Vegmom Crafts

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Story here... Vegmom Moments 

 

FUN CRAFT SUNDAY

Handmade Hanging Towel from my Kiddo...See the details here :

 

And Dye Free Tie Dye, Details here:

DYE FREE PLAY DOUGH

Thanks to Crafty Crow for posting this link to the One Golden Apple blog  I learned how to make Dye Free Play Dough that is soft and easy to use, much more so then some others we've tried lately...

So tonight we used Grape Juice to make our Purple Dough..

Add a couple of googly eyes, and you have creepy dough head... In a creepy, yet cute sort of way!

Check out this post for all the directions and other color ideas.... How Fun... and cheep and easy...

I'M BACK......SORTA...

Sorry for the craft hiatus.. I post regularly on my other blog but haven't had time to craft since well, the last time I posted here... Except for a couple cards which I'll show in a bit...

Anyway... Lots of craftiness has come our way lately so I thought I'd share... First is the biggest change...

What to do with a Train table when your kid is no longer interested in trains???  Flip it over and make a craft table of course!  Then stick it smack dab in the middle of your family room, so every one will want to participate.

Actually we have it against a wall and under a window for some natural light.  But it is in the general family area now, and has gotten more use in one week, then its had as a train table in 2 years.  Re- purposing at its finest.

My only rules about this space are... keep it clean enough to have an area to work, don't get paint on the floor... and when your done for the day put everything where it belongs.

This is a pictures of mid day crafting....  Paint was on the brain....

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture he made:

There were many more, but that was my favorite of all time!

Well and this one from his Daddy... *smile*

CRAFTY SUNDAY

Now we couldn't let a holiday weekend go by with out some crafting, and so today was a busy one!!

I found the idea in a book to make our own paper...but never wanted to bother with it....But for some reason it looked like a good idea today and I didn't have any of the correct ingredients, so we improvised...

Some old mesh metal from my scrapbook stash, stapled to a cut out plastic lid, gave me my straining frame.  Then we used some dryer lint (yes, I said dryer lint, talk about recycling) and torn sheets of paper left over from our Name People (shown below)... And mix mix mash mash with the Magic Bullet..... 

This is what we came up with:

So I know it doesn't look quite lake paper, but I'm sure it will be pretty when it dries... And by the way... this is quite a lot of work to deem one piece of paper.  I think I will be treating it as gold when attaching pieces to my cards.... And those lovely recipients will know that it came straight from my Dryer....  Is that love or what?

Then I found this idea online... Who needs Sand for art when you have A Grain of Salt??  Yup some Kosher salt and food coloring... Oh and a paper funnel and old spice jar!...  This was a fun project.  We used sticks to make the designs.  If I had more coloring it could have been more beautiful according to Veg.

While looking through our junk mail and sorting recycles from garbage, I found a little deer and thought of this card... It was quick so not the perfect vision, but cute none the less...

And then I pulled out some foam pieces on this rainy day to keep the Veg Man Busy... He decided to make a sea, and as the day went on, there was a ship, a submarine, some fish... and more has been added as well...  Scissors and colored foam... and a little bit of imagination... FUN FUN:

Lastly we made these Letter creatures... HOW FUN....  You basically write someone's name on a piece of paper at the fold, then cut it out and open the fold to see what you have....  You'll see the word Veg first which turned in to a butterfly.  :-)  And I can't show the other names for privacy sake, but you'll see their images after the fact... 

Try to make the names of everyone in your family... Animals included, it was tons of fun... Paper, scissors and coloring supplies is all you need for this one!

SPONGE ART

While out and about today, I found these really cool flat things that you can cut any way you want and then put under water and they turn into sponges... OK yes, I know they have been around FOREVER, but I never saw them packaged so cute before.  And never thought to use them for fun crafts.

So I brought them home expecting to make them last a while.. Veg had something else in mind...

While I was making dinner, he cut up Every Sheet, and turned them all in to sponges.  And he did each one at a time.  So fun to see him running back and fourth to the sink...  He even made some houses... and one dog house...

Here is his stash of shapes!!

And here is his first attempt at stamping with them, tomorrow he said he will decorate his creations:

LEAF CAT OR TIGER

I found this leaf while out for my jog this morning, and thought it was the shape of a tiger...

So I came home, colored the leaf with an orange Stampin up Marker and pushed it down on plain white paper.  Covered the top with another piece of paper and then rubbed with my hands.  Removed the paper and leaf to find, The image stamped perfectly.... 

Then in quite a hurry to get to school/work, I just drew my best cat face.  Of course my face is not that great, but the leaf shape really does look like a tiger...  I'm going to do this again when I get home and have Hubby draw a cool tiger face.  I think this could be lots of fun....

And can't wait to see what Veg creates..

What animals can you see inside a leaf??  Have fun!!

TUBE PAINTING TURNED SHAPES

I saw this idea on kids Craft Weekly but, you can see from the big BLOB of paint on the center paper that our tube expirement didn't go so well....  But we couldn't fail because there is a recycle bin right outside our kitchen...

Veg said, with his finger pointing in the air,  "I have an idea, lets find shapes"  So using boxes, the tube and bottles, he created these lovely creations... FYI -Smushing a box makes a pretty diamond shape.  *smile* 

I just love when he has ideas!!

KIDS CRAFT SATURDAY

With all my crafty stuff already out I decided to dip in to some Crafty Crow Ideas and some links that are on that site... To do the following... We had sooo much fun today!

Here is what we came up with:

I found this one as a pumpkin ornament but changed it slightly to be Christmas'ish.  The parts that look wet are actually Glitter Glue.  Not sure why they are showing as clear in the picture...  Ah well,  A photographer, I am not!

Veg wanted me to tell you that these leaves for this Leaf Print shirt came from his school.  And that they are Tulip Poplar Leaves.  Also that the Tulip Poplar Tree is America's Chosen Tree....  So there, I told you as promised...

I used fabric paint, so after 72 hours I'm hoping to wash this creation and have it stay in tact.  These leaves did so well, you can even see the grain from the leaves.  So happy!  Here is the technique I used.

And this was supposed to be a Splatter Paint Tree  But lets just say my paint wouldn't splatter... So Veg and I grabbed some tooth picks and just went crazy... I like the way it turned out... and He had lots of fun... Even if we both turned purple outside on this freezing cold wonderful afternoon in our Jammies..

THE SQUIRREL

This is a very special post, because it is not my own... Last night we were all sitting around trying to draw a Squirrel... Don't ask why, we just were....  *smile* And for some reason, even hubby was having trouble with this one... My first attempt looked like a Mouse and my second attempt looked like a Kangaroo according to Veg.

Hubby's turned out looking like a Rabid Cat and well Veg's was cross between a mouse and a bear.

All of a sudden Veg jumps up with his little pointed finger and says "I have an IDEA"  he goes on to share "We need a crafty project to fix this problem"  He runs over to my paper and grabs a brown piece, he asks me for glue and cardboard, grabs his scissors, and goes to town....

When I got out of the shower, this is what I found, all complete....

Now, is that a Squirrel or what?  *smile*  He told me to BE SURE I posted it to my website first thing in the morning, in case anyone else in the world needed his template...

So here I am.. Creating this post for Veg to you!

OUTDOOR FUN

So sorry, I haven't posted anything to this blog in a while... to see my other daily babble, feel free to click over to Mommy Moments....  Now this post is about to hand you enough Crafty information to last you a life time..

My friend told me about the Crafty Cow There seems to be crafts in abundance, right now mostly of the Halloween variety.. But at any given time there is no telling what you will find.  And it links to some of the best and most crafty blogs in the blogosphere.

Today I found several I liked while looking for leaf projects.

Art Projects for kids

Playful Learning

And then this one came off of another link, (also from my friend) that is so easy and fun with just some chalk and leaves in the driveway, or pens and crayons in the house..

FamilyFun.com

So when a gloomy Mom needed to get outside... What did we do... Combine ideas from all of those links (including the cat drawing), and came up with these silly Chalk/Nature designs on our driveway.

BUTTERFLY (USE YOUR IMAGINATION TO SEE IT)

CAT

TURTLE

GRASSY HAIRED THREE EYED ALIEN

SILLY PINE CONE MAN

SNAKE

MAKE YOUR OWN PUFF PAINT

 I just found this great recipe tonight and Veg had so much fun.  The picture, was actually one of Hubby's creations as he joined in the fun before bed.

I only had one color of natural food coloring in the house, so I'll have to get some more for future master pieces.

But you get the idea.  It only took 3 minutes to gather ingredients and mix them together.   And then 25 seconds in the microwave after the art work is complete.... Voila, super cool fun!!!

I found this idea here...One Crafty Mumma .

You'll see her colors offer much more excitement.  Now if you ask me how I found One Crafty Mumma in the Blogosphere... I'll trace it back to Flips Flops and Applesauce . 

If by chance your wondering how in the world I found that blog of great ideas.... Well thats easy, I found her link off of The Crafty Crow which is full of a whole lot of other crafty ideas.  And then if you ask how I found The Crafty Crow, I'll have to tell you about my Crafty Friend that of course sent me that first link that got this whole thing started....

Of course I can't say too much about my crafty friend because her blog is for Family only.  But I will say that she sure is crafty!  And I'm so glad she sent me that link to get my crafty juices flowing again....

RECYCLED MAILBOX & CLOCK

Veg is all in to inventing these days and has spent lots of time in the recycle bin looking for his latest creations... Today he suggested we make a Mail box for his Fort... and later said he needed a Coo Coo Clock.... So using stuff he grabbed from the bin, some markers, scissors, crafting brads, Foam 2 Sided stickies, and a tiny little plastic chicken, This is what we came up with:

The Clock:

Closer look at the CooCoo Part (when the doors open the chick folds down... it was actually pretty cool):

And here is the Mail Box with the flag up... You really have to use your imagination for this one:

And Mailbox with the flag down:

So the great part of these projects weren't the projects themselves, but the creative play that came after.

Every time the CooCoo Clock said "coo coo" then the mailman "me" was supposed to deliver mail to the Mail box... This became a 3 hr adventure....  And Veg would get SOO excited each time he found mail as if it was not known I was walking in front of him and setting mail in the box... ha ha...

We wrote letters and mailed pictures and YES, Veg does have his own little metal mailbox from a friend, but he wanted to Make one instead. 

Encourage your kids to dig in the recycles at home... Its quite amazing what they come up with...

For the little ones, I remember taking an empty bottle and just filling it with different kind of beans noodles etc. and making our own instruments and rain sticks... There is so much you can do with things you can no longer use!  HAVE FUN!!  Imagine... and Recycle!  *smile*

SHADOW PICTURES

Veg and I did this last week and I forgot to post.... While he was standing near a window I noticed his shadow casting on the floor.  So I grabbed a big pad of paper and set in on the floor in front of him and drew around his shadow, then let him color it in....  Well Hubby through the picture away today by accident.  This caused much drama...

Which means we had to make another one... Only this time Hubby got involved....  And here, for all to see is our most recent family photos...  Courtesy of Veg and Hubby!  You can see that this can be a fun project.... And only your imagination limits what your shadows shall look like!

Original Veg Shadow on paper:

Veg's face and belly button?  Don't ask!  ha ha

My Portrait with my new hair cut  (thanks Hubby):

And my favorite.... Hubby's self shadow Portrait:

RECYCLED ROCKET

Look what Hubby and Veg made from the recycle bin....

TISSUE PAPER BOWLS

Another great idea from Kids Craft Weekly - the Sticky issue....  You can see her site for the instructions, but here are our results:

Soooo Easy and fun!  Veg and his teen friend made these with out much help from me.  The hardest part was getting them off the Glass bowls once they dried.  I guess that is why she said to use plastic (whoops!)...  You'll notice the one on the right is much thinner... That one is Veg's.

You can make them as thick as you want.... Our Teen friend made hers quite thick... and outside of the cracks while trying to get it off the mold, it turned out really pretty!  

TIC TAC TOE GAME - SCRAPPING STYLE

I was browsing blogs for a couple minutes and came across this Paper Smiles post about Tic Tac Toe boards.
I didn't even finish reading nor did I look at her great tutorial... I saw the first picture and then ran upstairs to make one with Veg.  He is loving Tic Tac Toe these days... And even better that we make one our selves.  Of course mine isn't near as cool as hers, nor does it have as much detail... But its good enough to play the game.  *smile*

So I used scrap paper, scrap cardboard, a few punches, and stamps... some markers pens and rub on letters...  And the best part was I found an old clear sticky envelope from a scrapbook page I tried to make a few years ago.  And it worked perfect to hold all our pieces on the back of our game board!

Too Fun!!  I love these spur of the moment, totally unprepared, easy projects!! 

Here is our version:  (we went with boats and light houses)

 

FATHER'S DAY GIFT - PAPER

My friend found this idea and then went to an office supply store to see if they could make some Square chunks of paper.  They did make them but were a little off... Do you think I cared?  OH NO!!  I was so happy... 

I just cut them a part to make 6 smaller chunks at the good dividing points....  And then let Veg go to town!

To any other family members that may be reading this???  I still have 5 left, so you know what to expect for your next Birthday!  *SMILE*

Here are the cut a part paper chunks... and then the finished product!!  So easy and fun!!
Hubby loved it and Veg even waited till this morning to give it to him!  *smile*
 

Basically I flipped the Block Paper on its side, and let him color on it.  There were times that I had to hold the paper tight, so that they didn't spread on him.  But with the gluey backing I didn't have to worry about the paper falling apart completely.

He decorated 3 sides..  And now Hubby has his own personalized note pad.
 

TOILET PAPER ROLL SQUIRREL FEEDER

  This was just one of those things that I decided to do this morning with Veg... No rhyme or reason but a fun activity none the less... And what a better way to recycle/reuse a Toilet Paper roll, then to feed the birds Squirrels...

Yup they took this thing over and devoured every bit of it within a couple hours.  Watching the little critters provided a lot of enjoyment and we will surely do these again.

Peanut butter and bird seed, along with a little string for hanging is all that it took to make this project.  (and the paper roll of course)

PAPER EARTH

Using the same concept as these Valentine Hearts  we used earthy colors and collected some supplies from the yard... Cut in a circle and VOILA!  We have the Earth!

CHALK AND BLACK PAPER

Who, new these two simple supplies could bring so much creativity...  Kids craft Weekly edition 52, sparked the need to try this one!..

We even erased and started over again and again...You can tell by this sheet, that it was used a BUNCH!

SHIMMERY GLIMMERY BUBBLE WRAP

Another great fun project from Kids Craft Weekly...

Here is their version along with detailed instructions:  Issue 53

And here is our Version:

Getting Started!

The Finished Product (so pretty!) :

 

MEMORY GAME

I'm getting ready to go visit my Nieces, and thought it would be fun to take them a craft kit for each to work on.  But I've been having trouble finding that "perfect" thing.  Until last night - I was scanning some websites and came across an idea on Split Coast Stampers for making a memory game out of crafty supplies.  I didn't follow any patterns.  As soon as I saw the suggestion, I jumped on the floor and started playing.

I Cut out a LOT of squares from some left over card board I had lying around.  And then cut the same size squares from scrap paper.  Decorated the paper and glued them to the cardboard....

Here is the end result:

Then I couldn't figure out what to do with the Games.... Until today, I found these perfect size wooden boxes to put them in... Along with some supplies for the girls to decorate their boxes.  Not only is this now a game, but the boxes can be used for an activity, and play toy later.

Too Fun!!!  And the boxes were only $1 at Michaels which was extra cool!! 

KID COLLAGE

Give a kid Supervised access to noodles from the pantry and supplies from the craft closet... a tube of glue and some paper... then see what they make...  Here is a Veg Creation from yesterday:

QUILLED SHEEP

Another idea from a friend.... Our sheep didn't turn out like the link my friend sent (I'll post here when I find the link)  But I thought he was quite cute.... Veg, however was not thrilled with our sheep...

"That doesn't look like a sheep" He said... Well so maybe he doesn't... but look at those cute eyes... Who can resist that face!  :-) 

We used white card stock cut in to strips, then wrapped them around tooth pics.  Making the quilled circles.  Veg got in to this much more then I thought he would... We glued all the pieces together.  Cut out a sheep looking face from Black card stock and put googly eyes on...  I Found two little wood pieces and glued them to the back so our sheep could stand up.   Voila....  It was easy and fun.... Even if he doesn't really look like a sheep!  *smile*

Update:  here is the link that I got this craft Idea from!!  You can see theirs really looks like a sheep and ours "not so much" but it was fun!  :-)

Lion and Lamb Note holders

HAND PRINT BUTTERFLY

Another craft idea from my friend for the weekend... I'm tellin' ya its never ending!  She told me about making a butterfly with a hand print....  Well we decided to trace the hand instead and then filled it in with pretty butterfly colors.  To finish the picture, came lots of finger print flowers.  How Fun, Easy and Spring'ish!!!

BOTTLE PIG

My Friend is filling me with inspiration this weekend..... She sent this link for Bottle Chick...  I thought this was a great Recycle & Re-use craft....  So I grabbed an already dried out bottle from our recycle bin, and then looked for the rest of my supplies... Realizing quickly that I didn't have any Yellow Chick Feathers... I decided to make a PIG!  *smile*....  Hubby and Veg are lounging on the couch, so I gave them each a pair of scissors and some pink paper and told them to cut strips.... THEY DID!...  Veg punched all the circles and I did the sticking.   A  real family project... and so cute!  ha ha...

Can't forget the tail.... (pipe cleaner)

THE NUBBIN TREE

The Kids craft weekly Newsletter came out this morning, and it was perfect timing.... Not only was it Saturday, but Veg was sitting next to me when I opened it.  He instantly wanted to work on the Flower crafts but we were missing tissue paper.  So he took HIS wallet, and we went to the store in search for tissue paper.  It was quite cute....

For those of you that asked me a long time ago for basic staples of a craft cabinet.... Colorful Tissue Paper should be added to that list!!

We came home, and ran around the yard looking for sticks....Then I found a little old (cleaned) food jar to decorate in my paint supplies... This turned in to our Vase....  And as we were crumpling up little pieces of tissue paper, Veg says "Hey Mom, Its a Nubbin Tree"  ha ha... And so that is what it is now called....

We decorated the "vase" and Tree with nothing but tissue paper and glue....  We also made a little flower with the pipe cleaners and paper... its in the center, at the bottom.  The, whole thing is now happily displayed on top of our wall unit!!

This is the same thing but two different shots... You'll see it is bright and cheery and SPRING'ish!

Thanks Kids Craft Weekly... For some more great suggestions!!

PROFILE

My Friend found this profile link with instructions and I had to try it...Not sure I will frame it like they did and like my Friend will. 

Mostly because, I don't have lots of framed art around the house, and sticking this somewhere amongst the rest of my plain boring walls may look a little funny.  So I had a different idea of making a Scrapbook page with this being in the upper left corner of a white page, and then text filling up the rest....  Words that remind us of our first 5 years with our little man....  No pictures, just the profile and words... I have to admit, hubby helped with the tracing part of this project or it wouldn't have come out so good. And I used scissors since the xacto knife is not my friend. 

Here is our completed product profile... He looks so grown up!  *smile* and geesh, the doctors were right when they said he had a Big Head! 

Just another note... If your not trying to frame this and don't "really" care what it looks like, you could have the kids make their own... how cute of a mother's day gift would that be!  *smile*

WINDOW CLING DESIGNS

In the Kidscraftweekly Newsletter this morning there was a link to this other craft idea....

Skip to my Lou had this quick, easy, and fun suggestion using clear contact paper, and paint....  The possibilities are endless... and I hope not to forget this one.  We stuck with our Egg Theme, although Veg wanted Circles too....  So here is our finished product... Hanging on the window... They look different until you hang them up.  When the sun shines through, they are beautiful!!!

I love Crafty Mornings, what a great way to start the day: