Things I Love: Craft Night

I've been trying to decide what I wanted to make my first blog entry about. Show off a craft project I'm working on? A craft tutorial? A baking tutorial? I love to craft and I love to bake, but I settled on writing about something that I love even more than those things...my kids.

I have a four year old and a two year old. Every week or so we have Craft Night. I search the Internet far and wide for the perfect little project to delight and thrill the little ones. I raid my stack of supplies. Sometimes we have all the makings, sometimes we don't so we improvise, but in the end we always have a blast! It's such an awesome way to spend quality time with the babies while allowing them to explore their creative side. There are no rules: pink trees, blue pumpkins, purple frogs...well, you get the idea.

I love seeing their little faces light up when I dump out our supplies for each new projects. They oooohhh and aaahhh over the pretty glitter, shiny buttons and chase and tickle each other with fuzzy pipe cleaners.

My son is "the planner". He carefully plots his color schemes and sequin or glitter layouts before he puts his plan into action.

My little girl is more like me...a free spirited crafter. She dives in head first, throwing in a little bit of this and a little bit of that without any rhyme or reason and some how it all works out in the end.

The craft of the week was hand print turkeys. I remember making these in school many, many moons ago. And with turkey day fast approaching, I thought it would be the perfect craft.

So. I traced and cut out a flock of little hands. Well, my son's hand anyway. My girl had a severe case of ants in the pants and wouldn't sit still for more than one turkey trace.

If you've never done this timeless activity, I'll give you a fast rundown on the how to's.

Get some construction paper or card stock. I chose white, but you could use brown or whatever color you like...push the crafty limits. Lay your little one's hand flat (or as flat as you can get those wiggling piggies to stay) and trace with a pencil. Then cut it out and let the kiddies go wild. I just broke out the crayons, but you can use paint, glitter or even some colorful feathers. Once your little Picasso is done decorating, cut out some feet, a beak and a wattle. I didn't use a template, just free hand it. Glue or tape all your turkey parts and place, write your kiddos name on it and voila! Instant turkey. I wrote the date and child's age on the back..simply because I am a kid art rat pack and save every scribble they make.

In the end I had a lovely gaggle of colorful turkeys to hang from our mantle taking the place of the paper plate jack o' lanterns that hung there just an hour before.

Phew! I did it! My first blog entry. I hope you stop by and visit again. Thanks for reading and Happy Crafting :)