Autumn Spice Painting and Flower Prints

 We did a really fun craft the other day- painting with spices!

Spice paints are super easy to make- just mix about a teaspoon of spice with some water and begin painting!

Nutmeg, cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, paprika and cloves are the spices we used, but you could experiment with just about anything!

We painted on a fall leaf coloring page, but you could also paint freehand or whatever you want!

Another fun craft we did was Leaf and Flower Printing.

This was Rowan's idea :)

We collected flowers and leaves from the garden and laid them out on one half of the paper.

Next, you fold the paper in half and start pounding with a hammer!

You may get hungry, so it's important to have some raisins to snack on just in case ;)

The patterns and colors will transfer to both sides of the paper and you will have a symmetrical design!

These would make nice gifts!

Happy Learning!

~Beth

Summer Throwback~ Rosie's Bubble Art~ And More!

 

Rosie had an idea to do some bubble art- something she saw on one of her favorite shows- probably Ryan's World or Peppa Pig :)

Luckily, it was a beautiful day and we had all the supplies already~ so we headed outside to do our project.

Rosie knew what she wanted to do. She had me help her fill cups with a little paint, some soap, and she filled them with water and gave them a stir.

Then she put a straw in and blew bubbles!

Careful not to drink it!

(Rosie is four-and-a half, so she's good at not drinking paint) :)

Next, pour the bubbles out onto the paper and see what happens!

(I guess this is what they call Process Art?)

Spread out the papers, and now we have a rainbow of bubble art!

Add a little glitter to make it sparkly :)

(This was a good project to do outside)

We really enjoyed this project.

Do you want to try it too?

Since we had the paints out already, we decided to do another project.

(The boys were busy and this was our "Fun Day" together)

Here Rosie is making "green apples"

Here is Rosie's finished painting:

Mama and Rosie are inside the house and the sun is shining on us and the apples are outside. <3

What will you create next??

Happy Learning!

~Beth

Basket Weaving With Rowan

 

Both Rowan and Fynn have been very curious about ancient times and primitive crafts lately ~ everything from the mid to early 1900's, back to medieval times, all the way back to what they call "BCers" times.

Rowan especially has always loved domestic arts such as weaving, so basket making was next on his list. He has already woven several wool rugs and tapestries!

Here is a wool rug he is working on now, with yarn he hand spun! I will write another post on his wool weavings sometime in the future, hopefully ;)

We used day lily and iris leaves for our baskets because we already had them in the yard, and they need to be cut down soon for winter anyway. Here is a pic of Rosie's basket of leaves after she pulled them all out and ripped them up. Her way of getting in on the fun :)

The first time Rowan made his basket, he pinned it together with thumbtacks. But then a little person came along and pulled it apart :( so he made it again using staples!

I thought to try making a basket like the one I made in fourth grade, from strips of palm fronds, when we were studying the California Indians. I haven't made any baskets since.

I also thought it would be fun to make a little bracelet!

We hope to take a wagon ride out to the "Gazelle Field" soon to get some cattails, willows, and grasses to make more fun baskets!

Happy Learning!

~Beth