Kids Crafts Series giveaway winner

We had so much fun during our kids crafts week!  Thank you to all of our great guests and sponsors!  Just in case you missed something, this post will show you everything we had going on this week.

Heather taught you how to make a fun magnetic dress up jewelry frame using Kids Crafts Bucket of Bling.

Heather shared her review of some great Freckles Crafts products.

We hosted our first linky party!  You can still join the fun in our first Wowzer Wednesday link party.  Please come and link up your projects!  We will be hosting the party every Wednesday so be sure to add us to your party list.

Courtney from Between U & Me showed us how to make adorable bathroom canvas art.

Jessica shared how to have fun painting with veggies.



We can't wait to make some of the cornstarch finger paints shared by the Crafting Cousins!

Lastly, we had a great giveaway from Kids Crafts.  Did you win the Just My Style 10,000 Beads Kit?

Congratulations to...

Claire!  We will be contacting you shortly so you can claim your prize!

Thanks for stopping by this week!  We hope you were inspired.

Cornstarch Finger Paint from the Crafting Cousins

Our last guest post in the series comes from our new blog friends, the Crafting Cousins.  They cook, they sew, they paint...go check out their blog!

Cornstarch Finger Paint

• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• medium saucepan
• 2 cups cold water
• muffin tin or small cups
• spoon
• food coloring
• soap flakes or liquid dish soap

Mix sugar and cornstarch in a medium saucepan over low heat. Add cold water and continue stirring until the mixture is thick. Remove from heat. Divide mixture into muffin tins or small cups. Add food coloring and a pinch of flakes or a drop of soap into each portion. Use a different color for each portion. Stir and let cool. Store in the fridge in an airtight container.

I used gel food coloring and let my little dude blend the colors with a toothpick.

We ended up with 10 different colors.

Thanks for the great idea!

Painting with Veggies

Lately I have been making more of an effort to do crafts with my kids that have an academic aspect to them. I think that when you involve learning with something fun my kids are more interested in learning. So this week we worked on learning our letters and vegetables. We started with painting with veggies. This is a great way to put a spin on painting and it takes playing with your food to a whole new level.

Here is what you need:
-veggies. I used celery, a cucumber, and a pepper. I think cabbage might be fun to do too.
-paint
-paint brushes
-paper

Start by preparing your veggies. I cut off the base of the celery keeping the stalks for the snack later. Cut the pepper in half horizontally and try to leave as much of the ribbing (the inside) as you can. Cut the cucumber in half. I let the veggies dry on a paper towel space down for about 30min just so the paint would stick better.

Now have your kids put the paint on the open side of the fruit. Ask them questions like what color and what vegetable they are using. Now they are ready to make a print on the paper. We made cards for Grandma. Try to teach them not to smear the vegetable around in order to get a clean print.




The cucumber makes a circle with an open middle, it looks like a cute flower. The celery has different ribs which makes a much bigger and more elaborate flower, and the pepper creates a shamrock shape. Now that I think about it this would be a great activity for spring.



Finish your prints by having the kids add leaves and stems. My kids are 2 and 3 years old and were able to do most of this activity on their own with supervision.

Next we read this creative ABC book, Eating the Alphabet by Louis Ehlert. I love this book because it shows the reader a plethora of fruits and vegetables while they learn their letters. The pictures look like water color images and the whole book is a little abstract but bright and attractive.


Finally we finished with a veggie snack. I made ants on a log from the celery we cut off allowing the kids to add the raisins and asking them to count each on as they put it on the celery.

My kids loved this activity. They were so proud of their pictures they made and my son even repeated the letters after I said each one (he is very reluctant to repeat things unless he wants to.)

Freckles Crafts - Fun Craft Kits and Gift Ideas

I love crafting with my three year old daughter.  I love it even more when I don't have to come up with an idea on my own and I have all the supplies in one place.  That's why I absolutely adore Freckles Crafts!  You can buy the cutest craft kits to have an afternoon of fun!  My good friend and owner of Freckles Crafts, Rebecca, sent us some fun kits to play with.  My daughter and I had a great time putting together them together.

We started with Lucy the Lovebug.  I was impressed by the easy to follow detailed instructions.

My daughter was able to do mostly everything on her own.

We ended up with a cute little lovebug!

My daughter was so proud of her finished project.

Next we made a few button rings.  The project was easy thanks to the great instructions.  My daughter picked the order of the buttons for her rings.

She carefully applied the glue and stacked the buttons all by herself.

We had to wait a little while for the glue to dry before she could wear the rings.  The only tough part is deciding which one to wear!

I was extremely satisfied with our Freckles Crafts experience!  I'm sure my daughter would give the same report.  The kits came with literally everything needed to make the crafts.  I'll be stocking up on a few kits to keep on hand for those "mom, I'm bored" days!

http://acoupleofcraftaddicts.blogspot.com/

Kids Craft Week - magnetic jewelry frame and a giveaway!

Welcome to our Kids Crafts Week!  We have so much fun lined up for you including guests, tutorials, product reviews, and our very first linky party!

My daughter has been spending a lot of time playing with my iPhone lately.  She spends hours changing earrings, necklaces, and headbands with a jewelry application on my phone.  Seeing how much she enjoys playing I was inspired to make a magnetic frame with a picture of my daughter and interchangeable jewels.

I started by taking a picture that would work as the base for the frame.

Then I gathered my supplies -  5" x 7" sheet of galvanized metal (found in the roofing aisle of your hardware store for less than $1), adhesive magnet roll, a "bucket of bling", 5" x 7" frame, and the cropped picture of your cute kid.

Remove the glass from your frame and insert the picture.  Then insert the metal directly behind the picture.

Measure and cut four strips of magnet to fit on the outer edges of your frame.

Make sure your partner is picking out pretty gems while you are working on the frame!

Remove the backing and apply the magnetic strips to each side of the frame.

The frame portion of the project is done.  Next you need to make the interchangeable jewelry pieces.  My daughter picked a great assortment of sparkly gems!

Cut pieces of magnet from the roll and stick them onto each piece of bling.

Now you're ready to have some fun!

My favorite part of this frame is the magnetic sides that hold all your jewels. 

The bling came from a great line of kids crafts products available at Wal-Mart.  The product line has an awesome website full of fun ideas and tutorials.  The site has some great video tutorials too, definitely a place you should bookmark!

Kids Crafts is sponsoring our week and has offered to give one of our readers the Just My Style 10,000 Beads Kit.  I know I have quite a few ideas where this kit would come in handy!

There are a few different ways to enter.

Leave a separate comment for each entry.

Entry #1 (mandatory) - Tell us what you would do with the 10,000 beads kit if you won.

Entry #2 - Like Craft Project Ideas on Facebook.

Entry #3 - Follow Craft Project Ideas on Twitter.

Entry #4 - Like us on Facebook (new and current fans).

Entry #5 - Follow us (new and current followers).

Bonus Entries - Blog, tweet, or share the giveaway.  Come back and leave a comment to let us know you did.  Leave one comment for every place you shared this giveaway.  Example - three bonus entries if you share this link on Twitter, Facebook, and your blog!

Please be sure to leave your email address if it is not linked to your blog (we need to be able to contact you if you win).  

This giveaway is open to US residents only.  Winner will be picked Saturday, January 28 at midnight MST by the random number generator.

Come back tomorrow for more Kids Craft Week fun!


This giveaway is now closed.  Go here to see who won!