She's Crafty

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Have you seen this video of the size comparison of our Planets and the Stars?? It is amazing! If you ever want a good perspective on just how small we are on this little Planet Earth, this movie is definitely worth watching.



I have watched it with my kids several times and they are truly mesmerized by how huge all these stars are in comparison to our own Sun. Since our Sun has been shining so bright lately, I thought it would be fun to do a craft I am calling Star Bursts. We used a plastic fork to create the sun rays, super fun!!

2. Color each circle yellow and orange.



3. Pause for a moment to pick up the disastrous mess your baby girl made when you weren't paying attention to her. hahaha


4. Use the yellow paint and a plastic fork to paint the sun rays around each star and let it dry.



Looks pretty awesome, right??!!


Here is the completed project completely dry.


Andy wanted to add some glitter to his so we tried adding dabs of gold glitter glue and smearing them around the outsides of the stars. I actually prefer how it looks without the glitter but thought I'd throw out some additional ideas.

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We did a fun and simple 4th of July Craft today that I thought I would share. Since the 4th is on Monday I thought I'd use it as an opportunity to talk about the American Flag. I don't know why I didn't think about this a couple weeks ago for Flag Day, but oh well. We discussed what all the symbols and colors on the flag mean (listed at bottom of post) and then went about crafting our own paper flag. I thought it would be cool if instead of cutting the strips in a straight line we rip the strips out of the paper. It made a cool effect and the kids had fun trying it out. We ended up using most of the strips I ripped, but I still gave the kids the opportunity to rip a couple.

Materials you will need:
-white sheet of card stock paper
-5 red strips of paper (ripped from a red sheet of construction paper)
-1 blue rectangle (ripped out of a blue sheet of construction paper)
-glue
-star stickers


Directions:
1. Put glue on the red strips of paper and stick them down on your white paper spacing them out to make the red/white flag pattern.

On occasion, Mr. Tyrannosaurus Rex sits in on our crafting time. He is a good buddy of ours.  :)

2. My strips were longer than the white paper so after they were glued on we just trimmed the edges to line up with the paper.


3. Glue your blue rectangle onto the corner of your paper.


4. Put your star stickers on your blue rectangle.


See, 4 simple steps and you've created a cute American Flag.



Some Facts about the American Flag that we talked about (source):

• The stripes represent the 13 original colonies.
• The 50 stars represent the number of states.
• The Red symbolizes Hardiness and Valor.
• The White symbolizes Purity and Innocence.
• The Blue represents Vigilance, Perseverance and Justice.

Hope everyone has a Happy 4th of July!! Happy Crafting!!

Linking up to these parties.

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Since my Mother-in-Law had my boys most of the week, it was just me and my Little Lady. I spent my days looking at her pretty face, smothering her with attention and trying to make her giggle for me more than she does for Daddy....What can I say, I'm competitive and she's SUCH a Daddy's Girl!!

We had fun going on walks together, and I've got to say, pushing that stroller without Luke in it is heavenly! I even did me a little jog one day this week.


She kept me company while we did some shopping at my favorite stores (you know, what girls do best! haha), and we even survived going to Home Depot and Lowe's with Daddy, and THAT is quite the accomplishment since he could quite literally browse the isles of those stores all day long.


I made her showcase and model my current favorite outfit of hers. After all, her 12-month wardrobe brings my entire closet to shame. Isn't it cute? I was NEVER a pink kind of gal before I had a girl and now I can't seem to stay away from it. She definitely brings out the girly in me.


She is pretty much my pocket full of sunshine! Who couldn't adore that cute little grin of hers?

But as much fun as it was to just be Mommy/Daughter, we were happy to get our boys back. It was awfully quiet without them, and I know Lila missed them as much as me.

We made a pit stop at Cabela's where this giant stuffed Polar Bear tried to eat us....


We walked through all the animal displays playing "I Spy" and Luke cried every time I spied a Bear because that was the one he was going to Spy. hahaha I sure love having my little stinker back!

And Andy talked my ear off the entire hour long drive home telling me everything about everything and I think I said "Uh-huh" and "yeah" and "Wow!" a million times....That was all I was able to squeeze in between his sentences. LOL! He is certainly a character.


This is obviously not a very good picture, but it makes me laugh. Andy throwing up some sort of gang sign, Luke looking like that Polar Bear really is going to eat him, and Lila oblivious with her eyes closed.


I was happy to have a clean house every day my boys were away, and since it's already a disaster and they've only been home for 24 hours, I can officially now blame my messy house on my children! haha Now that definitely makes me happy!

And now that my boys are home, I can't wait to get my craft on!

What made you happy this week?

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When we moved into our house last Summer all of the walls were completely white. Sadly to say, every single one of them still is, except for one wall in the living room that I painted as an accent wall....Ok, I totally blame it on the fact that my baby was one week old when we moved in and so obviously I've been busy this past year. However, I've at that point where I'm feeling desperate to finally start doing some things around my house to make it more appealing.

I've really wanted to change up my boys' bedroom and make it fun for them so when I found these old, sturdy bunk beds on KSL Classifieds I knew I HAD to buy them, especially since their bedroom is on the small side. These beds have been through 7 children so even though they are really sturdy and are great quality, they need a major re-finishing job. There is permanent marker all over the place! haha

Don't mind the messy garage. We have about 9 million projects going on in there right now. haha

My favorite part of the bunk beds are the cubby holes in the head boards. My boys will be jamming them full of dinosaurs, I'm sure!

Since hubby has been out working on the bunk beds and I've been minus 2 this week (meaning my Mother-in-Law wanted some time with my boys so I shipped them off for a couple days), I've been a wee bit bored. So last night I decided to sew some new pillowcases for my boys as part of their bedroom remodel.

We found this fabric at Wal-Mart (of all places) and since my boys are BIG TIME DINOSAUR fans we decided to go with it. Plus, I already had some blues in the room anyways.


I am new at sewing so I had to look at some tutorials for how to sew a pillowcase. I was so pleased that I finally learned what a french seam was and was able to make one on my pillowcases, so now there won't be any fraying on the inside. Yay!


I think it's funny that instead of lounging around relaxing when my boys are gone, I make something for THEM instead. I guess once you have a child they are just literally always a part of you. The pillowcases were a success. Now I just need to go get a gallon of paint...


By the way, have you ever wondered what I do with all the crafts we do around here? With the help of my in-law's, I made these fun square magnet boards that are hung above their beds so they act as headboards. I painted them a color that matched their bedding and added some glitter glue on top to add some pizazz. Then I bought some wood letters from Michael's, painted them and glued them on the frame to personalize it. I debated painting chalkboard paint on them, but ultimately decided I didn't want the chalk mess in their bedroom (you know kids!).


So after hanging our crafts on the fridge for a week, we usually rotate them onto the magnet board. The boys love seeing all their projects up there and it makes fun bedtime conversation rehearsing what we read and learned all over again. Plus, it's just so dang fun to see all their creations up there!


Beyond the magnet board, I haven't figured out quite yet what to do with all the crafts. I've just been storing them for years in a box and figured I would put them in a scrapbook some day. What do you do with all your children's creations? I'd love some ideas.

PS- We found these darling Melissa & Doug Dinosaur Magnets that are on the magnet board at Ross for cheap. They literally consume any free space on the magnet boards because my boys love them so much!

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As promised, and to go along with the "Piggies" Story time and Craft, I introduce to you my Piggy Snack...

If you didn't catch the "Piggies" Story time and craft, you can find it HERE. My kids had a hoot and holler about this little creation. They loved it! Since it's pretty self-explanatory, I didn't feel a tutorial was necessary.

I used one-half of a bagel and spread strawberry cream cheese on it to make the pig face. I like the cinnamon raisen bagels, but you choose whatever is to your liking. I sliced a banana slice for the nose which also conveniently covered up the hole in the middle of the bagel, a couple chocolate chips for the eyes, 2 strawberry slices for the ears, and about 3/4 of one Twizzlers for the mouth.


YUM! YUM! I hope you have a fun-filled week full of Piggy-related awesomeness!!!  :o)

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This week we read the story "Piggies" by Audrey Wood. The text and illustrations in this book go perfectly together. There are only three or four well-chosen words per page, but the author still manages to keep the story alive and moving.

I saw this idea in the "The Mailbox Magazine" to have the child make their own 5 piggies and knew it was a perfect compliment to this story.


Materials You Will Need:
-White sheet of card stock paper
-Pencil
-Fine Tip Black Marker
-Flesh color crayon
-Pink paint and paint brush
-A Marker

Directions:
1. Use a pencil to trace your child's hand onto the white card stock paper. Make sure your child's fingers are spread out like in the picture below.



2. Re-trace the hand print with the black marker. I used pencil to trace the hand first because I knew how wiggly my kids would be and I had to use my eraser to smooth out some of the lines before tracing it with the black marker.


3. Have your child color their hand print with a flesh colored crayon.


4.  Next dip the bottom of your marker into the pink paint and press it on top of each finger twice to make a pig head and body.



5. When your child is finished making the two circles on each finger it should look like this. Let it dry completely.


6. Once dried completely, use the fine tipped marker to add the details to your pig: ears, nose, eyes, tail, etc.




7. At the top of the paper write "My Five Piggies" and have your child write their name on the bottom of the paper. I had to write the words at the top for my 4-year old but my 6-year old was obviously able to do it by himself. Now you are finished!



My kids loved this project and I think they turned out so cute!

Tomorrow I will be sharing a Piggy Snack to go along with this story so I hope you'll come back and take a peek!

Happy Reading and Crafting!!

I'm Linking up over HERE this week!