It's nearly time for school to start. Violet starts kindergarten next week and Henry starts back at preschool the following week. We've had so much fun this summer with beach trips, visits to the zoo and art museum, train, trolley and carousel rides, creature finding, parades, fruit picking and ice cream making, puppet shows, plays, pools and of course painting...It's been a fun and busy summer. We've sure made the most out of our time together!
And there have even been a few projects that we've worked on that you haven't seen yet...thanks to some of my favorite bloggy friends and their fabulous ideas!
First, we made some boats...
We raided our recycling bin (all sorts of plastic bins and bottles) and craft supplies (origami paper, gorilla tape, contact paper, craft sticks...) and used my friend Caroline's (of Salsa Pie) ideas for making toy boats which she shared in this sweet and fun video as a part of PBS Parents Crafts for Kids series. These were so much fun to make. We had a ton of fun experimenting and trying out different things. We tested our boats in a wash bin as we were making them and once we were satisfied we took them out for the real test...
Some did better than others, all floated, some just floated upside down...
We found a great place to launch our boats when we were on a bike ride (and taking pictures of Violet's new shorts), it has a great place for launching and for catching too!
We've still got our boats saved, they may make another trip out this week...
Shortly after our boat experimenting we had a fun experience of watching our neighbor's tree get cut down...
It was a giant tree! We were lucky enough to score a slice of it's trunk...which we quickly used to turn one of our already existing stumps into a table...
And, with a new table, we needed a fairy tea set to go with it! We used the last mini magazine, papier mache tea set, from Crafting Connections and made ourselves little tea sets...
We used origami paper and empty yogurt containers for bowls and cups and cardboard circles for plates.
Instead of papier mache we used the same method we used for our scrappy fabric bowls, but with paper this time. Violet and Henry took great care making this little tea set (well, we all did because, as with the boats, I joined in the fun too!). Their patience for the project was amazing, we worked on these for a bit over an hour! Their patience was lost, however, when we had to wait for them to dry! But, once they did they were so happy with the results...
And they eagerly sipped some "tea" as soon as they could
And got busy making fairy food...
This tea set has sparked many many fairy meals in our backyard this summer.
Last, but certainly not least, I made traveling peg people families...
Days before we left for the beach I saw this tutorial for Clothespin Wrap Dolls, from This Heart of Mine. Amy's are so, so adorable! I fell in love with them the moment I saw them, and then, of course, needed to make some for our trip!
A few weeks ago I picked up these fun little tins at Michaels thinking that they might be useful for something...It turns out that they fit a little family of 5 peg dolls perfectly. I added some felt skirts and bows to mine...and on the bottom, with a touch of hot glue I added a magnet...
The magnet with the tin box made them more stable in the car...Look see, they are upside down!
Violet and Henry loved these. When I pulled their surprises out of their bags on our car trip they smiled and happily began to tell stories about their new little families. Of course, they are great fun to play with out of the car as well...
Just because summer is coming to a close doesn't mean we will stop crafting of course...but summer always gives us a little bit of extra crafting time.
Please go and check out these tutorials, the end results are adorable and a ton of fun! Tell Caroline, Andrea, Danielle, and Amy I sent you!
Have a great day.
