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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stART~ Snow Day

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. 

Emily took the book Snow Day, by Lynn Plourde out on Library Day and we really enjoyed reading it together.  Even though we have not had any snow yet the girls can’t wait for it to come.  This book is written to tell the story of a snow day from the moment a child rubs the sleep out of their eyes to when they snuggle up to a good book at the end of a fun day in the snow to get ready for bed.  It is written in a poetic form that is fun to read and flows really well as the story of this special snow day unfolds.  

For our art project we talked about some of the things we can’t wait to do once it finally (hopefully at least once!) snows here.  After discussing our favorite things to do in the snow the girls were given a piece of paper, crayons and oil pastels to draw a picture of their favorite thing about the snow. 

When they were all finished we added the snow!  The girls used white paint that was mixed with glue and a q-tip to dot or spread the glue onto the paper. 

Finally they added the sparkling finishing touch…GLITTER!

Emily making snow angels in the snow

Juliette going sledding ( she drew this picture all by herself )

stART ~ Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf

 

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 is a work in progress so if you have participated and would like to be added to the list, leave me a comment and let me know :0)

This week we read Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf, by Lois Ehlert.  This is a great book that explains the life cycle of a tree.  As always Lois Ehlert’s textural collages are stunning.  As we are reading we love seeing all the different items that are used to create the pictures. 

We actually decided to read this book after Emily came home with her Art Project from school.  They made leaf prints and it reminded me of the cover of the book.  

We actually did leaf prints at home with our art group at the beginning of autumn too.  They are so much fun to make and even the littlest kids (15 months old) were able to get involved and make great prints!

  Now it is your turn!! Click below to link up a book you read and the project or activity that you did to go with it.

stART ~ Wake Me in Spring

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.

This week we have been enjoying all of the wonderful things that Spring has to offer, like flowers, trees blooming and some nice weather.  Emily also enjoyed reading Wake Me In Spring! , by James Preller.  In this book a bear is so tired and just wants to sleep (hibernate) all winter, but his friend mouse wants him to stay up and play.  He tries to convince him to stay up by telling him all the great things that you can do in the winter.  Bear says that he will not miss any of those winter things, but will miss his friend.  He tells him to wake him up in Spring when the flowers bloom.  After reading this cute story, we talked about all the fun things that we did in the winter (built snowmen, had hot chocolate) and then we talked about all the fun things we do in the Spring.  Emily loves the flowers so we made special flower pictures to go along with this book.

When I was over my grandmother’s house I noticed this really old pack of mini baking cups and she said that I could take them.  I knew they would be perfect for a project and we put them to use right away…to make Spring Flowers!

I gave Emily all of the supplies and we each worked on our own flowers.  After watching what I did she made her own.  It was so much fun to create together.  I love seeing how she tries to make more realistic pictures all on her own.   

She used a large baking cup and a small baking cup to make the flower.

Then she added construction paper for the grass, sun and leaves.  A popsicle stick for the stem. Do-A Dot markers and bug stickers helped to bring the picture to life!! Emily’s Spring Flower

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Sensory Fun ~ Fall Fabric Leaves, Popcorn and Split Peas

I filled our sensory tub up with a half a bag of popcorn kernels that were in the cabinet for years.  (I bought a fresh bag and couldn’t just through these out.)  I also added a bag of split peas and a bunch of fall fabric leaves and flowers.  I found a bunch of them while I was going through our fall decorations.  I didn’t have a use for them anymore so I thought they would be great for a fall themed sensory tub.

Juliette was able to test it out while Emily was taking a nap.  She loved using the scoop I found at my Grandmother’s house while helping her clean out some cabinets.

   She also liked just feeling the leaves and throwing them around the tub and then the floor.  There was quite a mess once she was finished, but she had a great time doing it!

stART ~ We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt

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.

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.

This week the leaves from the huge maple tree in our backyard have blanketed our backyard.  Emily and Juliette had a great time playing outside in the leaves, looking for leaves of all different colors and sizes.  I have to admit even I was enjoying hunting for the perfect leaf!  So, this week we really enjoyed reading We're Going On A Leaf Hunt, by Steve Metzger.  This story is patterned after the song We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, which Emily knows and enjoys so it was fun to see how this book reminded her of it.  The children in the story go hunting for all different types of leaves until they meet a skunk and have to go all the way back home.  This is a fun book to read and both Emily and Juliette enjoyed listening to it!

To go along with this book we went on our own leaf hunt.  Emily, Juliette and I all went in the yard looking for leaves.  After that we brought them in to make a leaf collage.

Emily started by painting the background of her paper with paint.

  Then she glued her favorite leaves on to make a collage.

Emily’s finished leaf collage

Friday Art Group

Popsicle Stick Christmas Tree Magnet and Red and Green Magic Tape Painting

Today it was just the two girls again, but we still had a great time working on our Christmas Themed Art Projects.

We started with Play Dough Free Play and cookie cutters.  The girls did a great job sharing some of the special tools too.

These Popsicle Stick Magnets came out really cute.  I have seen the popsicle stick Christmas Tree Ornaments on many different blogs.  But, while I was getting my supplies ready I saw clothespins in with the popsicle sticks.  I decided to use them as the base for the tree.  After we finished the project, I told my friend we could clip them onto the tree, or if we had magnets use them to hold papers.  So, I dug through my supplies and found some magnet strips.  We will be making a few more of these for Christmas Presents!!

I hot glued the popsicle sticks to the clothes pin before we started.

The girls used a sponge that was cut into smaller pieces to sponge on some green paint.

Next, they used glitter glue to decorate the tree and glue on sequins and spangles. 

We used ours to hold Emily’s other art project!

The girls were really excited to play so we got right to our next project.  I thought this would be a big hit, since they both love painting however after only a minute or two they were both ready to go into the other room and play. 

   The girls put pieces of painters tape onto white construction paper and then painted with red and green paint.  After it dried we pulled of the blue tape to see the design that was left!

Emily’s finished project.

Friday Felt Fun!!

Build A Snowman Felt Board

I made Emily a new felt board activity (minus the felt board, I’m still working on that part.  However, my new trays worked out really well for this).  Emily had a great time dressing up  her new snowman.   As she was working on it I thought it would be fun to add some different color accessories.  Next time she will get to choose which color jacket, mittens and scarf he will wear!

Friday Art Group

Puffy Paint Ghosts and Colorful Fall Trees

The girls had a great time getting messy while making our Puffy Paint Ghosts.  When I saw this idea  on No Time For Flashcards I had to try it during art group.

   

 

 

These colorful fall trees were a great painting project!  I cut out a cloud shape from the top of each piece of card stock and  also cut different tree shapes out of brown construction paper before art group.

The Girls glued on the brown construction paper to look like tree branches.

We taped the card stock with the cloud shaped cutout over the top of the tree and the girls sponge painted away with different fall leaf colors. 

Finally we took the stencil off to reveal their beautiful fall trees!