Paint!

The girls really enjoy anything that could be considered a craft. If you get out paint, glue, paper, crayons, scissors, etc. you are guaranteed that they will have a fun time!

It had been a while since we pulled out the paint. Olivia wasn't too sure about wearing a smock but once she got the paintbrush in her hand she was a happy camper. 

She only used the red paint and we pulled out a for work sheets that cover the color red. 

Grace got to pick four colors because she is four. 

She always likes to draw/paint people. I'm not sure who she painted that day but she painted a person.

When she paints she works slowly and really concentrates on what she is doing. She wants it to be just perfect!

 Doesn't her person just look beautiful? Before she was done she had pretty much covered her paper with paint!

I think Olivia may need 2 colors because she is 2 next time. She got bored a lot quicker than Grace!

Christmas Crafts!

I like doing crafts with Grace and Olivia. And there are so many fun things to make around Christmas time!

They both love making things too.

We made salt dough ornaments and gave them to family members to hang on their trees.

First we made the salt dough. We mixed 1 cup salt, 2 cups flour, and 1 cup water together in a bowl. Then we rolled it out on a floured surface. Next was the fun part! We took our Christmas cookie cutters and cut out all sorts of shapes. There were Christmas trees, stockings, candy canes, gingerbread men, and even a reindeer. A straw works well for punching a hole in the top so you can put ribbon on them so they can hang on the tree. We put them all on a pan (it took several pans because we made a lot) and baked them in the oven (250* for about 25 min) until they were dry.

After they were cool Grace and Olivia got to paint them. I even got out the glitter for them to put on them after they painted (just sprinkle it on the wet paint). Grace made a LOT!

And Olivia took her time and made sure to put all the different colors on each of her ornaments.

After they dried we sprayed them with a clear spray paint to help keep the glitter from falling off. I am not sure how well that worked because by the time I was done tying ribbon on I was covered in glitter!

That wasn't all the crafts we did either! We made Christmas trees out of popsicle sticks. I cut green popsicle sticks to different lengths and then let the girls glue them to a brown popsicle stick. Then they glued on little sequins and other shiny little confetti pieces. Anything with glue is always fun for Grace!

And we can't forget about the reason for Christmas! We made a manger scene with baby Jesus. We glued two brown popsicle sticks (I painted them with brown paint since the package I bought was red, yellow, and green sticks) to construction paper. Then we glued little pieces of yellow construction paper for the hay, tan construction paper circle with the face Grace drew for the head, and purple construction paper cut out to be a blanket. And we glued a big yellow star (cut from construction paper) at the top.

One morning I ran a few errands and since Dustin was off he stayed home with the girls to finish our sugar cookies. We made icing and they got to decorate them! 

And after they were finished with the cookies they decided to make a craft. He told me they had gone to the office to color while he cleaned up the icing and cookie mess. Later I found out they had been making me a gigantic Christmas card!

This is the picture he sent me while I was gone. They had to have a bath!

Grace thought it would be fun to paint her sister with her makeup and - lip gloss, nail polish, and glitter paint. I don't think Olivia minded one bit. BUt even after a bath there was still evidence of glitter and lip gloss in her hair!

Sidewalk Paint

I have been finding a lot of fun things on Pinterest lately.
One of our favorites this week was the sidewalk paint recipe.

It was a bit cooler (only around 100 - we finally got some rain!) and there was a slight chance for more rain (perfect for washing our sidewalk after we were finished) so it was a great chance for us to try it out.

The recipe is simple: 1/4 cup cornstarch, 1/4 cup water mixed together with some food coloring.
I am putting food coloring and cornstarch on our shopping list for next week because we have been finding lots of fun activities that call for both of them.

Grace had a great time painting our sidewalk (she even painted the house a little!).
And we got more rain (and even cooler weather today - we spent some time outside and Grace said it was COLD!) so the cleanup was super easy :-)

We will definitely have to do this again!

A Pigment of Your Imagination

Grace and I had a big girl afternoon a couple of weeks ago. We left Olivia with her Grandma and went to paint pottery at A Pigment of Your Imagination. This was our first visit and we had so much fun we wanted to go back!

First we walked around and picked out the piece that Grace wanted to paint. She picked this penguin. She really loves penguins!

She chose the black speckled paint for her penguin.

When she was just about done painting this she saw a frog on the shelf that she wanted. It was a really cute little box with a princess frog sitting on top. We decided to paint it too! She wasn't too happy about leaving her penguin and frog at the store to be finished but I told her we would go back soon to pick them up once they were dry. She was so excited to pick them up the next week that she wouldn't let them out of her sight!

While we were there I got an idea for a Mothers Day gift for my Mom. They had so many cute things with hand prints and foot prints and Mom had been wanting some type of jar to keep bottle and sippy cup pieces in that we decided to do this:


Brandy and I did quite a bit of planning and met at the shop one morning. I don't think Mom had any idea!

At first we weren't sure what we wanted to paint but finally decided on the cookie jar.
We got started by picking colors and putting Olivia's and Brilyn's foot prints on it.
That afternoon I took Grace by to add her foot prints

She decided she wanted to paint her hand print too and there was an empty space just the right size for her hand.

Andrew went by and added the flowers and other artwork on the jar after he got off work.
Now Mom has a pretty place to keep all of the pieces for the bottles and cups she keeps on hand for the girls. And she can always look back at how little their feet were :-)

The shop said they wanted to keep my number since Grace is so good at doing foot prints and hand prints. When we went back to pick up the jar they had been looking for feet/hands just her size for a project. They made a cute little Frog Prints-ess plate by using her foot prints (frog prints) and her palm and thumbs. They put her name on the back and when they are done using it in their store it is ours to keep! And Grace had so much fun getting the extra chance to paint (and it didn't cost me any money!!)