Kids DIY – Page 2

Make DIY Dinosaur Fossils for Your Dinosaur Party

March 9, 2012 by Danielle

Find out how easy it is to make DIY dinosaur fossils for your next dinosaur birthday party or activity!

When I started planning activities to do at my son’s dinosaur themed 3rd birthday party I knew I had to have something fun that both the boys and girls would like. Since his party was a dinosaur train theme I started scouring the internet for great ideas on crafts my son and I could create together for the party.

After searching around a bit we found a great recipe for do-it-yourself dinosaur fossils! As soon as I showed my son the fossils he was all aboard. And then when I told him he’d have to help make them he quickly ran to grab the measuring cups and flour.

The fossils were a big hit at the party and the kids took turns finding them all over the indoor play place we were at. Then they took all of the fossils to two buckets we had set out and started opening their fossils to reveal tiny plastic dinos inside.

DIY Dinosaur Fossils

What You’ll Need:

1 cup flour
1 cup dirt
1/2 cup sand (play sand works the best)
1 cup water
12 tiny plastic dinosaurs
Plastic wrap-lined cookie tray

What you do:

1. Dump the flour, dirt, and sand into a bowl.

2. Pour the water over the dirt mixture.

3. Stir the mixture together until it’s a thick muddy batter-like consistency.

4. Add more dirt, sand, and flour as needed if too liquidy.

5. Let your kids dip in the dinos and coat them well.

5. Place on plastic wrap-lined cookie tray and cover with a little more of the mixture to make sure it’s coated very well. Cover up any parts that may be sticking out.

6. Let the mixture sit out in the sun for a few hours to dry. Once the top side is dry flip each fossil over and let the other side dry completely.

7. Let the kids have fun breaking the fossils apart!

Have you made DIY dinosaur fossils you can break open before?

Love this idea? Here are some more dino-fun crafts:

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Filed Under: Crafts/DIY, Party Ideas Tagged With: Birthday Party, birthday party ideas, boys birthday party ideas, children's crafts, crafts, Crafts for Kids, Dinosaurs, Kids DIY

DIY Cardboard Giraffe Tutorial for Preschoolers

March 1, 2012 by Danielle

When life gives you toilet paper rolls, make a cardboard giraffe! This simple tutorial shares how you can make your own DIY cardboard giraffe using only a few supplies.

Since I started incorporating Tot School lessons into our weekly schedule I’ve been on the hunt for more and more fun crafts for my kids. I’ve been using Pinterest to keep track of what crafts to make and love being able to choose crafts that pair well with the week’s theme. This week we learned about mammals so I thought this adorable cardboard giraffe would be the perfect craft to make.

My three year old LOVES to paint so whenever I ask him if he wants to do a craft where painting is involved he quickly agrees. I love that this craft not only includes a paint brush to paint but also q-tips to make circles on the cardboard. My son has never used q-tips in his painting and I think this is one fun tool we’ll start incorporating more often! We also used the circles as a counting tool as well. we were able to count each circle we made after we assembled the giraffe. We also got a lot of fun imaginative play out of this craft turned toy.

DIY Cardboard Giraffe

What you’ll need:

cardboard tube, paper towel size (about 1′)
paint brush
yellow paint
orange or brown paint
q-tips
scissors
pipe cleaners (any color)
tape or glue
stapler
black marker

What you do:
1. Have your child paint the cardboard tube with the yellow paint. Make sure it’s completely coated. Let dry.

2. Once the yellow paint has dried grab the orange paint and some q-tips.

3. Let your child dip the q-tips into the paint and start to dot the yellow cardboard. Don’t be alarmed if they start drawing lines instead of dotting. It’s all fun!

4. Let the orange dots dry. Once the paint is dried cut out four lines on one side of the cardboard. Then shape those four sections into the giraffe’s legs.

5. On the opposite side cut out a large U. The leftover portion of this side of the cardboard will be the neck of the giraffe. Take each open side and curl them into one another. Glue or tape closed.

6. Take the leftover cardboard from the U and roll it into a cylinder.

7. Glue or tape the cylinder closed. Flatten the cylinder and cut a V into one side.

8. Take the pipe cleaners and roll up one side to create the horns of the giraffe. Slide the horns into the cardboard slots and close with glue or tape. Let dry if glued. Bend cylinder at the base of the horns to get them to stick up.

9. Attach the head and horns onto the neck with tape or a stapler. Draw eyes and nose slits on the cylinder to personalize your giraffe.

10. Give your giraffe a name (or allow your child to name it) and start playing. Have fun!

The first thing my son did when we finished his giraffe was to take it out to play in the grass. The giraffe loved eating all of the grass he offered it. If you make your own DIY cardboard giraffe, please make sure to share a photo with us on our Facebook page!

Have you made any cardboard animals? Which is your favorite?

Love this idea? Here are a few more:

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Filed Under: Crafts/DIY Tagged With: children's crafts, Crafts for Kids, Kids Crafts, Kids DIY, Toys

Homemade Playdough {DIY Tutorial}

February 16, 2012 by Danielle

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When we were planning our activities out for Valentine’s Day I wanted to do something special with the kids, just me and them. Now, we do special things together almost every day but I wanted to find a special time to focus solely on them without thinking about what we needed to do next (or what I needed to work on). And since I’ve been pinning crafts to do with them for a while now I thought it’d be a great time to try out a pin.

So after we hosted a super fun Valentine’s Day party with our playgroup I put the kids to bed and got out the ingredients for playdough. I found the “recipe” on one of my favorite blogs, How Does She?, and loved how easy the project sounded so I got to work. It took me all of 5 minutes to take the ingredients out, snap some photos and pre-measure everything. And once the kids woke up we were ready to get our DIY on!

Homemade Playdough

What you’ll need:

1 cup flour
1 cup water
1/4 cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
food coloring
medium pot
wax paper

What you do:

1. Grab a medium pot and pre-measure all of the ingredients except the food coloring (if you’re including a little helper into the mix).

2. Let your little helper dump all of the ingredients into the pot except the food coloring (look at that concentration!).

3. Stir, stir, stir until combined.

4. Now it’s time for the adult to take over (unless your child is old enough to use the stove). Place pot on stove and set heat to medium and add food coloring (as many or as little drops as you’d like to get the color your going for).

5. Stir the mixture until it starts to form a ball.

6. Once the mixture forms into a non-sticky ball, dump it out onto wax paper and let cool.

7. Once the playdough has cooled a bit start kneading the dough a few times until there is a smooth and soft consistency. You can let your helper take over this part for you if the dough has cooled down enough.

8. Re-form into a ball and give it to the kids to enjoy! How easy was that?

The playdough lasts quite a while when stored in an air tight container. I love that Missy over at How Does She? repurposed baby food containers to store her playdough so I grabbed some containers I had in the tupperware cupboard that weren’t being used and use them. Little hummus or pizza sauce containers seemed to be the best size and held the full batch of playdough perfectly.

Also… if you want your playdough to smell wonderful too I’ve heard that using kool aid as food coloring not only makes pretty colors but leaves great scents too. Cinnamon will do the trick as well but you still have to add the food coloring. And if you’re really wanting to spice things up you can add glitter to the dough to add some sparkle while you’re kneading.

Molly had a lot of fun playing with the dough once it was ready. She tried to eat it at first…

Then decided it was a phone and she called Daddy…

Then she just played with it in her fingers and squeezed it a bit before trying to share with me…

What a great afternoon treat! And the perfect way to spend Valentine’s Day with my little valentines.

Do you have an awesome DIY project that would work great for kids? I’d love to hear them! We’re always looking for awesome things to do together and to incorporate with our Tot School.