Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Crafting for Kids: The Yo-Bot



I'm constantly looking for crafts to do with my three-year-old daughter, Maya. Although we do buy supplies from the store, I also like to use things we have laying around the house. Never in short supply are 32 ounce yogurt containers. They are perfectly good containers and we can't bear to throw them away, but it presents the ultimate pack-rat's dilemna. The containers just end up taking up space because we aren't actually using them.


So, one day, upon facing the pile of yogurt containers once again and almost throwing them away, I stopped myself and took a deep breath. The thought occured to me that they could be used for kids crafts. Lately, Maya has been really into robots - building them out of various toys and legos. The yogurt containers were the perfect shape for making robots! We used other things we found around the house to make our robots - construction paper, markers, wood chopsticks, tape, and twist ties. The result was a couple of cute "yo-bots!" The possibilities are endless with this project because kids can decorate their robot with almost anything! I think that the smaller, individual sized yogurt containers could work well, too. For younger kids like Maya, you'll want to run the scissors, but they can tape and draw and glue away.

For other awesome kid's crafts ideas, check out this awesome website I found. http://www.kidscraftweekly.com/.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Starfish for Christmas



I don't know where she got the idea, but my three year old daughter has made a decision. For this Christmas, she wants a starfish. Seriously? A starfish? Oh, I so wish that I could get into that mind of hers. I haven't asked her if she means a real starfish or a toy starfish, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she understands a real starfish is just not an option. Not wanting to overlook her wishes though - and definitely not in the mood to scour the internet for toy sea creatures - I decided to make a mini-starfish pillow out of some discarded upholstery fabric samples.



 I cannot wait to give this little cutey to my daughter!!




Watch for these to appear in my Etsy shop! This little starfish is eight or nine inches across, but I hope to make a bigger one as well - plus some seahorses and fish in various sizes.

(appropriate for kids ages three and up)