I am sure that I have said it to you before, but my daughter loves hearts. She is always cutting them out of construction paper and coloring them or drawing designs on them.
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One of her latest creations was the inspiration for this simple Valentine’s craft.
Owls have been my favorite animal for as long as I can remember. My daughter loves them as well. Every day she snuggles up with her favorite owl blanket and her stuffed owls. We can’t leave the house without them.
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I had an idea for a simple owl craft for me and my owl lover, so when my daughter had a sleepover this weekend and the girls asked me to do a craft with them, I was over the moon.
My daughter loves using scissors. She got her first pair of safety scissors when she was two. She loves cutting activities and crafts. Among some of her favorites were a simple paper plate hair cutting activity and a trim the Christmas tree one. 
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Working on scissor skills is great for your child’s fine motor skills and their hand eye coordination. Scissors are also a useful tool and if your child is anything like mine is, it is also a fun activity.
Here is a little secret about me. I used to be a scrapbooker, a big one. I have books and books filled with lovely memories set on pretty paper with stickers and stories surrounding them.
It is fascinating to watch my daughter while she creates. I love how she see things and it amazes me the details that she picks up at only 4 years old. She loves to prop things up on our coffee table and recreate them. Sometimes she draws them or sometimes she cuts out construction paper and assembles the pieces to form her project.
Last week, I did a little experiment. I put a still life on our dining room table and set out a bunch of supplies. I laid out paints, construction paper, scissors, glue, pencils, markers and clay.
I started to paint the fruit and asked her if she wanted to join me.
She sat down and declined the paint, but went straight for the construction paper. She cut out the shapes of the different fruits and their stems. She drew some of the fruits first and some she simply cut out.
She glued all of her pieces to another piece of paper to form her still life.
When she finished gluing, she used a marker to add a little life to her still. She gave all of the fruits faces and personalities and even made a cowgirl orange, complete with a lasso.
The next day, I invited my daughter to come and look at the still life of fruit. She sat on my lap and I asked her what she saw. She named off all the fruits on the cutting board. I asked her what color the pear was and she responded that it was green. I asked her if green was the only color that she saw and she looked closer and told me that she saw brown. When I asked her where she saw the brown, she started with the stem and then went into further detail about the speckles of brown around the pear, explaining that the speckles weren’t everywhere and showing me where they were more saturated. She went on to the next piece of fruit, which was the orange. She asked me about the little dimples all over the skin. She studied each piece of fruit and made wonderful observations about every piece.
She looked over the supplies on our table and reached for the clay. We used polymer clay, but play dough would be fine as well. She carefully sculpted each piece and laid out her fruit sculptures on a cutting board from her play kitchen.
I watched her intently as she used a straw from her juice to carve lines into her pumpkin.
When she sculpted her orange, she remembered her earlier observations and used a pencil to poke little dimples into it. She worked through each piece of fruit and even sculpted the red apple, which was no longer on our still because she ate it after making her construction paper project.
I was blown away by her clay sculpted still life. It came out so beautifully.
She loved it too. When she was finished, she grabbed a bowl out of play kitchen and cut up her fruit and made a fruit salad for the both of us to “eat”. 
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I was a bit under the weather this weekend. It is tough to be sick when you have a child. It is even tougher to be sick when you have a child & are sharing a basement with that child, your hubby and a cattle dog while your house is in the final phases of construction. I spent a lot of time on the couch & trying to sleep and my daughter spent a lot of time drawing pictures with her friend that we were staying with. Here is a picture she drew for me while I was sick. There is me on the couch & my daughter next to me. The bald guy in the background is my husband with our dog.
She drew me a bunch of get well cards & drawings. It was very sweet. Shewoke up yesterday & grabbed more paper & kept drawing. This time it was a Christmas tree. When she was finished, she was so very proud. And just like in one of our latest crafts, she drew a little girl & boy and said they were looking out the window. So cute!
She was so excited about her drawing. She wanted to hang it up. She then said to me “Let’s make more Christmas trees. I was still feeling a bit run down, but I have a hard time saying no to crafts.
So we did!
TRIM THE TREE CHRISTMAS CRAFT
My daughter is big into using her safety scissors right now. She loves to cut up everything.
I wanted to give her the chance to practice her cutting skills.
I cut 4 triangles of different sizes out of construction paper for each tree being made.
I glued the top 1/3 of the largest triangle & pressed it down onto the bottom of a piece of blue construction paper.
I glued the next biggest the same way over lapping the bottom triangle & continued this way with the rest. The bottoms of each triangle should be loose.
I had two different ages & skill levels doing this project. My daughter used the scissors, while her younger friend glued her own shapes down without the use of scissors.
*Use your own judgment & operate caution when letting your child use scissors.*
Use scissors & cut upward like shown on all triangle sections.
Mai had her own method.
She just want to cut. She trimmed & trimmed some more. When she cut the bottom tier & saw her trunk exposed, she cracked up & said “It looks like I went overboard.” I laughed. Where does she get this stuff?
She used a marker to color in the gap.
I used a marker to curl my cut sections upwards.
After we were done trimming our trees, we used buttons to decorate.
Here are the girl’s finished products.
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I cut my daughter’s hair. If you have ever tried to cut a 3 year old’s hair, you should know that it is not an easy feat. I had to pretend that we were playing hairdresser in order to get her to stay still. While I was cutting, she kept asking if she could have the scissors and cut her own hair. When I was done, she asked if she could be the hairdresser now & cut mine. I had to say no to both, but it did give me an idea.
We have been working on using safety scissors lately. She likes to practice cutting & is still trying to find her comfort level in holding them. I thought that we could make a hair cutting activity for her.
All you will need is:
A paper plate
Glue
Googly eyes
Safety scissors – My daughter actually wanted to use scrapbook scissors for this activity. (Use caution & supervise your children when working with scissors.)
Directions:
Cut strips of paper in the color of your choice to form the hair. We made our hair wavy, so we cut wavy strips.
Glue a piece of construction paper of the same color around the back of the paper plate & trim any excess that hangs over the plate. Glue a flesh-toned piece of paper to the front & trim the excess as well. Add ears. Glue the strips of paper to the back to form the hair in the back.
Glue googly eyes onto the front & draw in the nose and mouth. Glue on a couple of strands of hair to the front & add long bangs for them to trim as well.
I gave Mai a few different pairs of scrapbook scissors & let her cut away. She is still trying to figure out the best way to hold her scissors, so I demonstrated on a separate piece of paper.
She had a lot of fun with this one & even told me that she has the most fun doing projects with me. Awwww. She is getting better each time with her scissors. Practice does make perfect after all.
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