Wrapping Presents

Here's a sweet idea for grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other relatives. Take a piece of finger paint paper and have your child paint the paper. Let it dry and use it as wrapping paper for the presents. Trust me, everyone will go crazy over it.

Door snowman

Easy and fun holiday decorations are always a winner in my book. I found a picture on Pinterest of a snowman on a door and loved the idea. I actually made one for the outside first and since Monkey was so in love with the snowman, we made another for the inside of the door so we didn't have to keep opening the door and saying hi everyday.

Necessary Items
 Sheets of fleece or felt - black, orange, and whatever color for the scarf.
 Tape - I used double sided
 Scissors

Step One
  Trace circles on black for eyes, mouth and buttons. Of course, make the eyes bigger than the buttons, We needed three sheets of black for all the buttons, eyes and mouth pieces. Cut out pieces.

Step Two
  Fold the scarf color in half and cut. Do the same for the other sheet. We used two sheets of our scarf color. On one half that you cut, cut fringe at one end.

Step Three
  Take the orange sheet and at whatever angle or size you choose, cut the nose out.

Step Four
  Take pieces and place them on the door. Start with the eyes and get them placed where you like.

Step Five
  Place the nose, mouth and buttons.

Step Six
  Place the scarf.

You can also put a hat with the snowman, but I didn't want to block up our window too much. Happy decorating everyone!!

Here's the original link.

Mini Christmas Trees

Getting in tune with the Christmas spirit is so much fun! We made mini Christmas tree's from pine cones that I got off the WU Campus. I originally wanted to make bird feeders from them as I have done in the past but I didn't have any bird seed, so I found another post that suggested a different idea. These turned out a hundred time cuter that I imagined, so here it is.

Necessary Items
 pine cones
 glue
 pom-poms

Step One
  Dab glue on pom-pom

Step Two
  Place pom-pom on pine cone

Step Three
  Repeat. A lot.

Here's the original link.

Happy crafting!

Candy Canes Ornaments

Red and white are those iconic colors of Christmas for candy canes. I found a pin that showed a craft that I thought would be a cute present for relatives and it could be something that Monkey can do all by herself, for the most part.

SO we are going to make candy cane ornaments.

Necessary Items
 Green Pipe Cleaners (I really do have a love for pipe cleaners)
 Red and White plastic beads
 Glue
 Scissors

Step 1
  Cut one green pipe cleaner in half to create the base for two candy canes.

Step 2
  Bend over a small portion of the pipe cleaner to keep the beads from falling off.

Step 3
  Start sliding on the red and white beads alternating colors to create the candy cane pattern.

Step 4
  Once the pipe cleaner is almost full, bend the other end of the pipe cleaner.

Step 5
  Shape the beaded pipe cleaner into the shape of a candy cane.

Step 6
  This step is optional, but I would suggest it, I glued the ends of the pipe cleaners to the keep the beads from falling off.

 Candy canes!!

My inspiration was a picture that I found on Pinterest, but the link it came to is in a different language that I don't speak or read, so I just kind of guessed what we needed.

Holiday Season!!

Here we are again coming into another holiday season so prepare yourselves for the overload of Christmas music, shopping, and "cheerful" people. Personally, I try to not stress over the Christmas season just because I'm more looking forward to the food and spending time making presents for family. I've got loads of ideas for Christmas crafts to do with monkey and give away as presents. We've also got a couple of ideas just for decorations for the holiday season. Hope everyone has a special Christmas and is able to spend a lot of time with family and friends. 

More Pipe Cleaner Fun!

Personally, I love pipe cleaners. They're cheap and can be used for multitudes of crafts. Did I mention, they're cheap. So as I've said before, I really try to find as many projects that allow me to spend the least amount of money and reuse things that I already have. This project uses a plastic bottle of any kind. One that is taller is preferred and some cut up pipe cleaners and a magnet. Depending on how old your child is, you'll want a magnet with a handle or one they can hold on to easily. You'll also want to make sure the magnet is strong enough to grab enough pipe cleaners at one time. 

Necessary Items
 Colorful pipe cleaners
 Plastic bottle
 Magnet
 Scissors
 Helpful assistant

Step One
   Cut up pipe cleaners. You'll want them to be smaller than an inch but I didn't measure them exactly. You just want to make sure that there is enough room for movement inside the bottle.

Step Two
   Have assistant put cut up pipe cleaners in the bottle. Work on those fine motor skills.

Step Three
   Tight cap to bottle and give assistant magnet.

Step Four
   PLAY TIME!!

 The magnet that I had wasn't all that strong, so I'm going to be getting a stronger one for monkey to use. But, this craft was fun. She loves playing with the different colors, so it was good practice with her picking out the colors and saying the names.

Here's the original link that I found it from.

Sensory Bottle

I grew up playing with glitter wands. They would float gently towards the bottom end just to be flipped back over and glide back. Well, I found a cheap way to make my own version of this toy with clearance items from the craft store and up-cycling a pop bottle. Plus, it took 10 minuets to do and Monkey had fun picking out which goodies went in.

Supplies
 1 empty, cleaned bottle
 water
 confettie
 small, plastic beads
 strips of ribbon
 pom-poms
 glue

Step 1
 Cut small strips of ribbon

Step 2
 Set out supplies for toddler to place in bottle

Step 3
 Once all the goodies are in the bottle, fill with water and glue on the cap. Make sure to twist it tight and give about five minuets to dry.

Step 4
 Play! Shake, flip or roll the bottle. Watch the goodies float around and enjoy!

 These are super fun and so easy. They are great to have on hand and can be made in any empty bottle with a lid. Try adding glitter or food color to the water for more fun.

Here's the original post

Slim!

This one is super easy! It has two basic ingredients, glue and liquid starch. We did this on a cooler day and it was so easy and fun.

Supplies
 2 bottles of clear glue ( I used Elmer's Clear School Glue) You'll need about 1 1/2 cups so 2 bottles is pretty close
 1 1/2 cups of liquid starch
 food colors
 bowls for mixing and playing

Step 1
 Pour glue into bowl

"Hmm."

Step 2
 Add liquid starch

Step 3
 Mix. Start to squish together the ingredients. It may take awhile to get the right consistency of slime but just work it with your hands for awhile.

Step 4
 Divide the slime into however many different colors you want and add the food colors. A little goes a long way, so only use one or two drops.  I just made four different colors.

"Blue! Green!"

Step 5
 Mix some more.

Step 6
 Play!!

Plop!

 Granted this was messy, Monkey had fun. The slime got to a point where it was all about the same greenish color and she was covered in her new creation. Happy crafting!

Here's the Original Post

Pipe Cleaner Stamps

My daughter loves to finger paint and I've been trying to find other ways for her to paint along with using her fingers. As usual, I found an idea on Pinterest and decided to give it a try. After taking trip to hobby lobby and convincing my grandmother, who installed a love of crafting in me, to join us. We had a day planned for group finger painting.


Needed Supplies

• pipe cleaners
• finger paint (I prefer Crayola)
• containers for paint (Paper plates work well)
• Paper (There is specially made finger paint paper, but any will do)
• Child cover
• Energetic Child 

Step 1
 Take the pipe cleaners and start to make different shapes and animals. We made a couple different hearts, a diamond, a firework, a fish, and a bunny. Get creative and try to make some other shapes or animals.

Step 2
 Put paint into containers. I used Styrofoam bowls that I had handy but anything that the stamps can sit flat in would work.

Step 3
 Prepare toddler. I have an apron that she wears when we do messy projects. It was a cheap one from the dollar store so I don't have to worry about ruining it.

Oh the excitement.

Step 4
 PAINT!!!

What's this?

Green

Messy! I love messy.

Final product one.

Final product two.

Step 5
 Clean up toddler and let pictures dry. I put all of her paintings up on our walls because I want her to feel proud of them and let's face it, I can't afford actual art.

Monkey really enjoyed this new take on painting, but I honestly think she just enjoyed making a big mess.

Here's the Original Link.

Welcome!

Welcome to Mommy and Monkey Crafting. The majority of the post will be crafts done with my little monkey. My daughter is very energetic as any other toddler and I'm always looking for easy and fun things to do with her that don't involve the television or anything with batteries. I've grown up with a love of crafting and hope to pass that passion onto my daughter.
I will admit that the majority of ideas will be from Pinterest due to the fact that I'm addicted to the site, but I will add the links to the original posts in the blogs.