Homemade watercolors for kids!

My daughter is 2.5 years old and I have recently introduced her to the wonderfulness of watercolors. She is hilarious. She ends up with more paint on her then she does on the paper which is pretty typical. Like any parent I went to the store and bought her some paints and they were gone in three uses. Pretty typical if you ask me. Since I make alot of stuff for her already, I scowered the internet for a home made recipe that I could use and I found the one below.

To make homemade watercolor paints for kids you will need:
Liquid food coloring,
3 teaspoons of light corn syrup
6 tablespoons of cornstarch
6 tablespoons of baking soda
6 tablespoons of ordinary white vinegar
You will also need several small jar lids to hold the paints. Soda pop lids and foam egg cartons work great for storing paints. For larger containers of a single color, consider using peanut butter jar lids. You will be amazed by the quality of these homemade watercolor paints, and your kids will have more of the colors they use most often.

Begin by combining the cornstarch, baking soda, vinegar, and corn syrup in a bowl. It will fizz and foam at first, but when the mixture stops foaming and fizzing it can be separated into small containers to create various colors. Add as much food coloring as necessary to create the colors you want in the separate containers, and have fun mixing the food coloring to create a rainbow of paints. Allow the finished paints to dry completely, or cover the containers to keep them moist


http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/739741/homemade_watercolor_paints_for_kids.html

I didnt actually wait for the paints to completely dry so My daughter went gung ho on using them. LOL. What a mess. I highly reccomend plastic to cover your table. I got my "tablecloth" that I use at Joanns and you can get as much or as little of the plastic as you want and just using water to hose it off is all the cleanup you need to do. I hang mine on the clothes line and then spray it down, and then leave it to dry. Works well for us. LOL.

 I have some of those miniture muffin pans, and I never use them so I went ahead and filled up the pans with her paint and they are currently sitting on top of my mircowave to dry. It was perfect to keep the paints in and contained. I know that if I had more then one kid trying to paint they would each need their own containers. So This idea dawned on me. For anyone with more then a single kid, try hitting the doller store for ice cube trays and then filling the trays with your newly made paints and letting them dry out a few days before you try painting with the kids. The other nice thing about the ice cube trays is that they have a flat hand holds, and just use a permamnenet marker and write the kids name on there. We hang out with a couple of ladies who are daycare providers and I thought this would be especially great for them, cause they have alot of kids they work with.

So theres something to try and enjoy! My daughter is officially in Love!

Barettes, Clippies and Bows OH MY!

One of the things I have learned how to make recently are clippies and bows. Oh my goodness how fun are these? I have a daughter who has the most gorgeous red hair. Downside to this.......Ok your asking is there really a downside? Yup. With her there is. She wont let me put stuff in her hair 99% of the time and the 1% of the time she does, its usually pulled out before we get out of the car! Heartbraking I know. So heres what I did. Started making them to sell. The reception of them hasnt been that great. The market seems to be inundated with boutique bows and whatnot. And I get it. My philosophy. Keep it cute and the costs low. And thats what I have done. I do my level best to get good deals on my ribbon, even getting hand me downs from people including my mom who probably has enough to circle the globe a few times. I want my customers to be getting a solid item that wont fall apart the next day. And my product tester? My daughter. If it survives her then I know I did good. So all of my bows and clippies (while not the exact ones pictured in my etsy shop and FB page, no need to spread cooties) have been kid tested and me approved. So leave me some feedback and let me know what you think :-)

I really love this one. Great for an adult or a teenager. $4

Now here is something I havent seen ANYWHERE else. The SQUARE korker. Thats right SQUARE! ! You would not believe how much ribbon is in just 1!

$2 small

$3 Medium

$4 Large

$5 piggy set

I call these ones my Micro Korkers. Super small korkers on clips with a decorative center. They range in price from $2.50-$3.50 per set (This one is $3.50.)

These particular ones are $2.50 per set. I have them in a wide variety of styles. I love gingham!

Triple Layer Stacked Bow $3.50

Doppelgänger!

Cheshire and Morgan Best and worst buds since Morgan was born.

In my hunt for good stars to use in my wands I stumbled across a shop on Etsy called http://www.etsy.com/shop/ClickityClack Clickity Clack. Yes they have wonderful stuff, but take a look at their profile image. I had to do a double take cause I thought I was looking at my cat. So in working with Phyllis to figure out what I needed, we talked about our cats. (Yes, I talk about my cats.) Her cat Miss Lydia Lionheart and My Barnabus Day-Lee look almost identical. There are a few difeerences, but WOW. The color of their nose, eyes, and gender are the main differences. Plus they are 2000 miles appart. I find it interesting what you learn when you talk to people. LOL

Barnabus Day-Lee

Miss Lydia Lionheart of Clickity Clack.









Can you see the resemblance? They could be siblings!

Heres the rest of my brood :-)

Simon (black)
Cheshire (orange)
Barney (Tabby)
I call this "Appatizer, Entree and Dessert" All we were missing was the post dinner Cognac.

Oh Wait, There she is. Sweety playing chess. She is Barneys sister.

I have as house of hams!

Liftoff!

Its amazing what networking can do for a business! By meeting some wonderful crafters and like minded women my Facebook Fan Page for Ravenfire Designs has taken off! I have gone from 70 fans to 544! I am extatic! i dont think there are words to explain how happy I am. I have met some wonderful people and bought some awesome products while networking. I want to thank all of the wonderful people who have liked my page and made what I do all that much better!