Just a thought...

When I talk to other mom's about what we do to keep our kid's busy, there has been something in particular that bothers me. We do arts in our house every day, sometimes a couple times a day. Even if it is as simple as scribbling in the coloring book or as extravagant as decorating cookies. I make sure that my children get to exercise their creativity and spend a good part of their day using their imagination.

Here is what bothers me. I often hear mom's say, "we don't really do arts and crafts. I'm not creative."

Mmmmkay.....

.. And what about your kids? Are you just assuming that they aren't creative either?

Have you ever met a kid who didn't like to color? Or paint? Or eat use glue? I didn't think so.

Kid's love to create. They want to explore, invent, pretend. They want to be told that the piece of paper in front of them is all theirs, so go to town. Draw what you want, use the colors you want, get messy and don't stop until the child is happy. And mom, tell them how beautiful it is (even when it looks like they might have just barfed up lunch and called it paint). Encourage them to exercise that creative right side of the brain.

You don't have to be an artist to let your kid be crafty.

In fact with majority of my posts, you don't have to be an artist at all. You just have to have the drive to try  it.

Click here to read 10 ways how kids can benefit from arts and crafts...

And here for how it helps the child's development...

... and if that isn't enough go here to read about how it can help them in school.

EVERY kid is an artist. And as the parent, it is up to you to help them explore their creativity.

Faux Flower Headboard

So I found a super cute idea on pinterest (big shocker there) that I know I just had to do for Morgan. First I should start with the backstory to Morgan's bed. We bought a whole Ashley's Furniture bedroom set for her. I'm talking the whole shabang. Nightstand, chest, dresser, mirror, footboard, headboard and siderails. Only thing missing was the twin mattress and box spring for her new bed. We decided to wait until taxes to get those. Well my mother came to visit here in Germany for Morgan's second birthday and we set up our spare queen bed in Morgan's bedroom for her to stay in while Morgan slept with us (a king bed still isn't big enough when you have a toddler that throws her 25 lb body around at night). Once my mom left Morgan was obsessed with the "big bed" in her room and we just decided it would be easier to let her have it. Now we have a queen bed in her room with no headboard and a twin headboard, footboard and siderails in the garage, waiting to be sold. And now we need to get her a bedding set. She is using her twin comforter and I can't stand seeing the mattress.

This was the easiest, cheapest, cutest solution and I absolutely love it.

Probably more than she does.

The Inspiration  <-- Go to that site to see where  I got the idea and a million other room designing ideas.

This is my version. My inspiration used artificial (silk I'm assuming) flowers for the decor. I, on the other hand, have limited resources to inexpensive flowers so I decided to make my own.

Am I the only one who is totally loving the little blue bird off to the right?

I started by outlining a tree. I highly recommend you use a pencil to draw a tree instead of jumping right into the paint. It's nice to be able to step back and see where you need to add branches, take away, make it skinnier, etc. Then it took me a whole thirty minutes to paint in the tree. Did I mention this was a super quick project? Kinda wish it took longer because I was really enjoying myself.

The flowers and blue bird were by freehand.

Now these are some fun coffee filter flowers. I made a load of these for Morgan's second birthday party and had them all around.

To make one flower you will need three coffee filters, a bowl of water, wax paper and a washable marker. Make sure the marker is washable! Color the edge of the coffee filter. Doesn't have to be perfect because it is going to spread anyways. I did about 1/8 inch thick.

Dip the entire edges of the filter in water. You don't have to hold it there and soak it. Just dip in an edge and rotate it around until the part you put marker on has been dipped.

Lay the filters on a sheet of wax paper. The water will run as it sits there and the marker will spread on it's own. It won't look perfect right away, but as it sits it will start to spread. You can see that the filter on the far left was the first one I did as the water is moving more to the center than the one on the right.

Let them dry completely (you don't want to work with damp filters).

Pinch the center of one filter and crinkle and fluff it so it doesn't look so stiff. Place a second one on the outside and pinch it in the center as well so you are holding two, one inside the other. Do that with the third as well. For the time being I took a mini rubberband to hold together the pinched "stem" of the flower. Later I pushed a nail through all three and nailed it to the wall.

I also made smaller cupcake liner flowers.

Flatten four liners and stack them together. Push a nail through the center. Once it is nailed onto the wall, pinch and fluff the liners individually until you get a pretty carnation.

The flowers will eventually collect dust. A simple feather duster should do the trick. I would recommend dusting them before they look incredibly dirty, that way it doesn't build up and become to difficult. Though, it's not like it will cost you much to replace them.

Finger Paint Canvas

So I have been missing for a little bit. My husbands mother came to visit and boy am I grateful that she came when she did! Corey had to go back to the states for school and Morgan got sick.. and stayed sick. Kim, my mother in law, was kind enough to watch baby brother while big sister was lugged back and forth to the hospital. So if you are reading this Kim, I seriously can't thank you enough for making those two weeks that much easier for me!

Now on to the fun stuff. I especially liked this craft today because my 5 month old son took part in it. And boy did he have fun. I'd say more fun than my two year old. However, she is a neat freak and paint all over her hands- yeah, not gonna happen.

I love how different they look. Sam just went for it, couldn't get enough paint between his fingers. Morgan just wanted to stay in one spot. I had to keep turning her canvas to get her to leave a corner. As if she was scared to get dirty.

You will need a canvas (I used 12x12), acrylic paint, sticker paper and painters tape. If you can find the sticker letters that are in a font that you like, then please, go for it. It will save you loads of time.

For Morgan's I used the painter's tape for her initial. For Sam's I picked a font on Word and printed out an 'S' on the sticker paper then cut the letter out. I printed out their names on the sticker paper as well and cut it out. That is when the letter stickers would have come in handy!

I decided to do the first layer of paint. I dipped a crumpled up paper towel and dabbed the canvas. I also wanted to make sure each layer dried before adding the next color. I wanted the three colors I chose to actually look like those colors and not a splatter of brownish/gray.

Then I just let the kids go for it. Feel free to "oooh" and "ahhh" over their undeniable cuteness.

Make sure the paints dry completely before moving on to the next step.

Peel the stickers off carefully. Sometimes the acryclic paint wants to come with, especially if it isn't dry all the way.