spinning fireworks

Always entranced with the magic of spin art, it wasn't until I was a summer camp counselor that I got to actually make some. Back then we used an old record player and it was a blast! I do have a working record player but it's reserved for playing records so I kept the idea of spin art stuck in the back of my head keeping an eye out for a player or a salad spinner at the thrift. A few weeks ago I scored my very own salad spinner for $2 and now we're going to make some fireworks!

You will need:
*a working salad spinner
*white paper, paper plates or coffee filters
*liquid water color or watered down tempera or food color
*splat mat (this gets messy)
*pencil
*scissors

scrumdilly-do it:

Make sure your kidlet is in mess friendly clothing. The mess potential on this project is quite high. Most salad spinners have holes or slits along the bottom so it is imperative you acknowledge this and set up in an appropriate place. whatever you do, don't wear white!Take the basket inside your spinner out and trace the bottom/smallest circumference onto your paper. You can also use coffee filters or small paper plates, just find something that fits inside your spinner and you're good to go.Cut out the circle and get ready to spin! I cut out about ten circles. You want to have plenty handy as your kidlet may become entranced with the spinning part of the project.Pop your paper source into the basket and pop the basket back into the spinner.Add a couple of drops of paint (use your favorites, I used red, white & blue for the upcoming holiday), one color per spin, and put the lid back on and spin away. You can get into a nifty science discussion on velocity, speed, centrifugal force, etc. during this part. Spin too hard and too fast, the paper may flip and stick to one side. Spin too slow and your paint may just remain parked where you dropped it. As you are spinning, you can also add paint into the spout on top of the spinner. Depending on your method of application your paint may drip around the edges only or it may splatter to the center. More opportunities for science discussions, it's all good. Just remember if to add one color to start, If you spend too much time adding colors before you spin, the first drops will be absorbed and won't spin or arc out.
When yer done, remove the lid and then the paper and set aside to dry. You can turn these fireworks into all sorts of other project. Hang them from ribbon or string for some festive BBQ decor or fold them into fans to flap away the heat. most of all, have fun!

marshmallow puffs a la dilly-do!

When I was seventeen years old, my sister taught me how to make those famous marshmallow puffs that most Girl Scouts learn to make. Years later, I wanted to make them again and picked myself up the ingredients. Who knew my young memory was so faulty. I ended up getting the order of the dipping and rolling all mixed up and instead of marshmallow puffs, I ended up with something quite different and even tastier than the original. At least, I think so. So, grab your tots, wash everyone's hands and roll those sleeves up for some sticky-sweet, fun cooking that really, you should only have once in a lifetime because I am quite certain none of this is good for you and you just may push your kidlet into sugar addiction territory. I'm just saying.

What you need:
*large marshmallows, at least 10
*2 tablespoons melted butter
*3 tablespoons granulated sugar
*2 teaspoons cinnamon (optional)
*1 container of pre-cut biscuits
*sprinkles, jimmies, etc.
*muffin pan, greased

scrumdilly-do it!

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Wipe a small bit of butter onto a piece of wax paper and have your wee one grease up the muffin pan. My mom always had me use the wax paper wrapper from the butter itself to do this. Set up your ingredients in an easy to reach formation and sit your tots down. This could get messy.Hand your kidlet a biscuit round from the container. If you are using a super sort of biscuits with layers, you can pull apart one biscuit to make two. The biscuits I used contained 10 so I pulled apart two of them to round 'em out to 12 to fit my muffin pan. Once they have their round of dough in hand, have them squash it flat. Squashing sound effects are optional.Next up, flip that flattened round into the melted butter. I kept my butter on a semi-deep plate so that I could butter up each side of the biscuit without drenching it.Once the round is all gooey with butter, toss it into the sugar mixture and smoosh it into the muffin pan. Instead of sugar, you can also use any happy cake decorating bit of sweetness. I had some sprinkles on hand so once my cinnamon was used up, I tossed the remainder of rounds into the sprinkles.Grab a large marshmallow and center it on your smooshed dough pushing it down just a bit. Repeat until you pan is full. Add more sprinkles if you feel your pan is lacking and pop it into the preheated oven. Bake for 10 minutes and remove.
The marshmallows will have puffed up a bit along with the biscuits. Some may have even slid around and moved in with their neighbor. Use a wide spoon to guide the marshmallow back to it's own home and scoop the whole thing out onto a happy serving plate. You may want to keep them all to yourself once you try them but make sure your kidlet gets at least one on his or her very own plate. Allow to cool for about five minutes before diving in. And remember, I warned ya!

**these are best eaten fresh from the oven. if you find yourself with leftover, keep then in an airtight container and reheat in the microwave (on a plate) for smidge when yer ready, otherwise the marshmallow may pull out teeth!

more fun with cornstarch clay

If you are a regular reader, you will have maybe, just maybe hopped on over to Craftzine to see my recipe for cornstarch clay and maybe, just maybe, you have checked out my most recent for the do post on clay rubbings. Here's a nifty take on continuing the fun, you know, just in case those boredom blues are still going on.

You will need:
*batch of cornstarch clay or other clay suitable for baking
*fun objects from around the house (beware of possible choking hazards)
*watercolor, food color or other thinned paint
*scratch paper or soft white paper. printer paper is fine
*cookie cutters
*cookie sheet
*string, yarn, or other length of lacing

scrumdilly-do it:

This is what you do after you have already finished with the clay and crayon rubbings. Remove the objects from the clay.Mix up a batch of liquid watercolor or add some water to food color and have your wee one paint up their imprinted clay.Place a sheet of paper over the painted clay to lift a print. Wipe down with a damp sponge for another color combo, etc.Once your tot is finished with the painting and printing, pass out the cookie cutters and have him or her cut out some shapes. Preheat your oven to 250F. Use a straw or pipecleaner to make holes near the tops of each shape. Place on a cookie sheet and bake until hard (at least thirty minutes). The paint will have set and the holes will have shrunk up a little but they should still be large enough to string.Make pendants, keychains, bead chains, etc. Make small clay shapes and adhere to plain cuff-links or tie clip for Father's Day gifts. Most of all, have fun and be safe. Children under three should be supervised and only an adult should take care of the baking.

jello prints over on CRAFTzine blog

check it out here.

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!

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.

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!

Self Portrait-Literal Cubism

While not necessarily done in the style of Picasso, this project is a fun exploration of shapes and squares. You can use this project as a jumping off point to showcase the work of Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and other Cubist painters. This self-portrait project is done in four parts. The materials listed are only suggestions and I encourage you to try out a variety of mediums. Each part will allow your child to explore line drawing, creative painting (or collage) and scissor skills. You do not have to use a phonebook for the line drawing part of the project. I prefer to use phonebook pages as they allow for variety in paper texture and it uses up all those pesky FREE phonebooks!

What you need:
recycled phonebook pages (white pages work best)
paint of your choice
Glue or adhesive of your choice
scissors
paintbrushes or spongebrushes
fat black marker
large sheets of sturdy white paper (11” by 17” is good)

scrumdilly-do it:

For the first part, have your kidlet cover their large sheet of white paper in up to four colors of their choice. Encourage each child to paint the entire sheet so that no white is showing. Set aside to dry.

While that dries, paint your phonebook page all over. For greater visual impact, have your wee one look at their first painting and discuss which color is the least represented and have them showcase that color on their phonebook page. Set aside to dry. Make sure you have your wee one go easy with the brush here as the phonebook paper is delicate and will tear easily when wet. Using a sponge brush will help alleviate tears here. Because the paper is so thin, this will dry fairly quickly.

Once dry, encourage your tot to draw a simple line drawing self portrait in black ink. This is where the fat black marker comes in.

Next up, get those scissors and instruct the children to cut their portrait up into two or more squares or rectangles. You will need to do this if your wee ones are not scissors ready.

Once their large sheet of paper is dry, get out the gluestick and have your kidlet re-assemble their portraits so that there is space between each shape. They can of course mix up their features so that the mouth is on top, etc. It's like a portrait puzzle game. Have fun with it! Once they have their portrait pieces arrange to their liking, back each shape with glue from the gluestick, press and smooth out any creases.



When doing this project, children will work on their fine motor skills, sense of self, shapes, spatial relations and color mixing. They'll also get to know a little more about Picasso and cubism if you choose to share that info as well.

If you do this, make sure to add it to the flickr group so that I may post your projects here for the summer sharing time.

memory game in action

I had to do a Piaget Interview for my cognition class and decided to use jelly beans as the main ingredient. I interviewed the kidlets on conservation, ego-centrism and problem solving. We had a blast but maybe it was the jelly beans.

For the problem solving part of the interview, we played the memory game with the egg halves. I thought that maybe it would be too easy for the eight year olds but as it turned out, it was just hard enough and the five year old made enough matches to sing and dance too. Check it out:

Egg Memory Game

If you celebrate Easter, you most probably have oodles of those plastic egg bits floating about your home. Most of your eggs are probably a mish-mash of mixed up pieces which is perfect for this memory game. All you need is an even number of egg halves and pairs of matching items to hide under the halves.We used jelly-beans (FYI, Gimbal's jelly beans are peanut free, gluten-free, dairy-free & gelatin free!) and twelve eggs. It makes for twenty-four game pieces. The eggs we had were originally hinged but we snapped them apart but shhh, don't tell anyone!

scrumdilly-do it!

Set up your game on a clean kitchen table or on the floor on a clean solid colored mat or cloth. You can of course use a print but it makes it harder to see the jelly beans. Make sure your wee one's aren't peeking as you order out those pairs in a grid format.If your wee ones are quite young, match up each pair with a like-colored egg half. For instance, the red beans will have pink halves over them, the yellow will have yellow halves and so on. for your older tots, go a little mix crazy. Some will catch on right quick but it still makes for a fun game!Once the game is set up, let your kidlets go for it! The pieces you use can be eaten up by your tots which of course will call for a brand-new batch when they're ready for another round. You can also use buttons, stickers, beads, colored pasta, shaped pasta, etc. If you don;t have plastic eggs, whip out some tiny paper cups, cupcake liners or nut cups. Either way, make sure it's fun! Happy almost Easter!