Mermaid Treasure Box

Announcements:

Sharing Saturday is still open. Please come share your child oriented crafts and activities with us and check out all the amazing ideas others have shared!

Upcoming this next week are the kick offs to two reading events. MemeTales Readathon 2012 and Virtual Summer Book Club for Kids (join me on Monday to share your Mo Willems book crafts), and we are participating in both!! I hope you will join us in them.

My frame and picture in my beach themed master bedroom

While thinking about our shell frames and picking up a few more wooden frames to make more, we found a wooden box that would make a nice treasure box for Hazel. She loved the idea and I let her pick out a blueish paint for it. I used this paint on the box and our frames. I decided I wanted to use one of the previous frames for the picture of Hazel at the beach and still wanted to frame my favorite mermaid picture. Hazel also wanted to frame another mermaid picture (her second favorite) and we had a piece of wood we covered in sand to make a sign for Steve. We glued some shells on it to say "Relax." Steve liked it and wanted it for one of his spaces.

 I let Hazel glue the shells on her frame after I had added some sand to the bottom. She of course wanted to put on as many as she could. We put this one in her room as well as the first one she did.

Now onto the box. While she was at my mother-in-law's I painted it for her including the inside. Then we picked out a mermaid picture. We chose one from The Graphic Fairy. I decoupaged a sparkly scrapbook paper first to the top of the box and then the picture on top of it and put a few coats of Mod Podge onto it. Then I added some sand to the bottom of the sides of the box.

After all of this dried  we put some mermaid stickers on the sides including bubbles and then I sprayed the inside and out with an acrylic sealer. Next I hot glued some shells, stones, and sea glass onto the top and sides.

Top View

Front View

Hazel could not wait for it to dry so she could put some treasure into it.

Back View

Finished Box

We will be sharing this over at Taming The Goblin's Mermaid Project. Have you shared your mermaid crafts there yet?

This is where I share...

Sharing Saturday #24

Wow, what amazing ideas were shared last week!! I loved them all. If you have not had a chance to check them out, please do so and share some comment love.

This week we had about a 20-way tie for the most clicked, so I'm just going to share a few of my favorites!!
In honor of Father's Day, one had to be a gift for Dad:
From East Coast Mommy: DIY Father's Day Gift

From Fit Kids Clubhouse: Preschool Science Matters

From Healthy Mama: Ice Sculpture

From Making Memories....One Fun Thing After Another: Bubble Art

From Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational: Hide & Seek Camouflage Game

If you were featured here please stop by here and grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog!

From Your Host:

From Crafty Moms Share: Stenciled and Stamped T-Shirts

 Now for This Week's Party

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1)  Please follow both hosts via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

Hosts are Crafty Moms Share and Mama Mia's Heart2Heart. 

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All right everyone...This is a PARTY!! Have Fun!!

Play Dough Day 2 And Mixing Colors with Ice

This morning when we got up, Hazel asked to play with her play dough again (click here to see yesterday or day one of our play dough pledge play). I had put most of it in the refrigerator since I knew the Jello play dough had to be kept in it. I had left the cloud dough out. The oatmeal play dough was hard to work with after being in the refrigerator. It may be because I made it a bit dry since I didn't want it to be so sticky. First we played with the cloud dough. (I think I could have used more oil in this recipe.)

Play Date with Play Dough

So today (Wednesday) I had scheduled a play date for Hazel with a very shy boy that will be in her nursery class next fall. His mother and I wanted to get the kids together so they would have a friendly face the first day they go to school since it will be the first time we are leaving them at school without us. (We both were in different parent/child classes at the school this year.)  I also took the Play Dough Pledge this week.

I figured I would combine the two so the kids would have an activity to do while getting comfortable with one another. (Note: All of  the recipes I used this time came from Playdoughrecipe.org.) I made two different types of Jello play dough (peach and lemon) and put them in the refrigerator. I added lavender and sprinkles to the lemon for more scent and texture. Then I made a rubbery play dough and cloud dough. This morning Hazel and I made an oatmeal play dough. Then once our play date got here, we made two types of classic play dough with a little experiment of adding juice concentrate to color and scent it. I had some grape juice and raspberry cranberry juice that I used to dye fabrics yesterday and saved some for the play dough. We ended up adding quite a bit more flour to make it a good consistency with the extra liquid from the juice.

Making the Oatmeal Play Dough:

The recipe seems very easy and it really is, but we adjusted it to get a dough we liked. The recipe calls for 1 cup of flour, 2 cups of oatmeal, and 1 cup of water. Then there are suggestions of using corn meal or coffee grounds to make it less sticky. We chose corn meal since I don't really like the smell of coffee and didn't want it on my hands. I also added more oatmeal to give it more texture.

Next we brought her small table and chairs from the craft room up to the kitchen where it is more comfortable and a bit cleaner. We also brought up all of her play dough tools and got some cars, plastic animals, sand castle tools and baking dishes and some glitter so everything would be ready to play with. Then I measured out the flour, salt and cream of tartar for the classic recipes and left them in measuring cups and bowls waiting for the kids to pour and mix. I also measured the water and put it in my electric kettle so I could get it boiling.

By this time, Hazel could not wait for them to get here. She is actually drumming on the tupperware containers that hold the Jello play doughs. She was dancing/skipping all over the place.

When her new friend and his mom arrived, we made the classic recipes. (I thought this freshly made and still warm would also add a nice contrast to the ones that had been in the refrigerator.) Then they started to create and play. They seemed to have fun. Hazel wanted to make cookies and fill the cookie sheet as well as two muffin containers.

Hazel's cupcake

Her friend started with the rolling pins (the textured ones), cookie cutters and dough cutters.  Then he liked the glitter.

Pink Cow

Both using cookie cutters

Star cookie cutter and rolled play dough

While Hazel worked on her cupcakes and cookies her friend made a pan of muffins. He put glitter on the bottom so they fell out when he tipped then over.

His Muffins (The front one on the left is the oatmeal play dough)

The Cookie Sheet (mostly Hazel's but a bit from all of us)

The kids did not seem to get into the cloud dough too much. Hazel's friend used it to decorate his cupcake/muffins like it was cheese (or at least that is what it looked like), but otherwise they didn't really touch it. I think I'll see if Hazel will play with it later with me or tomorrow. They had the most fun just adding glitter to everything!

So will you join us by taking the play dough pledge?

This is where I share...

Crafty Moms Shares Turns One Today!!!

Today is my blogiversary!! It is hard to believe it has been one year since I dove into the blog world. Before I started Crafty Moms Share I had only really been reading blogs for about a week or two.  When I started I certainly did not know where blogging would take me or the information I would discover or the wonderful people I would "meet". I certainly did not expect over 200 people to become my followers and many of them are people I have never met in person. Looking back at my first few months of post is actually kind of fun. This blog has become a bit of a scrapbook for me with the activities Hazel and I do each day. In the beginning the only person who I knew was reading my blog was my cousin's wife, Carrie or The Poet Herself. You will see my first few comments are from her. In hindsight I think it was her blogging that actually got me to start Crafty Moms Share, so thank you, Carrie!! Carrie's blog is Poet in the Pantry. She has slow downed her number of blog entries, but it is a great blog.