Easy Butterfly Craft

This easy butterfly craft is perfect for toddlers and preschoolers. It makes good use of common household items for a fun craft that really takes flight!

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Harper and I love to craft together! We try to make something every day. It is good for her development as a preschooler, and it is a great way to spend time together, expressing creativity.

This is one we came up with simple supplies that we had at home. I love crafts that don't need special supplies! This easy butterfly craft is a great example of gathering inspiration from the world around you.


To make this cute craft you will need:
Scissors
A Paper Plate
Glue
Paint {We used Kwik Stix }
An empty toilet paper roll
2 squiggly eyes

Have your child cut the paper plate to become wings. Use scissors your child is comfortable with. They are never too young to develop scissor skills which are so super important when it comes time for school!

Next paint the toilet paper roll as a body. We used Kwik Stix because they are easy to handle and clean up. They are also super fast drying!

Paint the paper plate.

Glue the painted toilet paper roll in the center.

Add the eyes and paint on a small smile.

This was easy and fun to make with Harper. She liked getting to cut the wings and paint. I helped with the hearts at her request.

You might also enjoy this easy paper plate lion craft.

Shiny Happy Pumpkin Craft

I know it is early into the month of September. I get it, it is still summer technically, but you guys... I can't resist making some awesome pumpkin crafts with my kids!

Today, we were ready to jump into the fall theme of things, so we surveyed our craft supplies and made these Shiny Happy Pumpkins! My almost 3 year old loved these large sequins and thought they were beautiful! I have to admit, this is the shiniest fall craft we have ever made, they do look happy too!!

To make a shiny happy pumpkin you will need:
A Paper Plate
White School Glue
Black Construction Paper
Scissors
Large Sequins in Brown, Burgundy and Orange

Apply glue to the paper plate, be generous!

Start filling in the plate with the large sequins. This is a great fine motor activity for kids of all ages! The sequins stick together and working them apart is great for little fingers!

As you fill in your plate, cut eyes and a mouth for your shiny happy pumpkin. With glue apply the facial features to the sequined plate.

And there you have a Shiny Happy Pumpkin!

Paper Plate Spider Craft

This cute craft is perfect for Halloween, it is easy to make and the results are so cute you will want to display the finished project so everyone can see how creative your little crafter is!

We are big on holidays! We get excited about them all; Easter, Valentine's Day, Memorial Day, of course Halloween is a big one too!

This year we started crafting up Halloween fun maybe a little too early, but we couldn't resist! This is one of the first ones we made and it was so easy and cute!!

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All you will need is:
A paper plate
A piece of black construction paper
8 googly eyes
A black kwik stik
school glue
Scissors

Paint your paper plate black with a Kwik Stik.
Cut 8 strips of paper for legs and glue them on, 4 to a side
Add 8 eyes
Give your spider a smile and you are done!

Find more of our favorite halloween ideas here

Favorites include

Mumkins

Deliciously Scary Snacks

Paper Cookies A Preschool Food Craft

My kids are so cute! They always want to help in the kitchen! When I do dishes, my daughter Harper will push a chair into the kitchen and climb up to the sink. She will say "I can do this Mom!" or she will want to help make coffee and push all of the buttons. If there is cooking involved my son dashes in, ready to help! I welcome their company in the kitchen 90% of the time. But, as any mom will tell you, there are times when having small kids in the kitchen is not the best idea.

On those rare times, I feel bad to deny their help, so I came up with a few fun food crafts that the kids can make while I am occupied with a complicated recipe.  The first one we did as you might recall was a pizza craft. The kids had so much fun making pizzas! We have made several of these since the post!

Tonight I was frying chicken, a rare thing that I admit, I am not so great at. I didn't want the kids to get splashed with hot oil so I entertained them with a paper cookie craft. It was a huge hit!

This was incredibly easy for the kids to make, the materials were super simple making preparation a breeze for me, and best of all- this craft does not require anything special. Seriously, you are going to have the supplies in your house!

Materials Needed to Make Paper Cookies

Several Brown Paper Bags or brown or yellow construction paper
Glue
Sprinkles
A Paper Plate

Instructions

To begin, cut circle shapes in the brown bags or construction paper as your cookie base.
{I cut about 30 circles at a time so that we can do this craft multiple times}.


Place as many circle cookie shapes as you like on the paper plate.
Drizzle glue onto the circle 'cookies'
Decorate with sprinkles
Allow to dry.

This was so fun for the kids! We will be making these again soon I am sure! Do you like to do paper crafts with your kids? I would love to hear about your favorites!

DIY Pumpkin Window Cling

We love to decorate for holidays and Halloween is no exception. This DIY idea makes fun window clings with simple ingredients for a one of a kind look this season!

The kids are excited about Halloween this year! As soon as they saw Halloween decor popping up in stores, they were ready to buy something! Seeing how cute they are, I couldn't deny them their wish. But, I did draw the line at 2 items. We placed a cute ghost on our door in mid-August...

Luckily, the fun of Halloween is still going strong here! The kids and I made some adorable window clings that I can't wait to share with you guys! Today we will go over how we made these cute and easy Pumpkin Window Clings!

Supplies

Transparent Contact Paper
Scissors
Black, Orange and Green Construction Paper

Have the kids tear the orange paper into little strips and bits.

Then cut the pumpkins face out of the black paper. Tear whatever black remains into small bits and strips.

Peel the backing off of your contact paper and lay it sticky side up.

Place the face of the pumpkin on the sticky side of the paper.

 Next outline the shape of your pumpkin in orange.

Then fill the outline in with orange paper.

Next tear one small bit of green paper for a stem and add it to the top of the pumpkin. Begin to fill in the rest of the area with black paper.

Then you can stick this right to your window. The little areas that aren't covered with paper will adhere to the window, but not so much that it makes peeling it off a bother. You can reinforce the edges with tape if you need to or desire.

And there you have a really easy, fun and cheap way to make a window cling! My kids had a lot of fun with this idea and I think yours will too!

You can find all of my Halloween crafts here

Glam Pumpkin Makeover

Paper Plate Witch

Witch Window Cling

It is hard not to get in the spirit of things this Halloween with his hands on witch window cling craft!

This window cling was so much fun to make with the kids. I love that it gives them a chance to use their fine motor skills and practice scissor skills while making something so cute for your windows!

Supplies

Scissors

Clear Transparent Contact Paper

Green, Black, White, Purple Construction Paper

A scrap of pink or red paper

Have the kids tear and cut up the black, green and purple paper into small bits.

Make 2 small circles from a black square of paper.

Cut out small white circles for eyes and a small smile from the red or pink paper.

Begin by placing the small black circles on the contact paper, sticky side up.

Cover those with the white circles for eyes

Next form the nose, mouth and hat of the witch

Begin filling in the face with green bits of paper.

Fill in the remaining areas with purple.

Leave just a few areas uncovered so that the contact paper will stick to your window.

We thought these were really cute. They were fun to make and offered the kids a little challenge as the contact paper is sticky. 

You can find all of my Halloween ideas here.

Paper Plate Witch

Glam Pumpkin Makeover

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

Hungry Caterpillar Process Art

This easy Hungry Caterpillar Process art project is perfect for preschoolers and elementary aged kids. It gives them a chance to create an adorable picture to go along with story time. I don't know about you, but I love storybook crafts for kids!

This project is perfect for fall. We used fresh apples that were too bruised to eat, and painted these cuties with them. If you have an abundance of apples. maybe you will want to put one to work for this art project.

We have lots of apple crafts on site! 

These cork and button apple trees are a favorite fall craft for kids of all ages.

Corked Stamped Apples are an adorable craft for kids.

Apple Tree Window Clings are a fun budget friendly project.

3D Paper Apples are a good project for using up scrap paper.

Apple Tree Addition makes for a fun way to learn math.

Supplies:

An apple 

Green, red , yellow, black paint.

Paper Plate

A pencil

A knife

Paper

Slice an apple in half

Pour a large dallop of red, green and yellow paint onto a paper plate.

We kind of mixed a little green and yellow together to create a cool effect.

Offer a small drop of black paint.

Offer the child an apple and encourage the child to dip the apple into the paint, and stamp the apple, so that the circles touch one another, going across the page.

Have your child give the caterpillar 4 or 5 segments.

Then encourage the child to dip the other apple half into the red paint and stamp the apple to form the head.

Next, dip the pencil into the black paint and create the eyes and mouth of the caterpillar.

Next, dip the pencil into the yellow paint and finish the eyes.

Now, I know what you are thinking.

Why not use a paintbrush?

Well, we did try that, but it smeared the yellow and black together. We found that the pencil was much easier to work with; and it gave Harper the chance to paint with a non traditional object. We both enjoyed that! You can kind of see in the mouth of the caterpillar that it is a little messy; that was the paint brush. 

Next, grab the stem from the apple and dip it into the green paint.

Give the caterpillar some antennae.

 

 Allow to dry completely. 

Display and enjoy this cute Hungry Caterpillar craft!