Spring Crafting

Happy Easter yesterday! I didn't get a chance before Easter to post this project I did with my niece, so bear with me as I talk about it now. We got the idea from Family Fun magazine. I had bought white fluffy yarn to do this craft, but Gabby wanted her bunny to look like her real bunny Cocoa, who is (can you guess by the name?) brown.To make this bunny you wrap yarn around a styrofoam ball that has been drizzled with glue. Gabby had a hard time wrapping the yarn, so I did that for her. Then she drew the ears, tail and face on brown felt (with white chalk) and I cut it out for her. She glued everything together, attached the google eyes, drew and cut out the carrot from paper and attached that to the bunny. The bunny was then nestled onto a piece of cardboard to which we glued a handful of paper grass. (We came up with a trick to help little fingers attach google eyes: have the little one lick her finger, then touch the eye-ball side of the google eye. It will stick to her finger. Have her flip her hand over. The google eye will be bottom-side up. She can then easily put glue on the backside to attach it to her project.) Look how proud she is!!

More spring time crafts:

"Summer pants" and a t-shirt for Cate. The t-shirt I boaught at Walmart for about $4, and I added the butterfly using fusible web. I am not very good yet at sewing around curves on my machine, so I hand-stitched around the butterfly.

She was very happy with them.

And another tote from Bend the Rules. I got the fabric from the remnant piles at Joann Fabric. (I love shopping from the remnants! No waiting in line to get things cut! Cute patterns that I might not ever see otherwise! And CHEAP! I got almost a yard of each material for a total of about $6!) This little bag has an inside pocket, and a fabric flower to dress it up. This bag was dropped of to a friend who just opened a new flower shop. (I made a second tote out of the same fabrics for my dear friend who gave me the BTR Sewing book for Christmas, and I still have some material left!!)

Bunnies!

Easter is so early this year... I know you know this, but it really seems to be sneaking up on me. I mean really, the leprechauns just paid their visit on Monday!! Do leprechauns visit your house? They visit here, leave a little mess (glitter all over, green toilet water), play a few tricks (toothbrushes in the fridge, green milk) and leave a treat (gold coins, and various other green wrapped candies, and wasabi nuts for my husband, because there is nothing like "little green leprechaun nuts" right?). Ethan wants so desperately to catch one. He asked me to set out a mouse trap, until I told him that a mouse trap may kill a leprechaun. So he's busy making "trap" plans for next year.

SO back to Easter. I am the "class mom" for Ethan's kindergarten class and am in charge of the party planning. I thought it would be fun to make a little goodie for Ethan to pass out to his classmates, and came up with this bunny candy holder. Our elementary school has a new rule about not allowing any homemade treats to be passed out in class (no more homemade cupcakes for birthdays even!!) so it can be difficult to come up with something creative and cost effective to pass out. I called the nursery school where I used to be the administrator and asked if I could borrow 15 toilet paper rolls. (They collect things like that throughout the year.) Then I wrapped each on in white paper, cut out 30 ears and 15 heart shapes for the "feet" (base). I glued each tube to the base. Ethan and I split up the ears to color. (He said that boys like red ears on bunnies and girls like pink....so we went with that.)

Then I taped a pair of ears on each tube and put 2 dots of glue on for each google eye. Ethan attched the eyes and drew the cute little noses, mouths and "toe nails".

He was starting to lose interest so I glued on the tails and then let him stuff each bunny with two little packets of candy (we used m&ms and Skittles). I'll haul them into school on Thursday for his "Spring Celebration."