A Crafty Summer

We've been keeping busy this summer - very busy. But in our downtime, we've tried a bunch of new crafts. Here are just a few:

1. Caterpillars out of egg cartons. They added paper towel wings to make butterflies - beautiful!

2. Painting sticks. First we painted them white, then we added the color. We stood them up against the fence outside! Who needs flowers in the garden, when you can get your color from sticks?! This simple project was some of the most fun we've had - it was messy and it took a long time.

3. Tissue paper butterflies. I cut butterfly shapes out of cardstock, then the girls painted them with a glue/water mixture. Then they sprinkled small torn pieces of tissue paper all over the glue. When the whole thing was covered with tissue paper, they put another light layer of glue on top. We attached some string and hung them in the windows - so pretty!

4. Butcher paper - have you ever noticed that coloring is more fun when it's on really big paper? I traced their bodies and then left them alone to do the rest - these are so great I have them hanging in the stariwell.

5. Recycled art. A castle out of a cardboard box and a wrapping paper tube; a house out of an orange juice container. These are the perfect size for Polly Pockets!

We've also painted seashells that we found at the beach. And then we put glue on some and sprinkled on glitter - they were gorgeous! Abby has been enjoying color by numbers. We've done a ton of painting - watercolors, tempura, acrylic, oils. We've made flowers out of coffee filters, vases out of McDonald's milk containers, and more flowers with beads and construction paper. We've made necklaces and bracelets and even tried braiding beads into our hair. If you had told me 10 years ago that I'd be doing crafts with my children soon, I definitely wouldn't have believed you, and I might have gotten sick to my stomach! But they've certainly brought out a creative side that I didn't know existed.