Alex Acres: Lemongrass Sugar Scrub

Alex Acres: Lemongrass Sugar Scrub: Like I mentioned in an earlier post, Lemongrass is my favorite scent right now.  I can't get enough of it!

I LOVE this scrub!  It is made with a few ingredients which makes it quick and easy to make.  As somone with dry skin, especially this time of year, the coconut oil used in this scrub leaves my skin soft when I get out of the shower.

I posted the recipe on my other blog:  Alexacres.blogspot.com.  Try it out!  I'm sure you will love it!

finger puppets

After looking at library books about making finger puppets, I decided to come up with my own, kid-friendly way to make them.  The books I found involved sewing and/or using a sewing machine.  I wanted it to be simple and easy, so here goes:

materials needed:
felt pieces- any color- I used brown, black, pink, orange
scissors
glue gun
feathers, fur, tiny pom poms or any other items to decorate the finger puppets

The first step was cutting out the body.  The top pictures is a simple template.  I folded the bottom straight edge over and used the glue gun to glue it down.  Then I glued the sides together, forming the body of the finger puppet.

On this puppet, I left the top open and put some white fur felt in the top.  I meant to make a bunny, but it really turned out to be more like a monster.  If you wanted you could put feathers or pipe cleaners in the top too.  After putting in the fur, I glued the top together.

Then I used other felt colors to make the eyes, nose, bow tie, ears, etc. 

mosaic using air-dry clay

We have been thinking of different ways we can use up our air dry clay.  Since we have a bunch of beads we thought we would try a mosaic.

The first step was to use a rolling pin to roll out a piece of air-dry clay.  My daughter used the ruler to make straight edges.

Then she used her beads and pressed them into the clay.  FYI-- I thought we rolled our air-dry clay a little thin.  If it were thicker, my daughter could press the beads into the clay a little deeper, therefore preventing the beads from falling off after the clay dries.

This is her very own creation (before the clay dried), a little kitty with a lot of stars in the sky.  :)

Weaving with construction paper

Since we have been in a construction paper crafty mood, I decided to show my daughter how to weave using construction paper.  I saw an art teacher doing this with some of her students and thought this might be pretty easy for my first grade daughter to do.  I showed her how to cut lines down the length of the paper and then cut strips from a different color piece of construction paper.  She weaved them in and out, alternating the starting point.  She had a little trouble with this, which I helped her with.

Snowman

My daughter and I have been using up some of our construction paper.  Here is a cute little snowman my daughter made.  It was really easy for her to do on her own.  I made one first and showed her what to do and then she did it on her own. 

Snowflakes

This is a such a fun and easy activity to do with any child.  My daughter is now in first grade and is getting pretty good with the scissors.  Here are a few of the snowflakes her and I made one day after school this past week.

More fun with toilet paper rolls

I got this idea off of pinterest!  My daughter, who saves everything under the sun, had about a dozen of these toilet paper rolls saved up.  So we decorated them with markers, but the ends off to make them tilt a little (I know it's hard to tell from this picture), glued the tubes to another piece of cardboard, let it dry, and then put some pencils in them. 

I thought they turned out pretty cute!  Of course not as nice as the posting I found on Pinterest.