Category: Everyday Learning

Failed Craft Projects

We’ve had several craft project disasters this week.

First there was the attempt at making salt dough with regular flour that made me sick. (Evidently breathing in gluten is worse than eating it for people with gluten sensitivities. Who knew?!) Above it as far as we got before the whole thing went into the trash.

Then we tried to make a gluten-free salt dough with cornstarch and that turned out to be a giant mess. We even followed a recipe, but to no avail! After we had tripled the amount of cornstarch and salt called for in the recipe in a last ditch attempt to save it, the whole thing suddenly turned into a feta cheese-like consistency and we knew the project was over.

I thought the whole activity was a disaster, however our daughter loved every moment of the messy, water play. Half-success?

Our next less-than-successful project: we tried to reveal secret messages (written in white crayon on paper) with water color paints. That sort of worked.

Unfortunately it wasn’t enough of a success to merit it’s own blog post or a place in our daughter’s new room.

Good thing we’re all about the process here in our house, rather than the final product.

Sigh.

So, how’s your week going?

Museum Map

In the past two months we’ve visited both the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the California Academy of Sciences here in the Bay Area. Both experiences were formative for our three year old and she frequently talks the magical things we saw there (dinosaur bones! penguins! (stuffed) lions! fish!).

Yesterday she announced that she needed a map for her upcoming (pretend) museum trip and so we immediately set about making one.

I was there for spelling help and letter forming support.

She picked the animals, designed the museum layout, and drew it herself (except for one word that I wrote, but I bet you spotted that one already!).

In our daughter’s world dinosaurs are alive and well, my friends. After reading the classic I Can Read Book, Danny and the Dinosaur, there was so convincing her that they are extinct. If Danny can ride a dinosaur around town, than so can my daughter.

After all, as I am frequently reminded, you can do anything in your imagination.

Embroidered Portrait Fun

I wanted to embroider something special to hang with the “create” felt banner I made for above the desk in our daughter’s new big girl room (similar to the “sweet dreams” felt banner above her bed).

I read about a portrait embroidery project in Country Living Magazine and couldn’t wait to try it. After printing out the photo that I would use as a template, I drew in pencil on the photo where I planned to embroider. I’m glad I used pencil because I drew and redrew the lines until I felt confident with the outline placement.

Then I taped the photo template to watercolor paper with scotch tape, placed it on top of some thick cardboard and used a thumb tack to punch holes into the watercolor paper to embroider. (See the Country Magazine link above for the complete directions).


Framed and ready to hang above her desk

I was nervous that the picture wouldn’t look like her, but I’m quite pleased with the final result. In fact, I like her embroidered portrait so much that I’m toying with the idea of making a family portrait for our bedroom.

Meanwhile, our daughter is busy embroidering a picture of her own design. I love it when inspiration hits!

Inspired by The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Yesterday I wrote about our daughter’s Very Hungry Caterpillar obsession. Today I want to share an in-progress art project that she spearheaded: her Very Own Hungry Caterpillar Board Book.


The blank board book is from Bare Books. The clip art comes from the The Very Hungry Caterpillar Activity Pad that also contains stencils and drawing paper. For more on that sticker maker machine, see our post here.