bubbles!

From Ben:  Today we did bubbles for our crafty Mon. craft. First, we just used normal bubbles and just played around with the bubbles. then, my mom made these cool blowers that make cool bubble snakes. I couldn't figure those out at first. Then mom mixed bubbles with food coloring and I made a painting I call "desert of domes". Then I tried the bottle blowers again, and it worked great! I made a lot of cool paintings. I put salt on some and they turned out great! I had a lot of fun,and I can't belive how great it worked!

And from Amy:  I was SO excited about Crafty Monday: Bubble Edition, and that may have been my first mistake!!  It seemed like the whole darn thing might be a bust, including the homemade bubble solution, dollar aisle bubble wands, homemade pipe cleaner bubble wands, bubble blowers, and bubble painting.... doesn't it sound like fun?  The kids hated all of it!  We finally sat down & let them play the way they wanted to play... and they had such a good time!  Lesson learned, I guess?  Ask me again after the next Crafty Monday!  =)  We ended up making a bubble bath in the pool, and Ben eventually got the hang of the bubble snake blower & used it to do some painting.  As long as they have fun, it is never a total waste, right?  RIGHT?! 

Here are some photos, starting with the bust activities & moving on to some actual fun!

 

Crafty Monday on a Monday????

So we did not set out to do a "project" today, but it just ended up working out!  Mimi & Sarah came over to celebrate my birthday (with cupcakes!).  We went outside so I could trim Mimi's bangs a little bit, and it was so beautiful outside that we ended up staying out.  I got out the parachute I picked up for 60% off at JoAnn's over the weekend and we had a blast waving it around in the breeze.  And then I remembered this post that I had run across while looking for Crafty Monday ideas.  Sarah & I whipped up one for each kid (no time for an actual project; it was already late in the afternoon!), and Mimi & Ben had a terrific time "flying" their kites.  They got in a fantastic amount of running around as well!

Evan was not quite as into it as the older two, but check out his awesome shirt!!

Crafty Friday?

We finally decided not to wait to start Crafty Monday.... it would have been the middle of July if we waited for a Monday when we were all free!  We went ahead & tie-dyed t-shirts on Friday.  The shirts turned out really great, but the kids were disappointed that they didn't get to do more.  Since we had a TON of dye left after we did their shirts, we let the kids squirt some dye on a hand towel & some burp cloths, so they did get to have some fun.  Next time we will choose something with more for them to do - Bubble Day, or maybe Painting Day?

Ben's summary: I used the freehand technique to make a pawprint. They all turned out great but I think I should've added the red first, because that's how mom made evan's on which the orange turned out great but on mine the orange didn't work as well. I had a great time. I think next time we should paint and combine Mom's two ideas by bubble painting. I can't wait! 

Ready to get started:

Shaking, shaking, shaking

Evan's shirt, in-process

Hmmm... the gloves that came in the kit were not very helpful!

The (almost) finished products - Evan's spiral, Ben's freehand & Mimi's sunburst (Mine is not actually done.- ben.)

Crafty Tuesday/Thursday - Control Panels

Because there was no Crafty Monday this week, we decided to post the project Ben did by himself on Tuesday & Thursday.  He thought it would be cool to have some pretend control panels for his room, and I had the idea to use artist canvases to make them!

Ben's summary:  it was very fun to do. I painted black panels and buttons and even used cereal-box cardboard to make several variations of a graph on one. They aren't done yet,but I am going to finish them sometime tomorrow... hopefully! I can't wait to see how they look hung up in my room.
here are a few pictures.

This one has a radar screen on the left and a GPS screen on the right. 

This one is the one with the changeable graph (upper left).

 This is the one that isn't finished yet, but the bottom right will be climate control.

No Crafty Monday Today. =(

One Crafty Monday participant is sick today, so no tie-dying for us!  We will try again another day... not next Monday, though.... maybe Craft Wednesday?  We'll see, but not a particularly auspicious beginning for Crafty Monday.