Spring Robin



Make a Spring Robin with your foot!

 You will need:

• White paper
• Brown, orange and green paint
• Paintbrush
• Black marker or crayon
• One clean, bare foot
• Baking sheet (to contain any messes)

How to:

1. Place paper on baking sheet.
2. Paint bottom of child's foot with brown paint. Help child to step on paper. (You'll probably have to fill in some areas with more paint.)



3. Paint an orange belly on Robin. (Since Elliott hasn't quite mastered coloring in lines, I painted a quick line to give him an idea of the area to fill in.) Add a beak.

4. Add some grass. (And flowers if you want...we aren't that advanced.)

5. Once paint is dry, add feet and an eye with the marker.

Thoughts:
I found this idea at http://www.momentsofmommyhood.com/ and I'm so glad I did. This Robin is so freaking cute and makes me smile every time I pass it. The craft is really easy and only takes a couple of minutes, so it's a great one if you're a bit pressed for time.

Elliott loved getting his foot painted and has already requested that we make a few more of these and I will be happy to do so. What a sweet craft!

Elliott's Evaluation:

It tickled when Mommy painted my feet! I like to hold my painting up in the window for the birds outside to see. But I don't want to scare them so I stay quiet. We are going to make some more of these.

Easter Chicks

These cute chicks go perfect with the Egg Nest.

You will need:

• Yellow pom-poms (We used two large and one small)
• Black seed beads
• Tweezers
• Glue
• Orange felt

How to:

1. Cut the orange felt into diamond shapes, fold in half and place glue on the crease. Glue onto pom-poms for beaks. We had some trouble getting the felt to stick to the pom-pom, but after many attempts, the glue hardened enough to make the next try stick.
2. Holding seed beads with tweezers, dip into glue and place onto pom-poms for eyes.

Thoughts:
This craft isn't exactly kid (i.e. 3 year old) friendly, but I've included it because the birds look so cute and look great in the nest. Young children can help to fold the diamonds in half to form the beaks and choose where to place the beaks and eyes.

Seed beads! I had no idea what they were, and after a good 20 minutes or so of hunting them down at the craft store, finally found them in the (duh) bead aisle. For those of you, like me, who don't know, they are those little teeny tiny beads that people use to make beaded jewelry. Who knew?

Easter Egg Nest

An egg-cellent Springtime craft

You will need:

• Colored tissue paper
• White paper
• Balloon
• Newspaper (to protect your work area-this is a messy one!)
• String
• Jar lid
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup water
• Ribbon (15-20 inches)
• Glue

Items for interior of egg:

• Birds (see Easter Chicks posting on this blog)
• Paper grass
• Plastic egg

How to:
1.   Cut the tissue paper and white paper into 1 & 1/2 to 2 inch squares.
2.   Inflate balloon to desired size. Knot it. I tied a string to the balloon and hung it from our light fixture, so that it was suspended right in front of us. You could also try to set the balloon in a small bowl to keep it still.

3.   In a bowl, stir the flour and water together to make a paste. Working with one piece at a time, dip tissue paper squares into paste and smooth it onto the balloon. Cover the entire balloon, making sure the squares overlap slightly. This will be the inner layer of your egg.

My poor friend Kim came to town for a last minute visit and got roped into helping out.

4.   Using the same method, add two layers of the white paper on top of the tissue paper layer.

5.   Add one final layer of tissue paper.

6.   When the egg is completely dry, (We let ours dry overnight.) use a pencil to draw a window opening on one side of the egg, then cut it out with scissors. Pop and discard balloon.

7.   Ball up individual tissue squares, dip into glue and place around the edge of the opening.

8.   Tie ribbon into a bow and tuck knot into hole left by balloon knot.

9.   Decorate interior of egg with grass, birds and plastic egg.

10. Display egg by placing on an upside-down jar lid.  

Thoughts:

Nothing craptastic about this craft; the final result is so adorable. My husband thinks I should make more and sell them for 15 bucks a pop at a craft show. The tissue paper layering is a messy and tedious process.

Elliott thought his messy hands were a riot!

Elliott lost interest after a while, and I was stuck doing most of it on my own. I actually found it to be very relaxing. El particularly enjoyed assembling the nest.

Our nest is still sitting on Elliott's bookshelf and he takes it down to play with it quite often. He loves to hear stories about the Mommy and Daddy bird preparing their nest for the arrival of their baby bird, who hatches at the end of the story. Elliott has recently been asking if he could do this craft again, next time making a hot-air balloon, so keep an eye out for that in the future.

Grassy-hoppers

A super-cute way to welcome Spring!

You will need:

• Cardboard egg carton
• Green paint
• Googly eyes
• Pipe cleaners (We used black and white.)
• Soil
• Grass seed
• Black marker
• Glue

How to:

1. Cut egg carton into three-cup pieces.
2. Paint outside of cups green. Let dry.
3. Attach googly eyes with glue. Draw a smiley face with marker.
4. Shape pipe cleaners into antennae and legs. Attach to carton with glue.
5. Place small amount of soil in each cup. (Don't fill it to the top! Leave enough room for water.)
6. Sprinkle each cup with grass seed.
7. Place in a sunny spot and water daily. (Sprouts should show up after a few days.)

Thoughts:

This was a really cute project and reminded me (daily) that Spring was right around the corner. The cardboard egg cartons are very absorbent, so it's important to remember to water your seeds every day. (I'm not sure if Styrofoam cartons would work, so if anyone tries, let me know.)