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:

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.