Our Leaf Family Book

Like I've said before, I have an obsession with Children's Books.  A new fun family activity for us is creating our own version of our beloved favorites. 
With the beautiful Fall leaves falling and Bella's collection getting larger and larger, we decided to make a book with all our leaves.  Well, some of them.  hehe  There isn't a book big enough to host all of the gorgeous leaves Bella has found on our walks. 
A book that I've always loved and felt really encourages the imagination within each of us is, Leaf Man, by Lois Ehlert.  It is illustrated with real leaves which form different characters in the book.  This makes it an easy copycat idea to do with leaves you find on your "Leaf Hunt." 

First you need to gather all your leaves and get all the needed supplies together too. 

supplies:  glue, googly eyes, blank paper and marker or I used black puff paint.

  

Think about your characters and begin putting your leaves in shape. 

Make sure everyone is having fun:) 

Here is our final product!

Don't forget to add your copyright date so you'll never forget when you made this wonderful book of memories.

If you don't have the original book and are not looking to buy one, you could always rent from the library.   This was a fun project to do as a farewell to Fall and hello to Old Man Winter.  

Please, remember to leave your thoughts and ideas.  THANK YOU 

Talking Turkey

Well, we are still coming off the High of Halloween and looking forward to Christmas but I don't like rushing holidays.  Every holiday deserves its time and Thanksgiving isn't much fun for little ones, unless you have fun with crafts and activities. 
We really dove into the Turkey theme and made lots of fun art for decorations during our Thursday feast. 

This is very simple to make with a brown lunch bag. 

Trace your adorable little hand and cut out the Turkey's "feathers".  Glue them on the back of the bag with the folded section facing forward.  That will become the puppet part. 

My daughter loves it and we even named it after her Halloween obsession, Spookley the Square Pumpkin. 

 We have a lot of family out of town so this was a nice Thanksgiving Card for all of Bella's wonderful grandparents. 

It was made with her hand and the poem is too sweet not to share. 

Begin by painting their hand brown and fingers different colors for the feathers. 

Add eyeballs, beak, gobbler, and feet.  This is the finished turkey.  Finally either type or write out the poem.

                  This isn't just a Turkey,
                  As anyone can see.
                  I made it with my hand,
                   Which is a part of me.
                   It comes with lots of love
                   Especially to say,
                   I hope you have a very
                   Happy Thanksgiving Day.

Of course we had to have fun with food too.  These adorable acorns are made with "bite size" vanilla cookies, chocolate kisses and chocolate icing.  Just use the icing to "glue" the pieces together and add a stem on top.  They were super yummy and huge hit with the hubby and Bella Bug. 

THat's a full mouth of deliciousness. 

Hats are always a must for little ones.  This was such a success that we had friends putting in orders for their Bella-made Turkey hat.  THese are very simple to make and Bella had such a great time making it.

We used watercolors to paint the plate of feathers.  Bella loves painting and watercolor paints have lots of unique colors.  I precut everything and Bella just got to glue the pieces together. 

The final product is really cute and fun to wear. 

The last thing we made is this cute Placemat for the big supper.  Again, we traced her hands and glued them behind Bella's footprint.  You could switch it up and put everyone's name on their placemat instead of or in addition to "Happy Turkey Day".

Thanksgiving Day is still a day away which leaves plenty of time for y'all to make some cute crafts for your guests during Thanksgiving Dinner.  Many of these can even be done while watching the parade or waiting for the bird to finish cooking. 

AS ALWAYS...please leave your comments and share your fun!!!!