I have all of a sudden found yourself  surrounded by easter eggs with no chocolate hidden all over the house.  The chocolate have been long time gone but the eggs keep poping up.  I found mysef being too stingy to just throw them out.  I know I will be using them next year.  The problem arises from the fact that I live in a small house, well maybe the house is not too small but there in no storage, none.  So if there is going to be anything lingering around my house for another year it better have some sort of purpose.  I looked and search and now I found a purpose, for the empty egg containers at least.

You will need: liquid starch (available in the laundry portion of the grocery store), white glue, food coloring, plastic egg containers and corn starch (not pictured).

Into a bowl add 1tbs liquid starch

and 2tbs glue, mix

add 3 squeezes of desired food coloring,

mix and wait for 5 min

At that moment nothing happened to my silly putty.  I am not sure if the glue was too runny, the starch not shacken enough (honestly I did not shake the bottle at all)

So I ended up adding 1tbs of corn starch and mixing it continously.

All said and done I ended up adding about 3 tbs of corn starch to get to the consistency that I wanted.  I am sure it all had to do with the type of a glue I used, my altitude and my attitude.  I am just saying.

Since I already made you buy all this wallpapaper paste to make our Paper Bowls I decided to show you another craft that you can use it for.  These String Balls or Yarn Balls are fun to make and you can make them with any type of string yarn you have at home.  Of couse if you decide to make it with thread it make take a bit more time then expected.

You will need: sting/yarn, wallpaper paste, balloon and vaseline

Put the paste in a bowl and start dipping the string in it, moving around until the string is moist.

Blow up the balloon to a desired size and cover with a thick coat of vaseline.  You can make these small, you can make them egg shaped, you can make them huge it all depends on the balloon.

Start covering the balloon with string

when it is covered to your liking hang it somewhere for at least 24 hours or until dry.  The time will again will depend on the amount of the string used.

Now take a big knife and jab the balloon… well you can use something small but it would not look as good on the picture.

here you go…. now you got yourself some string balls… it almost sounds like a food post… would you like french fries with that?

They are fun to play with since you can shape them in different sizes

or just twirl them around a bit

until they twirl away from you.

In case you are wondering of another way to recycle newspaper here it is.  I understand that most likely we are no longer talking about newspapers per say since most people get their news on line, but magazines, ads and whatever other form of print that still comes through the mail box.  This is a fun craft and great for older kids, meaning school age not toddlers.

You will need balloons, vaseline, paper and wallpaper paste.  It is available in your home improvement shop.  I believe I bought something called trim paste.

Blow up the balloon to whatever size you want your bowl to be and cover it with vaseline.

next cover it with walpaper paste.  I think you can also buy the paste dried and mix it with water which may be easier for storage later

cover with the first layer of newspaper scraps

add more paste, and another layer of newspaper

continue for about 10 layers… I know that I lost count and just kept going and going…. I guess you can keep a tick sheet

let it dry for 24 hours or however long it takes based on the amount of layers.  Pop or remove from the ballon and  trim the edge with scissors

make a hoop from thicker material and cover with paste.  I think I used one of those subscription cards from a magazine.

cover with strips and paste, 

let dry

Now here is your final product.  Of course this is the basic version and you can make it a basket, or a bunny by adding ears and whiskers.  You can make the last layer white and let the kids paint on it, or black and make kids draw with chalk.  You can glue your favorite candy wrappers on top of it or even better pictures of your friends that are coming to dinner.  Then you will have a very special and silly bowl to put mints in.

Since Earth Day is approaching I decided to work on things we can make from all these recyclables that lay around the house.  I read this post and it got me thinking: what else?  what can I cut from aluminum cans to make them more fun.  And then it came to me, well kinda.  I have the idea but not enough time to truly implement it since there are kids and husbands and pets.  So here is the idea:

Take a washed aluminum can and cut the top and bottom off.

Using a paper puncher cut out a shape.  The great thing is that these paper punches come in huge variety of shapes and sizes.  They also make the edges dull therefore you do not need to worry about getting cut.

We cut out medium sized stars.

I used a pin tag to make holes.  Place the stars on a cutting board and push through, that’s it.  Then I used a fishing line to tie these pieces together but again the possibilities are endless.  You can use a thin rubber band, or fasteners like in earrings.

I think these could make very interesting earrings or a pendant.

This is a pair of earrings that my daughter purchased.  With a few different size hole punchers and few jewelry fasteners an hook you could have your favorite soda or beer earrings in a flash.

Again I am very creative but definitely not artistic, meaning my mind can think of things but I have two left hands and things do not look good made by them.  So please take this post and play around yourself.  If you make something nice please tell me about it or attach a photo.  I would love to see it.

In the Art History posts we will try to create mastepieces using different art techniques sometime similar to the ones that the artist used himself.  If all failes at least our children will be able to spot the works of Giacometti, Monet, Warhol, Pollock and others.  I personally love Art and grew up surrounded by it.  My parents where always avid collectors of art and antiques since that was the only for of “investment” in communist Poland.  Even now in our younger marriage my husband and I collected some incredible Primitive Art.  It is important to me that my kids understand and like Art because they will be forced to go to every museum that will be availble to us and it will be so much easier if they do not dread it.

Going back to Vincent va Gogh, a Dutch post-Impressionist painter whoes bright colored and emotionally charged painting which had profound effect on 20th centry art.     To recreate his painting we will need acrylic paints, white glue and brushes, forks etc.

Skatch your handscape onto a piece of paper.  I made a mistake here by using really thin watercolor paper.  Don’t do that.  Make sure you use beefy paper almost cardboard or else it will buckle when wet like in this experiment.

Pour the acrylics onto a plate or palette and mix with white glue until thick.  Approximately 50/50 ratio.

Now take your paint brush, fork and whatever else you are planing to use and lets get started.

Paint the clouds in blue swirls

Add white swirls around it, as well as a yellow/orange sun

Use the back of your paint blush to make it rougher

Use a fork to make the clouds more like Van Goghs

a stormy sky

Continue by making the trees.

Grass and sooner or later you will have your own masterpiece.  If you want to recreate specific Van Gogh art in this project I recommend:  The Starry Night or Wheatfield with Crows if you want less known paintings try The Sower, Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background.

I love this experiment.  Not because I do not know what happens to germs or greese when touched by liquid soap.  Not because I think my 2 not yet 2 1/2 year old toddlers will understand anything from this science experiment, but because those “germ” pieces scatter so fast that I know it will make my 2 year old boy laugh with excitment maybe she will laugh also.

All you need is a pan filled half way with water, black pepper and dish or hand soap.

Sprinkle some black pepper unto the dish.

This is too much pepper.  This way the pepper has no where to run to, no where to hide.

Put a drop of soap onto yours or toddlers finger.

Place the finger in the center of the pepper and watch as it flies away from the soapy finger.  Make sure that you tell your toddlers that germs just like pepper fly away from soap, and if the pepper makes them sneeze it will make the germs story more believable.  With older kids make the Mushroom Spores experiment to talk about germ spores instead.

It is officially Spring, well at least it feels like it here.  Well in some parts of the country it feels like summer but I am not easily fooled and do believe that something chilly will still come.  I did however decide to slowly work on my garden since it needs a lot of help.  Today I started seeding some flowers and herbs to make sure that the little ones get an understanding how nature works and spring happens.  Plus I wanted to recycle all those egg cartons that I have laying around after Easter, so many Eggs so little time. Time to start seeding for most colder/northern states is May-June for Southern April-May.  Of course with the weather we have been having this year you can pretty much forget the entire chart.

You can start with whatever you want but Pansy’s are really easy choice or if you live in a small apartment herbs are great for container gardening and cooking.  In your local nursery pick up whatever herbs/flowers/seedings you choose as well as a bag of Seed Starter. 

Fill the egg cups with seed starter and press them in slightly.

 Put a couple of seeds in each compartment.  Usually 3-5. I went a little overboard on this picture  probably because I was mesmerized by my reflexion, just like Narcissus.  Ohh how I love those flowers, they are like a prettier version of a Daffodil.

Cover these with water and wait till it steeps down and waters the carton.

You can have the kids decorate the carton by drawing, painting, gluing stuff on it.  I think it is great for them to know what the plant will look like when it blooms of in a case of herbs germinates.  There are so many ways to be creative here.  Make sure you cover them and place in a warm spot but not in direct sunlight.

I let my almost 2 1/2 year old twins decorate these two.  Of course it is not their writing or those flowers on the top carton but the doodles are.  You can see how different they are even in their doodling style.  She (top) was trying out ever single color to get the experience and was very detailed oriented in covering the space.  He (bottom) tried two markers and moved on to better things.

Mainly covering himself.  Thank Goodness these are washable… Are they?  Actually not sure… oh well…

It did not take my daughter very long to  follow.  She was again a little bit more detailed oriented meaning she will be scrubbed harder.

In order to make this bunny you will have to know or learn how to knit.  I know a novel idea since the post is called Knit a Bunny but just in case you are not sure what you are doing here.  Knitting is really easy and you can teach your 5 year old how to knit easily.  There are plenty of instuctions on the web of how to knit here are some good ones:

Knitting Instructions from the Yarn Co.- click here.

Here are some great videos.  I think most kids would prefer the English/American method.  For instructions click here.

Personally I think everyone should know how to knit.  You never know what will happen in life.  One day you may find yourself on a Island filled with sheep and no stores.  Or you may just want to make your children beautiful sweaters that no one else has, or in this case a Bunny.  I made this Bunny by doing a row of knit and a row of purl but a child can do it all in knits.

You need to cast and knit the following:

Body- 20 stiches, knit 170 rows (you can get a row counter but I could not find one in the store) so I made it about 170 rows, this is the body so it is up to you how big you will want it.  It will be folded in half and sewn on the sides.

2x Legs- 20 stiches each (we will fold them in half), knit 25 rows, again make them however long you want just make sure the Bunnies legs are even.

Fold the legs in half and sew one of the sides together.

2x Arms- 15 stiches each, knit 20 rows and also fold in half and sew up.

2x Ears- 10 stiches each,  I like the ears really long and skinny so I knitted another 100 stiches for ears.

Now once you sew up the sides of the ears it is not as easy to flip it to the other side so I used a pen to push it through.

Now you should have this:

I stuffed each of the body parts into a garbage bag and thew it into a landfill  with Poly-Fil filling available in your arts and crafts store.

Sew up the opening and attach it to the body.

To make it better looking I first attached it roughly to the body and then

sew it up again so it looks nicer.  I took the stiches that were further and folded the ugly stiching under.

Continue with the rest of the body… almost there.

Here he is finished with a bow.

Where is the Happy Bunny ?

You can decorate the Bunny by adding button eyes, knit hair and a pom pom for a tail.

Here are some fabulous Easter Themed Songs and Fingerplays for your Little Ones.

 ”Did you Ever See a Rabbit?” (Sing to the tune of “Did You Ever See a Lassie?”)

Did you ever see a rabbit a rabbit, a rabbit?

Did you ever see a rabbit on Easter Morn?  He hops around quitely and hides all the eggs.

Did you ever see a rabbit, on Eastern Morn?

“Easter Eggs” (Sing to the tune of “Jingle Bells”)

Easter eggs, Easter eggs, Hidden all around.

Come my children look around and see where they are found.

Easter eggs, Easter eggs, What a sight to see.

One for Tammy and one for Tom and a Special one for me!!! (insert your kids names)

Source: Creative Resources by Judy Herr and Yvonne Libby

Five Little Easter Eggs- Fingerplay

Five little Easter Eggs lovely colors wore; Mother ate a blue one and then there were four.

Four little Easter Eggs, two and two, you see; Daddy ate the red one and then there were three.

Three little Easter Eggs, before I knew;  Sister ate the yellow one, and then there were two.

Two little Easter Eggs, oh what fun; Brother ate the purple one, and then there was one.

One little Easter Egg; see me run !! I ate the last one, and then there were none !  (you can point to different color eggs when reciting)

Source: Fingerplays that Motivate by Don Peck

Easter Bunny

Easter Bunny, Easter Bunny (make “ears” at your head with your arms)

Pink and white

Come fill my basket (make filling motion)

Overnight (pretend to sleep, lay head on your hands)

Source: Let Your Fingers do the Talking by Kathy Overholser.