How To Make A Marble Fun Run

Fun, fun, fun!   One of the best ideas I've seen.   Kids will love this!   

Visit Family Fun for the complete how to.   

And here is another marble run from Serving Pink Lemonade.   Great idea!

How To Make A Cardboard Pirate Ship

Every Tuesday is Art Tuesday at our house.   Eric and I get together and create.   Now I know what next weeks craft will be.    We'll make our own pirate ship out of the left over boxes from Christmas.   Free, fun creativity!   Combine the ship with some action figures and he'll have a great time! 

Thanks to ikatbag for the sweet tutorial and idea!   Visit ikatbag here. 

Learning how to make an airplane

Today we made our own airplane out of cardboard. 

With the idea in mind of teaching my son how to safely use an exacto knife 

and a hot glue gun I made up this pattern for an airplane.

Then today, He used my pattern and designed his own. 

First he cut out the pattern pieces and traced them on to the cardboard

Well done!   Now he plans on building an army tank on his own.

Stuff you can make out of paper

 I have always wanted to make a paper bowl.  I think I'll use photos from an Anthropology magazine then use it to put my keys and spare change in. 

http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2009/04/mod-podged-paper-bowl.html

 Empty Walls?   Use vintage magazine adds and a blank canvas to make your own original artwork.   Easy and fun to do!

http://www.chrisglass.com/journal/decoupage/

Make a bowl from recycled magazines

 http://alittlehut.blogspot.com/2007/09/recycle-project-no-7-magazine-bowl.html

Make a box out of playing cards.

http://stampowl.blogspot.com/2007/08/playing-card-box-tutorial.html

A paper Basketball hoop and Basketball

http://cp.c-ij.com/en/contents/2023/basketball-game/index.html

A pop up Christmas card.

http://www.robertsabuda.com/popmakesimple.asp

Bookmarks out of vintage fabric.

 http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2007/07/bookmarks-with-vintage-fabric.html

Fold some paper stars.

http://www.marthastewart.com/good-things/paper-star

 Make a tissue paper collage.   Don't you love the colors!   It would be beautiful hanging in a window.

http://www.creativejewishmom.com/2010/07/remembering-yerushalayim-a-tissue-paper-collage-for-tisha-bav.html

 Make a gift bag out of newspaper

http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2010/07/how-to-make-gift-bags-from-newspaper.html

Make a tiny mans dress shirt and tie out of a dollar. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj-x1vXF3XU&feature=related

and if you get stuck, here: 

http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2010/04/essential-life-skill-money-origami.html

A mini bunting birthday card. 

http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2010/01/mini-bunting-birthday-card.html

Alyce's Miniature Puppet Theatre

Today we made a miniature puppet theatre and painted little people. 

Hours and hours of creative fun.

I started out with a packing box of thin cardboard, a ruler, pencil, Exacto knife (with a lot of blades), 

and tape.  And a glue gun at the end to add the trim if you want to cover the tape. 

Figuring in my head about how large I wanted it to be (based on the height of my grandson)

I cut out the base, made a support for inside and taped it all together securely

Based on how tall I wanted it to be I cut out and attached the back

securely with tape. 

Based on the back height I then cut out the two front sides of the stage

Next cute out and attach the top.  

Using a lot of tape is the secret.  (You can cover the tape later if you want to)

I used more detailed cut out pieces to cover up most of the tape and give it character.

Here's the finished theatre and my job is done. 

And now Eric's job begins!

Acrylic Painting FUN!!!

Eric's very own Puppet Theatre!

Now, let's paint some wooden people.

And cut out some puppets

Hours and hours of fun - 

We are going on 8 hours and the excitement hasn't faded one bit. 

This creative craft is a hit! 

What I learned:

1. After watching Eric play with this toy all day the best part are the front embellishments on each side of the stage because they formed a trap that he could drop his painted men in to and then dump them out.   A castle with traps and hiding places would be a fun project.
2. Use plenty of tape and make it sturdy so it can withstand vigorous play. 
3. Don't make it to large.