These Are a Few of my Favorite {Summer} Things!

Becca here with some of my favorite summer recipes today!  With the school being out around here, and the 4th of July approaching, I thought it would be fun to highlight some of my favorites from the Thrice the Spice blog over the years.  Remember you can always use the search bar on the right sidebar to search by topic, ingredient, cooking method, etc.  You can also choose a category to browse on the right sidebar as well.  What are some of YOUR favorite summer treats & activities?

 

4th of July Flag Toast

and another idea for the 4th (also dye free!) 
Red, White, & Blue "Celebrate America" Dessert!

Fruit Butterfly Snacks

Fresh Lemonade

and while you're buying and juicing lemons, make this Simple Lemon Sugar Scrub for yourself or a quick gift!

Or, these 'Clean Eating' Lemon Bars are another tasty way to use lemons and enjoy a treat without going way overboard.

Strawberry Pina Colada Popsicles

I also make popsicles using just 100% fruit juice, or add frozen fruit or peas for an extra treat, although since we don't normally drink juice a juice popsicle is a treat in itself! 

These Orange Creamsicles are another delicious popsicle idea we've tried & enjoyed.

What is your favorite homemade popsicle 'recipe' or idea?  Enjoy! 

Cereal Box Art

Happy Monday everybody!  Welcome to another week.  I posted todays idea on my personal blog this week and someone suggested that you could make this an Easter craft so I thought I'd share here!  Do you save your cereal boxes?  I always do because it is such a large source of cardboard for painting, drawing, and mess making.  One idea in particular I like to do with cardboard boxes is cut shapes out of them and then paint them!  For todays idea I cut out circles from the box and then went to work painting them, layer after layer.  

I used the items pictured below to stamp some interesting designs on the circles and then doodled on top of the dried circles with a white pen.  

If you cut more of an oval shape instead of a circle these would make the perfect easter eggs for your kiddos to paint on this week!  The circles (or eggs) could then be glued or sewn together to make a garland, attached as tags to goody bags, or glued onto a mat to make a piece of art. 

Enjoy! 

Sara 

{Gift Idea} Muffin Mix in a Jar

Jana here with a fun gift idea that you can make for the people in your life who enjoy muffins!  My Mom had a birthday recently, and I gave her this Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins mix in a jar, along with a silicone muffin tray. If you've never used silicone bakeware, you should give it a try!  I own a silicone muffin tray as well, and love baking with it. The muffins don't ever stick, and it is SO much easier to wash after you have baked with it!  (compared to a traditional metal muffin tin)  There are so many options you can do if you'd like to make a gift in a jar!  If you'd like additional ideas, there are many on Pinterest. I found inspiration for this recipe at a blog called Ambitious and Nutritious.  I encourage you to make a muffin mix in a jar, and think of someone you can bless it with!  Make sure to include the ingredient list, and baking instructions along with the jar.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins (Mix in a Jar)
`Makes 6-8 muffins

`Dry Ingredients for Jar:
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup oats (old fashioned or quick cooking)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Dash salt
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

(layer ingredients in a pint/16 ounce mason jar)

Ingredients to Add to Mix:
1 large egg
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/3 cup milk, plus a splash more
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Empty contents of jar into a bowl, and mix to combine.  In a separate bowl, combine 'wet' ingredients, stirring to combine. Add wet ingredients into dry, and stir until combined.

2. Spoon batter into greased muffin cups, about 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 15-17 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy!

"Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder inspired Molasses Snow Candy

Becca here with a fun winter recipe!  I am reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House in the Big Woods" to my children again right now, and we decided to try making the molasses on snow candy that they describe making in Chapter 4.  The basic instructions in the book are given; Ma boiled molasses and sugar together to make a syrup, which the girls poured onto fresh snow in pans to let harden and cool.  They got to eat one piece each, and then the rest was saved for Christmas!  I found a more detailed recipe in "The World of Little House", and have elaborated on that below in my own instructions.  My kids thought it was really neat to make something just like Laura and Mary, and the end result has a rich, chewy but creamy texture that really is delicious!  If you have extra molasses, they are also used in these Hearty Healthy Breakfast Cookies that received lots of good reviews from my kids as well as other people's, and these {Best Ever} Molasses Cookies that are a new family favorite of ours!

There is also a really neat Virtual Field Trip here to all of the "Little House" home sites! 

You will need a candy thermometer for this recipe. (Pioneer Laura dress & bonnet are optional :)  I know, the candy thermometers make me nervous too, but my (8 year old) daughter actually made this recipe 99% by herself and it turned out great, so this is a great beginner candy thermometer recipe.  Mine is a really inexpensive one from Walmart, and I think this is the first or second time I've ever used it.

Molasses Snow Candy

1 cup molasses
1 cup brown sugar

Combine molasses and brown sugar in a medium saucepan.  The candy will bubble and rise up in the pan quite a bit once it starts heating up, so don't use your smallest saucepan!

Stir well to combine.  Then clip candy thermometer onto the side.  Slide it in the bracket until the tip is submerged, but NOT touching the bottom of the pan.

Turn heat on to low, and stir fairly consistently until temperature reaches the "hard crack" line on your candy thermometer, at 300 F. 

Meanwhile, start filling a couple of 9x13 pans with crushed ice.  I had my two boys doing this, while my daughter stirred, and they completed right about the same time.  Feel free to use snow instead of you have some good clean snow!

Quickly pour the (incredibly hot, this part is definitely for an adult!) mixture from the saucepan into a glass liquid measuring cup.  (I used a 2 cup Pyrex glass measuring cup & it was the perfect size).

Drizzle the (reminder again, this is scalding hot!) molasses over the ice.  I let my daughter pour by herself, but my sons held my hand as I poured to help.  And the baby sat in her highchair & watched :) 

It will harden pretty immediately as it cools.  As soon as it does, remove from the ice onto wax paper, removing any chunks of ice that might be sticking.  Enjoy!

Becca's Favorite Play Dough {Kool-Aid colored & scented, no cook!}

Becca here with a recipe that I've made many times!  I have made many versions of play dough, including ones you cook, ones you don't heat at all, ones that call for all kinds of strange ingredients, ones that are sticky, ones that dry out quickly, ones that smell funny, etc.  This version is none of those things, and is my absolute favorite.  It even has a great smell from the Kool-Aid that's far more appealing than the standard stuff you buy in the can.  Best of all, it has a great consistency; it can easily be molded, rolled, etc. without getting sticky or crumbly.  We were doing a fall activity, so we used orange and tropical punch for the red and orange colors, and I used yellow for the first time for the top dough on my stack in the photo.  Lesson learned, it doesn't have much color, it's more of a cream color than yellow, but still smells good and worked fine for our purposes.  I hope you'll give this dough a try, it's a great fun and educational experience for children of all ages!  If you're looking for another fun Fall or Thanksgiving Activity to do with your children, I this poem activity with my classes yesterday and the younger kids in particular loved it!

Becca's Favorite Play Dough

1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup salt
1 Tablespoon cream of tartar
1 envelope Unsweetened Kool-Aid (for color!  2 packages if you want a really dark color.)
1 cup Boiling water
1 1/2 Tablespoon vegetable oil

Mix dry ingredients (flour, salt, cream of tartar) in large bowl.  Stir in boiling water and oil and continue to stir until thoroughly mixed.  Finish mixing with hands when cool enough to touch.  Enjoy!

Apple Party

Take a peek at a little apple party my sis and I had for our kiddos recently!  My girls and I were having a bit of a long week with my husband working a lot so I was trying to think of some fun, fall-themed activities to do.  We are crazy about apples so I thought a little apple party would be fun and easy to pull together.  

I checked out some apple books from the library, we ate a variety of apples, and painted with apples! 

I brought apple butter along too but it didn't end up getting opened. Maybe next time!

 The kids enjoyed stamping with the apples for a few minutes but then generally wanted a cleaner way to paint.  Except for this sweet girl!  She painted her whole entire apples. :)  

I hope you'll have an apple party of your own! 

'Rain Gutter' Bookshelf

Becca here with something a bit different today!  I'd seen these bookshelves made out of a rain gutter all over online, as I'm sure you have too, and decided they'd be the perfect match for this hallway space in our house that isn't good for much else, due to the placing of the thermostat in the middle of the wall.  I love how the covers of the kids' books are showing, and that even my two year old can find the book he's looking for, AND easily put it back where it belongs.  After buying the supplies and convincing my husband I wasn't crazy, it was a quick & easy project that we're all super happy with!  I saw several photos from the front, like the one above, but not many details online, so I thought I would share the details of how the project worked out for us today!

Guttering comes in white, although it can be painted with paint made for plastics.  I liked it matching our trim & baseboard, so I left it white.  It comes in 10 foot long sections, and is really easy to cut with an inexpensive hacksaw, a little saw with a handle and fine teeth on it that costs as little as $5 if you don't have one.  You also need to purchase brackets for the gutters, making sure they're the same size as your gutters (thanks to my husband for returning my brackets & getting the correct ones when I didn't make sure of this!).  I would purchase one bracket for every 16" of shelving you're going to install.  16" is standard width of the studs in the wall, and you want to hit every one so you can really load up the bookshelf & not worry about it!

You'll also need an end cap for the end of each section you plan on installing.  Both the end caps and brackets are in boxes under the guttering at your favorite home hardware type store.  I went to Lowes, with my kids, and they even carried it up to the register & loaded it in my car for me, without me asking!

You can see the shelves are really deep, one of the main questions I had before installing the shelves myself was how deep they were, and if they could really hold lots of books.  The answer is that they are quite deep, many books deep, and really can handle the weight, as long as you install the brackets on studs every 16", as I mentioned above! 

The view of the end.  To install the shelves, simply cut the guttering to your desired length.  Attach a bracket to the wall at the height you want the shelf hung, being sure to hit a stud (absolutely necessary!!) and using good wood screws.  Using a level, hang another bracket on the next stud in the same way (remember, the studs should be about 16 inches apart), and repeat until you've reached the length of your shelf.  Slide the gutter into the brackets, snap end caps on, and load with your favorite books! 

{DIY} Collage Vase

My husband and I recently celebrated our 5-year anniversary!  He brought home the most beautiful bouquet of flowers, which reminded me of the times we were dating.  After about a week I had to throw some of them out (including a gorgeous sunflower), but these roses were still looking radiant.  I decided to stick them in a vase and reached for a plain glass one.  I'm a huge believer in finding the "rosy in the routine", and adding beauty to our days here and there.  With one quick look I decided to make the vase look a little more unique with a collage of sorts.

First I wrapped an old hymnal page around the vase and taped it to the glass.  Next I added a paper doilie with a construction paper heart, to the front of the vase.  I adhered these to the hymnal page with a couple of pieces of washi tape.  You can read more about washi tape here!

This little project was quick, but adds such a creative touch to my dining room table.  I think it would look awesome to have a whole table centerpiece, full of mismatched jars with collaged decor.

Happy crafting!
Sara

DIY Silverware Holders!

Hi everyone!  Today's idea is so simple and easy to make as creative as you'd like.  I'm hosting a brunch soon and want every detail of the table to look crafty and inviting.  So, I knew I wanted something special to place the silverware in but wasn't sure what to make.

I searched through my craft room, determined to use what I already had on hand.  This is what I came up with!  These packets are so easy to make.  I simply laid my silverware out flat on a piece of brown kraft paper and cut a rectangle out around the silverware.  Then I folded the sides of the rectangle in together, and folded the bottom of the paper up too, to create a type of envelope.

I secured the packets with hot glue and them embellished the front of them with washi tape and paint samples.

These would look fantastic for a wedding, birthday, or even just a special night at home.

Enjoy!
Sara

DIY huge 18" custom monogram letter {quick & inexpensive}

Becca here with a project that is both quick & inexpensive, but I think has really great results!  As I've mentioned previously, we recently moved to a new town, our sons (2 and 4 1/2) went from having their own rooms to sharing.  They previously had their names on their walls, but there wasn't enough space in the new shared space for each name (at 6 & 7 letters each especially)!  I still wanted to personalize it somehow for them, so decided to do their initial as large as I could find it instead, since I knew even my 2 year old knows that "M is for Malachi!" and would identify with that as being his :)  I find it a bit trickier to decorate for the boys' room, since I'm not really into the super 'themey' sports/superhero type things to plaster all over their room, and my oldest son is really into making sure things don't look remotely "girly" at all.  Leaving not a lot of choices besides solids & stripes for decor!  We were all happy with the way this project turned out, and it was seriously quick & easy.

I found these huge, 18 inch tall, wooden letters at Hobby Lobby.  They were $12.99 and I used a coupon, so they cost me right at $8 each.  They already have the notches cut out of them for easy hanging too, something the smaller ones don't have. 

I bought inexpensive washi style tape from the office supplies aisle at Target.  It was $5 for 4 rolls, and I had plenty on 2 rolls to do both of my letters, even with them being really wide letters (N & M).  If you haven't used washi tape before, it's basically just a semi-translucent papery tape that sticks well, but can also be removed, and usually comes in all kinds of cute colors and prints.  Most similiar to masking tape, but way cuter.  I think it's pretty self-explanatory, but I just carefully started laying down layers of the tape, making sure to keep it straight as I went.  The tape is easily removed if you mess up and get one crooked, or want to experiment with colors & designs.  There are SO many cute options you could do with this, for a boy, girl, or even living area.  I left the edges hanging off until the end, and then quickly ran up the side of the letter with a pair of little sharp scissors to make the edges nice & neat. 

I'd love to see the creativity you use on your letter!  You can email us at thricethespice@yahoo.com Enjoy!

Valentine's Day Ideas

Becca here with a quick interruption in the 'freezer friendly' series I'm going to be continuing the next few weeks on Tuesdays & Thursdays.  With Valentine's Day being two weeks from today, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite ideas.  All of them are quick & easy, but have great end results!  Enjoy!

Celery Stamped 'Rose' Valentines

DIY Personalized Foaming Soap Bottles (FYI, a full year later, our still look great & have been refilled many times!!)

Dark Hot Chocolate Mix

Here are several more creative gift & packaging ideas. 

And, there's always the DIY Valentine's Basket option that we're doing this year.  I spent about 3 minutes punching hearts out of "Valentinesy" paper, and added them to a basket with glue sticks, blank cards & envelopes (half price from the $1 spot at Target last year!), and some stickers that coordinated.  The older kids sat at the table while I finished dinner & made a few each, using the markers, colored pencils, etc. that are always available.  I put the basket away for the night, and will pull it out again over the next week or so when they need something constructive to do to keep busy (and out of trouble)!

Creative Gifts & Packaging!

Becca here with some great last minute gift & packaging ideas that are perfect for teachers, neighbors, postal & UPS workers, and anyone else you would like to give a little something to.

For my childrens' AWANA & Sunday School teachers, we used this great DIY kit (no affiliation, we've just used their products several times & love them!) to make all natural lip balms, something I thought everyone can always use another of, especially in the dry cold months.  For the packaging, since I wanted it to be entirely self-contained so they could hand it out themselves, and also ble to fit into their bags they take to church with them, we cut the flat middle section out of a brown paper bag ($6 for 500 at Sam's Club, the same kind we use for Perfect Popcorn) and the kids each wrote "Thank You" on it.  Then we inserted a lip balm, and quickly stitched around the edges using a 4.0 size stitch on my sewing machine, with festive red thread.  To make it really simple for them to hand out, I even stitched our Christmas Card diagonally across the corner to attach it, so it's really all-in-one.

We made 12 of these, and total time for everything, including making labels for the lip balm, trimming the bags, the kids writing on them, stuffing them, and sewing them up was about thirty minutes.  An hour counting making the lip balm.

We also used the same packaging for itunes giftcards for teenage family members at our extended family gift exchange where we draw names (and celebrate early, we've already had it this year), and they thought the gift card sewed up inside was pretty cool. 

Add one of these Homemade 'Cookie Cutter' Perler Bead Ornaments or Gift Tags for an extra cheery gift package!

You could use the same idea for a variety of yummy food gifts too, placing them into a zip top bag first, and then enclosing the whole thing in the brown paper bag packaging, including some of my favorites such as:

Roasted Sugared Almonds

Dark Hot Chocolate Mix

DIY Mocha Mix

Sweet Homemade Cornbread (I premix the dry ingredients in batches for myself to save time when I make it, including that and a copy of the recipe would make a great gift I know I'd appreciate!)

Using a slightly larger bag, you could still stitch the edges up and fill it with these yummy baked goods:

Gluten Free Banana Bread

Lime Meltaway Cookies

Amazing Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins

Granola - Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Grain Free (and Yummy!!)

Whole Grain Pumpkin Muffins

And, for a few other fun gift suggestions:

Homemade Vanilla Extract

Recycled Christmas Card Puzzles for Kids

Your Kids 'in' a Bottle of Soap (one of my favorites!!)

Super Easy DIY Perler Bead Dishes

Hanging Dish Towel Tutorial

DIY 'Recycled' Christmas Card Puzzles

Becca here with craft for your kids to do this Christmas Season that could not be any easier, or less expensive (aka free!).  The only required materials to make these fun puzzles are the front cover of used Christmas Cards you've received in the mail, and some sort of large craft (often used in scrapbooking) paper punch.  I actually borrowed a star type shape from a friend to make these, but a large circle or square would work just as well.  Since my children are a bit older, I place 8-10 card front with several pieces punched out each, and their cooresponding punched out pieces into a quart sized zip top bag, leaving them to sort out which pieces goes with which card, and then to rotate it around to make a correct match.  It's actually more a bit more difficult than you would think this way, making it a good challenge even for a bit older than the preschool crowd.  Of course, to make it simpler for the younger ones, I just give them a card or two at a time.  Wouldn't it be fun to use photo cards to make really personalized puzzles also?  We've actually made these for several years now, and the kids still enjoy them. 

This is pretty self-explanatory, but just in case you need a few tips:

Cut along the fold in the Christmas Card to remove the decorative front cover.  The sturdier the paper used on the card, the more durable the puzzle will be. 

Use a large hole punch of any shape to cut several pieces out.  Store cooresponding card fronts and punched out pieces in a zip top bag.  For younger children I give them 1-2 puzzles at a time, whereas older children can handle the challenge of sorting 8-10 out at a time.  Enjoy!

Perler Bead Ornaments (or Gift Tags!)

Becca here with a fun and easy craft for you & your kids to do!  We are going to use a couple of them for ornaments, but most of the ones we made for cute tags for Christmas gifts instead of bows, which always seem to get smashed anyway.  I first saw the idea on Pinterest, as I'm sure many of you have as well, and traced the links back to this post, which is Dutch I believe.  The only English language instructions I saw were in people's notes on pinterest, which failed to take into account that the original instructions were using Celsius temperatures rather than Farenheit, hence wrong.  I knew this had to be the case (which was verified when we tried this both ways just to be double sure before passing the information along!) from our baking perler beads experience in making these super cute bowls and letter trays using a similiar process.  So here are some tried & true basic instructions for making the ornaments, as well as some tips I have for getting great results in the second part of the post.

Required "Ingredients"

Metal Cookie Cutters
Perler Beads (this is the name brand; in my experience the other brands work fine as well, but do take longer to melt)
Cooking spray or some sort of oil (vegetable oil, olive oil, baby oil, anything is fine)
Baking sheets
Foil or parchment paper
An oven!

Line your baking sheets with foil or parchment paper.  Let the children choose the metal cookie cutter shapes that they want to use, and place them onto the lined baking sheet.  Fill each cookie cutter with perler beads.  Use your finger to spread them fairly evenly in thickness, and making sure the beads are all touching & filling the cookie cutter.  Repeat until your tray is full or you are out of cookie cutters!  Spray the inside edges of the filled cookie cutter with cooking spray.  I use olive oil in a mister.  If you don't have a way of spraying the oil, you can very lightly drizzle a bit around the edges.  Bake at 400 degrees for 7-10 minutes, or until beads have melted & fused to each other, as seen above.  You can bake it at a lower temperature, but the cooking time will obviously be significantly longer.  At 200 degrees, we had to cook them for over 30 minutes!  Let them cool, then pull them off of the baking sheet & pop out of the cookie cutter.  With the olive oil spray, ours very were very easily removed.  Quickly wash with dish soap & warm water to remove the oil residue.  We used scraps of embroidery floss for hangers here, but ribbon, yarn, etc. would be cute also.

A few tips we have (found out by trial & error :)

*Contrary to what I initially thought, the more detailed cookie cutters actually turned out the best.  As long as you're sure to fill the cookie cutter well, the beads will melt & fell in the cracks, and the shapes come out looking great.  See the candy cane and snowflake are much more defined than the heart, which came out cute, but not as easily recognized & detailed.

*I use the original blue dawn dishsoap for things like this, I think it is the best at removing oil.

*Snowflakes made with light blues, whites, clear, etc. would make great suncatchers!

*We plan on using the ornaments on packages as decoration instead of bows, making them smash-proof for travel.

Enjoy!!

DIY Painted Stars Centerpiece

Hi everyone!  Today I have a quick centerpiece idea you can enjoy during the entire holiday season.  If you were feeling really brave you could even have your little ones at home help with this! To make the painted star centerpiece I traced various sizes of stars on old Baptist Hymnal pages I keep on hand for such projects.  I then painted the stars, and let them dry. Later I glued two stars (wrong sides facing) together, placing a wooden skewer in the middle.  I used hot-glue for this and didn't worry about the stars matching up perfectly.  Last, I placed one wooden skewer in each bottle.  Easy! 

********************

You could easily use this idea in several ways in your home-

• the stars could be glued on string to create a garland
• the bottles could be placed close together on a table, without needing the crate
• the stars could be hung with string from the ceiling
• the stars could be glued to tooth-picks instead of skewers and used for cupcake toppers! 

Happy creating!
Sara :)

Two Fall Thanksgiving Crafts for Kids! Fall Tree Tutorial & Thanksgiving Poem Bracelet Tutorial

Becca here with two fun Fall Thanksgiving themed crafts that would be great to do with your kids!  We had an extra child here the day we did these, so a 4 1/2 year old and two 7 year olds participated, and all of them enjoyed the activities, and did a great job on the finished product!  My favorite types of "arts and crafts" for the kids to do are ones that I can lead them in, but they can do entirely on their own, and put their own unique twist on it, so they don't all end up looking exactly the same.  I was inspired by this fall tree I saw on Pinterest and this Thanksgiving Poem, also found on Pinterest.  The kids really loved making the trees, complete with falling leaves and leaf piles, and creating their own design in the trunk with yarn, and I read the poem to them and had them add the beads to their bracelet as they heard me say the color in the poem, a great listening activity!  As a bonus, even really little ones can then use the bracelet to tell the main points of the story of the First Thanksgiving to others!  I think it would be a great, simple activity to bring to a Thanksgiving Meal for the children to do after they've finished eating, or while they're waiting on the big meal.  Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Poem Bracelet Tutorial

(all supplies are per person/bracelet)

1 pipe cleaner, any color (I used pink for the girls & blue for the boys because I had colored ones)
1 bead each:  white, blue, green, black, brown, red, yellow, orange
1 copy of the poem you can download a Word Document here

Read the poem out loud to the children, instructing them to place a bead onto their pipe cleaner when they hear its' color in the poem.  I read a second time, to have them 'check their work' and hear the poem a second time also. :)

Fall Tree Tutorial

(all supplies are per person/tree)

1 piece card stock (we used light blue)
"school glue" that dries clear (we used Elmer's that goes on sale really cheap during back to school)
several yards of brown yarn
20-30 small puzzle pieces (for a puzzle, pocket change at the thrift store, or $1 at the dollar store)
red, orange, yellow, and green paint *see note below about types of paint
a small strip of sponge (I cut a super cheap household sponge into 4 sections, see photos)

Have the child lightly sketch the outline of a tree trunk on their paper, then trace the line with glue and place a piece of yarn on top.  Then encourage them to use the yarn, either in one long strip or cut into pieces, I had children to do some of each, to cover their trunk in whatever "treeish" design they choose.  Be sure to press down lightly so the yarn sticks.

Meanwhile, prepare small plastic plates, clean empty yogurt containers, etc., with a bit of each color of paint.  It's okay if they're touching a bit, but try to keep them separate for the most part for now. 

 

Give each child a strip of sponge 'brush' and container of paint colors to decorate their puzzle piece "leaves" with.  Remind them that the leaves are all different colors this time of year, so dabbing the sponge 'brush' into the different colors will look nice.  The patting or 'dabbing' method works best, I also reminded the children that stirring or smearing would result in all of the colors mixing, and that would mean they would end up with all brown leaves.

 

  We used a cereal bag I wiped off and cut into one piece for each child as our backdrop for painting.  Wax paper would be a great alternative also, and paper would work okay, as long as you carefully removed the pieces when they're dry to avoid the paper sticking.

 

Let the pieces dry a few minutes, then glue them to your tree trunk.  I encouraged the kids to lay them out first, before gluing, to get an idea of how they wanted them to look.  Don't forget to have a few falling leaves, and some on the ground also!

 

Find somewhere to display your beautiful, creative & original, Fall Art!  I love how each one turned out a bit differently, based on each child's imagination!  Enjoy!

 

*We've had this Crayola set of paints for a long time, good sized bottles & it's very washable and inexpensive, easily under $5 for the set of 10 on sale or with a coupon, and they last a long time.  I also like the really cheap bottles of acrylic paint you can pick up at most craft & supercenter type stores and let the kids use them also, especially on canvas or for something more permanent we're going to hang on the walls & keep, although they aren't as washable.