Holiday Craftiness

I often get the crafting bug and see so many little things I'd like to do.  The bug is especially common around holidays.  I've gotten better lately about actually gathering the supplies and taking the time to do the crafts and I truly enjoy this "me" time.  I get a good dose of happiness when inspecting a finished project and the "I did it myself!" pride from toddler hood just doesn't fade.  Becoming a Mommy has opened lots of avenues for creativity and I have to thank Pinterest for inspiring me.  I love doing little projects, but coming up with them myself is another story.  I have enjoyed starting with one person's idea and making it my own.  I've made sensory and fine motor "toys" for Becker by recycling items around the house.  I made birthday decorations, holiday gifts and special keepsakes.

I wouldn't say I could tackle building a shelf out of crates or sewing a quiet book just yet (both things I'd love to be able to do), but I'm into a certain level of DIY.  The paint and hot glue gun level as opposed to the drill and sewing machine level.  My projects have to be fairly quick to complete because let's be honest, time is not something I have a whole lot of just laying around waiting to be filled.  I also do not have space for an ongoing project to remain ongoing, so I take on the smaller set of projects that can be completed in one or two evenings.

Mistletoe:

Ever since we got married I wanted to hang mistletoe at Christmas.  There was something about getting kissed under the mistletoe from all of those songs and stories that I just wanted NEEDED.  Seven years in and I never found any.  This year I saw a post on Pinterest and knew it would solve my mistletoe dilemma.  Felt mistletoe I can use year after year!  And it's super cute.  I used this lovely tutorial and made four mistletoes in one evening.  One for us, and three to give as gifts.  Score!  I love how it turned out and now I get to experience getting kissed under the mistletoe every day.  Becker thinks it's fun.

Salt Dough Ornaments:
Some crafts end up being "we" time and that totally rocks.  Last year we made these glitter hand print ornaments to give everyone as gifts.  They turned out great and I wanted to find another craft we could do together this year. 

2011: 10 month Becker hand.

Becker can participate so much more this year so there are more options.  Pinterest inspired me once again and I decided I had to make these salt dough hand prints to preserve Becker's hand print before it gets any bigger.  The recipe said it made 12 hand prints so I thought it was the perfect activity to prepare for our turn to host playgroup.  The four kiddos each made 2 hand prints as that was the extent of their interest with the pumpkin muffins and wood trucks beckoning from the other room.  I had a lot of dough left over so I rolled it out and used some heart and circle cookie cutters to make ornaments during Becker's nap.

Growing up, we had a whole shirt box of painted salt dough ornaments the three of us had made in preschool. These were the ornaments we could touch and hang ourselves.  Everything I hung on our tree at his level is not breakable, but I thought it would be fun for him to make some ornaments himself.  I was going to wait a few days and tackle the painting when I had a whole afternoon to devote to it, but as luck would have it an opportunity presented itself when I got home from work the next day.  Becker was interested in the bowl of baked "cookies" and I asked him if he wanted to paint them.  He gave an enthusiastic "yes!" so I taped some newspaper to the counter, grabbed my art box of acrylic paints from college and let him go to town.



This is probably his third time using paint brushes and he liked the sponge brush best.  He also enjoyed using his hands and fingers to paint as well as spreading paint with a toothpick sword.  I had expected to need to do this in two or three separate sittings because there were several ornaments to paint, but his interest stuck and he painted all of the ornaments.  He went back and added paint to some after they were done and wanted his hands or the brushes washed a few times to start fresh.  I loved watching his focused, artistic side come out during this activity.  He didn't even need a bath afterwards!  Just a good handwashing.



While he was sleeping I sealed the ornaments with Modge Podge and added silver ribbon.  We put a few on our tree and decided the rest will make perfect gift adornments for grandparents and family members.  I am really happy with the new additions to our tree.

Fall Wreath

 

 

Doesn't that just scream fall?!  The more I look at it, the happier it makes me.  Ok fall, I am ready, come sprinkle some crisp weather down here in Southern California so I can make something hearty and warm for dinner.  I'll even appreciate a windy day or gasp....rain!  I just can't wait to fire up the oven and bake something without marinating in my own sweat.  Anyway, more about wreaths.

 

Not only has Pinterest been an inspiration for recipes and toddler fun, it's given me the fuel to get crafty.  Wreaths are fun and you can use them again and again.  For Becker's first birthday I made this ballooon wreath I found on Pinterest:

 

 

It took me several nights of pinning balloons to the wreath in front of the tv after Becker was asleep, but it turned out awesome and we've used it for all three of our birthdays this year with many more to come.  That first wreath got my wheels turning and I've pinned many more DIY wreath ideas since.

 

Our hot September weather has had me longing for for fall.  I miss seasons.  I've enjoyed the summer weather, but I need a change.  Trader Joes has installed a pumpkin patch and Target is about to pull out the Christmas decortation meaning it is officially time for fall.  We've got our Uggs and our jackets all ready to go and it's still 90 degrees every single day.  Since it doesn't seem to be letting up any time soon and I won't get to FEEL fall weather, I can at least make my house LOOK like it's fall.  I fell in love with this yarn wreath on, you guessed it, Pinterest!  My sister also fell in love with it after seeing my pin and made an absolutely beautiful version:

 

 

When she texted this picture to me, I knew I wanted to make mine NOW.  This one took her a couple of days to complete and she had sore arms from wrapping layers upon layers of yarn around the wreath form.  It looks amazing, but I wasn't sure I had the patience or energy to tackle a multi-night project with a very busy toddler in the house to possibly find and destroy said project.  I've also been liking the monogram wreaths and decorations I've found and instantly liked this DIY fall wreath project.   Hot glue, a little paint, glitter and burlap.  I can do that!  When I bought my supplies, Michael's had leaves with a touch of gold glitter that was going to match my glittering B perfectly so I grabbed those up in lieu of the plain fake leaves.  Once Becker was asleep last night I set to work.  This is what the dining table looked like as I was about to get started with the hot glue. 

 



After burning my fingers numerous times (burlap is full of holes) and also dropping a burlap loop covered in glue which hit the table and then landed on the floor, I did finish the wreath in one evening as hoped.  The glue on the floor was a bit of an issue at first.  When the loop fell, it smeared the glue so it wasn't as easy as waiting for that little hot glue bubble to dry, and then popping it off the floor.  A little ice and butter knife scraping got the glue off the floor.  Once it was done, I hung it up on the inside of our door to admire and Mark commented that it wasn't centered and needed more leaves on the right side.  Originally I had wanted the B to be more off centered to the right, but once it was glued it was not coming off so I had to make do.  Back to work, I added more burlap and leaves to even it out and called it a night.  I really like the way it turned out, so here it is again.  Ta dah!

Pinterest

I love Pinterest.  I have found so many great ideas, recipes and projects in the never ending scroll of pins.  The problem is that I work three days a week and spend a lot of time gathering ideas on Pinterest.  Then I make a Target run to gather the supplies for all of these sensory, fine motor skills and art projects suggested for toddlers and this happens:

I got overexcited.  I came home from work with my bag of goodies and just could not contain myself.  It's kind of like how I open and try every new item I haven't bought before once I get home from the grocery store.  It's exactly like that.  In that case I generally tear into the goodies by the time I'm in the parking lot.  I simply cannot wait. 

So, first I got out the berry colander I bought and let him sift water with it.  The rain poured down and he loved watching it.  I also bought pipe cleaners for him to stick in the holes, but having an ounce of restraint, I saved that for another day.  Next I busted out a set of magnets and a muffin tin so he could play with the different sizes and colors.  He enjoyed lining them up and sticking them together, then we made a pattern across the refrigerator.  Next up?  Markers!  Washable markers that is.  Target had a Back-To-School sale and these things were under $2.  Becker had never played with markers before.  I wrote his name on a piece of paper and taped it to his high chair tray.  First he wanted to pull the cap off the back end and put it back on, which took some strength.  Then, he went to town testing out each color.  He quickly decided the paper was hindering his artistic flow and tore it off the tray saying "off".  I decided this was a good time to test the "washable" claim on these markers so I let him scribble all over the tray.  I may regret this decision later, but I don't think he can really grasp the idea of the paper at this age anyway so the tray seemed to be an acceptable option.  I also put a lot of faith in that "washable" claim by not using a smock.  Luckily for me and his white shirt, he was far more interested in drawing on the tray than himself.  After he had thoroughly colored the tray and admired his colorful hands, I thought it was a good time to introduce shaving cream.  I remembered playing with it in preschool and had seen some fun looking sensory activites involving a nice, big pile of Barbasol.  I squirted out a dallop and let him go.  He squished it, spread it, smeared it, loved it and asked for "moe".  This soft, thick, creamy substance had lots of appeal.  And as a bonus to me, it cleaned up the marker beneath it!  Yes the "washable" claim is valid.  The more he played with the shaving cream, the cleaner the tray and his hands got.  It was super easy to clean up with a wet rag and then it was time to make dinner.  Blame it on my excitement to share these fun new things with him, or his toddler attention span....but we plowed through this activity line-up in about an hour.  I think I'll slow it down and focus on one activity at a time on our next go at it, but one thing led to another and in a way it just flowed this way.  Good clean fun with learning to boot!