magazine stars

Cut out swatches of yellow from magazines.  Draw and cut stars from recycled cardboard and glue down pieces of yellow.  Trim as needed when dry.  Add glue and seed beads for extra sparkle on some of the stars.

our secret garden

Last week, Ella and I discovered a hidden gem just steps from our house. A cute little park tucked away next to the hospital.  No swings or slides here.  Just shady paths for skipping.  A wishing well for - well, what else, wishing :)  Some very cool musical instruments to explore.  And several interesting statues to wonder about --- Ella believes they just may come alive at night!

Shiny Ornament

Leslie made one of these when she was small.  Ella saw it on the tree and asked if she could make one.  Hard to refuse, especially when this is a super simple project and you can basically use whatever you have on hand.  Just cover a toilet paper tube with foil.  Paint foil with white glue and then go crazy with confetti, foil stars, beads, etc.  Finish with a sprinkling of glitter.  Let it dry and attach a string for hanging.

Christmas Tree Hat

No Bake Clay Ornaments

We used lids that we'd been saving - the ones from Play-doh worked really well - and no bake clay from Crayola to create some ornaments.  It was as simple as pressing clay into the lids and then decorating with whatever we could find in the collage bin.  The clay dried and hardened in about 24 hours and we were able to add ribbons for hanging.  Ella was so proud of how these turned out!

Handprint Angel

Handprints for the body and wings - grapefruit print for the head (although we should have used an orange because the head seems big) - details filled in with paint - and glitter added to wings.