Craft It Friday

I am so proud of myself; you won't believe it.  I have actually planned my crafts the night before this week.  Granted I only did 2 crafts this week, not counting just plain old coloring and drawing.  We drew and colored a lot this week.  My 3 year old chose to play with his baby sister several times rather than doing crafts.  It was too sweet so I had to let him play with his sister instead. Anyway, I will tell you about the 2 crafts we did and why 1 of them failed the first time.

The one that was super cute and worked well (with a little bit of drying time) was a fire truck.  We are a fire truck loving family here; it's one of my sons' favorite things ever.

What you will need:

• Red paper (fire truck)- we used cardstock but you can use construction paper just as well
• Yellow paper (windows)
• Pom Pom (light)- could use glitter glue, sequins, or anything flashy really
• Black paper (tires)- we actually used foam paper but you can use cardstock or construction paper
• Black craft pipe cleaner (hose)
• Yellow craft pipe cleaner (ladder)- other creative ways to do it is using yellow straws or noodles
• Glue
• Scissors

First off, I usually decide what to make using things I already have in the house at the time.  I had just bought the pom poms and pipe cleaners last week off the dollar bin at Target (Score!).  Anyway, the first thing I did to prepare to make the trucks was cut out a fire truck with the red paper.  I tried to make a simple design of a fire truck since I am not an artist.  If you are an artist, you can be as creative as you want with the fire truck design.  I cut out windows from the yellow paper, and I cut black circles for the tires.  I made sure the tires were bigger than the opening for the tires on the fire truck so I would be able to glue them onto the paper.  I cut out 3 of each of the things- 1 for a trial run, 1 for my 2 year old, and 1 for my 3 year old.

Next (when I was testing it out), I glued the windows and tires where I thought they should go on the fire truck.  Next I glued the craft pom pom at the top of the fire truck above the window.  After I glued on the things I was sure about, I measured to see how long I would need the hose; I wanted it to go from the back window to the back of the truck.  I cut 3 black pipe cleaners that size (1 for each truck).  The ladder took a little more time to plan. I cut 2 longer pieces for the sides and 6 rings for the steps of the ladder.  I cut 3 ladders up from yellow pipe cleaner.  Everything glued on but the pipe cleaners take a little more time to dry and stick on.  If you pick the paper up too fast, they could fall apart.  I had that happen.

Only my 3 year old ended up doing the craft as my 2 year old has been sick all week.  Everything was all cut out and ready for him so it was an easy put glue on everything and put it together craft.  He enjoyed it and loves his fire truck.  He asked to make one for his brother so we made both of them.  It was a success and are on our refrigerator for all to see.

The second craft was a monkey.  It was sort of a flop but I know why; foam paper doesn't glue well together with liquid glue, at least not quick enough for a 3 year old.  The first monkey fell apart.  The second and third monkeys worked better with double sided tape. 

What you will need:

• Brown paper (monkeys body and head)- we used foam but I think paper would be better
• 3 pipe cleaners (arms, legs, and tail) - it would make sense to have brown but since we don't we got creative
• Glue and/or tape
• Scissors
• Black marker
• Googly eyes

I did all the cutting in the preparing stage.  I cut out 2 ovals for the body of the monkey and 2 circles with 2 roundish ears for the monkey's head.  I cut out 3 of each- 1 for me to try out, 1 for my 3 year old, and 1 for my 2 year old but my 2 year old never did it.  I did the planning one with glue.  I picked it up after about 10 minutes, and it all fell apart.  I didn't try it again and decided to wing it the next day with my son.

My 3 year old LOVES tape and has fun playing with it so I decided to use tape instead of glue with him.  We placed the pipe cleaners on top of one of the body pieces and taped it on.  We used double sided tape to tape the 2 body pieces together to sandwich the pipe cleaners in between.  We used double sided tape to tape the head pieces onto the body and on to each other.  The tail pipe cleaner got taped on to the back of a body piece.  My son got excited about eyes.  We used glue to put them on the face.  I drew a nose and mouth on the face.

My son has had fun hanging them from door knobs.  It takes some doing but you can make the monkey sit up by using the tail to anchor it up.  It didn't last long before it fell apart under my 3 year old's hands but it was cute while it lasted.  And ever since doing the craft, my son has been fascinated with the letter X! :)