makin' it monday // DIY patterned pants

i am SO excited about this week's project! it came out so much better than i hoped, i'm considering doing it to more pieces in norah's (and maybe my) closet!

let's get started:

for the triangle pants:

1. rip small pieces of tape (about 1 1/2 inches) and arrange them in a random way on the front of the pants. 

2. with your fabric paint of choice, paint inside your shapes using a small foam brush. 

3. let sit for a few hours until completely dry, flip over, and repeat steps 1 & 2 on the back.

4. wait 24 hours and wear!

- - -

for the heart "knee-patch" pants:

1. using a cookie cutter (or stencil, whatever you've got), lightly trace your shape onto the pants using a pencil. before doing this i stuck a piece of cardboard in the pants so it would be easier to write.

2. very carefully, paint your stenciled shape onto the pants

3. wait 24 hours and wear!

- - -

the finished products plus BONUS: bunny sweatshirt!

mix and match pumpkin faces

norah had been asking to paint for the past couple of days so i thought of a simple (ha) painting project she could do that could also serve as halloween decor. two birds with one stone, right? this was a 3 part project that took two days to complete. in hindsight, i could have made it much less complicated but it's ok. it's done, and now i know for next time!

my way:
- cut out pumpkin shapes from white construction paper
- have norah paint the pumpkins orange (and help her cover the whole paper)
- place each pumpkin on a 2nd sheet of construction paper (first sheet got extremely flimsy from the weight of the paint)
- set pumpkins aside
- cut out mouths and eyes* from black construction paper
- guide** norah in placing a mouth and two eyes on each pumpkin (while orange paint was still wet! acts as glue)
- let them dry overnight
- glue each pumpkin down to it's respective 2nd sheet of paper (if it didn't already stick together from the paint)
- place pumpkins under something heavy (i used several books) in order to flatten the pages
- after an hour or so cut out the pumpkin shape from the 2nd piece of paper. you should have a pumpkin face on 2 layers of paper at this point.
- hang and enjoy!

a better way:
- cut out pumpkin shapes from orange construction paper
- glue to 2nd sheet of paper for stability
- have norah paint the pumpkins orange (they are already orange. no need to make sure she paints the entire thing)
- set pumpkins aside
- cut out mouths and eyes* from black construction paper
- guide** norah in placing a mouth and two eyes on each pumpkin (while paint is still wet)
- dry overnight
- in the morning, IF the paper has curled, place under a heavy book other heavy object for an hour or so to flatten.
- cut out original pumpkin shape (2 layers of paper)
- hang and enjoy!

the 2nd way eliminates having to take extra time to help the child paint by starting out with an orange pumpkin. for an older child, i would probably still use white but norah just paints in circles in the same spot over and over. she doesn't understand the concepts of "spread the paint around" and "cover all the white" yet. an older child would have better success with this. the 2nd way also eliminates having to re-glue the 1st pumpkin layer down to the 2nd paper.

*i cut out four different shapes of mouth, two of each shape. the eyes were squares, rectangles, or triangles leftover from the "teeth" cutouts. i wanted to let her mix and match as she pleased to make her own faces. 
**by "guiding" i mean i told her which shape to pick up, and then i pointed to where on the face she should put it. sometimes she did, sometimes she put it somewhere else. some of her faces look like faces, and some of them look like....lopsided faces. the important part is to remember that art at this age is NOT about the product! it's about the PROCESS! who cares if it looks terrible!

we hung some of our pumpkins on the front door and some in the windows on the porch. norah has been staring at them a lot saying "hi pumpkins! hi pumpkins!" over and over. success!

makin' it monday // footprint mural or - A HUGE MESS!

on saturday we had a warm afternoon so i wanted to get outside and try a "footprint" mural. what started out as innocent feet stomping soon developed into full body mural painting.

needless to say, we did not make a footprint mural this week. we just made a MESS! however, the fun we had was well worth the paint in our hair and all over our arms and legs.

to make your own mess mural, you will need:
- kraft paper (or poster board, newspaper, construction paper, etc.)
- finger paint
- shallow tupperware containers
- toddler who likes to get messy

simply roll out the paper in the grass and squeeze some paint into the containers. hold your child's hands and help them step into the paint, then stomp all over the paper! also, hope that they don't love to smear paint all over their body like mine does ;)

here's how our afternoon went:

nice and innocent feet stomping

hands too? ok no big deal

uh oh

really, norah?

i guess we'll be needing a bath

wow

doing "home alone" // "look sky! paint!" - actual quote

high fives for daddy

and again

so much fun

:) :) :)

i guess she still didn't think she was messy enough...  ::side eye::

makin' it monday // apple print canvas tote

since we go to the library every flipping day i figured we could use a good book bag. i had just been shoving all the books we check out in my diaper bag but it was getting to be too heavy and cramped. so, we 'made' decorated our own! we had an abundance of apples left over from apple picking (like a month ago. ew.) i used one of those so as not to waste. we are going to go to the farm up the street with the rest and feed the horses! ok back to the project:

you will need a blank canvas bag (i got mine at michael's for $3.99), cardboard stuffed inside the bag, acrylic paint, half of an apple (cut it vertically for the best print) and a fork if little hands are doing the stamping.

make sure to put your cardboard inside the bag first otherwise the paint will go through to the other side. then stick the fork in the apple so small hands can pick it up with ease. simply dip it in some paint and stamp it on the canvas! 

she loved it! 

she started smearing the apple in circles on the bottom of the bag so i helped her finish the top half.

i added little stems and leaves to a few of the apples with sharpie markers.

to cover up some of the smeared part, i found a piece of scrap felt and i used white embroidery thread to hand stitch her name to the bag. 

:)