Two boys plus glue sticks, crayons, stamps, stamp pads, stickers, hole punches, and paper means chaos! But today we had fall nature notebooks in mind for our craft, and the boys were v.e.r.y. happy to have so many materials to choose from for one project.I first cut letter sized craft paper, card stock, and construction paper in 1/2 to make 4.25" x 8.5" pages.
The boys then went page by page and stamped, colored, glued, stickered and decorated the pages (leaving room to write/draw on them later on nature walks).
They then did the covers, and punched the page corners (decorative corner punches are fun - we used insects).
We wanted to have some envelopes inside so that if the boys collected rocks, leaves, or other things on our nature walks, they would have a place to store them. So they each glued a few small craft envelopes and 1 larger envelope onto inside pages.
I used a star hole punch to punch the binding edges. We used a plastic kids needle and embroidery floss to stitch the book - and the boys laced the needle through the holes themselves.
They turned out very nice - the boys love them and cannot wait for the mosquitoes to abate so that we can get outside on a trail and use our nature notebooks!
Great notebooks!
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful! Look at that cute wee lad of yours.
ReplyDeleteI am getting jealous, here. First the plates and then these beautiful notebooks. (In the order I read the blogs, of course!).
ReplyDeleteSeriously, the notebooks make me anxious for fall. I guess it is time to get the fall decorations out.
And I am really impressed by how much your little "wee lad" is getting out of working with his older brother. He is so serious about the quality of his work. What great kids you have!
Elisheva--
ReplyDeleteYou are right - for a 2 year old he is so focused and interested in the process and doing each step *just so* - actually more than his 4 year old big brother. He is the little artist though...he actually draws faces already. Basic, but -- a head, 2 eyes, nose, mouth, 2 ears, hair...it is interesting to watch!
You were saying you wanted to play with clay - I like the self hardening (no fire/oven) clay. It is really nice to work with and is a very theraputic and relaxing to work with! And the clay is very workable for plates and small items like that, as well as beads, sculptures, etc. :D