Today in the Kid-Made Gift Series, Amanda from Erring on the Side of Love shares a project she did with her two adorable sons. I've got to be honest with you, I believe this is a project of sheer genius and think it very likely that Amanda will skyrocket to toddler handmade Christmas gift fame after this concept hits the mass market :) I hope you love this idea as much as I do. I know you will... so after your done Pinning it and Tweeting it and plastering it all over Facebook, head over to Amanda's to see what other great stuff she's chatting about at Erring on the Side of Love (I stole her burlap garland idea... and she does things like make gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches... so you see, she's got more than a couple great ideas brewing over there!)
Amanda has also written another something else lovely here at Ordinary Lovely you may want to check out :)
Amanda has also written another something else lovely here at Ordinary Lovely you may want to check out :)
If you're new here, welcome!
And especially to Amanda, welcome and thanks for contributing!
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Back when Theresa from Ordinary Lovely mentioned she was looking for bloggers to participate in her Kid-Made Gift Series, I got excited, thinking surely I could conjure up something fun for my 3 and 1 year old to make! ...surely!
Oh, how I was fooling myself. Throw in some teething mess, along with the attention span of 2-seconds for both my boys in this season of life, and I couldn't think of anything that could be counted as gift-worthy from these two little monkeys.
Then enter this little child. My artist. The one who loves to color and draw with colors, pens, paint, and markers.
See, this is a new world for me. Having a little one who enjoys the arts. It always felt like pulling teeth to get my first born to color or draw with anything till Linus came around. His strokes are intentional and his focus is awesome. Now Bigfoot joins the artsy fun way more often than he used to, which is where this little gift comes in.
You know all those sheets and sheets of random scribbles the littles make? Some with stickers. Some just pencil. Some just markers. And, some made with stickers and pencil and markers? Those little or huge stacks you aren't quite sure what to do with? Unless you have this awesome scanner and filing organizational thing going on in which I then count you as awesome!
But if you don't have said organizational scanner awesomeness going and do have these stacks and stacks of art, I say let's put them together and make something with them!
What you'll need
All of your toddlers sheets of scribbles and beautiful penmanship
Markers
Whatever festive stickers you have
Festive Ribbon (I had some left over from last year)
Cardboard from a box or recycled brown cards
Scissors
Hole puncher (Advice: If you have a two hole puncher - use it! The one hole puncher will hurt your hand after all the papers of toddler art!)
Crafter's sticky glue (I used this to further stick whatever stickers have already been placed)
Get them all organized into two separate piles - 3 year-old pile and 1 year-old pile. Cut into fours (We have three sets of grandparents and will be keeping the fourth little book from each of the boys' for our little home.).
Cut, hole punch, and tie your ribbon through. Add some little detail and maybe let the boys share some more marker fun on the front and back cover to further make their styles identifiable (Haven't done this yet.) and Tadaaaa! Kid-Made gift with some help from mama....because 3 and 1 year olds.
Theresa, thanks for having me and giving me a reason to wrap up all of my boys' hard work into a gift!
Do you all have stacks of scribbles? If so, hope you enjoyed this little gift! And, if not, share your wisdom with me!
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other kid-made gifts in this series:
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And... depending on time and energy, I may have one or two last minute projects cooking up here at Ordinary Lovely, so check back next week for more...
Theresa! Thank so much for having me again! And, I've loved this series! the boys gave an honest go at the washi-tape jars. Started well, we had an intermission of some tantrums and tears, and then finished off strong! Yay! lol :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea amanda! I might have to make some for our grandparents this Christmas. I love how your star stickers seem to tie the inside and cover together too. I made a greeting card with some of my kids paintings a while back to keep from throwing away their art, it's so hard to toss their scribbles! http://ashcraftcreative.wordpress.com/2014/02/15/kid-painted-cards/
ReplyDeleteThis is so adorable!!! I think I can manage this, for sure. ;)
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