Artterro Art Journal: a Review

Artterro Eco Art Kits asked me to review one of their lovely Eco Art Kits and in the process of emailing back and forth with them I told them about my Kids Club. Kids Club uses art journals as part of the learning process when we take field trips. Artterro was delighted to send me an Art Journal Kit for each of my 5 Kids Club members along with the Wool Felt Jewlery Kit. We were so excited to receive and begin to use these lovely journals! What wonderful gifts for each child!

Artterro Eco Art Kits; A Review

Disclosure: I received free product for purposes of review. Opinions are my own.

I am excited to tell you about Artterro, Eco art Kits! Artterro is an award winning company that offers quality art supply kits that are also eco friendly. When I agreed to do the review, I thought I would be receiving kits for kids....but let me tell you that while your kids will love Artterro Kits, the adults in the family will too! If you have read my blog very much you know I believe in teaching kids to sew. Learning skills like sewing and crafting is wonderful for kids self confidence. Skills that create an 'I can do it' attitude. 

12 Kid's Craft Ideas

With school out I am already looking for ways to keep my G kids busy. It's too hot to play out most days so I have them inside almost all the time. Here are a dozen ideas I liked. 

Mother's Day Gift Ideas

Mother's Day will be here before we know it! I am looking around for some ideas that I can help the grand kids make for mom. I have included some ideas here for little ones to older kids. I'm sure you will find something you like. 

St. Patrick's Day Round Up

St.Patrick's Day is just around the corner so I looked back through my link parties and put together a collection of St.Patrick's inspired post. There are some fun ideas here and lots of easy things to make. Enjoy!

Bowdabra Blog has a trio of ideas; Hair Clips, Shamrock Wreath, and a Lollipop Shamrock Bouquet.
Second Chance to Dream has a list of 15 Kid's Crafts for St. Patrick's Day.
Crafty Journal has a tutorial for a Shamrock Wreath and a Shamrock Angel.
Lime Lane Love made a St. Pattie's free printable.
More from Second Chance to Dream with a Dollar Store Wreath.

Quick and Easy Valentines Decor

Valentines Day kind of gets passed over around here as there are birthdays galore from mid January to mid February and I am busy making gifts and celebrating at parties and dinners out. Valentines Day gets lost in all the other activity. But I did want to have a little holiday decor for the kids and this is an idea that can be used in different ways and for different Holidays. Around here things have to be fast, inexpensive or free, and I usually use what I already have. 

Sewing With the Kids

Sewing is a skill that has served me well. It has helped out in time of need when money was tight, helped me make special one of a kind gifts, and has provided me with an abundant outlet for creativity. Kids that learn to sew also learn to have patience and self confidence. I think that all kids should learn some basic sewing. Here are my post about sewing with my grand kids.

First sewing lessons don't need to be hard. Here's how I first began to teach my grand daughters to sew. 

Here's another child's beginner's lesson.

The second sewing lesson is here; and yet another lesson with three of the kids. 

The kids can make their own doll's too, or a car or animal using this technique.

Check out a few of my favorite sewing books for kid's at my Amazon Store.

I link at these parties.

If you are reading this post anywhere else but at Family Home and Life then it was used without permission! Please report it! Copyright© Family Home and Life 2012 All Rights Reserved

Projects to do With the Kids

I am going to have a look back at some of my post from the past years. I hope you will look with me.

 Need to occupy the kids indoors right now?

*Join me on Wednesdays for Wow Us Wednesday live at 12:00 AM*

Easy and inexpensive indoor activity (above) from ingredients in your kitchen.

Here is a fun, fast and easy cup cake to make with the kids.

Here is a whole binder full of kid activities.

Use spoons to make people.

Do your kids know how to measure?

I link at these parties and The Shabby Creek Cottage.

If you are reading this post anywhere else but at Family Home and Life then it was used without permission! Please report it! Copyright© Family Home and Life 2012 All Rights Reserved

Nativity Set for the Kids

Every Christmas, I have a birthday party for Jesus in my home. We tell the Christmas story gathered around a birthday cake, sing Happy Birthday, and each child gets a candle to blow out on the cake. Since having grand kids, this celebration has become more special to us all.  As the kids have grown older, they have begun to join in with the story telling. This year I wanted to include the kids even more. I decided I would make a nativity for them to use in the story telling. Since there are a lot of cardboard tube "people" made out of empty toilet paper and paper towels rolls around Pinterest, I decided to try to make a nativity using empty toilet paper/paper towel rolls.

I began by trying to draw the figures on paper that would then fit around the empty rolls. Then I stopped myself because as I like to say, "why reinvent the wheel" and Googled to see if anyone else had a good nativity set template I could download. There are not that many and I almost decided to try my own again because I wasn't happy with what was out there. Then I found these and I love how it came out! There are still more pieces to make but I ran out of time before posting this.

I had the two older girls over to help me color and make the nativity; soon each one decided they also wanted to make a for themselves to have at home. So, I ran out of card board tubes but it didn't matter a lot, as the figures will stand up on their own. They could also be printed out onto card stock to make them sturdier. 

To make these yourself, go to this site and print out a set of templates; please say thank you to your host there for the template. Then color and cut them out. We taped them around the card board tubes. Simple as that, very kid friendly. I found that I could cut the tubes down smaller to get two or three figures out of each one.

And here are my helpers for the day. Cousins....they are silly girls! I love them that way :)

Nativity Set printables are here.

I link at these parties and Savvy Southern Style.

I have had a lot of content theft lately. If you are reading this post anywhere else but at Family Home and Life then it was used without permission! Copyright© Family Home and Life 2012 All Rights Reserved

Christmas Garland

The kids and I made Christmas Garlands. They are very simple to make. You fold your paper, trace on a design and then cut out. You don't cut a section of the folded edge so that it all stays in one piece. Here's how we made the Christmas Garlands.

Cut several to make a long chain, using tape to keep them together.

Christmas Garlands to take home to mommy :)

If you would like to see the Fall Garlands we made, they are here. 

Click here to print the Christmas Garland templates.

I link at these parties and Savvy Southern Style.

While I am honored to be PINNED on Pinterest, or have some one link to my post or blog (using one photo is ok), using my content or photos without my permission is theft! I have had a lot of content theft lately. If you are reading this post anywhere else but at Family Home and Life then it was used without permission! Please report it! Copyright© Family Home and Life 2012 All Rights Reserved

Scripture Ornaments

This is an easy and fast yet lovely Christmas Ornament that you can make with the kids. I call them Scripture Ornaments because I used a page from the Bible about the birth of Jesus as my back ground. But if scripture is not your thing sheet music is nice or make up your own verbiage. These would make great gifts or tweak this version to make gift tags.

Here’s how I made these. 

**Update** PicMonkey has started charging for some of it's features though most features are still free and very useable for this craft. I will be checking out other free sites to see what they have to offer and let you know what I find. In the mean time, a good free site is Ribbet and Fotor.

Before we get started, I want to tell you that while there are a lot of popular crafting projects that use old book pages, I cringe whenever I think of old books being destroyed for the sake of crafting! Old books can be very valuable so please do a Google search to find out about yours before you start cutting it up or use cheap paper backs. I scanned the pages I wanted to use into my computer…… I can reuse that same page over and over without destroying another Bible or book! If you don’t have a scanner, try taking a photo of the page. Ok, on with the tutorial.

Upload your image to PicMoney and size it appropriately. I choose to make mine 8x10. Then I choose overlays-geometric-circles. I played with the placement of the circles so I could get the size I wanted and carefully placed them. I wanted them to be uniformed because I would be printing both sides of the card stock and wanted my Monogram to be centered on both sides. Once I had the circle the size it needed to be, I faded it so I could see the words underneath and duplicated it. (duplicate by right clicking and choosing duplicate overlay)

Next I choose ‘P’ (text) then choose a font I liked, and sized the letter to fit the circle appropriately. I wanted the letter to be black and choose not to fade the color. Next I duplicated my letter and placed one in each circle. Then I went back to each circle and faded the color completely out. Now I saved my image to my picture files. 

 I printed my image onto card stock that I had cut down to regular printer paper size. I marked a corner of the page with an X so I would be sure to reload the page for printing on the other side correctly. After the page is printed, find something to trace a circle with that you can see through; I am using a small mason jar lid. Trace your circles and cut them out. 

Punch a hole for hanging in the top; roll them first into glue then into glitter. 

Let them dry and add your string or ribbon for hanging. 

I used twine that I unraveled using only a single strand. If you want these to last year after year, a coat of Mod Podge will be helpful.

This is a great project to make with the kids, it’s easy, fast, and the final product is very good even in the hands of a six year old! My oldest grand daughter and I made these together and she chose to cut hers out in the shape of stars without the monogram. She used a star stamp to trace around. Instead of using ribbon or twine for the tie, she used chenille stems. She could manage the chenille stems but couldn't tie the twine; also I think she liked the pop of color.

Please feel free to save and use my scripture image to your computer to use again and again or upload to PicMonkey, you can do that by right clicking and choosing save image.  If you would like to print this image as is, click here. You can find vintage sheet music at Graphics Fairy. 

I link at these Parties. Please join me on Wednesdays for Wow Us Wednesday.

I have had a lot of content theft lately. If you are reading this post anywhere else but at Family Home and Life then it was used without permission! Copyright© Family Home and Life 2012 All Rights Reserved

Spoon Dolls

I had my oldest grand daughter dropped at my house for a quick and unexpected visit. She always likes to make crafts with us so I decided we would make Spoon Dolls, a craft I had wanted to make with them but I wasn't totally prepared for. Dad said we had thirty minutes so I got busy gathering craft supplies. I recreated parts of this tutorial for you because I was rushing to get through it all and also wanted to enjoy our crafting session as much as possible, so I didn't take enough photos.

You'll need fabric scraps, chenille stems, scissors, spoons (any kind plastic or not) glue, a glue gun or safety pins, eyes or paint them on or use markers.

Cut the yarn into 1/2 inch or so lengths and cut each chenille stem in half. Cut fabric scraps in roughly a triangle to fit the handle of the spoon.

Glue on the eyes (adhesive ones would be nice here) or paint them on. I used acrylic paint for the eyes on some and permanent marker for others; the marker can rub off. Wrap the chenille stem around the spoon, bend the ends up for hands. Wrap the fabric around the spoon handle until you are happy with how it looks then secure with the glue gun or use a safety pin. I have a straight pen here to hold it until I took them to my glue gun which I had in another room to keep little hands safe. 

Now pour some glue into the spoon bowl and start adding your yarn pieces. Add more glue and yarn until you have enough. Now you will need to wait for the glue to dry, we sat ours out in the sun. You could use the glue gun for the hair too but my kids are too young for that and then I would have taken away from them a large part of making these dolls.

And here are our three little Spoon Doll cousins! We had fun and the girls loved their little dolls. It doesn't take a lot to make a craft with your kids. And while it's nice to have lots of crafting equipment and supplies around you really don't need them. I love to make things on the fly like this and use what is already in my house. I don't want to buy more 'stuff' when it's not necessary. I've learned to make do with what I have, and that's all I need.

I have had a lot of content theft lately. If you are reading this post anywhere else but at Family Home and Life then it was used without permission! Copyright© Family Home and Life 2012 All Rights Reserved

Fall Leaf Garland

I had so much fun making Halloween Garlands with the kids I decided to make garlands of Fall leaves too. Painted with watercolors I think they are rather pretty. Paint the paper and allow to dry before you fold and cut, or paint after they are cut out.

(Click Here for the Halloween Garland)

These are my hand drawn leaf shapes but it would be fun to use real leaves as inspiration. Cookie cutters or even a leaf stamp would work very nicely.

Fold paper into fourths, trace a leaf shape onto it and cut the leaves out taking care not to cut through the folded edges leaving a section intact. Paint, color or decorate anyway you would like. I connected mine together with a strip of tape. I used two sided tape to attach them to the doors.

Click here for a picture of the template I made.Save the image to your computer then print it at full page for a template if you like; turning and adjusting to make sure that the leaves go all the way to the edges of the paper folds on each side. It doesn't print at exactly the right size. When I learn how to make printable PDF's that print the correct template size, I'll add that link here as an update. Anyone out there that can advise me on that?

Linking at these parties.

I have had a lot of content theft lately. If you are reading this post anywhere else but at Family Home and Life then it was used without permission! Copyright© Family Home and Life 2012 All Rights Reserved

Make a Halloween Garland

I made some Halloween garland cut outs for the kids just like we use to make paper dolls or snow flakes by folding paper and then cutting out a silhouette.  We made pumpkins, scarecrows and ghost. 

(Click Here to see the Leaf Garlands we made)

I used regular 8 1/2 by 10 1/2 printer paper and folded it into fourths; drew on my design, and cut them out. My six year old had a hard time with the scare crow cut out but handled the pumpkins and ghost pretty well. I found that placing a small bit of tape in a couple of places helped my girl with cutting it out by keeping the edges closed and lined up.

After they are cut out they can be painted or colored with crayons, markers or colored pencils. Use colored paper instead of white paper for the cuts outs as I did in top photo; orange paper for the pumpkins, then colored the stems.

Tape them together after they are cut out to make a garland as long as you want. 

I'm sure you could use all sorts of things as an inspiration to make your own template. Try cookie cutters, coloring pages, or even clip art. You just need to use a size that will fit on your folded paper going slightly off the edges so it connects to the next cut out after it is cut. Remember to not cut a section on the edges where the folds are.

I had planned to make the templates printable here for you but I'm afraid I couldn't figure out how to make the template, scan it in, turn it into a pdf, and have it print out the rite size. I work HOURS trying to make it and I'm so tired now I'm just giving up. I really wanted to give you the template! If anyone out there knows how to help me please speak up. I hope to be able to have a printable soon so and I will update here when I do, so come back later if you want one ok? 

In the mean time, here is the pic of the template I drew, click and save as image. Then to print, choose full page photo. That gets it pretty close to the right size. Maybe you can save it as an image and print it out to use.

Linking at these parties.

I have had a lot of content theft lately. If you are reading this post anywhere else but at Family Home and Life then it was used without permission! Copyright© Family Home and Life 2012 All Rights Reserved

Paint Free Painting Fun!

I have found a new online love! And the kids love it too! Do you know who Jackson Pollock is? He was the artist who dripped and splattered paint and became famous for it.

I love finding easy and fun art projects for kids and I am always looking for new activities to keep my grandkids busy. So, when I was clicking through all the linkers from Wow Us Wednesday I came across the ArtClub blog. There are some really great art projects there for kids. I saw Jackson Pollock’s name under her Projects list and clicked through to see what she had there and came across this link (below). It is an online painting app and it is a blast! For those of you who don’t want to have the kids make a mess with real paint then you will love this!

When you go to this wonderful site, click at the top where it says ‘Enter JacksonPollock.org’ and immediately you are on a blank painting page. You move your cursor/mouse to splatter and drip the paint. Move it quickly for thin stringy lines or slowly for big splatters and drips. Left click your mouse to change colors. You can go on and on and on.....I don't think the paint ever stops coming. Limit your paintings to only a few colors or click again and agin for many. And, if you would like to save an extra special master piece, right click to print it out. However, I can just imagine all the printer ink you could go through!

I didn’t find a way to save the finished images to my computer so I took photos of them ;) I’m too cheap to use the ink it would take to print one unless it was framing quality! I can make a folder for each child on my computer to 'save' their art work in that I took a picture of so it's not lost; but I don't have to print each one out either. I had a lot of fun with it and only stopped painting because my hand starting cramping. All the images used here were made by me using this painting app. Oops! Didn’t get around to my ‘to do’ list again.  Check it out, Jackson Pollock.org, you will love it too.

When was the last time you had fun just splattering paint freely?

Linking at GRAND Social, these parties and the Thrifty Home.

I have had a lot of content theft lately. If you are reading this post anywhere else but at Family Home and Life then it was used without permission! Copyright© Family Home and Life 2012 All Rights Reserved

Mason Jar Monday, Solar Light for Carol

My friend and neighbor Carol, loved my Mason jar solar lights so I gave her one. She plans to use it on her patio table and I think it will look just fine there.

I hope you all are having a wonderful Labor Day weekend! Stay safe.

Here is the link  how to make them, and of course I put it in the Pantry.

I joined GRAND Social with this post and some of these linky parties.



If you are reading this post anywhere else but at Family Home and Life then it was used without permission! Copyright© Family Home and Life 2012 All Rights Reserved

Spin Painting

We had some fun with paint the other day and I put to use a kitchen tool I haven’t used in years; my plastic salad spinner.

We needed to cut paper rounds to fit into the bottom of the spinner.  I found that the lid to this large bucket of play dough was the right size to trace for paper rounds to fit inside the spinner.  The lid was traced onto the paper with a pencil and cut out.

I used tempera paint and added water to it to thin it out a little; about 2 parts paint to one part water in plastic squirt bottles. 

The paint was dripped or squirted onto the paper and then the spinning began.  

Usually I needed to help hold it down while each child spun the handle. Oh, you will need a towel underneath it as the excess paint will come out through the bottom.

We experimented with dripping the paint on different parts of the paper rounds, middle and sides; and one color on top of another. We found that you can put too much paint on because too much caused the paper to crumple up on one side from the weight of the paint as it spins around.

Left over paint can be stored in the squirt bottles by removing the top, covering with a plastic baggie and then replacing the top.

It was a great activity and kept them busy for a long long time.

If you are reading this post anywhere else but at Family Home and Life then it was used without permission! Copyright© Family Home and Life 2012 All Rights Reserved