Olympic Glove Love

I saw THESE Spirit Fingers

a while back,

and knew I wanted to make some for my girlies.

But I needed a good reason-

a reason that they would need to cheer someone on.

Well, cheering on the good old USA

during the Sochi Olympics

seemed like a great time for these

Spirit Fingers,

so I whipped up a couple of pairs.

Here's how I did it:

1.  I gathered up three different colors of yarn.

Mine were also different textures,

to give the pom poms an "artsy" feel.

 2.  Using all three strands of yarn,

I wrapped them around two of my fingers 

five times.

 3.  I then cut the three yarn stands

off of their yarn balls

and slipped the loop of yarn off of my fingers.

 4.  After laying the yarn loop on to of a single piece of yarn...

...I tied the single strand around the middle of the loop.

 5.  I then used scissors to cut apart the loops

on either side of the knot...

 ...and trimmed the yarn until I had the look

I wanted for the pom pom.

6.  After I made ten pom poms,

I used the tail from the single strand tied around the loop

to sew each pom pom onto separate fingers of the gloves.

There ya have it!

Spirit Fingers to use during all of those

"USA!  USA!  USA!"

Olympic chants! 

***

Linking up at the

Olympic Activities and Crafts Linky Party

Olympic Shrinky Dink Swag

This past week,

the kiddos and I

(and some friends)

have begun getting ourselves in the

Olympic-spirit.

I hope to share several of these activities

over the next week,

so you too can get in an

"Olympic-kind-of-mood"...

***

After using the Russia PowerPoint

found HERE,

I read the kiddos

The Littlest Matryoshka

by

Corinne Demas Bliss.

We discussed how Sochi is located in Russia,

and how their culture will be a big influence

on the 2014 Winter Olympics.

I then discussed the trading pins

(aka "swag")

that people acquire at events of this nature.

My challenge for the kiddos was to

create their own swag

based upon images that will be used

during this Olympics.

Personally,

I would have created a 

Matryoshka Doll

with an Olympic emblem on it...

...but the kiddos were drawn to the other images

I had found on  line and printed off

for them to look at.

(You can find several of these images,

such as the Sochi mascots and the pictograms

over on my Olympic Pinterest Board.)

The kiddos used colored pencils to trace

them onto Shinky Dink plastic sheets.

Then decorate their images using the colored pencils

and black permanent marker.

(Some of the kiddos created their own original images...)

 We baked the sheet saccording to the package directions.

When they cooled down,

we used E6000 to glue pin backs on the images.

After they dried a bit...

...they kiddos now have their own

swag to wear...

...while watching the Olympics!

***

Linking up

with

History and Geography

and the

Olympic Activities and Crafts Linky Party

Back-to-School Bookworms

For the past few years,

our neighborhood has hosted a

"Back-to-School Breakfast"

in an effort to get the kiddos

up and out of bed

and excited for the new school year.

I have provided a craft at all of these celebrations.

(You can see the Pencil Toppers we made in 2010

by clicking HERE.)

This year's craft was inspired by

JoAnn Fabric and Craft Store-

I taught the kiddos how to make my version of...

...Book Worms!

Supplies:

Pip cleaners

Buttons

Pony Beads

Craft glue

Googly eyes

Step 1:

 Decide what color of pipe cleaner you want for the worm's body

and  style of button you want for the worm's head.

Step 2:

 Push the pipe cleaner

through one of the holes of the button.

Step 3:

 Push the pipe cleaner back through

a different button hole.

Step 4:

Twist the small section of pipe cleaner

you looped through the button holes

over and around the rest of the pipe cleaner.

Step 5:

 Thread the pipe cleaner

with pony beads

to decorate the worm's body.

Step 6:

 To close off the end,

leave some of the pipe cleaner un-beaded,

and pull up the last pony bead a bit.

Loop the end of the pipe cleaner

over the extra pony bead...

 ...and twist it around the extra bit of pipe cleaner...

...to create a close off tail end.

Step 7:

Use craft glue to secure eyes on the button face

and you have yourself a book worm!

I loved watching the creative minds

of the kiddos at the breakfast...

They came up with all different kinds of book worms-

not one was the same!

Despicable Me 2 Week: Evil Minion Target Practice

After seeing

Despicable Me 2,

I KNEW we had to somehow include the...

...the Evil Purple Minions in our week of

learning fun.

So,

I was inspired to create a game

based on the idea of air pressure when I found...

...these air rocket launchers at Wal-Mart

in the clearance section.

I then bought some purple cups at

(where else)

The Dollar Tree...

...and purchased

THESE Minion goggles printouts

to create...

...a cup tower of

Evil Minions.

(I had to color the inside of the goggles

purple since the originals are yellow,

as well as added parts of a fluffy purple pipe cleaner

to the back of the cups.)

The kiddos then practiced the power of air pressure

by firing their launchers at the tower,

trying to knock down as many minions

as they could in the process.

Now,

if I had been on top of my game,

I also would have made the kiddos watch

The Magic School Bus Goes on Air

so we could have deepened our knowledge 

about air pressure.

But alas,

I was not thinking far enough ahead

to secure a couple of this 

Magic School Bus episode.

Hopefully, though, I will soon be able

to purchase...

...The Magic School Bus:

The Complete Series

soon, so I will never find myself missing out

on furthering the kiddos' education.

(In fact, it is on sale right now over on Amazon-

Woo-hoo!)

Since the kiddos did not knock down many minions

with the air rocket launches,

I let them get out the balls

and use their own force to knock down to tower-

just like we did during out

Monsters University Monster Game Day.

In fact,

Little Wild Man found the 

Mike Wazowski cups

we used during that week

and created...

...a gigantic Mike/Minion tower to knock over!

Tomorrow,

I am gonna show ya what rubber gloves

had to do with our

Despicable Me 2 Week,

so please come back and visit!

Christmas in July (Craftaholics Anonymous Homemade Gift Exchange)

I decided to take the plunge and participate in

Craftholics Anonymous'

Handmade Gift Exchange Summer 2013.

I have been getting my crafty on

in recent months,

so this seemed like a great activity to participate in-

not only to get great ideas from someone else,

but to also give away some of the crafty goodies

from my Etsy shop,

WonderYarn!

Since I had a lot of Christmas cards made up,

I decided to make a 

"Christmas in July" themed gift pack.

(And since my partner's name is Holly,
I am HOPING she will enjoy the irony...)

The package included:

*A variety of handmade Christmas cards

(Here's a closer look...)

*A Christmas colored scarflette

(These colors always remind me of something a

Who from Whoville would wear in

The Grinch...)

*A matching yarn brooch for the scarflette

*Another yarn brooch,

in Winter White...

...which I packaged in a mini Christmas stocking

(And no, I did not make the stocking!) ;0)

 I explained the theme of my package

 with a handmade Summery-colored 

Christmas card...

..and packed everything together with some red tinsel.

And to give a "warning tot eh recipient... 

...I drew a Christmas Tree on the front

of the package.

I hope all these items put her in a

Christmas mood,

inspiring her to get a head start on her

Christmas crafting,

which I know I should be doing right now...

;0)

*************************************

Check out what other crafters 

have pulled together over at the

 Handmade Gift Exchange Summer 2013 link up...