Patriotic Craftiness

We were recently having a discussion over at Studio Calico about summer crafts for toddlers / preschools. Now that school is out, it's definitely time to get the craftiness in gear for the summertime.

I used to be on this monthly craft kick with Morgan where we'd make a new home decor item for my kitchen window. We'd use paper plates and make ladybugs, flowers, snowmen, pumpkins, etc., etc., for each month of the year. We've been busy this year so I haven't been doing it as often... bad mommy! But I thought we should replace the spring trees we made a few months ago with something fun for the fourth of July.

I was surfing around online and came across this:

How easy! All you need to do is water down some acrylic paint, and what scrapbooker doesn't have a ton of paint. Then you just dribble some onto a piece of paper, get a plastic straw, and blow it around. Perfect!

I took three pieces of cardstock, red, white, and blue, and drew a star on the backside. Then I turned them over and had Morgan create her fireworks with red, white, and blue paint. After it was dry, she turned them over and trimmed them out. For a finished look, I then mounted her stars on another piece of cardstock, trimmed them out with scalloped scissors, she punched holes in the sides, and we attached hemp and hung them in the kitchen window. Done! If your toddler/preschooler has a short attention span, this craft works great because it doesn't take long to do the painting portion, and you have to take a break to let it dry before you can trim it out.

If you have a little one, obviously you can trim the star out for them, but if you have an older child, it helps to develop their motor skills by having them do it themselves.

Payton was not a fan of blowing through the straw, so she just painted her paper. You can't mess up on this project so it was great that she had interest long enough to make a good mess. In fact, she sat there longer than Morgan did, so I was very proud of her.

Our finished star! And yes, it is machine stitching. I couldn't help myself. I liked the finished look. It will also keep this project together and perhaps I'll save it to hang next year as well.

I wanted a photof of both a smiling Morgan and a finished garland, but alas, this was the first attempt:

And this overexaggerated smile with eyes that were NOT on me was the second. ::sigh::

Overall it was a fun project! And Morgan did an AWESOME job trimming them out on her own.
In fact, she became very crafty, and while the first projects were drying, decided to do something on her own. I think it's very American Flag-ish. Don't you!?


While I was searching around for ideas for this project I also came across a Crafts newsletter put out by Family Fun. I haven't received one yet, but I've always enjoyed the fun crafts in their magazine, so I signed up right away. You can sign up here. You can get all sorts of interesting looking newsletters, including a kitchen one. Definitely clicked that box.....

Happy Thursday! Tomorrow night is Reveal night at Studio Calico! And Saturday I am participating in that scrap sale at my LSS. I am SO excited to get rid of a few things. In honor of that sale I'm going to do another little giveaway. Not as big as the last one, this time it is a little something new that I picked up. I was so excited to see all the new October Afternoon at my LSS that I may have picked up a little something for someone who reads my blog, so check back tomorrow.

:)