Buzz Lightyear Cupcakes

I made these Buzz cupcakes a few months ago, but figured I would post it now since I know a lot of our little ones are obsessed with anything Buzz Lightyear.  And these cupcakes are pretty easy to decorate.  Anyone can really do it.  Obviously, I'm no pro - so if you have more skills than me, you can probably make these a little look much cleaner.

Age: 4+, but I'm sure Mom or Dad will do most of the work.
Time: After baking cupcakes, it took me about 20-30 minutes to decorate.
Mess/Cleanup:  I did most of the work on these cupcakes, while my son placed some on the "buttons" on.  I was much messier than him.  I managed to get frosting all on my hands.  But the cleanup was pretty simple.
What You Need:

• Un-iced cupcakes (I colored mine with gel food coloring to make them extra cool)
• Pepperidge Farms Milano Cookies
• White Frosting.  Personally I don't like the taste of frosting from the can, so I did make my own buttercream.  Making your own icing is VERY easy and only requires a few ingredients (butter, confectioners sugar, vanilla, and a little coffee creamer).  You could easily use store bought frosting.
• Food Coloring (Colors Needed: Purple, Green, 'Flesh').  I like the Wilton Gel Colors.  You can also buy Disney Wilton Colors.  They pre-package the colors you need.  There is a Toy Story theme, like this one.
• Black Edible Color Marker like this.  I bought mine at the grocery store.
• Blue Icing Gel
• RedHot Candies
• Sprinkles or Mini Candy Coated Chocolate Chips (need red, blue, and green)
• Sandwich baggies
• Scissors

Why I Like This Craft:
Making these Buzz cupcakes made me a rockstar in my son's eyes.  Enough said.

Step 1:
Mix your frosting colors.  You will need the majority of Green and Purple. For the piping, you may need to microwave your frosting for a FEW seconds.

• White - for the mouth and eyes.  You could also use white chocolate chips for the eyes.
• Purple - for Buzz's helmet thing and the center of each cupcake.
• Green - for the perimeter of each cupcake.
• Flesh - for the nose

Step 2:
Place each of your colors in a baggie.  Right before you use each color, snip a tiny corner off of the bag.  Keep the hole pretty small for the purple, white, and flesh colors.  This will allow us to easily pipe on the face features.

Step 3:
Lay out all of the cookies.  Using the purple, pipe on the helmet thing on each cookie.

Step 4:
Using the Food Writer, draw a swirly to make Buzz's chin.

Step 5:
Using the white frosting, make the eyes and mouth.

Step 6:
Using the flesh-colored frosting, draw the nose.

Step 7:
Using the blue gel, put a little dallop on each eye.

I know, some of these Buzz's look a little goofy.

Step 8:
Using the purple icing (snip the open corner again to make the hole in the baggie a little larger), make a swirly in the center of each cupcake.  Use the same technique you would use to serve yourself some soft-serve ice cream.

Step 9:
Using the green icing, edge the permiter of each cupcake.

Step 10:
Place the Buzz cookies in the center of each cupcake.

Step 11:
Arrange the sprinkles/candy-coated mini chocolate chips to make Buzz's control panel. 

• Blue, Green, Red 'buttons' on the left
• Big Red button (Red Hot candy) on the right

Enjoy your new rock star status!

-Rose @-}---

Alien Spaceship Ornaments

Thanks to Nancy for suggesting making alien spaceships with all of my left over Jello cups.  I think these came out pretty cute and it's a great way to reuse what would otherwise be trash.  This can either be a toy or an ornament.  I'm sure this spaceship can hold up to a few rounds Buzz Lightyear saving the universe from the creepy aliens.

Age: 3+
Time: 20 minutes
Mess/Cleanup: Little mess and very easy cleanup.  Only a few stryrofoam scraps.
What You Need:

• 1 large pom-pom
• 2 small pom-poms
• 3 googly eyes
• 1 toothpick
• 1 Jello cup
• 6 inches of string
• Foil tape (you can buy this in the HVAC/Duct Tape section at Lowes or Home Depot) or tin foil
• Styrofoam or cardboard
• Scissors
• Glue
• Self-adhesive gemstones.  I have these from Oriental Trading

Substitutions:

• Old CD or DVD instead of styrofoam and foil tape.  I think this would make a pretty cool flying saucer.
• Instead of pom-pom alien, used a little action figure (that you're little one no longer plays with)
• Use mini pom-poms or self-adhesive stickers instead of gems
• Paperclip instead of ribbon, string, or yarn for the hanger

Why I Like This Craft:
My son is facinated with rocketships and Buzz Lightyear, so this craft was right up his ally!  I imagine we could make an entire army of alien spaceships.

 

Step 1:
Place Jello cup upside down on styrofoam.  Cut larger circle (about 2 inches larger than the pudding cup) out of the styrofoam.

Step 2:
Cut strips of foil tape about the diameter of the styrofoam circle.  If you do not have foil tape, you can cover the styrofoam with tin foil.  Have your little one peel the backing (great for perfecting fine motor skills) off the tape and adhere to the styrofoam.  Cover both sides of styrofoam.

 

Step 3:
Place gems around the perimeter of the foil-covered circle.

 

Step 4: Build-An-Alien
Using large pom-pom, glue on eyes.  We first used a glue stick, but found that Tacky glue works much better.

Step 5:
Snip toothpick in half.  Put a dab of glue on each end.  On each stick, place a small pom-pom on one end and adhere the other end to the alien head (see Step 4).  Place alien body in center of foil circle.

 

Step 6:
Poke hole in bottom of cup.  Thread and tie off string.  This will be the hanger if you are creating an ornament.  Place a bead of glue around the top of cup.  Invert cup and place over the alien.  Let dry.

 

 

That's it!  And, if you are using this as a tree ornament it might be cool to poke hole in the bottom of the spaceship under the alien.  Then insert a tree light to make the alien's spaceship glow.

 

-Rose @-}---

Edited to Add:
This morning while I was checking my Facebook, my son runs into the living room with his new alien spaceship - well, he made his alien and plopped him in a cup.  He must really like this craft!  He made most of it himself.  His variation:

• Instead of gems, he used self-adhesive glittery stars
• Instead of the styrofoam we used a CD.
• Instead of a a yarn hanger, we used a paperclip.

Mini Ice Cream Sundae Ornaments

Ever since a recent trip to Hobby Lobby, my son has been wanting to make something with the pom-poms I bought.  I originally bought them for my daughter's Halloween costume (she was going to be a cupcake with sprinkles), but sadly the craft supplies sat in my boxes since I ended up buying costume instead.  And now since I have far more free time, I brought out the pom-poms.  Seeing the pom-poms on the craft table, my toddler was immediately facinated.  After repeated attempts to eat them and realizing they weren't food, she decided to stick them in her nose.  So, we quickly had to come up with something to use the pom-poms before they all became booger-covered.  This is what we made (with the clean ones).

Age: 3+
Time: 10 minutes
Mess/Cleanup: The paint did get a little messy.  But at least it was only one color and it was for only about 2 minutes.  Cleanup was a breeze.
What You Need:

• Jello or Pudding cups
• Pillow Stuffing (could also use cotton balls)
• Glitter
• Glue
• Pom-Poms
• Brown paint
• Hole Punch
• 6 inches of String/Yarn (if making an ornament)
• Scrap paper/paper plate

Why I Like This Craft:

This was SO EASY!  Even non-crafters can successfully pull this one off.  We turned our cup into an ornament, so we have yet another trinket to add to the tree.

Step 1:

Squirt some glue in the bottom of the cup.  You can also add a little brown paint (aka Chocolate Sauce).

Step 2:

If you would like to make this sundae into an ornament, punch to holes in either side of the cup and thread the string or yarn.  Press stuffing, "Ice Cream", into the cup.  We did this in layers and added a few drops of glue between the layers to hold it all together.

Step 3:

Mix some brown paint with water.  Pour "Chocolate Sauce" over the "Ice Cream".  We used an extra Jello cup to mix the paint.

Yes, his nails ARE digusting.  Bath night is tonight.

Step 4:

Squirt some glue on the scrap paper.  Have your little one dip the pom-poms in the glue, then place on "Ice Cream".  We reserved a larger red pom-pom for the cherry.

Step 5:

My son really wanted to use some glitter.  So he sprinkled the Martha Stewart glitter (which is very fine) over the "Ice Cream". I think it now looks like Cotton Candy -- which gives me a whole new idea for a craft.  Maybe Cotton Candy Ornaments?  Since the glitter is so fine, we didn't even use glue.

That's it!  I was trying not to be obsessive crafting mom.  This one definitely looks like a 4 year old made it.  But it's cute and it's going on our tree.

-Rose @-}---



Little Drum Ornaments

This are another ornament that my mom crafted together many moons ago that still hangs on her tree today.  My older brother and sister made these after my mom saw them hanging on her neighbor's tree.  These are pretty cute and not too difficult to make.  This is my adaptation based on what I had available in my craft supplies.

Age: 4+
Time: 20 - 40 minutes.  This will depend on how intricant you design you drum and what materials you use.
Mess/Cleanup:  Not that bad. Since minimal glue is used, only foam, felt and paper scraps need to be thrown away.
What You Need:

• Cardboard Paper Tube
• Foil Tape
• 1 sheet of Self-Adhesive Glitter Craft Foam
• 1 sheet of Self-Adhesive Felt (I bought the foam and felt at Hobby Lobby)
• 2 Mini Pom-Poms
• 2 Toothpicks
• Foil Tape (I bought this at Lowes for a Home Improvement project)
• Couple inches of yarn or ribbon
• Glue
• Pen
• Scissors
• Hole Punch

Substitutions:

• If you can't find Self-Adhesive Foam or Felt, just use a glue stick to adhere the pieces.  Self-adhesive products help reduce the mess.
• Instead of Foil Tape, you can just use some shiny wrapping paper, tin foil, craft foam, or felt to cover the tube.

Why I Like This Craft:
These cute little drums look great on your Christmas Tree.  And I've said it before, my mom has had these on her tree for 30+ years.  They'll last for years to come!

Step 1:  Drumsticks
Clip off one pointy end from each of the toothpicks.  Put a dab of glue on the pointy end and press on the pom-pom.  Let dry.


Step 2: Building the Drum.  I find it easier to have all of the pieces pre-cut and depending on the age of your child, then let them assemble the drum. My preschooler was getting a little bored while watching me make some of the more intricate cuts.  These are the pieces you will need:

• 2 circles (Glitter foam) - same diameter of tube.  Trace the end of the tube onto the glitter foam.  Cut out 2 circles
• 2 strips (Glitter foam), about 1/2 inch x 5 1/2 inches
• 6 strips (Felt), about 1/8 inch x 2 inches
• 1 piece of yarn, about 6 inches
• 1 piece of Foil tape, about 5 1/2 inches

Step 3: Cut the length of the cardboard tube to equal the width of the foil tape.

Step 4: Adhere the Foil tape to cover the cardboard tube.
Step 5: Punch 2 holes on either side of the tube, about 1/4" from the edge.
Step 6: Thread the yarn through the hole.  Tape to affix yarn to tube.

Step 7: Adhere the circles to the top and bottom of tube.

Step 8: Adhere the 5 1/2" glitter strips to the top and bottom of tube.  Connect the circle to the tube with the strip.
Step 9: Use the felt pieces to create 3 Xs around the drum. 
Step 10: Criss-cross the drumsticks around the drum.  Use glue on the pom-poms to adhere the drumsticks to the top of the drum.  Hang to display.

Have fun!
-Rose @-}---

Preschooler-Easy Glittery Ornaments

First off - I love making these ornaments!  I remember making these 30+ years ago with my mom and siblings.  My preschooler is now old enough to sit still for 30 minutes and has some fine motor skills to write some letters.

The camera doesn't do the glitter justice.  It's so pretty and my 4 year old did 90% of this himself.

Age: 2 & up.  For what it's worth, I did try this craft with my 19 month old -- but it ended in a glittery mess and her off to naptime.  However, can glitter ever be messy?  It just looks like Tinkerbell visited my kitchen.
Time: 30 minutes - 1 hour
Mess/Cleanup:  The glitter and glue can get a little messy.  But it really takes less than 5 minutes to clean up.  The kids stayed relatively clean.  I just needed some baby wipes to wipe down their hands.
What You Need: 

• Styrofoam (my grocery store still uses styrofoam to package veggies)
• Paper plates (2 plates per child, plus 1 for the glue plate)
• Glue (I used Tacky Glue and it works really well)
• Paint brushes
• Glitter (I love Martha Stewart's tinsel glitter)
• Scissors
• Ribbon
• Hole punch

Substitutions:

• Craft foam for styrofoam.  I'm also thinking this will work really nicely with salt dough.
• Scrap paper instead of paper plates
• Any embellishment in lieu of glitter. But I do love glitter.
• Dental floss, flishing line, or just a tree hook to attach ornament to the tree
• Pencil to punch hole through stryfoam instread of a hole punch

Why I Like this Craft:
For me it all about the memories and I get some more glittery ornaments for my tree!

Step 1:
Trace and cut out shapes on styrofoam.  I just used the lid of a sippy cup for the circles.  When I was little, my mom used to trace cookie cutters.

Step 2:
Punch a hole about .25 inch from the edge.  This will be used to string the ribbon hanger later.

Step 3:
Squirt some glue on a paper plate and arm your smock-covered little ones with paint brushes. Notice my toddler is smockless.  It just wasn't worth the battle.  Let them cover one side of the styrofoam with glue. The paint brush will help with a nice even coat.  After this glue step is over, switch paper plates.  Have a "gluing" plate and a "glitter" plate.  This will make it easier to sift the excess glitter back into the bottles.

Step 4:
Have your little ones choose their favorite color glitter and sprinkle the ornament to cover.  Shake off excess glitter.
I would recommend removing the glue and brushes from the table before this step.  I would also recommend having a well-rested toddler if you have a very little one participating.  Our glitterstorm was triggered when I attempted to take away the glitter shaker.



Our meltdown occurred shortly after this picture was taken.



Step 5:
Have mom (or dad) transfer the remaining glitter back into the glitter tubes. Let dry for a minute or two.

Step 6:
Paint a stripe or letter (my son painted his initial) with glue over the glitter. Stencils could also be used.

Step 7:
Sprinkle a high contrasting color over the glue.  Shake off excess glitter and transfer the remaining glitter back into the tubes.

Step 8:
Same steps, other side.

Step 9:
Thread ribbon through hole.  Hang to display.

Variations:
I think you can really do a lot with this craft.  You can really make this a craft for adults, as you can get pretty intricate in your design. 

• Edging: You could punch holes around the edge of your shape. After all of the glitter detail is complete, whipstitch the edges with a little ribbon.  You could also roll the edges in glue and cover with a contrasting glitter or a little ribbon.
• Garland: You can cut out a bunch a little circles or stars and punch a hole in the center or on top.  Once all of the individual pieces are covered in glitter, thread the pieces with ribbon (I think I might try this next).
• Accents:  If you have any plastic stencils, like these, after you do the base layer of glitter place the stencil on top of the shape and paint the glue over the stencil.  Lift stencil and sprinkle the contrasting glitter over the glue.  (This is also on my to-do list). 

have fun!
-Rose @-}---

Update to the Classic Paper Chain

I had some unexpected surgery last week. This has given me the gift of 4-8 weeks off of work and that much more time to spend with my kids at Christmastime.  Keeping a toddler and preschooler busy with the same project can be challenging - but I think I have found one that works!  Classic paper chains.  Who doesn't have great memories of creating these chains in elementary school?  I found that my kids love them and my 4 year old is very proud of his ability to create such a massive craft.

Here's our final product.  We did this craft 2 times yesterday, resulting in about 20 feet of chain. 

Age: 1 - 100
Time: 20 minutes +, depending on decoration and length of chain
Mess/Cleanup:  Not that bad.  We used all of the paper we cut up.  The paint was washable.

What You Need:

• Any type of paper (We just used a mix of office paper).  About 6 pieces.
• Dot Paint (I have ones similar to these.  Except my paint is also glittery).  Who can't resist glittery, fruit scented paint?  Not my toddler.  She applied it as lip stick.  Good thing it's washable!  And this paint is really easy to get off: teeth, lips, eyes, etc. It even gets out of clothes easily.
• Stapler
• Scissors
• Substitutions
• Any other decoration - glitter, stickers, paint, glitter-glue, pom-poms
• Tape instead of a stapler
• If you're looking to do something with old "art-work", use that as paper for the chain.  I think we'll probably do this again with colored-coloring book pages.

Why I like this Craft:
Both of my kids can do the craft at the same time.  I found out that my toddler LOVES dot paint.  I think she painted for a full 40 minutes.  This can also give me another craft to make out of the millions of pieces of "artwork" I have floating around my house.

Step 1:  Suit up the kids in smocks.  It just makes clean up easier. I have these cover all bibs from Ikea and this apron from Constructive Playthings.

Step 2: Cover a table with lots of paper.  We used 3 colors - orange, pink, and blue.  Bring out the dot paint or whatever you would like to do to decorate the chain paper to-be.  I think glueing some small pom-poms on the paper could make a cool chain. 

Even with a double ear infection, dot paint makes her smile!

I learned my lesson.  Anytime paint is introduced, a smock is really needed.

Step 3:  Let your little ones go wild on all of the paper.  6 pieces of paper will make a pretty decent length (maybe 6 feet) of chain.  This is the part where my toddler excelled.  She loved this!  She was also very upset when it was time to clean up.  This step makes this craft adaptable to the little ones.

The scented paint smelled so good!  And this paint dries rather quickly.

Step 4: Cut the paper into about 1-inch strips, using the short side of the paper.

Even a 4 year old can do this step!

Step 5: Make a loop out of the paper strip and staple to close the circle.  Continue interlocking strips to create a chain.  I think we all remember how to do this part.

Grandmom and Mom helped with this step.  But my preschooler loved using the stapler!

Enjoy!
-Rose @-}--

Paint Rollers

Whoo whoo!  I have proven that having a master's degree in engineering does not fully prepare you to edit a blog.  But Here I Am!  Logged in and ready to share some crafting ideas.

Here is a project that my daughter thought up all by her lonesome while we were painting. 

She put a whole bunch of blobs of paint on a paper towel tube and rolled it across a blank piece of paper, making the lovelyiest little blotchy picture she's ever created.

Age:  1-100

Time:  5-20 minutes plus water fun during cleanup

Mess/Cleanup:  It's messy.  Trick your kid into cleaning up

What You Need:

Paint

Brushes

Cardboard paper towel and/or toilet paper rolls

Paper

Mom or Dad`s t-shirt to use as a painting smock

Substitutions:  Why I Like This Craft:

I had absolutely NOTHING to do with her creative process.  She put on every dab of paint, came up with the idea to roll it, and did all the rolling without my hands touching a thing.  It still looked good after re-rolling several times, too.  Most of our cutest crafts to date have involved a lot of directing and helping from me, but I love how this looks and all I did was provide the cups of paint :) 

She even said `this makes me so happy I want to cry` - which was all the more shocking because it is a phrase I have never used in front of her.  We were both pretty darned happy and excited.

 

Materials

Note:  Construction paper would work but make sure you hang it up to dry on a non-porous surface.  Daughter made one really wet, goopy free-hand painting on magenta construction paper and let it `dry` on the Formica counter.  I discovered the lovely magenta stain on the counter a few hours later  and got lightheaded from the fumes from the cleaner I used to soak out the stain. 

Now dab some paint on the cardboard tube of your liking.

Now roll! Roll!  ROLL!!!

Keep rolling!  It just gets better and better. 

This project is pre-schooler friendly.



Note the soggy, crushed tube being squeezed by the excited three year old above is still performing but is heading to the trash pretty soon. 

 Warning:  the cardboard eventually gets soggy and starts to collapse and disintegrate.  Keep a few spares on hand if you want this activity to last a while. 


Finished product:

Now drag your little paint-covered monkey to the sink and let her make "chocolate milk" with all of the messy paint cups.



"Chocolate milk" in lower left corner



--Nancy

• Add glitter while the paint is still wet, or if you don't want glitter scattered over every square inch of your house, use glitter glue or glitter paint
• Rose did this craft a long time ago using a golf ball
• Choose seasonal color schemes and add a picture on top using stickers, fun foam, felt, etc
• Use as wrapping paper
• Use as the background for a card