Heart crayons

   

I've been wanting to try this artsy Valentine's craft from Parent Hacks for a while now.  (I'm not ambitious enough to melt them down as per the instructions from the post Recycle Old Crayons Into New Shapes.)

Then one day I looked around the house and saw this:
 

 

Later in the week at the store I saw this:
 

 


So we put the crayons in a bucket with warm water, and peeled the labels off:

 

And chopped them up.  (Turns out I cut the pieces too small.  Next time I'll make them 1.5 - 2 cm, or about 1/2 inch,  in length.)

 

The bits go in a silicone baking pan:

 

Pop it in the oven at 230 F for about 15 min (you can see some aren't quite melted yet).  Tip:  put the kitchen exhaust fan on and / or open a window to get fresh air into the room.

 

Let the whole thing cool and then pop them out!

 
Any rough edges can be smoothed down by rubbing across a piece of paper.

Just make sure that kids don't eat them!


[Cross-posted at Craft Day.]

Blanket + Lego = quick clean up

Tired of the time it takes to pick up all the little pieces of your children's Lego / Playmobil / assorted other toys with far too many small pieces?

Next time, take a blanket or old bed sheet and spread it on the floor before bringing out the itty bitty plastic things.

When it's time to clean up, gently lift each of the sides of the blanket / sheet and voilà! All the bits are now in one consolidated pile for efficient tidying!

Pumpkin carving for easy candle access [rerun]

[originally posted Oct 27, 2008]

Have you ever burned your hand trying to get a candle in or out of a jack-o'-lantern? Try cutting your pumpkin 'lid' a little differently.

Materials:

• pumpkin
• carving knife
  

Instructions:

• Prep the pumpkin for carving.
  
  
  
  
  
• Mark where you're going to cut the 'lid.' The front (shown as top of the photo) will be a semi-circle, while the back will extend all the way down the back of the pumpkin.
  
  
  
  
• Using your favourite method, clean out and carve the pumpkin.
  
  
  
  
  
• Now you're able to put a candle in through the back of the pumpkin, with much less risk of getting burned!
  
  
  

[Remember to keep children away from lit flames and matches!]

[Cross-posted at Craft Day.]

Pumpkin carving for easy candle access

Have you ever burned your hand trying to get a candle in or out of a jack-o'-lantern? Try cutting your pumpkin 'lid' a little differently.

Materials:

• pumpkin
• carving knife
  

Instructions:

• Prep the pumpkin for carving.
  
  
  
  
  
• Mark where you're going to cut the 'lid.' The front (shown as top of the photo) will be a semi-circle, while the back will extend all the way down the back of the pumpkin.
  
  
  
  
• Using your favourite method, clean out and carve the pumpkin.
  
  
  
  
  
• Now you're able to put a candle in through the back of the pumpkin, with much less risk of getting burned!
  
  
  

[Remember to keep children away from lit flames and matches!]

[Cross-posted at Craft Day.]

Autumn collage

Materials:

• construction paper
• white glue
• things found on the ground at Autumn (leaves, acorns, flowers etc)
  

Instructions:

• Send your youngster out to collect things specific to Autumn (leaves, acorns, flowers etc)
• For pre-schoolers, have the child tell the adult where on the construction paper they'd like to glue items down. Have the adult apply the glue to the paper and the child place the item on the glue.
• For older children, have them glue items to the paper as they see fit.
  

These instructions for creating Autumn Collages have been cross-posted at Craft Day.

If your child is missing, turn your phone to vibrate

This is an idea that recently came in handy. If you're out and a child wanders off who is labeled with your cell phone number, take your cell out of your purse / backpack / pocket, turn it to vibrate and carry it in your hand. The ambient noise at fairs or indoor playgrounds can often be so loud that it's impossible for you hear your cell phone ring.

This could save you a lot of heartache if someone is trying to call!

Paper mosaics

Does the crafter in your house hate throwing away all the little scraps of coloured paper? Not sure what to do with it all? Just glue it all down!

Materials:

• colouring sheet (or draw something free-hand)
• glue
• lots of small pieces of paper of different colours (larger pieces for younger kids, smaller pieces for kids with more patience and hand-eye co-ordination)
  

Instructions:

• apply glue to colouring sheet
• apply scrap pieces of paper to glued area in colouring sheet
  

Close-up:

[Cross-posted at Craft Day.]

Homemade Valentine's Day cards

Quick and easy homemade Valentine's Day cards.

Materials:

• letter sized card stock or sheets of perforated "postcards"
• scissors
• optional: paper-cutter if using card stock
• red crayon, pencil crayon or marker
• red and pink construction paper cut into hearts of varying sizes
• white glue
• heart shaped stickers
• optional: stamps, markers, glitter etc for additional decorating
  

Instructions:

• optional: if you want to have identical text on each of the cards (such as "Happy Valentine's Day" or "From your friend" then you may want to run the sheets through the printer before you cut them down to size)
• cut card stock into quarters or perforate postcards
• draw a large, red, free-hand heart on each card
• have child glue construction paper hearts as desired
• let glue dry
• have child apply stickers, stamps or other decorations as desired
• voila!
  

[Cross-posted at Craft Day.]

Cinch in a pinch

[edited to add: Welcome ParentHacks readers and thanks for the link Asha!]

Ever have your toddler decide they MUST wear a pair of pants that is too large around the waist? Ever been half-way out the door when you realize your child's pants keep falling to their ankles? Don't have the time / patience / energy / skill to adjust the waist?

Problem solved if you have an extra mitten-clip lying about. Simply attach the mitten clip to the waist of the pants (taking in some of the extra fabric with the clip alone) and then fasten the other end making an improvised cinch!

Woven heart pockets

[edited to add: Welcome ParentHacks readers and thanks for the link Asha!]

Materials:

• Pattern (download the PDF pattern*)
• use this legend to decipher the folding symbols
• coloured paper (contrasting colours)
• scissors
• paper-clips
  
• should you wish, materials for decorating your heart (eg. stickers, glitter and glue)

Instructions:

1. print out the pattern (PDF file*) and transfer the pattern to your desired material or print it out as a practice run (be sure to check the specifications of your printer before printing on unusual media -- using "out of spec" materials can cause permanent damage to your printing hardware)


2. I've chosen to use one white sheet and one red sheet. Shown is the pattern printed on the white sheet.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   


3. Fold the sheet with the pattern on it in half, length-wise. Orient the paper with the pattern facing up.
   
   
   







4. Cut along the longest vertical lines.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   


5. Should you find that the paper spreads when you cut it as described in step 4, either use the paper clips to keep the paper in place or begin cutting from the "open end" of the fold.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   


6. Trim the rounded edges of the paper. Again, if the paper doesn't stay in place, use paper clips to keep the paper steady.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   


7. Decide how many strips you want to weave. For the purposes of these instructions, we'll be making a simple two strip pocket. (Cut along the middle dotted line and ignore the first and third dotted lines.)
   
   If you're using a thick material, cut a little longer than the dotted line shown to give you room to work.
   
   To make a four strip pocket, cut along all three dotted lines.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. Repeat the above steps with the a sheet of contrasting colour.
   
   
9. Orient the pieces at approximately 90 degrees, with the rounded edges pointing up and to the right respectively.
   
   


10. Take the right most strip of the red piece and push it in between the topmost strip of the white piece.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    


11. Take the bottommost white strip and insert it in between the rightmost red strip.
    
    (I'm not sure what happened with the photography here. Apologies for the glare.)
    
    
    


12. Pull the bottommost white strip all the way through.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    


13. Insert the left-most red strip through the bottommost white strip that was pulled through in the previous step.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    


14. Straighten the pieces and voila!
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

Heart pockets can be used as "envelopes" when giving out Valentines cards (or candy). They can also be used as bags to hold Valentines received.

[Cross-posted at Craft Day.]

--

(*) When printing out PDF documents, be sure to set "Page Scaling" to "none" (you'll want the document to print at 100%). You may need to adjust the template on your paper depending on your printer's "offset" settings.

DIY: coat stand

[Edited to add: Welcome Parent Hackers! Have a look around, I hope you enoy your stay! And thanks for the link, Asha.]

Tired of picking up your litte one's outer wear? Is your child too small to hang up their clothes in the closet? Are you unable to install coat pegs in your wall? Can't find a child-size coat-tree that isn't an eye-poking hazard, or with a non-tip base smaller than Newfoundland?

That's where I was was when I created this simple child-sized coat-stand. The parts cost me less than $30 Cdn (including tax) and it took me 10 minutes to assemble.

Now little hats and coats are off the floor and hung up with no effort (other than a little reminding) from me!




Instructions:

1. Get a clothes horse. I used the HOPLAND Valet Stand from IKEA.
   
   
   
   
2. Select some "hook" accessories. The top one in the photo below is a tie organizer designed to be screwed into a wall. The one in the bottom of the photo is a series of hooks designed to fit over a door.
   
   
   
   
3. Add the hooks to the clothes horse as desired.
   
   
   
   
4. I used the 'twist-tie' fasteners, annoyingly found fastening toys to their packaging, to add the tie organizer to the stand.
   
   
   
   
5. Voila! A child-sized coat-stand! No power tools required!
   (If you're concerned about tipping, weight the feet down.)
   
   
   

recipe: Sidewalk paint

We were first introduced to commercial sidewalk paint when it was given to us as a gift. Toddlers and pre-schoolers love this stuff, so I was delighted to find this easy recipe for making sidewalk paint in Andrea's post "How to play hopscotch."

Materials:

• cornstartch
• water
• food colouring (for white paint, don't use any food colouring)

Instructions:

• mix equal parts cornstartch and water
• add a few drops of food colouring
• paint!

Notes to self:

• the images shown were made with 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup cornstartch and 3 drops food colouring
• I had better luck with adding 7-8 drops food colouring for that volume of paint
• red/pink paint needs more food colouring than green
• the paint can be pretty watery to apply, but dries opaque and easily sweeps / washes off (it's not as thick, bright or wear-resistant as the commercial product)
• if you don't add enough water, you get Oobleck
  
  

  "If you quickly smack oobleck with your hand it immediately turns into a solid, instead of splashing or moving. If you slowly move oobleck it reacts like a liquid."

• Oobleck can be particularly frustrating to paint with. Although you can pour it out of its container, the minute you apply any force with a brush, it solidifies!
  

This entry is cross posted at Craft Day.

Scribble-time

Like Adam, I've been doing this for as long as I can remember. A great way to pass the time when you're at a restaurant with crayons and brown paper tablecloths! (Especially with little ones in tow.)

Here’s a fun game to try: 1. Have someone draw a scribble. 2. Draw a picture based on said scribble. 3. Repeat

.

Via Drawn

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Thanks Parent Hacks!

A belated thank you to Asha at Parent Hacks for the recent links to Secret Messages and Finger Jell-o posts! And welcome to Parent Hacks readers!

Recipe: finger Jell-o

Guaranteed to be a delight with the pre-school set! (Results are similar in consistancy to gummy bears, but cool to the mouth -- a perfect warm weather treat!)

Ingredients:

• one envelope of Knox gelatine (15 mL)
• 50 mL room-temperature water
• 200 mL boiling water
• one package of Jell-o (85 g)
• one small casserole-type dish

Instructions:

• pour gelatin pouch over 50mL of room-temperature water (not in hot water or the gelatin clumps)
• add 50 mL of boiling water and stir constantly until gelatin is completely dissovled (about 1-2 minutes)
• add remainder of boiling water (about 150 mL)
• add package of Jell-o powder
• mix until Jell-o dissolved
• pour into small casserole-type dish such that the liquid is at least 2 cm in depth
• put in refrigerator to set (about 1-2 hours)
• cut into cubes or strips and eat with fingers!

Cross posted at myRecipes.

Secret Messages

Visit CraftDay to find out how to make secret messages with bingo daubbers and crayons.