Decorating Onesies

For our last art project for on Saturday, O and M decorated onesies with fabric markers. I framed off a section of each onesie with masking tape and put a piece of cardboard beneath the top of the onesie. Then the girls started drawing with the fabric markers.

O wanted me to trace her hand on hers.

I need to iron the onesies to set the artwork, and then they'll be ready for the Little Kicker!

Art for Little Kicker

After the girls painted my belly, the girls and Guh-guh painted canvases for Little Kicker's room.

They had lots of fun, and I'm very happy with the results. I think Little Kicker will love them!

Belly Art

After we finished the belly cast, my sister thought we should paint my belly. That sounded like fun to me, so Melanie and the girls got to work! The girls were SO excited!!! They used the tempera paint that O has at her easel. Elliott and O wrote in the paint with their fingers :)

Belly Cast Fun!

We had lots of fun making a belly cast on Saturday afternoon :) It was a family event with my sister, mom, niece, bff, Elliott, and O participating. My niece was a little hesitant to get her hands covered in plaster, but O jumped right in. To make the belly cast, I bought a packet of rigid wrap plaster strips from Michael's (about 4.99). I cut them into 12 inch and 18 inch strips. My bff, EB, covered my big belly with Vaseline, and my sister soaked the strips in warm water before placing them on my belly. Then everyone smoothed the strips on my belly. I had to sit still for about 30 minutes after they finished until the cast was hard enough to remove. When Little Kicker is born, we'll take pictures of her in the belly cast. Once she's older, I'll let her decorate it :)

Fun with Straws

I had no idea that straws were so entertaining until my sister gave O a pack of straws for her birthday. O was THRILLED! She and my niece played with the straws for hours.
My niece made a straw and tape sculpture after she got home from vacation.

O has made many straw creations, but her favorite is her "unihorn." She walks around the house blowing into the straws like they are a horn. She said she has to be very careful because her unihorn is special :)

Painting with Bubbles

Painting with bubbles has been on my to-do list since last summer. I was so glad when Jo posted about this activity recently which reminded me to go ahead and do it! We used bubble solution that we already had and added food coloring. We then used our various bubble blowers and wands to blow bubbles onto cardstock. Our pictures didn't turn out nearly as nice as Ebi-Kun's, but we had a lot of fun!

DIY Moon Sand or How to Make a Mess!

After seeing the directions for making Moon Sand on Skip to my Lou, I decided we should try it. We used 9 cups of play sand (from Lowe's), 3 cups of cornstarch, and around 2 and a half to 3 cups of water.
1st O and Ell poured the sand into the container (we were so happy to have Elliott join us with this project!)


Then the cornstarch


Mixing it all together


They added the colored bubble solution to the sand :)


And here is the mess! If you don't like a mess, DON'T make moon sand! By the time she was finished playing, O was covered from head to toe in moon sand. Elliott dipped her in the lake to clean her off :)

O's Easel

We gave O this great easel from IKEA for her birthday, and she is SO excited. She said this area of the room is her "art station." She painted and painted and colored and put stickers on the paper for hours :) I bought several cups from IKEA to hang on the easel for extra storage, and she arranged them all just how she liked them. I was excited about the no spill paint cups that I bought from Amazon because we can just leave the paint at the easel so that it is always accessible. (I hope this isn't a mistake!). We also gave her an art tote from Let's Explore with several goodies in it...crayon rocks, window crayons, etc. She's very impressed with the window crayons and intrigued by the crayon rocks. While she was working at her easel, she said she was "arting." She also said "I am SO tired, but I just can't stop doing art. The art won't let me!" Interesting...

A Recycled Ring

The idea for using a milk top to make a ring came from another blog, but I can't remember where :) Sorry about that!
O decorated the ring top with puffy fabric paint.

She added a flower to the top, and she was done!

O also cut and painted straws to string for a necklace, but we never actually finished that project. So many projects, so little time...

"I might be an artist one day!"

O has enjoyed painting unfinished wooden picture frames to give as birthday gifts. While she was painting she said "Mama, I might be an artist one day!" I love to watch her paint, especially when she is really into it :)

What to do with stained onesies???

Tie-dye, of course!!! I have lots of stained hand me down onesies, so we decided to tie-dye them to make them beautiful :) I found a tie-dye kit at Michael's in the clearance section (it was normally 20 dollars, and I paid 5!), and we had a tie-dye party for Little Kicker on July 4th. It was fun to have Little Kicker's grandparents, aunt, cousin, and all of us (Elliott, O, and me) involved in making something for her. We tie-dyed 14 onesies, a t-shirt, 4 shirts for the girls (O & M), and 4 adult t-shirts, and we still have 5 packets of dye left!!!



Little Kicker is going to be a hip little kiddo :) After I took this picture, O said "I don't think 15 onesies are enough."

A Sea Shell Necklace

While we were at the beach we collected shells with holes in them so we could make sea shell necklaces! We originally planned to use dental floss for the necklaces, but I didn't like the idea of O having dental floss around her neck, and it would have been very difficult for her to string the shells onto the floss. Then, I realized that pipe cleaners would be perfect. It was easy for O to put the shells on the pipe cleaners, and I didn't have to worry about the necklace being a strangulation hazard :)

O was very proud of her necklace!

A Sea Shell Sculpture

We were so busy playing in the sand and water at the beach that we didn't have time for beach crafts. However, we brought shells home so we could craft at home :)

To make a sea shell sculpture, we mixed up plaster of paris.


Then we poured the plaster of paris into a large shell. O put smaller shells into the plaster to make her sculpture. This was a simple and fun activity!

Alphabet & Number Crayons

O and I made alphabet and number crayons for party favors for her 3rd birthday party. She enjoyed breaking the crayons, but she wasn't much help with peeling the paper off the crayons :) After we filled the number and alphabet molds with crayons, I put them in the oven for 20 minutes at 275 degrees. I left the crayons in the oven to cool so that the colors wouldn't mix and become muddy. Now the hard part...removing the crayons without breaking them! The idea for this activity and the number and alphabet molds came from Let's Explore.