More Thanksgiving Crafts

We host Thanksgiving at our house and I have to say, after 6 years of doing so, we have a pretty good system going on. So much so, that I usually get a good run in the morning and have plenty of time to do my favorite thing – watch the Macy’s Day Parade with a few cups of coffee.


After years of growing up in a house where my mom hosted 35 people for Thanksgiving, we, my mom included, relish the relaxed atmosphere. But we really try to kick off the holidays with family in mind and we try to do something special or different every year. Last year, we made these adorable napkin rings and I am telling you, they were the hugest hit. We laughed our heads off (no pun intended). Unfortunately, they were such a hit that people wanted to take theirs home and we don’t have them anymore – kind of a bummer when we host the same people year after year.

But I feel like this is a good opportunity to share Family Fun as a kid’s craft resource. It’s been around forever in magazine form but when I found it a couple of years ago on-line, I thought I had uncovered a hidden gem. Turns out, I was just late to the party. But my guess is that there may be others who don’t know about it either - especially new moms - so if you’re one of them, this holiday season, check it out. They are such a great resource for crafts and recipes geared toward kids and you can search by type and by age, which is really great when you want to do something WITH your kids. Also, people who have actually done the projects can comment on whether it worked out or not and sometimes will say whether or not it was actually appropriate for the age recommended. I will do a post of my favorite go-to craft sites in the near future but this one saves me all the time when I’m doing something for the kids and I have never been disappointed with the results. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

--Crafty Mom

Thanksgiving Crafts

My mother has put me in charge of decorating the Thanksgiving dinner table and coordinating a few projects to keep my daughter and my cousin’s daughter busy – both under 4. So, why not kill two turkeys with one stone…here’s what we’ll be doing…I hope.

• “Thankful” Turkey : My daughter will be thrilled to spend a lot of time cutting out construction paper turkey feathers so that each of our guests can write down what they are thankful for this year. And, I’m sure her younger cousin will have fun wrapping the polystyrene balls in yarn.
• Place Cards : We’ll have 14 people for dinner, so place cards will come in handy. We love fingerprint art, so this is sure to be a hit.
• I have wanted to do something with the beautiful fall leaves we have had this Fall so this leaf lantern will make a great decoration for our table
  
  I have lots of glass jars leftover from the canning I never did this summer (well, I did some, but not nearly as much as I thought I would). I can get the Mod Podge, brushes and tea lights all at the craft store.
  
  How to make a fall leaf lantern:
  
1. Cover a side of a glass jar with Mod podge.
   
2. Place a pressed leaf (pressed for at least 36 hours – we’ll collect the leaves this weekend and press them until we can do the gluing on Wednesday) on the Mod Podge.
   
3. Cover the leaf with Mod Podge. You can layer the leaves on top of each other as long as you have the Mod Podge on them.
   
4. After the leaves dry put another coat of Mod Podge over the entire jar to seal the leaves.  (If we don’t get our act together in time, Plan B is to use fall colored tissue paper rather than leaves. Knowing me, my guess is that we’ll use tissue paper…)
   

Wish me luck – I may be committing to a lot more than we can handle. Hopefully, I won’t be posting an update next week that I did all of the crafts by myself while the girls ran around the house or played with dolls, or about our plain glass jar lanterns, plain white place cards and the unused polystyrene balls that never turned into a turkey.


Gobble gobble gobble.

--Commuter Mom

Halloween Wrap-up and Other Halloween Ramblings

Well, I did it. I finished the costume with plenty of time. In the end, she surprised me by choosing to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. I was concerned she might switch to the Wicked Witch (aka Elphaba from Wicked) but I was not expecting Dorothy. The good news was that the pattern I bought had a Dorothy dress in it as well and I had not bought the fabric for the Glinda dress.


I can’t say I was able to follow the pattern perfectly so once I had the size right, I did end up improvising a lot. But my daughter loved it and seemed genuinely happy to have a dress made especially for her. The little one was tracking to be Dorothy as well but in the middle of the week (and middle of dress construction) she received a dinosaur costume for her baby doll from my Mom and she decided she wanted to be a dinosaur, too. Lucky me, we actually had a dinosaur costume in the dress up trunk. Honestly, a Dorothy and happy dinosaur are quite apropos for my girls.

But here are my two complaints about Halloween:

1. Why does every woman whose daughter dresses up as princess feel the need to tell me that their daughter “isn’t really into princesses but for some reason she just wanted to be a princess so I let her”? Aaaaaaaaaack! Your daughter wanted to be Belle? You mean the one who can’t stop reading and falls in love with a hideous creature? The horror. I have two girls and let me tell you, unless you live in a bubble, you cannot avoid the princess thing. And while sometimes it can be overkill, when your toothpaste is princess, your pull-ups are princess and your fruit snacks are princess, isn’t fantasy what Halloween is all about? I think it is so sad that our society has gotten to a place where a child wanting to dress up as a princess when they are three is embarrassing for mothers. It’s not like they are asking to be Britney Spears. Get over it.
2. News flash!! Kids eat candy on Halloween. And I know it’s shocking but sometimes they like it. This is another one. Why does everyone keep telling me that their daughter or son doesn’t really eat candy or even better, doesn’t really like candy? Why are people so defensive about their kids eating Halloween candy? We have all gotten ourselves so crazy that people feel like they are going to be judged because their child likes candy on Halloween. People like chocolate and you don’t have to eat it every day to like it. It’s like somehow if they imply that their child actually LIKED the candy on Halloween then I must think they give their child candy for breakfast, lunch and dinner. So every conversation was like, “Yes, we had fun but you know we don’t really let them eat candy so they didn’t really know what to do with it.” What??? This makes me crazy. And I’m not talking about really little children and babies. I get that some of them actually have never had candy before. That said, my neighbor’s two-year-old was opening it faster than they were handing it out. And she was loving it. I never once thought, God she must eat candy every day if she likes it this much. Again, get over it. It was Halloween.

--Crafty Mom

How to Make Tie Dye Shirts…with kids

OK, I’m sure you’ve noticed that Tie Dye is back and it’s everywhere. The soccer fields are full of kids with tie dye socks. The shirts were in every beach souvenir shop this summer. So of course, we had to make them.


We actually bought two different kits and I won’t tell you what the bad one was but the good one was made by Jacquard and I totally recommend it. I had contemplated doing it old school and buying the Rit dye and doing the separate buckets of color but then I realized it was way cheaper to just buy the kit. What I didn’t know was how much easier the kit would make it. The squirt bottles were perfect for the kids. Even my two-year-old got into it with ease – a little too much at times.

Here’s what I learned:

• One or two shirts per kid is plenty. We had a stack of white shirts that had stains on them – making them perfect for tie dye - and it got to be too much. So keep it simple and try to encourage the kids to take their time on a couple of items.
• Do it outside and don’t wear anything you care about. We just laid our shirts right on the driveway. Grass would work just as well because you need to wash the clothes after anyhow. 
• Follow the directions on the box. We did and the colors came out beautifully. 
• We did the first few shirts the way you may remember doing them when you were younger, with the elastics, etc. and if you want to make one for yourself, go ahead and do that. But I found that the kids liked the instant gratification of seeing how the shirts looked while they were making them. So if you’re not looking to make a fashion statement, I recommend just skipping the elastics, laying out the shirt and letting them squirt the dye where they want – draw hearts, swirls, etc. Just remember when enough is enough because too much dye looks yucky and it gets “muddy.”  
• Definitely do some socks. They are so fun and an inconspicuous way for even the most conservative mom to get in on the action.  
• Save the gloves for when you have to put the stuff in the wash.

--Crafty Mom

Ladybug Girl

My daughter’s bedtime routine consists of 3 books, a short snuggle, and a back rub for three songs. Most nights, she chooses at least one or two of the same books we read the night before, and the night before that, and the night before that…you get the idea.

So, I’m always happy when she fixates on a book I enjoy, too. Our current favorite is Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy. 

Amazon product description:
At the playground, Lulu asks her friend Sam if he wants to play with her. Sam likes Diggers, while Lulu thinks Monkeys is the best game. Sam suggests playing under the castle, but Lulu knows that the top is the most fun. They just can’t agree! And then Lulu asks, “Have you ever played Ladybug Girl?” As Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy, Lulu and Sam save the playground from hairy monsters and big mean robots, and have their very own parade on the bouncy dinosaurs. They figure out that when they work together, they can create fun games that they both like to play.

We both love the book (and the original, Ladybug Girl) so much that her ladybug Halloween costume is just like Lulu’s!

--Commuter Mom

Crayon Crafts

We made our foliage “stained glass” and it adds so much color to our windows. We get the best light in our kitchen and we just tape the finished products right to the window. I have been making these since I was a kid and honestly it is such a fun, easy thing to do. And I love anything that gets us outside to prepare for a craft.

1. Collect your leaves.
2. Shave some crayons. We used a lemon zester this year and it was great. My six-year-old was able to do all the work.
3. Arrange leaves on a piece of wax paper.
4. Sprinkle crayon shavings around.
5. Lay another piece of wax paper over it.
6. Iron them together.

In the past I have put a towel over the wax paper but this year, I put the setting on medium and just ironed right on the wax paper. We didn’t have any issues. But definitely test it out – especially if you have a Rowenta iron, like the one I want so badly. I did put a towel on my ironing board because sometimes the crayons can bleed through and to be safe, make sure you wipe your iron off after you’re done.

And then, we had some leftover crayon shavings and a lot of little crayon pieces so we made crayons discs. We put all the little crayon pieces in a non-stick mini-muffin pan and put them in the oven on 225.

15 minutes or so later and we had these and the girls colored some pictures with their funky new crayons. If you make these, just let them cool completely and they pop right out of the tray. It’s a great way to recycle broken crayons.

--Crafty Mom

Germs

I will confess, I am a bit of a germaphobe. I use a lot of hand sanitizer and wipes, we wash our hands a lot in our house, shoes do not go past the front hallway. My husband is worse than I am, but won’t admit it. And, as parents of children in group care, we all know that we are starting the season of lots of runny noses, coughs, and colds…not to mention the flu, so I’m on heightened germ alert. Great news, last week at school they focused on germs.

At circle time, they read Bear Feels Sick, Who’s Sick Today, and Germs Make Me Sick.

For Science Lab, they did 2 experiments. The first activity was to put Vaseline on their hands and then try to remove it. First, they tried rinsing it off in cold water. Then they tried warm water. When they realized that didn’t work, they tried soap, warm water, and rubbing their hands together. They all discovered that with a little soap and singing the ABCs while they rubbed their hands together, they were able to remove the Vaseline. Then, they did a “Pepper Run” experiment. They put water into bowls and sprinkled in some pepper; the pepper flakes were the germs. When they touched the water with a piece of soap they saw the germs run away. Conclusion: germs don’t like soap.

Of course, they did an art project about germs, too (that’s why I’m not a teacher – I would never be able to come up with an art project about germs!). Each child traced their hand and cut it out then drew a face on a paper plate. Then put them together with a tissue to demonstrate how you sneeze into a tissue.

And, everyone got stickers – the teacher used the Bright Horizons Staying Healthy stickers – it was hysterical when my daughter came up to me and said, “A-choos to use a tissue.”

--Commuter Mom

Fall Manifesto

Can you believe October is here? This month I resolve to continue some of my most beloved fall traditions and create a few new ones. I plan to:

• Sneak in one more fair or harvest festival before the season is over
• Make these adorable necklaces
• Make these corn husk dolls  that remind me of my Nana
• And make these little apples which are just too cute 
• Take the girls to a Friday night football game at our local high school  
• Have a “pumpkin day” like the one featured in this book where we will eat pumpkin pancakes, pick out our pumpkins, make pumpkin muffins and roast pumpkin seeds
• Go on as many hikes (loosely speaking) as we can before the foliage disappears
• Collect the brightest fallen leaves to bring home and press between wax paper with crayon bits
• Let the kids decorate the house for Halloween however they want
• Visit every craft fair I can so that I can support handmade products and give unique gifts this holiday season
• Rake the biggest leaf pile possible…strictly for playing
• And finally, finish the Halloween costumes with time to spare.

--Crafty Mom

How to Make Simple Friendship Bracelets

Let me just say that I am one of those people who has never uttered the words “I am bored” when I am home. I have about 20,000 projects on my list I want to do that don’t even include the stuff I should be doing, like laundry or taking the 18 mos. clothes out of my 2 ½ year-old’s dresser. But I need to tell you, a lot of these projects (and my general sanity) are VERY dependent on nap times all around.

So we have had some adjusting to do in the house now that I have a six-year-old who will not only no longer nap for me but also refuses to do that whole “quiet time” thing people like to talk about. I know for some people the nap thing goes away at 3 years old (or earlier – I don’t know how those people do it), but my oldest daughter always took a nap or at least rested. I have been so lucky...until this summer!

So I have been trying to come up with projects that keep her busy with only minimal help from me during the sacred time that my little one is actually napping. Selfish? Yes. Necessary? You bet.

One of the projects is….friendship bracelets! As I’ve said before, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, so I’m not surprised that they have become a minor obsession of hers. She has two uncomplicated styles down pat and they keep her occupied for quite a while. Maybe not two hours but I’ll take what I can get. Also, if you have a child around that age (boys, too), we’ve also found they are a great activity for long car rides.

In my day, we pinned the bracelets-in-progress to our jeans and worked off our legs, but she prefers the “taping to a shiny covered book” method. We bought a package of embroidery thread at the craft store (I think it was only like $6.00 for 20 colors) and of course keep the stash, plus some tape, in a wipes container.

I’m quite sure you all made some friendship bracelets when you were younger, but for a refresher on kid-friendly styles - the two styles she does are a basic braid (grouping multiple strands together in three sections and simply braiding them) and what we call the backwards 4.

1. You choose as many colors as you like – she likes 3 or 4. Tie them in a knot on the top and then pin to your child’s pants or tape it to a book.
2. Separate the strand on the right from the pack.
3. Take the one on the right and make a backwards 4, crossing over all the other strands. Pull the end through the hold you created and pull the strand up to the top. Keep repeating with one color until you have about an inch of solid color. (In classic fashion, it just dawned on me that you can do a forwards 4 but this is the way she does it!)
4. Repeat with other colors until you have your desired length, and secure so that it’s ready to be tied on someone’s wrist. (You can also add beads here and there. They look really cute!)
5. Give to a friend who should wear it forever!

--Crafty Mom

Handmade Halloween Costumes

Come with me to the Emerald City. No, not really! But how about on a journey to sew a Glinda the Witch of the North Halloween costume from a pattern? I don’t know why but I have a thing about making my kid’s Halloween costumes. I haven’t made them every year for the same reasons that most people probably don’t. You can buy pretty good ones now -- not like the crazy plastic ones they had when we were kids -- and honestly, sewing a costume can take a lot of time. But I like to make things when I can and to me, Halloween is the best time to try and sew garments because if they don’t come out perfect, who cares?

So this year, we are in a make-your-own year, and we are doing Glinda for my six-year-old. I’m a little concerned about the commitment factor for my two-year-old so we’ll get to her costume when we get closer to Halloween.

However, Glinda is a constant passion for my oldest. She loves the Wizard of Oz and the musical Wicked even more, so I know there will be no turning back. She’s been talking about being Glinda for Halloween since January when we saw her descend from the sky in Wicked.

We’re going to do a tweaked version of the dress on the bottom right.


Two years ago we made a princess costume – no princess in particular – just a straight up yellow princess dress. Let’s just say it was challenging and didn’t quite look like the picture (ahem). With two more years of sewing under my belt, I’m hoping for better success. And she is really into the process this year so that makes it so much more fun. But it already looks daunting - - so that is why I’m starting in early September.


First lesson learned from princess dress #1: Start way earlier than you think you have to.

Second lesson learned from princess dress #2: Buy the pattern in advance and write down exactly how much fabric and what notions (elastic, ribbons, buttons, etc.) you need. Do not try to read it and calculate the measurements in the store with two kids begging you to buy random buttons and candy. You have been warned that no matter how good a multi-tasker you think you are, if you do this, you will be back in the store several times.

Next up, buying fabric and cutting the pattern pieces. Stay tuned.

-- Crafty Mom

Crib Notes: iPhone Applications for Parents III

Yet another Apple iPhone application that will help to make the world of parenting easier for Moms (and Dads) everywhere!





Scribble

Cost: Free!


The Scribble app is a perfect way to keep your child (or you!) entertained during a trip in the car or a wait in line at the grocery store. With a simple interface, this app allows users to make a drawing on the iPhone simply by moving their fingers around the screen. Changes in color and line width are just a tap away. Once the masterpiece is complete, simply shake to erase or save it to your phone and set it as a background. Who said finger painting had to be confined to the refrigerator door?

The Dinner Show

First, we drank blueberry juice from our custom-built twisty straw.

Then we ate words made out of letter pasta.

Who knows what we’ll do for dessert!

-- Commuter Mom

Magic Nuudles

Have you tried these Magic Nuudles? I have seen these before and if we’re being honest here (which we are), I have said no to buying them several times. All I could think of when I saw them was packing peanuts and finding them all over the place. But this weekend at the craft store, I relented and I am kicking myself that I didn’t give them a try earlier. The kids loved building with them and they were so easy for both girls to use. There is no mess, you don’t need glue and if you want to make them disappear, they are totally biodegradable and literally melt in water. I didn’t want to encourage wasting them but of course we had to see if they really did melt away and they did!

The way they stick together is so cool. The trick is to really follow the directions and only tap them with water. You can’t get them too wet. I cut a sponge in half, wet it and then squeezed out the excess. I gave a sponge and a paper plate to each girl, put a bowl of nuudles in between them and they got busy building. They ended up working on both of these together. They said they were Whoville from Horton Hears a Who. I can see that!

--Crafty Mom

Preschool Science

I love to see what new science experiments are going on in my daughter’s preschool room.



Today, there were 8 or 9 water bottles around the edge of the water table, each filled with blue water. The middle of the water table was filled with yellow water. The water bottles looked like regular bottles with the lids screwed on; but, my daughter told me they were faucets. She picked up one of the water bottles, loosened the top, and water started to stream out of the bottom, just like a watering can. As she loosened them (or she got one “started” and let me unscrew the lid the rest of the way), we counted how many holes there were by watching the water as it flowed into the center of the water table. The water was fast or slow depending on how loose the cap was. Unfortunately, I had to go to work, so I didn’t get to see the yellow water turn green as more and more “faucets” were turned on.



We made this one at home to add to our bath toys…minus the color. Should be fun!

--Commuter Mom

Weekend Sewing

I finally got around to making something from Weekend Sewing. I love this book and it’s a good one for working moms who want to be able to fit sewing into their lives. I think it’s fair to say that working moms, in particular, have a hard time fitting in crafty projects on their own, i.e., not a craft project you’re doing as an activity with your kids. So the concept of weekend sewing really appealed to me and it really does have good projects that you can do in one weekend, or how I like to think, during a few naptimes.

Heather Ross has such a great style and I love the way the patterns are written. I usually have terrible luck with patterns. They are so often written for experienced sewers, that even those of us who aren’t beginners have a tough time following them. But this book gives detailed instructions that assume nothing and it has a good range of projects. I had wanted to make one of the smocked sundresses in the book for so long and figured I should get on it while it’s still sundress weather.









For the dress I used fabric from Heather’s Mendocino fabric line. I actually bought the fabric separately some time ago but I let my daughter choose some fabric from my stash and that’s what she chose – I didn’t intend for this to be a Heather Ross Extravaganza.

I made a version with halter straps. I read the directions from the book and watched the video from Heather’s appearance on Martha which I had found on her blog. Even if you have the book, I recommend watching the video as well because her tutorial on the video is a little easier to follow and I think it’s a helpful companion to the book – especially the part about starting new rows.

Despite following the directions, I felt like I had too much fabric above the smocking and it kind of stuck out in a weird way so I actually ripped it out and shortened the top hem. I was much happier. If you do make this dress, I recommend seeing how it fits and looks (with the pins) before hemming the top. (For reference, you can see in the Martha video how Imogene’s dress has a lot of fabric above the smocking and Heather’s adult version does not). When I make the one for my other little munchkin, I will definitely start the elastic smocking higher or something. It’s a fun dress to make. And more importantly, I had a happy customer – even though she refused to model it for my photo shoot. Grrrrrrr.

--CraftyMom

Crib Notes: Summer Craft List

In some parts of the country, everyone is complaining of extreme heat; in others, it’s the unseasonably cool weather and rain, but universally I’m hearing, “summer is almost over.” Don’t believe the hype! Make the most of everyday and the couple of weekends we have left before Labor Day.

Check out this great list that was posted on the Long Thread in June. It’s filled with all sorts of unique craft projects, activities and treats.

Crib Notes: Keep those Baby Food Containers – Two Uses

The plastic baby food jars make great paint holders when trying to give each child their own paint from the tube and it keeps colors separate for picky kids who don’t want all their colors on one plate. Plus, the caps make it easy to save unused paint for the next time so you’re not throwing away paint all the time (because you know you always give them too much).

And glass containers adorned with a simple ribbon make great outdoor votive candle holders. Soak the jars in soapy water and the labels come right off. Too make them extra clean you can also run them through the dishwasher. Tip: Burn the votive for a little while before your guests come and by the time the party starts, the candles will be wind-proof and ready for outdoor dining.

Fancy Nancy and Summer Lovin’

My sister-in-law bought my oldest daughter “Fancy Nancy Tea Parties” for her birthday. My daughter is very practical, as far as six-year-olds go, and EXTREMELY literal, so she usually says things like, “There is nothing ‘fancy’ about her. She just looks crazy.”

But this book, “Fancy Nancy Tea Parties” had her hooked and folding over the pages of the book to mark the things she wanted to do. She apparently has a new appreciation for Nancy. There are all sorts of little activities and crafts in the book to help you have the most “magnificent” gatherings. First on my daughter’s list was to make sun tea and of course, to have a tea party.

Not being a big iced tea drinker, I have never made sun tea before. Yum! So easy, so fun and so good. It is definitely going to be part of our summer life from now on. We used decaf tea. Just Lipton, nothing Fancy. We used 14 bags and let it sit out in the sun all day. The girls kept checking on it and giving me updates on how dark is was getting. Then we added simple syrup (bring equal parts sugar and water to a boil and let cool) and a trick we learned from the book, orange juice. I used about a half a cup of sugar and we added a few glugs of juice. I didn’t measure it – we just kept doing taste tests. It was delicious. Then we made some cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches (with cucumbers from our garden) and had ourselves a little tea party at the dining room table.

Speaking of the garden, I just had to take this picture of my kitchen counter. A trip to the Farmer’s Market (blueberries and carrots) and our first big harvest in our garden.

And can we talk about these flowers?

I love summer. What are you growing?

---CraftyMom

Baking Dreams Come True

Finally – in this time of economic recession, housing depression and a media industry addicted to horror, gore and extreme everything, there’s a story of survival, success and inspiration built from good old motherly ingenuity.

Angela Logan, mother of three, struggling actress found herself ditched by a contractor who left her with a construction job half done, a studio owing her money for acting work still unpaid and now she’s facing foreclosure. She what did she do? She baked an apple cake – simple as that.

Actually, she baked 100 of them, called them Mortgage Apple Cake and sold them for $40 a piece to friends, family and acquaintances to raise the money she needed to pay down her bills and qualify for a government program to lower her mortgage payments. It worked. Not only that, an internet retailer heard her story and is selling her cakes online and will launch a whole line of Angela Logan Cakes.

Now, while it does take some chutzpah to charge $40 for a cake, the only other thing that makes her success story so extraordinary is that it’s so darn ordinary. All she had to do was dig into her motherly survival skill instinct, remember what it was that she did well, share her story, and value herself – and her cake. I for one find it incredibly refreshing and inspirational.

--NewMom

A Butterfly Birthday

My oldest turned six last week. I am amazed by the grown-up girl she has become, always with a notebook and pen in hand, writing not only heart-felt songs but short plays. Yes, plays! Whenever I am able to get my hands on them I quickly snatch them and put them away for a day when they will bring her as much happiness as they have brought me and her Dad. But on this 6th birthday, there were no performances, just butterflies and flowers.

First the cake.

Did anyone know that the food coloring people have expanded their palette? I didn’t. For some reason, it has been a long time since I have had to buy food coloring. But they did, and they now have “neon” colors. So pretty! I always make our birthday cakes from scratch and I always use Martha Stewart’s classic butter cake from her Baking Handbook. In the description in the book, it says something like this classic cake is the stuff of which birthday memories are made and Martha’s right! It’s delicious. Plus, I usually end up having to shape the cake with a knife and it has a great density for doing that.



She wanted to do crafts at the party (love this girl). And having more “best intentions moments” than I’d like to admit, I worked REALLY hard to find two crafts that were appropriate for 5 and 6 year-olds to do mostly themselves (in our allotted time) and that they would find a little special. First, we made frames. I bought these great frames at the craft store that looked like they were made out of brown paper bags. I gave them tons of markers and butterfly and flower stickers and those girls went to town! Easy and satisfying, and once they all drew their newly-mastered butterflies and flowers, they were really adorable. If I was really good, I would have sent out copies of the photos I took at the party.



The second craft was more ambitious. We made butterfly mobiles and they were a huge hit. Do I have a photo of a completed one? No, because my daughter wanted to keep hers hanging in the garden and when I went to take a photo after a few recent thunderstorms, it just look more bedraggled than I want to share. But hopefully you’ll get the idea and I really encourage you do this if you have a butterfly lover.

You need:

1. Some type of ring to anchor the butterflies. (I ended up buying sheets of that sticky foam at the craft store. I cut it into strips and left the adhesive backing on all but an inch at one end and then I just overlapped the edge to create a ring. You could use cardboard though and staple it or the old mobile stand-by coat hanger. )
2. String cut at varying lengths to hang the butterflies. (I used yarn but only because I wanted something totally hassle-free. In an ideal world, you would use fishing line or clear thread but I don’t live in that world!)
3. Pretty, colorful tulle. (Cut into whatever lengths you think work. I did some short and some long and let the girls choose. I actually think it looks prettiest when it’s kind of messy.)
4. Butterfly bodies. (I used foam pieces that were the shape of popsicle sticks.)

For a successful party craft:

Get the rings already. Punch two holes on two opposite top-sides to attach a string for hanging the mobile. Punch several holes along the bottom of the ring and tie-on strings of varying lengths.

Get the bodies ready. I chose those foam “popsicle sticks” because I could cut them. I folded them in half (end to end) and then cut two slits about 1.5 inches long lengthwise in the stick to create something akin to a belt loop. I had them all cut and ready to go in advance of the party.

I let the girls pick their tops and some wrote their names or stuck stickers on those. Then they all picked out their tulle and began “threading” through the slit on the body. Some of them put faces on the bodies, too. You want them to pull enough piece of tulle through the body so that it looks full and it stays in place.

Once they made all their butterflies, they went and played some more and I attached them to the strings I had already put in place.

-- CraftyMom