Make It Monday: Wind Chime

This week, I thought we might try making a toddler wind chime to hang outside. I got the idea from this post on Pinterest {link here} and had a lot of the materials on hand, so I thought we would give it a try.

To make a little wind chime we gathered up the following supplies:

Various beads

A cup 

Scissors

Small jingle bells

String or thread

We got everything we needed together. I had some different kinds of pony beads at the house already, pre-cut straw "beads", small red jingle bells from a Christmas past, a pink plastic cup, and some pink ribbon. I did end up taping the ends of the ribbon up so that Nora could get the beads on, but I do not suggest using ribbon. I figured I would just use something I already had, but as it turns out string would have been way easier to work with. Also, I would strongly recommend using a paper cup over plastic, but it is all that I had on hand.

First, we cut the ribbon & made some holes. I had six jingle bells but then we lost one so we made five holes at the bottom (rim) of the cup & tied the ribbon to it. We also attached a handle at the top, which was the base of the cup. Keep in mind that the cup will be hanging upside down when finished.

After attaching all the strings, I let Nora put beads on to her heart's content. As it turns out, that wasn't very many. But even so, once she finished putting beads on one of the ribbons, we attached a jingle bell to the very bottom.

The idea would have been to do all five strings, but Nora just wasn't as interested in this wind chime as I would have hoped. Being that my materials were not the best either, I went ahead and left this project for another time. I still think that it would make a fun and easy project for a toddler who is a bit older than Nora!

Make It Monday: Bead & Straw Necklaces

When I was perusing the Internet for fun Fourth of July crafts, I found a cute beaded necklace project that would be perfect for little toddler fingers {link here}. The fireworks art that I also found was quite specific but the necklace idea could definitely translate to any time of the year so over the weekend I took the girls on a little bead hunt at good ol' Michaels arts and crafts store.  

Side note: I worked at Michaels when I was in high school! And at MJDesigns before it went out of business... Anyone?? 

That little nugget of information plus knowing that I'm a kindergarten teacher might leave you less than surprised to know that I can usually navigate a craft store pretttttttyyy well. But... If you've been to any craft store lately {as in, since the history of Pinterest} you know that craft stores are not just craft stores. Craft stores have home decor sections, gardening supplies, DISHES for seriousness sake, and dollar sections for quick gifts. Don't get me wrong - I LOVE THEM. Here's the problem: it took me for.ev.er. to find paper straws. PAPER STRAWS. I swear the "other" craft store had them in the cake section in about 43 coordinating colors but I could not find them anywhere. Meanwhile, Janie now has cherry slurpee down her romper and Nora has the zip tie container open (a random fun find).

Crises averted and I happened upon a tiny little clearance section that had a one single package of fun patterned paper straws. Perfect. Sold. In the cart they go. 

Next stop: plastic beads. I again found a package amongst the rest of brightly colored pony beads on clearance making my total project cost $3, which would include surplus beads for another fun idea down the road. I will never know if there were more than just this one package of straws in that store, but we got what we needed and it was time to get crafty at home. 

For this beaded necklace project you will need: 

Paper straws

Pony beads

Yarn or string

Tape to secure the ends 

Containers to hold your beads, for tiny fingers 

To get started, we cut our straws to make longer skinny beads and put them into one bowl and poured our pony beads into another bowl. I prepared some yarn I had on hand with some tape wrapped around one end for easy threading and a pony bead tied around the opposite end to keep the beads from coming straight off the other side. Then, the girls went to town. 

Janie threading her little pony bead.

Nora did pretty well on her own, threading the little beads. We did learn that the yarn didn't go through the straw beads very well so the tape had to be the same length or longer than the bead itself. We had to cut the straws smaller after we got started. 

Janie needed more help but was able to put the pony beads on by herself if I held the yarn for her. We strung beads until we didn't feel like stringing any more then simply tied them in a knot at the end and accessorized! 

This was definitely a toddler friendly project that was easy to set up, easy to do, and easy to clean up... The best kind of project! Plus, it made the girls happy. Even better!

Make It Monday: Firework Art

In the spirit of the patriotic holiday of the weekend, I wanted to try out a simple craft that I found on Pinterest {link here} that looked perfect for toddlers! Plus, it involved straws and Nora loves straws and we have an entire IKEA package of them at home already so mommy WINS!

I happen to have an over abundance of craft supplies at home which has been coming in handy for the random toddler craft moments that we decide to have around here. My plan was to try and actually plan some craft time throughout the summer so that I could make sure we have what we needed on hand but that requires a trip to the store on occasion and that is not always at the top of my list of desires these days. When I saw this craft and knew that I had the supplies on hand already it made it twice as appealing. 

After Nora & Janie's nap times were over, we got out the supplies that we needed for our fun firework art project: 

Red & blue paint {I just used the little bottles of acrylic that I had on hand}

Paper plates for putting paint in

Straws

Tape

White paper

Wipes for clean-up

We used the tape to stick a handful of straws together and then bent them at the accordion-hinge-thingy that they have for drinking to make a little straw bouquet of sorts. We made two of these so that we would have one for each color.

We then put red paint on one paper plate and blue paint on the other and used the straw bouquet to spread the paint around a bit on each one. The kindergarten teacher in me then modeled for Nora how to take the straws by the long end and "stamp" it onto her paper to make a firework. I let her use the red and the blue as much as she liked, but we kept each color separate the whole time. 

Other than that instruction, she did the rest on her own! I was happy that she started to overlap them a little bit and her work turned out pretty cute.

Happy girl!

I learned mid-paint that Janie needed a little bit more supervision than her slightly older sister. We put one red stamp down on her paper and I had merely turned the other way to put it back and she had her hands all in the red paint on her paper. WHOOPS. Hence, the baby wipes. We did some cleaning and then finished her project AFTER Nora had completely finished hers.

Janie REALLY wanted to hold hers...

We had a good time painting some fireworks!