Tissue Paper Plastic Easter Eggs Craft

Having attended an Easter egg hunt this year already, we had plenty plastic Easter eggs to play with around the house.  My daughter came up with an idea to decorate some with paper.  We had tissue paper left over from a craft box so I suggested that instead.  My daughter used a combination of glue sticks, colored tape and sticks to stick the different squares of tissue paper on the eggs.  It turned out to a be a fun, cute activity.  We still have a lot of plastic eggs left over to play with but now we have some colorful decorative ones as well!

Creatology - Bunny & Chick Easter Craft

Easter will soon be upon us, so this past weekend it was time for Easter crafts!  I bought a few Creatology craft kits last year for this year and while the other two crafts are currently a work in progress, my daughter and son made these adorable bunnies and chicks.  Now that my son is three, he can work on these types of crafts more often with my daughter and me. I liked this kit except the pieces we had to glue on.  I much prefer kits with pieces that are all stickers.  For the chicks, my son helped stick on the eyes and beak.  I put the glue on the wings and feet and with help, he placed them on his chicks.  For the bunnies, my daughter stuck on the eyes, nose, pink part of the feet, pink parts of the ears and drew smiles.  I helped stick on the toes (so tiny) and glue the feet on. The pomps for the tummies are very cute but aren't big enough to stay in the holes, so I used scotch tape on the back to keep them in place.  We sent one of each animal to the grandparents and a couple family friends for Easter.

Valentine's Day Heart Card Kit

My daughter has been very into coloring, so we haven't worked on many craft activities lately.  Valentine's Day is the exception.  Last year she did a wonderful job making valentines very similar to the ones below for each member of her preschool class and family.  We decided to do the same type of project.  Like last year, we used a Target brand kit: Spritz Valentine's Day Heart Card Kit.  My daughter loves having a choice of stickers for each card.  I would spell out the name of the student or teacher or family member, she would place the stickers on the card, then decorate the rest of it.  They came out great, especially giving her even more choice with which color heart and frame to use.  The only downside of this kit is the heart falls out of the frame fairly easily unless you have stickers on both.  I decided to place each valentine into a sandwich size plastic bag to keep it together along with a Hershey kiss (we were the only ones to give out valentines without candy so I rectified that this year). I printed out labels with my daughter's name to save time and so everyone knows the cards are from her.  Overall, they look very cute, it was fun to work on them together, and they will stand apart from the usual store bought themed cards. 

My son made cards as well.  Same Target brand. He is only 2, so we used the cards where you just add the stickers (no heart part to worry about).  I spelled out everyone's names, he placed each name on a card then added two stickers.  He didn't have interest in more stickers than that!  I taped on lollypops and added labels with my son's name.  They are very cute!

My daughter's Valentine's

  

My son's Valentine's

Crocheting - Pink/White Stripe Piglet Baby Hat

I did recently crocheted a new animal hat for a friend's new granddaughter.  I used my favorite pattern from the Tiger Hat Pattern by the Repeat Crafter Me blogger for the main part of the hat.  Then I used her Black Cat Pattern for the ears.  I had originally planned on making a kitten hat but it turned into a piglet hat due to the colors I used and placement of the ears.  For the twisting ends of the hat, I used my awesome friend's crocheting website and striped hat pattern at Classy Crochet as a model.  I tied the bows myself just as a cute finished touch!

Crocheting - Lion Hat with Button Eyes

I made a second lion crochet style hat.  The first hat I had made was toddler size which was too small (as tested on my son) for my friend's son. This time I used the child size pattern and made the face exactly like the Tiger pattern from the Repeat Crafter Me blogger.  I made the mane using the Unicorn pattern from the same site for the technique and used images of other lion hats I Googled for inspiration on the look of the mane.  Overall I think it was easier using buttons for the eyes and the face itself looks more expressive.  The size should be better too (as tested on my daughter). I look forward to hearing what the recipient thinks of the hat!

Creatology Build-A-Snowman Foam Stickers: Classmate Holiday Cards

My daughter had already made quite a few ornaments this holiday season for her teachers and family members, so when it came to coming up with an idea for her classmates I found this tub of build-a-snowman foam stickers I purchased awhile ago.  It turned out to be a easy, fairly fast craft for us to do together and I came up with a way to deliver them to her friends without getting them sticky.  First we organized all the pieces into piles.  Then I put the snowman bases together for my daughter to save some time (we decided to do this the night before the last day of school before the holiday break)! The face circle on top of a larger circle on top of an even larger sticker.  Then I gave them to my daughter to decorate.  She had a ton of fun picking out which hats, scarves, mittens, arms and buttons to place on each snowman.  She even came up with the clever idea to color mittens with white crayon to make it look like there was snow on the mittens.  While she decorated each snowman, I decided to place each snowman on a piece of black construction paper.  The nice thing about this foam sticker set is no glue required.  Each piece is a sticker thus the back of the snowman was sticky and placing each one on paper gave them a nice background without sticking to anything else.  I wrote "Merry Christmas" at the top of the black construction paper using a white crayon, wrote "From:" underneath then had my daughter take a break from decorating the snowmen to write her name on each strip of black paper.  I didn't have her class list so instead of writing their names, we figured getting a unique snowman would be nice for everything and they would at least know who made them.  Overall we made about 18 of them and they were a hit at school.  Here is a sampling below:

 Full view

 Closer view

 The snowman with snow on his mittens

Foam sticker kit

Crocheting - Lion Hat

I made my second crocheted hat by request, a lion.  My friend's son lost his lion hat and she asked if I could make him one.  I did but it turns out I made it too small.  I followed the toddler pattern, tried in on my son and it was too small, so I will regift it to a friend who just had a baby boy and whom I was planning on making a fat for anyway.  I'll use the child size pattern and make a new lion hat for my other friend.  I used the Tiger pattern from the Repeat Crafter Me site combined with her Unicorn pattern to learn how to make a mane.  The face I made myself stitching the eyes and the nose/mouth like I do on my bear loveys to save some time.  I may use large buttons for eyes in the future instead.  Maybe for the next lion.  Overall I think it looks cute!