Craft Project: Tie-Dye Spring Flowers

My husband has been traveling more this past month than he usually does. He's usually gone a few nights a month here and there. He has been HOME ONLY for a few days this month. So I've had to stay on my toes, especially on the weekends (when the kids are usually doing fun "Daddy" activities) and everyone is home together. Last weekend, we worked on two projects. For the first one, we were inspired again by Mom to 2 Posh Lil' Divas. What I like about her blog so much is that many of her activities are SIMPLE, yet fun! Really, we just revamped the Tie-Dye Easter Egg project for spring.
We created flowers from coffee filters using Do-a-Dot Markers.

My older daughter (the two left flowers) followed the same steps as the Mom to 2 Posh Lil' Divas project by folding the coffee filter in quarters and using the Do-a-Dot markers to create a tie-dye effect. My younger daughter decided to just create hers without folding them. I think each of them turned out great!

Here they are in our art room window:

I used Crayola window crayons to draw in the leaves and stems. It really helps to make our window bright and cheery!

I had cut out the flower shapes for the girls because I had an idea for what to do with the outer ring left from the cut flower shape. I have an uncle who is very ill at the moment. I decided it would be fun to send him some of the girls' artwork to cheer him up. So we used the outside filter rings to create large flowers on construction paper. First, the girls decorated the rings with the Do-a-Dot markers.

Then they glued them on the paper and decorated the inside of the flowers and around the outside to make pretty spring pictures.

Craft Project: Tie Dye Easter Eggs

We created these super bright and fun Easter eggs for our deck window in the last couple weeks!

I combined two different ideas I saw on Pinterest to do this project. One from The Chocolate Muffin Tree where they made "tie-dye" Easter eggs (they used washable markers and sprayed them with a water bottle--a super fun idea!) and the other from the Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas blog where they made hearts with the same technique we used below.

Just take a coffee filter and fold it in half or quarters. Use Do-a-Dot markers to make a pattern.

Even my littlest guy could do this project!

The girls used egg-shaped cardboard cut-outs I made to make the eggs on the coffee filters.

 Here they are drying!

And voila! Cut-out and hanging on our window. Do you see the little bunny one there with the striped ears? Isn't that cute? My daughter decided to use two smaller egg tracers and then added a face below them. So creative!

The only tip I might add to this is that the dot markers didn't go all the way through the coffee filter when we folded it in quarters. We had to go over the pattern a couple times. So I suggest either folding it just in half or not folding it at all. This project could definitely be used for just about any shape/holiday! My 6 year old especially loved this one and even made more of them with her friend during a playdate.

Toddler Art Activity: Free Art

Finally, a post that is not related to Pinterest! LOL! When I reorganized our craft supplies, I made sure to put together this little art caddy for my 2 year old. I wanted something that would be super easy to pull out, keep organized and put away quickly. I also didn't want to overwhelm him with two many things so I kept it simple: Dot markers in basic colors, some mini stampers, Tadoodles, and a few crayons. 

The Tadoodles stampers are fun and easy to use for little ones. And funny, the parrot sort of looks like a red Angry Bird--my girls noticed this. ;-)

Art fun is new for Kellan. His not a docile kid at all so I've been leery about anything "messy" with him because this kid can make a mess with anything that isn't even remotely messy and then run like the wind so that the mess follows him around the house. So to hand him something that he could really make a mess with, it's just asking for trouble! ;-) But he's doing all right with this so far. He is pretty good at picking a few supplies at once to use and when he starts dumping the supplies out instead of coloring, that's when I tell him art time is over.

He absolutely LOVES the Do-a-Dot Markers! Those are definitely his go-to art supply. They are so fabulous. Their large size makes it easy for him to hold.

And even though he isn't able to get the twist cap off by himself just yet, he works on his fine motor skills because he tries to put the cap back on. He can get the cap back on the top, then he hands it to me to twist.

 

Sometimes, when he gets bored with the art supplies I pull out his sticker pad from Melissa and Doug. And that will get him to engage for a few more minutes. I show him the different pages and he points to what he wants me to pull off for him. Here's one of his masterpieces: