Spring Trees

So since I am enjoying the theme of spring trees while searching for ideas of craft my two could make together I thought we could do paper mache.  Thinking of what we had around the house – a soft drink bottle hadn’t been recycled yet and so there was the base for the trunk of the tree!

Oh the messy fun we had.  I thought I didn’t take too many pictures because of the messiness but I did get a few quite fun ones.

First the recipe – easy to find on the net.  I used the uncooked version  –  which was similar to making salt dough just different measurements.  So 1 part flour to 2 parts water.  (I did cups.  I think I added a little more flour so it wasn’t soooo runny!  I also added a few tablespoons of salt which was recommended for humidity areas so it doesn’t go mouldy).

Then outside we went.  I spread a plastic table cloth on the outside table, put old clothes on the kids and we had fun.  I tried to show them how to scrape the excess off but not so good at that.  What I did find in the recycle bin was newspaper and white paper so we covered the bottle in about 4 layers.  1 newspaper, 1 plain, 1 newspaper, 1 plain.

My two had lots of fun making this and it met my aim of a fun craft to do as a family.  I didn’t really care if it turned out or not, I wanted the process of a craft that we could do together esp my two to have fun playing and making together.

It was easy to make sure all the bottle was covered this was as you could see where the gaps were.  I left it out in the sun to dry, it took about a day and a half.  Since we were not removing the base I decided it was thick enough and didn’t need any more layers such as another paper mache might – eg one using a balloon as a base.

I don’t have any photos of us painting as we had visitors and I had 5 wanting to paint, including one under 2 so I couldn’t juggle the camera as well.  I also didn’t mix the paint very well (probably not enough yellow) as the tree turned out to be more purple than brown.

This craft was very messy, but lots of fun.  It didn’t need much in the way of supplies, the paper came out of the recycle bin, I had the primary colours, I had water and flour and the bottle came from the recycling as well.  A little bit of set up to make sure everything and everyone was covered (I wore an apron).  There was lots of clean up but because we were outside I could use the hose.

Next post will be about making the flowers for the tree.

Spring has sprung!

It’s been a busy couple of months, very trying and exhausting and for the month of September I was pretty much away 3 weeks out of the month which didn’t lead to much crafting going on in the home.

Now I am back and things are sort of settling down.  I have been wanting to do crafts which involves the two working together to encourage greater sibling harmony.  I know siblings bicker and it is a way of working through issues but I want to remind them how much fun they can have together.

I have been trying to find ideas on the internet but mostly all I find is about introducing a new sibling to the family, not about siblings crafting together so I have been finding ideas and adapting them.

Emily has moved out of her toddler bed and is now in her extended bed which meant new sheets and a new quilt cover.  The quilt has purple butterflies and I thought Emily needed some decoration in her room to match the quilt.  I am not sure if I quite achieved this but we gave it a go.

I was flicking channels and Better Homes and Gardens was on and they had a finger painting idea for kids.  Here is the video link to the craft (or here if it doesn’t work).
I went to the local cheap store and found some canvases, printed off a tree design off the internet and talked with my two about how it is spring now and we are seeing the flowers coming out and so we were going to crate a picture together using our hands.  I also talked about how we use our hands to help each other not hurt and that every time they look at the picture they can remember how they helped each other make it.

I had a friend staying and I roped her into copying the picture from the print out onto the canvas (sticky tape it to the back of the canvas and trace over it with a sharpie)

So it looks like this.  (We ended up with two canvasses – one for each room)

Then out came the old clothes and the paint.  We only had the primary colours so we had fun mixing the colours together to create other shades.

I had Alexander and Emily use their fingers to paint first one canvas and then the other, so that they had worked together on both paintings.

Then to fit in with the themes of their bedrooms, Emily stamped her canvas with a butterfly stamp and Alexander stamped his with stars.

And then we were done!  We had to have a few fallen flowers and stars to decorate the canvas.

And we’re done.  Each unique to each room but having something of both of them, I think they can take pride in making this together.  I hope they remember making it together when they look at them.  Now to hang on the walls!