A colorful Shoe

What happens to all those shoes that don't fit anymore or one pair gets lost?? Why you turn them into art of course. This is a great activity to teach children about recycling and the loss of a shoe or some other toy that needs parts.

Supplies:
Shoe, straw/hay, tissue paper, & paint

Directions:
1)Find an old shoe and start painting it different colors or paint a pattern onto it.
2) Stuff the shoe full of some straw/hay
3) paint tissue paper or use colored paper
4) Pour glue into the bottom of the shoe and put in the straw and tissue paper.
5) Let Dry!

Your shoe can be used as a paper weight or a decoration. Just keep it away from the cats and dogs!!

Sea Shell Swirl

This was fun and easy! We put it in a frame holder to display it.

Supplies: Seashells, Glue, Paper Plate

Directions: Grab a small paper plate and start by gluing a single shell in the middle.
Pick a different color shell and glue around the first.
Continue until you have filled the whole plate.

You can use rhinestones, buttons, and add some charms for a little flair!

Paper Fans

Paper Fans by Chloe & Lucas

Supplies: Construction Paper, Tape, Stickers, (also Rhinestones, Markers, Glue, anything you can glue on to paper)

Directions:
Take piece of construction paper lengthwise and fold 1 inch, then flip over and fold backwards.

Keep folding back and forth until it looks like an accordion.

Put stickers on folds. You can put stickers on every other fold or do a pattern of stickers.

Gather paper at the bottom and tape together a 1-2 inch high handle.

Voila, now you can stay cool in the hot summer heat!! No batteries required!

Make A Solar Oven!

We cooked some Smores and hot dogs in our solar oven. It is easy to make, and took 20 minutes to put together.

Supplies: 1 box , newspapers, scissors, tape, black construction paper, clear plastic wrap, aluminum foil, ruler. Our box was 14" length X 11" wide X 3" tall. You can use a pizza box also.

Directions:
1) On top of box, Draw an 8.5" X 11" 3 sided square, this is the flap on top.

2) Cut out the 3 sides of the square and fold flap back.

3) Cover inside of flap with aluminum foil using tape to secure the edges.

4) Line inside of box bottom with black paper. Tape or glue down.

5) Roll up newspapers to 1.5" thick and tape closed. Fit these around the inside edges of the box.

6) Tightly stretch and tape plastic wrap to inside/ underside of top opening.

7) Prop the flap open with a ruler while cooking.

Place the oven in the sun, on a table or chair. The sun will bounce off the aluminum foil and warm up the food inside. It took about an hour for the hot dog to be warm and the Smores to melt.
ENJOY!

Play dough

After a being sick and then getting hit by a car, I haven't been able to make crafts, so here is a recipe for play dough.

3 cups flour
1/4 cup salt
1 cup water
1 tablespoon oil
liquid food coloring

Mix flour with salt. Add water, food coloring, and oil slowly. If mixture is too stiff add more water. If it is too sticky, add more flour. Store dough in air tight container or zip-lock bag.

Here is the website where I got the recipe, and many more. Play dough is always fun! http://www.geocities.com/holidayzone/recipes/dough.html

Lack of posts!

Sorry for the lack of recent posts. There has been a cold making the rounds at our house, and I just haven't had the time or energy.
I will be reposting crafts by mid May.
Thank you for your patience.

FUN BOARD!

We took this piece of wood, found on the street and created art worthy of hanging on the wall.

Supplies:

wood or other flat thick material

fabric scraps

paper (we cut out iron on letters for the word)

glue

scissors

beads

ornaments/ keychains/ jewelry

Directions:

Cut scraps of fabric into triangles and squares.

Glue on to board and arrange however you want, you will most likely overlap a bit.

Allow about 10 minutes for the fabric to dry, then glue on your word, beads and other decorations.

Let dry.

I think I had more fun than the kids with this one! All of the work took about 30 minutes.