Tag

pretend

Vampire Girl Paper Plate Mask

Vampirina Mania has taken over our house. My daughter cannot get enough of that adorable little vampire. I have to admit, I like her too. It is such a cute cartoon about a little vampire girl just trying to find her place in the human world with a little help from her human and not-so-human friends.  Our new favorite character inspired this vampire girl paper plate mask.

Vampirina inspired vampire girl paper plate mask with free printable template. Arts and crafts for kids. Perfect for Halloween or for pretend play.

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Cardboard Pirate’s Sword

Pretend play is wonderful for building a beautiful imagination. This cardboard pirate’s sword is perfect for the little swashbuckler in your life.

It was pirate week at my daughter’s preschool last week. She came home with an eye patch that they made in her class. For the past week, our home has been filled with “Args and “Aye Mateys”. My stairwell has been turned into a pirate ship and my daughter has turned into an adorable swashbuckler. She made a pink skull and crossbones flag, drew a skull and crossbones on an old cowboy hat and even broke out a pair of snow boots because, well… pirates wear boots. My little girl transformed into a pirate. She explained to me that all she was missing was a parrot and a pirate’s sword. I was up definitely up for the challenge of outfitting my imaginative little pirate. If it is a sword that she needs to battle the high seas, than a sword she will get.

Cardboard pirate's sword for pretend play or costume. Use recyclables to make this cool pirate's sword for the kids

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Paper Cup Pop-up Puppet

Make your own easy pop-up puppet with readily available materials.

Do you remember those old cone pop-up puppets? I used to love them as a child and just knew that my daughter would love them too. Puppets are wonderful for the imagination and for pretend play. These pop-up puppets are fun, interactive, easy to make and you should have most of the materials readily available.
Paper cup pop-up puppet craft. Arts and craft for kids. Pretend and imagination play - Dixie cup craft

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Moana Inspired Maui Fish Hook

Every Maui fan, needs a magical fish hook. Use recyclables to make this fun Moana inspired craft for pretend play.

Have your kids seen Moana yet? If they haven’t, I definitely recommend watching it. It is a great movie about a headstrong teen that is drawn to the ocean. The music in the movie is beautiful and so catchy. I find myself singing the songs all of the time. If your children have seen it, I am sure that you have heard Maui ‘s ‘You’re Welcome’ sung about a thousand times. Maui is my daughter’s favorite character from the movie. She loves him, but as Maui tells you himself, he is nothing without his fish hook. That is where all his magic is.

Moana inspired paper mache Maui fish hook. Use recyclables for a fun Disney inspired prop for pretend play. Kid's arts and crafts

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‘Moana’ Inspired Paper Plate Flower Crown

 Do you have a little Moana fan in your midst? If you do they will love this Moana inspired flower crown.

Moana madness has hit our home. Our little girl loves the brave and feisty Moana (affiliate link). We have watched the movie more times than I can tell you and there is no sign of our daughter losing interest any time soon. She has even already requested a Moana themed birthday party for next year. With as crazy as my daughter is for this adventurous young girl, I wanted to make her a little something special (with her help). Moana wears a few different crowns and headpieces throughout the film, but I love her simple leaf and flower crown. I thought this would be perfect for a little pretend play.Moana inspired paper plate flower crown. Kid's arts and craft. Construction paper headpiece for dress up and pretend play.

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Felt Diapers

Felt diapers for pretend play - kid's life skills - arts & crafts

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My daughter really has such a lovely way with babies & smaller children. She is very gentle, protective and nurturing. It is very sweet.

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She behaves this way with her dolls as well. She pretends they are sick and takes their temperatures. She feeds them, reads to them, even pretends to load them in their cars seats. It is wonderful to watch & listen to. She found an old doll while cleaning out her toys the other day. It is one of those dolls that wets itself if you squeeze its belly. My daughter, of course, needed to make sure that she cleaned up her wet baby and asked me for something to use as a diaper.

It gave me an idea.

I am not much of a seamstress, but I thought that I could make her some cloth diapers with Velcro tabs. I had a little bit of felt and thought this would be perfect for her diapers. Again, I am not a seamstress, but I was pretty excited about how these came out & so was my girl.

I measured out a piece of felt by holding it under the doll to see how big I would need to make it. I cut the felt into a rectangle that slightly flared at each end.  I folded the long edge on both sides of the diaper and then sewed both edges & pulled the thread snugly so that they gathered just a little. Then I folded in the edges again, but this time only sewed the center portion so that the diaper had a sort of hour-glass shape.

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I cut a tab to sew along the front edge of the diaper. I sewed the tab into place & then used a fabric marker & wrote the word diaper across it.

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I sewed two tabs to the upper sides of the back-end of the diaper. I stuck Velcro to each tab & then added the coordinating Velcro pieces to the edges of the front tab that says Diaper.

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I showed my daughter how to use the diaper & let her play. She even asked me to make more, so that she could change all her dollies.

Felt diapers for dolls & pretend play - kid's life skills - arts & crafts,

Felt diapers for dolls & pretend play - kid's life skills - arts & crafts

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Polymer Clay Cupcake Craft

Polymer Clay Cupcakes - This is a great arts & craft project & can be used for pretend play for the kids after making.
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I recently discovered my love for polymer clay. My daughter and I play with Play-doh & homemade salt dough often & we love it, but I just love the feel & look of the polymer. My daughter has been loving playing with it too.

One of her favorite things to make which her doughs & clays is pretend cakes & cookies. She loves to play bakeshop.

We had some mini cupcake liners. We used them to form our clay cupcakes.

We both pressed a clump of clay into our liners. We pressed it in tight, so that the liner would make an imprint on the clay. I kept the liner in a stack so that the liner would keep its shape & not spread out while we worked with it.

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We used another color & formed a flat circle to lay over the top of the first layer.

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I rolled out a clump of clay so that it formed a long strand & then I circled the strand in a spiral around the top to form the frosting.

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The fun part is decorating your little cakes. Add little clay specks for sprinkles or a circle for a cherry, form flowers or anything else that you & your little baker can come up with.

Polymer Clay Cupcakes - This is a great arts & craft project & can be used for pretend play for the kids after making..

My little baker threw her original design out the window & opted for a fancier cake, complete with lady & handbag on top. She put it in a larger liner & then told me that her cupcake could eat my cupcakes. That gave me a chuckle.

Polymer clay arts & crafts projects for kids.

Next, we baked our tasty treats per package directions. These will all make a great additional to my daughter’s little bakeshop.

Polymer Clay Cupcakes - This is a great arts & craft project & can be used for pretend play for the kids after making.

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