More Paper Flowers

I'm a bit late on this post, but better late than never! Last week's art project was from a kit that Rebecca received in her Easter basket. It comes from the people who produce those fabulous Klutz kits. I grew up with them, and I am excited to share them with my own kids. Generally they are composed of an instructional booklet with lots of fun ideas as well as a handful of materials to get a person started. They make books about making paper airplanes, making princess tiaras, crocheting, etc. The kit that Rebecca received was for making paper flowers.

The idea is to load a pipe cleaner up with lots of beautiful paper petals, add a leaf or two, a bug sticker, and there you have it. No glue, no scissors, just an easy concept that young children can tackle with minimal assistance. (Elliot didn't really participate in this activity, though she did enjoy bending the pipe cleaners every which way.) We blew through the materials that came with the kit, so we ended up making a trip to Michael's to get some fancy paper, new pipe cleaners, and additional bug stickers. The flowers made nice Easter presents for grandparents, and they are lovely to look at.

Happy Easter!

Last week we colored Easter eggs for our art project. We used the traditional method of decorating the eggs with crayons and then dunking them in various colors of dye. We also experimented with wrapping the eggs in rubber bands prior to submerging them, as well as making a natural dye out of vinegar, chili powder and water. Everyone got pretty into it, even Dad. We were wishing we had hard-boiled more eggs to color.

I half expected Elliot to punch her fingers through the shell of an egg or two during the process, but she was very careful. Both girls' scribbles on the eggs were pretty light, making them difficult to see once the eggs were dyed. Rebecca wanted to try placing a single egg in multiple different dye colors, which resulted in some different tones. Overall it was a an enjoyable project, and somehow the Easter Bunny managed to find our colored eggs and hide them outside for the girls to find on Easter morning. What fun!

And speaking of Easter, I thought I would include a picture of our once-crown-of-thorns from a previous post. After the Easter Vigil Mass I painted and decorated the crown with whatever I could find on hand, symbolizing the crown of the Resurrected Christ. Last year Rebecca helped me decorate our crown with jewels and gold-colored paint, but this year I thought I would add its transformation to the Easter morning surprises. He is risen indeed!