Creatology Halloween Activity Kit - Witch, Skeleton and Frankstein Monster

We will be doing more holiday themed crafts the next few months and this was a cute activity for Halloween.  Most pieces were foam stickers and the foam that wasn't had little double sided stickers to use to attached those pieces together.  My daughter had fun putting each character together and decorating the skeleton with crayon.  Very cute figurines for play.

Craft Flashback - Finding Nemo Birthday Party

For our daughter's 4th birthday in July, we threw her first birthday party with friends.  We decided on a Finding Nemo theme since it was her favorite Disney movie so far and we could have an outdoor party in our backyard. I was inspired by some ideas on Pinterest and came up with others on my own.  We had four friends of my daughter (each of whom came with a sibling) and along with my son, there were ten children total.  A very manageable amount and everyone had a good time!

I made my own invitations.  I found a great image online then added my own text on top of it.  Then I emailed it to my local FedEx Kinko's shop who printed them out for me.  They looked wonderful!

 We set up an inflatable pool/slide from Aldi's and a tent to provide shade.

 We also set up a water table, table with a bubble machines and individual bubble containers, a kiddie, and had a basketball hoop and big rubber balls.

I ordered the Finding Nemo table cloth, plates, and napkins online.  I put multi-color goldfish in little cups as an early snack.

At one of the craft stores, I found these cute projects.  Each child could choose a whale, turtle or fish to make.  I put the pieces for each individual project in a baggie, so everyone had the pieces they needed.  Any child who didn't make one went home with one along with a goodie bag filled with bubbles. 

I cut out Finding Nemo characters from extra plates to put on the sign.

Finding Nemo crape paper 

 Blue jell-o and swedish fish treats!  I used clear cups from the local dollar store.  Just make sure you wait until the end to put in the swedish fish or they come apart.

I used a fish cookie cutter to make peanut butter and jelly fish sandwiches.

 I made vanilla cupcakes with blue frosting, blue sprinkles and regular goldfish.

 Various balloons I ordered online.

I found this Finding Nemo bow for my daughter and Finding Nemo swim trunks for my son on eBay. 

Sticky Mosaics: Heart Treasure Box

My daughter loves the mosaics by numbers projects.  This particular project was fun because first she decorated the craft then I helped her turn it into a box she can use to put small objects in.  The box closes magnetically.  

Splash Art Color Activity Kit: Butterflies, Stars and Hearts

This project was pretty easy and could be replicated with paper and water again.  My daughter colored in different shapes with the provided markers.  When she was done, I filled up a cup of water and showed her how to fill the provided dropper with water.  Then I showed her how to drop water onto the picture so the colors would blend.  She picked up how to use the dropper quickly and finished the project herself.  We'll keep the dropper for future use!

Colorbok - Makit & Backit Suncatchers: Phone, Cat, Cupcake

Awhile back, we made a couple of sun catchers and recently we rediscovered our leftover kit.  My daughter chose three different sun catchers to make - phone, cat, and cupcake.  I put the left over color crystals in little cups for her to pinch with her fingers and place where she wanted each color in each frame.  Mainly she likes rainbow colored sun catchers!  She is only four years old and it's hard to place the crystals just so.  I asked them 20 minutes until the crystals melted then let them cool for 10 minutes.  They peel off aluminum foil easily.  The latest sun catchers will look great in our windows!

EEK! Spider Thumbprint Halloween Cards

For Halloween, I wanted to make cards for the family with my daughter.  I looked on Pinterest and found this great example: Spider Thumbprint Halloween Cards  I decided to use orange construction paper we already had instead of card stock.  I folded them in half, then let my daughter and son each choose a couple of paints to use.  They wanted purple, pink, red and blue.  I squeezed Crayola Washable Paint on paper plates and had a baby wipe handy to clean their thumbs when they wanted to use a new color.  Both kids made thumbprints on each card using one color each at a time.  Then we let the cards dry.  Next my daughter drew on the legs.  After awhile she wanted me to draw legs as well so I did.  My daughter is working on letter writing in school, so this was a good opportunity to practice using the word EEK!  I modeled how to write the "E", "K" and "!" on a separate piece of paper then she wrote the word on each card (six cards in all).  While she took a break from the craft, I glued on twine to use as the spider's web and stapled the top of it on the other side of the card, modeled after the original Pinterest inspiration.  The last step for the outside of the cards was to glue on the goggly eyes.  I would make two glue spots then my daughter would place the eyes on and then we switched jobs.  We let them dry.  Finally I asked my daughter what to write inside of the card and together we came up with "We like Halloween and we hope you have a good one too!" then she wrote her name and I wrote her younger brother's name.  All together, we are very proud of this cute craft and we think our family members will love it!

Crayola Washable Kids' Paint - Person and Rainbow

My daughter is at the age where she can work well with paint.  She can create actual pictures instead of just making a mess!  This paint kit came with 10 different colors.  I open them all, put a smock on my daughter, give her a few paint brushes and a cup of water then she is all set to paint pictures on her own.  I love these two particular pictures.  She enjoys making rainbows and the person is me!

Rose Art Shrink a Doodle - Flowers

We're back to the crafts!  The last time my daughter wanted to make shrink a doodles, she asked my husband to trace and color designs for her.  This time she choose the design and colored them herself.  I then put them in the toaster oven for a couple minutes and they came out great!