Arts and Crap...err...CRAFTS.

So when Claire has been getting restless lately, I try to set her up with a craft. They are mostly turning out like huge piles of glue, though. I am just glad she's busy, happy, and quiet....and could care less if she squeezes out the whole entire bottle of glue and smears it all over her hands like it's lotion...because I may or may not have dozed off on the couch while sitting up *amazing* and nursing Alex. Hey, glue is cheap!

This was during a more "supervised" craft...only a minorly huge pile of glue.

Home-Made Picture Frame

Claire asks to do crafts now every day ... bascially right after breakfast, which is fine because it keeps her busy, and I feel it is educational. Here was a simple craft. I just got a picture frame in the craft section with some glittery stickers which they sell in boxes of like 50. They are raised foam. She was able to peel the paper off the back of the stickers and put them on herself. The only one I helped with was the word "Princess" so it wouldn't be hard to read. I put the glue in various dots around and she added the jewels and eyes herself. I love the frog with different colored eyes. :)

Learning to Cut

I've been trying to teach Claire how to cut with scissors for about a month but it's taking some time. She just now can do the open/shut motion with them. I guess I should've started closer to 2 because according to this she should already be cutting through paper, not just snipping at it. I used to watch Jon and Kate before they got divorced. I remember on there that she was having issues teaching the kids to cut and had waited too long to intro scissors. Our neighbor Christopher just turned 2 in November and can cut up paper like a madman! I watched him yesterday and we did some crafts. He was cutting up a storm!!!

One thing that Claire has really gotten good at in the past month since I've really started doing crafts with her is squeezing the glue out of the bottle, which is another good fine-motor skill. She finally learned because I got some glitter-glue paint thingys that were each in their own tiny little bottle so she figured out the hang of squeezing and dragging out the glue from the tiny bottles and now can do the big one. I'm planning on trying to make some Valentines with her for family. :) Hopefully they don't just end up in the trash on the other end though...I mean...crafts and crap are awfully close.

St. Nicholas Shoes Craft

Claire made St. Nick shoes for the first time. Well, she colored them and "helped" me tape them together.
She was so excited to have made her own shoes and carried them around all day.

She loves coloring!!!

I think she is going to be right-handed, but sometimes she will use her left.

Finger Painting Christmas Shapes

Claire had so so so much fun finger-painting! I traced the Christmas shapes with cookie cutters, then she painted them with finger paint. Oh, and I added some glitter! I.love.glitter=true!
Well, the one on the left, she colored, but the rest were finger-painted.

Now we have all these cute shapes, and I'm not sure what to do with them! Maybe I'll stick a string through them and hang them on the tree?

She kept saying "Oooh! Squishy!!!"

I kept her in her jammies so no clothes would be stained, and I put a huge bib on her too.

First time Finger Painting

I finally got around to finger painting with Claire and it was a blast. Check out our video here:

Christmas Mittens

This is a craft we made at story time. I thought it was cute. It would be even cuter to make gloves and trace their little hands for the gloves. All she did for this was add Christmas stickers, but she had a blast! Notice she even put the paper backing on one of them. She even threaded the pipe cleaner through herself, I just helped twist it together!

The Making of the Gingerbread House

So these are gonna go in reverse since that's the way Blogger likes to upload things. Here is our finished house! Slightly sloppy by my old definitions, but absolutely perfect with a 2 year-old helping!

You'll notice that Claire was a huge fan of this craft project. Her hands are in her mouth on several photos. She loved the icing.
I would actually put the icing on the house and then she would stick the candies on. And then I kept noticing she would just stick her finger in the icing so she could eat it.

Her eyes are closed in pure bliss:

What's not to love? Sugary treats right after breakfast while still wearing Sponge Bob jammies. I hate Sponge Bob btw. But for $3 clearance jammies at Wal-Mart...you stop caring and just buy them. Stuff at the Goodwill or Resale stores costs more!

YUMMY! I put out all these different bowls for the candies. Next year...I won't be so organized. It's all just gonna get mixed up anyways!

She got the hang of this right away and had a blast sticking all the candies on...in between sticking some in her mouth!

Ahh...standing in the chair. This is why I like to keep her strapped in the booster seat or high chair. Then she can't get out!

I first told her we were gonna put the candy on the house and she dumped a whole bowl right on to it. :)

It only took about 5 minutes to ice the house together. The roof was broken in the box, but nothing a little icing didn't fix!

Stay tuned for more fun Christmas crap, err...crafts...that we've been making!

St. Nicholas Shoes

Today I am making St. Nick shoes with Claire. We will leave them "outside" aka in the garage since it's a little windy out...and St. Nick will come and put some goodies in them tonight while she's sleeping! Here's the pattern... http://www.stnicholascenter.org/stnic/assets/craft_shoes.pdf It's super easy. Have them color/decorate it while flat, then put it together.

I always did these with my German students when I was teaching, and it was huge hit. St. Nick usually brings lots of little things like pieces of candy, but I also found some totally plastic scissors and some water colors that "St. Nick" will be leaving Claire as well.

Craft time!

We go to story time at the library where the kids make a craft each week. This was the craft for the day before Thanksgiving. She has been having so much fun with it. She will put it in her toy microwave and heat up the food for her dolls. She also added stickers to it.

Stickers are great! Before she could really peel them off the sheets well, I would take off the "extra" sticker paper so she could take off easier. Now she can take them off just fine. If I need to buy myself some time without her underfoot, I just hand her a sheet of stickers and tell her to go share them with her big Barbie or a specific toy. She then sticks them all over.

She added these stickers to her Thanksgiving meal. I can't wait until she has a little brother to stick stickers on. We'll just have to teach her not to stick them on his little face! What fun that will be!

PS...the crafts they do at the library are always precut. They mostly consist of gluing with a glue stick and assembling, which of course I help her. She is getting really good at it though!