Spray Tye-Dye Shirts

My mom and I co-crafted last week because the pool was closed for a swim meet. We decided to make tye-dye shirts for the Forth of July. To avoid the mess that would happen with the rubber bands and the dunking of t-shirts into buckets of dye, we spray painted them. You can buy tye-dye already in spray bottles but is cost more and there's not much in them. So we made our own. 
            To make the dye we poured a little bit over a fourth of the bottle of Rit liquid dye into a spray bottle. I picked our spray bottles up at the Dollar Tree and our dye up at Walmart. 

We then filled up our bottles with HOT water and were ready to go. You may have to add or use less dye just depending on the size of your spray bottle and how you want your color to look on the fabric. 

After we made the dye we laid mats on the patio and helped the kids spray their shirts. 

Look at all of the pretty shirts :)

Look at my pretty hand...

It was in the line of fire. But at least it's festive. :)

Obleck Slime!

If you are a neat freak don't attempt this. I tried to keep it as clean as possible and it didn't work so well. But the boys had a lot of fun with it and it kept them busy for a really long time so it was totally worth it. Here it is Obleck! 

It's really easy to make, almost too simple! I used a 2:1 ratio, 2 parts cornstarch and 1 part water. I also added some food coloring which turned my hands green... Obleck is not easy to mix together. It likes to be stubborn. I ended up just using my hands to mix it together. 

After I got it all mixed up, I put some disposable placemats down on the table. They have sticky backs so they stayed on the table. They ended up doing absolutely nothing!  

Ollie decided that the tractor needed to be slimed... 

I poured the slime into 3 different cups and gave them to the boys. They had a lot of fun with it and I had a lovely time cleaning it all up. :P 

It's All in the Name

My good friend Bobbi graduated from high school and I wanted to make her something that she would be able to keep well past college and make her own style. I roamed around Hobby Lobby until this was thought up of. 

Here's what you'll need: Scrapbook paper, puff paint, scissors, picture frame, and a dry erase markers. (The puff paint is for the letters. If you don't like your handwriting you can use scrapbook letters.)

 Trace the photo that comes with the frame on the scrapbook paper and cut it out. This will be the back drop for your name plate. 

 Next, using the dry erase marker, write the name or saying onto the glass of the frame. It only took me about 27 times before I was satisfied with it. 

 Trace your letters with the puff paint. This took me awhile just because I wanted it to be perfect so I went really slow. 

 Bobbi's going to be attending U of I in the fall so I wrote Iowa Hawkeyes on the background paper. This also took a supper long time because I didn't like the way it looked. 

And TaDa!! Isn't this beautiful? When she gets tired of this background she can change it with any color she likes. Not including the drying time for the paint this project took only about 30 minutes. It could have taken less if I hadn't been so picky. She loved it and it matched her party decor. Now I kinda want to make on for me!

Paint Sample Pictures

I know this was supposed to be up Friday, but by the time I got off on Friday I was done and needed to just pass out. I also had to go to Waterloo to get stuff for a friends grad present. So here it is! 

   If there is any thing that I have learned from my mother, it is anything can be made out of paint samples. We always seem to have a ton of them and after the house fire we seemed to have buckets full. Mom got creative and used them for kids crafts. Which was my inspiration for Friday's craft. I dragged Josh around to Home Depot, Lowes, and Menards so I could gather up paint samples with out looking like a freak. :P 

I cut the samples apart and organized them by color. The boys picked out a page in their book that they wanted to recreate. I then handed them glue sticks, paper, and scissors and let them have at it. 

I think that it turned out really well and the boys loved it! They want to to it again! Paint samples are absolutely amazing and so is Eric Carle. Enjoy and be creative! 

Eric Carle Inspired Pictures

Today the boys made pictures with the papers they painted yesterday. When Eric Carle is putting a book together he takes sheets of papers that he's previously painted and he cuts them into the shapes that he needs and will add the details to it. He says that "He makes paper more than paper." It's really cool to watch him. If you ever get a chance to watch his documentary DO IT. Or check out his book You Can Make a Collage: A Simple How To. Hes's pretty awesome. This morning we went to the library and stocked up on Eric Carle books. We got The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Very Busy Spider (this is a really cool one because it is a touch book), 10 Little Rubber Ducks, and "Slowly, Slowly, Slowly" said the Sloth. 
      While the boys were playing I laid out all of their supplies that they would need on the table. 

I then read them a story and explained how the pictures were made. I told them to make their own pictures and walked away over to the counter to clean up lunch. I helped Ollie with cutting when he needed it but other than that I didn't interrupt them. 

This is Miles' picture of centipedes and a leaf.

This is Max's self portrait. His shirt, eyes, sky, and
 sun are made out of the paper we made.

This is Ollie's picture snakes. We're working on his scissor skills
 this summer. I'm not sure what the red things are. 

 This activity kept them busy and quiet for a whole hour and I got the kitchen and living room picked up. That's like a miracle around here! Check back in tomorrow for the last day of Eric Carle Craft Week!