Art Party Activities for Toddlers

Little O is going to be 2 in less than a month! WHAT??? Where did the time go? I feel just a few months ago I was planning her 1st Very Hungry Caterpillar birthday party. I can't believe that was a whole year ago.

I showed you the invitations I made for this year's art party last week. I've finalized my plans for the arts and craft projects for the toddlers attending the party, and I created signs for each station.

The plan is to open up all three stations at the same time and let the kids move freely from one to the next at their own pace. Each activity can be child directed with parental support for those who need it.

At the drawing center, I am planning to cover the whole table with white butcher paper and tape it down underneath. Little O has a hard time keeping the paper still when she's coloring, so I thought this would be the best solution, plus, it would keep the table clean. For drawing supplies, I'm providing crayons and markers in assorted colors, stamps and a variety of stamp pads, and stickers.

I'm really excited about the sculpting table. I'm making homemade playdough (since some of Little O's friends still like to experiment by tasting things). This is my favorite no cook playdough recipe from The Imagination Tree. I like to add the color to the water before adding it to the dry ingredients. I found this keeps my hands clean. In addition to the playdough, I'll provide a selection of cookie cutters, rolling pins, and other playdough toys. For an extra element, I'm planning to add pipe cleaners and feathers so the kids can make some interesting creatures.

The last table is the painting table. I was going to make homemade paint, but I haven't found a recipe that I love yet. So I opted for washable tempera paint. I found some really awesome bottles that have glitter mixed in. And of course I'll have the basic primary and secondary colors as well.

Earlier this week, I went shopping for some of the supplies for the stations. I was really excited when I discovered cute little smocks (just the right size for toddlers) at the Dollar Tree. I had been planning to make smocks for each child as the party favor, but there was no way I could make them for $1. So I went ahead and picked up 12. We may not have all 12 kids attend the party, but I'll keep the extras for play dates at our house. While the invitations did say to wear "art clothes," I'm sure most of the parents will be happy to have a little smock for their kiddos to wear.

I'm getting really excited about Little O's art party. She's going to love it!

Christmas Wreath

I took my sewing machine in for some maintenance this week. That means NO SEWING for a week and a half! What is a girl to do? Well, look at Pinterest of course and tackle some projects I'd been saving for later. I saw this wreath, and knew I had to make one like it for my door this Christmas. I made it today during Little O's nap time.

I bought most of my supplies at Hobby Lobby. Some of the ribbon is from last year in my stash, and the peppermint ornaments were donated by my mom (not sure where they came from).

First, I painted the letter white. After it dried I added the red and green dots using craft paint. When it was totally dry, I sprayed it with clear acrylic to keep it nice and make it a little bit glossy.

I made bows out of wired ribbon. I learned how to do this when I was a gift wrapper at a department store in grad school. I can't tell you how, but I could SHOW you... (note to self: create ribbon bow demo video).

I used floral wire to attach the bows and the ornaments to the wreath. And then I used hot glue to secure them and keep them from wiggling. I stuck the ornamental sprays in through the back of the wreath, and adjusted them until I liked how they looked. (They are on floral wire and are pretty flexible).

To attach the T to the other side of the wreath, I used floral wire and hot glue. First I put a dob of glue on the back of the top part of the T and pressed the wire into it. I held it until it dried. Most boring part of the whole project. Then I repeated that step on the back of the bottom of the T. I attached the wire to the wreath and secured the T to the wreath with hot glue anywhere it was touching.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out. And now I have all these visions in my head of creating wreaths for EVERY holiday. Who knew making a wreath could be so much fun!

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Teacher Appreciation Gifts

"Thank You for helping me grow!" 

Today was the last day of Baby O's Morning Out for Moms program. This school year, she's been attending the program for a few hours every Thursday morning. She had two wonderful teachers in her classroom, and I'm sure she's going to miss them over the summer. I am going to miss having a few hours each week dedicated to crafting and sewing. I sure hope nap time gets longer so I can have a few hours in my craft room to myself each week. 45-minute naps are not conducive to creativity.

Baby O (in the middle) with her teachers and a classmate.

Anyway, to show my appreciation for all their work and love O's teacher's have shown her this year, I wanted to make them something special. So of course I scoured Pinterest. There I found links to these other very creative bloggers: Love Grows Wild and Giggles Galore.

Here's what I did:

First, I gathered my supplies and made a list of what I needed. I had craft paint and brushes, chalk, Sharpies, ribbon, a tape measure, scrapbook paper, dowels, and dirt. I needed acrylic spray (to make the paint more durable and to keep the chalk from wiping off), flower pots, flowers, and gift cards.

Once I gathered all of my supplies (and of course, like my mother before me, and my grandmother before her, I waited until the last minute to REALLY gather all my supplies--I didn't have the flowers or gift cards until the day I was going to give them to her teachers), I got down to business.

First, I painted the base of the pots (and the little saucers) black. Then I painted the rims yellow. It took two coats of black and three coats of yellow. In hindsight, I would have painted the yellow first and then the black to get a crisper line. The black kind of showed through the yellow a little bit, but since it was under the rim of the flower pot, I didn't think anyone would notice. The craft store did have chalkboard spray paint, and I thought about using it instead of black craft paint. I decided against it because I didn't intend for the pots to be written on and erased over and over again.

After the paint dried, I taped the measuring tape around the bottom portion of the rim. Using a fine tip Sharpie (the regular-sized one), I marked off each inch mark. I had to fudge the last one because it didn't line up exactly. But I don't think anyone will notice (unless they get out a tape measure and check it). Then I removed the tape measure and marked the half-inch and quarter-inch marks with an extra fine tip Sharpie. In the examples I found online, they marked the pots to the 16th inch, but I liked the clean look of marking to the quarter inch instead. And since I waited until the last minute (6 a.m. on the last day of school), I was running out of time.

Next I used white chalk to write "Thank You for helping me grow" on each pot. I also wrote Baby O's name and the year on the saucer (which will get covered by the pot, but the teachers know it's there and will remember who gave it to them). I used the acrylic spray to set the chalk and make it more durable. Now here is where I ran into a problem: the spray dissolved a little of the chalk, so it didn't look as "chalky". I let the acrylic dry, and then I traced over what I had already written with a second coat of chalk. I sprayed it again, and this time it came out looking like I wanted.

While I wanted for the acrylic to dry, I made paper pinwheels out of scrapbook paper. I found the tutorial here. I didn't use brads. I just hot glued each corner down to the center and hot glued a button on top to hide the glue. I know they don't spin, but I was OK with that. It was more for the look. I just love the school days paper I found. Since my paper wasn't double sided, I glued two pieces (right sides out) together using rubber cement (I didn't have spray adhesive like she used in the tutorial). They turned out great, though. Then I glued each pinwheel to a small dowel using hot glue.

After the acrylic dried, I planted red impatiens in each pot. I tied the gift cards I purchased to the dowel using green grosgrain ribbon. I planted the pinwheels in the pot behind the flowers.

Here are the finished flower pots!

See where I've linked up!