Thumbprint beaver

 It's Canada Day, and I should be hosting a Canada Day party for the kids but it has been raining here for what seems like ever now. The party was supposed to be on Saturday, but then this was the forecast. As 

 you can see it hasn't changed much since Sat. I am ready to see the sun. At least the kids won't care that the Canada Day party will be a week after Canada Day.

The kids and I made this sweet little Canada Day craft this weekend. I just started project life (it just came to Michaels stores here) and this will be a perfect craft to include in it. 

Materials needed:

brown paint

black pen & brown marker

googly eyes (optional)

maple leaf template

piece of red paper to mount the leaf on

scissors

glue

Cut out a maple leaf, using the template link above, or draw your own leaf if you're artistically inclined at all. Have the child dip their thumb in brown paint, and stamp it twice, one on top of the other, on the maple leaf.

Once that's dry, using a brown marker, dry on little ears, legs and a tail. I used a black pen to make the x's on the tail, and draw the arms and face. Glue on googly eyes, if you're using them. I mounted the leaves of a piece of 6x4 red cardstock, because I wanted it to fit in my project life album. You can of course choose whatever size paper you want to use to mount the maple leaf. That's it. Be sure to date your project, so you can remember how little those thumbprints used to be!

Happy Canada Day!

Linking up with:   Skip to my Lou

handprint beavers

It's nearly Canada Day, and I couldn't let it pass without doing a craft with the kiddos. This was a fun craft, and the kids loved  doing it. It has been a while since we last painted, so they had fun making a HUGE mess painting. Did you know that the beaver is the national animal of Canada?

Claire used some maple leaf cookie cutters to stamp leaves on the white paper. We let those dry over night. This morning, Simon and Claire painted their hands brown and stamped them on the paper. While we still had the brown paint out, I added little feet and little ears to the beaver. Then when it was all dry I drew the hands, nose, mouth (big teeth are key) and the details on the tail.

Whenever I do painting projects with the kids I always get them to do what I have in mind first ( in this case brown handprints). Then I let them paint whatever they want (including themselves!) If I waited until they were nearly done painting, there would be a lot less cooperation with me.

We're making cookies this weekend to take to the teddy bear picnic on Canada Day. The kids are so exited. Who else has big plans for Canada Day?


Linking up with: Six Sister's Stuff & Today's Creative Blog &  Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie & Tatertots and Jello