An Easy and Clean Art Project for a Toddler

I love to create. While I wouldn’t consider myself an artist, my love of creating my own art projects began when I was little and continues to this day. I love to scrapbook, make greeting cards, hair bows, sew, party decor and more – I love to create. Nature or nurture, I will never be sure, but I do know that my mom nurtured this, umm, talent in me, and I plan to do the same with my daughter. In fact, I look forward to doing the same with my daughter.

At two, my daughter’s art projects mainly consist of coloring (scribbling), but I use her “art” to create Thank You Notes, Birthday Cards and more. So, when I came across an opportunity to receive a gift pack of Glue Dots from Twitter Moms, projects with my daughter flashed through my mind.

Our first project was a 4th of July project for Mimi. (Mimi hosts a big 4th of July party.) This was a fun project to do with her, and so simple to set up. While ours was 4th of July, you could do this for any holiday or just with fun shapes!

Mommy Tip – Google the shape(s) you are looking for with “outline,” and use the images tab. For example, I Googled “Star Outline” (images) and found a perfect star shape, which I proceeded to print, cut and use as a template for my shapes. You can find pretty much any shape you are looking for.

After cutting out red and blue stars, I let my daughter color a white sheet of paper and the stars. Finally, I helped her put the glue dots on the backs of the stars and let her place it on the page anywhere she wanted. She thought it was so cool that they stayed! It was adorable.

For this project I used the large, permanent Glue Dots. They also come in mini and in repositionable. Not only did the Glue Dots eliminate mess – I am so not interested in using glue with a toddler – they hold well too. (I’ve used Glue Dots for my own projects in the past!)

In a matter of a few minutes (minus cutting out the stars) she had a masterpiece to present to Mimi for the 4th of July.

Learn more about Glue Dots on Facebook to see how they can be used in your family projects.

Disclaimer – I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and Glue Dots blogging contest to be eligible to receive a $30 gift card. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

I Pulled off the Tag…

In so many ways, my daughter is a beautiful reflection of me. She makes me smile when I catch her doing something just like I once did or enjoying things I once enjoyed – like wanting to wipe her hands as soon as they get messy, but every once in a while I appreciate her for being her.  She is a toddler, but she is growing into her own little person.

Tonight I had to take a deep breath, hold back my own quirks and smile at her being her own person. Several months ago I gave my daughter several of my Bennie Babies. In order to understand the next part, you have to know about a quirk I have had since I was a child. I like to leave the tags on my stuffed animals. I don’t know, I realize it is strange, but I have always left my tags on (well, at least since I was old enough to stop my mom). So, when I gave her the Bennie Babies, they of course still had their tags on. I prepared myself for something to happen to the Bennie Babies in the hands of a toddler, but I didn’t really expect her to specifically bring them to me and ask to have me take them off.

First she brought me a cat – “eh eh eh” – pulling on the tag and holding it out for me. I asked her if she wanted me to take the tag off, she said yes. I asked her what she should say and she said, “Peas tag.” I took a deep breath and pulled off the tag. A few minutes later, she brought me the bear, “Peas tag.” So, I pulled the tag off the bear too. It hurt a bit, like a band-aid, but I pulled quickly and the smile on her face and the “Anx” she gave me were enough to get me past the removal of the tags from my old buddies…