crafTUESDAY - Fun for the Fourth

The summer is upon us and I don't know about you, but my kids have already put me in charge of hourly entertainment.  Sometimes it seems like it's minute by minute entertainment (and I thought swimming lessons would help!!!!)  As I need all the help I can get, I thought I'd share some of the crafty things we do this summer to give ideas to others, should you need some.  Feel free to link your own ideas to this thread to help keep me and the rest of my blog readers entertained too, okay?
I'm going to try and post every Tuesday.  crafTuesday, dontcha know. 

With the Fourth of July this weekend and Independence day being celebrated all over the USA with our red, white, and blue, I thought it would be a fun opportunity to do something patriotic.

Supplies:

You can get three bottles of School Glue from Elmer's for $1.00.   It's a staple in the kids' craft cupboard.

Tissue paper.  I was at Walmart and found a package of red, white and blue paper for $1.  This is another fun staple to that craft stash, and very inexpensive. 

One piece of white cardstock for each kid.  this is 8.5 x 11, the standard size.  I drew a rough drawing of a flag on this cardstock for each girl to decorate.

The concept is simple.  In fact, you may remember doing this in school when you were young.  I do (but Steve does not.  Perhaps he just wasn't into art like I was, lol).

You take a pencil, preferable unsharpened, and you place the eraser end in the center of a square piece of tissue paper that you've trimmed (they are about 1.5 inch squares, but I didn't measure.  I left the tissue paper folded as it is in the package, trimmed a long strip, and then trimmed that strip into squares).

You then scrunch the paper around the end of the pencil, dip it in some glue (I poured some glue onto paper plates), and press it on to your paper. 

What you are left with when you remove your pencil is a frilly cup shaped piece of tissue paper.  Keep doing it and eventually you will come up with a fun design.

I would have loved to share a finished flag, but oh my word, the sands of time may not be long enough to see this finished.  This means:

a.  it is geared for children older than 4-6.  OR
b.  it is PERFECT because it will entertain your kids for several hours or at least a bit here and there for a couple of days.

My goal is to have these finished by the 4th of July.  :) 

I like this project a lot, it was very inexpensive, and it was fun for my girls.  It really helps them work on their coordination as they hold the pencil, wrap, and dip it in glue and then place it on their project.  I took turns helping both kids and both were doing just fine. 
Need more 4th of July/summer ideas?  Check out this post here.  This project was published in BHG Scrapbooks Etc last year (woot!), and that's my girls in 2008 when they were 2 and 4.  My kids loved that project, and I still have that star banner. 
If you are headed to a barbecue this weekend or hosting an event yourself, I also wanted to pass along a fun party dip to try.  We camped a couple weeks ago and I tried out a new recipe.  The best part about it was that many of the ingredients were canned veggies, so if you are planning a long camping trip, you can save valuable fridge space until you are ready to whip up something to munch on.

It's called Cowboy Caviar and boy is it delicious.  I'd share a photo, but I made it while at the lake and the minute I set it out it was gone.  That's always a good sign, methinks.

Cowboy Caviar:

1 (15.5 ounce) can of black beans, drained
1 (15.5 ounce) can of black-eyed peas, drained
1.5 cups of salsa (you can also do 1 15.5 ounce can of diced tomates w/green chiles, if you prefer).
1 (15.5 ounce) can of corn
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/4 green bell pepper, finely chopped
1-2 jalepeno peppers, finally chopped
1/2 t. garlic salt
1 cup italian dressing
3/4 cup chopped cilantro

Mix everything together and then add the cilantro and dressing.
YUM.

My camping friends said it would be nice with avacado's, or would be great in a taco (they said fish tacos but I'm not a taco with fish in it kinda girl, so I'll just say taco, lol).


I'm going to take a batch of this dip along with a bag of Juanita's tortilla chips to a barbecue.  Steve is on shift on the 4th for the first time in a few years, so the girls and I are going to be fairly low key this year, which will be a fun change. 


Have a great day!  Davinie