One minute craft - Easy finger puppets

Not much is needed to make fun and simple oobi puppets for your kids. Eye finger puppet will not be an original but kids will love to play with it just the same. This eye finger puppet craft for kids can be set up in a minute, can be created individually by kids who are at least 3 years old, or you can make these for younger kids in a minute.

What you'll need: some white buttons and chenille stems.

You can cut chenille stem in at least 3 pieces and you'll have 3 sets of Oobi eye pupets. Instructions are easy enough: just put one side of chenille stem through both button holes and secure by twisting, then do the same with the other side of chenille stem. Show your kids how to do it, then let them do it themselves.

And now, play time!

For those, who would like an originals, there is a pack of 12 oobi puppets, or even larger ones you can use as a party favor:

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DIY Toys - Finger Puppet Theater from a Shoe Box!

Hey there! :) This one has been sitting for some time aside and I have finally found the time to put together a tutorial how to make a finger puppet theaternger puppet theater from the simpliest thing ever - shoe box!

Here are the pictures of a finished finger puppet theater:

And, you can find step by step tutorial to make your own finger puppet theater from a shoe box HERE! :)

Have fun!

Note: This post is re-published from 2nd blog which I'm closing down as soon as all interesting bits and pieces are moved here since I don't have time to keep 2 similar blogs updated.

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The Butterfly Project: One Butterfly = One Child

We have been making some butterflies lately to send out for The Butterfly Project (info below). Patricia (4 years old) calls them butterfly babies. We used watercolors and pipe cleaners to create these:

and tempera and stencil to create these:

And I additionally made few more zentangled butterflies like these:

Details about The Butterfly Project (excerpt from website):

In an effort to remember them, Holocaust Museum Houston is collecting 1.5 million handmade butterflies. The butterflies will eventually comprise a breath-taking exhibition, currently scheduled for Spring 2014, for all to remember. The Museum has already collected an estimated 900,000 butterflies. 

Please facilitate the “I Never Saw Another Butterfly” activity and create as many handmade arts-and-crafts  butterflies as possible. This project may be completed by all ages as individuals or groups.

• Butterflies should be no larger than 8 inches by 10 inches. 
• Butterflies may be of any medium the artist chooses, but two-dimensional submissions are preferred.
• Glitter and all glitter-related products should not be used.
• Food products (cereal, macaroni, candy, marshmallows or other perishables) also should not be used.
• If possible, e-mail a photograph of your butterflies, to butterflyproject@hmh.org.

Please send or bring your butterflies to the Museum by Dec. 31, 2012, with the following information included:

• Your name,
• Your organization or school,
• Your address,
• Your e-mail address, and
• The total number of butterflies sent.

Mail or bring your butterflies to: 

            Holocaust Museum Houston

            Butterfly Project

            Education Department

            5401 Caroline St.

            Houston, TX 77004

            USA 

We would love others to participate too! So, if this project is new to you, please consider making a little art / craft session with your kids or your preschool class and make as many butterflies as possible! Then, come back here and share them with us! We'll set up linky specially to show off all the butterflies created for this project! It will stay open until December 1st!

Crafts & Inspiration: Felt Spaghetti with Meat Balls

As I was searching the web last couple days while collecting all the no-sewing felt food tutorials, I've felt inspired to make at least the simplest felt food craft of them all - Felt Spaghetti! :) 

This is a simple pictured step-by-step tutorial to make your own felt spaghetti with meat balls... and I added one simple trick for all of those who don't have any felt around the house and still would like to make this play food set for their kids... here we go...

Felt Spaghetti: 

Step 1. Get your felt sheet, ruler, pen and scissors on the table! 

Step 2. Use ruler and pen to mark where you'll cut the spaghetti. I've marked them to be 1 cm wide. Haven't had any textile pen so I've used ordinary tip felt pen... 

Step 3. Use scissors to cut the spaghetti stripes using marked dots....

Step 4. YOU'RE DONE! See? It's that simple... Serve some pasta for lunch and enjoy! Now go and make more spaghetti ;) 

Cotton T-shirt Spaghetti:

You probably have a cotton T-shirt around your house that is stained or colored or what ever misfortune thing happened so you can't ware it in public any more? Well, get it out on the table! Use all of the steps from felt spaghetti (just above) to make spaghetti out of the cotton shirt! You'll end up with something like shown on the picture (after adding our meat balls ;)

You can't really notice much of difference, right? And those are still play spaghetti! Only with something you have on hand! :)

Meat balls

Step 1. Get your supplies ready. You'll need some brown yarn (recycled) and scissors. That's it!

Step 2. I don't use cardboard rings to make yarn pom poms but you can find tutorial using it here. I simply use thing I have on hand... my own fingers! ;) Just wrap the yarn around 2 fingers.

Step 3. Gently pull the yarn off the fingers trying to keep the shape. Use another cut yarn thread to tie around the circle. 

Step 4. Splat the ball on the opposite side of the tied middle like on the picture.

Step 5. Cut out the extra yarn in circle as long as you don't  get the size you like.

Step 6. Ta-Da! You now have meat balls! :)))

It's a lunch time.... 

Here are both plates. On the left you can see felt spaghetti with meat balls and on the right is the plate with cotton shirt spaghetti with meat balls. Which one you like better?

Crafts & Inspiration: Balls for sensory box?

This morning I woke up really early (like 5am) and knowing that girl is home for a weekend and that two of us will be spending most of the time together (specially with rain outside!), I've decided to put together a little sensory box for her. Problem at that point was I didn't have anything to pour into a box (no rice, corn, sand, or anything similar at 5am)!

Then I got thinking about how much she loves playing with all the different balls. We even had a faze where we couldn't get into a store without her yelling: "Mom I want that ball!" each time she would spot one! That gave me an idea of using balls for sensory play.

So, I gathered all the different balls in small sizes (small enough to be carried in one hand by a toddler) and different textures: soft plush balls, bouncing balls, rubber balls, some string balls. And added couple surprises like yarn balls from recycled yarn, pom poms and marbles. Just to add to variety, color and structure of the play.

Also, took all the different sized kitchen tools - both from mom's kitchen and from girl's. We had different sized utensils created from plastic, metal and wood.

And, on the side, few different sized boxes, plastic and paper cups, few cardboard tubes and empty egg crate.

All of this was laid for her on her favorite Dora blanket. Mom's attempt to keep the play inside limits of the blanket... haven't worked, naturally! :)

So, what she woke up to was this:

Mom got very surprised face expression. But then she sat down and started to explore what she has inside each of the "boxes".

This was probably something that comes naturally - she first took things she doesn't usually play with: yarn balls and soup ladle. And transfered yarn balls from one pot to another.

Trying to balance it with both hands pouring at the same time:

Next, comes a reaction: "Mom, look what happened?!" and she tried to put the yarn ball together. I left her try until she asked for a help then I secured all of the yarn balls.

She placed smaller yarn balls into cups and pom poms into paper cups. This is her hard at work :)

Then she moved to pretend food play and served mommy some chocolate candies in paper cups and some hot chocolate in plastic cups. All sorted on her little tray.

And then she went fruit picking coming back to offer me some oranges (orange yarn balls), strawberries (red pom poms), lemons (yellow pom poms), apples (red yarn balls). She couldn't quite figure out what blue and green pom poms would be so we agreed those could be plums and grapes. ;)

This occupied her for good hour and half. :) We had all the different balls all around the house. But it was totally worth it. And she acted nice when I asked her to take it all back on the blanket before nap time. I caught her sorting out pom poms into egg crate when she was done. ;) Now we're up and she's back playing with her balls. Looking forward to see what she'll come up with next! :)

I have decided to place this post into crafts & inspiration for few reasons: First, we usually look for an inspiration outside of our homes and in purchased toys. And couple of recycled and reused objects from kitchen and playroom can shine bright in whole new light in child's eyes is presented differently. And then again, this "sensory box" was inspired by one little girl's love for balls. Do you get inspired with your child's favorite toys?

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Crafts & Inspiration: No Child is Born to Die Campaign and Petition

Thanks to Maggy from Red Ted Art, we have been included in this special project for Save the Children Foundation and their "No Child is Born to Die" Campaign.

Info about this campaign:

In January Save the Children launched it’s most ambitious campaign to date, No Child Born to Die. Every year 8 million children under five die from illnesses we know how to treat or prevent, such as diarrhoea and pneumonia.

Save The Children is focusing on the provision of vaccinations and healthcare workers. In June there is a meeting in London hosted by David Cameron and attended by other world leaders. Save The Children aims to make as much noise as possible to ensure the funding shortfall for vaccinations (4.7 billion) is met by all the donor countries.

If this funding gap is met the vaccines that could then be provided would save the lives of millions of children.

This week 3 bloggers/ vloggers are going to Mozambique to follow the journey of a vaccine from the coldstore in the city right down to a rural community. They will write, make films and tweet about their experiences, the children and families they meet and the challenges of “cold” vaccinations in hot countries.

The bloggers going are diverse, Lindsay Atkin (@Liliesarelike) is a hugely popular YouTuber, Chris Mosler(@christinemosler) is an influential parenting blogger and Tracey Cheetham (@tchee) is a popular political blogger and recently elected councilor.

Are you willing to sign a petition?  

Do it HERE.

And now, let's get to the Challenge:

This crafty challenge is designed to support their work – to spread the word about their No Child Born to Die campaign and to highlight the funding shortfall for vaccines.

We are lucky that our children have a future. They can dream about becoming policemen, doctors, teachers or artist. The children in Mozambique dream about survival…

(On picture is self portrait of 3,5 year old girl who just realized she can add eye lashes and those holes on the cheeks when she smiles! ;) And, she has 2 lips! ;) We turned it into stick puppet and made couple more of the other family members for her to play with.)

Challenge for you is simple:

1) Get your child to either draw or craft a self portrait of themselves now or in the future. Even a simple circle with dots and lines is sufficient for us!!!

3) Sign the Save the Children petition and then pass it onto your friends

4) Write a blog post about it as soon as possible, including info about Save the Children and the petition. We want as many people linked up AND signed up the petition by Sunday 29th May 2011

5) Tag 8 fellow blogger friends

6) Come back and link up your posts, so we can all share your craftiness

7) If you have time, visit each other posts and say hello!

I know we are not always fans of “Meme”s and Tags… but don’t forget – memes are a wonderful way to discover new and wonderful blogs. They are a wonderful way to help you build some links and to network with other bloggers… so go on, don’t knock them and take part!

And don’t forget to follow all the action in Mozambique on Twitter using the hastag #PassItOn.

Passing it on: 

@Roopa Putti Prapancha
@Nataša Leptir Montessori Blog
@Ana-Marija Strašilo
@Amy Child Central Station
@Kerri Elle Belle's Bows
@Catherine Sun Hats & Wellie Boots
@Maureen Spell Out Loud
@Rashmie Mommy Labs
@Esther Creatiivty My Passion

Theme of the week - Thanksgiving

This week we'll be all about Thanksgiving! Talking about crafts, toys, traditions and family activities with our toddlers before and during Thanksgiving!

Great place to learn about Thanksgiving traditions and origin is History.com (also has video clips available).

You can find great collextion of songs and nursery rhymes for Thanksgiving over at Apples4Teachers.com.

And here are some of great crafts and activities you can do with your toddlers over Thanksgiving - all from recycled materials:

Toilet roll turkey

Pilgrim and Indian Windowsill Egghead Planters

Paper cup pilgrim boy

More ideas for green crafts for Thanksgiving - Creative Thanksgiving Resources

This Friday we want to see all your Thanksgiving ideas so, keep busy and creative - see you on Friday!