Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

The rain here lately has been CRAZY!!!!  Even when it's not raining, everything is still too soaked and muddy to really get out and play.  We've been filling the time with little crafts and so today I thought I'd share a few easy craft ideas in case you're stuck inside and looking for a little inspiration.

I tend to craft with stuff that I have laying around and a lot of times my plan goes awry.  This used to bother me, but now I just roll with.  It may end up looking NOTHING like my inspiration picture or how I envisioned it in my head, but as long as the kids are having fun I call it a win. 

Yesterday afternoon Mason wanted to make a craft and so I broke out the markers, paper lunch bags, googly eyes and fun scissors to make jellyfish.

 They colored the bags with markers (these would be really cute with paint as well if you had a few more minutes).




Then we glued on googly eyes and cut the tentacles with patterned scissors...


They turned out nothing like I had envisioned, but the kids had fun and we have some new fridge art   (and yes.... that's a Parks and Rec refrigerator magnet. #bestshowever)




We love making and then creating with play dough and you can read about my favorite AWESOME play dough recipe HERE.


A great craft for a rainy day is to make these fun umbrellas out of paper plates.

 

And if you bought paper plates to make the umbrellas, you should probably go ahead and make these jellyfish as well :)


These crabs are always a hit with my boys and the mess is "minimal" since you're really only using red paint.


and we turned this craft into a little day of service, by making about 20 of these handprint pictures and delivering them to the memory care unit at a local assisted living center.


This color clip game was a big hit with Luke (note to self... make a set for Mason!) 


Speaking of clothes pins, I let Luke "decorate" a bunch of clothes pins and popsicle sticks...


... we turned them into some awesome airplanes (that we launched off our playhouse).


A couple of summers ago I made Luke an alphabet parking garage where I labeled the spots with capital letters and then the cars with lowercase letters and he had to park the lowercase cars in the correct uppercase spot.  He LOVED this!


and back when I had WAY more time (and only one kid AND natural wood kitchen cabinets. hahaha) I sewed Luke a fabric alphabet that's magnetic.  We actually still have this and all three kids now play with it - time well spent on my part!



If you're looking to entertain yourself on a rainy day, you can read about how to turn a pile of old clothes and/or fabric scraps into a cute headband or funky garland HERE.


And if you're looking for even more inspiration, check out my "kids crafts" board on Pinterest!

Happy Crafting, friends!

42 comments :

  1. Love these crafts! I can't wait to make some of them with my kids this summer.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The airplane craft is genius. Getting to throw anything off the playhouse old be a win in my boys book!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh I love this post!! I'm all about making our summers meaningful and 'planned' so we don't end up sitting around with bored little boys (and baby girl) so I try and plan out a few fun crafts and activities throughout and already know we'll be doing a few of these! Pinning post now. ;) Thanks!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. YAY!!! So glad you enjoyed the post... and I'm the same way! I tend to "prep" activities so I have them ready to go for the week and we aren't bored :)

      Delete
  4. Love all those crafts! And please send some rain our way, we are in the middle of a drought and water rationing starts tomorrow!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ani - are you in California? I am and this drought has me concerned. We have water usage cut backs of 25% or more.

      Delete
  5. WOW! These are incredible (and so inexpensive)!!! Thanks for sharing, Andrea!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're so welcome! I tend to err on the side of "cheap" because we typically keep them for a day or so and then move on to the next project :)

      Delete
  6. That airplane craft is adorable. AJ would love that

    ReplyDelete
  7. Awesome ideas!! I mean, you sewed a fabric alphabet set! I LOVE it, and so creative! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hahaha - didn't you sew baby Valentines?!?!?! :) hahaha

      Delete
  8. Thanks for the creative ideas! I need to learn to go with the flow and be okay with the crafts not turning out how I expect them to. Let it go.... Ha!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They RARELY turn out like I envisioned, but are EXACTLY how my kids want them to look.... which is the important thing. ;)

      Delete
  9. love the letters on the cars with the parking spots! My firsties love practicing sight words on our sight word hop! http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/seo/ca%7CproductSubCat~~p%7CGG737~~f%7C/Assortments/Lakeshore/ShopByCategory/language/sightwords.jsp?utm_source=social_media&utm_medium=pinterest&utm_content=pin&utm_campaign=sightwords

    here's what I have! It lets my kiddos move in the classroom! especially my boys! ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Great craft ideas Andrea!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I can't see your new posts on the blog lovin. Is anyone else having the same issue?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think bloglovin is having all sorts of issues right now; they're not even connecting when my posts are published to my facebook page like they use to daily.

      Delete
    2. Oh no!!! I just looked and I can see them on my homepage.... so strange!

      Delete
  12. I love all these ideas - I just started nannying two little boys and I think these are going to go into my book of must do activities! I think the color one is the first thing I am going to work on cause the little one thinks everything is "green"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So sweet!!! Love that you plan activities for the kids you nanny :) And yes! The color one is super fun!

      Delete
  13. Well. I've never felt more lazy than I do at this exact moment. :) But you left one craft out....let's talk about our magnet crafting day of 2011. We were MAGNET WARRIORS. ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. YES!!! Magnet Day 2011!!! We need to craft again soon :)

      Delete
  14. These are all great ideas!!! I love that you can be so relaxed to let your kids have at it after a long day at work! We typically save crafting for the weekend or summer! But, the girls love to color! I bought brown wrapping paper yesterday (the brown paper bag kind on a roll) and I'm going to let the girls have at it coloring, because that's a craft that is easy at the end of a long day!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's not always what I WANT to do after working all day, but I'm never sorry that we did a "project"... even it if made a mess :) hahaha

      Delete
  15. I love all your ideas! I am definitely doing the parking garage!!!! My 2 year old will love it.

    ReplyDelete
  16. LOVE that you made artwork for those at the assisted living center! Such a great way to brighten someone's day :) And, those airplanes! So easy and fun!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Such great ideas! I have tons of those paper plates too. Thanks for the tips!

    ReplyDelete
  18. I'm bookmarking this post because I'm always looking for some quick, crafting fun. We get more than our share of rain up here in Seattle (although it's been a surprisingly warm and sunny spring). And just like you, I don't like to spend a ton on supplies because my kids will lose interest. These are super cute, though. And I don't think we've tried any of them before! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  19. I love your Parks and Rec magnet! I want one! I also love your paper bag jellyfish craft. I will be putting it on the list!

    ReplyDelete
  20. You need to write a children's craft book! Your so talented and fun!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Some great ideas! Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Off topic but did you replace or refinish your cabinates?

    ReplyDelete

Blog design by Get Polished | Copyright 2016