Fluffy Sheep

After taking a two week hiatus for Elliott's birthday party preparations, I'm baa-ck!

Make these fluffy sheep from recycled materials.

You will need:

• Toilet paper roll, cut in half
• Handful of cotton balls, cut into quarters
• Glue
• Black felt
• Googly eyes
• Black pom-pom (one per sheep)
• 4 Black pipe cleaners, cut in half

How to:

1. Cover toilet paper roll with glue.




Don't come to my house unless you want to work! I make my friends pitch in!


2. Cover roll with cotton balls.

3. Cut sheep's head out of black felt. Attach googly eyes. Glue to roll.
4. Glue black pom-pom to sheep's butt.

5. Twist pipe cleaners into spirals. (I twisted ours around a pencil.) Attach to roll to form legs. (I punched holes into the roll and poked the legs through.)

Thoughts:
You never know how craft time during a play date is going to go, so I tried to find an easy, short craft so the boys could get back to playing. This was pretty lame, but Elliott and Christian seemed to have fun making them. Of course Elliott decided it might be fun to glue cotton balls to his fingers, too...

Elliott's Evaluation:

I liked to glue the balls on. My sheep has a butt!

And because El thought his sheep needed a buddy, I let him do one on his own while I cleaned up...

Rock Man

Make this cute Rocker!

You will need:

• Rocks of different shapes and sizes
• Tacky craft glue
• Paint
• Googly eyes
• Pipe cleaners, feathers, yarn, etc. (Use your imagination!)

How to:

Make sure your rocks are clean and dry. Paint rocks and let dry.

Assemble rock man as desired and use glue to attach. (We used Superglue and it only lasted a few days. I think a really tacky glue or glue gun will work better.)

Embellish rock man with googly eyes, feathers, etc. We used a feather for his hair, googly eyes and two shades of blue pipe cleaners twisted together for his arms and legs.

Thoughts:
Awww. I forgot how cute Rock Man was. (He fell apart fairly quickly after we finished him. Guess SuperGlue isn't all that super on rocks.) Elliott was so proud of his finished sculpture!

Elliott's Evaluation:
Good. I liked it.
(Me: Can you give me anything else?)
I liked it!
(Me, with a raised eyebrow: ...and...)
I liked putting the feather on.
(Me: Anything else?)
Mom, I'm trying to play Wii!! Look at Chewbacca with a Storm Trooper helmet on!
(Me: no reaction)
Mom! Look at Chewbacca!
(Me: No, if you can't take a moment for this, I can't look at your game.)
Mom! I really liked it. I liked stacking the rocks. I like him. Can you look at Chewbacca now?
(Me: Mmm, hmm. Chewbacca has on a Storm Trooper's helmet. That's really funny. Sigh.)

Clothespin Dinosaurs

Roar! I'm a scary dinosaur!

You will need:

• Foam board
• Paint
• Glue
• Glitter, sequins, etc
• Googly eyes
• Clothespins (2 per dinosaur)
• Craft knife or box cutter

How to:

1. Cut dinosaur shapes out of the foam paper using a craft knife. I say craft knife, because although cutting foam paper is pretty easy, a box cutter just doesn't make a nice edge. I was too cheap to buy a craft knife, but if you have one use it. Keep the design simple and keep it hands and legs free. (The clothespins become the arms and legs.)
2. Paint dinosaur shapes.
3. Once dry, decorate dinosaur with glitter, sequins and sparkles.
4. Add googly eyes.
5. Set clothespins in place as arms and legs. Leg clothespins should be able to stand dinosaur up.

Thoughts:

For Elliott's 3rd birthday (a dinosaur party), I had this craft set up as a "warm-up" activity for anyone who was interested, which was, surprisingly, only one child. (And him being the one who was LEAST into arts and crafts!)  Of course, I had also forgot to hide all of Elliott's toys before the party guests came over, so the boys were all a bit distracted. Elliott finished his after the party was over, but it was not the hit I thought it would be.



Elliott's friend, Jack, who really isn't in to arts and crafts really got into this project!



Elliott's Evaluation:

I don't remember making this. Did I like it? Do we still have it?

Popsicle Stick Mummies



A mummy for your Mummy's Boy or Girl

 You will need:

• Popsicle sticks (two for each mummy you make)
• Wooden craft spoons (Popsicle sticks with rounded ends)
• Glue gun
• Gauze (Our strips were 2 yards in length and 1 inch wide.)
• Googly eyes
• Wire cutters

How to:

1. Use the cutters to snap two Popsicle sticks, not quite in half. (Leave one side slightly larger than the other.) The longer pieces will be the legs.
2. Glue the arms and the legs to a wooden craft spoon to make a person. Let dry.




One arm and one leg make up one stick.


3. Wrap gauze around sticks. Use a dab of glue to hold last piece in place.
4. Add googly eyes.

Thoughts:
We did this craft at this year's Halloween party and it was a little more complicated (for 3 year olds) than I thought it would be. The adults had to lend a hand wrapping the gauze. However, it was also a favorite. One of our crafters now sleeps with his mummy and Elliott says it was his favorite craft from the party. They are awfully cute. So, although this craft is actually very easy, be prepared to jump in with a helping hand, and don't "bury" this craft. Haha, get it?

Elliott's Evaluation:
This was my favorite craft from our party. (Me: Even though Mummy (sorry, I'm on a roll...of gauze) had to help a lot?) Yes. I like my mummy so much. He's sooo cute. I love him.

Monster Face



A Monster Face Marble Game



You will need:

• Cereal Box
• Paint
• Yarn
• Scraps of paper (for nose, freckles, etc.)
• Glue
• Large Googly eyes
• Marbles or small balls
• White paper

How to:

1. Cut the top out of a cereal box. (Save to later make ears.)
2. Cut three inch slits in the box and fold up (or cut out) every other flap. These will be the slots for your marbles.
3. Paint entire box.
4. Paint.
5. Paint.
6. Paint.
7. Paint some more.




Painting the first of six layers!


8. Once dry, add eyes, ears, hair, etc.
9. Cut strips of white paper to cover flaps to make teeth.
10. Write different point values for each flap and take turns flicking marbles at face to try to get them in holes. Person with the most points gets, well, nothing.

For hair and eyebrows:

For hair: Cut pieces of yarn in various lengths. Tie a small piece of yarn in center to hold.

For eyebrows: Wrap yarn around a small piece of cardboard about 1 inch thick. Slip off cardboard, tie in the middle with a small piece of yarn, and cut ends.





 Thoughts:

Who knew exactly how many layers of paint it would take to cover our cereal box? (I think six, before the name of the cereal was no longer visible.) Our monster started out blue, but once we ran out of blue we had to start adding any other color we had. He ended up a really cool, scary shade of dark green.

Elliott's Evaluation:

I looooved painting my monster face. I like to roll marbles at it. But, you don't get any points if it doesn't go in a hole.









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.)

Ghost Prints

A spooktacular art project!

You will need:

• Construction paper, cut into desired size
• Non-toxic paint (tubes work best)
• Googly eyes
• Glue

How to:

1. Drizzle paint onto paper. Try to avoid getting too close to the edges to prevent spills.
2. Fold paper in half and lightly rub. (Saying "Booooo!" usually helps.)
3. Open and voila! a ghost appears.
4. Add googly eyes.

Thoughts:

This was a project we did over and over last Halloween and it was always a huge hit. We even did it as a craft at our Halloween party and every child enjoyed it.

Options:

Once the paint dried, I cut around the shape and hung fishing line through a hole and hung them all over the house.

When making ghosts, white paint (or glow-in-the-dark paint!) looked best on black paper. But the nice thing about this craft is that you aren't limited to just ghosts. You can use any color paint and paper to make creepy bugs, monsters or aliens. (The more googly eyes the better!)

Tissue Paper Mural

Wondering about my blog name? This artwork is a prime example of craptastic!

You will need:

• Cardstock or construction paper
• Tissue paper (or construction paper) in different colors, torn into pieces
• Glue
• Paintbrush

How to:

1. Water down the glue slightly.
2. With the paintbrush, "paint" the glue mixture onto paper.
3. Place tissue paper wherever!

Thoughts: I was soooo disappointed with how this art turned out:

But, seriously, what was I thinking it would look like?  Apparently I was picturing this amazing , frame-worthy, 3-dimensional sculpture. Uh, not so much. So, here's the point: Elliott loved tearing apart the paper, mixing the glue and water and especially painting the glue mixture onto the paper. Placing the tissue paper lovingly and thoughtfully in artfully arranged scenes was supposedly not on the menu. After patting, OK, slamming a few pieces on, he called it a day. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. Do I have this "art" framed anywhere in the house? Uh, no.

Optional: Want to make it more craptastic? Before the glue dries, add glitter, pom poms and googly eyes.

Want to be rid of the artwork but not throw it away? Crop the art, being sure to include any parts with googly eyes and add sayings like "Eye hope you're feeling better", or "Eye am thinking of you", etc. Fold paper in half and send to that unsuspecting relative who won't have the heart to throw away any of Junior's art. Suckers.