Edible Berry Painting

I recently made homemade paint with Pokeweed, the color of Pokeweed Ink is amazingly beautiful, but L cannot paint with it because it's toxic. This inspired me to let him make his own paint with edible berries. When he gets older we can experiment with this activity a bit, but for now we kept it super simple.

I let L smash some strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries.

 I added a little cornstarch and water to thicken it up a bit.

Then I let him go at it!

mmmmm yummy!

Linking up at

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Toddler Photo Cards

L is constantly taking our pictures frames off of the shelves to look at them, which I don't mind but a few have broken as a result. I love that he wants to look pictures of our family so I wanted to make him some photos that were durable enough for him to handle. 

I had some Scotch Self Sealing Laminating Pouches left over from my Eye Spy Jars so I knew they would be perfect for this.

I picked some of our favorite pictures and printed them wallet sized.

cut them out

then sealed them into the laminating cards (no heat required!)

He loves them!

I have lots more to make!

He kept telling me the story behind each picture. I loved it!

 

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Pokeberry Paint

L and I were exploring our backyard last night and he grabbed onto a pokeberry plant. I know these berries are a bit poisonous (early native americans used them to induce vomitting) so I of course screamed "NO!" but as I ran over to him, I saw the bright PINK stain on his hands and thought "wow, thats really beautiful!" I knew at that moment, I had to do SOMETHING with them. It certainly was one the prettiest color made by nature that i'd ever seen!
Why not make paint?!

So I went to gathering

I first got out mortor and pestle just to see a bit of the color...ooo la la!

I decided that "blenderizing" it was the quickest and most effective way to achieve smooth beautiful paint so I put on some rubber gloves and went to stripping the berries off the vines.

 I blenderized it till it was super smoooooth.

 I put it in a pretty container until I can figure out what to paint with this amazing color!

Can someone make me a dress in this color plllleeease!

To preserve the color and extend it's shelf life (it will eventually mold), add a bit of salt and vinegar to your pokeberry ink.

Because this paint is toxic, sadly I can't let L paint with it until he's much older, with my supervision, gloves and a paintbrush.  However, this did inspire me to let L make his own homemade paint with non toxic berries (blueberries, strawberries, blackberries).

See his Edible Berry Painting

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No Sew Bean Bags

I have a sewing machine but HATE to use it. I've been wanting to make little bean bags for Lawson ( I've even bought the felt for this project a long time ago) but was dreading breaking out the sewing machine.

I saw Fabric Glue at Walmart and immediately thought of the bean bags.

what you need

Fabric

Fabric Glue

Something to fill the bags (beans, corn, etc)

Ours are filled with deer corn because I have a ton and needed to use it

what you do

1. cut your fabric to the size and shape you want your bags

2. glue the fabric together but leave a space for filling the bag

3. let it dry for a few hours

4. fill your bags and glue the small opening closed

5. let it dry

EASY AS CAKE

 

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Colored Tape Yogurt Cups

I've been loving colored tape lately. We recently did a COLORED TAPE COLLAGE and since then i've been finding all sorts of ways to put colored tape to use.

I've been saving our yogurt cups for a while now, just waiting for inspiration to strike. 

I recently redid L's bedroom and he now has shelves and lots of cubby holes. I want his room to be a place where his imagination and creativity can run away with him...so all of his cubby holes are filled with different materials, fabrics, toys, nature objects..etc. He finds all sorts of ways to play with everything together, or separately. One of my favorite things is to give him lots of "THINGS to put THINGS in"... small wooden boxes, cups, baskets, etc. This keeps things more organized but he also loves opening up things and discovering whats inside!

So, the yogurt cups are perfect for this, however, I wanted to decorate them more.

Thats where the colored tape came in!

Right now they are housing his shape and color buttons, but he also loves to use them in his kitchen area while he's "cooking"

 

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