Crafts

Halloween crafts for kids

We have been crafting it up this week in the Ring household and I’d like to share a few of what we created! Both crafts are easy to do with little ones and can be done at your own speed.

First up are tissue paper jack-o-lanterns. What I love about this craft is that kids can personalize their pumpkin! My 3 year old Alice wanted to do only an orange outline as it took her longer to grasp the square tissue to glue on her page. My 5 year old Patrick wanted a spooky face and added a long vine to the top.

I started prepping by cutting a few tissue sheets into small squares. These do not have to be perfect as they will get scrunched up by little fingers, so don’t stress about even edges. Each kiddo drew a face onto paper as I cut. Take the square tissue and place it at the bottom of the pencil. Scrunch up the tissue as much or little as you like, and add a dab of glue before attaching it to your jack-o-lantern.

Little fingers can take a bit of time creating each piece because they are using those fine motor skills!

And here are the finished products

Next up is a washi tape pumpkin garland. I gathered halloween washi tape, paper, pen, scissors, and halloween twine. First, I drew two large pumpkin shapes on each paper. The kids grabbed tape and cut in lines larger than what I drew. That way when you cut the pumpkin shape, there’s not a lot of white on your garland.

Once the tape is on, cut into your desired pumpkin shape and add two small holes to string the twine through.

Happy Halloween!

Below are affiliate links to some of the craft supplies I used. Have fun creating!

Easter basket ideas for toddlers

Easter will be here shortly and I wanted to share a few goodies that will be appearing in a few baskets in my home!

I try very hard not to include a lot of candy and junk, but know that it’s fun to enjoy special treats once in a while. I really enjoy finding new books or creative craft supplies and had a great time with the roundup below. The colored pencils are double sided and come in a variety of beautiful spring colors. Of course egg sized chalk are an eggsellent (ha!) addition to any basket. I seriously want the bunny ball for myself and who can resist a classic set of Peter Rabbit books. And funfetti Peeps – I had no idea you were a thing!

Below are affiliate links to items seen above

Washi tape egg garland

I own a lot of washi tape. This is maybe a third of my stash.

We craft a lot with washi tape and since it’s almost Easter and my mantle needed some color, I thought why not create some giant washi tape eggs!

Making a washi tape egg garland is a great craft for toddlers and you can adjust how much help they might need according to their skill level. I started with a few pieces of printer paper and drew two giant egg shapes per page. Then, I let Patrick and Alice decorate each egg as they wanted. Some tape is more difficult to get started with little hands, but most I had they could do themselves.

Once the length is measured, they can cut their tape.

Patiently pushing the tape from one end to the other since Alice likes it very flat!

I then cut the eggs in the pencil tracing I started with, and the kiddos helped me create an order for our garland. We finished with cutting a small hole at the top of each egg and stringing it with colored twine to hang on our mantle.

Below are affiliate links for the items I used to make this craft.

DIY Chalkboard Easter Eggs

Earlier this year, perhaps January or February, I was flipping through the Williams-Sonoma catalog when I came across a very cute egg decorating kit that let you paint your hollowed out eggshells with chalkboard paint. I was immediately in love with this since I throw that paint on anything but then the thought of hollowing out eggs with two toddlers and having them try to decorate eggshells without breaking the whole thing had me feeling a bit nervous. Luckily I remembered almost purchasing wooden eggs to paint for last Easter, and that got me inspired to buy them and paint for the kids to decorate!

I painted the eggs in two batches since they are a funky shape and I didn’t want the paint to stick to the surface where they were drying. I had a few leftover paper cups in my pantry, so I turned those upside down to ensure the eggs wouldn’t roll around.

Once it was dry, I pulled out the chalk, and we started decorating! The best part about these wooden eggs is that they’re perfect for toddler hands. Also, rather than regular paint which I had thought of using last year, we can decorate every day or as often as we want by using chalkboard paint. And oh the ideas are endless when you throw into the mix how many colors of chalkboard paint you can buy, and patterns you can put on with chalk!

Below are affiliate links for those interested in what I used to create chalkboard Easter eggs.

St. Patrick’s Day Crafts

I love making St. Patrick’s Day crafts with my kids because it means time to create lots of rainbows! I’ve put together a selection of our favorite crafts we make to decorate our home.

Toddlers love using anything big to dip and paint – so I used a toilet paper roll squished into a heart shape (same thing we did for Valentine’s Day) and told the kids to repeat that a few times to create a shamrock.

And of course you have to add a rainbow. I thought it would be fun to use q-tips for each color to mix it up. Can you tell Patrick is left handed? 😉

The rainbow shamrock wand Patrick wanted me to help out a lot more. He did a bit with cutting and sprinkling glitter, but wanted me to do most of the work which I was happy to do. As much fun as he has with squishing glitter on paper, he knew he couldn’t do the shamrock and is a perfectionist just like me. I could see him getting frustrated when he first started, so I told him that I’d help squeeze the glue and he got to guide where it went. The best part was he was making it for Alice as a surprise!

We cut out a few hearts and glued them together with ribbon and a straw. We then added glitter and waited for it to dry before giving it to Miss Alice who was only a year old at the time. She really enjoyed shaking as much glitter off as possible for a “glitter party”.

Not only can hearts form a nice shamrock for kids to decorate, but slicing a pepper can also be used as a stamp to create large shamrocks.

It wouldn’t be St. Patrick’s Day without rainbows galore, so we also do a science experiment to see how water helps flowers grow. The kiddos love to watch them change into a giant rainbow on the kitchen table.

One of my favorite crafts as it keeps my kids occupied and quiet for a while is a tissue paper rainbow.

I cut tissue paper into squares and draw a rainbow on a piece of paper. Your kids can decide where they want the tissue to go and dip it in glue with a pencil, and crinkle it up to create a great 3-D effect. Cotton balls for clouds, and voila!

And while your kids are creating, don’t forget to do something for yourself – a double rainbow manicure! I painted my nails green except for my ring finger. I used a small makeup sponge and painted a rainbow directly on it and applied that to my ring fingernail.

When that dried, I applied this to the top.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I’ve included a few affiliate links below (and one above!) for some of the items we used for our crafts. Enjoy!

Valentine crafts for toddlers

I wanted to share a few crafts we’re working on to decorate our house for Valentine’s Day.

For the first, I have my kids paint X’s and O’s along with hearts. Can you tell that orange is Patrick’s favorite color at the moment? This is great practice for letter writing, and I’m surprised at how patient they are when they’re perfecting their hearts. After that dries (so no elbows get dipped in the paint) we attach ribbon and pom poms wherever we want.

We also did another craft that we’ve done the last two years – hearts with toilet paper tubes! We added some thumbprint hearts since that’s easy and fun for kiddos. Making thumbprint hearts was the first Valentine I sent out when Patrick was only a few months old – also incredibly easy way to send Valentine cards to loved ones when you have a baby. And the mess is pretty much non-existent compared to handprint crafts which don’t always turn out the way you want.

Pinch the toilet paper roll at one side, and fold the top into a heart. It takes no time and then have your kids go nuts with making designs, patterns, etc. Once that dried, we added washi tape as we pleased.

I had some heart doilies to attach to Valentines that Patrick was using for his preschool friends, and was trying to think how we could finish using up the last few. I searched through our craft closet, and grabbed some string and the watercolor set.

This craft was my favorite because both kids took their time creating and testing colors. After Valentine’s day is over, I’ll be sure to move this from our mantle to my bedroom. I’m just in love with how cute it is!

I hope you enjoy making with your kids, and I’ve provided affiliate links below for most of the items we used. Happy love day!

Homemade wrapping paper

One craft I love to make with my kids during Christmas is homemade wrapping paper. Last year we were all about stamps and glitter glue while this year we used lots of washi tape.

Kraft paper is an item always in my craft closet as it’s versatile for many projects.

Patrick and Alice help me cut and tape presents and then they decorate!

I also got creative with a few presents for the kiddos

And found some great wrapping paper at Target that matches pretty much all my washi tape!

What are your favorite ways to create and decorate gifts?