Paintsicles

Put Tempera Paint in Popsicle containers and freeze. Remove once frozen, and paint, Muffin tins can also be used - just stick a Popsicle stick or toothpick into the paint.

Spray Bottle Painting

Put water and food dye in spray bottles. Hang up paper in the backyard and spray. Try using red, blue and Yellow and having the children experiment with secondary colors.

Make & design Clay Dough

Ingredients: 2 cups flour, 1/2 cup salt, 2 tablespoons cream of tartar, 1 cup water, 2 tablespoons cooking oil

Stir together flour, salt, and cream of tartar in a saucepan.  Then add the water and cooking oil.  Put the pan over medium heat, and cook for 3-5 minutes.  Stir the mixture constantly until it looks like mashed potatoes.  Dump the clay out on a sheet of waxed paper, but wait until the clay is cool enough to touch.  Roll out the play clay to a layer about 1/4 inch thick.  Use cookie cutters to make assorted shapes.  Use a straw or pencil to put a hole in the top to make an ornament or make a star award to tie with ribbon to give to the "star" of the day at your house!  Let the cutouts air dry for 24 hours on a wire wrack.  Paint with poster and write names on with glitter markers.  Tie a ribbon through the hole.  Use your imagination to make all sorts of fun things with this dough!  So fun to then paint them and design them the way you like.  Make a star award for each kid.  Make fun name stars to hang with ribbon to decorate their room, put one letter on each star or design and hang them with ribbon in their room.  Such a cute, cheap decoration!

Making Paper/Fabric Beads

You can make your own beads with paper, fabric, newspapers, magazines. It's fun to see how your beads turnout and then make a cute necklace or bracelet with them. Such a one of a kind design that your kids will love!

What you'll need: Gift Wrap, Scrapbook paper, magazines, fabric...etc., Ruler, Pencil, blunt scissors, Elmers glue, stetchy string, narrow drinking straws/coffee stirrers, small margarine tub.

Use whatever decorative paper you choose.  On the backside of the paper, use the ruler and pencil to draw triangles that are 1 inch across the bottom and 7 inches tall.  Make as many triangles as you want beads, then cut out the triangles.  Eventually you can experiment with different sizes and lengths, you can also do rectangles instead of triangles for different shaped beads.  Mix half water and half Elmers glue in your margarine tub, dip your paper or fabric strip in the glue mixture, let excess dump off.  Start at the straight edge end of your triangle and start wrapping tightly around your small straw stirrer with pattern side up, until you have a rolled up bead.  Let dry overnight, cut off extra string from fabric beads.  You can then finish them off with a coat of Glossy Mod Podge for a nice finish.  String your beads.

Egg Dye

What You Need:

    * 1/4 teaspoon food coloring

    * 3/4-cup hot water

    * One-tablespoon vinegar

What You Do:

·      Measure liquids into a bowl. Separate into small bowls. Add food coloring to each mixture. Soak hard-boiled eggs in dye.

Pasta Dye

Pasta Dye
What You Need:

* 1/2 cup rubbing alcohol
* Food coloring

What You Do:

* Mix alcohol and food coloring in bowl. Add small amounts of any type of pasta to liquid and gently stir. Dry on newspapers covered with wax paper.

****This recipe is for Art Only Do not allow children to eat pasta or drink alcohol**

Color Sand

How to Color Sand

From your Florida for Visitors Guide

So you've brought home a bucket of sand from the beach. What do you do now? Color it and use it in a fun craft project!

Difficulty Level: Easy    Time Required: 30 Minutes +

Here's How:

   1. Fill paper cups half full of sand.

   2. Add water to cups to completely cover sand.

   3. Add food coloring to get the desired color.

   4. Stir with plastic spoon.

   5. Let set for 15 minutes.

   6. Pour off water.

   7. Spoon sand onto paper towels.

   8. Spread out and allow to dry.

Tips:

1.     Drying times vary. If you are using glue with your craft, you will want to allow the sand to dry completely.

Memory Games

Child Memory Games

Improve Concentration and Memory

Child memory games give children the opportunity to exercise their brains and help to improve their language and concentration skills as well as their memory. Surrounding children with books, puzzles and generally providing an enriching environment has been shown to stimulate their developmental growth and capacity for learning. So what sorts of child memory games are appropriate and how technical is all this? Not complex at all, read on...
Simple memory games to play with younger children can involve asking which sound matches which animal, or what colours certain household objects are; 'What colour is a banana, what colour are your socks?'
Once your children reach four or five years of age they will enjoy looking at books that challenge them to spot the difference or find hidden items on a page.
Use playing cards to play Concentration or other similar games of finding pairs. Once they begin to recognize the alphabet you can challenge them in letter recognition and sounds. Other specific memory games can be played easily at home with individual children or in a group.

Make Your Own

I've even made my own memory game using pictures of people in our family.
 
How to make: wood: about 40 - 1/8 - 2x2's or 3x3's or so....  
I do have some of this wood on hand if you don't want to cut your own. Just contact me at kimberly@lastingimpressionbykim.com
Pictures: 2 each of 20 different pictures
Paint all the wood squares and let them dry.

Modge Podge pictures on one side of flat wood squares.
and if you want you can also modge podge a decorative paper on the other side also.
When they are dry play it forever.

Building Blocks

Building block are another fun thing to do. It would also be fun to make your own and let the kids paint them.


Just use some
2x4's - 2x2's - 1x1's 
Large Dowel Sticks
and Wooden curtain rods
or Wooden closet rods.

Gelatin Plastic

It's called Gelatin Plastic I have tried another recipe but this is the one I got to work for me.

I put just over 1/2 cup of water in a measureing cup and put into the microwave till it boiled.

Then added food coloring and mixed in 5tsp of gelatin

I lined a paper plate with plastic wrap and poured the mixture on it.

I let it set for about 5 hours before cutting mine with cookie cutters and I used a straw to make a small hole for hanging it.

Pretty Plastic Light Catchers

by Leslie Garisto Pfaff 

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Weekend Project

By adding a very small amount of water to gelatin, kids can create a simple plastic that hardens into colorful window decorations. Gelatin is formed from collagen, a protein made of tiny fibers that's essential for keeping cells stuck together. As the water evaporates, it leaves behind a product that is lightweight and strong but without any of the oil-based chemicals used in many factory-made plastics. The bonus: It glimmers and shimmers in the sun.

Materials

• Small saucepan
• 3/4 cup water
• Small spouted measuring cup
• 4 envelopes unflavored gelatin
• Food coloring
• 4 disposable plastic plates (we used 9-inch)
• Glitter (optional)

• Scissors
• Hole punch
• Parchment paper
• Heavy books for weighting
• Markers (optional)
• String, ribbon, or fishing line

Instructions

1. Boil 3 tablespoons of the water and pour it into the measuring cup. Add 1 envelope of gelatin and a few drops of food coloring. Stir the mixture slowly until it's combined. Let it sit for about a minute, then stir it again to minimize air bubbles.
   
2. Pour the mixture onto a plastic plate. If you like, sprinkle glitter on top of the gelatin, or add one or two drops of different-colored food coloring and swirl with a toothpick to make a marbled pattern.
   
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 with the remaining envelopes of gelatin, varying the shades of food coloring each time.
   
4. Let the gelatins dry until hardened, at least overnight. Peel them off the plates, then cut them into shapes with scissors. Using a hole punch, make holes at the top of them.
   
5. If your light catchers start to curl, wrap them in a sheet of parchment paper, then place them between two heavy books. When they're flat, use markers to draw on them, if you like.
   
6. Suspend each from a string, ribbon, or fishing line and hang in a sunny window.