Keeping My Toddler Busy: Painting

This activity was painting with a purpose. I want to redecorate our main bathroom to be a little more fun and kid friendly, and I wanted some artwork on the wall to go with my ideas. So Cai's job was to create it. 

Supplies: 

Paint- I used acrylic craft paint which meant I had to be more careful about him putting his fingers in his mouth, but you could use non toxic paints and finger paints.

Brush- optional. We started out with a foam brush, then switched to fingers

Pallete- I used the back of the lid for the container I keep my paints in. The nice thing about acrylic paint is that it peels off when it's dry.

Canvas- or paper. Hobby Lobby often had sales on canvas. I happened to already have one that I bought a while ago for another project.

Drop cloth: I cut a garbage bag open and laid it on the floor.

We used a little bit of every color.

 Cai started out with a foam brush.

 He very quickly ended up with some on his face.

 I got frustrated with the brush because he basically smeared it all and made brownish green paint, so we switched to using his finger.

I found it worked best to hold the canvas for him and help direct him to the unpainted areas. Of course, I'm planning on using the painting for something specific. If you were just doing this for fun, there would be no need to direct like I did.

I was really glad we did this on a wipeable floor, because at one point he stepped on the canvas and made a footprint on the floor.

 Our finished work.

 Our finished pallet, a work of art itself.

 Our workspace when we were done.

The babe. He had to stop and examine the first two spots of paint he got on himself. He quickly got over that. A bath followed. :)

Wooden Nativity Set

I thought I'd share the little nativity set I made for Cai for Christmas.

I wanted to have a set that was safe for Cai to play with and that we could set up in his room every Christmas.

 I won't be letting him play with it this year, at least not with complete freedom, but next year, I hope to be able to.

 When we have more little ones, Lord willing, I want each of them to have their own little set to keep in their rooms.

I bought two diy kits from  Hobby Lobby. The first was blank wooden dolls that I painted myself.

The second was a foam build your own stable with a star and square black manger. It came with the foam stable in six pieces, the star and its stick, and three already made peg figurines.

I gave Cai the figurines to pla with, well, Mary and Joseph; Jesus is a bit too small.

Merry Christmas!

Buttons!

Wow! Three posts in one day. A record!

One of my stocking stuffers from Steve this Christmas was clay. It stays moist until you bake it. I used it to make my mom a jewelry stand. Now, clay isn't really my thing, but the other day I came across a blog that said something about making your own buttons. I didn't spend anytime reading it, but it got the wheels turning in my brain, and I thought I'd try it today.

So I started by shaping the buttons and using a needle to make the holes.

Then I baked them. For this particular clay, you bake it for 15 minutes at 325.

Then I dug out some sand paper and sanded down the buttons once they were hard.

I then painted them...

I haven't actually sewn them on yet, but this is what I'm gonna do with the black and red ones. The others I'll probably reserve for slippers I make.

Christmas!

The promised pictures are here. I'm actually giving some of the wine glasses as Christmas presents myself. As soon as I'm done making this post, I'm going to list them on my Etsy. If any of you are interested in purchasing anything in my Etsy shop and live locally, please talk to me directly rather than paying the shipping price on Etsy.

These didn't turn out quite as nicely as I had hoped. It's a little difficult to see, but they are cranberry colored flowers with gold stems and leaves.

I think these are fun. I've done them in both the small tumblers and the claret glasses. It's difficult to see the detail in the pictures, but there's a little outlet at the bottom.

Though you can't see it against the white backdrop (I need to come up with a better plan for taking pictures), There is a small snowflake on the bottom left and top right of each word.

I actually made these over a year ago buy never listed them. I guess they're kind of cute.

I'm hoping I'll actually get some sales with some of these because I don't want them sitting around my house until next Christmas. I guess we'll see. Thanks to all of you who have been commenting and offering your support. It means a lot.

Slippers Galore!

So I finally have made the time to make another blog post. I've been working hard with school stuff and Christmas present making and a little while ago, planning Traci's shower. I hope to post pictures of that soon. Not the shower itself, but the decorations because I'm so proud of how I coordinated everything. For that I must wait until Traci returns so I can commandeer them from her camera.

A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to make some slippers, but not the grandma-ish ones my grandmother makes (go figure), but rather something that's at least cute if not stylish (can slippers be stylish?). So I did a google search for free patterns. It took me awhile to find one that I liked AND understood. Because Oma taught me to crochet, I don't know alot of the terminology; I've had to teach myself most of it through books, etc. Anyway, I found a free pattern by The Little House by the Sea which I really liked, then I embelished it a little with details, different yarns, buttons, and fabric paint on the bottom to prevent slipping. The outcome was a Christmas gift explosion. Below are some of the pictures. I'm thinking about posting them for sale on my etsy shop, but I'm not sure if it's worth it. Opinions? Suggestions?


I hope to also soon be posting some new glasses I've painted, Christmas glasses, as well as pictures of the mugs I made as favors for Traci's shower. I plant to post all of them on my etsy this week and promote them as Christmas gifts. Anyway, stay tuned to see them!