Kids Arts and Crafts Archives

Creative Coloring Easter Eggs – Photos

April 13, 2009 By Laura 6 Comments

Just sharing with you today some photos from our creative coloring of Easter eggs tradition. Our family here LOVES to color and decorate eggs. Do you? We could do it every day. It’s also one of my favorite things to photograph. We do hope you all had a lovely and blessed Easter! Our entire Triduum was so focused and beautiful. We especially enjoyed the services and Masses at our church throughout the Holy days, and our quiet Easter celebration together was pleasant and relaxing.

We will have more Easter photos to share tomorrow or the next day, but have a heavier than usual work week, so we just may not be so chatty until later on in the week, if we are disciplined. ; ) But we’ve got a long list of blog posts and plans on hand-so stick around! And Enjoy!

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Hope you enjoyed this fun photo collection of our family memories!
Thanks so much for visiting.

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Stained-Glass (looking) Tissue Paper Easter Cross – Kids Craft

April 7, 2009 By Laura 20 Comments

Today we have an Easter themed craft tutorial for you! It is beautiful, and so fun to make! It’s a stained-glass (looking) tissue paper Easter cross, for your home or school windows. Or glass door!

The kids have been working really hard with their school work, and will actually be done with their formal work in just a couple of weeks. So in preparing our hearts and minds for this Holy week, we decided to do some more lengthy study of the Stations of the Cross, and then get creative today and make a big Stained Glass (looking) Easter cross decoration for our Easter celebration come this Sunday. It will be fitting in faith and spring spirit, to leave it up as beautiful cheery decor, for several weeks following Easter.

There were really only 5 things we needed: a very large sheet of window cling, lots of colored tissue paper, a sponge brush, some Modge Podge and a pair of scissors.

I didn’t take photos of this part, but, we first drew out a large cross on the back of the window cling material backing-paper, using a board for the straight edges, and a round container for the rounded decor ends of the cross. Once that was done, the kids all grabbed sheets of the tissue paper, and starting ripping it into pieces 1-2 inches or so. (Might I add, the colors each of them go for are so predictable. lol)

Once we had plenty of pieces ready to go, I started spreading some Modge Podge, with a sponge brush, in small sections (on the front) of the cross at a time, going outside of the lines somewhat on purpose. Then the kids got to work, putting down pieces, overlapping each other, and rubbing them down.

When the entire cross was almost done being covered with pieces of colored tissue, I started on one end, and went over any uplifted corners, or flappy pieces, of tissue, just Modge-Podging them down good with my sponge brush. I LOVE Modge Podge-that stuff is great for so many projects!

We made the cross 20″x34″.

Once it was all dry, we cut it out!

It was a perfect fit for our front door, because we planned it that way. : )

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With the main events of Holy Week still before us, we anticipate the somber and difficult remembrance of the journey Jesus has yet before Him-and we will follow Him all the way to His last breath.

But the radiating colors of this cross, brought to life by the sunlight, reflect the state of our hearts come Sunday, when we will celebrate our risen Jesus Christ, in all of His dazzling and promising glory.

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We appreciate the 100’s of visits our blog has received in the past couple of days. As we all take part in this holiest week of the year, and end our personal Lenten journeys, may you feel your hearts full of peace, prayer, and the undeniable presence of the Holy Spirit, and find yourself in a deeper, and more meaningful relationship with Christ.

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Wooden Toys

March 30, 2009 By Laura 6 Comments

Honestly, there are times I wonder, just a little bit, if our kids are actually pioneer children. They truly enjoy the simplest of wooden toys, games and activities. But maybe that’s just a result of the simple life we live, that they can find such enjoyment in these simple things. Or maybe, the fact that they love such simple things, makes our life simple. Much like that age old question, of which came first: the chicken or the egg? Either way, we’re grateful.

But back to the wooden toys. We were in one of our very favorite stores. Not the ‘mercantile’ in town (I would LOVE it if there was one!), but Michael’s Arts & Crafts, when we spotted these little wooden toy kits…..for a $1 each! Now, as parents, we don’t get our kids something every time we go into a store. Or even 2% of the times we go into a store. We just find it unnecessary. (Because we’re simple people, I guess. They don’t even ask or expect anything, either. But when I saw these toy kits, I knew they would truly LOVE putting them together, and painting them, for hours. I also knew they would be happy with their work, and play with them after. So, sometimes, it’s nice just to surprise them. When I told that them they could go ahead and all pick one out, they were very excited, and had almost as fun picking 0ne out, as they did building and painting it. Even our 11 year old can still enjoy such simple pass times, and she never passes up an opportunity to do a project with the little ones, anyway. They just love to do stuff, together.

So….not much else to say. But we think they came out great, and I did have fun taking photos to share! LOTS!

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And boy are we down to the wire!! Tomorrow is the last day to get your name in that bowl again, and Wednesday we announce the winner of OUR FIRST GIVEAWAY!! WHO’S name will we pull out of the bowl? WHO will have a special package of home-made gifts, made by US, delivered to their home?? We can hardly take the anticipation! Can you??

The kiddos thank you for coming to see their painted wooden toys.

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Fly Him to the Moon – Solar System Mobile

March 15, 2009 By Laura 3 Comments

…..but PLEASE bring him back. We would miss him terribly!

Our boy, {J} is frequently on creative missions. In fact, more days than we could ever count, he has jumped out of bed in the morning and gone straight to the school room, to gather all of the supplies he needs. He’s on a mission to build just “what I had an idea about when I was laying in bed last night before I went to sleep!”

On this day recently, it was a mobile of the solar system.

All of the planets are not there, because there wasn’t room, he said. But he can tell you what we do have here….

He also made Venus….but he threw it out because he didn’t like how it came out. He has standards. lol

He works so diligently, building and creating all kinds of things, all of the time. He’s a very quiet worker, with a lot of stamina. It may take hours to complete whatever it is he is making. Or days. But he doesn’t mind. He works joyfully. He’s in it for the long haul, until the project is done, and he can take a step back, and look at it with a grand sigh of approval. If he has to stop mid-project, for some reason out of his control….like having to go somewhere, do some schooling, or something else….there is little else he can think of, but getting back to that project! If we’re out somewhere, and he ‘gets an idea’, …oohhhhhh boy! The pressure is on (us!) until we get him home! He needs to get RIGHT to it. It’s important!

We just love his creative imagination. His deep desires and ability to bring ideas to some form of tangible fruition.

We don’t know what it means for him in the big picture. Where he is going in life, or to do what. But it’s got to be a good thing!

We’re curious, but we don’t need to know now, really. Like all of our children…..it’s a fascinating privilege to watch him ‘get there’.