A Fun Craft for Friday

T.G.I.F. - which actually bears no significance to me anymore, since I work on weekends. Oh well. It's a nice thought anyways.

So this morning, I woke at 5:45am and met some friends over at Wirth Park to work out. Yes, me. The queen of sleeping til noon. It was really great. Every time I get up early and work out, I am amazed at the things I accomplish. Now if only I could make this a lifestyle, and not a trend. I'm going to try. After the workout, I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things for the farmer's lunch, got home and started to tackle the aftermath of Jack's birthday party. I've actually gotten 3 loads of laundry done, the 1st load of dishes in the dishwasher, cleaned up all the garbage and took it curbside, and found some time for a fun craft with Jack and it's only 11:00 am! On an average day, I would be just rolling out of bed...sad-and slightly pathetic-I know.

I remembered this craft from my childhood-doing it once at a babysitters house. Jack got a giant bucket of sidewalk chalk for his birthday and I was instantly reminded of this craft, and I even had all the supplies at home-which almost never happens. So here you have it-little girls would probably have much more fun with this, but boys can do it too

Sand Art Ice Cream Drinks
Ever made one of those sand art jar things? This is sort of like that, but much cheaper than colored sand.

Supplies: Salt (I used Sugar today because I had almost no salt-but in the future will use salt because it's much cheaper - you can get the off brand for around .30/container), foam ball (cut in half), foam bowls, sidewalk chalk-assorted colors, clear glass/cup/jar, bendy straw and hot glue.

1. Color your salt. You'll need a foam bowl for each color you want to make. Pour the bowl about 1/2 full of salt and swirl the chalk around the bowl until you get your desired shade. It might take a few minutes depending on how dark you want your salt.

2. Layer the colored salt in your container. Make as many colors of salt as you want in your little ice cream and then alternate layering the salt in your clear container. I only had plain plastic cups at home, but you can use a glass-champagne flute or wine glass, even a mason jar would make a cute container.



3. Cut straw and foam ball. Depending on the size of your container, you'll need to find a foam ball with an appropriate circumference. Cut the foam ball in half (so effectively, with one ball you can make two sand art crafts) and cut a bendy straw so that when you insert it about 1 inch into the foam it looks as though you've got a straw in your ice cream.

4. Attach the "Icre Cream" to your "Drink". With hot glue, use a line of glue around the top of the container and attach the foam ball with straw. And voila! you've got yourself a really cute sand art-esque craft!

Jack had tons of fun coloring the salt and even helped to layer it in the cup. Once we got to the "ice cream" foam ball part, I pretty much took over, but older kids can probably handle the whole thing! An inexpensive way to spend some quality time with your little ones-not to mention a fun way to use up random craft supplies you have laying around. Feel free to "jazz" up your drink, if you have a red jewel or little pompon ball you can glue it to the top of the foam to look like a cherry. If you don't have a foam ball- or have a boy whose less than enthusiastic about making a girly looking ice cream drink, use old soda bottles, or shaped containers-for smaller containers use a funnel for the salt when layering. the possibilities are truly endless.

I'm starting to get sore from my crack-of-dawn workout so I should probably get up and get moving again. Work tonight might be a challenge...but I need these shifts to help pay down the gianormous credit card bill the farmer's going to get for the carnival I threw the other day. Whoops.

Stay tuned for carnival pictures. I still have to get my house in order, then I'll be a blogging maniac.

Til next time on the farm,

The Farmer's Wife