it's a wrap!

In Rabbit's Gift, each animal in the story returns home with a different type of vegetable. To add to the literature, the children used various vegetables to create their own wrapping paper to take home for the holidays.

I brought in my acrylic paints and let each child choose up to three colors. To keep the paper from getting muddy, we kept each vegetable to one color with the children choosing which veggie got which color.

 

One child worked at a time at our smaller art table. I kept an eye out and rotated the paper a little to keep the stamping an all over process rather than a cluster in one place. Some children chose to stand and walk around as they stamped.

We rolled up their paper and secured it with a pipe cleaner to take home on the last day before winter break. Some of the parents in other classrooms were really dazzled by how modern the paper looked.

a preschool classic: pinecone christmas trees

I remember making pinecone trees back in the 70s when I was a wee one. As a preschool teacher I had to have this available for my kiddos, had too! This time around, not only was there glitter but sequins too! 

 We found that it was easier to just pour the glue over the pinecone. Make sure there is wax paper underneath so that your pinecone does not stick.

 Some of the children pinched and dropped their glitter while other dumped a bottle or two onto their wax paper before grabbing as much as they could to sprinkle on top.

Sequins were added to a few as well. I love how the vintage white sequins turned out!

I looped a bit of yarn around the top so that the wee trees could be hung on a tree or elsewhere. The children got to choose between yellow, red, green, or blue yarn. Red was a favorite.Aren't they fun?

pinterest in the classroom

 

The families that organized our holiday party really did a tremendous job! Each child got their own supplies to create edible snowpeople and Christmas trees. The green frosting might have covered every inch of the children but it did not keep their smiles from beaming through!

turn those scrubby sponge snowflakes into ornaments

The plan for the scrubby sponge snowflakes really wasn't to make ornaments or anything specific but more of a printing project to keep little hands busy. Once I cut them out I thought they would make nifty ornaments and then I thought what if I wrapped yarn around them so they would look kinda like the apples in one of my most favorite fabric prints and so I went for it. What makes this even more nifty is that my small batch o' ornaments became the art for he december bed. I see many more of these ornaments in my future.  So here is how you do it.

Create your scrubby sponge snowflakes and cut about five notches into the edges all the way around. These notches will help anchor the yarn in place and allow you to hang your ornaments without using any tape or staples! 

 Cut a length of yarn at least 18" long and pop one end into a notch and begin wrapping using the other motches to hold the yarn in place. Ask your kiddos if they think they can create a star as they wrap. 

To create ornaments for your tree, loop off the final end piece and hang or give the yarn a knot that can be pushed onto an ornament hook. Easy peasy! 

 To create this wall hanging, tie five or so ornaments to a wooden spoon or nifty stick using various lengths of yarn. Use another length of yarn or fishing line tied to both ends as the hanger. If using a stick, make sure it is free of debris, visible fungus and/or critters. I banged my stick around in hopes of evacuating any wee beasties and then submerged it in water and set it outside to dry. As it turns out, there may or may not be a wee wood beetle in residence. The mister swears he can hear it, I choose to pretend he did not say that. 

Enjoy! 

scrubby sponge snowflakes

There are all sorts of household objects you and your children can use to make snowflake-like prints. A few years ago I used empty thread spools, this year why not try using a scrubby sponge? You can pick up a six pack of scrubbers from the  dollar store or even check under your kitchen sink to see if you have any tucked away already. 

scrubby sponge snowflakes

*cereal box or other thin cardboard

*acrylic paint in assorted colors

*plastic scrubby sponge (not steel wool)

*white paint

*glitter

*scissors

You can certainly create your snowflake prints on any type of art paper but I prefer to use up what I have so this cracker box was perfect. Simply open both ends and cut along one side with ap air of scissors. Have your kiddo squirt and dribble on two or three colors of paint. 

Use an edge of another box, folded up newpaper or paint scrapes to push, pull and scrape the paint so that it retains some of its original dribbly bits. This will create a nifty marble effect. Otherwise, let your kiddos go to town with a fat paintbrush or sponge. Set aside to dry and repeat on the flip side of your cardboard if you like.

 To create the snowflakes, pour a blob of white paint onto a plate or repurposed lid. Have your kiddo dip and press all over the cardboard. While the paint is still wet, hand them a glitter shaker and let them jazz up their snowflakes. Ignore the yarny parts of the pics. I had originally thought if I cut into the scrubby sponge five or so times and then tied it at the cuts it would make a more prominent snowflake print. It did not, though the yarn does make the picture look a bit more quirky. Set aside to dry.

Once dry, cut around each snowflake and flip over to add another snowflake print on the back. Add your glitter and allow to dry. Once dry you can tape them up on a window or turn them into gift tags. Tuck a few away and I'll show you another nifty projects to make hanging ornaments with them! Stay tuend and thank you for visiting scrumdilly-do! 

Make a Retro Tissue Tree

 When I was growing up, Christmas and Christmas decor was always a bit of a big deal in my house. There are things that only came out at Christmas time that while now long gone, still stick clearly in the noggin. From my mother's winter window ledge display (handmade by her) to our homemade salt dough ornaments (now lone gone) these iconic holiday goodies are what makes Christmas Christmas. Sadly, most of these treasures have been lost (along with my dear, quirky, mother) but a few are still around and today I am going to show you a redo of a Christmas Wall Hanging my sister made back in the 1960s, when she was six years old. For this version, you'll need to scrounge around for some items you may already have and pick up a small piece of burlap to begin, are ya ready?

Materials

*cardboard (cereal box or other thin board is fine)

*piece of burlap (my finished piece is about 8"X11")

*paint

*sponge

*straight edge

*clothespins or paper clips

*crepe paper (streamers are fine)

*white glue

*scissors

*sparkly pipe cleaner

*vintage button, pin or earring

*yarn

*tape

*sewing machine (optional)

 

Grab your cardboard and cut it down to a manageable size. The original tree is about 10"X12", I repurposed a stuffing mix box (from Turkey Day) and simply cut out the front, it measures about 8"X10".  Cut your burlap down to size about 2"-3" larger all around than your cardboard. Smother your cardboard with glue (the blank side) and center your burlap over it. Place a sheet of wax paper on top and a stack of books to weigh it all down and set is aside to dry. Once the burlap is dry, give it a whirl through the sewing machine, going around all four sides using a running stitch. I ended up doing this after the tissue tree was finished which is fine but you may wish to get a go on it first. You do not need to be it will help keep the burlap in place and give it a little extra incentive to not unravel too much.

While the glue is drying, have your kiddos select up to three (harmonious) colors of crepe paper or streamers. Streamers are great for crafting as they are inexpensive and have multiple uses. My sister's tree used three shades of green. My redo involved a bit of a modern twist on colors. Keep the palette simple which is why I suggest limiting it to three colors. Once they have their colors selected, hand them some scissors and let them cut of squares of streamer into a shallow dish. Set aside.

 While your kiddo is cutting up crepe paper, grab the other side of the box you repurposed (or any piece of cardboard) and cut out a triangle shape for your tree. This is where the straight edge comes in. This part is for grown-ups ONLY. When the glue is dry on your cardboard, clip your tree stencil to the front using paper clips or clothes pins.

Grab a small sponge or cut a clean sponge into a small square and give your paint a squirt onto a lid or other flattish container. Have your kiddo dab the sponge into the paint then onto their burlap. Have them use an up and down motion. This doesn't have to be even, this is more of a guide for the tissue paper and a nice bit of color for any spots that go unnoticed. Set aside to dry, it shouldn't take long,

Pour a small amount of glue onto a lid or other small flat dish or tray and have your kiddo grab a square of tissue and crumple it into a ball. Dab the tissue ball into the glue then place onto the edge of the triangle/tree. Continue until the tree is outlined. They may wish to use all one color or randomly mix it up, either way is fine, it is their tree.

 

Once the outline of the tree is finished, they may continue adding tissue balls until the entire tree is finished. Refill glue as needed. To create the trunk, fold one square in half twice to make a smaller squarish shape.

Once the tissue tree has been completed, give your button/earring/pin a healthy does of tacky glue and glue to the top for the tree's star. 

Next, grab your sparkly pipe cleaner and cut into four pieces varying the lengths. This will become your tinsel. Bend and shape if you wish and give each piece a good dose of glue before pressing down. Set aside to dry. Pipe cleaners and glue can be tricky as the pipe cleaner takes a while to warm up to the glue. Make sure your kiddo has something else to do next so that they do not fiddle with the pipe cleaner pieces.

Once everything is dry, use a large pin or needle to gently tug away the extra strands of burlap from the edges. They should unravel fairly easily. Your kiddo will probably like this part. Lookie at the happy fringe! Use scissors to trim if you need to.

Flip the whole thing over and tape a length of yarn to the back (one legnth of tape at each end of the yarn). I braided up my yarn, you do not have to. You can also use ribbon or twine. If you like, glue a happy paper backing to your board first so that you are not greeted with a product picture (I kinda like the product picture, it will give you a retro feel in about twenty -years or so). Have your kiddo sign and date the back as well. 

 Find a happy place to hang and admire. Now go bake some Christmas cookies! This project uses up all sorts of nifty developmental elements for your kiddo; scissor cutting, measuring, practicing the up and down of the sponge painting, small/fine motor skills during the balling and glueing, patterning and color fun in selecting their colors and shape recognition using "circles" in the triangle. This is a less than open-ended project but has its bits of usefulness in preparing your kiddo for following instructions, planning their vision within a set of instructions and using up all those nifty skills they are developing. I hope you enjoy this project and if you do make a tissue tree, please add it to the flickr group and/or email me an image and link and I'll add you to the 'do! Happy crafting!

Holiday Fun: Edible Memory Game

  I was hopping around the internet this morning when I came across this happy, lovely round up on Tatertots & Jello. I thought to myself "how brilliant!" and immediately clicked on over to Shindig Parties To Go to see that what I thought was an edible memory game was really a bunch of happy in a jar (which is also pretty nifty). So...taking a cue I thought "why not?" and so I present to you an edible memory game, perfect for Hanukkah, Christmas and most any other holiday.

Materials

*1 bag of wrapped flat bottomed candies (like Kisses or Patties or Hanukkah Coins)

*Printable sheet from Shindig Parties To Go, round stickers, labels or a handy decorative punch

*assorted paper for decorative punch

Dump out bag of candies. I used world coins from here. They are nice and flat and perfect for my scalloped paper punch.

Count out an even number of coins and punch out paper bits. I had 24 coins so needed 12 different prints of paper.

Smother paper bits with glue stick and place one each onto a chocolate coin or candy. You can also print out your own designs on round sticky labels or use happy holiday stickers.

 

 

 

Flip over and play a coupe of rounds. Save this for a party and the kiddos can keep the candy they "win".  Candies can be stashed into handmade bags like these! Happy Holidays!