Arts-N-Crafts: Paper Wreath

We had fun tearing up the paper into tiny pieces. :)

I stumbled upon this art project in Pinterest (don't you just love this site) a few weeks ago. I've been meaning to do it for our weekend bonding time but I only found time this weekend. It was the perfect tantrum tamer after the kid woke up from her afternoon nap. I think holiday colors are perfect cheer givers. When the kid saw the red and green paper, she immediately went down on the floor and told me she's ready to do our project.

I miss our arts and crafts sessions. Last year, we did a lot of projects during the weekends. But this year has been insanely busy, for the three of us - me most especially - we're lucky if we can really squeeze in one project in a month. I know the kid misses those too but she contents herself with getting me to color a page of a coloring book with her. Some days I would bargain to just share 1 page with her as I'm already hurrying to go to a meeting. Sigh.What did I get myself into?

So anyways, back to our paper wreath it struck me the minute I set my eyes on it because I had all the materials on hand. It needs the following:

• 1 paper plate
• red and green paper (I used a mix of art paper, japanese paper/tissue paper, and construction paper)
• glitter glue (I had gold on hand)
• white glue

tools:

• cutter/scissors

Procedure:

• Make a hole on the center of the paper plate. I followed the dent on the plate and left the side where the corrugated design is.

• Tear the green paper into tiny pieces (to whatever size you desire). 

• Spread glue around the wreath base (i.e. paper plate donut) and start sticking your torn pieces of green paper. Layer them till you get your desired thickness (we did 3 layers, i think)

• Take about 4 inches wide x 8 inches long red japanese/tissue paper and make a crease in the center (by pinching) to make a ribbon. Attach a 2 x 4 inch at the back of the ribbon for the ribbon tail.

• Dot with glitter glue. And set aside to dry.

• Punch a hole on your wreath and attach a string so you can hang your wreath. 

• Hang in your fave spot and Enjoy!!!!

Arts-N-Crafts: Choo-Choo Train From Paper Tubes

I couldn't remember where I first saw this project but this has been in my to-do list for sometime now. Yesterday, I finally made the time to do it with Maia. It didn't turn out to be like the picture below but it was good enough for Maia to play with so it didn't really lose it's real purpose :)

Photo Source
The Project Was Supposed To Look like This

Materials We Used:

• paper tube 
• egg tray carton 
• poster paint
• paint brush
• glue
• cotton
• tape
• scissors
• cutter

Kalat starts ... NOW!

How We Did It:

1. Cut the egg tray carton in half (keep the other half for future projects)

2. Assemble your painting materials (I usually dilute the poster paints so I keep clean water on hand)

3. Turn egg tray upside down (bottom facing up) and paint that part with your desired colors. Set aside to dry when the tray is fully coated with paint. Do the same for the paper tube.

4. Ask an adult to cut two half an inch circles from your spare paper tubes. Form into smaller circles about 1.5 inches in diameter

5. Stick the wheels under the two opposite sides of hollowed part of the egg tray carton.

6. Using quick drying glue, stick the painted paper tube unto the egg tray carton. 

7. Stick some cotton on top of the paper tube to represent a smoke stack. 

Tadah! You're done. Enjoy. :)

Here's what our project turned out to be:

Arts-N-Crafts: Family Of Bunnies (Recycling Tissue Paper Tubes)

The day before we left for our Antique trip, Maia and I made a nice, easy project out of tissue paper rolls. I got the idea from (yes!) Pinterest and we just tweaked it to make use of the materials that we had on hand. The general idea was -- really -- to make use of the paper rolls that were already fast collecting dust in Maia's (future) bedroom-turned-storage-room. 

I showed Maia what our project was supposed to look a bit like and since she's had this thing for bunnies and rabbits for a few months now (she's been bugging us to get her a rabbit for a pet), she got really ecstatic about it. In fact, she got too excited she even took out all of the books she had about rabbits. I guess, she wanted to be more inspired so the more surrounded she is by bunny-related items, the better. 

I got about 5 tissue paper rolls from my stash. I surveyed my craft box for other stuff that we can use and eventually came out with this list:

- poster paint/tempera paint/watercolor

- pompoms

- used cardboard (this one was from a package of wooden clippies that Maia and I used for our picture hanger project)

- a pair of scissors

- white glue

- googly eyes (about 5 pairs)

- paint brush

- construction paper/scratch papers

- a few sheets of old newspaper 

- cotton balls

- felt fabric (for the nose)

First I asked the little girl how many bunnies she wanted us to make. She told me she wanted to make a family of bunnies. So I painted 2 brown, and cut about 2/3s of the other remaining two tubes and painted them orange and white. We set those aside to dry for about 10 mins.

Then I cut out ears from the scratch papers (2 pairs of big ones and 2 pairs of smaller ones). Then I also cut our 2 big pink noses and 2 small pink noses (heart-shaped). Maia also requested me to cut the remaining unused tubes into smaller pieces so she can paint them green to use them as grass. We also painted the last tube brown and I cut out a cloud shaped piece from the used cardboard to use as tree leaves. I painted it green and dotted it with yellow (according to Maia all trees have fruits so the yellow part represents the fruit). 

I'll just let the pictures speak after this. When we got back this afternoon, the entire thing is still intact so the little girl still intends to play with her bunny family tomorrow. 

lined the floor with used newspapers because i know it's going to get a little messy

majority of the materials we used

down on her knees. hard at work????

tadah! finished product :))

see we even made carrots for them to enjoy. and maia cut out these cardboards and stuck them on the paper herself.
they are apparently grass for the bunnies to roll and sleep on. 

Art Attack: Maia's Recent Drawings

Sharing some of Maia's drawings over the weekend.

Her drawings have details now. Do you see the trees and Mr. Sun in here? 

Too much exposure to Barney. Ugh.

This is one of my favorites. She was telling me this is a drawing of her and her pet stuffed monkey Georgie.
Apparently, the rails on the bottom are train tracks and they're riding the MRT going to Araneta to watch Disney On Ice. Hahaha.