Crayon Melting on Canvas

I think seeing the crayon melting canvas art was the fi thing that attracted me to Pinterest. I've had it pinned for forever and finally did it.
It's not quite as simple as it appears. It took me a little while to figure out how best to do it.

Steps:
Find crayons and a canvas. (I needed 23 crayons for each 8x10 canvas)
Use hot glue gun to glue crayons on canvas. Glue each crayon individually rather than placing them all on one line of glue.
Prop canvas up at an angle.
Point hair dryer at crayon tips until they begin to melt and drip. Experiment with the angle of the canvas and hairdryer.

Attempt #1
Patiently sat pointing hair dryer on low heat at crayons. Some crayons melted much faster than others.

 Attempt #2
Started on high heat, then switched to low heat when the crayons started melting.

Attempt #3
Used high heat the entire time while moving the hairdryer back and forth across the board.

Observations:
I used all Crayola crayons. Yet different colored crayons melt differently, regardless of how you hold the hairdryer.
The crayons will start to melt under the wrappers, causing the wrappers to darken. I didn't like this, but I'm not sure if there's a way around it.

Honestly, it was a fun project. My husband isn't too sure about it. He said it was a waste of crayons. However, he did like the green and yellow one - Packer colors.

Becky

Clover Painting

I've been in a craft rut with the kids lately. I think I did too many elaborate projects with them and ended up burnt out. So when I saw this easy craft, I decided it was perfect for getting back in the game. Simple, yet fun.
Never fail, I can always find a wrinkly pepper in the vegetable drawer.
(I won't speak for another sister whose vegetable drawer is filled with beer. Don't worry, we all love you.)

Clover Painting
Cut the pepper in half. Cut out the seeds. Pour green paint in a pan. Stamp and paint!

I'm a nerd, so I did try to wash the paint off my pepper so we could still eat it. Common sense prevailed, and I threw it away. Next time I may cut thick slices of pepper to use instead of two halves. 

Both kids enjoyed it. The 5 year old made collages and clover people out of her stamps. The three year old made "clover trees".

Rainbow Cake

Birthday time always brings so much excitement to our house! Each year my daughter picks out her own birthday cake. She LOVES to choose every detail of the cake: the batter, icing, decorations, shape, and candles. Then she changes her mind a thousand times. :-) This led us to our beautiful, unexpected, rainbow cake!
My daughter and I went to the store to choose the type of cake she would have for her birthday. We saw everything from rainbow chip to marble to five different types of chocolate. After standing in the aisle for at least ten minutes, she chose a white cake. I was shocked! I asked if she was sure she wanted it. She said yes.
Well......the next day we got ready to make her cake. I got out the cake mix and she was devastated. She was convinced that she did NOT choose a white cake mix. This quickly turned to sheer joy when we decided to venture into the unknown to create a rainbow cake!

Supplies Needed:

White cake mix

Food coloring

Pan of your choosing

Lots of spoons and cups!

Optional: white frosting, jelly beans, and mini marshmallows

Directions:

Make the cake batter as directed on the back of the box. Divide the batter into cups according to the number of colors you are going to use. Add 3 drops of food coloring to each cup of batter. Add more to get desired colors. (I mixed red and yellow to get orange.)

Grease pan as directed on cake box. Pour batter into the pan. At this point your child is probably beginning to get very excited. My daughter loved pouring the different colors into the pan.

Use a knife to swirl the rainbow colors. The best techniques is to make sure the knife is not lifted up at all. Just keep swirling. Also, be sure the knife is touching the bottom of the pan. The excitement peaked here for my birthday girl as I let her mix the colors under very close supervision.

Bake cake as directed. You will want to check on the cake early, as it may bake quickly. A small amount of batter is lost when it is transferred from bowl to cup to pan. Therefore, your baking time will most likely be shorter than average.

My daughter chose to make her rainbow cake into a treasure chest. However, you could easily make your cake into the rainbow cake pictured below. Just add jellybeans (I used Starburst) and mini marshmallows. As you can see my daughter enjoyed decorating this cake herself!

Perfect for a rainbow birthday or St. Patrick's Day!

(The rainbow cake batter was my own idea. The jellybean and marshmallow cake decorations were inspired by Family Fun. http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/catch-a-rainbow-cake-687429/ )

Wedding Bouquets

So I decided to buy a bunch of flowers and futs around with them, seeing what I liked for my wedding flowers. It was amazingly fun!

Step 1: Buy lots of flowers - and have everyone in the grocery store do double-takes at you all loaded up with flowers.

Step 2: Arrange them into a beautiful bridesmaid bouquet and put it next to the bridesmaid dresses.

Step 3: Call your little sister and tell her to come over asap - then have her be your model!! :)

Step 4: Make a pretend table arrangement from random household items such as glasses...

Step 5: You're done! Enjoy all the flowers by creating a huge vase of them on your dining room table, a vase of them in your kitchen and a vase in your bedroom :)

Happy flower-arranging.

Noodle Bracelets

Craft time is always an adventure with my two and three year old kiddos! Although I wish it happened everyday, it doesn't. And when it does, it usually only lasts ten minutes tops. But today I hit the jackpot: a craft that kept them busy for 20 minutes, looked halfway decent, and could even be used as a gift for Grandma.

Supplies Needed:

Pipe-cleaner

Noodles (any kind with a hole)

Rubbing alcohol

Food coloring

Ziploc bags

Paper Towel

Directions:

We dyed the noodles ahead of time. Dump 1/4 cup rubbing alcohol into a Ziploc bag. Add 10 drops of so of food coloring and swish around a bit. Then add 1-2 cups of noodles and shake well to coat. Dump out onto paper towel to dry for a couple hours. Once the noodles are dry, string them onto the pipe-cleaner and twist the ends together to make beautiful bracelets.

Some kids like to make patterns with their noodles.

Some kids just like to taste them.

Either way, they had fun and I got lunch made.

http://therigneys.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/toddler-busy-bag-swap/

DIY Map Coasters

Chris and I have been living in our house for over 7 months and we still did not have coasters! I was determined to change that. After seeing a project on Pinterest where they took photos and modpodged them to canvases for wall decorations, I decided to experiment.

I bought a 24 pack of 4x4 Artist Loft canvas panels. They only had a 24 pack for about $12, but I had a 50% coupon on it. I only used 6 of them so I can use the other panels for other projects or to make more coasters once we visit more places.

The first step was to make a list of places we have taken trips to together. I searched at mapquest to find maps of the different places. I took a screen clipping of each, editing each map to 4x4 in Microsoft Word. I then printed each map in color and cut them out. After cutting each to size, I laminated the maps and cut exactly along the edges. This was the trickiest part because the laminating machine went completely crazy on me! I had to refeed the laminate multiple times. Sometimes the easiest steps take the longest!


After cutting them out, I modpodged the laminated maps to the canvas panels. I put the panels face down in order for the map to fully stick.

My maps were not all exactly 4x4 so the edges hung over the sides of the canvas panels. You can see in the picture on the left. After they dried, I trimmed the edges by running a scissor along each edge of the panel.

Once I had that done, it was time to put a nice finishing coat of modpodge on the top of each coaster. Since I was at work supervising the library while I was completing this project, I did not think to bring along a paintbrush. Therefore, I used a pen and my finger to spread the modpodge evenly over each map.

You can be generous on the amount of modpodge that you use. Make sure to spread it onto the sides so that the laminate edges turn smooth. As they dry, they will look like the picture on the right. No worries it dries to look like the picture below!

Once they have dried, you will have your coasters completed. I stacked them in a pile, tied a ribbon around them, and made a tag that said, "Oh the places we've been...and the places we'll go..." I then gave it to my husband. He loved it! Now when we host others, it can be a conversation starter about why we went to the various places on the coasters. I can't wait to travel more and add them to the stack. I hope to write on the back of them the dates and a brief description about each trip.
                                                                                                                                             --Lyzz