Christmas Fun for All Ages

 Felt Christmas Trees are fun to decorate

 Or how about some felt gingerbread men and ladies.

Paper plates are a great art supply

 Some matching fun 

 

Some creative ways to use paint chips and straws

                                             Who says you can't play with your food

                                                  A keepsake of your little ones fingerprint

                                               

Winter Wonderland Ornament

Winter Wonderland Ornament

What you'll need

• 9-ounce clear plastic cup
• Silver poster board
• Pinking shears or decorative craft scissors
• Polyester batting
• Miniature trees (sold in craft stores; try the dollhouse or model railroad section)
• Miniature animals or people (sold in craft stores or online at BJCRAFTSUPPLIES.COM)
• 1-inch-wide mirror
• Tacky glue
• Fine glitter
• Pushpin
• Monofilament
• Several craft beads

How to make it

1. 
   

   

   1. Trace the rim of the cup onto the underside of the poster board. Cut out the circle, but stay at least 1/8 inch outside the trace line so the base will be slightly larger than the cup.
   
   
   
   
   
   2. Cut out a circle of batting snow that's the same diameter as the cup and set it atop the shiny side of the poster board circle.
   
   3. Separate or snip the batting where you'd like to position the trees, figurines, and mirror pond. Glue the base of each item to the poster board, then smooth or fluff the snow around them as needed. Sprinkle the scene with fine glitter.
   
   4.Use the pushpin to poke a hole in the center of the cup bottom. Thread a craft bead onto a 12-inch length of monofilament. Gather the ends together, letting the bead fall to the center of the line, and thread them up through the hole from inside the cup. String a few more beads onto the doubled line (outside the cup) and then knot the ends to form a loop.
   
   5.Apply a line of glue along the edge of the poster board circle. Press the cup, upside down, atop the glue and hold it in place for 20 seconds or so. During the first 10 minutes of drying time, occasionally check the seal and press down gently on the cup, if required. Let the glue cure for a full day before hanging the ornament.

To celebrate the return of summer.

How about celebrating the return of summer, because it's been a pretty wet one here in Alberta, with this simple sunshine plate craft!

Ingredients Needed

• 1 - Small Paper Plate
• 9" x 12" Yellow Construction Paper
• Glue
• Orange Collage Materials
• Yellow Collage Materials

Instructions

1. Glue collage materials onto the paper plate.
2. Cut rectangle sun rays from construction paper.
3. Glue rays onto the back side of the paper plate.

Beach in a bottle.

 

 

This is a fun and easy craft to do after a trip to the beach.

Materials:

• 1 small plastic drink bottle with cap (PET bottle)
• sand
• small shells or beads
• funnel
• blue paint or food coloring (optional)

Directions:

1. Use a funnel to put some sand in the bottom of a cleaned out plastic bottle.
2. Fill the the bottle with water.
3. Drop in a few small shells or beads.
4. Put in a few drops of blue food coloring to look like the ocean. (optional)
5. Twist the cap on tightly.
6. Shake and watch the sand settle to the bottom.

 Prep and Maintenance

If you use real beach sand instead of craft sand, you should wash the sand first. There are two ways:

1. Wash all the and beforehand in a big bucket.-hard

2. Put some sand in the bottle. Fill with water about halfway. Secure lid and shake vigorously. Unscrew lid and pour out water. repeat 3 or 4 times.-easy

Don't put too much sand, just enough to cover the bottom. If  you put too much, you won't be able to see the shells when they settle, they'll sink. The beads are a little lighter.

 

 

 

Materials:

• 1 plastic drink bottle with screw on lid
• water
• cooking oil (the clearer the better)
• blue food coloring

Directions:

1. Fill the drink bottle about halfway with water and add a few drops of blue food coloring. Shake well.
2. Fill the rest of the bottle with cooking oil and screw on the lid tightly.

The oil is lighter than the water and the two liquids won't mix. Shake it up and watch them separate. Tip to the side and watch the ocean roll. As simple as this craft is, it never ceases to amaze and entertain. For added effect, you could put a little sand at the bottom of the bottle, too. You don't have to limit yourself to just blue. Make a red lava bottle instead. Have fun!

Picnic food ideas!

With the sun shininh outside and temperatures rising, day home providers enjoy time outdoors and trips to the park for play and picnics.

Check out these ideas for some easy to make and different picnic foods.

(1) Cheese on sticks - Cut up cubes of cheese (marble or cheddar work best) and skewer with a pretzel stick. No cocktail sticks to clear up afterwards and prevents little hands grabbing handfuls of cheese cubes!

(2)Cheese parcels -

• Puff pastry
• Grated cheese
• Fillings: grated carrot, courgette, chopped pepper, sweetcorn, ham etc 

Roll out the puff pastry, cut into squares and place some grated cheese with whatever else you want in the middle (I usually add some grated carrot or courgette to get a bit of veg in them, or a few strips of ham)
Fold up into triangles and press the edges together.
Put into the oven for 15 minutes at Gas 6 (200 C).

(3) Picnic roll ups - 

• Soft tortillas/wraps
• Fillings

Spread peanut butter, jam or honey on one side of a tortilla wrap.
Add mashed up or sliced banana and roll up tightly.
Of course you can include anything in your roll-ups as long as it's gooey enough to hold the roll up together. Here are some more ideas:

• Chocolate spread and banana
• Chocolate spread and strawberries
• Cheese and pickle
• Grated cheese, diced cucumber & mayonnaise
• Ham & coleslaw
• BLT
• Mozzarella, tomato & basil
• Greek salad & Greek yoghurt
• Humous & grated carrot
• Tuna mayonnaise

(4) Fruity kebobs -

1. Thread the strawberries, cantaloupe, banana and apple pieces alternately onto skewers, placing at least 2 pieces of fruit on each skewer. Arrange the fruit skewers decoratively on a serving platter.

Enjoyyour picnics in the sun!

We're going on a worm hunt!

With the rain still pouring one of day homes this morning decided it was the perfect day for a worm hunt! Quite simply they were going out for a walk, in the rain, with buckets in hands to look at and collect worms!
It never seems to fail, kids are fascinated by these under gorund creatures and here in Alberta, the driest province in Canada, when the rain falls in June it's the best opportunity to see them!

Worm hunting, or any sort of bug hunting, is a great opportunity to introduce from an early age how important insects, bugs, worms, creepy crawlies, mini beasts are to our environment and to show them how to correctly handle and observe them.

Below are some tips for a successful bug hunt taken from the website; www.activekidsclub.com.

So get out your magnifying glass, a small container and get outside on a bug hunt!

tips about bug hunting:Let children discover insects themselves. Make sure you teach them about bugs that can hurt them. Because children are closer to ground level they will probably discover them before you.
You can help them by turning over rocks and tree branches so they can see all the life just out of sight. You can teach your child about the different types of insects and the function they have in the nature.

Smart materials to bring with you on a bug hunt are: jar, magnifying glass, plastic tweezers, sketchbook, pencils and books about insects.

Bring a jar for collecting insects; remember to make holes in the lid. Make a habitat for the bugs, put soil, leaves (from the place you found them) in the jar and some water. Make sure you remember to set you new friends free after a day, put them in the same place you found them.

Inspect bugs with a magnifying glass; discuss with the kids what you see. Consult the books about the bug’s secrets.

Make art of the findings, let the kids draw bugs how they see them.

Dad Rocks salt dough paperweight.

Dads play an important part in our children’s lives. What better way to celebrate him than by having the kids make a special gift. This fun paperweight only requires small rocks and simple ingredients from your kitchen. He’ll love the results and cherish it always.





Supplies:
1/4 cup salt
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup water
bowl
cookie sheet
1/2 cup pea gravel

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
Mix flour, salt and water together in a bowl. If dough is too sticky add small amounts of flour until it is doughy and pliable. Be careful not to add too much as the dough will dry out and your creation will crack.
Shape a piece of the dough into a ball in your hands. Place the ball on the cookie sheet and flatten to about 1/2″ thickness.
Carefully select pieces of pea gravel to spell out “DAD ROCKS”. Press them firmly but gently into the salt dough. (For younger children you may want to mark this out first or just shorten to Dad)
Bake your paperweight for 2-2.5 hours until completely dry.
Remove from oven and allow to cool before handling or removing from cookie sheet.

Optional: You can spray your creation with acrylic sealer or paint it with a clear coat sealer.