Basket of Fruit Process Art

Lemon and Limes find a second life after their prime with this easy and fun process art activity! It incorporates an introduction to weaving for small hands with a lot of painting fun. This activity is great for kids of all ages from Toddlers and Preschoolers, to older kids, like Rolf who is 11 now and still had fun with this!

Ok, first, let that sink in. Rolf is 11 now. When I started this blog, he was a baby. Literally, just a baby. And here we are 10 years later. Still sharing, growing and creating. Let's have a big group hug!

Next, isn't this such a cute process art project for kids? I love that the touchy, smelly parts make it super engaging for little hands. If you have been reading for a while now, you know how I feel about sensory play and  projects! (I love them!) Well, I also love to paint with Harper too!  We had a few lemons and limes in the fruit basket that were a little shriveled up and unappetizing so instead of tossing them out, we put them to work in an art project.

 Supplies: 

A lemon and a lime, sliced in half

A paper plate

Glue

Scissors

A brown bag of construction paper

Yellow and green paint

Directions:

Cut the brown paper into thin strips.

Offer your child one strip and encourage the child to glue it to the paper.

As you can see we used 3 vertical strips, then began the under/over process of weaving the horizontal strips.

Keep the weaving simple, you only need 3 vertical and 3 horizontal strips of paper. If your older child is creating this, feel free to encourage a more complicated weave!

Now comes the fun!

Pour a little paint (about a quarter size drop of each color) on a paper plate.

Offer the citrus fruit to the child, allow them to squeeze the juice out and pick at the seeds if they want to. They will want to because it is fun and it smells good! Just have a towel nearby to wipe their hands! When all of the seed picking and fruit squeezing is finished, encourage your child to press the fruit into the paint, and begin filling the woven basket with fruit!

Remind your artist to use all of the fruit and colors!

Allow to dry and display.

This is fun to make in the summer, when we are making loads of lemonade, so maybe save a few lemons after squeezing for an art project? Or pull this out in the winter, when the kids need a break. It is such a sunny little process art project that they are bound to love it!

Find more art and craft ideas for kids here

Mud Ice Cream

This mud ice cream station is so much fun for kids! It is easy to set up and is the perfect use for those leftover ice cream cones from summer, while serving up a bunch of good old fashioned fun!

I am always looking for great ways to keep my kids playing without turning to their video games.This mud ice cream activity kept them entertained with dramatic play all day. They naturally got filthy dirty which is half the fun! If you do this with your kids, opt for old clothes and shoes and do it outside!

Supplies:

Ice cream cone

Sprinkles

Old dishes like a bowl and spoons to scoop with

Mud

Directions:

Fill up a bowl with mud.

Offer your children spoons and scoops , sprinkles and a few ice cream cones.

You might like to add a few old bowls to the mix for variety.

Allow your child to scoop mud into the cones and dishes and add a generous amount of sprinkles!

Both of my kids were enthralled with this idea. It might have been one of the best activities I have ever set up for them. They laughed, they mixed up mud, served it to each other and got so incredibly dirty. It was wonderful fun!

Both kids agreed that this would be fun to try with snow too! Should we be so lucky this winter to have enough snow to play with!

When playtime is over, simply spray the tools your kids used to play with the hose, and toss the ice cream cones! I love easy clean up activities! If the weather is warm enough, your kids might enjoy a splash in the sprinkler, or the garden hose to clean off a little bit before going inside.

You can find more kids activities here

Play Doh Fine Motor Rainbows

Pine Cone Rescue

12+ Tree Crafts for Kids

 Fall is near and I am super excited about crafting with my kids! We love to display our work around the house and add a festive touch to our decor.  If you are looking for some cute as can be ways to craft trees with the kids, you are in the right spot! i found 12+ Tree Crafts for Kids to share with you.

Click through the links to check out the tutorials. There are some really fun ideas on this list; for all ages and skill levels. 

       

Puzzle Piece Tree
Torn Paper Trees
Autumn Splatter Trees
Leaf Stamped Trees
Dish Brush Trees
Twig Paintings
Pumpkin Seed Tree Art
Hand-print Fall Tree Project
Fingerprint Autumn Trees
Autumn Button Branch
Fall Tree Sun-catchers
Tree Silhouette Place-mats

Which of these ideas do you think your kids would love the most? If you have a tree craft I would love to hear about it in a comment! 

You can find all of our favorite kids crafts for fall here

11 Apple Crafts to Make with the Kids

Apple Tree Window Clings

Paper Apple Craft

Sensory Party in a Bag

Sensory play doesn't have to be complicated or messy to be fun! This sensory party in a bag is the perfect way to engage little hands without a mess, or a lot of complicated supplies.

We love sensory play! When Rolfie was a little boy we discovered the world of sensory bins and have never looked back.

I used to think that sensory play had to be complicated to be fun. After about 7 years of making bins and finding way to engage the senses via play, I realized that sometimes less is more.

This sensory party in a bag is a great example. Sometimes when the kids are overwhelmed by their emotions I like to pull out some basic supplies and create an invitation to unwind.  Summer break can be rough, especially if you are stuck with your sibling all day long. After a day of arguing, I surveyed my craft cabinet and pulled out some simple supplies to create this easy sensory bag. It gave both kids a chance to take a break from each other and get their selves together.

Supplies:
Baby oil gel
A zipper seal bag
Dyed rice
Confetti

Directions:

Pour about 2 tablespoons of baby oil gel into a zipper seal bag.

Add a handful of dyed rice to the bag.

Add some confetti.

Seal.

*If your child has "rough hands" you might wish to reinforce the bag with duct tape along all 4 sides to keep it mess free.*

Invite your child to squish the bag and take a few moments to enjoy the cool sensation of the gel in the bag with the texture of the rice, as well as the visual appeal of the sensory party in a bag.

You can find all of my sensory play ideas here.

Reader favorites include:

Birthday Cake Sensory Bin

Sushi Bin

Ladybug Craft

Paper, glue and a few fun craft eyes come together to create a cute ladybug craft your older kids will LOVE to make!

Partner, sponsored or affiliate links may be included!

I made these with Rolf, who is 8. We quickly discovered that a hot glue gun is a necessity for creating these!  

Otherwise, the supplies are quite common, making these perfect for a quick afternoon craft, or a way to make something worth bugging out over on a day that is maybe rainy, or too hot to get out and play! 

Supplies

• 1 sheet of construction paper, red
• 1 sheet of construction paper, black
• 2 craft eyes
• Hot Glue Gun
• Scissors
• Black marker

Directions

• Cut a circle in the size of your choice from the red paper.  With the leftover paper, cut 4 strips that are about 1" longer than the circle you just made. This will be your body.
• Fold all of the ends of red strips over, then begin gluing them on the red circle. Glue the "tabs" you just created by folding ends. As you can see, I started with one strip going across the circle, then I continued until the strips had formed a shell.
• Cut an oval-ish shape from the black paper, glue this under the shell you just made to form the head.
• Add 2 craft eyes to the head.
• With a marker, carefully add black dots.
• Allow to dry, and you have a fun 3D Ladybug!

You might also love this other fun 3D Ladybug that we made a while ago!

If you are looking for even more buggy fun, we made ladybug valentine cards . Don't forget about our B is for Butterfly craft and coloring page too!