Crafts
Get Crafty: Square Monsters
What do you get when you cross a simple shape with a lot of fun crafting supplies?
Square monsters, of course!
Our monsters were not too scary and very, very silly.
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For our craft set-up, I found a selection of odd and ends from our crafting supplies.
I set out googly eyes, puff balls, cut-up pieces of pipe cleaner, and some construction paper shapes left over from another project.
When the girls came to the table, they saw all the supplies and a fun example of a monster I had quickly put together.
I gave the girls some glue and stepped back.
This was a project that I knew they wouldn’t need help with, so I was able to observe their creativity at work.
They worked hard. They carefully chose their pieces and put together their monsters.
At one point, they decided that I had not set out enough materials, so they went to fetch the crayon box to add more details to their monsters.
I always love watching my girls create.
In the end, we had some fun monsters. The above monsters are Lizzie’s (age 5) and AJ’s monster is in the top picture.
This project doesn’t have to be limited to squares. You could make circle monsters, triangle monsters, or even heart monsters.
It’s the perfect project for young kids to work on independently and have fun with at the same time!
Get Crafty: Spider Web Painting
We’ve had so much fun learning about spiders lately that we decided to do a spider art project.
So, we found some fun materials and made these awesome spider web paintings.
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Supplies Needed:
Brown construction paper
White & black paint
Yarn or string
Bottle caps
Paintbrushes
Our first step was making the spider webs.
In order to get the wispy look of an actual spider web, we painted our webs with yarn.
I poured some white paint on a plastic lid. The girls ran their yarn through the paint, then ran it all over their paper.
It was so much fun and so very messy!
When we were done, we had a couple of wild and wispy spiders webs and two pairs of paint-covered hands.
But, we weren’t done yet. Now it was time for the spiders.
We used the bottle caps to stamp the bodies of our spiders.
I had originally though we would make cute little round bodies and paint eight legs on each. Lizzie (age 5), who was considering herself quite the expert on spiders by this time, informed me that this was incorrect. My little scientist insisted that the spiders have a head AND a body.
The bottle caps just wouldn’t work for her. So, she grabbed a paintbrush and painted her spiders.
I’m definitely not one to argue, especially since she was correct!
So, she painted a family of three spiders on her spiderweb.
You can see her finished product in the first picture. AJ (age 3) enjoyed the stamping so much that her picture was more of an abstract rendering of a spider’s web. I can totally see it!
Spiders don’t have to be reserved for Halloween. Get out and observe a few, then come back and draw them!
Do your kids like bugs? Have you done any bug-related artwork recently?
Get Crafty: Layered Tissue Paper Butterflies
Butterflies are always a popular subject in the Creative Family Fun household.
So, when the girls wanted to do a craft project, the first thing that popped into my head was a butterfly project.
We had a lot of leftover torn bits of tissue paper from another project, so we thought we’d use them to make layered tissue paper butterflies.
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Supplies Needed:
White paper
Black marker
Torn bits of colored tissue paper
Glue
Paint brush
Scissors
Pipe cleaner
Tape
Before we started, I drew simple butterfly shapes on the paper.
I gave the girls some glue that was thinned out with water to make brushing easier.
They painted the glue on their paper and started sticking the tissue bits.
I encouraged layering and overlapping to see what kind of pretty designs the girls could come up with.
We didn’t worry about staying within the lines either; we were planning on cutting out our butterflies.
Once the glue dried, we cut out our butterflies and attached our antennae.
I cut a sparkly pipe cleaner in half. The girls bent each piece into a “u” shape. We then attached them to the back of our butterfly heads with tape.
Simple and fun!
Perhaps the best part about this project was that the girls spent the afternoon playing with their new butterfly “toys.” I love it when a craft project turns into a play thing!
Have you made anything fun with your kids lately?
Straw-Printed Dandelion Art Project
After our dandelion exploration, we decided to get a little crafty and paint our own dandelions.
We were trying to get the wispy look of the puffball and a paint brush was just not going to work.
So, we decided to try straw printing.
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Supplies Needed:
Drinking straws
Scissors
White & green paint
Paintbrush
Blue construction paper
To prep our straws, I took the scissors and started cutting strips on one end.
Then we smashed the end on the paper to make the strips fan out.
To use, dip that end in paint and start stamping. AJ (age 3) decided to smear instead.
We had paintbrushes out to help us paint the stems and leaves.
It was kind of fun to use the paint brush and straw at the same time!
This project was simple to do.
It can be open-ended (as you can see by AJ’s picture below) or you can work with a specific goal in mind (like Lizzie’s dandelions).
Like all of our projects, it was successful because we had fun! Get out your drinking straws and start painting!
Are you looking for more preschool art projects? Check out the Three to Five: Playful Preschool ebook. You can find all the details here.