Color and cut out the peacock body, feathers, and semicircles.
We opted for a palette of blues, greens, and purples. I purposely stuck to cool colors, and omitted any warm ones (reds, oranges, and yellows) to avoid my toddler mixing everything together into some shade of brown.
We also created fringes and added jewel stickers to some of our feathers, but those are optional.
Arrange the feathers and glue them in place. Depending on your arrangement, there may be extra feathers leftover.
The semicircles are optional guides to create an open-tail fan. Place larger feathers on the larger semicircle, and the smaller feathers on the smaller semicircle. For a fuller plumage, layer additional feathers in between the gaps.
Glue the smaller semi-circle on top of the larger one, aligning at the bottom center.
Finally, glue the peacock body on top of the smaller semicircle, aligning at the bottom center.
Or make your own arrangements. Below are more ideas.
Also known as Mona Lisa eyes, these bats’ eyes follow you no matter what angle you look them. It is an optical illusion, which according to instructables.com works by:
…receding the eyes below the surface of the picture. The depth of the eyes allows the edges of the eye sockets (which are not receded) to hide the whites on the side it is being viewed from, just as would happen if an actual person was turning their eyes toward you.
Interestingly enough, while many claimed that Mona Lisa’s eyes follow you, there are also those who claimed that it’s a myth. That is not to say the illusion does not work, it was just that Da Vinci did not apply the technique to his famous work. After staring at the famous painting at different angles on my screen until my eyes hurt, I am more unsure than ever!
What do you think?
To create the Mona Lisa eyes in our bats, we “puffed” up the head to create depth needed to replicate the illusion.
Coloring materials (we used oil pastel and water color)
Print and color the template. Please note that we did not color the head on Figure B so that the sclera (which according to Google is what the white part of the human eye is called) would be white. My two year old, who made the bat on the lower right, unfortunately did not get the memo…
Cut out Figures A and B. In Figure A, also cut out the eyes and the two slits on the cheeks.
Overlap the slits to puff up the bat’s head in Figure A. Add glue where indicated and gently glue together the slits to create the “puff”.
Glue the head from Figure A onto Figure B. Dab glue on the chin and ears as indicated on Figure B. Align the head cutout from Figure A with the chin in Figure B and gently pressed down to glue. Then glue down the ears.
Please note that the head in Figure B is smaller than Figure A, so it is important to align the chin first. The ears from Figure A will not align with Figure B, but that is okay.
Here’s a look from the back. As you can see, the ears do not line up and that’s ok!
Do not flatten the head; it should remain raised. That little “puff” we made on the bat’s head created the depth needed for the optical illusion. Now no matter which way you look, the it is always looking at you!
The Dumpling and I made a similar craft last Halloween with a cat which can be found here.
Print and color the template. Note that the tree insert (page 2) does not visually make sense when viewed on its own; color only the sections where the tree is visible.
Fold the tree (page 1) vertically in half, then cut along the solid lines. Start cutting from the fold but do not cut all the way across to the edge of the paper.
Cut out the tree insert (page 2) and weave it into the slits of the tree (page 1). I started from the bottom, so the insert went over, then under, over under, etc.
Using the dotted lines on the insert as reference, align the insert so that the ornaments are hidden behind the slits of the tree.
Pull the insert down to “light” the tree.
My kids’ Christmas trees: my 15 month old only wanted to paint in purple, while my five year old wanted a rainbow tree.
As part of our homeschooling curriculum, the Dumpling and I have been learning about space the last few weeks. When I say homeschool, I really mean watching YouTube videos on the subject…the same ones over and over and over again. Repetition is key, folks! Even better if the information is in a song.
For the art and craft portion for our theme, we made a tunnel book of the solar system. I was inspired after seeing one on Pinterest, but it had no tutorials so I’m sharing mine.
According to Wonderpolis.org:
“Tunnel books are made up of a series of pages that are held together by folded strips of paper on each side. In fact, the sides of a tunnel book might make you think of an accordion. The overall effect of a tunnel book is to create the illusion of depth and perspective.
Tunnel books are “read” through a hole in the cover. Each page features openings that allow the reader to see through the entire book to the back cover. The images on each page work together to form a three-dimensional scene inside the book that helps to tell the story.
The 3D format made us feel like we were traveling into our solar system as we flipped through the pages.
Making one is actually easier than it looks. My version, however, differs from the traditional form because it is only bounded on one side. I left the right side open so that we could flip though it like a book.
Materials
Cardstock (8.5″x 11″):
Blue cardstock (10x): we used a mixture of different shades
White (1x)
Scoring tool (alternatively, an old credit card, ruler and towel would work as well)
Glue
Ruler
Coloring materials (we used craft paint)
Scissors and/or X-Acto knife (recommended)
Print out the templates — “solar system” template on white cardstock and “orbit” template on blue cardstock.
* Please note that while the templates include a page for the sun, I decided to exclude it from my book (I used my phone’s flashlight to represent our star instead), so you will not see it in my pictures.
Color and cut. We used craft paint and also splattered/smeared some white on the blue cardstock to represent faraway stars. Only cut the shaded circles from the middle of each page on the “orbits” template (an X-Acto knife is recommended). Mark the page number, which are in brackets, for each cut item with a pencil for future reference.
DO NOT CUT OUT THE CIRCLE FOR THE SUN on page 9 of the “orbit” template.
We explored textures while painting the planets by using sponges, plastic wrap, and brushes.
Glue the planets onto the orbit circles by matching the page numbers. Play around with placement — spread them around so that they are not bunched together and have at least 50% of each planet “stick out” of the circle cutouts. The goal is to have all eight planets visible from the front page.
Glue the sun cutout in place as indicated on page 9 of the “orbit” template.
Create the spine. Using the last blue cardstock placed in portrait orientation, draw vertical lines that are 0.5″ apart and score along the lines. Scoring is extremely important when working with heavier paper because it helps create clean, crisp folds. If you do not have a scoring bone, place the cardstock on top of a towel, align a ruler along the lines, and run an old credit card along the ruler to create a score.
Make accordion folds along the scored lines.
Glue each page onto the spine. Start with Neptune on the first page and work your way back. Imagine each accordion fold as a hill, and glue the pages onto the downward slope.
Since I omitted the page for the sun, I have an empty slot on my spine.
I always bear a tinge of guilt whenever we use food for play because it feels so wasteful. My mind goes through an internal debate, taking into consideration such things as how much food is used, what the alternatives options are, and whether there is replay value, before I either move forward or pass up such activities.
Decorating real Easter eggs has never made my “move forward” list because the eggs normally go straight to the bin after the egg hunt — I personally would not eat them since not all dyes are edible and the eggs may not be safe for consumption after sitting in room temperature for so long. As alternatives, we have used plastic and styrofoam eggs in the past, but they are not the most environmentally friendly options either.
This year, we moved onto no-waste, biodegradable Easter eggs by decorating just the egg shells. We poked a small hole into raw eggs with a pointy scissor, emptied the contents with a few shakes (which we kept for cooking later), and rinsed the insides of the shells.
Due to their fragility, we opted for a gentler decorating method that did not require too much handling. I did not want to just soak the eggs in food coloring so we dyed them with bleeding tissue paper instead. Bleeding tissue paper is colored tissue paper that “bleeds” its color when wet. This is not some fancy art material as many regular tissue papers do this.
Tip: Stand the eggs on bottle caps to keep them from rolling around.
The Dumpling cut up strips of tissue paper and layered them onto the shells.
We occasionally coated the shells with a light spray of water so the tissue papers stuck on better and continued wrapping until the eggs were completely covered with several layers.
We waited overnight for everything to dry and unwrapped the tissue paper to find beautifully dyed eggs!
The shells endured under the hands of my four year old better than expected because only one broke after several rounds of egg hunting.
The Dumpling and I have experimented with several methods of making faux glass paint, and this simple two-ingredient recipe has consistently been my go-to. It is easy to make with materials readily found and is washable, which is always a plus when working with young children.
The mixture tints clear plastic or glass a with translucent layer of paint that glows with gorgeous colors under direct light. Originally used in a project to make sea glass bottles, the Dumpling and I have applied this “glass paint” to create lanterns and sun catchers as well.
Our “stained glass” mermaid tails and their colorful projections from our window.
So what are these two magical ingredients? Elmer’s glue and food coloring!
The “stained glass” glue consist of only two ingredients: Elmer’s glue and food coloring.
Trace image onto the plastic sheet with black fabric paint or sharpie. Print out the mermaid tail or draw something of your own. If the latter, start with an image without fine details because the viscous consistency of the paint mixture makes painting small areas difficult. It is like painting with Elmer’s glue…because we are painting with Elmer’s glue!
Either fabric paint or sharpie could be used to trace the outline. I prefer fabric paint because the raised outline helps contain the paint. (Hint: Draw thicker lines for younger children to help them “color within the lines”.)
Mix glue with food coloring. I used one drop of gel food coloring for about a tablespoon of glue. The more food coloring used, the more intense the color. You want the paint to dry opaque so do not go overboard.
Paint the image with colored glue mixture and let dry. The color will lighten/fade — this is normal.
Mermaid tails when the colored glue was wet. The Dumpling’s mermaid tail (right) had so much paint, the colors bled into each other and covered the outline — this fixed itself once everything dried. Once the glue dried, the colors faded and became opaque. Even if the paint covered the outline, just flip the plastic sheet over.
Place the images in direct sunlight or under a flashlight in the dark.
The “stained glass” under direct sunlight.The “stained glass” under a flashlight in the dark.
I was able to get away with not throwing the Dumpling a birthday party last year, but not anymore. Having attended countless birthday celebrations of her friends, the Dumpling had specific requests of how she wanted to celebrate her fourth birthday.
Between a My Little Pony or Halloween themed bash, the Dumpling surprising chose the latter — probably because she wanted to wear her princess costumes. So this year, we threw another not-so-scary Halloween birthday party.
Invitation
I sent out an electronic mummy-themed invitation to set the tone of the party. As much as I love physical invitations, digital ones are just so much easier to send and track…not to mention more environmentally friendly!
Mummy invitation created in PowerPoint.
Party Favors
Goody bags are necessary evils because the kids get so excited about them…for about 15 minutes. I tried to keep the items practical and within the budget of $2-3 per bag. My strategy was to buy items in sets and then separated each into individual gifts. Below are a few ideas I considered:
I stuffed each bag with candy, a sheet of temporary tattoo, and tied everything together with either a headband (for girls) or bow ties (for boys).
Decorations
I always make my own bunting because it’s inexpensive to create custom text and colors to match my decor.
Personalized bunting created in PowerPoint.
I also purchased a few small pumpkins and simple decorations from Amazon that I put up a few hours before the party.
Thank you to C-cakes for these bite size cupcakes!
Games & Activities
Along with a trampoline and bouncy castle that came with the venue rental, we played games to keep the kids entertained. I had prizes prepared for the winners, and theoretically every child had a chance to win something. Unfortunately there were still a few tears because everyone wanted to be winners at the same time…lesson learned for the next party!
Wrap a Mummy: We divided the kids into groups and provided them with two rolls of toilet paper. The team who finished wrapping an adult with the toilet paper (covering head, hands, body, and legs) won.
Pumpkin Relay Race: Each kid must race while balancing a pumpkin on his/her head.
Hot Pumpkin: Similar to hot potato, each kid must pass the pumpkins around. Whoever was holding a pumpkin when the music stopped, was out.
Craft Station: I set up a small table with crayons, coloring sheets, and craft supplies. This little corner surprisingly became a huge hit!
A station to make Halloween masks and cards.
A big thank you to everyone who came to celebrate. Happiest birthday to my little Dumpling, who really isn’t so little anymore!
Salt dough is one of my favorite DIY play materials because they’re so easy and quick to make. The classic recipe of 2:1:1 parts plain four, table salt, and water has never failed me.
We recently made a batch for a project and had bits of leftover dough. Not wanting to waste it, we rolled it up into little balls. Once dried, we turned them into eyeballs with markers.
These things actually gross me out a lot but were a big hit with the Dumpling.
It works by receding the eyes below the surface of the picture. The depth of the eyes allows the edges of the eye sockets (which are not receded) to hide the whites on the side it is being viewed from, just as would happen if an actual person was turning their eyes toward you.
To replicate a similar effect in our cat, we “puffed” up its head to create depth with a simple technique.
Color the cat. Please note that the color applied on the cat’s head on Page 2 will be the color of the cat’s eyes.
We colored the cat’s head yellow on Page 2 to give our furry creature yellow eyes.
Cut out the cat’s head, eyes, and the slits on the side of each cheek.
Overlap the slits to puff up the cat’s head. Add glue where indicated and gently glue together the slits to create the “puff”.
Glue the head onto the body. Dab glue on the tip of each ear and chin as indicated on Page 2 of the template, align the head cutout onto the dotted lines, and gently press only where glue is applied. Do not flatten the head; it should remain raised.
That little “puff” we made on the kitty’s head was enough to create the depth needed for the optical illusion. Now no matter which way you look, the cat is always looking at you!
mrs. jigg 