A Sticky, Crafty Weekend at Our House

This weekend I decided to whip out an old book I bought years before I had kids called, The Ultimate Book of Kids Concoctions, by John E. Thomas & Danita Page.  

http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Book-Kid-Concoctions-Wacky/dp/0966108809/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318186467&sr=8-1

I dug through the recipes to see what ingredients we had on hand.  The first one I found was called Magic Muck.  It requires:

3/4 cup cornstarch

1/3 cup water

5-7 drops food coloring

Directions:

1) Mix water and food coloring together in a small bowl

2) Slowly add cornstarch to water and food coloring mixture.  Do not stir!

Aubrey makin' the muck

3) Let the mixture stand for 2-3 minutes

4) Pick up a handful of Magic Muck and squeeze it until it forms a hard ball.  Open your hand and the Magic Muck will turn from a solid ball back into a liquid

The Magic Muck in it's solid form

Turning into a liquid

Liquid

It was actually really cool.  I had a lot of fun playing with it, too.  Our first attempt it was a little runny and didn't form a hard ball, so I added a little more cornstarch and let it sit for another 3 minutes and then it was perfect.  It is a little messy, but just stay over the bowl or in the kitchen.  It washes off the hands and floor real easy with just water and a little rubbing.

I dug through the recipes and found lots and lots for different kinds of homemade paint.  I had exactly 3 small poster board papers left ... PERFECT!  I decided on a recipe called Sticky Paint:

Ingredients:

2 tbs. light corn syrup

4-6 drops of food coloring

Directions:

1.  Mix corn syrup and food coloring together in a small bowl until well blended

2.  Repeat the above process to create different colors of Sticky Paint

I mixed mine right in each mini muffin tin hole with a toothpick.  Super Grover was there to help fuel the fun.

This stuff is sticky, so be sure to cover your work surface and artist.  This works great for finger paints for small children.  It is safe if they accidently ingest some of their work. 

Aubrey creating her masterpiece

Bayne's Masterpiece

Mom's  Masterpiece

I let them dry over night, but they were still pretty sticky.  I think if I hung them on the fridge I'd find the dog with her tongue glued to the door.  I decided to cover them all with cling wrap (which is my kryptonite, btw.  I so see why Dexter uses that $hit to trap his victims.  Stuff is evil).  Now we can use them as placemats for dinner tonight :)

I also finished up a few little random sewing projects for the kids and I.  I got my hook and eyes sewed onto both my dress and skirt, finished a couple orders, got my fabric art sketches transfered onto heat bond, merged a couple of Bayne's shirts into one, and finally glued the eyeball on Aubrey's elephant applique shirt.  

 Bayne loves a sleeveless shirt, just like his Pops.  He recently ripped his USA flag guitar shirt in a big way right in the front.  He LOVES that shirt, so I promised I'd try to find a way to salvage it.  I found an old long sleeve red shirt in his closet that was a size to small and started pinning, sewing, and snipping away.

I think it will look even cooler when I wash it because all the raw edges of the red will roll up.

All I did was cut the image from the old blue shirt out and then pinned it to the inside of the old shirt.  Then I sewed two straight lines around the entire image parallel to each other to form a frame.  Then I cut out hole in the red, being careful not to cut the blue image underneath.  Cut 1/4 inch from the stitching.  Cut off the collar (I stay stitched around it before I did) and cut off the sleeves.  He seems pretty happy with the outcome!

Aubrey's elephant shirt I had a lot of fun with.  She loves elephants and I love her wearing hearts.  I am experimenting with no sew heat bond.  I am hoping it will stay on for more than a few washes.  I am skeptical, but the Mickey Mouse shirt I made her with the same heat bond has survived one wash so far.  I may end up going over this by hand with embroidery floss.  It's just not on the top of my to-do list at this point.  At least I finally got the eyeball glued on.  This will also be a good experiment to see how long fabric tack will hold in the wash.

My poor little princess isn't feeling too well this weekend.  I figure if we can't have fun outside, than we may as well make the best out of being inside!  Between the boogers, the paint, and the muck, I can without a doubt say that it has been a very sticky, crafty weekend at our house!