Pumpkin painting project

I should have named this post 
"are you really going to paint an orange pumpkin orange?", 
because that is exactly what my husband asked me when he saw 
Pickles and I working on this project.

Materials:
Pumpkin
Acrylic paint

Tools:
Paint brush
Cup or paint tray
Knife
Scooping spoon
Bowl for seeds and guts


No, my intention was not to paint an orange pumpkin orange, but let Nik enhance the orangery greenness of it with some glitter paint.

Pickles sat and waited for the pumpkin to be opened and scooped. 
That's his patient face. 



The hubs explained the process to Nik. 



Pickles was jazzed about using the large 
metal spoon to scrape some pumpkin guts.





After the pumpkin scraping party we set to painting. 
I used two tubes of extreme glitter in Orange and a Peridot. 


I let Pickles use two paint brushes, one for each color. 
Not that it made a difference, he mixed the colors just the same.




Nik painted his pumpkin. 
This did not hold his attention long so only one side of the pumpkin got any sort of paint coverage. 

 I can tell what you might be thinking at this point. 
"Are you the worst photographer in the world or 
is the lighting in your home bad?".
Well, it's a little of column A and a little of column B.  
Mostly A.
  

We did achieve that glittery goodness and Pickles liked this project, but painting does not really hold his interest. 
Especially after having to follow a good pumpkin gut scrape, 
that's a hard act to follow. 

Toddler autumn leaf suncatcher

I love Autumn. 

I really wanted to do a fall craft with Pickles. So, we decided on a fall leaf window sun-catcher.

We started by collecting some fallen leaves.  I let Nik use the plastic pumpkin to collect them, it was like trick or treating for leaves, sticks and at one point dog poop (he thought it was a stick, poor Pickles).. 

Pickles got so excited about riding his bike to go collecting, 

he continually forget the mission we were on.  

Toddlers.. 

Materials:

Collected leaves, small sticks and twigs

Contact paper

Thumbprint glass to add some sparkle (clear and green)

Shaved crayons (fall colors)

Tools:

Hole punch

Tulle that I had left over from my wedding crafts

Something to shave the crayons up with (I got this grater from the dollar store)

And of course tuna cans to hold the contact sheet down. 

(The cans do not have to be full of tuna, you can choose any potted meat you would like)

I flipped the contact paper clear side down and pulled the paper up in just one corner. Pickles started placing leaves, glass and small twigs, and I shaved the crayons down a bit for some crayon "sprinkles".

As he filled a section with leaves, glass and sprinkles, I pulled more paper down.

  

 When we were done with placement, we folded the contact paper over onto itself and stuck it together. I trimmed the edges with scissors, you could use shears with a nice design for a fancier look.

Perhaps this is common knowledge for everyone on the planet but me, but contact paper does not stick to itself for crap. We had to press between each item, and the glass we chose was far too large for this project. 

 

Nik decided it needed to be hammered down lightly. It helped. 

I punched two holes on the top and ran the tulle through them, tying a tulle bow at the top. 

Pickles was so proud. 

When I asked him to show me the finished product he stood in front of me, 

turned to his right and proudly showed his project to the cat. 

We hung the sun-catcher over the sliding glass window with a tack.

Ta-da!

Citrus Lane review Oct 2013 - Spoiler

Spoiler Alert! Oct 2013 Citrus Lane box - If you don't want to know the contents of the Oct Citrus Lane box, do not read ahead; even if there are cute pics down there.  

The box was a lovely shade of pink for breast cancer awareness month. 
Pickles was so excited for this box. He opened it, removed the yellow paper and started saying

"toys, oh toys!".  And "happy birfday Nik".  

It's not his birthday.

This box contained some great items:

 Dreamz & Twinkies To Go from Cloud B
Rhythm Sticks from Hohner Kids
BOPS from Good Boy Organics
Lady Bug Magazine from Cricket Magazine Group & Digital subscription

Pickles immediately grabbed for the toys and the chips.

My first thought was, "Sea Salt chips for kids?". 

But as soon as he tried them he was hooked. 

Plus, they have a cool flatness to them which allowed 

Pickles to stack them in his hand.

The Dreamz & Twinkies nightlight was a big hit. 

He used the nightlight tonight and loved it. 

It shines fish, stars and things on the ceiling and turns blue or green. 

After checking out the light, he needed more chips.

Pickles got funky with the rhythm sticks and reviewed the Ladybug magazine. The Rhythm sticks are awesome, but I'm afraid he may use one as a weapon against the cats or the TV. 

So, I placed those in the supervised play bin for later.

Overall, the Ladybug magazine appeared to be full of kid-friendly 

content, stories, games, paper doll cut-outs etc.

Cricket Magazine Group also included a 3 month online subscription and a deal on the mailed magazine.

The box itself contained pink mustache pop-outs, complete with the reason.

 Overall, this was a great box, and we both loved it!
(Especially the chips!)

Construction beans sensory box

Ahhh, sensory boxes, our new found love. 

I wanted to do a construction rock set, because Pickles loves to dig and he likes construction trucks. 

Found some great inspiration from Pink and Green Mama. 

All of the materials came from the dollar store with the exception of the tote. 

Stupid dollar store, I love it so much. They trick you with that "only a dollar" stuff. 

You end up walking out having spend $45 on every visit.  

Well, I do...

Materials:
Small and large rocks & pebbles

Kidney, pinto and black beans

Green and clear glass thumbprint looking flat stone things
32 Qt. flat tote

Cool construction vehicles & signs

*A tip on the flat glass. The bag I purchased had a broken one, that bad boy was sharp. 

Check the bag before dumping these in.

 This box was a big hit with Pickles. 
Pro dollar store shopper tip, don't forget the drop cloth or tarp. 

Just place it down while playing and dump the bean escapees back in the tote after play. 

 Found some random fun scooping and moving tools 
around the house to add to the fun. 

This is the box about about a week and a half after playing with it daily.

Pickles felt the box really needed a few monster trucks and a Yukon Cornelius to bring it together. I agree.

If your  toddler is the type to put things in their mouth you may want to think about bigger objects & stones. Oh no wait, just skip this project all together. 

The Blog Welcome

This is Nikolas, aka "Pickles". Why is his nick-name Pickles?  

Because he used to love them. Now pickles are "Eeewwww"..

This blog is about Nik, his growing & learning and our crafting adventures. 
My crafts, his crafts and our crafts. 


Me?

I'm an Etsy and Pinterest junkie. 
I work a full time job and adore my family. 

Photo image courtesy of Christina Seddon-Meyer