Dandelion Painting

It's that time of year again when now that the grass is green the dandelions are popping up too. I have to admit, even though I know they are a weed, there is something so summery about seeing those bright yellow bursts all over the yard.

Of course, the boys love to pick them. And in addition to picking them, we've discovered how great they are for painting with. They make awesome designs!

Rock Buddies

Sometimes the best crafts are the simplest - and I forgot how simple and fun these Rock Buddies can be. I didn't remember until earlier this week when we made some with Little Brother's best buddy on a playdate.

So of course we had to make some more once we remembered how simple and fun they are! 

Glue-Resist Easter Egg Painting

Glue-Resist Painting is something we've enjoyed doing before because it takes minimal materials and is easy to create. So when we were looking for something fun to do to get us in the mood for Easter, we definitely got inspired for trying some glue-resist painting with an Easter theme.

What's great about these eggs is they are colorful and done with watercolor, so even little hands can help create them. 

Painted Wrapping Paper

It's that time of year when lots of fun things are coming up — Mother's Day, Father's Day, Teacher Appreciation days, not to mention birthdays and baby showers too. And all of these fun events may wind up in need of wrapping paper. Making our own wrapping paper is a great way to add a little more sentiment to a gift.

Using Oriental Trading Company's craft selection can inspire a wide range of projects, so we were excited to team up with them again. This time we were definitely inspired by their bright paints and fun paint stampers to make wrapping paper. I found almost all of the materials below on the Oriental Trading Company's craft website.

Painted Snowballs

It's hard to believe it's the end of March and that as I write this we are getting another batch of fresh snow. As much as I love winter fun, I'm ready for winter to be over. However, the outside world currently looks like a Christmas card. So while I may be tired of the snow, it's what we have outside to play with so we're getting creative.

One day after school we decided to try painting snowballs. The boys loved this colorful, messy project. And, it is actually perfect for spring snow as it's warm enough out to take off gloves and mittens.

Painted Pumpkins

This was a great rainy day activity a few weeks ago on a dreary Saturday afternoon. And although we did it as a lead up to Halloween, it would also be a great way to use any pumpkins that were not carved on Halloween.

Another great part of this activity is that it can be enjoyed by a variety of ages. We painted the pumpkins with our cousins, so the age range on this activity day were one 3 year old, two 6 year olds, and one 10 year old. Everybody took it to their own level and everyone loved their finished product. 

Painting with Tennessee Dancing Gourds

It's that time of year when there's all sorts of fun fall materials around that are perfect for a variety of different projects. We love finding new ways to use different materials. So we were excited to be given a handful of these "Tennessee Dancing Gourds" grown in my school gardens.

The boys love how the gourds can spin like a top, they really get some great motion when they get going. Watching them spin gave me a great idea for painting. 

Pool Noodle Olympic Ring Painting

We've always enjoyed the Olympics, but this year the kiddos are especially fascinated by them. Big Brother has been asking to watch them all week! On top of watching them, this past week we've been exploring some different ideas and projects for "Olympic Week" in our Simple Summer Theme series.

The other afternoon I wanted something fun to do that wouldn't take a lot of set up and was trying to think of a way we could create the Olympic Rings.

Although I'd seen the toilet paper roll ring prints, I realized that pool noodle pieces would also make great tools for printing circles!

Paint on Sandpaper

This was a fun and easy activity we did a few weeks ago for "Desert Week." I will admit that Big Brother chose Desert Week and I was a little stumped on what to do for the week. We came up with several fun ideas. When this idea came to me and proved to be both easy and fun - painting on sandpaper.

We used this idea for "Desert Week" but I could see you this also as a great activity as a "beach" project. 

Painting Water Beads

Back in April (yes, April!) we soaked a batch of water beads for small world play in the sensory table. Amazingly, the beads are still in great shape. We've just continued to add a little fresh water every so often. But the other day someone left the top off and it rained (our table is out on the deck.) The beads became pretty huge and it was clear they're pretty close to the end of their timeframe.

Before we got rid of them, I wanted to try and get a little more fun out of them, which led to this art exploration: painting water beads.

This was a great deck activity, or could also easily be done inside. 

Heart in Hand (Homemade Card)

If you follow us on Instagram you might have noticed the quick picture last week of lots of colorful handprint paintings covering our kitchen tabletops. We were busy creating thank you cards for Teacher Appreciation Week.

I love how simple this card idea came out, and it would be perfect for not just teacher appreciation cards, but also Mother's Day, Father's Day, thank you cards, and Valentine's Day. They didn't take very long to put together either, which is especially great if you want to make a whole batch of them.

Paint with Bouncy Balls

It's been a pretty busy week this past week, which has meant not a lot of time to either create or post. But we've still had a few fun things up our sleeves. This bouncy ball painting activity was something I'd been wanting to try for a while. Now that the sun and warm weather are back, it made for a great deck activity.

Somehow it feels like every time the boys get to pull a prize from a "treasure box" somewhere else (think dentist office, school, game prizes) they wind up picking a bouncy ball. We now have lots of these little bouncy balls hanging around, which lead to me thinking of how to use them. 

Comb Painting with Kids

Comb painting is one of those cool kid activities that has been around for a while and yet it is still classically loved by many. In our house we discovered it several years ago, although I had seen preschool teachers and art teachers use the technique before trying it ourselves.

One of the best parts about comb painting is the materials are likely ones you already have on hand, and if not they are pretty cheap to buy.

Veggie Print Valentine's Cards

I absolutely love seeing all the creative ways other bloggers have come up with to create Valentine's Day cards. Although the "big day" is officially here, I wanted to share one more sweet way we made cards for family members this holiday.

Actually, maybe it would be better to say one more not-so-sweet way we came up with making Valentine's Day cards in that we used vegetables. In the past we've enjoyed using potato prints to make Snowmen Cards and Printed tea towels. This time we included potatoes and branched into other types of vegetables.

Mail "Winter" to A Friend

We recently learned about the 100 Acts of Kindness Challenge that Toddler Approved and Coffee Cups and Crayons are co-hosting. From Martin Luther King Day to Valentine's Day they focus on Kindness, and challenge their families and others to 100 Acts of Kindness. Each week they have a different theme but the kindness acts can stand on their own. They can also be a bigger act or something small and daily.

We're joining in a little late this year, but excited to try acts of kindness ourselves. We're kicking off our participation by putting together a "winter" surprise to mail off to friends. 

I know, there are some of you out there whom probably think the idea of sending winter to someone is not necessarily a kindness act, but it is for these specific friends. This summer a family of friends moved to Florida. When we saw them briefly at Christmas, their two boys both mentioned missing the New England winter weather. 

So we decided, why not mail a little "winter" to them down in Florida?

Snowball Fight Painting

Little Brother is quickly approaching three (how did that happen?!) but in true toddler fashion he still tends to like projects best that are pretty quick. If there are too many steps to a project it tends to lose his interest. This snowball fight painting was right up his alley the other day though.

While we've been happy to get a little snow, it's still not quite enough to enjoy our typical winter activities and we find ourselves wishing for more snow. Until then, we're trying to create winter fun in other ways.

Bubble Wrap Snow Printing

Our Christmas season is almost over (believe it or not we still have one more family gathering this weekend) but it's never too early to start creating our thank you cards. We love thinking of hands-on ways to create our thank you cards. In the past this has included creating Potato Print Snowmen or Magic Word Thank You Cards. Other times we just like using some of our process art to create thank you cards, like when we paint with Monster Trucks.

This week we were inspired by the newly fallen snow to create our own snow printings. We've painted with bubble wrap before, but this was the first time we created an easy strategy for printing with it. We used our new strategy to print onto tree collages for cards. 

Cork Painted Ornaments

We've really enjoyed making ornaments this year! 

We've been experimenting with several new types of ornaments, like these snow white mitten ornaments. But if you've been hanging around this fall, you also know we've been liking using cork as a crafting material.

So of course, why wouldn't we combine the two ideas into these easy Cork Painted Ornaments?

Potato Stamped Tea Towels

We were really excited to be able to participate in the Kid Made Gift Series that is being hosted by Teach Me Mommy. We really like making homemade gifts, especially around the holidays. These potato stamped tea towels were something I'd been thinking of trying for a while now, and we just love how they turned out! 

Potato stamping is always fun and versatile, as you can create just about any kind of stamp you want. In our case, we want these to be holiday gifts to we made Christmas themed ones. 

Painting Shiny Fall Leaves

This has been one of the best foliage years I can remember, colors just popped all around us. So while the trees were showing their beautiful colors, we were inspired to create our own fall leaves at home.

To create colorful and shiny fall leaves, we used an unusual painting material I've enjoyed using with students before: corn syrup.