Gnomes on a Log

Do you love garden gnomes as much as we do? I thought so! Well now that we have been outside so much in this beautiful weather, those little guys are popping up everywhere to welcome us. Gabriel & I created & painted four cuties sitting on a log to keep inside our home. It was so easy & fun!

And they are "playable"... They come off the "log" & are their own little figurines.

Materials:

1. 2 paper towel tubes
2. 1 piece of paper
3. paint
4. scissors
5. school glue

Cut one of the paper towel tubes into four equal pieces. On the other tube, trace four circles uses the end of one of the tube pieces (the bottom of a to be gnome). Carefully cut out these traced circles- you have the "seats" for the four gnomes. 

Take the piece of paper & cut out four circles for the "hats". Turn them into cone shapes & glue one onto each of the four "gnome" pieces. Cut out four "faces" out of the same paper & decorate them. 

Paint your gnomes & the log; allow to dry. Glue the paper faces onto the gnomes. Seat the four little guys in their log & play! 

<3 Lishie & Gabriel

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Tubes in Space...

Tubes in Space

Gabriel is still on a space kick so this is a recent craft I've had prepped & put aside for  a good day. The astronaut template is from a site called DLTK's Growing Together site. It's great! I've gotten other ideas/print outs from this site too (see Elmo tube below!)

Astronaut 

We printed the non-colored astronaut & Gabriel colored it. Then, hand-over-hand, I assisted with the cutting out & gluing of the pieces. We then embellished with extra bits of cast off tinfoil I had kept for this purpose (pieces too little to wrap anything in) & a star sticker.

Then we created a rocket with a paper towel tube. I keep all of my paper towel tubes for crafts. This is simply a red sheet of construction paper glued onto the tube then embellished with star stickers. The point/top is a circle turned into a cone, covered in tinfoil. The bottom "feet" of the rocket are triangle-shape bits of the tinfoil. The background of Space is a black foam square with Dover Publications GLOW-IN-THE-DARK (how cool?)stickers adhered to it!Gabriel had a great time with his space set :) 

Here's the Elmo he & I did when G was about 8 months old:

Elmo

<3 Lishie & Gabriel

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Lunchbox Surprise

I love my boy... I cannot say it enough. He's been so into this one Ipad app lately- Monkey Preschool Lunchbox (it is a GREAT toddler app!!!) that when  I found this on Pinterest from diy inspired.com I knew I had to print it out for him since there's a nifty pdf printable of the monkey. He's only 3 & can only read some words so far so this is the perfect "love" letter to him in his lunchbox... on his favorite food to eat. I think he'll be surprised! 

<3 Lishie & Gabriel

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Foam Magnets

I love to peruse the craft store & see what's new or really, what newly hits my eye for inspiration. Thing is, unless it is a craft kit for one project, most things come in multiples. I only have one Gabriel so often I think of many different ways to utilize something. Large foam items often come in packages (see foam hands) so if I get them, they need to be special. I spotted these awesome Foam Crab shapes & felt summer approaching immediately; had to buy them. Here's one project we made- a family set of crab magnets.

Self-Stick Craft Magnets

+

Glitter Glue Pens

+

Googly Eyes 

+

School Glue

=

Foam Magnet Crab

Check out these other crab foam crafts:

 

Colored Salt Crab Picture

Gift Tag

<3 Lishie & Gabriel

PS-  Parents, PLEASE glance at this article on the danger of magnets for children.

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Foam Hands

Foam hands are soooooooo versatile!

A Birthday card

Sign Language Message

Fun Theme

The Foam Hands Displayed...

<3 Lishie & Gabriel

Visit my Food Blog: DeLish

Father's Day Project

Father's Day is fast approaching & this is one of the gifts Gabriel made for his daddy. We did it on the sly since we had to borrow a shoe...

Which brings me to Materials: One of each shoe (from daddy & son) of the same foot, washable paint, a sponge paintbrush & a piece of construction paper + a crayon...

Take the sponge brush a dip it in the paint, then "paint" the bottom of each shoe... Use the shoe like a stamp, beginning with the biggest one, daddy's...


Then using a different color paint, do the same with son's shoe, stamping near the instep of the daddy shoe...

 Allow to dry then write,

"FOLLOWING IN MY DADDY'S SHOES"

Gabriel loves to line up his "daddy" animals with their "sons".

Love this boy.

<3 Lishie & Gabriel

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Whale of a Good Time

Gabriel loves his animal figurines & the ocean ones get played with a lot. Since the summer is nearly here (yay!) the ocean trips are around the corner as are our aquarium trips! I love our day trips. So making a whale seemed like a great idea. Gabriel thought so too. The inspiration for this craft came from Oriental Trading again. 

Materials: All you need is a paper cup (can be white! We happened to have blue) a piece of construction paper (blue again), scissors, googly eyes, school glue & 2 pipe cleaners (we used blue & white. We also used glitter glue.

On the construction paper, draw the tail & the fins for the whale; cut them out. Glue the tail, fins & googly eyes onto the inverted (upside-down) cup. Allow to dry. Using glitter glue, "draw" on a mouth. Or you can use a marker! 


On the top of the cup, cut/punch a small hole to create a "blow-hole". Take the pipe cleaners & fold them in half; Roll them on your finger to make "springs". Insert the bottom of the springs into the hole. This is "water sprouting" from the whale's blow-hole. 

Then go to National Geographic Kids to learn about the blue whale.

Fast Facts

The scientific name of the blue whale is Balaenoptera musculus.

Their average lifespan in the wild is 80-90 years.

Blue whales are usually between 82 and 105 feet (25 to 32 meters) long.

<3 Lishie & Gabriel

Visit my Food Blog: DeLish