craft monday :: balloon face keely

Today is such a fun Craft Monday! Maybe I should not say that right now, I am kind of talking us up!

I was lucky enough to get inspired during the week from Keely's pre school. They had made 2 paper mache balloon faces of their teachers and they were talking about facial features, colours of eyes, hair etc. This week they are going to be doing faces of themselves and be using paper plates instead. I am sure 30 balloons with lots of glue would be very interesting, hence the plates!

With this in mind I thought it would be really nice for Keely to make a balloon face of herself and she could take it in on wednesday for her show and tell. I also love to continue what they have been learning at pre school at home. I find it fascinating how much Keely is learning and how much she can teach me!

Yesterday we pulled out one of the balloons left over from Keely's birthday party and we raided our craft box for elements that would match Keely's features. From here we made the steps to creating Keely's very own Keely balloon face. I thought I would do this craft in steps and you might be able to do this one with your little people. Please know though, I made it up as I went along, you may have better ideas and ways of creating balloon faces.

Step 1 :: the preparation

Help find all your elements that will create a face similar to your little one. This part in itself is fun watching them pull out different items to stick on their faces. You will need;

balloon

pvc glue

water

scissors

newspaper

eyes

mouth

nose

hair

Once you have all your elements cut up strips of newspaper, mix 50% pvc glue with 50% water, blow up the balloon and let your little one go wild! I held the balloon end so Keely could layer her face up with a bit more ease then having the balloon roll around the table! It is best to have each layer dry before applying another layer. I however found with a 4 year old this is impossible as they are so excited to get onto the next layer! This didn't seem to be a problem with Keely's finished balloon face. When you are happy with the layering, Keely's was about 4 layers, peg it to the line in the sun to dry.

Step 2 :: painting

When they have their dry balloon face it is time to paint their faces. I asked Keely what colour her face was and she told me it was pink. I then pulled out the red paint and the white paint and taught her that white and red made pink. Keely mixed her paints and painted her face. Balloon face Keely was pegged on the line again for drying.

Step 3 :: other projects

I found when we were in between steps 2, 3 and 4, that we needed a step 3 project to make the times seem a little shorter. Keely and I set up a barbie shopping mall and she did what she liked to call "walk the barbies," while her balloon face was drying. Otherwise you can also do what we did and make this project last 2 sessions. With working around Taj's sleep we had to do our first 3 steps on day one and day two, which was this morning, was the last step in creating Keely's balloon face.

Step 4 :: decorating

This was the fun part, when their balloon face comes alive and it earns itself a name and a place in your home. Keely enjoyed gluing her eyes, nose and mouth on.

The hair was fabulous, made of yellow wool, and she also added a little sparkly headband, with butterfly hair accessories! This is the part where their imagination and your influence can be endless.

You can add hats made out of different elements, ears, eyebrows, eye lashes and any other accessories around their faces that they might wear themselves.

I hope you enjoyed todays Craft Monday. I hope this helps you on one of the days where you have no idea what to do with your little ones.

Please, if you do have a craft project to share, email me! I have another fun project coming up from another lovely blogger.

enjoy!