Seashell Candy Bowl

A Saturday spent beachcombing resulted in a Monday spent painting seashells.  This one was perfect as a Valentine candy dish . . .

We used watercolor paint and painted the shell both inside and out.  We let it dry in the sun and then filled it with kisses :)

Contact paper hearts - part 2

We used watercolor paint to fill in the white hearts left by the contact paper . . .

contact paper hearts

This was a double-duty project.  We started by cutting hearts from contact paper and attaching them randomly to a sheet of watercolor paper.  Ella finger painted over the entire paper with red and pink tempera paint.  When it was dry we gently peeled the contact paper hearts off of the watercolor paper and Ella attached them to a piece of wax paper.  It makes a cute window display.  Stay tuned for part 2 of this project . . .

print making - circles

Experiments in printmaking -
bottles caps and lids
paint poured onto a paper towel covered paper plate
stamp pads

Valentine's Day cards perhaps?

Beginning Sounds Box

I've always been attracted to tiny things.  Miniatures for a doll house.  Fairies.  Tiny toy animals.  And so  I am excited that Ella and I are making a beginning sounds box.  We started with a plastic Art Bin that I picked up at Michael's with a 50% off coupon.  Then, we found alphabet stickers and labeled the individual cubbies in the box.  Finally, we have begun our search to fill each little box with at least one thing.  Some of the letters are more difficult than others.  For Ii - infant and insect.  For Nn, we found a ninja and a nut.  Still looking for something to fill Uu and Qq :)

Paper Fairy

It seems unauthentic to do a unit on snow and another snowman project when you live in a place where it never snows - where we spend Christmas day on the beach - where our little garden just gets going in January.  Ella has never left the state of Florida.  She is a Florida girl through and through - balking when she has to wear a jacket or even shoes that completely cover her feet!  And so we find ourselves doing a unit on fairies this month . . .

Ella loves making paper dolls.  This paper friend has raided the backyard and the craft box to adorn herself.

using my scrapbook supply stash for valentine's day projects . . .

I like to go through my scrapbook paper stash and clear out old papers that are really not my taste any longer.  I give them away or find a project for the littles.  I cleared out my reds/pinks for some valentine's day arts and crafts with Ella.

I used a paper cutter to cut the paper into 1 inch strips for both projects.  For the first project I gathered a canvas, glue, Mod Podge, scissors, and a paint brush.  We began by applying glue to the entire canvas.  Then Ella adhered the strips as she liked.  Some went off the canvas but that was okay.  We just trimmed them with scissors when the glue dried.  After 24 hours I helped Ella apply Mod Podge to the canvas for a pretty glossy finish.

For the second project we needed yarn, construction paper, and tape.  I pre-cut the yarn and taped it horizontally on the paper.  I showed Ella how to weave the strips - going in and out.  She immediately said, "Oh, I get it - a pattern!" and and she was weaving like a pro.