The Lunch Box Club-Charabens for Picky Eaters

It's common knowledge that cliques and schools go hand and hand, like peanut butter and jelly. What may not be so common knowledge (or at least it wasn't knowledge I was privvy to) is how early those cliques start. My daughter Rini started first grade this year. Her friends from last year all ended up with the same teacher. Luck was shining down on us.

My daughter is a very picky eater. We started a new rule this year because of it. She has to have one school lunch every week. Which basically means she starves one day every week until she comes home. Which is rediculous because she knows whats for lunch everyday and gets to pick the day she wants to eat school lunch. For the other days we do boxed lunches which usually consist of lunchables or pb&js as the main course.

One day Rini came home saying that all her friends were now taking lunch boxes. " It's like a club. We're now the Lunch Box Club." she announced.
A few days later we came across a few images of charabens. "Oh! I want one of those! Please please please mommy..." *Giant doe eyes* It's the doe eyes that do me in every time.

For those of you unfamiliar with charabens they are character lunch boxes usually created in the image of japanese cartoons. You can search character bento or charaben on google and see some amazing examples.

After doing that myself I thought, I can totally pull this off. So I started looking at the ingrediants used in the bentos. Broccoli, fish, meat, cucumbers, eggs, scallions, okra....there is no way my picky eater was going to eat that. How was I going to make a charaben out of the little amount of stuff she does eat? After considering this for a few days, here is what I came up with.



Aurora sits on a background of white rice. Her body and skirt is made from bologna and pepperoni. The bodice is olives as is her headband,and facial features.The shirt is bread as is the white of her eye. Her hair is the finest American cheese...kraft singles. lol. And the wall is toasted bread crust.










This little mermaid sits on a bed of speghetti noodles. Her hair is speghetti sauce. Her tail is made from green beans and olives as well as her hair decoration. She herself is made from bologna. And I added shredded cheese simply cause she likes it. ^-^

DIY Jewelry/Hair Clip Organizer

So lately I have been in a reorganize the house mode. One thing that is terribly in need of a make-over is the girls' hair clips and jewelry. I had no idea what to do with it. We had been using a small box, but eventually they started spilling their way out or never making it back to the box. Something had to be done. Thanks to Pinterest (which I LOVE btw) I came across a cute little organizer made from a frame and some ribbon. It took me a day to make it (mostly because I had to wait for the paint to dry) and the girls absolutely love it. So here is the tutorial for making one if you've fallen in love with it as much as I have.

I apologize for not taking pictures of the process. But as it's super easy, I think it will be okay to simply explain.

You'll need a picture frame to start. I got mine at the dollar tree and it's an 11x14. Originally it was black, so I had to apply several coats to cover up the original black color. I will warn you though that if you go the route of dollar tree frame, they are very thin, so you will have to take more time and attention when drilling the holes as to not poke though the other side. Another great place to look for cheap frames would be at your local thrift store. Sometimes you can find amazing frames there for cheap.

Next you will need a box of hooks. I chose white as they matched the frame and got them in the hardware section of Krogers/Fred Meyers. However, I believe you can purchase these from Home Depot or other hardware stores as well. Mine are 7/8" I believe.

You will also need ribbon. I had scraps left over from other projects, so all I did was search for pieces long enough and the right colors. But if you don't have ribbon you can usually find cute cheap ribbon at Jo Ann Fabrics in the clearance and scrapbook areas. Dollar Tree usually has ribbon it just depends on the time of year as to what kinds you will find there. Micheals craft stores also have ribbon priced around a dollar in their dollar bins. Or if you are lucky enough to have a scrapbook store by you they will have ribbon; most are usually priced around a dollar. Some scrapbook stores charge by the yard, which would be ideal if you wanted to coordinate different ribbons.

And lastly you will need a hot glue gun or staple gun to attach your ribbon. And perhaps a drill to drill holes for the hooks if you can't hand screw them in.

The process now is simple:

1. Paint frame if needed

2. Drill holes for hooks (or hand screw them into the frame) The hooks will go on the bottom side of the frame. This is for hanging necklaces and bracelets.)

3. If you had to drill holes, hot glue the hooks inside the holes.

4. Cut ribbon to desired length and space out on the back of the frame- all going one direction.

5. Now hot glue (or staple) both sides to an opposite side of the frame, as seen in the picture.

Viola! You now have an organizer for $5- 10 dollars (or in my case under $5). Now hang your master piece and start organizing that jewelry. :)

DIY Scratch Boards

Geh, I can't believe January is already almost over. It seems like it was just the other day that I wrote up the post on the To Do List Project. Man, I have no idea how other parents manage to blogs so often. I made it a resolution to try harder on my frequency. So here's hoping, right.

Well today I'm going to cover a project I taught in Art Discovery a week ago. It's pretty simple but does require a bit of prep time, which I would suggest you span out over a few days. Otherwise your hand will cramp up from the coloring you have to do.

In Class we covered expressionism vs. realism, so I made the base multiple colors. However, you could alter the project for halloween or Xmas by using only those colors. Another variation would be to color white crayon over white paper and then paint with a blue. This way you could make snowy wonderland scenes. Now onto the project:

What you will need:

• Cardstock (or thick paper)
• Color crayons (I used cra-Z-art, but crayola work well too. Any that are waxy should do it)
• Scissors or an industial paper cutter-if you want to make them smaller(the scrapbook ones wont work unless you have a top lifting blade one)
• Toothpicks
• Black (or blue or whatever color) Tempura paint
• A paint brush

This first part is the most time consuming. You need to take your cardstock paper and completely cover it in a thick layer of crayon. Again I did multiple colors, but you don't have to. My only suggestion is to not use the same color of crayon as you have for your paint. Otherwise it won't show up when you scratch it off.
I colored 25 sheets of 8.5x11 cardstock so after a while I got bored of the same pattern. As you can see you can actually make some pretty nice pictures just by doing this step. If you are having kiddos help you with this part, make sure to stress to them that you don't want to be able to see any of the white paper underneather. You need to build up a thick layer of wax so the paint will adhere to the wax and not the paper. If it adheres to the paper, you won't be able to scratch it off.
Next step is to cover your colored papers with tempura paint in your color of choice. I used black, but you can use whatever color you want. When applying the paint, it does tend to not want to stick. Just be patient with it. You want a nice even coat of paint, but try not to make it too thick cause it will flake off or too thin because the crayon will start to show through. It's best to let it dry for a day or two if possible. I have had the best results when I let the paint still longer than just over night. However overnight does work and is completely do-able.
Once sheets are completly dry, you can use your scissors/ cutting board to cut them into smaller pieces if you wish. Other wise, they are ready to be scratched into master pieces. Using a toothpick, the end of a paintbrush or anything else you might want to try out (forks make cool multiple lines), gently scratch your picture into the paint to reveal the color(s) underneath. Just remember not to scratch it all off. Enjoy!!

Art Advent Calendar

Create a To Do List

This project usually takes my kids all day. It's about a continual 30 minutes of work and then off and on for the rest of the day. My examples are from our summer list mostly, but we make one 3 times a year. These are also nice to point bored kids to later on as they are full of fun ideas/activities. Here are the materials you will need:

* Pencils
* Sharpies (Different colors are more fun- you can get a pack of 5 at the dollar tree )
* Paper (I use a 11x14 sheet of water color paper- but you could do this on cardstock too-I recommend thicker paper as you will be covering the whole thing in watercolors)
* Watercolor paints (we use the cake set from the dollar tree)

* Different sized brushes (this isn't needed but larger brushes will make the painting part faster)

* Salt (plain old normal salt)
First start by deciding how you want the overall design to look. For our summer one, the girls wanted flowers, so I drew in pencil large flowers on the paper and then traced them in black sharpie.
Be sure to set some ground rule if you have younger kids or you will get a crazy wildness of impossible things to do as well as a scribble mess. :) I usually tell the kids they have to keep their art and writing inside the large designs I drew.
Next give the kids the sharpies (the tiny ones work well for little ones who like to push hard) and let them go to town writing and drawing pictures of the things they want to do. Don't forget to date your list :)
Once they have filled the space completely, break out the watercolors and paint your list. Here you can use the salt. If you sprinkle a little bit of salt on wet watercolor you will get a frosted effect. Tip: it works best to not apply the paints too thick or it can be hard to see the words underneath.
And Viola, you have a beautiful and functionable piece of art for your house!
Here is our fall/winter to do list after its been painted- the kids didn't follow directions so much on this one.