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Arts and Crafts for my toddler? How does that work? Well, I was in a bit of a creative funk, and the universe basically left me a few breadcrumbs (or craft crumbs, as it were) to get me off my ass and back at the craft table. These are 3 ways my toddler forced me to be creative, get out of my no-fun funk, and back to my craft self…or The Crafty Lefty. Below are some crafts and arts I did for my toddler.
- Grandparents Day Card – One day, my toddler came home with an art project she made in class. I use the word “project” loosely –> she’s two. It basically had her name, decorated in dot markers on a piece of construction paper. Now sure, that could go on the fridge, framed and put on the wall as her first “pre-school craft” or let’s face it, in the recycling bin. But I was like, hmmm, you know what — this is actually the beginning of a really sweet card that we could repurpose and mail my parents and in-laws for Grandparents day. Yes, that was back in September. And yes, this post is crazy late. I was trapped underneath a mound of succulents and had to finish those posts!! NEway, the first thing I did was print out some card greetings on card stock paper:
Then, I got some stickers and had her do some decorating.
This is what the card looked like now.
Next, I added some inside phrases/jokes between my daughter and the grandparents. I cut out the card greetings I had printed earlier and glued them to the front and inside of the card. Now all I had to do was put it in the mail! To see a quick video of the finished card, click here. Otherwise, see below:
2. Pre-School Cubby Box – My toddler’s school asked all the parents to bring a box to school to keep extra diapers, a change of clothes, etc. Their only instructions were that the box should be labeled with the child’s name. Ok, for anyone that knows me, you know I can’t just slap a name on a box with a Sharpee and call it a day. That would be my Crafty Lefty nightmare. This box HAD to be decorated — I mean, my kid was going to see this every day. Also, I was already in the crafty spirit after the grandparents card, so I decided to bust out a few more of my crafty supplies. For this craft, I used some letter stickers, my pennant banner punch, some card stock scraps, a school flyer, a glue stick, foam squares, and some recent pics of my little one.
I didn’t know what side of the box would be facing out, so I went ahead and decorated 2 of the 4 sides. I took my pennant banner punch and punched out 4 mini pennants from cardstock (since my daughter’s name has four letters). I used some black letter stickers and stuck one letter in each pennant. I also had these cool mint green cardstock letter stickers leftover from another project, and used them for her name for the other side of the box. Luckily, I had saved a flyer the school had sent home which had some color butterflies on it because that’s what her classroom is called. So after I glued her picture to the box, I added her name, and then used the butterflies to fill in the empty spaces. To add more dimension, I used foam squares on the back of the pennant banner.
Will this come home at the end of the year with every thing ripped/torn off? Absolutely. Did I have fun making this craft and using my leftover supplies to make it? Absolutely. Did I have the best decorated cubby box in her class? Abso-fu**in-lutely. Giving my stay-at-home mommy self a pat on the back right now. It’s the little wins… 
3. Baby Book Pages
Our toddler was born during the pandemic so she didn’t have a lot of ‘first’ celebrations worthy of pictures or cute anecdotes. I was tired of looking at those blank pages in her baby book and feeling sad that she doesn’t have those memories.
So, I decided to turn my craft on and transform those blank pages into some fun ‘firsts’ that she DID get to experience. Like the amazing teachers she’s had!
First, I found a few blank pages in her baby book. Then, I printed some pics of her, her teachers, and clipart that reminds me of what they worked on together. Finally, I got my scissors and paper cutter out and started cutting away. I did lay out everything first to see how I liked it before I started gluing everything down. Final images below:
…and we are done! Let me know in the comments if you’ve had to pull the crafty out for your kids and what you made for/with them!
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