The Heart Project: AHA Benefit & Free Gift!

 

I'm really excited to be part of a terrific group of bloggers who have united to raise money for the American Heart Association.  Jamie over at Hands On: As We Grow has worked tirelessly on this project and deserves great big kudos!

Over 70 bloggers from around the world have contributed photographs and links to 100+ heart projects available in one incredible ebook! These projects are all kid related and they are CUTE!!!  If you donate just $5 to the American Heart Association, you get this ebook FREE!  What a great way to contribute to an important cause and get yourself a little something in return too!  You can get your ebook (available during the month of February only) by clicking here:

Here's a sneak peak:  

AND Craftprojectideas.com is contributing $1 for every ebook sold this month! That means in addition to your $5 donation by purchasing the The Heart eBook, Craftprojectideas.com will donate another $1 on your behalf (up to $500!)! We'd love for you to stop by their facebook page and give them a big thank you!  You can find them here: http://www.facebook.com/Craftprojectideas

If you'd rather have the printed soft cover version ($20 donation) you can go here:

US $20.00

Order the Printed Version

If you'd rather simply donate, of course we'd love that too! You can click this button:

Here is what we've raised so far:



There are also some fabulous giveaways running from now until Valentine's Day:



And some fabulous auctions:

Fundraiser Auctions:

♥  All proceeds of each auction will go to the AHA  ♥

Melissa & Doug -  4 Trunki with Teddy Bear Auctions!

1. Trunki with Teddy Bear, ends Feb 10
2. Trunki with Teddy Bear, ends Feb 10
3. Trunki with Teddy Bear, ends Feb 10
4. Trunki with Teddy Bear, ends Feb 10

Fudoo Boards - 3 Fudoo Board Kits for Auction!

1. Fudoo Board Kit, ends Feb 10
2. Fudoo Board Kit, ends Feb 10
3. Fudoo Board Kit, ends Feb 10

And last (but not least!) is the list of participants:

hands on : as we grow	♥	A Little Learning for Two	♥	Among Many Blessings
Angelique Felix	♥	At Home with Ali	♥	Broken Treasures
Busy at Home	♥	Busy Kids Happy Mom	♥	Carrie Saindon's Photo Journey
Child Central Station	♥	Classified: Mom	♥	Classroom Magic
Creative with Kids	♥	Creativity My Passion	♥	Critters and Crayons
De Tout et de Rien	♥	Dilly-Dali Art	♥	Dinosaurs & Octopuses
Excited 2 Learn	♥	Hand Over the Cookies	♥	Handprint & Footprint Art
Happy Hooligans	♥	Heart Journey	♥	Imagination Soup
Jamie's Jumble	♥	Kitchen Counter Chronicles	♥	Kreative Resources
Let Kids Create	♥	Little Illuminationss	♥	Living Montessori Now
Loudness of the Lambs	♥	Love and Lollipops	♥	Mama, hocemo nesto da pravimo
Mama Pea Pod	♥	Mama Smiles	♥	MemeTales
Messy Kids	♥	Mindful Meanderings	♥	Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas
Mommy Labs	♥	Mommy Perks	♥	Mum Paints Lives
Mummy Mummy Mum	♥	My Creative Family	♥	NurtureStore
One Artsy Mama	♥	Peace Love & Rainbows	♥	Play Dr Mom
Putti Prapancha	♥	Rainbows within Reach	♥	Reading Confetti
Ready. Set. Read!	♥	Red Ted Art	♥	Sense of Wonder
Share & Remember	♥	Stacy Molter	♥	Sun Hats & Wellie Boots
Teach Preschool	♥	The Artful Child	♥	The Chocolate Muffin Tree
The Craft Barn	♥	The Educators' Spin on It	♥	The Golden Gleam
The Imagination Tree	♥	The Iowa Farmer's Wife	♥	The Joy of My Life
The Kids Fun Review	♥	The Outlaw Mom Blog	♥	The Preschool Toolbox
The Seeds Network	♥	Toddler Approved

Rainbow Snowflakes and Color "Crawling"!

We had so much fun with the salt letters that we also made some salt snowflakes to go with our book Hooray for Snow! It's about three little squirrels eager to play in the snow.  Papa doesn't want to join them because it's too cold and Mama has too much work to do.  After they convince Papa to come out, he discovers that sledding is too much fun to worry about being cold and by the end of the book they convince Mama to join them.  It's a simple book celebrating the joy of playing in the snow.  A perfect winter story for preschoolers.

For our craft, I drew a simple snowflake design on construction paper and Drew traced it with glue.

We sprinkled coarse salt over the glue and shook off the excess.  They were so much fun that I made some too.

Then a few days later, I saw this cool color web activity over at Tot Treasures.   We made another batch of snowflakes and then used an eyedropper to drop some colored water (just food coloring and water) onto the end of each spoke (don't know what else to call it) and watched as the color "crawled" along the salt line.  It was really cool! (This worked well on poster board because it didn't soak up as much water as the paper did.)

Usually, Lainey would rather color with her markers than do a more structured craft project, but she got in on the action this time.  As you can see, she is loyal to the color red.  Very loyal.

For this one, I dropped food coloring directly onto the salt:

And, of course, Drew had to do his beloved D!



You might like these 25 other winter books and projects too:

Linking to Type A, ABC and 123, The Educators' Spin On It , Ginger Snap Crafts, 

Crayon Freckles,   Red Ted Art, Playing with Words 365 , Bear Rabbit Bear,  733, stART, Link it up Thursday, It's Playtime!, Cachey Mama's Classroom, Homeschooling on the Cheap, Happy Hour Projects

Sassy Sites! 

Sun Scholars 

One Artsy Mama

Jiggler Waste = Valentine Crazy Jello

We went to a birthday party recently and Drew was introduced to jigglers.  He. fell. in. love.  So we made some Valentine jigglers to go with our book, Valentine Surprise.

Lily wants to make the perfect Valentine heart for her mommy, but each day something goes wrong.  On Monday it's too pointy and Tuesday it's too round, etc. Finally it's Valentine's Day and she strings all the imperfect hearts together to present to her mother.  Of course, her mother loves them and loves Lily because her heart is perfect.  This was a good book to go with our treats because our hearts most certainly didn't turn out perfect.

I started with big boxes of strawberry and black cherry Jello.  I was looking for the watermelon to make pink but they didn't have it.  I chose black cherry thinking it would make a rich romantic red.  I was wrong.  Black cherry actually turns out pretty much black.  Go figure. 

We had a lot of scraps left after cutting out our jiggler shapes, so I wanted to use them for something.

This recipe is loosely (and sloppily) based on The Food Librarian's broken glass jello. I took the scraps, chopped them up, and put them in a small glass dish. 

Then I sprinkled 2 packets of Knox unflavored gelatin in 1/2 cup of cold water and let it sit for a few minutes.  Next, I added 1 1/2 cups of boiling water and stirred until it was dissolved.  Finally, I stirred in a 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk and let it cool before I poured it over.  I was going to cut it into squares but I couldn't resist the lure of the heart shaped cutters again...

The problem?  More scraps!  :)

Problem solved!

Linking to Everything Under the Moon , DIY Home Sweet Home , The Southern Institute, Home Savvy A to Z,   The Gunny Sack, Reasons to Skip the Housework, 733, Mrs. Fox's Sweets, Mom on Timeout , Gluesticks,   Scraps of Life, Delicate Construction, Six Sisters' Stuff , I Heart Nap Time , Michelle Paige , Itsy Bitsy Paper, The CSI Project

Valentine Story Props

I made some quick story props for two of our Valentine's Day books this week.  They're both counting books.  The first is One Heart: A Valentine Counting Book.  A little girl puts one heart in her pocket, gives two hearts to her parents, three hearts to her kittens, etc.  All the way up to ten when she goes back to one and gives the special heart she put in her pocket to her teacher.  It's a simple rhyming book that's perfect for preschoolers.

The second counting book is also a fun rhyming one.  It's called 10 Valentine Friends.  Ten little friends work on making special Valentines.  Their Valentines are personalized with dinosaurs, gorillas, princesses, etc.  I like this book because there is a column on each page where you can watch the Valentines stack up as each one is added.  Excellent counting practice and fun too!

The props are pretty self-explanatory, but I did take some pictures.  I started with craft foam cut into 10 heart shapes (I added some faces too) and 5 pipe cleaners cut in half.

I glued the hearts to the pipe cleaners with a hot glue gun.

And twisted them around a marker.

Stick them on your fingers and you've got some perfect story props for Valentine's Day counting books! My cute little assistant held up the right number of hearts for each page in the Valentine's books.

Linking to Read Explore Learn, The Crafty Nest, Toys in the Dryer , Shine On Fridays , Sassy Sites , The Play Academy , Family Frolics , Sharing Saturday, Six Sisters' Stuff, I Can Teach My Child , I Heart Nap Time , The Girl Creative , Sew Can Do,   Monday Madness, delicateCONSTRUCTION, Adventures in Mommy Land, Tip Junkie,   Junk in their Trunk

Snow Spray Paint

Turns out I am a big chicken.  Back when we were doing our advent calendar, I had planned to do splatter painting with the book Is That You, Winter?  It's a cute story with great illustrations.  Old Man Winter wakes up crabby.  After he does his job of spreading snow and cold, he wonders who he is going to all this trouble for.  Then he stumbles and a little girl takes care of him.  By the end of the book, he's happy knowing who is enjoying all his hard work.  The art is all done in a messy splatter style that's a lot of fun to look at.

Instead of doing splatter painting, we took it outdoors and did a little spray painting instead.  I mixed some finger paint with water, just enough to tint the water.

I considered using food coloring but I wanted something that wouldn't stain their jackets or mittens.  This wasn't as big a hit as I thought it would be but they had some fun with it.

You might like these other 25 winter books and crafts for kids:

Linking to 733, stART, These Peas Taste Funny, Bear Rabbit Bear, It's Playtime!, Homeschooling on the Cheap

Sun Scholars

Living Life Intentionally  

Mama Pea Pod