School of handprint fish!

School of Hand Print Fish!

We kicked off our "school year" with this cute canvas painting which we have named, "School is for Fish". A phrase we herd from a unschooling friend not too long ago.



Using a white canvas, which I purchased with my favorite 40% off coupon from Michaels, paint it blue with either acrylic or tempura paint. I used a foam brush but any will work. You can either keep it solid blue, or did like I've shown above and make wavy lines to give some depth.

Paint your kiddos hands with the colors of their choice, keeping in mind the base of their palm you will draw a face. Press down and your pretty much done! I painted on some seaweed and light blue bubbles but it looked great without that too.

This is a great keepsake gift too, my MIL has been eying it ever since we hung it!

No Sew Tutu with Video How To!

Tutus have become very popular for little girls to dress up in, to wear while they play and dance around, and why not? What could be more fun than a fabulous, frothy tutu to wear while you twirl?

Tutus can be made in your little one's favourite colours for dress up fun, to embellish her Halloween costume, or even worn over pants. Tutu much fun!!

Boutiques sell toddler tutus from $30 to more than $60 each, but I will show you how to make one just as cute and frou-frou for less than $10!!

What is a Virtual Event?

A virtual event or a VE is an event posted on the calendar that you do not have to leave your home to attend. They can be anything from a recipe that is within a theme that is sent out weekly to Yes rsvp's to lesson plans to be done at home with your kids when you can.  These are relaxed events, when you rsvp Yes to them you will get a reminder and instructions if not already listed (or the recipe/lesson plan).  Please feel free to share with the group how your VE went!

Make your own tutu

Supplies:
Ruler

Scissors

3 yards of 1 1/2" wide satin ribbon

4 yards of tulle (this amount varies as to how full you want your tutu
to be but this is a good start point!)

The tulle should be folded in half already, now fold in half again, and again until it looks like a long tube - make sure to not get any wrinkle in there! Cut off one end to make sure you have a straight edge. Cut in 3-4" strips. It doesn't have to be exact but its good to keep it consistant. then just keep going down the long piece until there is no more tulle left to cut.

If you are using ribbon you will need to make two knots (I was able to measure my daughters and where the ribbon met, that is where I tied it off. If you do not have a live model you will need their waist measurements. It seems that 20" is pretty basic. Find the mid point, say their waist is 20 inches, the mid point would be 10 so you would tie the ribbon off at five inches from each side of the mid point.) You do this so the tulle stays in place. Have an additional 20"s of ribbon on each side of your measured waist knots for tieing your tutu later.

• Starting at one knot we will now tie the pieces on to the ribbon. You are going to do a basic loop knot so you should have one side of the tulle open
• Place your hand through the loop part of the tulle and grab the remaining tulle and pull through
• Pull to tighten into a knot, but don't pull too hard or you will tear the tulle
• Scrunch the tulle pieces together as tight as you would like, the tighter you scrunch them the fuller the skirt.

Just keep tying the tulle on until you reach the other knot. At that point if it is scrunched enough for you then you are done, if not scrunch the pieces together more and keep tying. I like to scrunch them just a little bit, that way as the girls grow the mom can undo on of the ribbon knots and unscrunch the tulle so it can grow with her.

You can add to this whatever you want. If using elastic you will need to make it a few inches smaller than the actual waste size and just sew the ends together then start applying the tulle.

Video Instructions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7aSPMEn7S0