Lowe's Build and Grow

I finally got to sign the kids up for a Lowe's Build and Grow clinic!  In my area, they are one hot ticket and I never get in.  I have a friend to thank for giving me the heads up, Thanks Laura!

I was pretty excited for the kids as I know they will love the movie Planes and this week they got to build Dusty.  Both my kids went through a massive Cars obsession, I am pretty sure it will turn into a Planes obsession soon.  We haven't gone to see the movie yet, but am looking forward to taking them with my husband. 

This build was a little more than what my kids could do on their own, but I am knowledgeable enough to help them.  The directions were in picture format, so I had Maben "read" them off.  Most of the nails I started off for the kids and they tried to finish them.

I had to keep reminding Maben to change his hands so he wouldn't whack a thumb.  He whacked his thumb and looked surprised.  Best lesson for him, he was much more careful after that and he didn't hit himself very hard. 

The build took about half an hour for myself to help both kids finish their plane.  I think applying all the stickers correctly took longer than the build itself. 

The boys are very excited for their new Dusty plane and we are signed up to do El Chupacabra in two weeks! I am sure there will be lots of flying races around the house over the next few weeks.  They have already started.

Aside from Dusty, my boys also got to come home with an apron, safety goggles, a completion certificate and a patch they can add to their apron. 

I am in no way affiliated with Lowe's.  Just blogging about it.  If Lowe's would like to sponsor me, I wouldn't turn them down.  If someone from Lowe's is reading this, you can e-mail me!

Preschool Class Craft #3: A Very Preschool Pirate's Chest

Yup, you guessed it, I did it again.  I willingly volunteered to build something awesome and hand print another batch of kids all for the sake of helping raise some money for preschool.  This year it was for Colton, where in year's past it was for Maben.

You can check out the previous finished crafts here and here.

I searched high and low for inspiration.  I probably spent as much time trolling for inspiration as I did building it.  I hate creative block.  But, when it struck me, that was it, I knew what I was doing.  I saw a hand print pirate.  A PIRATE!!!  How awesome.  BTW, saw it over here.  Colton's hand print pirate pictured below.

After that inspiration struck, I started to look for plans (or figure out my own) to build a pirate's treasure chest.  My awesome husband came to the rescue with a magazine called, "Quick-and-Easy Woodworking Projects," from Wood Magazine; issue from 2006.  I was sold!

The build wasn't hard, parts of it were rather tedious (cutting all those slats for the lid).  I mostly followed the directions and didn't screw up anything that I couldn't fix.  The directions were written well, I just am more of a picture person.  I follow directions much better when it's step by step pictures vs. written word.

Anyways, without further ado I present to you, A Very Preschool Pirate's Chest!!!

The teacher's and kid's names have been blurred out for their privacy.

The finished dimensions were approximately 35 inches wide by 22 inches tall and 22 inches deep. 

A big thanks goes out to the mom and teachers who helped me hand print a bunch of three-year-old children.

Another thanks to Amanda over at Handprint and Footprint Art for the inspiration.

Sharing this over at:
So You Think You're Crafty: I'm Crafty Party #35 
Sawdust Girl: Sawdust Throwdown 
Tatertots and Jello:  Weekend Wrap Up Party

Paper Costume: Tutorial

Maben's school does a vocabulary parade.  It's really fun as each grade level is given different parameters of how they need to choose their word and dress up as it.  For Kindergarten it's pretty easy, their word needed to start with a consonant.  Maben's first idea was to dress as the word, "was."  Yeah, not happening, so he chose, "is."  I explained that he should pick a noun, like paper.  "Okay mom, I want to be paper."  (face palm) 

Since it was my awesome idea, I needed to deliver.  I decided to transform a plain white t-shirt into a piece of notebook paper with a doodle on it.  It's fairly simple and I had all things on hand.

You will need a t-shirt, a ruler and a red, blue and black fabric marker.

I used the ruler to draw a straight line and use as a spacer for the lines on the paper.

Seriously a very easy project.  The most difficult part was to freehand the paper airplane doodle.  I actually made a paper airplane as a reference for my doodle.

Tip that I learned, it's easier to use a soft touch when drawing with the markers to prevent the marker from catching and dragging since the shirt is stretchy.  So, I drew lightly and just went over it a few times.

I heat set the fabric markers in the dryer for 30 minutes on high.  You could do that or run an iron over each spot for 4 minutes.  The dryer was easier.

Maben loves his paper shirt.  He was so incredibly excited to see it for the first time and was probably the most originally dressed up kindergartener.

Most of the kids recycled their Halloween costumes, which I can't blame the parents since our district does not allow dressing up for Halloween.  So, lots of princesses, firefighters, fairies and super heroes, but only one kid dressed as paper.  I couldn't be prouder!

Linking this up at:
Tatertots and Jello: Weekend Wrap Up Party
Sew Many Ways: Sew Darn Crafty Linky Party 
So I Married A Craft Blogger: Man Up Link Up

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

I volunteered again to produce the class craft for Maben's preschool class.  Here is a sneak peek at what I did today.  The unveiling of the whole project will come next week.

The egg on the leaf.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

A beautiful butterfly.

I took an entire preschool class and told the story of, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," in three scenes using hands and paint.  I think my homage to Eric Carle would make him proud. 

If you are curious what I did last year, take a look here.

Using Fabric Dye Sticks

While I was surfing the internet and trying to spend a gift card I stumbled across something that piqued my interest.  Fabric dye sticks.  I have NEVER heard of these and have never seen them either.  Seriously, how is their an art/craft supply out there that I don't know about?  And why has no one told me about them?  I don't know if this was some secret kept from me, but if it wasn't, I am going to show you how completely awesome they are.

Lots of colors, but no purple!

The dye sticks are very similar to oil pastels, both is size and texture.  Basically, a soft crayon.  The instructions for use are super easy.  Wash your fabric, draw on your fabric (natural fabrics work best like cotton), place a piece of paper on top of your drawing, dry iron, then done!  Super simple, but I still screwed it up the first time around...I'll show you how.

I grabbed two shirts for my kids that I bought for this (which I thought I had washed).  I stretched them over a shoe box and pinned.  This step is very helpful because it keeps your fabric from moving on you.

I then drew the designs I wanted on the shirts.  A little bit of the dye will come off on your hands, so beware before smearing them all over the shirt.

Place your paper on top of your drawn design and dry iron.  I ironed for about 60 seconds moving over the design in a circular motion.  The before ironing and after look about the same.

A little bit of the dye comes off on the paper which is why you need it.

This is it!  That is if you didn't miss a vital step like I did.  I thought I had washed the shirts!  Before I shared this with you I wanted to test it out to see how it fades/if the dye would bleed, etc.  This is what happened.  The dye cannot adhere to the fabric if there is any starch present.

They both faded...A LOT!  Eek!  I decided to try it one more time.  So I went over the drawings again.  Ironed them again.  Washed them again...and this was the result.

MUCH BETTER!  I threw in other clothes (some light in color) that I wouldn't mind if they got dye on them and they came out clean.  SUCCESS!  With all that drawing, I also used less than 1/4 of any of the dye sticks.  These are going to last a while...or maybe not.  The kids are really digging their new shirts.  More shirts may be in the works soon.

Colton likes the 3 eyes on his monster.

Maben loves his robot, his "box" robot.

These are seriously a really cool product (that I am totally NOT being paid to tell you about).  I did put up an affiliate link though if you are interested in buying some, because I have not seen them in stores around here.  The result was so much better than what I thought it would be, especially for the price.

I have also thought of lots of ideas on how/when to use them.

• Customize a tote bag
• Whip up some more custom shirts for the boys or myself
• Let the kids design their own pillow cases
• Let kids customize something!

What would you use them for?  Do you think they are as cool as I do?  I am so seriously geeked out over these...they are so awesome!

Sharing this over at:
So You Think You're Crafty

Painting a Pollock

I truly hope that everyone has heard of Jackson Pollock.  If you don't know him by name, I am sure that you would know some of his work.  He is the guy that was famous for doing splatter paintings.  Yesterday, I decided that the kids and I would try our hand at creating one.

I started out with a gessoed canvas of a horrible art school fail.  It was such a ginormous fail that I didn't even take a photo of it before I applied a nice layer of gesso over the top. 

I loaded up some squeeze bottles with a mixture of acrylic paint and some water to thin it down.  I let Maben choose which colors went when.

I then let the kids go to town on making a giant mess.  It was loads of fun!

I couldn't let Colton miss out on all the fun.  He thought it was a blast too! 

"Look mom, a mess!"  Colton didn't actually say that, but that is his, "I did it!" face...and usually I'm not a happy camper when that face comes out.  This was an exception.  I was supervising this mess.

Hard at work.  They were determined to cover as much canvas as possible.

Our completed work.  It's a fantastic, colorful, beautiful mess of paint.

And here are the super proud, messy artists posing with their masterpiece.  I think it's ready for the Guggenheim...don't you? 

And this view to show you just how much paint is really on that canvas.  It's going to take days to dry!  If you try this with your kids, make sure you have a safe/level place for the canvas to dry.  Mine is out in our garage with a dehumidifier.  I will make sure to show it off once it is dry and hung on a wall.

A few notes about this whole process.  Acrylic paint washes off of skin easily.  It will not come out of clothes.  When cleaning up acrylic paint, use cold water.  The whole point is to have fun and make a mess...so have fun and make a mess!!!

Linking this project up at: