Fun Facts about Crayons and Our Exploration of Crayon Racing

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

If you have kids, you have crayons. Most restaurants give kids some crayons to keep them busy while their food is being prepared. I know we have quite a supply from over the years. But have you ever really thought about crayons? What are they? I decided to gather some fun facts for you about the childhood staple and then I have a fun book to share with you to give you a use for the crayons sitting around your house.

Glass Ball Christmas Ornaments--Ideas from Pinterest

I had a pack of six clear glass ball ornaments that I bought at some point. Before Hazel, I would make beach ornaments with sand and a few small rocks and shells to remember a trip to the beach, so I am guessing that is what I bought them for. I saw on Pinterest ages ago the melted crayon ornaments. I have no idea where I originally saw it since I can't find the pin, but here is one tutorial on Meet the Dubiens: Melted Crayon Ornaments. (I know this is not the tutorial I first saw since I remember the one I read saying to use low heat.) Now I have been saving some crayons--the ones from restaurants. I always keep a set in my purse just in case, however we go out enough that we have quite the collection of them. I wanted to try this, so I pulled these out the other day while Hazel was home sick. She became interested in it right away (even with the hair dryer that scares her. 

The idea is simple. Put pieces of the crayons in the glass ornament. Use the hair dryer to heat and melt the crayons and swirl them around as they melt. Have some oven mitts or thermal gloves handy, because your hands will get hot as does the ornament. I left the leftover pieces in there, but for the most part they melted completely.

A friend at church recently told me about the second kind of ornaments we made. You use Pledge floor cleaner and glitter. I did not have Pledge floor cleaner, but experimented with the ones I had. The pin my friend has was only a picture tutorial, so I googled it and found this one at The Ornament Girl. I am wishing I had read the tutorial first. I did not dump out the excess cleaner and now a couple of them seem to have a blob of glitter in them, but they still look pretty and Hazel LOVED making them.

We got creative with mixing the colors of glitter. The first one we did was a multicolor glitter, but after that it was Hazel choosing what to mix. She has asked me to buy more glass balls to make more of both types of ornaments. I am thinking maybe Christmas presents for next year. What do you think? Have you made anything that you saw at Pinterest yet? 

For more Christmas ornament ideas check out my Christmas Craft Round-up and my Christmas Pinterest Board.

How We Spent a Rainy Day

So this morning we looked outside and saw a bunny in our yard. Then the male mallard came for some food. Plus we always have grey squirrels and morning doves, robins, sparrows and some finches around. Hazel was so excited to show me each of them. I love leaving food out for them so we get lots of wildlife in our yard. Then it started to downpour. We decided not to go to our class at Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary even though it was not cancelled since it was on and off pouring. Plus we both felt a bit rundown from our overscheduled May, so we decided we needed a day at home.

Our Big Bad Wolf

We decided this was the perfect time to try out Lorie's (from Reading Confetti) idea on Retelling the 3 Little Pigs. When I saw this the other day, I knew we had to try it since Hazel LOVES the Three Little Pigs!! So first we went to our craft room and made the three pigs. We couldn't find our googly eyes, so we had eyeless pigs, but Hazel did not care.

Our 3 Pigs

Then Hazel wanted to paint while we downstairs so while she painted I hot glued the sticks for the stick house. Then when she finished painting we came upstairs and built the straw house and stick house and brick house.

Straw House (with some spots taped)

Stick House (with structure hot glued)

Brick House

Then Hazel put on the wolf nose I made from construction paper and we retold the story acting it out.

The straw house got blown/knocked down. Then onto the stick house.

Then onto the brick house...

Then we had to do the whole thing over. We changed the structure of the straw house to be more like a teepee.

Then we did it again with Mommy being the wolf.

After some lunch and stories, we worked on the favors for our friends (Hazel's godparents' daughter) first birthday party. Her mother asked me to make star shape crayons. I agreed and then found out she wants 100 of them. Needless to say we will be busy doing this for awhile. We spent a bit of time unwrapping and breaking the crayons. Luckily the ones our friend bought unwrap relatively easily!! I made a few trays of them. Unfortunately our star mold only does 6 at a time so we need to make it 17 times. The party theme is red, white and blue since her birthday is Memorial Day weekend, but they didn't want to buy that many boxes of crayons to do them in red, white and blue, so they are rainbow. For directions, I blogged about it here.

Then my little girl wanted to play fairy dance. She literally dressed as a fairy and danced around. I really should have pulled out the video camera for you to get the full effect, but it was fun to watch her show.

She kept asking me sit down to watch the show.

Then she wanted me to be a fairy with her. So she dressed me up as the butterfly fairy and we danced together.

Then she wanted to switch costumes. This of course gives you a better view of the butterfly fairy costume. The wings are a bit big for her.

Her pink wings were too small for me, so she decided I needed a feather boa instead.

Sorry all the pictures of me were taken with me holding the camera away from myself. So how do you spend a rainy day?

This is where I link up...

Check out the great giveaway at The Magic Onions. Armadillo Dreams is giving away a $50 gift card there.

This Weekend--Winter Onederland Party

So on Friday, I was given a gift from my mother-in-law of almost an entire day off from parenting duties. My plans run the few quick errands that I had planned to do with Hazel and then come home and finish my quilt. However, I came home from running my errands and called a friend to check in with her. Her son's first birthday party is today, and I knew they were having an awful week of doctor's appointments due to his food allergies. (He is allergic to just about everything but now needs to avoid touching all wheat and dairy.)When I spoke with her my day changed to helping her with the party. The only things she had for it so far were the decorations I made for her, the napkins I bought for her and the cake her mother-in-law was making (which her son cannot touch or eat). You may remember I showed you the invitation and pieces of the banner I designed for her when I reviewed My Memories Software. Well, using that same software I made her a few more posters to hang around for decorations.

Apple Trees, Apple Songs & More Apple Crafts

Yesterday's tissue paper stained glass apple

My Apple Cinnamon Wreath

Our paper orchard

Today we focused on more the growth of the apple. We talked about the seed growing into the tree and the blossoms on the tree in the spring turning into green apples and then they become red (or stay green or turn yellow). The book from the library, I Am an Apple by Jean Marzollo really helped with the lessons. It is an early reader book, but that helped make it simple for Hazel to understand. She keeps looking at it. We also read a short story about Johnny Appleseed and sang some apple songs (including of course the Johnny Appleseed song).

Apple Tree in each season

Our crafts today are making paper trees, making apple cinnamon wreaths, talking about the parts of the apple, the tree in each season, crayon stain glass apples and leaves (a great way to use some of those broken crayons), and if we have time we will do a handprint tree, but we may save this one for Friday. We are also going to bake whole wheat apple muffins tonight for breakfast tomorrow. Our big Michaelmas celebration will be tomorrow so our crafts will be focused around that and we have school in the morning.

Hazel's Cinnamon Apple Wreath

Unfinished apple stained glass using crayons

It seems as naps may be coming to an end for Hazel. She has not napped this week. The positive side is she is going to bed by 6:30 which gives Steve some time for himself at night, but she can be very cranky by the time he gets home. She is however taking quiet alone time in her room every day instead of a nap. She spends a half hour or so "reading" her books and playing with the few toys that are in there. It gives me some time to breath.

Ok, now onto our crafts.The paper trees came from All Kids Network. We drew on the apples instead of using beads. I figured it would be a bit easier for Hazel to handle at this age.

The Cinnamon Apple Wreath also came from All Kids Network. We used cardstock instead of craft foam for the apples, stems and leaves, but I loved the idea of putting the cinnamon stick on it to add another sense to it.

Before doing the four season tree we talked about the sequence of the apple tree. There is a great worksheet on Mrs. Nelson's Class. For older kids you could have them do the sequence on their own, but for Hazel I showed her the sequence and we talked about it. She is now coloring it in. The four season tree was inspired by The Virtual Vine. And yesterday Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas also did a similar craft. I cut four of the trunks out and two of the green leaves both from cardstock. Then I had her glue them on with some help. Then we added tissue paper. We talked about the spring being the pink blossoms, the summer the blossoms become green apples which turn red as they mature, the fall the leaves falling as well as the apples and the winter the branches are bare except for our cotton ball snow.

Crayon Flakes

Flakes on wax paper pre-iron

Iron at low heat setting

The crayon method for stained glass pictures came from DLTK-kids. I posted this link yesterday, but we did it with tissue paper as we had done a leaf earlier. Today I tried the crayon method. To do this, you first use a crayon sharpener to make flakes of crayon in the colors you want. The smaller the pieces the easier it will be. Then you put the crayon flakes on a piece of wax paper. Fold the wax paper over it and with a low heat iron melt the crayons between the wax paper. Be careful not to get crayon on your iron or ironing board. I did let Hazel try the iron, but we talked about the hot part. Then glue the outline on it and let it dry. Once the glue is dry you can cut around the outline and glue the other side on. Then you can hang it in your window. Here are some pictures to help with this explanation.

Melted crayons

Frame glued on...Waiting for it to dry

Ok, that is enough for today. I'm off to make a quick dinner and those muffins! Have a great day!!

Fourth of July Crafts and more!

Ok, I finally got around to taking more pictures of the crafts we used at our party. First the crowns which I posted a picture of yesterday. I got the idea from Disney's Family Fun Magazine. Instructions on them are found here. I have to say of all the parenting/family magazines I get (and I get many of them) this is my favorite because it has easy crafts to do with kids and they have a special section for subscribers with younger children.

Now for some of the other crafts we did. First is the placemats which we didn't actually use, but the kids made their own. I got this idea from a craft Hazel did at the local library for flag day.

 I had cut all the paper for the kids so all they had to do was glue the red stripes on and they had plain blue construction paper with star stickers, so they could give a little variety to their own flags. Then we covered them with clear contact paper to make them placemat worthy.

Next are paper windsocks. I originally had a group of these hanging from our clothes line over the patio. Of course Hazel was sure they were going to blow away and insisted on us bringing them in. The kids enjoyed making these though. The easier ones are pictured here. I used blue star scrapbook paper (the leftover parts from the placemats) and red and white crepe paper. This idea was adapted from the Little Hands Book on America. For the 12 inch strip we used 6 pieces of crepe paper, but could have used 7 if we didn't want them alternating. Each of the kids made their own to take home.

 This is the harder version. Hazel and I only made one this way. I printed white stars (using Word's shape drawer) on paper and cut them out. We glued them on to blue construction paper and then glued the crepe paper on to the bottom and then made it a tube and added the yarn to hang it with.

 I also had printed out free coloring pages with Fourth of July themes from on line and melted down red, white, and blue (and silver) crayons in a star muffin pan for each child. These are some of them on the flag Hazel made at the library. I found instructions on recycling broken crayons on-line and in books--melt small pieces of crayon in sprayed muffin pans at 275. Keep a close eye on them as they can melt quickly but around 10 minutes (less if they are not filled well). I also made Hazel some rainbow round crayons with all the broken crayons we had (and some from the packages I bought to get enough red, white and blue). She loves them. She plays with some at the library as well. At the library, she has been known to build towers with them since they have so many more. The librarian melted down the crayons by color so each one is a different color versus my rainbow idea.

Well that is all the promised Patriotic crafts I have for you. Now off to sew some more. Hopefully I will finish the outfit and get Hazel to wear it so I can take a picture of it.

Good night!
Carrie