Painted Pine Cones - Christmas Ornament

Thanks to MG for this excellent idea!

All you need for this Christmas Ornament is :

1. Pine Cones
2. Paint, glitter
3. Kids willing to get painted, dirty and have fun!

Paint here...

Glitter there...

All you need to do after that is let is dry. (Have the kids take a bath). Some ribbon and Voila!

You could also make Christmas Tree Ornaments with them. 

Amazon's Deal of the Day

Check out Amazon's Deal of the day! These 2 scholastic storybooks classics dvd collection!  
I don't like television for my kids, but I allow them to watch a show on rainy days for a half hour normally, so these dvd's would be perfect now that fall has arrived!

A is for Acorn - Acorn Paper Garland

This week is letter A week...we decided that since it is fall season (just started), we would make something special to decorate our house! We made an acorn garland. This is how:

We fold the paper accordian style. You have to make sure that the squared are the same size of the template. 

I made this template you can download. You are free to use it. Remember to put the fold-line on the edge of the paper and NOT to cut where the dots are. 

Open the garland and paint (My daughter made a "blue" squirrel)

We used water colors. They are perfect for this kind of craft.

Enjoy!

Decoupage Ikea Drawer with my kids

Question of the day: What can I do with this Fira Drawer from Ikea?  I really want to put some color on it. I don't want to use paint...

Answer: I asked my daughter to cut out of magazines all the things she liked. Then we used glue, water and a brush... and voila! We made a beautifull collage on a simple drawer. She uses this to put all her paint supply. 

This tecchnique is called decoupage and is really simple. I haven't tried it with the special glue they sell for this. I used regular classroom glue and a little water. The bad thing is that the magazine paper gets really wet and you have to be very careful that it dries before putting the next coat. Next time I will use the Mod Podge Satin All-In-One Decoupage Sealer / Glue / Finish (8 fl. oz. ) . They say it's excellent! 

 

Father's Day Gift....We make a Great Team (Football Pompom Weepuls)

Do you remember those very famous '70 - '80 little colored pompoms? They were called Weepuls and we used to give them to friends, family, for Christmas, birthdays.... The messages were beautiful and having these weepuls attached to it, made it more beautiful....it was just so trendy. So I thought this would be nice for Father's Day. We made these Weepuls using the colors of his favourite Football Team... :-)

Here is how I did it.
1.- Make a Pom Pom. Yo can use this tutorial or go step by step as I show you on these pictures. (I recommend to use this tutorial for the smaller pompoms and do the bigger ones using the cardboard.)

Create 2 donuts shaped pieces of cardboard 

Place the rings together and pull the wool making a loop

Make a knot and start to wind the wool around the rings.

You should have something like this. You can use one or several colors.

You can wind several layers...the more wool you use, the bigger the pompom

Move the wool a little 'till you see the cardboard.

Cut the wool around the edges of the cardboard. It is VERY important to keep your other hand holding the center of the cardboard.

Pass a lenght of wool between the two pieces and tie it firmly together. 

Remove the cardboard Rings (Cut if necessary)

Trim the pompom until it gets a tidy look

A nice trick is to hold the pompom several seconds above some steam. This makes the pompom very soft!!! 

Using felt, cut a heart that you can use as feet.

Some googly eyes, and done!

We wrote a very special message for daddy

And here we are...the 4 of us! (Look at the little girl with the pony tails on the left....hehehe)