By now, the boys are absolutely tired of being kept indoors due to the freezing weather (not to mention having had the stomach flu all this week). Finding new activities to entertain is always desired. My talented cousin posted this wonderful, kid-friendly craft idea on her blog and we decided to try it out today. It was so much fun! It was cheap, fast, relatively clean, and I think they turned out actually kind of cute - which is always a plus. The boys had a great time doing all of the steps involved and I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for something to do on a cold wintry day.
There are beautiful pictures and a great step-by-step guide on my cousin's blog that you must check out if you're interested. She made hers all into little place holders using some wire, we just didn't have any of that on hand. Still, I think it's such a great idea to let each of the kids make their own little animal for Easter dinner. She's made things like pumpkins for Thanksgiving and ghosts for Halloween as well that she says have now become family keepsakes that the children love to see and use.
The ingredients are flour, salt, and water... it only took Noah two taste tests to figure out this wasn't an eating type of treat. Yes, he was very disappointed.
They were able to coexist stirring for about 15 seconds.
Noah, not surprisingly, didn't get into the sculpting part so much and opted to play dough basketball instead.
Calvin on the other hand, requested tooth picks to add details to his designs. (I believe he has some of the artist gene from Aunt Julia.)
Here are our creations drying after we zapped them in the microwave for 40 seconds each. The tiny blob in the front is Calvin's "monster."
Painting was definitely the best part for Calvin.
And the finished product, monster included...
Another great use for these I discovered is for alternative eggs in Easter egg hunts. Calvin and Noah both love finding things, and instead of using the little plastic eggs that they would expect to be filled with candy, I used these today and they loved it. They were all dropped a number of times and still managed to remain in one piece, I was very impressed.[RB Update]
When I got home and saw all the pastels and crafts I knew I had to act quickly. I took the boys straight outside to play in the mud, followed by racing on their bikes and general rough-housing and demolition.
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10 comments:
Hi Carolee,
These turned out so cute! I'm so glad you blogged about them. I love how detail oriented Calvin is. You must get so much enjoyment watching his mind work! Your boys are so cute!
By the way, if you want to make the placecard holders, you don't need the wire. Just cut a slit in the top before you put them in the microwave. If you look closely at the picture, the pumpkins were made that way.
Well, we hope you get some warmer days soon! Love you guys, Lisa
Those turned out cute. My friend and I made some similar dough to make ghosts at Halloween. Painting them is a great idea!
I love that you showed the boys fighting while stirring. That's half the reason I don't want their help when I'm baking--I referee enough already!
What kind of paint did you use? Water-based acrylic?
Care, they turned out soooooo great! I'll have to try them out for sure. Did you end up using brown paint to make it look rustic?
how cute. Leave it to Carolee to come up with these fun things to do. We just watch TV at our house!!
PS -- calvin is talented!
Hey Laurie! So I just used acrylic paint, not sure if this is the best choice, but it's what I had and it seemed to work just fine.
I did try to antique them with brown paint watered down a bit. Although you can't really tell from the pictures, I think it made a big difference. It really was fun and easy- I hope you all try it out if you're bored or snowed in like we are!
Too cute. We need to try that. That stinks about the flu. Hope you feel better soon.
Carolee-you are so creative!! We are definately trying this out tomorrow (along with the snow ice cream AnnDee!!) with another long snow day and school cancelled tomorrow. My kids need some fun new projects and this looks awesome!! Thanks for sharing and I'll post pics tomorrow!! Hopefully you guys feel better now too!. Oh, and tell RB to relax....everyone needs an artsy side, even boys!!! ;-) LOL!!
Care! So cute! Looks like the boys had so much fun! I thought about doing these with Cooper, but I'm not sure if he's ready quite yet!! R.B. I'm glad you are giving them balance in their lives!
I put you on my links so I don't have to go to AnnDee's site everytime I want to see yours... If you want me to take it off, just let me know.
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