Ottoman Lego Storage - partly unPINspired

We love legos. I love attractive storage. I have a lot of pins related to legos and

how to store them, here are a few favorites:

• https://www.pinterest.com/pin/78531587228642653/
• https://www.pinterest.com/pin/78531587228134735/
• https://www.pinterest.com/pin/78531587228017309/

Here's the one that I chose that worked with both the way we use legos and utilized a piece of furniture I already have.

Inspiration Pin: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/78531587228642657/

Page Pin is From: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/97/f2/2c/97f22ca00bfac46951e7400b00bbe0ec.jpg (it's not a tutorial)

Participants: Just me!

I referenced this pin https://www.pinterest.com/pin/78531587228900172/ (direct site: http://www.u-createcrafts.com/diy-lego-activity-storage-box/) on how to best cut the base plate.

I cut it down to size, then simply used all purpose epoxy to glue it to the inside of the lid. Done!

DIY Playdough

Project: Make playdough and play with it

Inspiration Pin: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/78531587228811788/

Page Pin is From: http://domesticsuperhero.com/2013/03/28/the-best-homemade-playdough-recipe/#_pg_pin=580205

Participants: Ash, Lavender, Peony, Viola, Reed

Difficulty: It requires attention and minimal distraction while you are doing the stuff on the stove because it gets ready fast (think: soupy, soupy, slightly less soupy, OMG IT'S DONE). The actual process is pretty straightforward. I did three batches - yellow, blue, and green.

Prep: Plan on a half hour to do this. Especially if you will have a toddler helping you measure and pour the ingredients. Ash and I made this on a weekend.

Mess: Not bad. The pot cleaned up with soap and water. I cleaned the pot between each batch.

Cleanup: The dough itself is great - it has stayed soft even after several weeks and it doesn't flake into tiny pieces. When we're cleaning up we take a larger chunk and smoosh it onto the smaller chunks, super easy.

Age Range: It's all non-toxic, so really any age as long as they have the motor skills to manipulate it.

Verdict: LOVE THIS. I've made a few playdough recipes, and this one really is the best. It's still soft and pliable, I love the texture, and it makes a TON. Each batch made almost a softball sized lump. The three batches made more than enough for five kids. I used coconut oil, and it smells SO MUCH BETTER than store playdough. I don't think I'll bother buying it again!

Shamrock/Clover Paper Plate Hat

Project: Use a paper plate to make a four leaf clover hat and have the kids color it green

Inspiration Pin: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/78531587228927309/
Page Pin is From: http://alphamom.com/family-fun/holidays/diy-holiday-hats-for-every-occasion/

Participants: Ash, Lavender, Peony, Viola

Difficulty: Easy - the kids just color, and the grown up has minor scissor work
Prep: Should take five minutes. Don't be me - use the paper plates you can fold in half easily. I got the heavy duty ones because they have pretty flowers on the edge... meaning I couldn't fold it. So first thing in the morning before the kids arrived, with half a cup of coffee in my system, I cut out six paper plates the hard way. When I passed them out, I realized I only needed four. In my defense: half a cup of coffee.
Mess: Virtually none
Cleanup: Virtually none
Age Range: Anyone who can handle a crayon, marker, or colored pencil

Verdict: We'll do this again. It's an easy way to celebrate a holiday - and the kids like wearing hats!

Paint a Clover Field (Pepper Stamps)

Project: use halved peppers and paint to stamp clovers/shamrocks
Inspiration Pin: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/78531587228927305/
Page Pin is From: ... I couldn't get a viable page to come up, just a bunch of errors. If someone is able to get a working page for me, I'll update!
Participants: Ash, Lavender, Peony, Viola

Difficulty: Easy!

Prep: Five minutes or less - cut peppers in half, provide paper and paint. I used mini sweet peppers (don't use hot!) rather than the bell pepper pictured. Keep in mind that the longer peppers tend to flatten out in the middle and wouldn't provide that 3-4 petal stamp so try to choose shorter, rounder peppers.
Mess: A bit less mess than the usual finger painting since the pepper stamps took the brunt of the paint. Lavender in particular kept her hands pretty clean.
Cleanup: Again, a little less mess than a usual finger paint project, and since I use non-toxic finger paints I just used the peppers for lunch... Just kidding, they went in the compost!
Age Range: Even the babies could do this one (if they stay awake), lots of room for interpretive painting, and the peppers are safe for mouthing

Verdict: Great project - would totally do it again!

Yarn Organization - unPINspired

This one is so easy I'm not even going to do the usual post layout.

• Use your favorite spreadsheet program to make a chart with the yarn names/types (I did just my bulky yarn that I use for the hoods that I sell)
• Punch holes
• Loop through a length of yarn
• Done!
  

Erupting Baking Soda Paint

Project: make baking soda paint, paint with it, then squirt vinegar on it to make it fizz
Inspiration Pin: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/259590365997547060/
Page Pin is From: http://www.learnplayimagine.com/2014/08/erupting-baking-soda-paint-recipe.html
Participants: Ash, Lavender, Peony, Viola (Reed was going to participate, but decided on an early nap instead)

The fizz - the best part

Difficulty: The painting was easy for the kids, and the three older kids had no problem with using a syringe for the vinegar. Viola couldn't manipulate the syringe, but I'm sure she would have figured out a dropper if I had one. I had to be incredibly hands on with this project.
Prep: 15-20 minutes... while the kids were "helping" me. Probably would have gone faster if I had been able to prep by myself. I didn't have the liquid watercolor paint, so I used the food coloring and water option. I set up enough little paper cups so each child would have three colors - blue, green, and yellow.
Mess: It got a bit messy, but not much worse than a regular painting project.
Cleanup: Surprisingly easier than expected - I thought the food coloring would stain the table and counter, but the baking soda cleaned it right up. All I needed was a damp cloth.
Age Range: Ages 1 and up. None of the ingredients are toxic, but shouldn't go in their eyes - and babies love to rub their faces when their hands are dirty.

Verdict: An overall nope. The amount of prep and involvement that I had to do would turn me off from doing this again. The kids weren't super excited about it until we got to the vinegar and fizz part since the paint is cumbersome and separates easily. The fizzing was fun, but we could have gotten the same amount of enjoyment from putting baking soda in a sheet pan, mixing in a little food coloring, and squirting it with vinegar. Their art also couldn't be displayed, because after it dried the baking soda crumbled all over. The blogger said she displays hers, so perhaps that's a matter of using food coloring instead of the liquid watercolors.

Lots of mess after it dries!

Fingerprint Trees (and some impromptu dino tracks)

Interpretive leaves are the best leaves

Technically this project is to make a fingerprint tree guest book for a wedding, where each guest puts a fingerprint leaf on the tree and signs it. I reinterpreted it for the kids to just make a tree.

Project: Using finger paint to make fingerprint leaves on a tree
Inspiration Pin: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/78531587228806151/
Page Pin is From: http://calgarybride.ca/home/the-diy-wedding-tree/
Participants: Ash, Peony, Lavender, and myself

Difficulty: Easy!
Prep: Minimal, print out the trees and get the green finger paint ready. We used light and regular green for some dimension... and because I happen to have it.
Mess: Less than normal finger painting mess since I encouraged the kids to use their finger tips instead of their whole hand.
Cleanup: Less than the usual for finger painting - granted I did it with the older kids, so if the littles had been involved I'm sure there would have been more to clean!
Age Range: If you don't mind the littles doing an unstructured finger paint, then the babies can get involved. If you want the leaves to look more or less like leaves, probably leave it to the 2.5+ crowd.

Verdict: Big hit! The tree is gorgeous (template available on the site), and the kids loved the concept of the project. Ash grabbed a few dinosaurs to share, so each tree is a mix of finger prints and dino tracks. The project went quickly, great for a filler project but not for a long distraction. I'll be keeping the tree template handy for future projects - like fall leaves, trees with birds in them, flowering spring trees, teaching about family trees... There are a lot of options with this one!

Lots of dots!

Pegasus Wings - unPINspired

Fair warning: Don't try version one at home. It was more work than I expected... and only Ash and Reed liked the result. Version two was ok tho.

version one being colored

 

Fair warning again: There is swearing below. If that might offend you, don't read this one.

I had a great idea - let's make pegasus wings! With the daycare! I'd put them together, and the kids could color them, then we'd spend the afternoon playing pegasus ponies!

I'm an idiot.

Version One:
Step one: Find a wing on the interwebs. Then take said wing image and flip it so you have a left and a right. Print sets of each. Have kids complain that they're not the right color. Whatevs. Brightly tell them that they can color them however they want to later.

So. Much. Cutting.

Step two: Cut them out. All twelve. Ugh. Have the 8 year old do it, he's only here because school is out for the week.
Step three: Cut out pieces of cardboard for each wing. 12. TWELVE. FML.
Step four: Glue the wings to the cardboard. Use a glue stick because it dries faster.
Step five: Let the kids color the wings - Yay! Finally a fun part!
Step six: Try to figure out how in hell to connect the wings and add arm straps. Should have thought of this earlier.
Step seven: Cut pieces of felt into rectangles to use to connect the two wings together.
Step eight: Decide you don't want to raid your stash of elastic for this project. Cut lengths of bulky weight yarn to use as arm straps instead.
Step nine: Get bits of velcro to add to the ends of one of the straps so the kids can get the wings on and off, after deciding that using plastic snaps is overkill.
Step ten: Carefully arrange all six sets of wings on the table, wrong side up. Place yarn and felt for each on the coordinating wings, making sure to carefully choose colors representative of each child.
Step eleven: Break out the hot glue. Glue the yarn to the back of the wing, then glue the felt on top. See photos (haha, yeah, right). Make sure to leave one end of the yarn out and glue a tiny bit of felt to the end, folding it over into a tab.
Step twelve: Glue a bit of velcro to the tab on the end of the yarn, and a bit onto the corresponding spot on the felt where it should connect.
Step thirteen: Flip the wings over... and realize you spent a shitton of time and effort and hot glue on stupid looking wings that the kids are going to use once or maybe twice if you're lucky before they destroy and/or completely forget they have them... AND THE WINGS ARE FUCKING BACKWARDS.

Or.

Version Two: the relatively sane version that took like, maybe 20 minutes tops for three sets of wings

double sided wings in action

Step One: Find a wing image you like on the interwebs. Try to get one that has a thick outline.
Step Two: Flip the image so you have a front and back/left and right.
Step Three: (optional) Play with the tint so you can have multiple pony representations
Step Four: Print out four images per set of wings - two of each flip so you'll have a front and back for each wing. Use a little heavier paper if you can. Set up the image so it prints full page, and therefore is a direct mirror image, because...
Step Five: You're gonna glue them back to back. Seriously, just take a glue stick and glue the whole piece of paper to the other piece of paper so that the flips are back to back, making a double sided piece of paper with matching wings on each side. If you want a little more stiffness, use a bead of hot glue along the top inside edge.
Step Six: Cut out the wings. If they don't line up totally correctly, that's ok. That's what the thick outline is for, just trim as needed.
Step Seven: Attach to the back of your shirt with a little roll of duct tape.

I didn't have a chance to try these wings on the daycare kids, but I made them for the MLP party. The kids loved them, adults too!

Temporary Shirt Decals - unPINspired

So, not only did Ash have a Nightmare Moon cutie mark shirt for the MLP birthday party - I dressed up as my pony alter ego, Applejack.

Rather than try to look like a pony, I took inspiration from the human version of Applejack: Jeans, "cowboy" hat (I used a straw hat), yellow wig, and a white button down shirt... with a green yoke. My white shirt doesn't have a green yoke. So, I added one!

First I used paper to make a template for the area I wanted to cover. Using the template I cut two pieces of green fabric that was 1/4" larger all the way around, ironed under that 1/4", then painted three apples on one side with fabric paint (regular paint would work too if you won't be washing it). Lastly I used my secret weapon: washable glue stick. Yes, you heard right, I glued the fabric to my shirt. It sticks great, and then I can peel off the decal and run the shirt through the wash!

Tip: this works best on fabric that doesn't stretch. If you'll be applying it to a knit shirt, try putting it in a spot that won't get much movement or stretching (perhaps the forearm of a sleeve) and/or lightly basting the edges.

Freezer Paper Stenciling

nananananananananananananananana - RAINBOW

There are a mix of photos today, the one above is of when I did freezer paper stenciling with the bigger daycare kids, and the rest are of Ash's Nightmare Moon shirt for his friend's MLP birthday party. My hands got pretty covered helping the kids, which is why there aren't any in-progress photos of when they did it (hence photos of one of my own projects).

Project: Freezer paper stenciling on shirts
Inspiration Pin: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/78531587228776429/
Page Pin is From: http://www.danamadeit.com/2008/07/tutorial-presidents-day-shirts-intermediate-freezer-paper-stenciling.html
Participants: Ash, Lavender, Peony, myself

Difficulty: Medium. Requires painting more or less in the lines (with an inch or two of forgiveness) for the kiddos, and requires tracing, cutting, ironing for the grown ups or big kids. I chose super easy images (Batman for Ash and Peony, and an arch/rainbow for Lavender) and kept the size to approx 4"x6".
Prep: 5-10 minutes per shirt, including the mid-way adult work like ironing.
Mess: About the same as any painting project, but I had the kids take off their shirts first since we were using fabric paint which is designed to adhere to fabric permanently. A sleeved smock would work too. I got messier than usual somehow...
Cleanup: There's the normal paint project clean up, we used brushes not fingers so there was minimal paint on fingers. Then there's a final ironing of the painted shirt after it's all dry.
Age Range: I'd keep this to ages 3 and up, maybe 2 if you can closely supervise. Fabric paint can be toxic if ingested, and paint brushes can be a little difficult for littles to manipulate.

Verdict: So.Much.Fun. The kids LOVED this project. I gave Ash and Peony three colors of their choice for their Batman symbols and they painted free form, blending and such. Lavender painted the rainbow inside the arch, and we discussed the color order, etc. The best part was the reveal when I carefully pulled off the stencil and all of a sudden THERE WAS AN AWESOME PICTURE. Seriously, for kids that are still learning how to stay inside lines and who get frustrated about it, having that stencil automatically give a nice, crisp line is so satisfying. (for grownups too. ahem)

I actually found this post directly from the MADE page (not Pinterest) a few years ago when I had time to regularly read blogs, and have done several freezer stenciling projects.

I gave myself an inch of surround, for kids I make it bigger

I love the reveal!

MLP Bean Bags - unPINspired

This project is unPINspired - AKA one of my own projects that I didn't get directly from Pinterest. I do that sometimes...

Kitty is helping show off the finished bags

Almost no spilling! I'm so coordinated!

One of Ash's friends is turning the big F-I-V-E and having a MLP birthday party (My Little Pony, for those of you not in the know). There will be MLP activities and dressing up (more on that later), and I offered to make bean bags for the toss game.

I rummaged through my fabric supply to find some fabrics that represent each of the six main ponies and cut them around 3.5"x4.5" (little hands = little bags). I was thinking about using beans, but those are bulky for such a small bag. I thought I had some lentils in the back of a cupboard left over from a sensory bin... and found golden flax seeds. Score! The small seeds make an amazing filler, almost like the small plastic pellets found in the bums of some stuffed animals.

Keeping the right sides facing, I sewed three sides. Then I flipped them right side out, filled with 1/4 cup of seeds, turned under 1/4" on the open side, and carefully top seamed it shut. Done!

No leaves on that tree? Use a fabric marker to fix it.

Ham, Apple & Sweet Potato Scramble

Project: Cook a new dish and test it on my family before springing it on the daycare
Inspiration Pin: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/78531587228748780/
Page Pin is From: http://paleonewbie.com/ham-apple-sweet-potato-scramble-recipe/
Participants: Ash, Eli, Mom, Dad, myself

Difficulty: Minimal... if you can handle chopping a lot. It requires dicing sweet potato, onion, and apple.

Prep: So. Much. Chopping. (disclaimer: I really don't particularly like chopping vegetables, whenever possible I try to get someone else to do it) It took probably 10-15 minutes to prep, most of it fetching things from the pantry and chopping. To make my life easier, I chopped things in reverse order and put them in a large measuring cup/mixing bowl. So apple and ham went on the bottom, then sweet potato, then onion on top so they'd go into the pan in the correct order. That also meant I got to chop stinky onion last. Score!
Mess: Not bad - one large pan, one large mixing bowl, a cutting board, knife, a few utensils.
Cleanup: See above...
Age Range: Adult for prep, 1+ for eating (possibly younger)

Verdict: Overall win for the adults - Ash wasn't impressed. He picked out the ham, but the scrambled eggs weren't recognizable enough, and there was the whole issue of food touching. Casseroles don't fly with Ash or the daycare so I knew it was a long shot, but I was hoping that the presence of ham and eggs would help. Personally I thought it needed... something, but I also left out the cayenne because the kids don't do heat. So that could be the missing kick (Eli said he'd like it more with the cayenne). I'll probably make this again for home but not for the daycare.

why have milk OR juice when you can have BOTH at the same time??

Dino Tracks (with paint)

Project: Make dinosaur tracks with toy dinos and paint
Inspiration Pin: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/242842604881672773/
Page Pin is from: http://www.mamaslikeme.com/2014/03/dinosaur-track-painting-for-preschool.html
Participants: Ash, Eli, and myself

Difficulty: Easy
Prep: 5 minutes - cover painting surface with newspaper, put out a few sheets of plain paper, gather dinos, and squirt finger paints on newspaper
Mess: It turned into finger painting, so a 6 out of 10
Cleanup: Not too bad, dinosaurs can go through the dishwasher, and I convinced Ash not to touch anything with his paint-covered hands.
Age Range: All Ages

Verdict: I'll do this one again! I like that it's all ages, easy, and kept Ash busy for a good 20 minutes. After the initial making of tracks, there was imagination play with the dinos and painting the dinos, followed by free-form finger painting and a little brush work.

I have to hand it to the blogger, Tina, she did admit that the project got messy (even if she did only show the pretty pictures). And she did it with her daycare/sons!