From the category archives:

Create

Self-Serve Painting

When the girls ask to paint, I try to always say yes. I don’t always have the easel set-up, but they are usually just as happy to paint at the kitchen table.
Sometimes they want watercolors, but often they want “real paint,” as Delaney calls it. We use Colorations brand washable tempera paints or BioColor Paint [...]

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Simple Abstract Painted Canvas

An extra canvas + masking tape + acrylic craft paints = fun new rainbow art for Delaney’s room!

Delaney said the best part of this project is peeling off the tape after the paint is dry. My favorite part is seeing her brushstrokes in each little space.
This particular canvas has exposed staples on the edges, so [...]

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Party Tip: Creating Large Cardboard Characters

I’ve had a few questions about the large painted characters we made for Delaney’s Alice in Wonderland party {see Part 1 and Part 2 for more pictures}.
My husband did the drawing. I printed out a picture of the character and he drew a grid across it. Then, he drew another larger grid on a big [...]

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Landscape Photo Scenes

{Originally posted October 2008}
Last weekend, while out on a nature walk, the girls helped me find interesting landscape “scenes” to photograph. At home, we printed our favorites out, full-page size. Then, the girls chose some clip art and stickers to decorate their scenes with. They also dictated some fantastic stories about their scenes. You could [...]

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Green Poems

Need a last minute St. Patrick’s Day activity today?
Write a green poem!

{Originally posted May 2008}
Happy Monday! This week’s Unplugged Project theme was green. I decided to help the girls write some Green Poems.

This was so fun and easy! We started by talking about all the things we could think of that are [...]

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Fun With Dot Markers

We have not painted with dot markers (bingo markers) since the girls were probably three and four years old. I remember them both loving them – bouncing the markers up and down to make dots, and sliding them around to make stripes and swirls. The dot markers aren’t terribly messy either, which is always nice [...]

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Crayon Play

Here’s a super-simple creativity boost for your kids today! Make ordinary crayons a little more interesting by bundling them together.
Crayons + rubberband:

Crayons + tape:

Set out a variety of crayon bundles and a stack of paper and see if your kiddos are inspired to play! Keep the rubberbands and tape handy, because my girls are always [...]

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Magnet Painting Activity

Yesterday, the girls had fun with magnet painting. This is something they both remember doing at preschool and were excited to experiment with it again! You will need:

magnetic marbles
magnet wand
washable paint
a shallow box or tray (not metal!)
paper

I think you can see the basic set-up in the picture below. You want your box to be propped [...]

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Stained Glass Coloring Books

We went to our local toy store to look for a new board game and the girls spied this coloring book on the spinny rack:

I mean, garden fairies, stained glass, and glowing background colors? I knew we would be bringing this book home with us!
The book contains 16 beautiful illustrations on a vellum-like paper. The [...]

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Air-Dry Clay Hearts

Today we had fun squishing, rolling, and cutting hearts made from air-dry clay.

We punched holes with straws, so we can give Valentine necklaces to some special friends – and we’ll keep some for ourselves, too!
We gently pressed in sparkly sequins – everyone agreed this was the best part!

We also made some little decorations and pendants, [...]

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