From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!
The “No Mess” Preschool Fall Craft
I love a good mess. There is something that is comfortable about it to me. Paint and little cuts of paper are a pretty normal sight around my house. BUT, every other week or so I do have an OCD melt down where I clean it all. We then create it again. I love crafting in a clean house. So weird.
There are times though, where I want a quick, no mess craft. I have found that having some of these on hand can change-up my day and even help entertain my kids on days where I am needed something. I whipped this little picture frame craft up for my J this week, and he loved it. And I loved that it was a no mess craft, as we were headed out-of-town the afternoon he created it.
Here is what you need:
- Paper mache picture frame (an old cheap frame could work or even cutting your own out of cardboard or paper) You can also buy them in a bulk party pack
for a birthday party, thanksgiving craft, school activity, etc.
- Fall foam leaf stickers
- Picture (for these types of things I just print out the picture at home on normal cardstock paper)
My J loves stickers, and we are constantly working on building a little more confidence and independence in him. This simple craft was something he could do on his own, have fun, create, and make something he was proud of.
I printed off two pictures (different sizes) to find the best fit for the frame. I cut the one out I liked best and stuck it in the frame for J. He then picked up leaves, pulled the sticker back off, and placed them on the frame. It was that easy. I loved that he mixed up shape and colors of the leaves. So, although it was pretty basic, it still shows his creativity.
There was no glue or paint to clean up. We simply threw away the sticker backs, and his frame was complete. Side note: Peeling sticker backs off can be a task for a preschooler and really practiced his eye hand coordination! The teacher in me had to say that ;).
He made something he was proud of, and I hope built that little self-confidence up while having a blast. I love how the natural background looks with the pop of leaf color. You could always paint it, wrap it with string, or create a paper collage on your frame to make it a little more intricate and a step harder. Another idea is to use this idea for a card rather than a picture frame and write a message inside. The possibilities are endless to stretch or use this technique!
I hope you are having a great weekend and are getting to use your creative juices!
DIY Yarn Picture Frame
I have a hard time throwing left over craft materials away, so I store them and can become quite a hoarder if I am not careful.
Last weekend I made an initialed D out of yarn, and I had this brightly colored yarn left over. I knew it wasn’t enough to make another letter, but there was enough for something fun. I came up with this DIY yarn picture frame. If you can wrap a frame in yarn, you can do this project!
I started with an old picture frame I got at the Dollar Tree, and now I think the frame looks like something out of a boutique. I love it.
I’m going to show you step by step how I did it, so you too can make a fun frame!
Materials:
- Cheap Frame
- Yarn
- Hot Glue Gun
- Scissors
- A Picture
If you like to be crafty, most likely these are all items you already have on hand too.
Start by taking the back off your picture frame. It needs to be open, so the yarn can wrap through it. Then place a small amount of hot glue onto the frame and stick your yarn on it. It does not matter where you start.
You are going to wrap around the whole thing until you complete the rectangle and are back to this starting point.
Start wrapping your yarn around the picture frame. I didn’t bother adding any more glue until I reached the corners. I then placed a small amount of glue and laid my string on top. Wait a few seconds to allow your glue to dry, before you start wrapping again. If the glue has not set, most likely it will not hold its place. I did this process a few times to get me around the corner.
Continue to keep wrapping until you get to the next corner. You then add more glue to get you around that corner-just like you did before. Just wrap and wrap. If you look closely at my corners you can see that I layered some yarn on top of other wrapped strands. Do what ever you need to, to cover those corners well. The string is gorgeous and you will create the same look no matter how many layers it takes to wrap it. The point is to cover up all the ugly brown frame.
If you want, you can wrap your sides and come back and do the corners. I actually liked this way better. Cut your string and re-glue a starting piece onto your frame. Just glue it on the back of the frame, so no little fringe starting piece will show from the front.
Once I was done wrapping, I thought the yarn frame looked pretty cool by itself. You could hang it up right then as a fun piece to add to a wall collage. I thought a paper mache letter would look cool hanging inside.
I decided to turn my frame into a real frame that can sit on my buffet. I added a small dab of hot glue into each of my corners and carefully set my glass on top. Be careful to align this straight.
I then set my picture inside and hot glued a few small felt pieces around the back of the frame to hold it into place. The back no longer fit down into the little grove because of all the string. I figured this little system worked, and when I want to switch out the picture, I can just rip off the felt and redo this step.
I love how it came out. I especially love the contrast of my black and white family picture that Someplace Wild took for us this summer with the brightly colored string.
I think this DIY yarn picture frame would make great, inexpensive gifts. You can personalize this project so much by picking out colors of yarn that apply to who you are crafting for, and insert a special picture that holds a special memory. The holidays are going to come fast, and I am tucking fun crafts like this away to remember for presents. Be prepared fam ;).
Hope you all had a great week and Happy Friday!! I hope you are able to incorporate a spoonful of imagination into your weekend. If you have any questions about this project (or any of mine!), please feel free to reach out to me! I love to hear from you all!
Toddler Picture Books
Welcome back to week #2 of it’s All About the Kids link up! Thank you so much for joining me, and I hope you link up a fun kid related post this week.
There were some great link ups last week! I loved the post from Dollie on how to Use Puzzles to Teach Geography and the post from Heather on how to have A Snow Day with shaving creme! Both amazing ideas and fun activities to do with your kids.
The link up that I randomly picked to feature today was The Blessings Jar from Heather at Upside Down Homeschooling.
Heather is going to keep a jar and write blessings on little of slips of paper as they come in through the year to stick in the jar. I love this idea, and we will definitely be doing it in our home as well. Thank you so much Heather for inspiring us to look and appreciate the GOOD things that happen! Please thank her for this great idea by stopping by her blog to say hi!
Today, I am sharing a toddler picture book I made for my nieces for Christmas.
My sweet niece, Charleigh, lives 14 hours away so we only get to see her a handful of times during the year. She is almost 18 months old, and I want her to know us. We send pictures and Facetime, but for Christmas I wanted to add a personal touch to her present. I thought of this cute little book. I simply got a few pictures developed and ran them through my laminator at home. I ended up going back and laminating them twice, so the pages are extra thick and protected from little girl drool. Once I had the pages laminated, I punched a hole in the top of each page and stuck them all on a keyring, so they can be flipped easily.
I loved it so much, I made my niece, Natalie, one as well. Even though we get to see her quite often, she loves her book because it is people that love her and she loves too. My brother and sister in law took it out to dinner with them the other night and helped pass the time while they were waiting for their food. How smart is that!?
If you read my DIY Ruffle Fabric Bag and Christmas Wrap Up Post, you got to see a few other Christmas presents I made this year. Did you make anything you gave away this holiday season?
Now, I am so excited to party it up with you all again! Please link up your newest All About the Kids post!
