Wednesday, May 27, 2009

question for you....


i'm working on getting a summer's worth of posts ready and was wondering if anyone was looking for something specific. more clay recipes? more paint? more craft? more food? party planning ideas? you tell me and i will do my best to deliver. coming up, pool noodle creations, art in the style of other artists and puppet making!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

gluten--free clay beads over at Craft Magazine


Greetings! So sorry for the pause in posting here at the 'do. School finally swallowed me up and spit me out so I am an official College Grad! Whoo-hoo! Wanna know the cool part? I specialized in play. As in children's play and why it is important. How cool is that? So now I am working on oodles and oodles of posts for you this summer but for now you can catch my gluten-free clay recipe over at Craftzine. Craft has a summer camp thing going on so keep your eye posted for more nifty projects for you and your kidlets over there as well. And for those of you moving into cooler temps, I'll make sure we don't forget you. Happy May!

**just a reminder, if you are a caregiver of a gluten-free child, please make sure the cornstarch you use is processed by a factory that is gluten free. Argo's & Kingsford's are reliable brands for this project.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

herein lies the (new) rub: a boredom buster!

You're stranded at home, the baby's asleep and your preschooler begins the "I'm Bored!" chant. Here's a new way with play dough or homemade play clay (checkout the CRAFTzine blog for a perfect recipe.) that will maybe, just maybe bust those boredom blues. Have a batch of homemade play dough in the fridge that might possibly be getting too old? Use it as an anchor for an assortment of household objects and make these nifty crayon rubbings.

You will need:
*play clay
*rolling pin
*semi-flat found objects like washers, bottle caps, etc.
*crayons without their wrappers
*paper (scrap paper is perfect)

scrumdilly-do it!

Set up your work area with splat mat, dough, crayons, paper and found objects.Roll out your clay/dough dough to a good sized flat blob.Have your wee ones play with their found objects by pressing them into the clay. Your found objects should be no thicker than the dough you rolled out.When they are happy with their arrangement, place a sheet of paper over the art (we used the backside of printed paper we no longer needed) and tape at the corners to anchor it down.Using the flat side of the crayon, have your kidlet rub the crayon back and forth over the paper to create a rubbing. Use more than one color for variety.You can even arrange your objects to look like a creature or robot. Cut cardboard from old food boxes into robot like shapes for a robot making factory. Use up all your scrap paper and make your own Robot Parade. Even better, play this song while you're at it!
Stay tuned for another take on this method...I've got two more ways with play clay that are easy to do in a pinch!