Face Painting Kit: Funner in the Summer

Reposting this from Thirty Handmade Days Funner in the Summer

I am not sure what is more fun to a kid than painting.

Oh, wait...

That would be face painting.

My boys love to have their faces painted. As I recently found out, most kids love to have their faces painted.

So I thought, what better way to have fun than to come up with a portable Face Painting Kit. 

My Face Painting Kit consists of--

small hand mirror

dixie cups

water

paint brushes

paint tray

face paints or face paint make-up

baggie of wipes

To make the kit portable, or even to give it as a fun gift, everything can be put into a fun conatiner.

Package it all up. Then you can take some Summer fun where ever you go.

Then the face painting can begin.

Have you seen happier faces?

So much fun in one afternoon.

They proudly displayed their faces the rest of the day. Captain America may have been spotted at a local soccer game. It has also been rumored that a sweet puppy may have cried the hour leading up to washing time because she didn't want to say good bye to her puppy face.

Here are some fun Summer activities I have shared:

Baking Soda Painting

Kool-Aid Glue Painting

Homemade Slime

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Fun with the Kids Fridays: Snake O'Cups

Fun Fridays!! Woohoo.

Now that school is out we are in desperate need of fun projects and boredom busters.

These snakes are super fun and just about the most awesome thing ever. Just ask my boys.

They are obsessed with snakes. We have several books all about snakes, and they read them all the time. Their favorite snake fact:

There is a snake that farts up to 6 feet to ward off predators.

Every time the boys talk about it they laugh and laugh and laugh.

In one of the books, there was an idea to make a snake from cups.

Yep, that was going to happen.

A bunch of cups and an hour or so equals three very happy boys.

Here is how you can make a Snake O'Cups all your own--

You need:
colorful paper cups
brads
red pipe cleaners
craft eyes
hot glue

Every cup, except the head cups and the first cup, will need 4 holes.

Two holes on the top on opposite sides of the cup and two holes on the bottom on opposite sides. Both sets of holes need to be about an inch from the top and bottom.

Punch the holes with a push pin, that will make it easier to put the brads in.

You connect the cups by putting one cup into the other. Then you attach them with brads through the top holes of the outside cup to the bottom of the inside cup.

The first cup you do only needs the holes at the top. This will be the tail. You continue attaching cups working towards where the head will be. Alternate colors, create a pattern. Basically keep at it until you have a snake to your liking. Our were about 17 cups long.

I will warn you that you will need to help. The brads were a bit tricky for little teeny fingers. The brads also really need to be fastened good. I mean they have to withhold any ensuing snake fights...that will occur, I promise you.

The snake wranglers will appreciate all your hard work though.

Just before you add the head, you will stop with a cup only attached at the bottom. Set it aside and make the head.

For the head, first make the tongue.

You need 2 red pipe cleaners.

Twist it together, leaving about and inch untwisted.

Then twist it all together.

Cut a tiny hole in the bottom of a cup and pull the pipe cleaner through using the left over inch to keep it in place.

With hot glue, attach the eyes on either side of the top of the tongue cup. Then glue that cup to the last cup of the snake body.

Draw some fangs by the tongue and....

DONE.

The brads make the cups move very snake-like.

These are the only pet snakes our boys will EVER have.

When not being carried, they prefer to lounge in the sun.

My boys gave this project two very enthusiastic thumbs up. Now they can stop pestering me for their own pet snake.

Which is good, cause it was never.gonna.happen.

Happy Friday!!
Linking here:
Your Homebased Mom
Thirty Handmade Days

Fun with the Kids Friday: Tornado in a Tube

When I was in 7th Grade, I had a pretty awesome science teacher. I don't remember exactly what made him awesome, but I distinctly remember him being awesome.

Three things I do remember:
1. His name was Mr. Condon....yup that was his name.
2. He was rather fond of Mariah Carey.
3. He had the most awesome Tornado in a Tube.

I loved that thing. He would swirl, twist, tip and produce a water tornado every time.

Obviously I have remembered that little bit of science fun over the years. I have been wanting to recreate our own Tornado in a Tube for a while. Finally the other day I just happened to remember the Tornado in a Tube right at the same time I was passing the soda aisle at the grocery store.

In the time it took for us to drink two  2-liters of soda, we had our very own Tornado in a Tube...BAM!

 Easiest thing to make ever.

The part that takes the longest is drinking the soda. So if you already have two empty bottles, the hard part is done.

You will need some duct tape.

Of course you will need water.

Then to make things fun you can add some Monopoly houses or maybe even some food coloring.

You simply fill one of the plastic bottles 3/4 full of water. Then you add in the food coloring and/or teeny tiny houses.

Take the empty bottle and turn it upside down placing the mouths of the bottles together. Wrap strips of duct tape to secure the bottles together.

Keep wrapping, around and around. You really want to just keep wrapping until you have the necks of the bottle completely wrapped up too.

When in doubt, keep wrapping. You want it wrapped up enough that it doesn't leak.

Now, it still might leak a little OR will start to leak after a lot of playing.

Because it will get played with for sure.

With everything all taped up, the fun can begin.

Just grab the Tornado Tube by the taped part.

 
Turn it over and shake and twirl the whole thing.

Then just wait and watch as the water tornado forms.

The whole thing is very cool and my boys loved it. They used it so much and created so many tornadoes that it I had to re-tape it!

After making these, I did find that there is an online store that sells Tornado Tubes, that are made to attach the two bottles together. Hence no more duct tape. So if you think ahead enough you could always order some of those.

My boys really, really loved this. When they happened to walk by the Tornado in a Tube sitting on the counter they couldn't help but reach out and grab, flip, and twirl. Then, mesmerized they would watch another water tornado make its way through the bottom of the tube into the next tape.

Thanks for joining me for another installment of Fun with the Kids Friday .

 

Kids' Denim Gardening Apron: Tutorial

Spring is here. The perfect time for getting outside working those gardens. Spring is the perfect time to plant flowers, seeds, and start a vegetable garden. Spring is the perfect time to let your Green Thumb out of it's cage.

For me there is only one little problem. What is the opposite of a Green Thumb?

My Little Men say it is a Black Thumb, because if the plant dies it is black.

Whatever the opposite of Green Thumb is, that is what I have. On both hands. Double the gardening trouble.

In fact, the only plant (besides a vegetable garden...which even that is touch and go) I have managed to keep alive is the set of cacti we have had since Bean's Mexican Fiesta First Birthday.

I have kept them alive a whole month.

I attribute that to a couple of factors.

One: Cacti are pretty hardy. After all they live in the desert.
Two: Cacti are used to neglect. I mean you don't see a wondering nomad pruning, feeding, and watering them now do ya?
Three: Hubby has been seen watering said cacti when they are on the brink of death. Thank you kind sir. They owe you their lives.

See! I really can't say that I have kept them alive. They have stayed alive despite me.

So imagine my shock when my Little Men, especially Oldest, came to me with a desire to plant and take care of their own flowers. Oldest even used his own money to buy some extra seeds and another planter.

We went to our favorite garden store and the boys picked out pots, flowers, and soil. We immediately planted them. I immediately began to worry I was going to kill them.

Middle very vigilantly reminds me daily that the flowers need watering. He reminds me they need the sunlight. They all worry about the wind blowing them over (spring around here is like living in a wind tunnel).

Bottom line, they already seem to be much better gardeners than their mother.

They already have plans to start planting more things. Oldest wants his very own little vegetable garden to take care of this Summer.

I figured with all of this gardening (aka digging around in the dirt) they could use a no-nonsense Denim Gardening Apron just right and sturdy enough for Little Men gardeners. The apron is a convenient place to carry seeds and tools. Plus they have a place other than their clothes to wipe their dirty little mitts.

Lucky for me I have a pretty hefty pile of old holey jeans just waiting to be repurposed.

If you have some old jeans and a budding gardener, this would be the perfect project.

All you need:

several pairs of jeans
thread
(you might need a heavy duty sewing needle if your denim is thick)
a little gardener

First you cut the legs of the first pair of jeans. Next you cut each of the jean legs open at the inside seam.

You trim each piece down to a 14"x11" rectangle. You will have two pieces, the front and back of the apron.

Then you will cut one leg off another pair of jeans and again cut that jean leg open at the inside seam. Then you will trim that piece to 14"x8". This piece will be the front pocket.

The jeans previous  have been children's jeans. For the waistband/ties I used a pair of my jeans.

Cut off one leg of an adult sized pair of jeans, and cut it open. Then cut two strips measuring 3"x26".

Sew the two strips together, right sides facing, with a 1/2" seam allowance.

With the two pieces sewn together you have a long strip of denim. Iron in half lengthwise and then iron top and bottom edges into the halfway point, and then fold and iron again. Basically, you are making your own long strip of biased tape (just not necessarily on the bias).

Set aside.

The next step is to prepare the pocket. Iron one edge down 1/4". Then fold down that edge another 1/4" and iron. Sew along this edge. This will be the top seam of your pocket.

Next pin the pocket to the right side of the front piece of the apron. After you have pinned the pocket in place, divide the pocket in thirds and mark. This will be where you sew down to make the pocket dividers.

Sew the pocket lines. Back stitch right at the top and then continue sewing all the way down in as straight as a line as you can sew.

Now with the front of the apron done, layer the other piece of denim on top, right sides facing.

Pin all around the edges. Sew together with 1/2" seam allowance, leaving a 3-4" gap at the top to turn out the apron.

Turn out the apron.

To sew on the waistband, match the middle of the long strip to the middle of the apron. Open up the "biased tape" denim strip and sandwich the top of the apron into it. Fold over, so the biased tape is covering the top edge of the apron. Pin in place and pin the part of the biased tape that is the ties, in order to sew them closed too.

Start at one tie and sew all long the bottom edge over the apron and to the end of the other tie.

Boom, you are done. One Little Gardening Apron perfect for kids who like to garden.

They stay a little cleaner...noticed that I said a little. I mean gardening equals dirt and dirt and kids are pretty much always going to create some kind of glorious mess.

They will also look pretty profesh and legit. So legit they may start charging you for all their gardening advice and planting services.

Or they may just want you to shower them with praise and accolades for their hard work and beautiful flowers.

Done and done.

I really believe that encouraging kids to garden is a great things. Gardening is a skill that will help them their whole lives.

They will have a greater appreciation for the Earth (a late plug for Earth Day).
Gardening encourages them to eat more fruit and vegetables.
Gardening teaches hard work.
It teaches patience.
Gardening is something they can do with their little hands.
They can see the "fruits" of their labors.
Gardening teaches self reliance.

Just to name a few.

Make them a Denim Gardening Apron all their own, give them some tools, and let them pick out their own seeds and they are sure to get the gardening bug.

Have a marvelous day!

Thanks for reading!

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