art Cart supplies.

Have I ever shown you M’s little “desk”, as he calls it, in our entryway closet?  Here’s a shot:It is a simple shoe shelf.  This is where the coloring books, crayons, stickers, and such things live.  There’s even a mini-garbage can, which he seriously loves (you can see the top of it in the lower right corner).
He can often be found here, happily cutting out catalog pictures for collages.  (By the way, those Christmas toy catalogs are entertaining year-round; what kid doesn’t want to look at toys?!)  

The closet doors close, and any mess is hidden.  It’s really perfect.  M loves it, and sometimes closes himself up in there with a flashlight.  Such an adventurer. ;)

I’ve realized recently that M has become familiar with just about every kind of art supply I have to offer him.  Of course there are still new ideas and new techniques to explore, but most of these will be planned out and done together. 

He’s just gotten bored with the same old stuff in his Art Box week after week, and has taken to asking for things he knows are stored away. 

The Art Box is old news, apparently.

And I’m tired of fishing things out for him that he wants, that were just put away!
A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across a garage sale and found an old 3-drawer plastic storage unit.  The drawers are about 12"deep x 9"wide x 8"high. 

So we cleaned it up and then we raided the craft room.  To be honest, he wanted more than would neatly fit into the drawers, yet at the same time seemed a little overwhelmed with all he was given. 

So into what is quickly becoming the “Art Closet” went the little Art Cart, right next to his little desk.
Here’s a shot of his new art area, all labeled, because I like to do nerdy things like that. :)

In the Art Cart…
Top drawer:It’s hard to see everything – there are cardboard ribbon spools, cardboard tubes, stamps, a storage container of beads, feathers, sequins, googley eyes, dyed macaroni, and some more bits and pieces for gluing along with pipecleaners in a small bucket.

Middle drawer:Watercolor paints, acrylic paints, gel pens, porcupine balls (to use with paint), dot painters, roll painters, glitter glue, craft sticks

Bottom drawer:Papers – construction paper is on the bottom, fun foam, crepe paper, tissue paper, coffee filters, and a long roll of white paper.

There is a black bin on top of the cart that M uses to transport messy things to the kitchen table.
Inside the other containers (sorry no photos)…

The tote: scissors, mini coloring books, markers, tape, stapler, glue sticks, glue bottles

The collage box: magazines and a box to hold the cut-out pictures (he loves to just fill it up with clippings, then collage with them at a later date).

The pencil box: pencils, colored pencils, erasers, pencil sharpener


Need some new art for your walls?  We have plenty to spare. ;)

Linking up to

Have a beautiful day! :)

Craft Time - Streamers are Fun!

M came across a roll of crepe paper in my art/craft stash and was fascinated with it.  He made these fun streamers all on his own.  Well, I did have to help a bit with the taping, but the idea was completely his.


You need a roll of crepe paper, craft sticks, and some tape.  Cut 3 (or however many you want) long strips of the crepe paper, hold the ends of them on a craft stick and wrap masking tape around the whole thing until they are secure.  Finished!  Go play!

He made one of these for each member of the family and, I have to admit, they are pretty fun to play with! :)

Here is just how fun…













These are perfect for a breezy spring day!

They would be fun to twirl to music, wouldn’t they?

Have a beautiful, super-fun day! :)

The Weather has been Beautiful

And we are finally enjoying spring in Minnesota!

 

 

 This is Mr. Mallard (Drake if you are on a first name basis).  He and the Missus nest in or near our yard every year.  We haven’t seen her yet, so she must already be nesting.  Last year this couple left an egg in M’s sandbox! :) 

 

And M has been hard at work trying to master jump-roping. :)

I hope you are all having a wonderful spring!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Preschool Craft – Valentine Piggy Backs

This was kind of a spur-of-the-moment-craft, but I am so pleased with how cute they turned out, and M loves them!

Supplies:Pipe cleaners, googley eyes, hole punch, pencil, heart stickers, pom poms, glue, and hearts cut from sturdy cardboard (1 large, 1 small for each completed craft); I used pinking shears to cut them out for a bit of extra decoration.  Decoupaging the cardboard with scrapbook paper first, then cutting out the hearts would be super-cute too!

We ended up using a couple of extra supplies too: A craft stick broken in half, and 2 more small cardboard hearts, one for each finished craft.

Make faces on one big heart and one small heart:

Use the googley eyes, pom poms for noses, and the foam heart stickers for lips:
Punch holes on the sides of each heart for the arms.  Thread through your pipecleaners, cut to size, then twirl them around a pencil to make them curly.  Sorry there’s no photo of this step, but you’ll see how they look in photos below.

Punch holes in the extra hearts you cut out, big enough for your child’s first two fingers to go through:
and attach that heart to the bottom back of your big heart. 

As you can see in the next couple of pictures, our small hearts on the bottom did not have the finger holes in them at this point.  We ended up having to take them off to punch the holes in them, as it was just too hard to do with it all put together.

Add glue to the back of the big and little hearts that have faces on them, then attach the craft stick to hold them together, little heart guy on top, big heart guy on bottom:

Turn everything over and admire your happy little Piggy Back Valentine People:

 Aren’t they sweet?!

And this is what the holes in the bottom heart are for:

Hee hee – lots of fun! :)

I’m linking this up to Kids Get Crafty!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Preschool Craft – Cardboard Tube People

We made these silly and fun little guys a few weeks ago, and they’ve been joining us for meals ever since. :)
M actually inspired this craft by drawing  a face on a cardboard tube and sticking a big pom pom on it’s head.  Alas, that little guy has been lost, but when I found some face stickers at Michael’s I knew exactly what we’d use them for.

Supplies:Glue, pipe cleaners, pencil, buttons, large pom poms, cardboard tubes (toilet paper size), googley eyes, face stickers (or other items to make a face), and construction paper strips cut to half the size of your tubes, and long enough to go all the way around them.

I got the face stickers at Michael’s, but you could also use markers, buttons, and small pom poms for facial features.  We made our large pom poms (for the hair) from yarn. 

Wrap a tube with a piece of construction paper and glue in place:
Add details to the “shirt” with buttons or a marker, and add your facial features:The pencil is lying inside the tube to weight it down so it won’t roll while the face and shirt decorations are added.

Wrap a pipe cleaner around the pencil and slide it off.  This makes it “twirly” (and it’s just fun to do):
Poke holes in the sides of your tube, and stick the pipe cleaners in for arms.  After doing this I realized they would stay in better if we had threaded one long pipe cleaner through both arm holes, then twirled the arms around a pencil.  Our arms kept falling out, so I eventually put a dot of glue on them inside the tube.

Pop on the pom pom hair, and you’ve got some pretty cool tube people:

Give ‘em a snack:        
These guys are so much fun to play with! :)  It is especially hilarious if they run across the table, then lean over to look at the food on your child’s plate, and their “hair” falls out. ;)  Good times!

Have a beautiful and funny day! :)