I picked the green felt up at a thrift shop a couple of months ago .  It’s one of those things that you roll a jigsaw puzzle up in, but I thought it would be great for making a felt board.  It turns out felt boards work better if you cover them with flannel (which I plan to do one of these days), so I just stuck the green thing in a drawer and kind of forgot about it, until this morning, when I was looking for something to place this little set up on.  

I got out a few of our Easter decorations – the Easter tree and some wooden bunnies, gathered up some tea-lights, and laid down a piece of blue felt with some corks, seashells,  artificial flowers and small animals to make a small pond area.

I put a few fine motor activities out on a tray: the Easter tree decorations, some tiny coloured clothespins, and pom-poms and tongs for filling ice cube trays.

A few badminton birdies and coloured balls to make ice cream cones, 

and a big jug of corks with a smaller jug for filling kept “the baby” entertained for a good, long time.  She worked away at this, filling the jug twice with the corks. 

I had a great time getting creative, setting it all up, and the Hooligans had fun playing with it until it was time to head outside.  

It was gorgeous out there today, so we took some of our inside toys out to the deck and spent the rest of the morning in the yard.  

The boys were in their glory.  They found a little patch of mud in the garden that was soft enough to fill their dump trucks with.

It feels like Spring is just around he corner, but I’ve heard we’re supposed to get 10 to 15 cms of snow tonight so we might not be out of the woods yet!

When we headed out this morning, we discovered that our snow was nice and sticky, so we brought out some scoops and containers, and set up a cake and ice-cream shop on the front porch.

Badminton birdies make perfect ice cream cones!

We raided the garden for items to decorate the cakes with, and collected sticks and twigs for birthday candles.

Ice cube trays are great for making a “box of chocolates”.

These simple materials kept the Hooligans cooking up a storm for over an hour.

And I received this lovely “birthday cake” just before we headed inside for lunch.

Do you have snow where you are?

I am SO excited about this space!  I wish I had taken “before” pics when it was at its worst!  Here’s a not so bad shot:

Before: on a GOOD day!

AFTER!!

For years, this space was neglected and ignored.  It housed hockey equipment, rarely used kitchen stuff like our wok, jumbo roasting pan etc, as well as outgrown clothes ,  house paint, and camping gear.  And the counter was always piled high with boxes, wrapping paper, Christmas decorations and junk.  It was an embarrassment.

The space is adjacent and open to the room that we used as a guest bedroom.  When I transformed that bedroom into a playspace for the daycare a couple of weeks ago, it occurred to me that if I cleaned up this sorry looking storage area, and cleared out all the cupboards, I’d have an awesome workspace for me, a good amount of floor space for the Hooligans to craft on, and cupboards to hold ALL of our craft supplies.  This last bit was really exciting, as up until now, our craft supplies have been scattered all over the house in various cupboards and cabinets.

Let’s get to the pics.  Warning: there are quite a few.  I wanted you to see everything!

O.K. Here’s a before shot of the icky laundry sink (our laundry room is actually in a different room than this).  This is directly behind me when I’m sitting on that stool at the long counter.

BEFORE - laundry sink. Please do not judge me by the filth of this sink. I have ignored it since we moved in almost 8 years ago as the taps leak so badly we don't use them.

AFTER: the cupboards above hold containers, spray bottles etc. Large bottom cupboard holds paints and our wall paper sample books. Now just to replace those taps (ahem...handy hubby), and it will be perfect!

wall paper sample books and paint supplies

There’s a bank of 3 tall cupboards to the left of my workspace, just outside the playroom.  Two of them serve as our pantry cupboards, so they’re stocked with all kinds of dry food and canned goods (I’ve always used them for that).  The 3rd cupboard that you see open here, used to hold random tools and owners manuals.  Now it holds all of our colouring supplies, a few puzzles and some frequently used craft supplies.

Colouring books/crayons etc, puzzles and our frequently used craft supplies. Yes, one of these days I'll paint the INSIDES of the cupboards.

Above, we have games and more puzzles.

…and here’s my work space!!!  Isn’t it dreamy?!!

The drawers under the counter hold:

and

glue guns and water colour paints... read on to find out about the LED lights

There’s a frosted glass panel above that end drawer that the original home owners put in to cover what was obviously a sink hole at one time.

So I put a couple of LEDs in the drawer, and when you turn them on, you get…

A built in light panel!  What a GIFT!

The cupboards below the counter hold:

season and and sensory bin items, and our construction paper

and

miscellaneous craft supplies

and my stack of white cardboard (which we use a ton of), and our button collections.

one of the Hooligan's grandma's donates brings us the cardboard

and inside one of the cupboard doors, I hung a spice rack and filled the bottles with some coloured buttons for day to day crafting.

If we’re going to get messy, there’s a spot for the re-purposed denim aprons that I made for the Hooligans,

and enough room in front of the counter to throw down a vinyl tablecloth for crafting on.

Can you believe this space was sitting here all this time, right under my nose, and I wasn’t even using it???

I’m SO excited about it.  Honestly.  Sometimes, I just go downstairs and stand there admiring it.  Do you ever do that when you makeover a space?  Please tell me you to.  Tell me I’m not the only one who does that.

It’s just so nice to have all of our toys, games and craft supplies all in one place, and so awesome to have a space for me to prepare and clean up crafts so close to where the Hooligans are playing.

Ok, one last before and after shot:

Standing in the playroom, looking out at my work space BEFORE:

and a couple of AFTER shots:

Stay tuned for part 3 of the series where I’ll cover “organization”.

We made one last cute craft for the kids to take home to Mom and Dad tonight.  We made these last year, and while I don’t usually do “repeat” crafts here, these are really cute, and most of the kids here today weren’t with us last year when we made them.

I poured 2 colours of paint in a tray, and we used a sponge brush to paint the Hooligans’ hands.  

Then they made prints onto cream coloured paper.

Once dry, I cut around the prints in a heart shape, and then again with some “lacy” scissors and red card stock.

It was good, messy fun, and when we were finished washing up, we had some great pink water to pour into spray bottles, and take outside!

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

So here’s our version,

coloured sticks, buttons and cardstock

and this is what we used to make ‘em.

I’d originally planned to paint popsicle sticks for the frame, but the weather was gorgeous, and we have all this new, fluffy snow, and we just wanted to get outside, and enjoy the morning, so at the last minute, to save time, I decided we’d use these skinny coloured sticks.  Not sure what they’re technically called, but I have a ton of them, and they’re already coloured, and they’re vibrantly coloured. They didn’t exactly give us the framed effect I was shooting for, but what the heck…

Now this was totally a joint effort craft.  While the Hooligans were gluing the buttons on their hearts, I was putting the frames together with the hot glue gun.

Then I hot-glued the frame to a piece of bright cardstock, and cut around the frame with some fancy-schmancy scissors.

When the Hooligans finished their button hearts, they glued those into the frames.  

So, definitely not an entirely kid-made craft, but pretty darned cute, just the same.

What are you crafting for Valentine’s Day?

With Valentine’s Day approaching, I’ve been seeing this technique used to make marbleized hearts, and thought we’d give it a try today.

Ok, this is SO COOL.  It’s right up there with painting with credit cards, which is also one of my new favourite ways to paint.

It’s really simple, you’re just going to have to gather a few materials and set up before you get started.

ignore the toilet rolls - I thought we'd incorporate them somehow, but we didn't need to

You’ll need a baking sheet, shaving cream, some stir sticks of some kind, several colours of food colouring, paper (we used thin white cardboard, but regular paper is fine), and a piece of stiff cardboard for scraping.

Squirt a generous helping of shaving cream onto your baking sheet and spread it around to fill the sheet (I used my piece of stiff cardboard for spreading).

Drop several drops of each colour of food colouring onto the shaving cream.

Have the kiddos stir and swirl the colours around.  This is soooo neat.  I was reminded of those huge suckers you get a the fair or the circus.

Once you’ve swirled your colours thoroughly, lay your paper (we used thin cardboard) on top of the shaving cream, and gently press it in.

the other side of this cardboard is plain white

Lift it off and let it sit for a minute.

Then take your piece of cardboard and scrape any excess shaving cream off to reveal your gorgeous marbleized paper!

I was seriously impressed.  This is one of those things that you’ve seen all over the web, but you don’t experience the wow factor until you actually do it yourself.

My pictures don’t even do justice to how beautiful the results are.

I wasn’t really sure where we were going with it, but while our creations dried, I came up with a plan.

I cut hearts of all different sizes out of the marbleized sheets, and then cut a long thin strip out of another piece of cardboard, and the Hooligans glued their hearts to the thin strip.

Now they’re ready to tack up on a wall or in a window.

Have you tried this technique?  Do it!!  It’s so cool!  It’s a little messy, yes.  But the kids had fun mucking around in the tray when we were finished, and asked if they could wash the farm animals in the shaving cream.

Then I filled a big container up with water for them to wash up in.   That led to them wanting to play in the water, so I refilled it with clean water and added some blue food colouring,

and that’s how they passed the rest of this dreary winter morning.

Here’s how we made ours:

Last year, I made some homemade stamps for Valentines by carving up some styrofoam blocks, so I pulled those out today, along with another heart stamp that we have.  I offered some paint dabbers as well, as little ones love to use these.

I opened up a few paper bags so the Hooligans could stamp all over them.  I had red paint in one tray and white in another, and I encouraged the kids to mix the colours when they were dipping their stampers.  It made for some really pretty prints.  

I tacked the bags to a door in our craft area until the paint dried (it didn’t take long).

Once dry, I cut 2 large hearts out of each bag and punched holes all around the edges.

Then we used wool to “sew” the 2 hearts together, and left a good size opening at the top to stuff them.  We used shredded paper for this.  I have some parents with paper shredders so I’ve accumulated quite a big bag of it.  This was the first time we’d used it.  It’s awesome stuff for crafts like this.  

Once the hearts were stuffed, we sewed the top closed, and left a good length of wool so the heart can be hung up.

What do you think?

Well, a couple of hours later, hubby was in our storage room, rummaging around, looking for stuff because he’s putting a new table top on an old desk for our boys.

Lo and behold!!!  Look what he found!!!

This is the top of our washing machine.  When we moved in, almost 8 years ago, we bought a new washer and dryer, and when the guys came to install it, I said I wanted them to stack the two pieces.  To do that they have to remove the top from the washer.  We’d tucked it away in the storage room, and it had been forgotten until my brilliant hubby stumbled across it this morning!

A couple of screws, and a bit of felt on the back to keep it from knocking against the wall when you press against it and….VOILA!!!

How awesome is that?  Huge (think of the size of your washing machine), looks brand-spankin’ new, and FREE!!!  Yay!!!

A few months ago, someone (I can’t remember who, I’m sorry!) blogged about this simple painting technique, and I stuck a few expired credit/gift cards in a drawer, making a mental note to try this, and then I completely forgot about it.  This past weekend, while doing the big playroom overhaul, I came across the cards, and decided that we’d give it a go this week.

This process is crazy-easy, and oh-my-goodness, you are going to loooove the results.

Could the list of materials get any shorter or easier?

Here’s what you’ll need to create your masterpiece:

• An expired credit card
• 3 or 4 colours of paint
• a “canvas” (we used white cardboard).

Squirt some paint on your canvas (we used 4 colours – a couple of pinks, a lilac and a burgundy).

Hand your credit cards over to the kids (hmmmm, you don’t hear that often!), and tell them to get scraping!

Ooooooooo!  Isn’t that YUMMY?!!

The rest of it is fairly self-explanatory.  Once the paint had dried, I cut a large heart out of  each of the pieces of cardboard.

Then the Hooligans glued crumpled squares of tissue paper all around the edge of the heart.

And there you have it!  Simple, free, and pretty darn cute!

I loved the whole scrape-painting process, that we made a few more works of art to hang on the walls of our new playroom.

Here’s the story:  I’ve been running a home-daycare for almost 14 years.   The children in my daycare (The Hooligans) are teachers’ children so they’re not here during July and August when their parents are on Summer Break, and in Spring and Fall when the weather is great, we spend our days outside.  But on rainy days, and during the long winter months, Mother Nature forces us to spend a lot more of our time indoors.  

When we play inside, the room that the Hooligans do most of their playing in is in our Family’s rec. room.  All the years that my own boys were young, this worked.  It was their “toyroom”.   They didn’t mind that the room was filled with kiddy stuff.  They were kiddies themselves.  It was their stuff.  The toys and games were in there for everyone to share and enjoy.

I should add that in the 8 years that we’ve been in this home, I’ve also had bits of the daycare scattered around the main-floor, and in a couple of other rooms in the basement.  We have an armoir in our main floor family room that holds toys and a few craft supplies.  The bulk of our crafting supplies have been stored in my laundry/sewing room (basement), and and we do most of our crafting in the kitchen.  This means for 8 years, I’ve been running up and down the stairs, transporting supplies from laundry room to kitchen every time we craft (and you know how much we craft).  A little inconvenient maybe, but I’d just load up a tray with everything we needed and bring it all up.  Then I’d take it all back down when we were finished.

As my guys have gotten older, the basement rec.room has begun to morph into more of a pre-teen/teenage hang-out .  They have a desk-top computer in there, an art table, a flat screen, the ps3, hockey posters, skateboard posters, books, magazines…you get the picture.  They’re not so crazy about it being a “toyroom” anymore, so everyday, I pack all traces of the daycare away into closets and cupboards so the boys aren’t hanging out in a room full of Fisher Price and dolls and matchbox cars, and I try not to be bothered by the  mountain of craft supplies that has slowly taken over my laundry/sewing room.   

Since discovering this wonderful world of mom and preschool bloggers about a year ago, I’ve been positively green with envy (and I say that with love) over the gorgeous playrooms that I’ve come across, and I’ve been longing (dreaming, fantasizing….you name it) for a space that doesn’t have to do double-duty with my own family.  A space that I can deck right out in true daycare fashion. Where toys and activities can remain set up, day and night, in cozy, little arrangements.  Where snowflakes and Valentines and Hooligan masterpieces can be hung on the walls or from the celiings, and not raise the eyebrows of my sons and their friends. 

And a few weeks ago it hit me…  I HAVE that space!  I’ve had that space in my home all along.  It’s been disguised as a guest bedroom!

HUGE epiphany here folks.  HUGE.   I realized that I could convert our guest bedroom to a playroom JUST for the Hooligans.  Honestly, I don’t know if my family has ever seen me so excited about a project (and I get excited about my projects!!)

In just a few evenings, I moved the guest room furniture out (which involved a lot of reconfiguring of our very small storage room), and I moved all the daycare  games, puzzles and activities in!  I did leave one double bed set up because I want to have it for when we ocassionally have company, and I can use it for nappers or quiet time.

I can’t even tell you how excited I am now that I have a room JUST for the Hooligans! (My boys are pretty pumped about having the rec. room all to themselves now too!)

Happy, happy, joy, joy!!  And if you think this is awesome, just wait until you see how I transformed an adjoining space for me and all of our craft supplies!  And I DID think to take “before pics” so you’ll see the full makeover!

Here’s a sneak peak!

Stay tuned…