Hopping Clothespin Bunny Puppet Craft For Easter

I just have to say I think this Hopping Clothespin Bunny Puppet  is one of my favorite bunny craft projects ever and is the perfect project to get ready for Easter!! I host a toddler/preschool art group at my house once a week and I was browsing Pinterest looking for some ideas.  I was planning on doing some Easter  Bunny themed projects and then I found this adorable Hatching Egg Craft and the inspiration for this project.  I thought if I attached the bunny on to the clothes pin it would move up and down like it was hopping.  I made a quick sample and it worked perfectly, both Emily and Juliette thought it was the cutest thing ever and I couldn’t wait for the girls to make their own!

To make this project we used a Clothespin , 4 Jumbo Craft Sticks , card stock, wiggly eyes, pom poms, markers, craft foam, green construction paper, glue and a hot glue gun.

First I cut out a bunny shape for each of the girls to decorate.  Juliette decided to color the ears and draw the face with markers.  She also used various other craft supplies to decorate it.  She used a cotton ball for the tail, wiggly eyes and craft foam for the teeth and nose.  She also cut out a carrot from scraps of construction paper.  I loved just watching to see what she created.

Once they were finished with the bunnies, they cut fringe on a strip of green construction paper to use as the grass.

Finally I used hot glue to put everything together.  I glued two of the jumbo craft sticks together to make one longer craft stick.   I did this 2 times so that I had one for the top and one for the bottom.  Then I hot glued these onto the clothespin as you can see in the picture above.  Next, I glued the grass onto the bottom craft stick being careful not to let it stick to the top one.  Then I glued the bunny onto the top craft stick making sure that it didn’t touch the grass.  Finally I trimmed the top craft stick with a scissor so that it ended with the bunny.    We found that the hot glue holds everything together much better and I like that it dries so quickly. They were able to play with their bunny crafts right away!

Juliette was so excited to test out her hopping bunny puppet and she was able to entertain Clara with it for quiet a while!!

Also check out our cute Hand Print Bunny Napkin Rings

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Crafting Kites with Kids

The start of spring and the windy weather we have been having always makes me think of Kites.  We don’t usually have much luck when we try to fly our own kites, but we have had fun crafting some very pretty ones.  When Emily was little we make a Triangle Shape Kite, but this time we tried something a little different.  

To make our kites we used Bleeding Tissue Paper, cardstock, straws, yarn and some colored construction paper.  The girls always love working with bleeding tissue paper, it has a somewhat magical property to it which is always fun.  If you have never tired it before we definitely recommend it.

First, I cut out cardstock in the shape of a Kite and then Juliette got to work with the bleeding tissue paper.

She covered the paper with a little bit of water then placed the pieces of bleeding tissue paper over the water.  They like to brush over them with a little more water to make sure they are sticking down to the paper well.

Once the paper is covered to satisfaction we just set them to the side and let them dry.

Now for the fun part, Juliette pulled off all of the bleeder paper to see the beautiful colored design that was left behind…MAGIC!!!

To put the kites together we cut pieces of colored straws to glue horizontally and vertically across the kite.  Then we glued on a long piece of yarn and construction paper bows for the tail.  Juliette was very excited to help me glue it together with the glue gun.  Since we have had a hard time gluing straws to paper in the past I figured this would be the best way.

  For another windy day project check out the Windsock Craft we made to go with the book The Wind Blew.

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Salad Spinner Art ~ 3D Spring Flowers

After the cold and snowy winter we have had here we are all so excited for the First Day of SPRING today.  To celebrate we had fun making this colorful 3 Dimensional Spring Flowers Project to brighten up the house.  The girls and I always love doing Salad Spinner projects.  It is so much fun to see the globs of paint spread out all over the paper.  When I was trying to think up a fun and different way to make flowers the salad spinner was the first thing that came to mind.  I absolutely LOVE how this project came out and the girls had so much fun working on it today!

For this project we used Water Color Paper, Blue Liquid Watercolors (these are my favorite paints!), Green Striped Plastic Drinking Straws, Cardstock and Washable Kids Paint.  You can use a Spin Art Set if you have one but we chose to use our Salad Spinner today.  I got mine at Ikea for $2.99 and it is amazing!

First, I put a piece of watercolor paper on a backing tray, sprayed it with water to moisten it and then had the girls paint the whole piece with their blue liquid watercolors.

Next, they took turns (since we only have one salad spinner) dropping slightly watered down paint onto a piece of paper at the bottom of the salad spinner.

Once they were happy with how much paint they dropped onto the paper we put the top on and the girls spun away!

I loved watching them help each other with this part.  They took turns holding the salad spinner down while the other spun it.

Juliette checking to make sure it us just the way she wants it.

After they made their spin art, I used a hair dryer to quickly dry the paint (the most amazing tip thanks to Jackie @ Happy Hooligans).  Then I traced around these flower cookie cutters we have and cut them out.

I had the girls trim the bottom off of one of the straw then I glued the flower onto the top part of a bendy straw, this way it could be moved all around and kind of sticks up from the paper to give it a more 3 dimensional effect.  Then we glued the whole straw onto the blue water colored paper.  (I did the gluing for this part since we were using a hot glue gun)

The girls cut fringe on a strip of green construction paper to add some grass and leaves to their flowers.

We had so much fun working on this project, doesn't it get you so excited for SPRING!!

For another cute flower craft be sure to check out our Cupcake Liner Flowers.

This week I'm  linking up to:

 The Kids Co-Op, Show-and-Share Saturday, Link & Learn,  Share it Saturday, Mom's Library, The Sunday Showcase,  Tuesday Tots, Preschool Corner &5K, We Made That.

 

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Penguin Shapes

Juliette made this adorable penguin craft at school while working with squares, rectangles and circles. The body is a white paper plate and the eyes are white reinforcement stickers. Then they used white shiny paper cut into squares and rectangles for the ice. She was so proud of her penguin!!

Recycle Every Day ~ stART

 

Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too!

This week we have been talking about Earth Day and ways that we can help do good things for the Earth.  Emily and Juliette  really enjoyed Recycle Every Day!, by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace.  This is a great story about a little bunny, Minna who needs to make aposter about recycling for school.  She wants her poster to be picked to be in the Community Recycling Calendar.  Her family helps her learn about the different things that they do to recycle each day of the week.  Finally, she is inspired to create her poster. 

I loved the theme of this book, because all of the different ways that Minna and her family recycled are things we can and in many cases already to in our home.  Emily liked seeing the bottle returns since we just recently took a huge bag to our recycling center.  We also use our tote bags when we go food shopping.  

I also love the illustrations in this book the last page has a list of the different recycled papers and materials that are used throughout the book.  We are working on collecting them so that we can use them to make our own pictures.

For today’s project we made a Puffy Paint Earth Day craft.  I got the idea for this project on Pinterest from Itsy Bitsy Learners.  

Emily’s Puffy Paint Earth

These were fun and easy to make, first I cute out the hearts for the girls, then the girls traced and cut out their handprints.  Emily traced hers and Juliette cut out one while I cut out the real ones (she likes to just cute everything into really small pieces, but it was still good practice in using the scissors!)

  Juliette’s Puffy Paint Earth

Next I gave them each a paper plate and some green and blue homemade puff paint.  First they painted the green on to look like the land and I microwaved it to make it puff up.  Then they painted the blue for the water and I microwaved it to make it dry and puff up.

Finally they glued on the hands and heart to show that they love the Earth.  This was a fun project and looks so cute hanging up for Earth Day!

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The linky will be open all week.  Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!

Also, be sure to check out the  stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects.  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.  I have also included a list of all the blogs that participate in stART. 

Paper Plate Easter Basket

 

Emily’s Basket ~ I love the Empty Tomb that she decided to draw all on her own!

We made these cute paper plate Easter Baskets with Emily and Juliette’s Sunday School Class for their Easter Party.  We wanted something that was easy to make and that would hold the treats that they found inside their Easter Eggs after the Easter Egg Hunt.

Juliette’s Basket ~ She loved the stickers and Emily was very proud of how she blended the colors at the bottom to make a great design :)

To make them I cut out all of the paper plates ahead of time.  You will need 2 paper plates per child.  Cut one paper plate in half.  Then cut a half circle out of the inside of the second paper plate, this will be the handle.

We gave the kids crayons, markers and stickers for them to decorate the paper plates with.   Make sure they decorate the back(side that would normally touch the table) of the half paper plate because you are going to staple it to the second paper plate so that they are facing each other.  We had a few kids decorate the front (side that the food goes on) so we couldn’t see their design.    Then staple the half paper plate onto the bottom of the other paper plate to make a pouch.  This was a perfect little Easter Basket for the kids to hold all the candy they found after our Easter Egg Hunt!

stART ~ The Wind Blew

Welcome to stART!  I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week.  Be sure to stop by and visit the different links every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!

Check out the  stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects.  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.  I have also included a list of all the blogs that participate in stART their and on Pinterest. 

This week we read The Wind Blew , by Pat Hutchins.  Emily read this book at school and said she liked it so much that we took it out of the library to read together.  This is a cute story about a big gust of wind that comes through and blows all of the peoples things up and then mixes them all up.  Then it drops them down and goes out to sea.  Emily’s favorite part is when all the things get blown around and then dropped back down.  We thought it was the perfect book to talk about a windy day!

To go along with this book Emily made a windsock to help watch the wind outside.

 

The top picture part of the windsock was colored in by Emily and then laminated.  Then they added green strips of a plastic tablecloth for the streamers at the bottom.  To hold it up is a piece of lanyard, so we can put it outside and the rain will not ruin it!

Hand Print Leprechauns

I love hand print crafts and when I saw these cute Hand Print Leprechauns on Pinterest, I knew I had to try them with the girls.

I painted their fingers with orange paint  for the beard and their palm with peach  for the face and then added a little orange where their hand met their wrist for the hair.   Then they made their handprint of the middle of a piece of white card stock.

To decorate him, they glued a green square and rectangle on the top for his hat and added a black rectangle and a yellow button for the band.

 

To decorate the border we made shamrock finger prints.  Just dip your finger in some green paint and make three finger prints close to each other.

Emily also used some green heart stickers to make shamrocks too.  Then she used a green marker for the stems and gave him a smiling face with a black marker.

 

Emily’s Handprint Leprechaun

 

Juliette’s Handprint Leprechaun

Juliette enjoyed these so much that she talked about making them all day and told everyone we saw about them!

stART ~ 10 Little Rubber Ducks

Welcome to stART!  I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week.  Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!

Check out the  stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects.  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.  I have also included a list of all the blogs that participate in stART. 

This week I was the Special Reader for Emily’s Preschool class and I don’t know who was more excited about it, Emily or myself!   Emily and I picked out 10 Little Rubber Ducks, by Eric Carle to share with her class.  This book  was inspired by a real shipment of bathtub toys that fell off of a container ship and floated to various places.  In this story, 10 Little Rubber Ducks are made in a factory and packaged and shipped.  Then on their way over the water a fierce storm knocks a box overboard and into the ocean.  The 10 rubber ducks float in various directions until the 10th one finds a real duck and her ducklings.  I love the fun way that this book incorporates ordinal numbers, as well as directional words (over, under, north, south).  Emily, Juliette and I think Emily’s whole class LOVED the special squeaking sound that is on the last page of the book, it definitely adds a special touch especially when you are reading it to a group of kids!!

To go along with this book I set up a project for Emily to do when she came home from school.  I love Eric Carle’s illustrations so we made ducks in the ocean inspired by the cover of this book.

I gave the girls a  duck template (click on the picture above for a free download) that I drew on a piece of construction paper.  

First they glued on pieces of yellow tissue paper for the body and orange tissue paper for the beaks.

When they were finished the glued on a blue wiggly eye.

For the water Juliette decided to finger paint the piece of paper.  I gave them a few different shades of blue and some green to make it look like the picture on the cover.

Emily used the same colors, but she decided she wanted to use a brush.

When everything was dry the girls glued their ducks onto the water backgrounds.

Emily’s Little Rubber Duck

Juliette’s Little Rubber Duck

Juliette loved this project and was so proud of it, she asked if she could hang it in her room when it was ready!

stART ~ If You Give a Pig a Party

Welcome to stART!  I am sorry I didn’t post last week, but we were all recovering from a horrible stomach virus and then preparing for Emily’s 5th Birthday Party.  We are back and I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week.  Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!

Check out the  stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects.  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.  I have also included a list of all the blogs that participate in stART. 

This week we have been reading If You Give A Pig A Party, by Laura Numeroff.  The girls love all of the books in the “If You Give A…” series by Laura Numeroff.  This one was especially perfect since we have been busy celebrating Emily’s 5th (Oh my goodness how is she 5 already!!) birthday.  The story line is simple but very cute, it tells  about all the funny things that happen if you give a party for a pig. The book kept both Emily and Juliette engaged in the story and is also wonderful for teaching cause and effect.

For this story we thought it would be fun to make a big and since we had some pink balloons leftover from Emily’s Party we used them, the girls were so excited to do some crafting with a balloon!  It is always fun to see how they react to new or different craft/art supplies :)

  I drew the shapes for the pig on pink construction paper and the girls cut them out.

Then they colored them and added details with crayons.

Next, they taped the ears and snout on to the pink balloon.

 

Finally, and I think their favorite part was using the black marker to make the eyes and mouth.

Emily and Juliette’s Partying Balloon Pigs!!!