I LOVE Christmas! Last year was really exciting since it was my first Christmas with a child. This year, however, Lucas is starting to understand what’s going on and we are having so much fun! We’ve been handing out candy … Continue reading
We had another rainy and somewhat cold weekend here (SPRING WHERE ARE YOU?!). While we did get outside a little bit – mainly to wait in line almost an hour for donuts!) we stuck pretty close to home for the most part.
I was running out of ways to entertain Lucas when I suddenly got the brilliant idea to make a hand-print art project to celebrate Easter. I’ve done hand-print art for other holidays and think it’s a cute way to personalize holiday decorations. Plus I’m looking forward to like 10 years from now when I’ve got a house full of kid art for each holiday!
I was actually brainstorming in the car when I came up with the idea of using L’s hand to make a bunny (his fingers would be the ears). A quick search showed that idea wasn’t nearly as original as I had hoped!
Since L likes to play with the paint on his hands I’ve learned it’s easier to do these projects in pieces, so I’ve written out the quick and easy instructions for you.
What you’ll need:
Colored construction paper
White paint
Red or pink paint
A paint brush or foam brush
Paper plate
Markers
Wipes
Like I said, I do these projects in pieces. While I clean up L’s hand I let what we just did dry a little.
First, you apply paint to the palm of the hand and press it down, firmly, on the construction paper.
Next apply pain to the first two fingers on the left hand and place firmly above the palm print to make the first ear. Then use the first two fingers on the other hand to make the second ear.
I mixed some red paint with the white (since I didn’t have pink) I was going to use a finger to add the pink to the ears but Lucas was not feeling it so I just added it using a paint brush.
After it dried, I used the markets to add the eyes, nose and mouth and to write a somewhat cheesy message!
Clean up was a breeze using wipes and then we were off to our next activity!
Do you do hand-print art for the holidays? If so, will you be making an Easter Bunny or will you by trying something else? Share your project in the comments!
I’m not really sure if I have any Irish in me or not – my mom has always called my dad “Swiss Cheese” because he’s got a little of every nationality, expect Italian, which I get from her.
I did go to one of the most Irish schools in the country though (WE ARE ND!) so I feel like it’s cool to claim some Irish on St. Patrick’s Day.
St. Patrick’s Day was L’s first holiday last year, which means that this year it’s the first holiday that isn’t his first and I’m a little sad! I decided to make myself feel better by getting a little crafty.
In November my friend Christa, who is the blogger behind Little Us, posted this super easy recipe for Chalk Paint. I’ve been dying to use it on our driveway but because we’ve had a crazy cold winter I haven’t been able.
It’s finally getting nicer and as a way to make L’s second St. Patrick’s Day special I decided to give Christa’s recipe a try.
Since I was only using one color, I decided to double her recipe. I also found that I needed to add MORE than double the food coloring to find a color I liked. I ended up using 20 drops of the food dye.
The other change I made is to use cold water when mixing. Christa didn’t specify what temp to use but after a Google search the general consensus was cold is best!
Finally, it was suggested that a foam brush be used. For the life of me, I couldn’t find mine so I used a regular art brush instead – it worked great!
Using the chalk paint was really easy! It took me about 15 minutes to get the message written out – but I’m a bit of a perfectionist and got interrupted a few times.
Here is my version of Homemade Chalk Paint
Ingredients:
2/3 cup cornstarch
2/3 cup COLD water
20 drops of green food coloring
Mix the above ingredients together until combined well.
And that’s all there is too it – it’s as easy as that!
Now getting Lucas to sit still long enough for me to take a usable picture is another story! This was the best we could do. So Happy St. Patrick’s Day from my Lucky Charm!
EDIT: Just as a small side note, this washed off very easily. We had a rain storm the day after I did this and all traces of our chalk paint were gone!
My grandfather’s birthday is today. He is turning 82. I’m so happy that he, along with my grandma and uncle have spent the winter in Wilmington (not that convincing them to leave the cold of Western PA was that difficult.). It has been so wonderful for Lucas to have his great-grandparents and uncle here for the past few months.
Lucas and Pap are pretty tight so he wanted to make him a special birthday card – I swear, he told me this himself and even found the pins on Pinterest for me!
Because the instructions I found didn’t work that great with a 10 month old, I thought I type up a quick lesson on how to make a Birthday Cake Handprint Card with an older infant.
Here are the supplies I used:
I put L in his high chair to make it a little easier (on me, not him).
I painted L’s palm one color (the cake) and each finger a different color (the candles).
This was my first attempt.
In an effort to save you from the mistakes I made, let me break down the easiest way to get this done.
First, have a helper, especially if your little artist is too young to really know what’s going on. I had to enlist D to help me. It probably didn’t make it any easier that I chose L’s grumpiest day in the last three months for our art project, but having an extra set of hands was much needed.
Second, do each piece individually. I painted L’s palm first and then (firmly) pressed in onto the paper. I cleaned him up with a wipe and then moved on the first finger. I did each finger individually as well.
Third, move the card (quickly if you have a sneaky little fox like I do) after each print is made. L wanted to grab and touch the paper and I really didn’t want him getting the wet paint all over him. Our second attempt ended up that way.
Fourth, baby wipes and a magic eraser are you friend. Okay, that one is probably a little obvious, but we certainly went through our fair share of wipes. And the magic eraser has gotten paint off of our highchair more than once.
Here is what the card looked like after I had all of L’s hand on it.
After it dried I used a yellow marker to add “flames” to the candles and finish off the card.
Lucas gave it to Pappy at his birthday lunch yesterday. He certainly seemed to like it!
And because of my “MommyFail” in forgetting to bring my camera to lunch I don’t have a picture of L and my grandpa from his birthday. BUT, I do have this great shot I took at Christmas. In fact, we framed this picture and gave it to Pappy for his birthday.
First, apologies for going MIA again but the move and the holidays and the new project I’m working on (check that out here) have kept me super busy. Here is some Thanksgiving cuteness right off the bat since I know you’ve been missing it!
Lucas was really excited for Thanksgiving dinner!
Now for the fun stuff. It’s the holiday season – FINALLY! I love this time of year. Honestly, love may be an understatement when describing how I feel about the holiday season. I think a lot of it stems from how big of a deal my mom made about Thanksgiving and Christmas and just the holidays in general when I was growing up. Now that I’m a mom, I want to make sure Lucas has that same excitement surrounding this time of year.
I know he’s still young this year but I’m starting early with the crafts and the decorating and the memories! I’m trying to keep it reigned in though, because he’s probably not going to remember much from his first Christmas (I keep telling D we will remember it and have the pictures and videos to show him though!).
Our first craft project was to turn the door to the garage into Frosty the Snowman. A little construction paper and some tape and we were set! Lucas probably didn’t enjoy the cutting and taping as much as he will in future but he’s definitely been staring at the door a lot, which makes me really happy.
I have a lot of fun things planned for the next 23 days! Make sure you’re checking back often to see how we’re getting ready to celebrate L’s first Christmas.
Are you doing anything special with your kids this holiday season? I’d love to hear what your plans are (and maybe steal a few!) so share in the comments.
MommaAlwaysKnows 