toddler craft

Making Holiday Graham Cracker Houses

This is one of my favourite Christmas crafts to do at a crafty playdate with toddlers. It's easy to prepare, inexpensive, and the moms enjoy decorating the houses as much as the little ones. 

 

Change this up for other holidays too; add blue and white candies with gold coins for Hanukkah, make a Valentine's Day house with cinnamon hearts and pink, red and white, etc. Use your imagination!

holiday graham cracker houses

 

You'll need:
7 graham crackers per house
1 cup of quick icing
ziploc bag
scissors
Assortment of candies for decorating
Ribbon (optional)
 
Make the icing by mixing 1 cup of icing sugar, 1 tbsp milk and 1/4 tsp of vanilla until smooth.

Fill the plastic ziploc bag with the icing. Use the scissors to cut 1/4" off the one of the corners. This small hole will be used to pipe the icing.

Pipe the icing along the edges of the graham crackers to glue the pieces together. Start by making the box (4 walls attached to a floor) and allow the icing to harden. Then pipe glue along the tops of two walls (opposite each other) and balance the roof (two graham crackers making an inverted V) on top, sealing the top seam. Allow to harden (1 hour to overnight.) (TIP: It helps to pipe the icing on both edges being glued together, and also to reinforce the seams.)

Now the fun part! Use the icing to decorate the houses and to stick on the candies.

Once your masterpiece is dry, you can put a ribbon through the roof and use it as a tree ornament!

 

submitted by momstown Victoria

Posted by momstown team on 11/29/2012 - 10:49
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f is for fish alphabet craft

momstown's craft room is bursting with lower case alphabet crafts! Turn a lower case f into a fish hook with this fun letter sound activity.

 

f for fish

 

What you need:

  • Construction paper
  • Glue
  • Glitter glue
  • Shiny paper (we used shimmery blue wrapping paper scraps)
  • Scissors

 

f for fishCut out a lower case f and glue onto construction paper. Then, cut out fish shapes from construction paper, shiny paper (if you have it) and glue all around the f.

 

 

 

 

 

 

f for fish

 

 

If you turn the picture upside down, the f looks like a fish hook!

 

 

 

 

 

 

f for fish

Add some glitter glue to make the scene shiny.

 

Look at this great creation from one of our littlest momstown crafters!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted by Teacher Mom on 03/27/2012 - 13:45
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Salt Dough Tree Ornaments

Can you believe these Christmas ornaments were made by momstown kids? Baked salt dough and paint was all it took to make some beautiful ornaments by hand!

 

salt dough making

 

Real story - we needed pressies for all the teachers for all the programs and we didn't have time or enough sugar to bake treats for everyone. Instead, we made this great no cook salt dough recipe, played like playdough and  then baked the kids creations. 

 

salt dough ornament

 

One craft covers a LOT of gifts! For the non-crafty mom, this is a solid way to get the homemade points with relatively little effort.

 

Recipe for Easy no-cook Salt "dough"

 
Stir together 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 1 1/2 cups cold water (maybe a bit less), 2 Tbsp oil.

 Christmas ornament craft

Stir until a soft dough forms. Then knead, roll and cut into shapes.

 

salt dough making

 

Use your cookie cutters to make all kinds of Christmas shapes - stockings, gingerbread men, Christmas trees, stars, and snowflakes!

 

salt dough laid out

 

Bake 300 degrees for about an hour. You can add food colouring to the water or you can paint when cool.

 

salt dough painting

 

If you paint, spray with shellac or nail polish when dry to help keep the paint from peeling.

 

Christmas ornament craft

 

momstown Winnipeg had great fun with this project too during a Christmas event this season!

 

This is a super project for so many reasons and we did use it to make cars & trains for a birthday party as well!

Posted by momstown mama on 12/12/2011 - 00:39
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Sunset Canvas Art

beach sunset

momstown has been exploring the beach all month but mostly sunny, daytime ideas. The idea of the sunset is one we had yet to create. Capture the beauty of the sunset in this painting exercise – all aged kids will love and appreciate this art project.

 

Our paintings were inspired by pictures my kids brought home from camp at the Southampton Art School - great paintings with the local lighthouse featured. We created our own versions here! All my kids participated (ages 5, 3, 1) and each painting was beautiful and nice enough to give as gifts for vacation momentos.


Supplies:

  • Mini Canvas (pick up a pack of 3 for a buck at the dollar store)
  • Variety of (tempra) paints (we usedregular paints, fingers & brushes and also these great paint filled brushes)
  • Black foam or construction paper, scissors and white glue


painting sunsets

 

baby painting on canvas

 

Paint a “sunset” and be creative! Kids art is often much better than adults – try to pick out which one of these canvas pictures was mine and which were ones by the kids. Their free flowing random painting made much better sunsets than mine!

 

sunset canvas


Once dry create a shape for the seashore – sailboat, lighthouse… anything that would be in the shadow along the horizon. Glue onto the canvas.

 

baby painting on canvas


Hang or display your works of art – and they ARE works of art! Great examples of how kids artwork can be really beautiful.

Posted by momstown mama on 07/24/2011 - 22:02
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Memory Beach Collage

beach collage

Take a walk down the beach and fill your bucket with rocks, shells and sand for your very own beach collage. Or visit the dollar or craft store for seashells, rocks and coloured sand and make your very own picture.

 

Shellsgluing beach collage
Rocks
Glue
Sand
Heavy corregate / cardboard for base (a clean Styrofoam meat tray would work too)


This is so easy to create – glue on heavy items first and make a personal collage. Spread glue thinly for the sand part, sprinkle it on and then shake the excess off. There's no wrong way to do this and every child will have fun securing the items they chose and be proud to show it off!

 

For other beach craft ideas - visit our Beach theme.

Heading out on a Family Beach Trip? Read our Do's and Don'ts for visiting the beach.

 

 

Posted by momstown mama on 07/18/2011 - 15:53
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Father's Day Art: 'Walk a Little Slower' Footprint

 

 

momstown Oakville's Crafty Kids Playgroup met at The Little Gym to make their own unique gifts for Father's Day! So what does Daddy need? A reminder that the kids are grateful for him and love him. For those sentimental Dads, we pasted a poem next to some very special (and cute!) painted footprints! Daddy can frame the entire project for his desk at work and always remember who's thinking of him!

 

All you need is some cardstock, paint, a flat surface to either step the child's foot into or a brush to paint the foor and well, a kid's foot!

 

To create this at home, here's the poem:
Walk a Little Slower Daddy:

"Walk a Little slower, Daddy." said a little child so small.
I'm following in your footsteps and I don't want to fall.
Sometimes your steps are very fast, sometimes they're hard to see;
So walk a little slower Daddy, for you are leading me.
Someday when I'm all grown up, You're what I want to be.
Then I will have a little child who'll want to follow me.
And I would want to lead just right, and know that I was true;
So, walk a little slower, Daddy, for I must follow you!!
- Author Unknown


Posted by momstown mama on 05/09/2011 - 21:26
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