{DIY Galaxy Shirts}

DIY 'Galaxy' Shirts

Kids and adults alike will enjoy showing off their DIY 'Galaxy' shirts - fun and simple wearable art for the whole family!

You will need: [all product links are affiliate links for your convenience]

• * plain black shirts
• * spray bottle
• * bleach
• * spray-on fabric paints (or try these glitter fabric paints!)
• * scrap cardboard or plastic
• * possibly garbage bag or tarp

Lay your shirts on a large garbage bag or tarp outside. Place a piece of cardboard or plastic inside the shirt, to prevent bleach and paint from seeping through to the back.

Scrunch the centre of the shirt and twist it tightly (if you want, you can secure it with an elastic, but it's not necessary).

Put some bleach in the spray bottle and spray it onto the front of the shirt. Then untwist and lay out to dry.

Once dry, use the spray-on fabric paints to spray over the front of the shirt (keep the cardboard/plastic inside). We found that it's best to apply the spray paint liberally - we thought Sweet Pea, aged 4, was putting far too much on hers as it seemed too concentrated, but in the end hers turned out to be the brightest and prettiest!

Leave out to dry according to the directions on your fabric paint.

Then wear them in style and show off your coolness! (Thanks, Auntie K, for doing these with us!)

Still want to make more? Try these Sharpie Tie-Dye Shirts next! 

Don't miss a thing! 

{Salt and Watercolor Painting Dinosaur Party Invitations}

Salt and Watercolour Painting:

Dinosaur Party Invitations From Kids' Art

The kids loved the process of this salt and watercolour painting, which we then turned into dinosaur party invitations for Sweet Pea's dinosaur birthday party. Easy, colourful, and pretty!

 

First the girls did a watercolour wash over pieces of white paper in various colours.

Then while the paint was still wet, they sprinkled some salt onto the paper. It makes an interesting textured appearance in the paint. Sweet Pea got a bit carried away with the salt and we ended up having to brush off lots of excess salt afterwards! 

Once the papers dried, I cut them out into dinosaur shapes. I started by making templates first on cardboard, which I'll try to make into a printable for you and add it later. Then we glued the dinosaur shapes onto coloured card stock - beautiful, colourful invitations made from the kids' artwork!

If you have a dinosaur lover at your house, you might like these posts:

Decorating Dinosaur Eggs

Rainbow Dinosaur Sensory Play

DIY Dinosaur Dress-Up Costume

And I'll be posting more soon from our Dinosaur Party so check back again, or subscribe by email and get the posts directly to your inbox.

{Egg Decoupage for Preschoolers}

Egg Découpage for Preschoolers

(For Easter or Dinosaurs)

This easy way to decorate eggs (great for Easter or for dinosaur play) is fun to do and results in beautiful découpaged eggs! 

We used a paper maché egg [affiliate link] for the large egg, and wooden eggs [affiliate link] for the smaller eggs. I got all of these eggs at our local craft store. We used the big one as a decoration for Sweet Pea's Dinosaur Birthday Party, and the little ones were a decorate-your-own-egg play station at the party to make eggs to take home. The wooden eggs we got came with holes drilled through lengthwise, so we threaded through some plastic craft string [affiliate link] to hang them. (The dinosaur egg theme was perfect for her spring birthday party because now they all have decorated eggs to hang up for Easter!)

For the large egg, we first painted it with washable paint [affiliate link] and let it dry. For the wooden eggs we skipped this step.

Once it was dry, we mixed up a solution of 1 part glue to one part water. We usually use white school glue [affiliate link] for this mixture but this time we used clear liquid glue and it worked just as well.

We cut up squares of tissue paper [affiliate link] in bright colours and glued them on by painting a glue 'wash' onto the egg then sticking on the tissue squares, overlapping here and there. (I recommend painting the glue wash on a small area at a time as the glue dries quickly.)

Finally, we painted over the entire egg with the glue wash to make a shiny finish. We just adore the results!

For a similar technique with real eggs, see how lovely these blown eggs turned out over at Red Ted Art!

{Why a Play House is the Perfect Toy for Imaginary Play}

Simple, Creative Play with a Play House 

Let Their Imaginations Run Wild!

Peekaboo! How's the weather?

Imaginary play is definitely the number one choice for playtime at our house, and the addition of a play house has really helped to make our children's imaginary play come to life! Imaginary play is a key ingredient in growing creative kids and has huge intellectual and emotional benefits for children. It allows them opportunities to explore hypotheses, problem-solve, role-play social situations, develop language and literacy skills, and work through emotional stresses. 

Imaginary play: Super sleuth on a bear hunt

Having a play house has given our kids so many opportunities to expand their imaginary play, and having a 'life-sized' structure to play out their scenes in makes it all that much more real to them. In fact, we actually have two play houses - a wooden play house outdoors and a cardboard play house [sponsored link] indoors - to support their imaginary play.

Play house picnic party
at the 'ballet studio'

Below are some of the ways they play with their play houses and some suggestions for props. I recommend placing a basket of mixed accessories in or next to a play house and leaving the rest up to them. If your child wants to engage you in the play, follow their lead instead of trying to direct the play. Chances are, your child has much more imaginative ideas than you could dream up! If your child needs a nudge when it comes to imaginary play, try picking up a prop and starting the ball rolling with an inviting prompt. Something like, "Oh, thank you for this lovely invitation to your tea party! What can I bring?" or, "Excuse me, Doctor, but my baby has been coughing all night. Can you help?" will likely be enough to trigger a scenario in your child's mind.

Making the play house into an art gallery

Some ways that our play houses are used: [affiliate links provided to some of our favourite props]

*House - they play family roles, baby care, tea parties. Possible props: baby doll, tea set.
*School - Possible props: paper, pencils, math manipulatives, their homework!
*Farm - Possible props: stuffed animals, watering can, baby bottle (for feeding baby animals), vegetables (real or pretend)
*Ice-cream stand - Possible props: scoops, empty ice-cream containers, cash register, play money
*Art gallery - Our girls have drawn their own art inside their indoor play house, complete with frames. Possible props: paper, markers, paint or crayons, homemade paper frames
*Puppet theatre - The windows of a play house make a perfect stage for a puppet show! Possible props: puppets, piece of fabric taped up for a curtain
*Tent/Camp - Possible props: sleeping bags/blankets, pillows, marshmallows
*Circus - Possible props: leotards, hula hoops, stuffed animals
*Book nook - a play house makes a wonderful, quiet spot to read. Possible props: basket of books, cushions, lamp (we have the cord running out of a window to the outlet)
*Shop - Possible props: cash register, play money
*Gardening/Garden centre - Possible props: watering can, kids' gardening tools, plastic flowers and pots
*Dog breeder's kennel (a favourite these days!) - Possible props: toy dogs, ribbon to use as a leash, brush, bowls
*Rabbit caretakers - Possible props: stuffed animals, real or pretend carrots
*Dentist office - Possible props: flashlight (our kids use these invisible ink pens with UV lights), medical mask, tongue depressor
*Doctor's office - play medical kit  
*Vet - play medical kit and toy animals
*Picnics - serve a snack inside (way more tasty than when it's eaten at the table!)

Our decorate-your-own indoor play house

Our indoor play house is a Villa Carton XXL House [sponsored link], which is a brilliant creation - a cardboard house that comes flat and pre-printed in black and white to look like a country farmhouse that you put together and let your kids colour/decorate themselves! My girls (and I) LOVE Villa Carton products (you can see our review of the Villa Carton City Blocks here). They are the perfect combination of creativity and imaginary play. And while it would be possible to make your own cardboard box house out of a regular box, my girls love the 'real house' look of the Villa Carton house (and Daddy Pea much prefers it to having a regular cardboard box in the living room!) To colour it, they used a mix of paint, markers, and crayons (they especially enjoyed colour-mixing to make brown paint and using it to paint 'mud' on the tractor!) They added their artwork in frames that they painted on the inside walls. You could also make pretty paper frames with an open top to change out the artwork. They strung up some sweet star-shaped fairy lights inside, and have kitted it out with a cosy blanket on the floor. As you can see in the pictures, the colouring and decorating are ongoing (which is one of the things I love about it - both the creating and the play go on and on!) Our next project will be to make some paper bunting to add to it.

Imaginary play: Tea party for Pinkie

For more pictures of how my girls created and decorated their play house, click here.

(Please note that we received the Villa Carton XXL House for free to try out for review. As always, all opinions expressed are my own.)

{Snow Painting}

Snow Painting Fun!

We tried snow painting last spring, and it was such a quick and simple activity to prepare, but the kids had so much fun playing! They've been talking about it ever since (we did it last spring!), and can't wait for snow this year so they can do it again!

Just fill some squirty bottles [affiliate link] with water, add a few drops of food colouring, and they're all set! They wrote their names in the snow, made a giant snowcone, and gave the snowman a makeover!

For more fun and simple play, crafting, and learning ideas, subscribe to Mama Pea Pod's weekly update: 

{10 Everyday Fine Motor Activities for Kids}

Helping your child develop fine motor skills doesn't require lots of planning, special materials or tools, or genius creative ideas from Pinterest. There are so many simple, everyday activities that kids do all the time (often even without planning on your part) that help them develop the fine motor control that they will need later for writing in school. Here are 10 things that your kids probably already do that are helping them develop their fine motor skills on a daily basis! So stop beating yourself up over not having time or energy to put together those wonderfully creative Pinterest ideas - your kids *are* working on their fine motor skills daily! (And if they're not, these are easy ways to build it into their every day!) 

{Creative Cardboard Box City}

We've been having a 'staycation' for February break and have been spending lots of time engaged in creative play. Our big project for the week has been creating this cardboard box city to play with. 

We got this City Blocks set from VillaCarton and it's an ingenious idea combining kids' love for cardboard boxes with imaginary play and creativity. It comes flat with the city buildings printed on all sides in black and white - you simply fold the boxes together and then let the kids colour and decorate them the way they like! Once completed, it makes a fun city playscape for imaginary play! 

We've been colouring parts with markers, painting parts, and adding our own touches such as flowers and cats on windowsills and nests on the roof tiles. We've been working on it bit by bit all week and it still isn't quite finished. (But that hasn't stopped the kids from playing with it already!) We still plan to add some stickers (maybe a dog walking down the sidewalk or a teddy bear in a fire truck?), and perhaps some touches of 'sparkle' with some glitter paint. We are also having a debate as to whether or not to cut open some of the windows or doors with an exacto knife - one pea says yes, the other says no ;-) 

The set we got is a fire station on one side and a hospital on the other, but there are all sorts of brilliantly creative cardboard box toys available from VillaCarton, including a play kitchen, play houses and even costumes. 

My kids (and admittedly I - who doesn't love colouring, right?) have been absolutely loving this! We love that we have a 'framework' for our creation already set up, but can still enjoy using our own creativity to decorate it the way we like. It creates an exciting small world scene for fostering some wonderful imaginary play. It will fold flat one day when we decide to put it away (hasn't happened yet as it's getting daily use!) And we even made our own shop out of the box it came in ;-) Highly recommend! 

SEE THE COLLECTION: www.villacarton.com

LIKE VILLACARTON ON FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/VillaCartonOriginal

FOLLOW VILLACARTON ON TWITTER: www.twitter.com/villacarton

*Please note that while we received this cardboard city block set from VillaCarton to test out in exchange for writing this review, the opinions expressed here are 100% ours.
*Thanks to Petra of Bag of Pretty for turning me on to VillaCarton in the first place :-)

{Mermaid Handprint Painting Outdoors}

Princess Pea is mermaid crazy these days!

She's having a mermaid birthday party next weekend, 

so we're in full mermaid-creating mode around here!

The girls (and I!) had so much fun last weekend doing a mermaid handprint painting outdoors! 

It was really quite simple to make the handprint mermaids, and even 2 year old Sweet Pea was able to make her own with just a little help. We found the handprint idea in the Usborne book 'Mermaid Things to Make and Do'. Here's a step-by-step guide:

1. Paint your whole hand orange (or whatever colour you want your mermaid's hair to be), and press it, fingers spread wide, onto the paper. Repeat at a slightly different angle to make more hair.

2. When it's more or less dry, paint a circle over part of the palm, to make the face.

3. Use your fingers to make shoulders and arms with sweeping outward strokes.

4. Paint your whole hand blue-ish green and with your fingers closed tight, press it with the palm end at the shoulders and the fingers pointing downwards to make the body.

5. Paint just your middle three fingers in the same blue-ish green and press down twice, with fingers closed, at 45 degree angles to make the tail.

6. Once dry, use a marker or fine paintbrush to add facial features and decorative additions (jewelry, hair accessories, scales, etc.).

7. Add glitter for a special touch.

If you like, you can use real sand along the bottom, as we did, to make the sea floor. 

 It would be even better if you had some more gravelly sand, but we just scooped a little fine sand out of the sandbox.

We also fingerprinted seaweed, fish, octopuses and jellyfish.

We love our mermaid painting and the girls can't wait to display it at the mermaid birthday party!

Love mermaids too? Be sure to check out this month's Time for Mama series post - how to make a Waldorf-inspired mermaid doll! There's even a chance to win the doll!

Sharing at: It's Playtime, Come Together Kids

{Painting Nails}

Daddy Pea is not a fan of nail polish - especially on little girls. Princess Pea, on the other hand, thinks it's very glamorous and fancy.

In the summertime, I do paint her toenails in a very pale colour as an incentive for her to let me cut them (always a struggle!), but fingernails are out of the question.

So she's come up with her own alternative - painting her nails with paint!

She uses regular water-based, washable paint, and thinks it's fantastic! We like it because it washes off relatively easily (though it can be a bit hard to clean from around the cuticles). And she loves to sit and paint them herself.

As always, she turns it into imaginary play - she plays the role of Lemon (from Strawberry Shortcake), the salon owner, and the rest of us have to call to make salon appointments for her to do our nails. She checks her appointment book, and is always very busy! But somehow she manages to slot us in. ;-)

She even painted Grandad's nails!