Green Options

I like to make educational toys for my girls–matching games from their artwork, file folder games, extension activities for the books they read, anything that will allow them to incorporate what I want them to learn into the pleasures of their lives.

These particular bean bags were inspired by my three-year-old, who hasn’t yet memorized her numbers. Sure, she can count on her fingers and plays a mean game of Uncle Wiggily, but sit down long enough to figure out the difference between a 5 and a 9? Eh. Why not just call everything an 8?

The beauty of the stenciling, however, is that you can put anything that you want on these bean bags–kids’ names, states and capitals, letters (I really want to make this alphabet bean bag set), or instructions for the craziest Game Night game ever! Here’s how to make them:

Oh dear, I love my recycled T-shirt crafts! And, it appears, so do many of my fellow bloggers. In our defense, T-shirts have a world of things going on for them in terms of crafting: they’re pre-washed (and wash well), they’re readily available and affordable at pretty much any thrift shop, and they add huge graphic impact, as well as personality, to one’s work.

T-shirts have another benefit when one is crafting specifically for babies: oh, my, they’re so super-soft! They’re also light, and the seams that you create aren’t itchy. In other words–perfect!

Here are some perfect T-shirt crafts to create for babies:

My girls are at ages in which they really, REALLY love matching games. They own everything from dinosaur matching games to My Little Pony matching games to this crazy phonics matching game that even I have trouble with, but their favorite matching games to play with tend to be the several sets of handmade games that we’ve made together.

And of these handmade games, there are sewn matching games, matching games using photos, matching games made from paint chips, and matching games that utilize my girls’ own artwork.

This is a fun and personalized project that can incorporate even the youngest child’s scribbled art. Here’s how to create it:

My kids, ages three and five, are at excellent dress-up ages. They own everything from swords made of cardboard to thrifted silk dresses with loads of ribbons and lace (each with a “handmade by Grandma” tag, egads!) to complete costumes bought at at 90% discount from Wal-mart the week after Halloween.

When Willow asked for a clown wig, however, I was stymied.

Post-Halloween, I can’t thing of a single brick-and-mortar store within driving distance that would stock clown wigs. And even pre-Halloween, I sincerely doubt that I would have paid full price for a brand-new acryclic/polyester clown wig, anyway.

It took me AGES to think up how to make a clown wig from materials I already own, some of it trash. However, since then I’ve been called upon to make several more, each with some further distinguishing feature (make this one all pink, Momma! Give this one girl hair!), so much so that I am now an expert at making yarn wigs from trash.

Feel free to piggyback on top of my expertise below:

So, now that you’ve made a nice kid a nice sweater skirt or a couple of nice diaper covers out of that nice (but ill-fitting) old sweater that you’ve been hanging on to, you still have some of that sweater left.

You have the sleeves, for one thing, and the shoulder and neckline that connects those sleeves.

And that, my friends, is exactly what you need to make that nice kid a nice pair of matching leggings to go with her skirt or her diaper covers.

This tutorial utilizes the crotch curve line from a pair of your kid’s own well-fitting pants–using that curve, and applying your kid’s waist and length measurements, you can create a warm, comfy, nicely-fitting pair of leggings that would go well layered with anything else in your winter wardrobe.

Here’s how:

Technically, my girls do have enough clothes. Frankly, thanks to my loves for thrifting and sewing, they have a shameful amount of clothes, from vintage band shirts to hand-sewn bloomers. However, every now and then one child or the other suffers a lack of some thing in her wardrobe.

For my younger daughter, Sydney, who is as roughneck as any little kid but who adores skirts and dresses, this lack came about with the chill autumn breeze, when I realized that she didn’t have any skirts or dresses that were made for cool weather.

Fortunately, if there’s one thing that I have a shameful stash of, it’s vintage or thrifted fabric and clothing for reconstrution.

Sweaters are so nice and soft and comfy, why on earth should they be worn only on one’s top half? I often felt wool sweaters that I thrift or am given to make everything from stockings to stuffies, but for the sweaters that are especially beautiful or especially soft (mmm, vintage cashmere), I have a special use—if they’re big enough, and while my girls are small enough, I make skirts for my girls out of the sweater torsos.

The nice thing about sewing for kids is that their clothes take so little fabric. A shirt or pair of pants for a five-year-old, a dress for a three-year-old, matching bloomers for both–you could sew any of these things using less than a yard of fabric.

For that reason, kids’ clothes are very well-suited for sewing with recycled materials. I’ve sewed smocked sundresses for my girls out of pillowcases, a pants and kimono shirt outfit for a newborn out of one blouse, two sturdy diaper covers out of a felted wool sweater.

I was afraid of sewing from a pattern when I was a novice seamster, ironically, but now that I sew well, I enjoy using patterns to create more complicated clothing with attractive detailing and sophisticated elements. And so, although they’re pricey, I do buy some of the children’s clothing patterns from Oliver + S each season.

Unlike the sawdust dough, the sand dough, and even the oil dough, the cornstarch dough uses no flour, but instead calls for cornstarch and salt. This makes a good play dough for someone who might be sensitive to most flours, or perhaps to use up some more of that cornstarch that I keep making you buy for other art supply recipes.

Unlike the other dough recipes that I’ve shared, as well, this dough does require cooking over low heat, which actually most play dough recipes do require. It’s just something to be aware of when you have little helpers on hand.

You will need:

You can make play dough a gazillion kabillion six million ways. Trust me—I have made play dough from laundry lint, and thusly I know my stuff.

As the packrat/eccentric lady/aficionado of bizarre craft projects and art experiences, I am the designated inheritor of a myriad of passed-down recipes for homemade art materials from both sides of my family. And having two little girls with a lot of time on their hands and a love for anything messy and hands-on, we have taken it as a project to make pretty much every recipe at one time or another. For my next few posts, I’ll be sharing with your our favorite and most unusual of the recipes we’ve collected.

First up: Do you have any sawdust?

I could tell you all the educational reasons for making soap crayons—children’s learning should be experiential, experience with art should be as varied as possible, following a recipe utilizes math concepts, making something that you can use builds self-confidence and self-sufficiency, having a brand-new experience along with an adult adds adventure and models coping—but the truth is just that soap crayons are fun. You’re in the bath, so you’re supposed to be getting clean, but you’re drawing! With color! But the crayons, they’re soap! So you’re still getting clean!

Who would not have fun attempting to wrap their head around that?

To make soap crayons, you will need:

Often when my daughters were very, very young, and even now that they’re older as a special treat, I like to set them up to fingerpaint in the bathtub. It’s certainly an art activity that’s more about the process than the product, since the fun is in smearing around and mixing and getting oneself all paint-y and colorful. And when they’re done painting, there’s more fun involved in using the handheld shower nozzle to give everything a good rinse before settling down for a nice bath.

To make clean-up just that much easier, or just to provide a different sensory experience or have a fun time following a recipe, you can also try making your own fingerpaints from soap.