Paper Plate Fish

We started this project yesterday and saved the plates they coloured on and brought them back out today. Bean was excited to colour again and quickly started scribbling across all the plates. :)

Supplies: paper plates, markers, glue sticks, scissors, googly eyes or eye stickers, tape, yarn for the jellyfish.

Start by colouring the plates. Bean liked to colour the middle of the plates.

Munchkin played with the markers and was more entertained by popping off the caps and putting them back on. :)

I asked Bean which one she wanted to make into a jellyfish and she chose this plate. We flipped it over and I had her help me with the tape. We carefully laid the tape down sticky side up and she gingerly stuck the strands of yarn to the tape (I cut the yarn beforehand, about a foot long).

Then we flipped the tape over and she pressed it against the plate and added more tape to keep it in place.

The front side.

Then Bean added eyes.. Apparently this is a very grumpy jellyfish. :)

We hung him up on the rafter that divides our living room.

These eye stickers are technically for Halloween, but they were perfect for this activity since Bean can easily add them instead of trying to glue googly eyes on.

She moved on to add eyes to her soon-to-be-fish.

I helped cut out the fins and Bean glued them on. 

 We added googly eyes to the other fish.

Half of our living room is painted a sea green colour. Once the fish are done drying we will hang them up on the wall and add air bubbles and seaweed cut out of construction paper. It will be so cute to add a little sea world! The kids will be able to see their art and play with it whenever they want. :)

Tomorrow we will add the bubbles and seaweed. :)

{If you enjoyed this post, please consider following me on Facebook and Pinterest. Thank you!}

Suncatcher Butterflies

Yesterday we started our butterflies by colouring coffee filters the same way you would to make flowers. It will be fun to make these some day with clothespins, but while I was going through a box of craft supplies I found our suncatcher kit and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the butterflies. The kit came with clear window suction cups and would be perfect for holding up the butterflies.

You need coffee filters (one or two for each butterfly), washable markers (regular markers will work too), a spray bottle filled with water, pipe cleaners (the fuzzier, the better), and a dry surface to dry the coffee filters on.
Colour the coffee filters any way you want, then spray them with a few squirts of water (a little goes a long way and you don't want them to be drenched). Leave them out to dry (we let them dry overnight).

Bean traced her hand on a couple of the coffee filters, although the water washed them away.

 I made a primary colour and black one, so I could explain primary colours to Bean.

Then we gathered the supplies.

These are the pipe cleaners that Munchkin and Bean picked out.

Bean watched me fold one coffee filter before she decided she preferred to roll them. :)

Bend a pipe cleaner in half.

Put both rolled coffee filters in the middle, try to keep them centered so the butterflies are balanced.

Then twist the pipe cleaners a few times (slightly loose, you don't want it to be too tight around the coffee filters, since that might tear them).

Then twirl the pipe cleaners around your finger to give them antennae. 

Bean loves that part. :)

Pretty butterflies! Last part is to open their wings (spread out the coffee filters). :)

Munchkin helped me put them on the window. (The morning light does not do them justice. They are really pretty when the sunlight shines right on them.)

And because they aren't tied to the suction cups they can rearrange the butterflies however they want and move them to other windows too. 

It will be so fun to make more of these! And we will try out other critters too. :)

{If you enjoyed this post, please consider following me on Facebook and Pinterest. Thank you!}

Simple Paint Recipe

Sometimes it's just nice to keep things simple. We like this recipe because it only uses three ingredients and because it's easy to clean up (although we learned the hard way, don't use the scrubby side of a sponge to clean it up, the flour sticks to it). All you need is a few heaping scoops of flour, some water and food colouring (or liquid watercolours).

Mix it up thoroughly. As you can see in this picture it is still too thick, so we added more water.

Perfect! Nice and smooth, it should have the same consistency as paint. 

Then we scooped a tablespoon into eight 2oz cups (we reuse them all the time for small paint batches and recycle them when they crack or are crushed).

And added a few drops of food colouring. We love our mini whisk, it's perfect for this kind of project. :) 

Beautiful colours! 

Let the painting commence. :) We had paper plates ready for the next craft, so I let them use some for this painting exercise.

We were exploring colours and mixing them to produce new colours.

I gave them different sized brushes to use. Bean always likes the bigger ones and Munchkin likes the small ones, although he likes to hold all of the ones not being used too.

After a while Bean decided to paint the table. :)

And Munchkin started dumping out the paint. :)

And stacking all of the paint cups (his favourite part is watching the paint explode over the sides as they squish together).

Bean was completely engrossed in painting the table.

And didn't realize that Munchkin was painting her arm. :)

Or her hair. :)

They were so excited they started clapping and realized that the paint makes awesome squishy sounds.

Bean mixed a few of the colours together while Munchkin watched. 

And then spread the new brown paint across the table.

We had a few coffee filters ready for a butterfly activity and Bean wanted one. We called it the invisible plate, because it vanished right into the table. :)

Just a note, this paint IS messy. And it does dry fairly quickly, especially on skin. Soap and water was needed to wash it off, though it was easier to wash off than some store-bought paints.

This is what it looks like when it has dried. The texture is really smooth. :)

{If you enjoyed this post, please consider following me on Facebook and Pinterest. Thank you!}