Little Elephants » Arts & crafts

Winter village

Veronique Christensen — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:15:39 +0000

My Mom gave me the cutest little village that she’s had forever, and I always thought was meant to decorate a mantle or something. I was so excited when I inspected them recently & discovered that they all have holes in the back big enough to poke a tree light through.

If you look closely at this pic you’ll see that all of the houses have “stained glass” windows (I’m thinking plastic or cellophane), that glow beautifully when lit from behind.

I’m thinking I’ll put a bit of effort into mending these and will put the kids to work with cardboard, colored cellophane, glue, and paints to make our own little set for next year.

Valentine’s Day craft round up

Veronique Christensen — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:48:49 +0000

Make sparkly heart ornaments
Make easy heart toppers for red and pink pencils
Make Snow Globes with cupids and heart-shaped confetti
Make magnified gem magnets with Valentime images
Make a sweet-heart amulet with bits & pieces that remind you of your love
Sew lavender sachets
Make paper heart garlands
Sew a holiday pennant with — just use heart patterned fabrics
Sew a holiday quilt to snuggle under (another easy one is here)
Make a Valentine’s Day book
Make festive votive holders — just glue heart shapes
Make embroidered pillows
Make, and decorate, a pillow
Make finger puppets in reds and pinks
Bake a sweet Mazarine pie
Make a memory box to capture all the ways you love
Make a paper bead bracelet for your love

Failure with the fabric glitter

Veronique Christensen — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:15:39 +0000

Maggie had a friend over the other day and the girls and little Tor had a blast covering my kitchen & stoop with fabric glitter. They decorated aprons and pillow cases with festive stars, birds, and wild abstract shapes. What they made was fabulous to my eyes.

Until I followed the instructions and washed them 72 hours later. I was so sad I cried.

If you’ve had better luck with fabric glue and glitter, please share your tips here. I’d love to get this right one day.

Snowman kit

Veronique Christensen — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:23:36 +0000

Tor was given the most awesomnest gift ever today — a snowman kit! One of the parents at Tor’s school made this set, and I need to meet them to tell them how much they rock.

The snow was too powdery today to make a snowman so I stuck the pieces in a big drift to give you an idea of what it looks like. After I took this picture, Tor went back outside to move the flower from “her” hair into “his” hand. Turns out our snow-drift is a he.

Each piece is hot-glued to golf tees that you just poke into the snow. The gloves are sewn fabric, and the carrot nose is a sewn and stuffed felt cone. The eyes and buttons are all Sculpy clay. So simple. So perfect!

Sparkly heart ornaments

Veronique Christensen — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 23:38:21 +0000

Last year we made a bunch of sparkly heart ornaments using salt clay. They were so easy, all we did was mix our ingredients, rolled out out dough, cut out our shapes using our cookie cutters, then baked at 250 degrees for 3 hours. The next day we painted our ornaments with tempera paints & then sealed them with glitter glue.

If I were to do it again, I might skip the glitter, but they still made me smile as I unpacked them this year.

Finger knitting with Outi

Veronique Christensen — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:40:26 +0000

With a little help from Outi’s well illustrated Christmas book, Bjørn got a bit of finger knitting done today. We’ve done this before many times before, and somehow forget how to get started each and every time.

It was the perfect activity after freezing his finger-tips out in the piles of snow that came down over-night. Now he has a long-if-narrow green scarf to wrap up in the next time he heads out.

Here’s a good video to get you started, too.

Tor’s memory game

Veronique Christensen — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:07:39 +0000

shhh! Don’t tell him, but this is one of Tor’s Christmas presents this year. I selected some of my favorite pictures on Flickr from this past year and had a memory game made of them by Moo.com. They are Moo’s basic photo business cards. Nifty, eh?

The only thing I don’t like is that the prints came out a bit too dark for my liking, but my to-do list this week is too full to get a second set re-printed. Next time, I’ll know better.

Regardless, they’re happy cards and I know Tor (who is four now) will be tickled.

Giant pipe cleaner party!

Veronique Christensen — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:04:38 +0000

We had a bunch of kids running around over Thanksgiving, and my brother had the brilliant idea to purchase this Giant Pipe Cleaner Party Craft Kit. The man is a genius.

All six kids found plenty (contained) fun to be had with it & the grown-ups had some (relatively) quiet time to catch up.

Have I mentioned how smart my big bro is?

Hark the {paper and pom-pom} angels!

Veronique Christensen — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 15:45:42 +0000

Tor (4) asked to make a paper project with cones like I’d used for the advent calendar the other day and this is what we came up with: simple angels with pom-pom heads. Tor did all the cutting, taping assembly himself. I just wrapped the cone shape for him.

How to:

Wrap regular paper (or fancy if you’ve got it) into a cone shape and have your child tape it securely
Cut the bottom of your cone to make a level surface
Cut out paper wings by placing two sheets of paper one over the other & making a basically oblong shape to make your two wings
Tape your wings to the angel’s back
Fold the wings lengthwise so they stay perky
Poke a toothpick into your pom-pom & slide it into the top opening of your cone
Voila!

I’ve become obsessed…

Veronique Christensen — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:39:03 +0000

With spray paint. First it was Maggie’s bookshelf, then her lamps, and now it’s soup cans. I’ve painted this one with white enamel and I love it. Not quite sure what it’ll end up being — a Mexican-style luminary, a pencil holder? — but I do know I’ll be painting more ’cause it’s just plain fun to spary paint stuff. And I think it looks nice.