Arts and Crafts

Cotton Ball Container Bunny

She’s Crafty! Recycled Cottontail Bunny

Here’s a fun guest post that Amanda over at Crafts by Amanda shared with us last year, and I am sharing it again because this one turns out SO cute and is quite simple to put together.

It’s almost Easter! Kids will love making this darling little bunny from recycled materials. You can use any cylindrical container like a Pringles can, oatmeal container, or make a mini version with a Crystal Light container. This is a fun easter craft for the kids, so sit them down on one of those rainy spring days to make this cutie!

You will need:

potato chip canister (or any other can you have)
Liquitex Basics Gesso OR white acrylic paint
bag of cotton balls
3 feet of white twisted paper (ears)
1 chenille stem, any color
4 large white pom poms (cheeks and hands)
1 small pink pom pom (nose)
2 medium wiggle eyes
2 lilac colored foam flower shapes (feet)
6 small white foam circles (toes)
1 large white foam circle
1 pink foam flower shape
1 green medium foam circle
2 rectangular foam shapes (teeth)
pink acrylic paint
6-8″ colorful ribbon
White craft glue
scissors

What you do

Completely wash and dry potato chip canister. Paint outside of canister with one coat or Gesso. This does not have to look nice, it’s just a thin coat of medium to help the glue stick better. Let dry completely.

Glue cotton balls onto canister, completely covering the surface. Start at the bottom, glueing cotton balls next to each other until your finish the row, ending at the one you started with. Repeat this pattern all the way up the can until the canister is completely covered in cotton balls.

Cut the twisted paper in half so that you have two equal lengths of 18″ each. Open the twisted paper and stretch it out to make a wide ribbon. Fold in half, end to end to create the an ear. Cut chenille stem in half. Holding the ends of the ear together, start about 1 inch above the bottom of the end and secure them together by twisting the chenille stem around them. Repeat this for the other ear as well. Glue the ears to the inside of the top of the canister.

About 1/3 of the way down the can, glue 2 white pom poms on for the cheeks. Glue the pink pom pom just above and in between the two white ones. Glue wiggle eyes on above the nose.

Using the lilac colored flower foam shapes, cut all but three of the petals off. Glue small white foam circles onto each remaining petal for the toes. Repeat for other flower. Next, cut two small ovals from the large white foam circle. Glue onto lilac flower below the toes for the footpads. Glue the feet at the bottom of the canister as pictured.

Glue the small green foam circle into the center of the pink foam flower. Glue the remaining two white pom poms onto the bottom of the flower. Glue this whole thing onto the front of the rabbit above the feet. Flower should be sticking out above the hands.

Lay the bunny on its “back” and glue the teeth in place, underneath the cheeks. Tie a colorful ribbon into a bow and glue at the base of one ear.

Paint the center of the twisted paper with pink acrylic paint for the center of the ears.

Leave bunny in the lying down position, check for items that may have slid around. Put any wandering pieces back where they belong and let dry completely.

Visit Crafts by Amanda to find more fun easter crafts and spring crafts for you and the kids! 

Have fun!

 

 

 


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She’s Crafty: Easter Bunny Milk Jug Craft

Here’s a fun (and easy!) Easter Bunny Milk Jug Craft for you do to with your little ones this Easter! We have made these jugs for the past few years, and not only have we had a blast making them…but my kids love to store their Easter eggs in them!

All that you will need is an empty milk jug, paper for the ears, a cotton ball tail and a few pipe cleaners and googly eyes. (or you could just draw the whiskers and eyes on). Just cut the top off of a clean milk jug (an adult will have to do this part) and decorate! Fill with Easter grass and this makes for a fun way to recycle a used milk jug into a darling Easter basket!

Added bonus! This makes for a great bin to store your plastic Easter eggs in!

 

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Fun Valentine’s Day Ideas…

I have to admit, while I love to celebrate almost anything, Valentine’s Day is one of the holidays that I feel gets very commercialized.

Anyway… I DO love any chance to show my family how much I love them, and for that, I will jump right on in and celebrate the LOVE of this day. I thought I would share with you a few of the ways that I usually do every year to get us in the festive spirit of this LOVEly day!

First of all … I will start off the day by making my family heart shaped (pink!) pancakes… my kids get the biggest kick out of these:

I also wanted to share with you a really neat gift that I made for my hubby a couple of years ago. My good friend Jaycie over at CouponGeek shared with me this neat idea for a photo gift. I decided to give it a try, and I LOVE how it turned out. I took a photo of my wedding band in an open page of my bible, and followed her instructions to let the light come in and create a natural heart shape just below my ring…I must say, I am SHOCKED that it work, and it turned out wonderful! It now hangs framed in our room.How to do you celebrate Valentine’s Day?

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Thankful Turkey Coloring Craft for Kids:

Go here to print out your FREE I’m Thankful Turkey template! My kids and I had a ball making these…super easy and fun, and a thankful turkey is always a great way to put your life in perspective! We do a thankful turkey each year so that I can watch those little hands grow along with our thankfulness!

If you get extra creative, you can also glue things onto this craft: feathers, gems, noodles … dress up your thankful turkey for a festive holiday look. This is also a great project to share with teachers as it is very simple and easy on the budget, yet fun for the kids and parents love to hang this one up!

If you Thanks to GuideCraft Arts & Crafts for this fun project!

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I love Halloween arts & crafts, and here is a fun one that I created for my son’s classroom Halloween party a couple of years ago. It’s basically an extension of the every popular ghost/lollipop craft. These are so easy and fun to make and the kids love the puppet factor.

Pumpkin and Ghost Pop Up Lollipop Puppets
Super simple!!

You will need:
Cups (black cups look festive)
Kleenex for Ghosts (or white napkins) and orange napkins for Pumpkins
Sharpie marker for faces
Ribbon for tying napkins/kleenex over lollipops
Lollipops (Tootsie Roll Pops work great)
Felt and/or pipe cleaners for pumpkin top
Silk Leaves and cotton or “spider webs” for covering top of cup
Straws to use as your POP UP PUSHER

Directions: Start by covering your lollipops with kleenex/napkin, then secure the cover with a ribbon at neck of lollipop. Draw a face on your character, and also glue on stem and leaf for pumpkin. You will then stick the lollipop into a straw and tape it so that the straw is now attached to the lollipop. Poke a hole in the middle of the bottom of the cup, big enough for the straw to go through. I like to use a pencil to poke the hoe with so that the hole has some lip to it so that it grabs the straw when you are pushing it up and down. Last, push your lollipop all the way into cup and use a glue gun to cover the top of cup with leaves for the pumpkin and cotton/spider webs for the ghost. When you are done they can POP UP for a fun surprise!

 

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I will be sharing several different Halloween Arts & Crafts over the next few days, and these Mummy Cups are one of our favorites! They are so easy to make, and they are a great way to deliver treats, especially to teachers since they double as a pencil holder! (We used clear plastic cups, but you could also use paper cups and/or you could make them like we did when I was a kid and use tin cans!)

Mummy Cup Treat and Pencil Holders
Super simple!!

You will need:
Cups
Googly Eyes (the bigger the better)
Gauze (we used Curad rolled Gauze from Walmart, which was $2.48 for 4 ft, and were were able to make 12 mummy cups with one box. I cut 2 strips right up the center for the gauze and then cut again into 12 inch strips.
Glue Gun/Sticks
Filler: Whatever goodies that you want to fill your cup with. We used popcorn.

Directions: Start by gluing the googly eyes on, and then take a strip of gauze and stick it on with a dab of glue on the back of cup and wrap around leaving room for the eyes to peep out. It takes very little glue (just a tad) because the gauze sticks very well. Fill them up with your treat of choice, and your mummy cup is done!

 

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… I just had to share with you the fun halloween treats that we made last year for my sons kindergarten class… and I will warn you first that NO, they are NOT healthy, but YES, they were all kinds of fun to make and eat :) To make these Oreo Cookie Spiders you will need:

Oreos, Black Licorice, Yellow Frosting, Red Hots and white paper plates/black marker. Open the cookies to add the yellow frosting (for some reason, spider look cooler with yellow gush oozing out) and also add the licorice sticks (you can cut them in half for shorter spiders) … also use the yellow frosting to glue on the eyes. Draw a spider web on the paper plate… walla…Spooky Spider Treats!

A big thanks to Floral Showers Crafts for this darling idea!!

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Have you ever heard of triangle crayons? We first discovered them a couple of years ago, and love them. Why? ….they DON’T roll…they stay put. Such a great concept. Plus … they don’t have wrappers on the, so if your kids are like mine, you aren’t finding little torn crayon paper pieces everywhere. And … they come in a great plastic case that it easy for little hands to get in and out of.

I just found a great deal on them on Amazon…they have the Melissa & Doug Triangular Crayons – 24 pack for only$7.49 (ships FREE with Amazon Prime or on orders over $25)

Another favorite art item around our home are these Crayon Rocks – Eight Colors (In a Blue Velvet Bag) they are made from all natural soy and are only $5.60 shipped with Amazon Prime.

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When my son turned one year old, I started the tradition of hand making his party announcements. I also decided that each year I would bake and decorate a special cake just for him. Since then… I have stayed true to this tradition and handmade both the  Birthday Party invitations and the cakes for both of my kids. Let me tell you… this has led me to some very late night conversations with myself. Conversations like “if you had just bought the cake at Albertson’s then you could be sleeping right now…“.  Every year it gets a little harder to come up with something new and creative, but I actually look forward to the challenge (after I get done arguing with myself as to why I took on the challenge in the first place, that is).

One of my favorite party invitations were the ones that I made for my daughter’s first birthday party. She is a July baby, so the theme was perfect. … so I thought that I would share those, since she has a July birthday and would also be cute for a 4th of July Party theme….

Firecracker Invitations Instructions:

There are so easy to make. First of all … you need to find the BIG lifesaver rolls… and then you take off the label leaving only the foil. Create your own label on the computer and print them out and glue them on. The one that I created for my daughters birthday said:

Let’s all celebrate and have some fun…Our little FIRECRACKER is turning ONE! (where/when/etc) Our little girl is short and sweet…so the party will be too. Nothing fancy…just snacks and drinks and hotdogs on the BBQ. RSVP (phone number) … please don’t be a dud.

I poked a hole in the end of the lifesaver tube (down through the middle of the lifesavers) and then just stuck in the fun garland decor (I found this at the dollar store…it was part of party centerpiece. I paid one dollar for it and then took it apart.) I have also seen this kind of garland at the Party Supply store. I used a glitter spray to spritz it will glitter… and walla!! Firecracker Invitations!

 

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Ok …so this one caught my attention, as I certainly need this type of help! Thanks to Craftsy, you can become a Sewing Machine Master for FREE in their online course! You will  learn how to understand and diagnose machine issues, as well as easily fix the most common issues, including jammed machines, top thread breaks, needle breaks and more. Claudia, the instructor, also explains the basic parts and functions of every machine…which is awesome since I am so rusty that I barely know how to turn the darn thing on, lol!

Craftsy also has a lot of other FREE craft ideas, advice and inspiration … you can check it all out here!

Thanks Frugal Fritzie!

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