July 4th Paper Rosettes

I'm always looking for a diversion when I'm in the passsenger seat during a long road trip. Sometimes I browse through a stack of magazines. Last year, I made these pinwheels in the car on the way to our Fourth of July beach destination.

And of course for a car trip, I don't want to be juggling a dozen different craft supplies, which makes this craft a winner. Three (cheap!) materials needed:  a roll of crepe paper streamer, tissue paper and pipe cleaners.

Cut a length of the streamer that will be the background piece, about 9 inches. Then cut a strip of the tissue paper in the same length, but slightly more narrow so that the red will show on either side of the tissue.

Fold the two strips together, accordian style for the length of the two strips. Pinch in the middle and twist an inch or two of the pipe cleaner around the center. Finally, fan out the folds so that the edges of the top and bottom meet on each side to form a circle.

You may want to use glue dots or a glue stick to keep the rosette open, but if you don't mind your rosettes not being a perfect circle, then you're done!

My thanks to Tricia at Oh So Crafty for the inspiration of these rosettes. She linked her rosettes together to hang as a 4th of July banner. I just made a big bunch and scattered them around the table like confetti.

Also, hers were assembled with 3 strips of material (yay, a fellow recycler!) trimmed with pinking shears, but I took a shortcut with a tissue paper that had a white background and blue foil circles.

Star Spangled Headband

Today I have my first guest blogger. My daughters. While I was taking a shower this morning, my two girls were transforming an ordinary elastic headband into something a LOT less mundane. Very simply, they just tacked on all sorts of other mini clips they had on hand: stars, butterflies, rainbows, Boots the monkey, glitter clips and ribbons.

When I came out from the shower to take a look, I told them how impressed I was, and M told me that I should blog about it. Well, since our trip up to NY has kept me away from regular posting, I figured it's worth getting back on track with something!

So, feast your eyes on these beauties, so proud of their creation and the idea to post it for all to admire!

Hip, Hip, Hula Hoops - Hooray!

Our county library has a great children's program, and this week they threw a "Beach Party Kick Off" to introduce this year's summer reading program. Regrettably, I did not have my camera with me to document the librarians in floral leis and grass skirts hula hooping to a Beach Boys CD.

After enjoying this exhibition, I figured it was the perfect time to get the girls a couple hula hoops, but I was not in the mood to shell out $10-15 for a couple plastic circles at Toys R Us. So I checked out my trusty Dollar Tree which has a giagantic luau/summer party section featured this month.

I was not disappointed: Hula hoops for a dollar. And not some flimsy cheapo hula hoops. They even have those ball bearings inside that make the fun swish sound as it rotates. Yay!

My six year old had a style all her own. I have NEVER seen anyone take her approach, and with seven grown nieces and nephews and a few years in childcare, I've been around a lot of little ones. Big fan of originality. Take a peek: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik3Opn3BlYo

They were actively playing with their hula hoops for close to an hour. They even broke a sweat! If the hippy spinning of your hula hoop is too monotonous, you could also try to

• Flip it up and over your head to use it like a jump rope.
• Throw it in the air (baton style) and try to catch it on your arm.
• Stand it up on its edge vertically and roll it, like they did in olden days. See whose goes the furthest.
• Lay it on the ground and have a toss game, making your kid(s) take a step away from it after each successful throw.

OR

You can spin it around your neck, the way my 4 year old mastered. How do you hula hoop?