Valentine Craft or Cards - Potato Heart Prints

Slice off a bit of your potato. Carve (Carefully!) a heart. Print away! Great for making WRAPPING PAPER, or VALENTINE's DAY CARDS or for just having FUN!

Apple or Thumb Pumpkin Prints

An apple sliced in half and dipped in orange paint will print a terrific pumpkin shape! Let them go crazy making the pumpkin shapes and then have fun giving them different expressions!


Could also make pumpkins using orange THUMBPRINTS! Place your child's thumb in orange paint and then print three or four thumbprints in a row to make a pumpkin. Do several sets on one page and it is a PUMPKIN PATCH!


Expressions could be made using a Marker, Crayons, Paint or a Potato could be cut into small triangle shapes to be dipped in black paint to create the pumpkin features.

Have Fun!

Recycling and Upcycling Children's Artwork

Great gifts & ideas for any occasion

(and keeps the clutter to a minimum!)

Mail to various relatives (especially those without children)

Cut & fold into envelope shape. Affix address with a label. What a funky piece of mail to receive!

Make a calendar from your home printer

Take a picture of artwork and using website (like Walmart or other similar one) upload to use on:
mug, mouse pad, calendar, greeting cards, notepads, tote bags, and anything else they will put a photo on

Cut up artwork into strips or squares and let child glue onto paper for a newly designed piece of artwork - or put onto a greeting card!

Cut into squares, punch a hole in corner for a gift tage

Mat and frame the artwork

Wrapping paper

Cut up into strips for bookmarks: laminate or glue onto cardstock. Punch hole in top and thread yarn through.

Create greeting cards

Laminate for use as a placemat

Transfer or trace onto fabric then embroider and make tea towels, napkins, quilts, sachets, and small pillows

Cut into puzzle pieces and let child put it together again

Decoupage it onto any wooden, metal or glass items (wood tray, a box, a frame, a set of drawers, metal can, cardboard can (like from hot chocolate), glass votive holders, glass canisters, etc.

Cut into squares to make a memory matching game

Glue to wooden shape or cardstock and place magnet on back

Cut into strips to make a linked chain garland.

Print on fabric to use for: pillows, quilt squares, sachets, appliques, pot holders, fabric coasters, tea towels, tote bags, and aprons

Cover a blank book or journal

Use artwork (or photo of it) in place of the photo on a photo keychain

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Taking pictures of the artwork is a great way for storing them without taking up the space they normally would!

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Salt Dough Recipe

Use this for Halloween Decorations, Christmas Ornaments & Decorations, Gift Tags, Placecards, Necklaces, Lapel Pins, Magnets, etc. Could hot glue small ornaments to Greeting Cards too!

Toddler can help mix up the ingrediants, make some 'creations', and/or paint your creations. A project for any age!

½ cup salt
1 cup flour
½ cup water

1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.

2. Mix together, salt, flour, and water until dough is formed.

3. Knead the dough on a floured surface until the mixture is elastic and smooth.
If dough is too sticky, sprinkle with flour, continue to do so until stickiness is gone. Do not add too much flour, this will dry out the dough and will cause it to crack before you get a chance to bake it.

4. Roll out the dough to about ¼” thick with a rolling pin that has been dusted with flour.

5. Use cookie cutters to cut out as many shapes as you want.

6. Use a toothpick to make a hole toward the top of the shape. Poke the toothpick into the shape, then holding toothpick straight up and down, make a circular motion as if you were stirring something. Keep circling until the hole is the size you want. Or insert a paperclip.

7. Place all shapes onto an ungreased cookie sheet and place into the preheated oven.

8. Bake for 2 hours.

9. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

10. Paint.

11. When paint is dry, use glitter glue or glitter paint to put a sparkling cover coat on your ornaments.

12. Spray with varnish

13 When dry, thread ribbon through hole and tie in a knot in the back.


Tips, Techniques, Ideas:
http://www.angelfire.com/mo/creativeclutter/saltornaments.html

TIPS ON COLOURING DOUGH:
* Food colouring (red, green, blue, or yellow). Two or more food colours can be combined to make different colours and shades or for a marbled dough effect.

* Add spices that act as natural dyes e.g. cinnamon, curry powder, saffron or paprika.

* Add cocoa powder or instant coffee for different hues of brown.

* Wearing protective gloves add a little paint to the mixture then knead the dough until the paint is uniformly distributed through the mix.

Some pictures taken from the internet as ideas & examples:

Items to Paint?

* Paper (use the artwork for birthday cards for the grandparents or other relatives!)

* Large smooth Rock

* Large piece of Birch Bark

* Wooden Items (birdhouses, small boxes, picture frames, etc.)

* Cardboard containers (like those Hot Chocolate is in with plastic lid)

* Large pieces of paper to use to wrap gifts

* Lampshade (buy a used one and let kids have a hand at helping to decorate their room)

* Terracotta Pot



Using Special Glass Paints:

* Clear Glass Plate ( paint on underside of plate )

* Glass Jar (could be used for candy, cotton balls, change, etc.)

Painting Tools & Textures

Put a dab of paint on a plate. Add a squirt of dishwashing soap (for increased washability) and let them try these items for some interesting effects!

.
Potato Masher

Q-Tips

Bingo Dabber ------>

Drinking Straw (for making circles - not drinking the paint!)

Cookie Cutters

Toothbrush

Sponge

Toy Car (drive through the paint to make tracks!)

Thread Spool

Toothpicks

Twigs

Wild Flowers ------->

Stones

Acorns

Leaves

Feather

Hands, Fingers, Feet!


Also try food items as stamps:

Corn on the cob

1/2 Potato (Mom can carve into various shapes for fun stamps too)

1/2 Apple

1/2 Red or Green Pepper (obviously the colour doesn't matter!)

1/2 mushroom

Add to Paint for Texture:

Sand

Sawdust

Cornstarch

Flour

Bathtub Paints

2T liquid soap
1T cornstarch
Food Colouring (just a drop, mix, then see if you need more)

Mix up and put in ice cube trays.
This will float in the tub and they can fingerpaint!

if they dunk it in the water, the paint gets too watery and won't be easily applied with fingers - perhaps a paint brush would still work though.

Poster Paint Tips

My parenting magazine recommended storing Non-Toxic Poster Paint in baby food jars. Adding a squirt of dishwashing detergent helps take out future paint stains.

Fun & Unusual paint brushes could be toothbrushes, sponges, plastic scrubber, Qtip, etc.

Homemade Finger Paint Recipe

Found these great & simple recipes for homemade fingerpaint:
(I suggest having them wear one of your old shirts - this will completely cover their outfit or using a smock)



Fingerpaint:
1 cup Flour
1 cup Water
1 tsp Salt
Food Colouring

Stir up and let them at the paper!
(This one is quite goopy/slimey which is half the fun!)


Muffin tin works great for having many small doses of colour - also try a foam egg carton or ice cube tray!

ALSO:

Kool-Aid Finger Paint:
2 Cups Flour
2 pkgs. Unsweetened Kool-Aid
1/2 Cup Salt
3 Cups Boiling water
3 Tbsp. Oil
Mix wet ingrediants into dry. *Kids will like watching it magically change colour!

Recipes for Paint, Playdough, and FUN!

WATERCOLOR PAINTS
1 T. vinegar
1 T. baking soda
Stir for 1 minute and add:
Food coloring
4T. cornstarch
1T. corn syrup


GOOP Mix:
2 c. white glue
1 1/2 c. water
Stir in separate bowl: 1/3 c. water and 1 T. Borax
Add Borax mixture to glue mixture and mix with hands. It will take a bit. This becomes like Silly Putty and will even take imprints from newsprint!

Edible!! PEANUT BUTTER PLAYDOUGH
1 c. peanut butter
1 c. dried milk
1/2 T. honey
Knead together well. Good dough for small children as it's good to eat too! Store airtight.

SILLY PUTTY
2T. white glue (glue all type)
food coloring
1T. liquid starch
Pour glue into a small bowl. Mix in food coloring of choice. Cover with liquid starch. . .pulling away the sides of the glue. DO NOT STIR! Let this sit for 5 mins. Squeeze out the starch and knead until the right consistency.

KOOLAID CLAYDOUGH
1 package Koolaid (the kind where you add the sugar yourself)
1 cup flour
1/4 cup salt
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tbsp alum/cream of tartar
1/2 cup hot water
Dissolve everything except the flour in the HOT water. It has to be hot to dissolve all that salt. Then add the flour, mix, and knead. Resist the temptation to add a little more flour because it's too sticky just keep kneading.

SQUISHY BAG:
3c Water 4T Cornstarch
Food Colouring Ziploc Bag

Boil water. In separate bowl, add cold water to cornstarch to make a paste. Slowly add to boiling water. Cook and stir until thick. Add food colouring and allow to cool. Pour into Ziploc bag and seal.
OR: non-cooking alternatives are Ketchup, Mustard, Relish, Hair Gel, Lotion, Shaving Cream etc.

MAGIC MUD:
Put into bowl: 1 Box Cornstarch
Add just enough water to be able to stir. Add in food colouring.


Face Paint:
1/8 C. Baby Lotion
1/4 Tsp Powdered Tempera paint
1 Squirt liquid Dishwashing Soap
Mix Up. *test small amount to be sure of no reactions* Remove with soap & water

Bubble Mix:
1/2 cup Water
1/2 cup Liquid Detergent
1 Tblsp Cooking Oil

PUFF Paint:
Mix equal parts of FLOUR, SALT, & WATER. Add food colouring or Tempura Paint to colour. Put into a squeeze bottle and paint away. Drawing will puff as it dries.