Project: Hand Print Spiders and Spiderweb on the Wall

Halloween is coming, and it's coming quickly!

I have failed at getting my Halloween decorations out in a timely fashion this year - but my amazing mother has all of her decorations out, as does my grandmother.  We were up at my mom's a few weeks ago, and my boys (one especially) was leery about passing a particular spider decoration she has up. He would eye it, and would avoid walking by it.  Similarly, we were at my grandmother's this past weekend and she had a small spiderweb decoration up over a doorway with a little raffia witch in it, and he eyed that decoration, and made a big deal about it, then proceeded to avoid the area.

I had seen some hand print spiders circulating about on Pinterest, and decided this would be a good time to have them make their own spiders, and a giant spiderweb to squash any fears that might be developing.

We started with the paint - I have a generic acrylic I buy at AC Moore.  I picked black since (as we all know) Halloween spiders are black.  I painted one of the boys hands, then he printed it on the paper, I turned the paper, painted his other hand, and he printed that one.  Then we had the leave the table to wash his hands, and repeated the same process with my other boy.

Here are some fun pictures.

My first guy wiping his hands after finishing making his prints

Now it's my turn!

I put the paint on his hand with a paintbrush.

Press and lift!

A nice smile with his hand prints before jumping up from the table to go wash his hands.

Even the baby is posing with her newly done hand prints.

To keep the hand prints safe, I have to hang them on the fridge to keep them away from the kiddos grabbing them while they are still wet.

Now it was time to create our spider web.  I picked out an area of wall that doesn't currently have any pictures, or anything on it.  The space I found was one side of our hallway - right where the ugly and outdated telephone jack is!

I used the itty bitty Command Hooks and placed them on the wall in an almost circular pattern being sure to have the hook part face out.  

The Command Hooks arranged on the wall space where are are going to build our web.

I strung some black yarn from a top hook, and left a nice long tail at the bottom.

Our first strand hung from the top, with a long tail.

Then I let one of the boys pick a bottom hook, and string the yarn around it.  He did this easily (even if I 

didn't get a picture of it)

My son picked the first spot to loop the yarn around at the bottom of the web.

We then alternated, it was "my turn" and I strung the yarn up around a top hook, and then my other boy got to pick the next spot to loop it around.

Choosing the next spot.

Even the baby got to pick where the yarn was getting strung.  We repeated this, and alternated turns.

Continuing to create our web.

The boys loved this part.

When we were done, I took the yarn and just strung it all around the outside of the hooks to make it look finished.

The yarn strung around the edges to look finished.

I tied the long tail end to the end of our web with a knot, and cut the ends.

Our very fancy knot.

After the spiders were dried, we glued googly eyes to each spider, and then I had the boys tell me where they wanted the spiders to go on their web.  Of course, they wanted them "way up high" and all I did was tape the spider to the yarn (not the wall).

Our spiders in our new web.

Our spiders in the web with the googly eyes.

It really looks cute. And it's very festive.  I like that it is in the central spot like our hallway, because the kids keep commenting on it every time they pass it.

My favorite part - is that my boy who was leery of the spiders and spider web at my mother and grandmother's house was the one that spent the most time with me building it and instead of being afraid of it has now told me several times: "Momma, our spider web is beeeeautiful!".

Project: Paper Storage Bins for Our Salvaged Kitchen Play Set

My folks are absolutely amazing at finding completely salvageable toys for the kids - for free!  Thanks to her, my kids have a full parking lot of Cozy Coupe's, a play house, baby swing/slide set, wagons, a see-saw, a motorcycle (one of those awesome 6v ones), a sandbox, and a pool to name a few.  She had picked up a kitchen set that we keep at her house, and recently my dad found several more kitchen sets - the best part of these plastic toys is that they can be washed, bleached and magic erased right into a state of kid-ready!  We picked out our favorite "new" kitchen set and brought it home.

After some scrubbing, the kids are enjoying their new playset.  I brought up all the play food my mom had kept from when I was a kid, and this honestly occupies the three year old twins and our 15 month old for extended periods of time.  The food we kept stored in a bin, since one of the drawers was missing from our new kitchen, and all the food didn't fit on the shelves.

This is where my brainstorm for today's activity began.

This is our awesome new kitchen:

This is what my floor looks like when the kids are done playing:

See the big empty bin?  I don't really want to keep the kitchen set and the bin out since they are currently residing on our main living floor.  I wanted to eliminate the use of the bin altogether.

I didn't take pictures of my first few steps, because it didn't occur to me to include this on my blog until after we had begun the project, so you'll have to imagine the first few steps.

Materials:
Frosted Flakes Double Sized Box - we got this from our cereal purchase at BJ's Wholesale Club.
Scrapbooking Paper (because I have it laying around, and it's 12"x12")
Exact-O Knife
Paper Cutter
Ruler
Scissors
Glue Stick (I used the kids')
Glue Gun and Glue Sticks (mine are from my dollar store)
Optional Materials (I did this because I had the materials on hand)
Eyelet Punch
Eyelets
Ribbon
Tapestry Needle

I started by measuring the two shelves I was planning on using the bin with.  From that, I was able to cut two boxes from the same Frosted Flakes box (using the top as one box, and the bottom as a second).  My shelves were different sizes, but I made both boxes the same so I could get two from one cereal box.  I cut the top and bottom of the cereal box to the 6" height I needed.

I then cut the scrapbooking paper with my paper cutter so that it measured a full inch taller than I needed, and about an inch wider than I needed.  In retrospect, if I make this project again, I will make it two inches wider so there is an extra inch on either side.  Because my box measured over 10" on one side, and 6" on the short side, I needed four pieces (one for each face) per box.

I then set the kids to work putting glue on the back of the side pieces first.  I even got the baby in on smacking the paper once it was placed to help stick it to the cereal box.  (I didn't get any pictures of my other son helping)

At the top, I used the scissors to cut a small slit at each corner.

I then folded the top over to the inside of the box.  I added extra glue around all corners and edges.

This is what the top looked like when I finished my first side:

I repeated these steps to finish the other side.

I then did the exact same thing to the front and back of the box.

I repeated the whole thing for my second box!

Then I decided to add the handles.   This is where I gathered my "optional" materials.  I went with what I had on hand.

I first decided where I was going to poke the holes for my ribbon handles.  After looking at my box front and back, I decided I would make the handle two and a half inches from each edge and two inches from the top.

On the inside, I measured and marked where I would punch my holes with my ruler and a pencil.

Then I used my eyelet punch to poke the holes for my eyelets:

I inserted my eyelets and secured them using my eyelet punch tool.

I did this on both the front and back of each of my boxes.

Then I cut some ribbon and threaded it through the eyelet holes using the tapestry needle.

I had to quadruple knot the back of the ribbon so the kids won't pull it out when they use the handles.

Ta-Dah!

The bins look great!

And during nap time, I put all the food away in the kitchen, and was able to remove the bin from my living area!  Everything now has a home!

The kids got a kick out of helping, and I showed them how to use the handles to pull the bins out.  Let's see how long we can keep our kitchen set cleaned!

Project: Toddler Drawstring Backpack

Sorry I haven't been updating the page this week.  After wrapping up the Crochet Pin-Along this week, I jumped into a couple of quick projects I needed to get done.

We've been looking at our calendar for the summer, because there are a couple of places we wanted to take the kids for day trips.  One that's been on my mind is visiting one of my favorite parks from when I was a child, StoryLand.  With our family commitments coming up (and pretty much lasting the rest of our weekends this summer) we decided we would try for this weekend.

One project that I haven't been able to complete yet is a special 'dress up' item for each of the kids to wear when we go to StoryLand (trying to cut down on souvenir purchasing).  If I am able to complete that project before we go, you will definitely see a post about it.

The second project that I am super excited I finished last night was derived directly from Pretty Prudent (Thank you, Pretty Prudent!).  I made each of the boys their own drawstring backpacks to wear when we get to the park that they can keep their own water bottle in, and any other trinkets they acquire while we are there.  The drawstring backpacks were perfectly toddler sized, and if they don't want to carry them, they will easily fit into the diaper bag or on the handles of the stroller.

This was one of the easiest to follow tutorials I've worked with!  Due to this, I did not take process pictures of my beginning and procedural steps since the blog and tutorial has everything you need to craft your own toddler drawstring backpack.

I wanted to share with you a few notes, and my completed pictures!

I used only what I had on hand - which meant some denim fabric that measured an inch smaller than the required 26", and blue single fold bias tape and a thin, green broadcloth.  With the green broadcloth, I crafted my own bias tape (seaming tape) by cutting two 44" x 2" strips.  I ironed a crease going lengthwise, then folded in the two raw edges into the fold and ironed flat.  I decided to make my two strap lengths 44" rather than 36" because my kids seem tall to me (and I was glad I did this because the straps are perfect this way).   I thought the blue bias tape I had was double fold which is why I made the green double fold, but it wasn't.  This required me to sew the two flaps down on the blue bias tape.

When I stitched the green tape together, I also stitched it in two rows (more for decoration) so it matched the blue.  (Since they are twins, I feel if I do for one, I should do for the other!  Not that they would notice but I would.).

These are the finished bags from last night:

This is the boys trying them on this morning.  I was so pleased with the fit!  I will definitely make these bags again.