Sculptures In a Bag

The final product...Derek's "rocks".

I was looking for something different to do with Derek besides the usual watercolor, markers, and painting wooden frames etc.  I came across an idea to make a sculpture.

Materials:

1 cup of Plaster of Paris

½ cup of water

Ziploc bags

Paint

Add 1 cup of Plaster of Paris and ½ cup or water to a Ziploc bag. 

(**I found that using 1/2 cup of Plaster of Paris and 1/4 cup of water worked better)

Seal, letting out as much air as possible.

Double bag it (just in case!).

Now let your child squish and squeeze it.  In 10-15 minutes it will get warm and start to harden.  (**The original idea said it would only take a few minutes, I found that it took longer and Derek got bored.  He could have also been bored because he was tired.)

Once it has hardened, you can remove the bags and they are ready to paint.  (**I removed the bags over a trash can as there was some crumbling.  I also let them dry a bit longer before painting them.  They felt a little wet when I removed the bags.)

Finally, I got out the paints and Derek painted his “rocks” (as he calls them).

"Hand"-made Valentine's Day

I feel it is important for Derek to give hand-made gifts, especially at his age. They are more appreciated than something that I inevitably picked out at the store and signed his name to.  While Bryan and I don’t make it a habit to actually celebrate Valentine’s Day, we still want Derek to know it is a day to celebrate friendship and love.  So we went to work on his Valentine’s!

The main gift was a handprint heart that he made using a pink and a red handprint.  This of course required help from Mommy.  (idea from pinterest)  

Final Product

Messy Hands!!!

He also made cards for everyone in the family and his daycare teacher.  He used foam stickers and markers.  When working with the stickers, he wanted to know what all of the words said and he made sure that he put all of the purple hearts on Mommy’s card since he knows it’s my favorite color.

I made bookmarks for the students in my class. I used paint swatches and stamped a heart in each block, then attached a ribbon to the top.  The original design called for a heart shaped punch but I couldn’t find mine. (idea also from pinterest)

My final project for this weekend was actually the first one I made.  Our anniversary was February 10.  We celebrated 11 years together. Bryan loves martinis and olives so I saw this idea in a magazine for this card and decided it was perfect to make for this occasion.