Fairy
Sometimes I plan out crafts and they rock and I share every step with you all saying ” Do it just like this!” today’s sparkly alphabet craft will not be ones of those times. I did almost all of this the hardest way possible but since my daughter was engaged and having fun with the letters I didn’t bother to scrap it all and start again when I had the right tools. This is another post in our Alphabet For Starters series that is all about playing and being exposed to letters in a fun and pressure free way. My daughter may only be 2 but sometime in the last few weeks she has become obsessed with princesses, fairies, pink and purple. When I asked her what kind of letter activity she wanted to do she said “Princess sparkle!” well it sounded like ” Pinpess spakles” but I knew what she meant. So we made this , a huge mess and had lots of fun.
- Gather your materials. You will need a canvas, some vinyl letters ( we used small and large but I’d skip the small if I were you), paint brushes , paint and sparkles. So as you will see we ended up scraping the paint and going for glue instead. If I were you I’d find some great glitter paint that is dark enough to create the relief . Or you can do it the hard way like I did, results are great but it wasn’t the easiest.
- Start by choosing letters and placing them on. We did it in alphabetical order because we’ve been learning the alphabet song and I’d since and stop before the right letter ” A B C D E …” and she’d say F and then I’d hand her the F to stick on. Her fine motor skills are not developed enough to peel the stickers off the pages ( they are stiff) but placing them on is still a great skill builder.
- Take a photo of all the letters and where they are with your camera or phone, you’ll see why.
- So our plan was to add glitter to the paint – but the paint was too think and the glitter was too fine and our plan was a flop. You could easily just used paint.
- We grabbed glue instead.
- I sat her on my lap to paint the glue on, it’s washable but I still wanted to wipe down anything she got it on right away.
- Make sure everything is covered in glue , I evened it out after she was done.
- Add glitter, lots and lots of it. Make sure your dust buster is charged up , ours wasn’t and I had to make the playroom off limits for 12 hours while it charged.
- Let it dry but not for too long. Using your pinky finger nail, and a photo of where the letters are on the canvas find the edge of the stickers and carefully peel off. See this is tricky but without a toddler helping and a picture of the the letters I did it without too much trouble. The important part is to find a corner only disturb a small amount of glitter and carefully peel.
- Let dry for a few days, shake over a garbage can or drop cloth before displaying.
Books with a little sparkle
The Very Fairy Princess
Maria , I mean Mary Poppins I mean Julie Andrews wrote.
The Sissy Duckling
After reading Speakaboo’s Sleeping Beauty on our iPod with the MeMeTales Mobile Reader App I was inspired to make a fairy wand to go along with the fairies in the story. I wanted to show parents how easy a fun and very sparkly wand can be to make . I asked my son if he wanted to be a part of this craft and I got a resounding ” No.” Even after I suggested making it a Bat-wand he wasn’t convinced. So I made it myself and even though I have no need for a fairy wand i have to say I have been casting some awesome spells with it.
- Gather your materials. You will need some sticky back foam if it’s sparkly even better! You will also need a drinking straw ( milkshake ones work great), a pen or marker, scissors and curling ribbon.
- Start by drawing a butterfly ( or shape of your choice) on the backing of your foam.
- Cut out and use as a stencil for the other side. We used two different colors of foam but using the same is a great choice as well.
- Peel the back off the foam, press the straw into it.
- Sandwich the straw in between the foam.
- Add the ribbon.
- Curl the ribbon on the edge of the scissors blade ( adults only please).
- Now cast some stupendous spells!
Book
As mentioned above the inspiration for this craft came from Sleeping Beauty by Speakaboos , which we actually listened to using our MeMeTales App instead of reading our selves which was a fun change of pace. Books are so versatile and reading, listening or playing with them are all ways to immerse your kids into a life long love of stories and the written word.
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I have made many a tutu in my day, but this is the first for my daughter. There are tutorials all over the place and they may use other methods but this was how I learned years ago and it’s fast , easy and worth sharing. I love the silly fun frills that come with girls and know that once she can voice her opinion about clothes, hair clips and tutus my reign supreme will be done. She loved feeling the texture of the tutu but really it’s a fun prop for pictures at this age, in a year or so it will be good for play. The nice thing about these easy tie tutus is that you can add or remove tulle as needed as long as the ribbon is long enough. As with any object with string/rope/ribbon these are NOT to be used unsupervised, slept in or any other activity that isn’t directly supervised.
- Gather your materials. You will need tulle ( I used a roll of 6″ wedding tulle from Wal-mart), ribbon for the waistband, thinner ribbon for contrast and scissors.
- Measure your child’s waist with the ribbon, double it and cut.
- I am not one to measure mostly because I am impatient with everything other than small kids but also because my son turned my yard stick into a lance to go with his Knight’s Shield. So instead I use my arms. For the tulle I did 2 arms lengths and cut. I like longer pieces because once you pop them on the ribbon they will be poofy. Tutus should be poofy! I did 30 of these. Not all at once.
- Then I folded the tulle 4, made a loop around the waistband ribbon, pulled it through and tightened. At the bottom you will see a loop , just snip it.
- Keep going after 9 I popped on a contrasting ribbon in gold. These were only one arms length and I added it on the same way.
- Once all the tulle is on ( test it on your child a few times) make a spot in the front middle and using the same ribbon as the waistband is made from tie a bow on. This gives the illusion that the tutu is tied in the front but stops your child from being able to untie it themselves.
- Tie it on and take pictures
I am saving this for when she is a little older although she had fun practicing pulling up in it. 
