Monday Funday :: Paper Mache Tea Cups

 

We used:

• Elmer's glue
• paint brushes
• scissors
• toilet paper rolls
• scraps of paper

What you do:

• Mix together 1/2 elmers glue and 1/2 water make your paste. 
• Paint your paste onto the cardboard or dip your strips of paper into the paste. Mae does not like getting her hands messy, so we painted ours...but part of the fun could be getting messy.
• Continue to cover the cardboard, layering your strips until the whole thing is covered.
• Cut around the edges and let it dry 2-3 hours.

 

To make the tea cups:

• Cut a small part of it off, to make the handle. I cut it and doubled it where it is glued to the mug, creasing it to make a "D".
• Then make 4 slits to fold inward and glue them with a glue gun—this will make the bottom.

To make the tea pot:

• I placed a plastic bag over a glass, that was the size I wanted for the tea pot.
• I began to layer the paper mache over the glass, using at least 3 layers. 
• The handle is from a part of a tiolet paper roll, the same way as the cups. 
• The spout was made by just rolling up the paper after it was dipped it in the paste. 
• I glued everything, once it was dry.

 

Monday Funday:: Felt Cupcakes + Icecream

 I cut out all these little felt cupcake pieces for Mae on Wednesday night, before we drove to the beach on Thursday.  I thought it would be a fun car activity... turns out it wasn't great for the cramped space.  Mae wanted to take everything out and see it all before she chose her flavor or topping. It was, however, quite fun to lay it all out today and let her create away.

 

Mae made everyone in our family their own dessert. I quite like that she is so thoughtful to include Ian and Jovie (: 

 

So if you think you'd like to make your own, I have included my cutting template. You can download the 

PDF here: Felt Cupcake + Ice-cream template. 

{The yellow circle came from the craft section at Walmart. It is very stiff and makes a perfect "plate" for our yummy creations.}

Monday Funday :: Shrinky Dinks

 

First I've got to say—this is just too cool and if you've never made your own shrinky dinks, START! (:  All you need is #6 plastic. So from now on,  before you toss them, start checking packages for this:

You will need:

• #6 plastic
• scissors and/or Xacto
• permanent markers
• tin foil
• optional : hole punch

Instructions:

Color your plastic on one side with a permanent marker. Cut it out with scissors and punch your hole. Then cover your cookie sheet with aluminum foil and place your pretty plastic masterpiece work on it. Set your oven to 350 degrees and put them in for 2-3 minutes... keeping a close eye on them. They will curl up before the shrink. You will know they are done when they flatten back out.

Since the plastic is clear, you can easily trace anything...I used Mae's coloring book to trace her favorite character "Hoho." (Hoho is a monkey on Ni Hao Kai Lin - a Chinese cartoon.)  I knew Mae would have more fun coloring in everything, so I made her a bunch of characters and she colored them different colors.

I placed a quarter on the before and after pictures, so you can see the size difference of everything. I started small and we got teeny tiny results.  Some ended up a little too small...but most were just right. The colors intensify when they shrink too.

Also, we made a ring by taking it out of the oven right away, while it was still hot, and wrapping the plastic around a marker .

I wanted to make these into a charm bracelet for her so she could wear her artwork.  So before I baked it, I punched holes so I could insert jump rings.

If you know this little girl, you know she is ecstatic about our little project today. She's so fun—I love this sweet, spunky child so much!!

Monday Funday :: Paper Globe

 I found this neat little paper globe available for download here: La Paper Globe. 

You can go there and print your own and put it together. 

Today's project involved an X-acto knife so this was more for me than for Mae.  She did enjoy the end product though, and it's a great learning tool. I highlighted China in pink and the US in green.

 

• I used an X-acto knife, cutting mat, ruler, a bone folder, and glue —There are full instructions on the site

I chose to make my globe the easy way and only printed the first 4 pages.  The original design makes an inner skeleton that would make this globe super strong. I printed ours on thicker 100# paper and after gluing it all I feel like ours is plenty strong. 

 

As soon as Mae saw the finished globe she immediately started telling me where she thought Ian and Jovie were and how we were going to fly to get them.  She is ready to meet her brother and sister!!

Monday Funday :: Paint with Bubbles

 This little project was tons of fun!! 

All you need is:

1. Water
2. bowls (round work best with your round bubble)
3. paint (tempera paint or acrylic paint worked well too)
4. dish soap (we used dawn)
5. paper (preferably water color paper)
6. straws

Mix: WATER + DISH SOAP + PAINT

Just blow into your bowls to create loads of bubbles (this is fun all by itself) and then gently place your paper on top of the bubbles.  Your paper may pop the bubbles or you may lift it off and then pop them.  The result of the popped bubbles is this awesome pattern on your paper.  If you try it and your bubbles are too faint, just keep adding more paint until you get the color you want.

We found that the bigger bubbles didn't work as well as the medium to small bubbles.  I guess the smaller bubbles hold more paint.

 

Mae loves bubbles (what kid doesn't, right?) so she especially loved this project.  

This would make a beautiful card don't you think? 

Please let me know if you try it with your kids!

• follow the blog or subscribe to get more Monday Funday ideas!

Monday Funday :: Magazine Beads

So to get into the summer spirit, this morning Mae and I crafted!  We started doing practice school work since she got out of school in the mornings... but who feels like work on Mondays?? So bead making it is. (:

 Here's what you need to make your own: 

1. scissors —optional (I was hoping we could do some cutting practice but Mae doesn't quite have enough control yet). 
2.  straws 
3.  Elmer's
4. old magazine

 

Look for nice bright colorful pages in your magazine. 

1:: You take the page and rip it or cut it— you want one side to end up wider and go to skinny.  

The smaller the strip the smaller the bead. 

2 :: I added a little bit of water to our glue so it would be easier to paint with.  

3 :: Figure out which side is more colorful side and add glue to the other side. 

4 :: Then wrap it around your straw, starting at the wider side. (Mae needed a little bit of help wrapping it tightly but she loved this.)  Just look at all of our beads!! 

5 :: Now they have to dry completely... we were impatient and used the hairdryer to help speed things up.

6 :: Some of the beads slide right off... but the ones that don't you can just cut them and leave the straw in the middle. 

 Now we were set to make the necklace.  

7 :: Tie a knot on the end.

 8 :: String them on!! And of course sing while you work. (:

Any ENJOY! Don't you want to make one now?? 

Mae sure loves hers; she is very proud she made it.