Tuesday Tot Craft Time: Dress Me Up Scarecrow

This is an oldie but a goodie.  We did this one last year, but it was fun making a new one with friends.

We took one paper with the outline of a person on it and one paper with a hat, shirt, and overalls on it.  While I cut out the person, my son colored the clothes.

My son is really into using scissors when I let him, so he cut out the overalls.  Then he let me cut out the hat and the shirt.  Then he glued them all on his person.

Here is his scarecrow.

Here is his friend's scarecrow (yes she likes pink). 

Tuesday Tot Craft Time: Spiders

For Halloween, make some spiders with your child.  The spiders above and just below were made with construction paper.  Just cut an oval out of black paper, and cut 8 strips of black paper (spiders have 8 legs).  Fold those 8 strips like a fan.  For the eyes you can use construction paper or google eyes.  Spiders can have 2 and more eyes.  Many have 6 eyes.  Punch a hole at the top to hang from the ceiling.  Just glue all the parts together.  My son wanted his spiders to have 6 legs and 6 eyes.  The one below was from last year and the one above was made this year.

Here is my tutorial on how to make this egg carton spider.  My (at the time) 3 year old helped me make them.

These chenille stem lollipop spiders were made by my swap partner spookycuddles.  She just wrapped short lengths of chenille stems around the lollipops and then glued on some sequins. 

We bought this spider cupcake last October.  The legs are black licorice, the eyes are red hots, and the frosting has black sprinkles on it.  Kids will love to help make these creepy treats.

And I just thought that I would share a couple of my spider photos.

This one was taken by my husband.

Tuesday Tot Craft Time: Yertle the Turtle

When we were at the smaller library in town, my librarian friend let the kids color these cute little turtles that you can fold and stack on top of one another.  She said that they went along with the Dr. Seuss story Yertle the Turtle.  So we check out that book and read it for bed time that night.  Now we look at these little stacked turtles in a new way.  My son had a great time coloring them and stacking them.

Tuesday Tot Craft Time: Apple Crown

The first preschool drop in craft time at our library this season is one that we did there last year, but it is still a fun one.  My son made an apple crown in celebration of apple season and Johnny Appleseed's birthday.  They provided us with 3 different colored apple cut outs and 2 stripes of brown paper.

The kids colored their apples with markers.

This was my favorite apple that my son colored.

I stapled the two brown stripes together and then stapled them in the right places around his head.  Then I stapled the 4 apples around his crown.  This was a fun craft for the kids to do.  We are looking forward to the next one.

Projects from Class

Last Thursday I taught a juice pouch notebook class at the East Branch of the Somerville Library.  It was a full class (15 kids), and everyone walked away with a juice pouch notebook.  I made an orange Kool Aid one.  Then 5 of the kids stayed longer and made paper beads to add as a tassel on their notebooks.  Four of the kids were girls, and they wanted to learn how to make paper bead bracelets.  So I did a mini demo of how to make them, and sent them home with supplies.  My demo bracelet is in the above picture.  Here is a past blog post that shows what the bracelet looks like when finished.  That particular bracelet was made as an example for another class at the other branch of the Somerville Library.  One of the kid's brother asked if he could have it, and how could I say no?  :)  

Tuesday's Tot Craft Time: Batik Wall Hanging & A Crown

We went back to the American Textile History Museum on Sunday.  The kids' room still has Cambodian inspired crafts.  We did not try the batik wall hanging during our last visit, so we tried it this time.

I wrapped the fabric around a straw, and glued it in place.  Then my son put several stickers on it.

Next he colored over and around the stickers with a marker.

Then we removed the stickers to reveal the batik.  It is not a traditional batik, but it is perfect for little kids.  I ran a piece of yarn through the straw, tied a knot, and now its hanging on a door knob in our house.

My son made one of these crowns during out last visit.  It was so much fun that he wanted to make another one.

First I traced the crown template onto a stiff piece of felt.  Then my son went about adding fun things to it.  Then I punched a hole on each side, and attached some string.

He loves his new crown.

Kool Aid Dyeing

This morning I wound the wool that I won at the auction on my ball winder. Now I'm trying to figure out a one skein project to make out of it.

My friend is out of town this week, so I taught the Sunday school Kool Aid dyeing class by myself today. That also meant prepping the yarn and the dyes. Here is the wool soaking in a warm water and vinegar bath. After it soaked for a while, I rung out a lot of the water and used a salad spinner to drain out some more water. It was still damp when I put it in a zip lock bag to transport to the church.

I filled these squirt bottles with warm water. I used a funnel to add about a tablespoon of vinegar to them.

I used 3 packages of Kool Aid to make the yellow, orange, purple, and blue dyes. Two packages were used to make the red dye. I added some yellow food coloring for the yellow. The green dye was made from the gel food colors.

Here is the undyed damp wool all ready for the kids to dye it.

I tested the dyes on a paper towel. This also gave me the chance to go over the color wheel with the kids. How to make the secondary colors, and how the opposite colors combined make brown.

There were only three 5th graders in the class today.

They had a lot of fun dyeing the yarn. Instead of a story afterwards, we made matchbook notebooks out of food boxes. They loved it. One boy made 11 notebooks.

The kids did not use up all of the dye. There was at least half a bottle of each color left over. So I was able to dye 2 more skeins in my home today. Here is my purple, orange, and red skein of the fisherman's wool.

Here is my blue, green, and yellow dyed skein. So pretty and very soothing to the eye.

This is the one that the kids dyed today.

After the wool is dyed, the excess water is drained/squeezed out of it. The salad spinner helps with this. Then it is steamed in a large pot on the stove for 20 to 40 minutes, like steaming frozen vegetables. Then it is soaked in some warm water with some laundry detergent for 10 minutes. Then it is soaked again in some warm water minus the laundry detergent for another 10 minutes. Both times I agitated the wool, yet I was careful not to felt it. Then I wrung out the water, and used the salad spinner a few times to remove more water. They are hanging up to dry right now.