Mermaid Bookmarks

Earlier this week, we took a trip to the library to get some new books. I asked Raya what kind of books she would like and she said "mermaids!" Kind of a random thought... however, now that I think of it, she does love the movie "The Little Mermaid". But, she hasn't watched it lately and the subject of mermaids has never really come up in conversation before. So I go with it and we ask the librarian if she knows of any kids books about mermaids. We found these two:

Both are fun books that I would recommend if your child loves mermaids!

When I saw that Friday was going to be a cloudy, cool-weather-kind-of-day, I did some research and planned a simple mermaid craft for Raya to do. The timeframe between after naps and dinner can sometimes be a challenge to keep the kids entertained so I used part of this time to do the craft with her. I saw this great post on a DIY Mermaid Bookmark (check it out here!) and knew this would be a fun one for my 3-year-old to try. 

Supplies Used:
- mermaid printable (go to link mentioned above)
- colouring pencils/crayons
- paint (I use Crayola washable kids paint)
- sequins (check out your local dollar store!) 
- craft glue

First, she coloured the top half of the mermaids using colouring pencils.

Then she painted the mermaid tails and decorated them with sequins while the paint was still wet (although the paint dried fairly quickly and so we had to use some craft glue so the sequins would stick). 

Then we glued the top half of the mermaids to their tails and this was the end result:

(Unfortunately, some of the blue paint got smudged onto the faces of the mermaids, but how cute are these?!) 

Slip them onto a page in your book to keep your place....

Such a fun, easy craft! 

Meet the Rock Family

Sometimes crafts come together in parts, piecing it together in simple, creative ways, not always knowing what the end result might be. 

This particular craft started out with some time outdoors looking for different sized rocks (we have a number of them in our backyard).
I pulled out our Crayola washable paints and my 3-year-old, Raya, painted them, all in different colours. She loves to paint, so I'm always looking for different objects and textures for her to try and paint.

We left them to dry and the next day we thought it would be fun to draw faces on them! So I grabbed a sharpie and Raya drew eyes, nose and mouth on each of them. 

And then a couple days later, we came back to this same craft again and I pulled out my bakers twine and yarn -- perfect for hair! I let Raya choose which colour yarn she wanted for each of the rocks and I cut them to size. She then painted white craft glue on each of the rocks and placed the yarn/bakers twine on them. (I wasn't sure if white craft glue would hold, but it held no problem and still has not come off!) 

The end result? The Rock Family. 
We had no intention of making it a 'family'; we just so happened to have 2 larger rocks for the Mom & Dad and 2 smaller rocks for the kids. :)

A fun project that came together so nicely! 

Celebrating Canada Day

It's been a little while since I've posted on here! Over the past month we have been settling in our new home in Prince George, BC. While the transition was difficult, leaving behind family & friends in Ontario, we are excited for what lies ahead. We love our new house and neighbourhood and are finding ways to make this place our home. 

We just celebrated Canada Day yesterday and the week leading up to it I found some activities/crafts for my 3-year-old to do each day. It was fun! These activities could easily be adapted for July 4th, for example. 

See below for a brief summary with simple instructions for each craft/activity that we did:

DAY 1: HAND PRINT CANADIAN FLAG

Supplies: 
- white cardstock
- red paint (we use Crayola washable paint)
- red tissue paper

My daughter loves getting messy so putting paint on her hands was the highlight of this craft. I helped guide her hand when she made the print on the cardstock and it turned out great! I then drew two lines on each side of the cardstock to mark where she could paint red to complete the flag. 

While the paint was still wet, she crumpled pieces of red tissue paper and placed on the wet paint. Here's the end result:

DAY 2: CANADA DAY RIBBON STICK/WAND

Supplies:
- stick
- red & white ribbon

This one was a little difficult for my 3-year-old to complete on her own, but would be great for older kids! We found the stick outside in our backyard and then she chose which ribbon pieces to put on the stick. I tied them on using double knots. It was an especially windy day for us and she loved playing with it outside afterwards!

DAY 3: SINK OR FLOAT CANADA-THEMED SENSORY BIN

Supplies:
- large bin filled with water
- red toys, blocks, jewels, pom poms, buttons, ribbon, pipe cleaners, lids, Canada flag, cuttlery, etc.

Raya loved this one! The night before, I gathered red items from my craft room, toy bins, recycling bucket, etc. and placed them in a veggie tray. I also found a few Canada-themed items at the dollar store. 

She loved placing each item in the bin filled with water one at a time to see if it would float or sink. This kept her busy for a while! 

DAY 4: CANADA DAY WIND SOCK

Supplies:

- toilet paper roll

- red & white paint

- Canada-themed stickers

- gift packing ribbon

- string / bakers twine

- hole punch

For this craft, Raya was able to complete most of it, but needed my help for curling the ribbon and punching the holes in the toilet paper roll. She first painted the toilet paper roll and then after it dried put Canada-themed stickers on it (I just found these stickers at the dollar store). I then punched two holes at the top to tie the bakers twine so we could hang it up and then holes at the bottom for the curled pieces of ribbon. Here's the end result:

DAY 5: SALT-PAINTED FIREWORKS

Supplies:

- white cardstock

- craft liquid glue

- salt

- watercolour paint

This one was fun! We found a fireworks template through Pinterest (click here for the blog post) and printed it on white cardstock. Because it was a bit too difficult for my daughter to squeeze the liquid glue out of the bottle, I completed this part. She then sprinkled salt over the glue and we shook off the excess (be prepared to get salt all over your floor!). After that, Raya started painting! She loved this part. We used whatever I had for watercolour paints (cheap Crayola watercolour pods) and started painting the salt covered fireworks. We did the first firework together in red and then she chose to do the other ones multi-colour. I love how it turned out! We will definitely be doing this again, but I would love to try actual liquid watercolour paint. I recently found some on Amazon and will be trying that next time. I think the colours would be more vibrant. 

One other thing we did this past week was take a trip to the library to find some Canadian-themed books. Here is what we picked up:

Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian friends and to all those living in the US of A, enjoy the upcoming July 4th holiday! Hope these crafts/activities inspire you to complete some of your own with your kids!