Painting soap suds

A lot of our projects are a culmination of creative thinking and whatever items are strewn about the house.  TnT love to paint and they can not resist sticking their hands in any dish that happens to be filled with soap suds, so why not make it into fun tactile art? 

Start out by squirting some dish liquid into an old pan or bin. Fill your container with water to make lots and lots of suds. Now, who can abstain from touching all these glorious bubbles?

There's no rhyme or reason, just grab your paints and experiment. You can make various shapes in the suds, but when your concoction decides to disintegrate, then the paint and soap morph into wonderful abstract pieces.

 

After your master artists have decided everything looks just perfect, then lay some water color paper or cardstock on top of the colorful soapy display. Lift and rinse under the faucet and set to dry.

Creative children

Our children conjure up the most wild and delightful ideas, some more messy than others, but nevertheless they are always busy creating.

Big T writes very inventive stories and really puts his heart and soul into developing games, greeting cards, and gifts for others.  One of my favorite gifts to receive from him are his massage certificates and boy, does he deliver!  I can honestly say that I will never find a more unique massage technique than his, which is enhanced with marbles and race cars.  Hey, do not knock it until you try it...a race car massage is simply divine.

Little T seems to make things out of whatever is available. He loves to collect containers, paper, business cards, and whatever else he finds interesting.  To him, everything has a use and should not be thrown away. I find myself sneaking to the garbage bag sometimes to throw away, well... "trash." Most of the time I save stuff for him because I know he will enjoy it, but once I start finding an over abundance of things like egg carton containers, paper towel rolls, and boxes, then I have to take action. One day he may be some kind of green environmentalist, a super engineer, or fast track architect, or perhaps I may be cultivating a hoarder.  Whatever it is he decides to be (he says a basketball playing doctor chef), he certainly is a lot of fun in the meantime. 

I relish the fact that TnT are imaginative boys who are free and able to dream.  It is such a blessing to homeschool and witness the little things, nuances that I may miss otherwise.

Artistic Valentine's cards

This project rates on the craft scale as easy peasy!

Here are the supplies you will need:

paint tray - paint brushes - rubber cement - water colors or watered down paint - water color paper

Have your artist drip, scrape, & brush the rubber cement onto the water color paper. Sky's the limit here; abstract creativity, purposeful design, or a combination of the two can create some beautiful art.

Let the glue dry for about 10-15 minutes. It can feel tacky to the touch, just not wet in order to paint.

ne pas déranger l'artiste

do not disturb the artist                                                    no molestar el artista

Cut out cards after masterpieces are dry!

Good for you fudge

Thanks to NaturesKnockout on youtube, our family has some very delectable fudge we can snack on.

I am really not sure what possessed me to try this recipe, because we don't usually like fudge in quantities bigger than a bite.  Nevertheless, the creation seemed foreign and fun.

There's no baking involved, so it was perfect to let Little T take the lead and explore. We tasted all the ingredients! Baking cacao powder may look good to my six year old, but to his dismay, it was not like chocolate milk powder in the least.

We were both mesmerized by the coconut oil and agave nectar.  The oil has a consistency kind of like chap stick and the agave nectar was pleasantly light and sweet.  The coconut oil received a lot of our attention! It can not only be eaten, but used as real chap stick, lotion, or hair conditioner.  What a resourceful & healthful ingredient!

If you are not into coconut, then this recipe may not be for you, but I must say that we are not huge coconut lovers and adored this fudge.

The recipe is as follows:

1 cup organic coconut oil (we used extra virgin)
1 cup agave or light agave nectar
1 cup organic unsweetened coconut
Carob Powder - fill half cup almost full, about 3/4 (ordered mine online) 
1/4 cup cacao powder
1 cup raw organic almonds (we used slivers)

Mix all ingredients in blender or food processor - give it a light chop - pour into pan - refrigerate for 2 hours - slice - eat & enjoy!

Before!

After!