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!