Craft Clay Ornaments

Keeping with my "what everybody got for Christmas" series of posts, this next one was also for my husband but from the kids. We made craft clay ornaments and I had the little one paint them for his daddy. I even painted one myself with baby girl's hand print, as a baby's first christmas kind of thing. Sorry I don't have any pictures of him working with the dough cutting out the ornaments. We were having so much fun I totally forgot to take pictures.

Normally I like to use salt dough, but I wanted to try something different and actually make something that I have pinned on pinterest. So I used this Easy Craft Clay recipe I had found. You use baking soda and corn starch (that's where your box of  baking soda went honey haha) and cook it on the stove, which was really cool to watch. It also comes out a bright white color which was nice.

Noah LOVED playing  with the dough, he rolled it and smashed it, after we cut out all the ornaments we needed (using a glass, and a straw for the hole) he played with the left over dough for a few hours, it took forever to get him to stop.

One thing I did not like was that the bigger ones we made cracked. You were supposed to let this air dry, which takes a few days, and over those days the craking starts. I would have much rather used a salt dough next time and baked it so that it came out right. But who knows, it could have been something I had done wrong. If you try it let me know how it turns out.

It took a while to get nana's handprint right, the internet makes it seem easy, but it's not, she did not like it. I even tried her foot, which i realized was too big to actually hang. When I first painted it, it didn't look christmas enough, so I added glitter with Mod Podge. I recommend if you do, add Mod Podge to top to seal it in. I just added the words with a fine tip sharpie.

He also had fun painting them, I was a little nervous about letting him use my acrylic paints because I never painted with him before but he was very good and we both had a blast. I tried to coax him into using more christmas colors,  but then I figured he was having fun let him do what he wants. But next time I think I may draw designs on a few for him to work on painting in the lines.

Kids Krafts Friday - Pinata!

YAY! I'm so excited this is my first Kids Krafts Friday. This project was long in the making because I promised Noah that I would help him to make one of these a while ago after he saw one on Nick Jr.

It may not be too pretty but he had tons of fun making it and that's all that really matters.

Here's what you will need:

newspaper
few sheets of white printer paper (optional)
flour
water
tissue paper
white glue (like Elmer's)
scissors
Patience (lots of it)

First thing first, rip newspaper into strips, this is a long and boring process so I did this while watching TV (and browsing pinterest)

Then we mixed the glue, this was his favorite part, he told me he was Chef Noah while he was mixing it. I used a ratio of 2-1 with 2 cups of water to every 1 cup of flower. If you are doing a small pinata like the size of ours that should be enough but if you are doing anything larger, double it.

The next part may be a little common since because I think everybody has made a pinata in grade school,but just in, case you haven't I'll tell you. Dip paper in glue mixture, wipe of extra with your fingers, and put all over balloon. Be sure to overlap pieces a little and cover the entire balloon. It helps to put the balloon in a small bowl to hold it still while you are working.

Now, the ideal thing to do is let the first layer completely dry before you start your second layer, but working with a 3 year old that did not exactly happen. I figured if I didn't wait, it would turn out the same. I was right, but it took days to dry, and it made the kitchen smell like the flour mixture, so please, try to wait between each layer. About 3 or 4 newspaper layers should do it. Here he is, very proud of his first layer

Optional - add a layer or two of white paper to cover up the newsprint if you would like.

While you wait for your pinata to dry cut your tissue paper into small squares. It doesn't have to be perfect, just get some scissors and go crazy.We used Christmas paper because that's what he wanted, but it looks nice to used color paper and go for a pattern look lol. To speed up the process it helps to cut in strips, then stack the strips to cut the squares. (I had Noah separate all the pieces that were stuck together, he started to count them, then says mom there is just too many, it was funny)

After its all dry, its time to add the candy and decorate! I used a sharp knife to cut a hole in the bottom big enough to fit the candy in it(but do not cut it all the way off), doing this will pop the balloon, be sure to get that out before you do. I used tape at first to hold the hole closed, but the tape I had wouldn't stick to anything so I just glued it shut wit some strips of white paper. Since you need to hang it up the easiest way to do this is to make two holes close together at the top and string some ribbon or yarn through. I used screws to make the holes, and I used a tapestry needle to help get the ribbon through, if you don't have one of those I guess you could tape your string to a toothpick.

Give yourself a pat on the back, or clap like Noah did because you are almost done. Now its time to add all that tissue paper you cut up. We did it the old fashioned way I remember doing in elementary school. Wrap the tissue paper square around an unsharpened pencil and dip in glue, press and hold on pinata, and viola! it sticks! repeat until you are all done

When its all dry, string it up and knock it out! The hubs didn't think it was a good idea to do that in the apartment so we are going to wait until Saturday and do it outside at grandma's house. Will post a pic when we do so you can see :)