This project from Family Fun takes a little bit of time so plan ahead!

T-shirts were buy one get one free the day I was at the store so instead of trying my luck at the thrift store I bought new shirts for this project. But they didn’t have white shirts in my kids sizes so I went with black and a sparkly blue fabric paint. I like the way it tuned out but you can use whatever color shirts or paint you choose.

You will need

black marker, paper,cardboard,  newspaper, cotton t shirt, tacky glue, sponge brush, fabric paint

1. Use a black marker to draw a thick lined snowflake template on the paper or download one at Family Fun

2. Place template over the cardboard and slip both inside shirt. You should be able to see the template through the shirt. Because we used a dark shirt we just used the glue tip and drew ours free hand using the template as a reference.

3. Using a thin line of tacky glue-about 1/4 inch wide-trace your snowflake design. Let it dry for 10 mins then fill in any gaps with additionl glue. Let the glue dry completely until it is transparent. We left ours overnight

4. Dip the sponge brush in the fabric paint and dab around the snowflake, completely covering the entire area. Use less paint towards the outer edge. Let the paint dry overnight.

5. Soak the tee in warm water for about 10 mins to soften the glue. Peel off the glue and let the shirt dry. Follow package directions to set the paint.

This is sort of how this project felt…crazy.

First off  you will need some flat leaves for this project. Next, you will need a tablecloth to decorate. A quick trip to my local thrift shop got me a gold tablecloth-perfect!  You will also need fabric paint. So,  a hopeful run down the one craft aisle at my grocery to find fabric paint and save me a trip to the craft store,  revealed fluorescent colors. Boo!! But then out of the corner of my eye, on the clearance rack, I spied the perfect Fall colors of permanent acrylic paint. Score again! I love when things are easy and work out that way! It doesn’t usually happen, so I was indeed happy with my lucky finds!

So I cleared the way in my kitchen to spread the table cloth on the floor. My kitchen is small and my floor isn’t spic and span-eww- and the tablecloth took up all the available floor space. That meant we were constantly walking all over the tablecloth–eww again-it also meant the material kept getting wrinkled up. I begin to get annoyed.

OK-next I spread out some newspaper and paper plates with the paint, leaves and brushes.

You will also need more newspaper and a rolling pin for this project.

Paint the underside of the leaf—the veins will give you a better print.

Then carefully put the leaf, paint side down, on the tablecloth and cover it with wax paper or a sheet of newspaper. Carefully so that the paint that is all over your fingers doesn’t get all over the tablecloth.  Then again-carefully, so that the leaf doesn’t slide around, roll over the top of the newspaper with your rolling pin a couple of times.

Remove the newspaper and then carefully peel your leaf back up-so that you don’t just drop it back down creating paint splots on the tablecloth. And watch were you throw your cover piece of paper-it has wet paint on it. Are you feeling my blood pressure rising??

Can you see that I was a little too invested in the product of this project!!! Part of it was this was a little messy for my kitchen floor and tables. Water colors or tempra are one thing but permanent acrylics are another. As Ginger walked over the wet paint back onto the wood floors and I am yelling, “Don’t step in the paint, wipe your hands off, don’t get that paint on my rolling pin, you’re wrinkling the tablecloth” etc… etc….  But surprisingly-they endured my fussiness  and the leaf prints came out great. We plan on using this on  our Thanksgiving table.

So the moral of this story is…if your looking to make this a really perfect looking tablecloth…do it your self. If your looking for a fun project for your kids…protect all surfaces and  shut your mouth. Allowing the kids to make it without being over supervised (and probably taking most of the fun out of it)!! It will look great either way! Another lesson learned!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

After dinner we made  quick batch of Pumpkin Pie Playdough. This is not only a super easy recipe but it turns out great every time. Not too sticky and not too dry! And smells great too. The color and spice combo could be switched up as needed. Store in a plastic bag or covered container.

Mix together in  pan:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

2 teaspoons cream of tarter

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Then add:

1 Tablespoon oil

1 cup water with 6 drops red food coloring and 15 drops of yellow food coloring added

cook on medium heat, stirring constantly until playdough forms into a ball and pulls away from the sides.

Dump out on to table and let cool a bit before playing with it.

Yes-this is the same recipe we made last year!

Purple is this weeks Unplugged Theme. I love the color purple! Now–but not always! Back when my cousin, Tracy, and I were young we used to hate purple because Donnie Osmond’s socks were purple. Hmmm, funny how such a thing could turn me off to the color purple. Well, no more.

First, I raided every junk drawer, work bench  and recycling bin to find small but interesting objects. I found lids, broken jewelry, pen and marker caps, marbles, key chains, clothes pins, sea shells, pinecones, washers and broken parts. I filled a tubby with these treasures and fired up the hot glue gun. I had each of the girls pick something out of the recycling to use as their mounting board for there treasures. Ginger picked a plastic tray and Molly an egg carton.

Molly was able to use the hot glue herself but Ginger needed some help.

After they glued everything down, out came the purple paint.

Ginger was very selective of what she actually painted.

Molly covered hers. I really like trying to figure out what each of the tiny treasures are when they are covered in paint!

The Unplugged Theme of OCEAN this week comes at a perfect time. In about a month we will be spending some time at the ocean. We have been reading  ocean books and learning all we can about the sea.  I love the art work in so many children’s books. Two artists I really like are Leo Lionni and Eric Carle. THE ART OF ERIC CARLE and the book ARTIST TO ARTIST 23 major illustrators talk to children about their art, are excellent books that talk about and/or show the artists at work.

Another  book we read was SWIMMY by Leo Lionni. We looked closely at the pictures and tried to figure out how Lionni made them. Then tried out some of our ideas in our own ocean pictures.

Looks like doilies!

Molly also used bubble wrap and “paintbrush hair” to add some texture to her work. She also made a fish stencil so that all of her fish would look alike.

Inevitably the painting turned into to finger paint and 5 year olds have their own ideas. Ginger started her painting by cutting out a red fish shape, gluing it down and calling it “swimmy.” The next time I looked their were sunshines and and words and hearts in her ocean. Taking a deep breath I had to remember it’s the process not the product that’s important!!

This was the first time we used acrylic paints. Molly really liked the coverage and control she felt with these as well as the clean finish.

Picture books are a great jumping off point for so many activities. I have a few other ideas to share soon.

This is a super easy, super cheap, super messy way to temporarily color your hair!

We used about 3 to 5 squirts of hair conditioner to 3 packets of the same flavor Kool aid. DO NOT use it with sugar, just the flavor packet. Kool Aid stains everything …so be careful!

You may need to add a bit of water. You don’t want it to drip off of your hair but it needs to be spreadable. Remember to use old or disposable cups as this will stain whatever you use. We used paint brushes to put it on our hair.

Seperate hair into sections and paint some of the Kool Aid color on to hair. Avoiding scalp and skin.

Next we wrapped the colored hair in foil to keep it from staining anything else.

It is key to leave it in your hair as long as you can…the longer the better. So we slept in ours. It does get a little itchy!

Then we rinsed it out really well and gently washed our hair.

Voila…strawberry, black cherry, cherry and blue raspberry hair color!!!

It has been almost a week since we colored our hair and since the girls went swimming a few times theirs has faded some but mine is still pretty bright. We all have really light hair so the color took well. If your hair is more brown it won’t be as dark as ours. It was only supposed to last about a week…hmmm. I may have pink hair for a little longer than expected!

OK, this is cheap, easy, fun and works great!! My favorite kind of activity.

Homemade street paint

1/4 cup of corn starch

1/4 cup of water

food coloring -to make just the color you want. We used neon colors

mix it all up-we doubled the recipe and made 4 colors.

We also used large paint brushes. The bigger the canvas the bigger the brush!!

The results of this recipe were great. When the paint dries it really holds its color. It is easy to work with too.  And cleans up with water! How easy is that?

I bought another box of corn starch last night so we could make another batch soon!! So get going and paint your street!!