Winter Playdough

Yesterday, Little O woke up with the beginnings of a cold. Ugh. Pete and I decided we better play it safe and stay home so we didn't spread it to all our friends. We needed something to do that would keep Little O quiet and happy. Playdough, of course!!

I whipped up a batch of our favorite no-cook playdough. I decided to keep it white this time since we're playing with all things winter right now (winter sensory bin, snow man counting, snowflake sorting, etc.). So with our white playdough, we decided to make snowmen. I had a whole bunch of accessories to decorate our snowmen up in my craft room. Buttons, sequins, fabric strips, pipecleaners, beads, jingle bells, googly eyes, and mini bows. I brought them down and introduced them to Little O.

I made a traditional snowman (with a bow because I wanted her to be a girl), Pete made a snowmonster.

Olivia made her own version. She used googly eyes at first, but switched them out for buttons later. She also used some brown pipe cleaners and skewered her snowman. They sort of look like arms!

 After a while, we started talking about all the animals that live in the snow. Olivia is obsessed with anything animal lately (well, always, really). So I made a polar bear. She said and signed bear. And Pete made a penguin.

We had so much fun as a family with this activity. I've kept all the accessories downstairs so we can create more snow animals with white playdough this week. I'm also thinking we should make pretend sugar cookies and decorate them with sequins and glitter.

Olivia's Birthday Party

I've started planning Olivia's birthday party this week. I can't believe she's going to be two next month. Amazing. People say they grow up so fast, but you really don't know what that means until the baby you swear you just brought home from the hospital is getting ready to turn two!

Right now, Olivia is really into arts and crafts. She loves anything that involves crayons, markers, colored pencils, stamps, stickers, playdough, etc. So, this year, I'm planning an art party for her birthday. I've rented out a community room here in town, and I've been furiously planning what activities to include. Some of her friends are arty like she is, and some of them haven't had much experience with art supplies beyond crayons.

I'm planning three different activity tables. The first one will be for paper crafts, including crayons, markers, stamps, and stickers. A playdough table is also a must. I'm going to make homemade playdough using this recipe because some her friends still like to put things in their mouths. I'm planning to include a sign that the playdough is safe to eat, so parents can relax a little. I'll provide the usual playdough toys and cookie cutters, and I think I'll also include some other sculpting materials such as pipe cleaners and feathers. The third table will be a painting table. I toyed with the idea of making a no-mess baggie finger print activity, but then I decided that they can do that anywhere. Olivia's party should be the real deal. I included information in the invitation to wear art clothes, and I'm planning to make each child a smock as their party favor.

I've already started the invitations. They are so cute (if I do say so myself). I was inspired by an invitation on Etsy. I created the palette on my computer and printed it onto brown card stock that sort of resembled cardboard. Then, instead of glitter paper cut into paint blobs, I used glitter glue and painted on the blobs myself. I had the glitter glue on hand from the Toddler Christmas Tree I made, and I didn't have any glitter paper. I only used stuff I had on hand for the invitations, so they cost me nothing. In fact, I have enough postage leftover from Christmas cards that I won't have to buy more. Love saving money!

I'll post pictures of the invitations when I'm done. I'm really pleased with how they are turning out. Last year's were really cute too. I'm not sure which I like better. I did forget to include a date for RSVPs this year, but I think it will be OK.

Finger Paint

Today I decided to try a new art project: Finger Painting. I scoured some of my favorite blogs and found a recipe for an edible (though not too tasty) finger paint recipe on Pounds 4 Pennies. The best part was that I had all the ingredients on hand. I bet if you look, you do too!

Here's what you need:
1/2 cup corn starch
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups cold water
a few drops of food coloring

I added all the ingredients (except for the food coloring) to a small pot and cooked it on medium heat for about 10 minutes. I stirred it occasionally with a wire whisk.

 After 10 minutes, it still seemed really soupy. So I bumped the heat up, and it came together REALLY quickly after that--maybe took about 30 seconds more. Then it was a thick, goopy glop.

I pulled it off the heat, and separated it into three small plastic containers to cool. 

Once they were cool, I added a few drops of color to each container. I decided that to start we would only use three colors: red, blue, and yellow. I'd let her explore the paint and mix her own secondary colors. I know she's a little young to get the idea of color mixing, but three colors seemed like a good amount for our first try.

I decided to taste test this finger paint since most likely Little O will put some in her mouth. It's nontoxic, since it's made with baking ingredients, but it doesn't taste very good. It's a little sweet, but I don't think she'll be tempted to eat it (just explore the texture a bit).

I can't wait to give it a try when she wake up from her nap this afternoon.

Some extensions on this could include (I can't wait to try these this week with our new finger paints!):

Color Mixing

Print Making

No Mess Plastic Bag Painting

Outside Full Body Painting

Found Object Painting

Linked to:

Ginger Snap Crafts

Delightful Order

Shaken Together

Positively Splendid