Valentines mailbox

With creative inspiration from BHG.com we had a great rainy day project for the upcoming Valentines Day. Although, they had craft instructions and downloads on their site I couldn't blow it up so I had to improvise and make my own templates

What I used.
1 12x12 cardstock
Corragated colored cardboard
Red paper(I used corragate cardboard) for the mailbox flag and heart decorations
those things that you push in and flatten pins??
stapler

I cut the cardstock to match the size of my pink corragate paper and then folded the ends up with a ruler. we stapled the corragated paper to the card stock which resembled a wagon (hmm can you see where my mind is going on this one...oregon trail next project) Then I traced the ends out of the remaining pink cardstock and glued them inside the mailbox. The kids cut hearts to cover the staples and glued on a flower bead for the mailbox knob.

Dinosaur eggs

We recently went to the Western musuem which exhibits fossils. Of course, I had to have a craft and something fun to tie it in with what they learned. I decided we would try making a paper mache egg. Then the bright thought of maybe stuffing it with a toy dinosaur to actually hatch. It worked with a lot of fumbling. This is time intense so it will take a few days to allow for drying.

What you need:

Mache mixture 1 part flour 5 parts water cooked to paste.

shredded newspaper

balloons

plastic dinosaurs

grey paint

shaving cream

First I had to try to squeeze a dino into a balloon without poking a hole. Then I blew up the ballon and knotted the end. The kids then painted the glue around the balloon and began placing strips of newspaper around the balloon. When they were done we let this dry for about a day.

The next day the seemed relatively dry so they began to paint. I wanted to create a texture for the eggs so I mixed equal shaving cream to paint to get a thick pastey paint and the kids painted over there eggs. DO NOT LET THESE DRY NEXT TO EACH OTHER. I had one resting on a bowl and the other two became a little contorted. So we used the two as our newly hatched eggs. I poked a hole in the ballon and it was pretty neat. You could hear a cracking as the mold began to crack and break open as the balloon let out its air and pulled away from the side. When we waited another day to crack the other egg it wasnt as neat to watch we had to help crack the egg. I think it was because it was drier than the other when the ballon whipped away from the edges. Well I hope you like this or can use this craft.....