Paper Bag Puffy Heart

We are taking part in TinkerLab's Paper Bag Challenge along with many other bloggers.  Hope you check out all the ideas other blogs have done with paper bags after this post!  We've made a few things with paper bags before,  including our Fandango Inspired Paper Bag Puppets and Paper Bag Self Portraits...hope you check those out too.  Paper Bags are so versatile and the great thing is that you can cut them apart to create a surface to paint on or create a sculpture too!  We did both!  Since Valentines and hearts have been our minds, we decided to make a three dimensional version of our Heart Blotto Valentines that we did a couple weeks ago and we also did Heart Blotto T-shirts too!!  Here is one of our Paper Bag Puffy Hearts floating on a cloud of poly-fil stuffing.

To begin, I first cut apart a larger paper bag so that I could cut two identical paper bag hearts.  You want two hearts: one for the back and one for the front. Then we folded the hearts and created blottos.  First paint on one side of the heart.

Then fold over to transfer to the other side of the heart. You can keep repeating the process until you like what you see.

Here are two hearts that will go together.  Beautiful!

After the hearts are dry,  put a ring of glue on one side,  but leave an opening to later put poly-fil stuffing, newspaper, or even pieces of scrap paper.  Let dry.

Next stuff your heart. You can use a ruler or stick to get all the stuffing back in the tight corners. After finished stuffing,  you can either glue the opening and wait to dry or staple!  We were impatient and just stapled the last bit together.

We wanted to add yarn around the heart,  so first I punched holes all around the heart.  Then C sewed around the heart.  Great fine tuning of motor skills!

When finished sewing with yarn,  tie a knot and create a hanger for the heart.  Here is C holding two of our hearts.  She loved swinging them about....an active girl....no doubt!

Here is another Paper Bag Puffy Heart!  We had a lot of FUN!  You could make any type of stuffed shape....such as a fish, person, or even a cloud shape!   This is C's "Tree Blotto With Red Apples".

Thanks TinkerLab for inspiring us to create with paper bags!  Be sure to check out all the other Great ideas in the linky below!  Please let me know what you think of our idea too!

This post is linked to: Made By You Mondays, Craft Schooling Sunday, Link And Learn, Show And Tell

Egg Shaped Lanterns

Ever since we did our Tissue Paper Mache Eggs from a previous post I've been toying with this idea and have finally completed it.  I really wanted the Tissue Paper Mache Eggs to be transparent, but we had to do a few layers so they did turn out beautiful, but they were opaque.  I was looking through Scribble Art

a great kid's art book by Mary Ann Kohl and noticed an idea for the yarn eggs, but at the end of the idea it mentioned putting tissue paper over it for an extension.  This was my light bulb moment and this is how these Egg Shaped Lanterns came to be!!! I Love how they turned out! I'm so pleased with these!

To begin,  cut some 12 inch yarn pieces----about 8 pieces or so.  You'll need white glue in a container--enough to soak the yarn in!

Soak the yarn in the glue for a few minutes. I spread out the pieces for Cassie because she cannot stand being sticky!!!

Set a water balloon in a cup (I cut down a yogurt container to fit) and you are ready to wrap yarn around the balloon.  You can take some glue off between your fingers, but leave most of the glue on the yarn!

Here is Cassie wrapping the yarn on the balloon. I had to help pick the balloon up to get it all around or it will easily fall off the balloon!

Here is our yarn wrapped balloon---we did 2 of these at a time!

Now for the tissue paper part---make sure it is not bleeding tissue!  I cut up some squares in put them in a pile.  Make  a mixture of 2 parts glue to 1 part water to apply the tissue paper.  We placed the tissue paper on the yarn balloon and went over it with a brush (Thank you Imagination Tree for the tip!) which made it so much easier to handle because your hands didn't have to get as sticky!

All you have to do is one layer and cover the balloon so that  it will be transparent.  Don't forget to throw some glitter on too!  The great thing is that this only took a day or so to dry and you are ready to pop the balloon and hang!  Love this idea!

I punched holes in the tissue paper and attached the yarn or you could attach it to the yarn of the balloon too! This seems like a great indoor patio decoration! 

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

This post is linked to:

IT'S PLAYTIME

FUN FOR KIDS FRIDAY

PRESCHOOL CORNER

FUN FOR THE KIDS FRIDAY

CRAFT SCHOOLING SUNDAY

NO TIME FOR FLASHCARDS

MADE BY LITTLE HANDS MONDAY

THE PLAY ACADEMY

AN ARTY CRAFTY PARTY

RESOURCE CENTRE

MADE BY YOU MONDAY

SHARING MONDAYS

SHOW AND TELL

WE PLAY

KIDS GET CRAFTY

BEAUTIFUL Yarn Hearts!

Finally created these yarn hearts thanks to the blog Chalk In My Pocket . This is truly a beautiful blog and if you haven't checked it out I recommend it! Originally I saw this idea in the Family Fun February 2011 magazine.  My daughter was a little apprehensive getting her hands gooey, but really enjoyed it!

Here is a finished heart with purple and red yarn.
Thicker yarn works better after experimenting!

Use a cookie cutter heart or a pipe cleaner shaped into a heart on a wax paper lined tray to frame the loopy yarn shapes.  I used 4 oz. water to 2 oz. of white glue mixed together to dip 12 inch yarn strips into the mixture. Carefully squeeze most of the glue and water mixture off the yarn  with two fingers and swirl the yarn pieces into the heart.  Messy--but fun! Make sure to overlap the yarn and fill in the edges so your creation will resemble a heart. Too little yarn will be too flimsy! Cassie really enjoyed putting the yarn in the heart!  You need to let the heart dry for a day so that it will stiffen up. You can add a string to hang the heart like an ornament.

I love how they look with more than one color! Next time I would try
more colors or use a multi-color yarn to start. Glittery yarn looks cool!


This post is linked to:


Kids Get Crafty!