Kid Art Hoarding

I’ve got a confession…My name is Ashley (crowd shouts in unison “Hi Ashley”)
My reply: I’m a kid art hoarder.

Well in all fairness, I’ve inherited them back from my mom’s crawlspace where they’ve lived for over 20yrs. I’ve already pitched a ton of it but I just can’t bring myself to toss out the last folder of junk art that’s about 20+ years ago. WHY!?, why can’t I do it!!?

I can just see it now…20 years from now, I will be buried under E’s collection of art.. 

 Don't get me wrong, I love that our lil man does a themed art project EVERYDAY at daycare but C’MON Teacher! Where am I going to store all of the little cutouts, overpainted, scribbled, ripped and random but cute projects in our tiny little house? (“The Mommy guilt” kicks in everytime I try to pitch’em..)

E's Recent Art

Dragon Mask for Chinese New Year/Puffy Paint and sparkles

Learning about China/Fingerpaint

Windmill painted with Marbles

I found the perfect solution! I will display them for a week,
Then I’ll add the artwork to a DIGITAL ART BOOK where they can live clutter free forever & ever!

(Photo source: A Little of This-A little of That ) 

http://alittleofthis---alittleofthat.blogspot.com/2010/11/diy-kids-art-display.html

I’ve been documenting E’s first 22mths in a digital photo album made on Blurb @Blurbbooks

I heart Blurb! It’s free to download & create books, the pricing is decent, shipping is pretty fast and the quality of the books are AMAZING!! (PS this is not a sponsored post - just pure, honest love!)

Check out a sampling of his ‘1^st year’ book here (professional photos are done by the lovely, talented Jacqueline Clement/Method Photography)

E's -1st yr | http://www.blurb.com

To Do’s

*Photograph E’s recent Art

*Start a new Blurb Book for his mounting kiddo artwork pile

*Display ‘said’ art

*Pitch last week’s art – With NO Mommy guilt!

Do Naked Crayons Look Uptight?

With The Hubby away this past week (living it up attending a work conference in New Orleans, LA) I wanted to spend some bonding time with the lil man and make some Valentine’s Day gifts for his new friends at daycare.

What’s a good, non-banana, non-peanut, non-dairy, non-egg..non…non..non thing to make for kiddos under 5? (No freakin' idea..) I figured all the parents were going to overload the daycare center in allergen free cookies/treats, so I didn’t want to follow suit.

I decided to be that cool/different Mom and made Crayon Hearts. (Inspired by Creative Mommas)

(Initially this was supposed to be a Toddler Valentine’s craft idea, however after I did the trial run the night before.. I just didn’t see it going well with "E"…. Exacto Knife – just screams danger! Having my almost 2 year old see me rip off crayon labels and break up crayons…Not a chance!!)

I gathered all my supplies: 4 boxes (24pc) crayons (not chunky crayons), heart shaped candy/plastic muffin molds, Valentine’s Baggies, Exacto knife, labels, bottle of red wine
Yields: approx. 32 small heart heart

Use Exacto to carefully slice off the crayon labels. (I found slicing along the seam worked best. Also recommended, do this part before glass #2.)

Is it just me or do naked crayons look uptight?

Heat oven to 265

Break up each crayon into 4-5 pcs

Put 2 or 3 colors in the each mold*.

*Too many colors doesn’t turn out as nice

Put molds on a cookie sheet

Cook for 10-12 (depending on your oven & thickness of crayon/thickness of melted crayon.)

CAREFULLY/S-L-O-W-L-Y lift out the cookie sheet. (You don’t want the melted crayon to swoosh around/up the sides of the mold)

Let sit until cool/hardened

Pop out of mold

Things I figured out:

• The brighter crayons turn out nicer.. The dark browns, grays, blues – not so much.
• I would recommend layering the crayons approx. 2 high as in the photo for a thicker/more robust crayon.
• Buy more than 2 molds so you can make the whole batch @ one time

Coolin'

Aren't they beauts!

Check out the other craft I did do with our toddler: Mail A Hug

To Do’s
* Package crayons in Valentines baggies

* Bring the little gifts to his daycare on Monday

Mail a Hug (Valentine's Toddler Craft)

Who said crafting with a toddler was FUN? Cause they totally LIED!

Sure - it may be fun for them but it’s just about as fun for us as going grocery shopping with a kid when they’re sick and hungry..(Nightmare !)

I thought I’d be a good daughter (& daughter in law) this year and make some heart-warming Valentine’s Day giffies for the grandparents, aka Nana/Pappy and Grandma/Grandpa ‘Long Hair’. (I couldn’t do anything too elaborate or The Hubby would be all over me about ‘the funds'..) (Here's what  I made for 'E's Valentine's giffies for his daycare buddies.)

Here’s what I came across after doing a little ‘research’ on Pinterest.
Inspiration from Tons of Fun Blog

Perfect! I had all the required supplies:

Scissors

Red Craft paper

Markers

Ribbon/String

Toddler hand

Toddler’s patience (Ok, well I almost had all the supplies..)

Do you know how hard it is to trace a toddler's hand when they want no part of it?? I managed to somewhat trace 3 fingers and a thumb, after several attempts. I decided to freehand the last finger and part of his hand to avoid the pending melt down. It was that or I was going to have to sit on his arm to get the ‘real’ tracing of his hand.
(I was this close to downloading a kids hand online! Lol)

After I traced his hand & cut them out, I put a little Valentine’s message on them and added the ribbon (long enough to do a ‘pretend’ toddler hug.)

All in all I think "E"’s grandparents will be touched by his Valentine’s day craft and probably wouldn’t have cared if the hand only had 4 fingers! Lol

A somewhat successful toddler craft completed! 

What did your toddler’s Valentine’s day craft look like? Did it go from “FUN” to “NONE” as well?

To Do’s

* Make Cards to go with the “Hugs”

* Mail Nana/Pappy’s card/hug

* Start looking for Easter toddler crafts (If you have any suggestions, add a comment below)