Pepper Paints

Bouquets of the Everlasting Type-Button and Bead Posies

The unplugged project theme for this week is “old.”  Well this may be a stretch but I have lots of “old” buttons.

I saw these button and bead posies at a garage sale recently and I was really excited to try to replicate them.

You will need buttons, beads and fun wire (coated copper wire 24-26 gauge wire).  I found the wire at Michael’s Crafts (used my Sunday paper 40% off coupon).

This is tricky to explain so stay with me.  Each posie wire will end up being twisted and folded in half with a button at the half way point and posies on each end of that folded and twisted wire.  So cut a piece of wire  about 12 inches long and fold in half.  String whatever you want for the first posie.

Twist the wire together and string a button to the middle (this is where you will fold your posie)

Twist the two end pieces together leaving space at the end to string the beads and buttons.

Curl the ends of the wire-we used a toothpick.

I love these!  The kids liked making these and sorting the beads and buttons so much that my dinning room table is still covered with supplies begging to be made into an everlasting bouquet.

Cornstarch and Water and Dealing with Messy Activities

This is a messy activity with easy clean up.  If you can’t do this outside be prepared for a bit of  mess.

I have been thinking a lot about a post on messy activities.  When I first started this blog several people thought maybe I would have some good ideas for Moms that can’t deal with “the mess.”  Or those that shall go un-named that just aren’t very crafty or who just don’t enjoy doing crafty things.  I guess my best advise is do what you can handle-do it outside, spread lots of newspaper round, set ground rules. But find a way to do it.  These explorations and experiences are not just fun but hands on learning.  But that doesn’t mean they can just dump the mixture on the floor.  Let them explore with a few boundaries;  keep it on the table, keep it in the bowl, only in the kitchen.  But keep it realistic and fun too.  Try not to nag so much to squash creativity.    Have them help clean up too!  And if you still can’t handle it, send them to a friends house where they can play in wet sand, mud,  and cornstarch and water.  And you don’t have to do messy things everyday.  Maybe you can only handle it weekly or so.  That’ s better than nothing!

Pour a good amount of cornstarch into a pan, bowl or tubbie.

Put a small amount of water into a small pitcher kids can pour by themselves.  Let them add a little at a time, touching after each addition of water.

Now poke it, squish it, squeeze it….

Notice how it is wet and dry at the same time…solid and liquid at the same time.  Add more water if you want, just add it in small quantities.  If too wet add more cornstarch.

For easier clean up, let it dry on tabletops and floor.  Then scrape up.  Vacume or wash off.  You can leave it in the bowl or tubbie and let dry then you can use it again.  Give kids little hammers to break up the dry pieces into dust and add water and start it all over again!

Look its Mulberry time!!!

I usually like them a it more ripe but Ginger will eat anything!

Maybe that’s where all her color went!

Lucky me! And the unplugged weekly project…Sticky

Do you notice a big new something in my hand?  A new camera!  And not just any camera..She’s a Nikon D300.  WoW!

Whenever I get money for a holiday I put it away.  Whenever I clean my husbands office, I put it away.  Whenever I sell anything I put it away.  I have been saving for awhile, years actually, so I had a good bit of stash.  She is AMAZING!  Look at what she can do…

And even this with NO FLASH or tripod….(Wasn’t happening with my XTi)

I haven’t had much time to get to know her but I have been admiring her from afar.  I  had her picture taped up on my kitchen cupboard for a while.  And it was love at first sight.  As I said in my previous post (Where there is a chance to win a party favor!) I am obsessed with taking pictures and photography in general lately.  Lucky for me, my husband believes in me and supports my creative endeavors or else I would have been short a little bit of dough.  Thanks honey!!  Now on to the unplugged project.

STICKY

We cut a piece of contact paper, pulled the backing off and taped it down to the table.  OUTSIDE for those that are mess-phobic!  Now let them shake  the glitter all over the contact paper.

Cut a second piece of contact paper the same size or a bit bigger to stick over the top.

Trim the edges if you want…

Hang in a window…

Handmade Paper

Have you ever visited a real art supply store? Not Jo Anns or Michaels, but a real art store. Ohhh, you don’t know what you are missing. Looking at all the different kinds of pencils, paints and paper. Drawing paper, different weights of watercolor paper, and all the hand made papers. They are kept in a cabinet with wide shallow drawers. Some are sheer, some have fibers in them, many colors and weights. All are interesting and beautiful!

Today we made our own handmade paper. I love the results of handmade papers but not so much the process. At least not so much with kids. So be forewarned this is a messy project that takes a long time. So if all my negative comments haven’t sent you clicking elsewhere yet….read on.

What you will need: a large stack of newspapers, shredded paper or ripped up paper, crepe paper or tissue paper (for coloring your sheets of paper) blender, dish pan or tubbie, water, screen, sponges or rags, small cup, flowers, seeds, grasses fibers…

My husband made me these screens a long time ago. Basically they are a frame made out of wood with a screen stapled over the top-in various sizes.

fill your blender 1/2 to 2/3 full with shredded paper and a bit of tissue paper. Add some water not enough to cover and blend well for 10 seconds.

pour slurry into dishpan. add some water. you may want to blend up a second pitcher to add to dishpan.

There are many different ways to make paper but this is the way that works well for us. Place screen-screen side side up-in the dishpan. Use small cup to scoop slurry and pour evenly to cover the screen.

Once you have evenly covered your screen (trial and error for the thickness) now is the time to add leaves, flower petals, seeds or anything else you plan to decorate your papers with.

now carefully flip the screen over so paper lands on stack of newspaper

use sponge and rags to push on screen inside of frame to absorb water-squeeze out and dry out more. Continue this process until you can’t dry up anymore water.

carefully peel screen back, leaving paper on the newspaper stack. You may need to flick on inside of screen to get the paper to release from screen.

cover with more newspaper and add the next sheet of handmade paper to next layer of newspaper.

Leave the paper on the newspaper to dry then peel off your handmade paper.

When you get to the almost end of slurry in the dishpan and you want to change colors you can just slowly pour dishpan over screen to make a final piece of a certain color. Then start process over with another color.

If you add seeds to your paper you can give them away with a little note written on them-Plant me! I had planned to do this closer to Mothers Day to give away as gifts but it is still early enough around these parts to plant flower seeds.

Painted Sticks and Trash Can

This week Unplug your kids projects are all about paint.  I tried to think of something more exciting than just getting the paint out and painting on paper.  So I decided to have the kids paint our garbage can.

Earlier in the day while checking out The Crafty Crow we clicked on the tutorial for painted sticks.  I figured as long as we have the acrylic paints out we might as well paints some sticks for our yard too!

!

Then, surprise, surprise, Ginger painted herself!

We haven’t decided where we will put these yet-but I like the idea of brightening up the shade!

Newspaper Hut RIP

This is just a short FYI for those who first came here to see the newspaper hut we built.  It has now seen its better days and is resting peacefully in our recycling tubbies.  Many thanks to all you readers who checked out the newspaper hut  and those that commented.

Mexican Metal Tooling

This weeks Unplugged Project is Metal. The long weekend threw me off a bit so I am posting a day late-but better late then never! This Mexican Metal Tooling project is super easy, no mess.

You will need some heavy aluminum-we cut cake pans apart-scissors, stack of newspapers, paint brushes, permanent markers. Optional materials list to follow.

Place your aluminum square on your newspaper stack and use the back of a paintbrush to draw a picture/design. You can flip your square over and draw on the other side too so that some of your drawing sticks out and some is concave.

Now use your permanent markers to color in your picture.

The next part took longer than anything. I punched holes in the corners and used jewelry wire to string the tiles together and tied them to a dowel rod. We hung some beads off the bottom for weight. This is optional but I think it really looks great. Because we used permanent markers I plan to hang this on our back patio but tonight could not find a single place to hang it to get a good photo. This was the best I could do.

Note–after cutting the pans up the edges are a bit sharp, you may want to use masking tape and tape the square down to the newspaper while working on it. Be careful!

Here is a photo I took this morning outside-looks a bit better!