I am an elementary school media specialist (librarian) and a new mom. My daughters (born 12/27/2010 and 6/27/2013) are teaching me all kinds of new things every day. One thing they have taught me is that sometimes, there just isn't room for much else besides learning. If you're not sleeping, eating, talking, blogging, or whatever, it might just be because you're TOO BUSY LEARNING!

Friday, November 15, 2013

Pintester Movement: Toddler Friendly Crafting

And, my grand entrance back into the blogging world (shortly preceding my grand exit, in all likelihood) will be made with a crafting project for The Pintester Movement. If you have never seen Pintester, you should do yourself a favor and check it out! Your intrepid Pintester is none other than my fabulous sister, Sonja Foust. But I'd read her blog regardless of our shared parentage. It's hilarious, even if you're not into crafting -- maybe especially if you aren't.



As you know, I do not blog in part because I am too busy with my girls.  I have my Neve, who will be three years old on December 27, and my Ruby, who is four and a half months old. Both girls rock, but in a way that pretty much requires my full 24-hour attention, especially while I am on maternity leave until January. Currently, Neve is playing with her sister while I peer over my laptop screen at regular intervals to make sure everyone is still alive.

So, the assignment: Craft a Christmas tree ornament from Pinterest. The search began for a Christmas ornament craft for toddlers. Also, I am unwilling to paint any body parts, which is required of toddler crafting in most cases. So, we found this beauty from Birmingham Mommy:

image from birminghammommy

Basically, you drop pony beads into metal cookie cutters, bake until melted, and voila! Toddler crafting requiring no painting of body parts.

So, here's our demo.

Step 1: Prepare cookie sheet. (We didn't want anyone's ornament to have leftover baked-on French fry residue or anything. And I don't really want plastic bead residue in my French fries later.)


Step 2: Create artistic mommy-demo. All you do is lay the cookie cutter down on top of an ornament hook, and fill it with a layer of pony beads of your choosing. Allow cat to inspect. (Yes, he is on the counter. Don't judge me. I know I might as well lick the litter box before each meal. I just haven't found a solution to the problem, short of barbed wire.)


Step 3: Show toddler what to do. Know that she will go completely overboard. Tutorial suggests "one layer" of beads. Toddlers do not understand this concept. Also, know that your toddler probably will not care to differentiate beads by color. "Let's make the tree mostly green," might as well mean, "Dump a handful of random beads in that sucka." But she will look good doing it.


Step 4: Sneakily redo everything the toddler just did. Not really. But kinda, yeah.

Step 5: Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes or so. Open a window; it's stinky, but we didn't die.


Step 6: Wait until they cool completely, and pop em out.

Step 7: Show it off. This is the one we're sending to Cheeseblarg because I enjoy the irony of decorating one's tree with a tree.


So, thanks Pintester, for getting me back on the blogwagon, even if it is just one post. We had fun, and since you're our loving Auntie, you might be getting a melted bead ornament for your tree this holiday season.

9 comments:

Beth Caudill said...

Kinda cool. Reminds me of the shrinky plastic imitation stained glass ornament things. And you were brave enough to have toddler help.

Pintester said...

Hooray I love them, and they turned out really cute!

Ebemi said...

I can't keep my cats off the counter either. I even tried overfeeding my cats so they would get fat and not be able to jump as high. Even that didn't work. The ornament turned out cute. Tell you kids the internet said good job

JRose said...

I'm totally digging the Inception Tree Ornament idea. Thank you. I can't wait to hang it on my tree, which will be the best tree EVAR!

Jen said...

I'm glad to know it's possible to melt pony beads inside without dying. I've been wanting to try this but I was afraid that I might gas us all or something. The ornaments came out adorable and nobody dies so great job :)

WOM-MOMS said...

Man, this whole time I've been harassing Pintester about getting a cat, now to find out you can too! Excellent. My cat has brain damage so he can't jump: that's the only solution for counter jumping. It was a car accident, though (he's FINE) so it's not a regimen I can prescribe. Love the project - the kiddos are dolls!

Katrina said...

This is great!! I like how you lovingly re-did everything that you toddler did :)

Julie K. said...

These turned out great! Your daughters are too cute... and you look a whole lot like your sister! :-)

Meg Lyons said...

These are fun. . . are you still allowed to make them if you don't have small children around? Maybe I can borrow some small children. . . And my cats also get up on everything. Good thing the dog doesn't.