Have kids who love to paint and eat snacks? Then they will love this fun indoor activity!
Grab some marshmallows or popcorn, then make edible paint by mixing milk and food coloring together. For a thicker paint, try sweet evaporated milk.
After painting, sit out to dry for a pretty snack!
Pull out the food coloring and try it!
For more great ideas visit Living Locurto
Need Crafts? We have you covered with awesome summer crafts!
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The gifted Larissa from mmmcrafts is here sharing her amazing talents with an unbelievable 3D paper owl.
Larissa writes...
Left: art made with this tutorial, Right: art made with alternate colors
(see note at the end of the tutorial)
Hey, Craft Campers! I'm delighted to participate in this summer kid-craft lineup.
This 3D paper owl art project is for you and your crafty older kids, say around 11-ish years and up, who can wield a pair of scissors, handle smallish pieces and follow placement instructions carefully. Finished size of the art project is 8 x 10 inches.
Moms: You can definitely young this down by cutting out the shapes for younger kids, and skipping the pop dots and folding. Just cut off the folded flaps. You could also make just the owl and skip the whole background, and it will still be plenty o' fun!
Alrighty young crafters, here's what you will need to make the nighttime owl pictured above:
Got all that together? Let's make some mad paper art.
Step 1: Print out the pattern pieces!
Make a test print of the first page on regular paper and measure the guide box with a ruler to be sure you are printing at the correct size.
Once you are sure the scaling is good, follow the instructions on each page to print them on different colors of paper. You won't be printing on your yellow paper. NOTE: some will be printed on the front and some on the back of the page! If your paper is not textured and looks the same on both sides, don't bother with this.
Step 2: Score all your folds.
(the hand that would be holding the ruler was taking the picture, but you get the idea.)
There are three folds to score, two on the brown paper and one on the orange paper. Line up your ruler against the dotted line, and firmly score along the line using your butter knife. Do this a couple of times. This is making a nice dent in the paper so that when you bend the paper your fold will be easy and clean.
Step 3: Cut out one each of your pattern pieces with scissors.
Some of the pages will have duplicate pattern pieces, but these are extras just in case you mess up. When it comes to cutting, slow and steady wins the race. Here are some cutting tips for you:
Step 4: Punch out some circles.
Using a 1 inch punch, make three yellow circles. Using a 5/8 inch (or 1/2 inch) punch, make two black circles. Set them aside with the rest of the pieces.
If you don't have circle punches, use a compass or you can print the templates provided on the first page of the PDF file.
Step 5: Put the background together.
Use the glue stick on the back (the side with the lines) of the 8 x 10 inch dark teal piece. Get glue on all the edges and then zig zag it down the middle. Now place it on the letter sized piece of posterboard. It will probably stick better on the non-shiny side of the posterboard. Don't worry about lining it up with the edges, you'll be trimming the extra off. After you smooth it down, trim the extra poster board off the edges.
Use the glue stick on the back of the large black piece (the side without the oval on it). Carefully line it up with the left, top and bottom edges. Smooth it down.
Step 6: Put the owl together.
Hard to see here, but the guidelines will be showing on the red.
Use the glue stick on the back of the red oval (the side with no lines). Line it up with the oval guideline on the black piece and smooth it down. (Hopefully even though this is black paper you will still be able to see the guideline on the black like I can.)
Put two single pop dots on the back of the orange wing where shown. Line up the wing with the guideline on the red oval and stick it down. Ooh. It's 3D.
Cut a pop dot into quarters with scissors. Yep, that is small, but you don't want the pop dot to show from behind the beak. Put one tiny pop dot piece on the back of the black beak and place the beak on the light brown ruff using the guideline.
Use gel glue (less is more) on the black circles and place them in the center of two of the yellow circles. Now you have two owl eyes! Wait a minute or two for the gel to dry.
Place one pop dot in the middle of the back of both eyes. Stick them down over the guidelines on the light brown ruff piece.
Flip over the light brown ruff and put two single pop dots on the back. Place it on the red oval on the guidelines.
Now for the triangular orange...ears. Or whatever they actually are. Anyway, they look like ears. Fold the scored flap toward the pop dot side. Place two double pop dots where shown by the guide (double means two that are stacked together).
Flip it over and place it on the owl's head, centered with the beak and lined up with the remaining guideline. Man! Your owl looks wicked fierce. Make some hooing noises. You know you want to.
Step 7: Put the tree trunk together.
Flip your tree trunk pieces over to the blank side. Now, summon up your artistic muse and use a white or gray colored pencil to create bark lines all down the tree trunk. Curve them around the knot hole. Groovy. Very tree-like.
Fold the scored flaps toward the back and crease them. Unfold them.
Lay the left tree trunk bark side down, lined up to the left edge of the background. Tape it where the edges meet.
Place a stack of four pop dots on each place indicated.
Crease your flap again, then fold the whole piece carefully over and stick it down over the owl, making sure your fold is at right angles. Don't push it firmly down until you are sure the side is straight up and down.
Now repeat those steps for the other side, except this time line the right tree trunk up to the edge of the black paper on the right (NOT the edge of the art). Tape it where the edges meet. Place a stack of four pop dots on each place indicated.
Fold it over and stick it down over the owl, making sure your fold is at right angles before you press it down. The tree pieces should overlap slightly and hide the bottom of the owl. Voila! You are almost done!
Step 8: Put the moon and trees on.
Trim off 1/4 inch of the side of the remaining yellow circle. Put a pop dot on the back. Place it about an inch down from the top on the teal background, with the cut side against the tree trunk.
Put pop dots on the back of the black trees piece, three or four singles should do it. Place it lined up against the bottom edge and against the tree trunk.
Your awesome piece of 3D paper art is done! Step back and admire it. Whoooo's a paper artist? You are, that's who!
Want to do it again? Here are more options:
For more creative ideas please visit mmmcrafts!
Need Crafts? We have you covered with awesome summer crafts!
The creative trio from Little Birdie Secrets are sharing the most clever homemade butterfly net!
The three little birdies write.....
After having two boys, I've learned to love bugs. At least from afar. But my boys will pick up any insect they come across and want to know everything about it. This summer we plan to catch and categorize as many bugs as possible, so I made a simple butterfly net to aid us in the capture of insects of the Lepidoptera order.
Butterfly Net Tutorial
Supplies:
*Wooden dowel
*Wire hanger
*Piece of netting or tulle, about 22" x 32"
*Electrical tape (comes in many colors)
*Acrylic paint and foam brush (optional)
*Narrow ribbon
*Blunt yarn needle
*Sewing machine and thread
*Scissors
1. Start by painting your dowel (if you want) and letting it dry.
2. Take your wire hanger apart and bend into a circle about 9 inches in diameter, leaving long ends to wrap around dowel.
3. Fold your piece of tulle in half. Using a zig-zag stitch, stitch across the bottom and up the long side to create a bag.
4. Next, create a casing in the top of your tulle bag. On the open end, fold the top over about an inch and a half. Starting at the side seam, measure over about one inch and start zig-zag stitching around. Stop about one inch before you get back to the beginning. This leaves an opening to insert your wire hoop.
5. Thread your wire hoop through the net casing. I put a little electrical tape on the end of the wire to make it easier to thread through the netting.
6. With your net on the hoop, wrap and twist the ends of the hanger around one end of the dowel. Cut ends off with a wire cutter if necessary.
7. Cover the wire with electrical tape to make it sturdy (and to protect little hands from the ends of the wire).
8. To reinforce the net, I took a yarn needle and a narrow piece of ribbon and whip-stitched around the edge. Then I weaved the end of the ribbon around the dowel and tied it in a bow. It's a little cutesie for my boys, so this one may go to the nieces.
That's it! Go catch some bugs!
For more creative ideas visit Little Birdie Secrets!
Don't miss all the fabulous and fun summer crafts-
The talented Vanessa of V& Co. shows us how to make a neat snake out of a tie --- too cool!
Vanessa writes.....
lets face it summer can be a loooong period of time if we don't keep the kids entertained. am i right? so here's a super easy craft you can do with any age of child.
supplies for tie rattle snake:
*old tie
*stuffing
*pencil with and eraser
*hot glue
*a little bit of red felt for tongue
*wiggle eyes, or white and black felt for eyes
*optional: for rattle: small plastic container from vending machine 1/2 way filled with dried peas.
*you are going to get stuffing and stuff it in the tail (the small end of the tie)
*with the eraser part of the pencil you are going to push it down. keep adding stuffing till your tail half is filled with stuffing.
*then you are going to do the same to the other side (the bigger side) of the tie. do so till you get to the opening of the tie.
*you will notice there's a "silk" lining inside the tie, but that it only goes a little ways down. open up that flap and add just enough stuffing that you will be able to have a fluffy head but not too much that you can't close it.
caution: do the hot glue gun part yourself. kids might get burned with the hot glue gun...heaven knows i do!!
*hot glue gun your opening and the sides so it seals it completely down.
optional: if you want the tail to actually rattle get yourself one of those little plastic containers that those vending machines have, you know the little fake ring holder things. and add some dried peas to it. insert it to the tail and then continue with instructions!
*now hot glue gun the tail shut.
next we are taking the twine and we are going to start wrapping it around the tail for the "rattle"
as you wrap hot glue gun it down with little dabs of glue.
finish it by cutting off excess twine.
add eyes and tongue with hot glue.
done! my boys (especially the 6 year old) loves their snakes. the 6 year old takes him everywhere we go. 
thank you cindy for letting me be a part of your round up! please come visit my blog for more tutorials and my shop for patterns!
Don't miss all the fun summer craft ideas.
Cricut gave me one of their cartridges to review and let me say this one is fantastic! There are so many fun motifs! From swirls and flowers to even cupcake wrappers! Store bought cupcake wrappers can be really pricey! I love that I can now cut them out on my cricut!
I have been wanting some beautiful cupcake wrappers and Cricut made my wish come true. The Cindy Loo cartridge (great name huh?) has two designs.
All you do is cut (I cut at 2 1/2") and wrap!
Looking for a yummy strawberry frosting give this one from Martha a try. I loved the frosting (melts though in hot weather). The strawberry cupcakes were dense and without much strawberry flavor.
Makes enough for 1 dozen cupcakes
