Last week while doing a little Christmas shopping I came across a fun Christmas garland. I tossed it in my basket and continued walking around the shop. As I walked, my head was fighting the decision to “buy” this garland. It was saying “you can totally make this…why not save a little money?” So I removed it from my basket and that was that, I was going to make a Christmas garland. On Monday my Mom came and took Poppy for the day so I could set up the house for Christmas. I had the whole day planned out. Work on the garland. De-clutter all the residual crap that had accumulated in piles all around the house from the week before. Then bring up the Christmas boxes from the basement, dust them off and deck the house! That morning I sat down at the table for breakfast and began making this garland with no thought as to how long it would take…..many hours later this is what I ended up with. I’m thrilled with the final result but not too happy about the fact that my home remains Christmas decoration free (other than this awesome garland) due to the fact that I totally underestimated how long it would take to cut out every letter by hand and then paint them all. For those of you who are thinking about getting crafty and attempting this, I suggest you make it over the course of a few days. Trace and cut the letters one day, maybe while watching your fave Christmas movie? And then the next day you could paint them and on the third day do the hole punching and stringing. Had I done it this way I’m sure I would have been able to enjoy my garland without that trace of time sucking resentment that I inevitably will feel every time I look at it.

You will need:

• Thin cardboard, I tore the back end off of a few of Poppy’s colouring pads and that was perfect.
• string, rope, yarn of choice
• paint, as many colours as you like. I used acrylic and am happy with the results.
• large paintbrush
• glitter
• white craft glue
• hole punch
• scissors
• large needle for threading, I used a plastic children’s beginner needle and that worked great. You could also just tape the end so that it’s strong enough to easily poke through the holes.

To make:

1. outline the letters and stars, I used 5 stars; 2 large, 3 medium
2. cut them out
3. paint, set aside to dry
4. choose as many letters and stars as you want to glitter and paint with a thin layer of glue.
5. cover with sparkles. Set aside to dry. I suggest laying the letters and stars on a sheet of paper to catch the excess glitter, then when you are done you can fold the paper and funnel it back into the glitter jar.
6. Using the single hole punch, punch holes in each letter and stars making sure to place them all at the same level.
7. thread, starting with the large star then small and follow with the letters. I also placed a star between words. Make sure to leave a generous amount of thread at either end for stringing up.
8. to hang I used wash tape because it comes in so many fun colours and patterns and won’t rip the paint off your walls when removing.

That’s it. So go on and make yourself a beautiful homemade garland! Remember, be creative and have fun with it. Happy crafting!

Here is a fun and easy pumpkin craft to make with your little one this Halloween. All you need is a little time and the ability to embrace the sparkles that will inevitably wind up all over the house. You’re welcome.

You will need:

• 1 canvas board, you can buy these at the dollar store
• black paint
• white craft glue
• sparkles, whatever colours strike your fancy
• paint brush
• colourful scrap paper
• scissors, grownup and kids
• heavy duty watercolour paper
• X-Acto knife

extras- you can also buy pre cut colourful paper shapes if your child is too young to cut or if you simply want a little something extra!

Lets get started:

1. Paint the canvas board black, you can leave the edges white since they will be covered with the water colour paper in the end. Let it dry.
2. While the canvas is drying, cut out or tear shapes using the colourful scrap paper.
3. Now that the canvas is dry, drizzle glue all over the canvas creating a large circle.
4. stick your paper scraps all over.
5. go nuts with the sparkles! shake shake shake all over the paper and glue, focusing on the glue. You want all of the white glue to be covered with sparkles.
6. Take the glue and make a rectangle at the top of the circle. Like where the pumpkins stem would be.
7. cover with more sparkles. Poppy used green but you can use whatever colour you like!
8. set aside to dry. Once it has dried tap off excess sparkles. I suggest doing this over the garbage or outside!
9. on the heavy duty water colour paper, draw a simple outline of a pumpkin. Make sure this pumpkin is a little smaller than the one on your canvas.
10. With an X-Acto knife, carefully cut out the pumpkin (obviously the adult does this)
11. remove the pumpkin and you will be left with just the outer piece.
12. spread glue all over the back of the paper you cut the pumpkin out of.
13. carefully place over your canvas.
14. tada! You now have a beautiful pumpkin!

outline hands.

Decorate the hand prints. 

cut out the hand prints.

paint the dowling

draw the outline of your leaf and cut it out.

Wrap the first hand print around the top of the dowling and fasten with glue. Wrap the second hand print around the first hand print and fasten with glue. Curl down the fingers. If you want you can also add a pom pom to the center of the flower. Now using the glue attach the feather and the leaf together. Glue the leaf to the stem. You can also wrap some green wire or pipecleaner around the base of the leaf ( where it attaches to the stem ). Ta da! you now have a beautiful flower. Happy Mothers Day!

Before I became a full time mom, I used to run an art center for kids. It was amazing. What could be better than making art with kids all day!!! ( ya ya maybe not EVERYONE would agree ) but for me I loved every second of it. I was constantly coming up with crafts that not only would the kids have fun making but also making sure that for the most part I was also coming up with crafts that the parents would WANT to have in their homes. I know it can be tough trying to save everything your kid comes home with but I swear these parents were saving most of what I was sending home! The kids loved it and so did the parents. I also worked hard at coming up with fun new art ideas each class. I didn’t want the kids to get bored and it was important for me that “The Messy Monkey” ( my art center ) kept its good name in the comunity….people talk and as a small business owner I wanted all the talk to be good.

Now for these flowers. I know I just said I was constantly coming up with new ideas but for Mothers Day, these handprint flowers were an exception. I loved them. Still do. The thought of having a beautiful flower made out of your kid’s hand was too cute…and the thought of over the years having a bouquet of flowers made up of many years of your little one’s growing hands was to me beyond cute! They are so easy and as your child grows so will the flowers and the creative thought they put into making them for you! This year Poppy is still quite small so my flower will be simply white with a few scribbles but next year it may be a beautiful messy rainbow of colours!

You will need:

1 pair of scissors

2 pieces of construction paper, one for the hand prints and one for the leaf

1 piece of wooden dowling

markers

1 pen, preferably a fine point black sharpie, to outline the hands and to write happy mothers day and the year on the wooden dowling

1 hot melt glue gun, to glue on the flower ( hand prints ) and leaves ( construction paper leaf and feather )

1 feather, or more if you like!

1 paint brush

1 bowl of water

green paint

extras: 

green wire or pipe cleaner to wrap around the dowling just at the base of the leaf

pom pom ,to glue in the center of the flower

sparkles

oil pastels are a great alternative to markers, they are bold and vibrant. If you choose to use both to decorate the flower, remember always use markers BEFORE the pastels as drawing over pastel with marker will ruin your markers.

*note: these are just a few suggestions, please let your child run wild with their imagination. You can use all sorts of things to create beautiful unique flowers.