Crafting for Baby

In my last post about our renovation to create a room for baby I mentioned that the kids and I have been doing some crafting. We've got a few projects that we are hoping to finish before he arrives, so far we've finished these sweet paper mache hot air balloons that are floating away in the corner of baby's room.

The kids created the paper mache balloons at one of the great art camps that they attended this summer. Using a real inflated balloon as the model, they placed the wet paper mache on top. Once that was dry they popped the real balloon underneath leaving the hallow paper mache balloon form.

We were trying to figure out where to put them, and then we had the great idea of turning them into decorations for the baby's room. They had never been painted, so the kids and I brainstormed and decided to make one rainbow, and the other rainbow polka dot....those were their choices but these kids know me so well!

We started off painting one balloon turquoise and letting that layer dry. Then adding little baskets underneath so that little felted animals from our nature table could be floating away underneath the balloons.

The kid's attention spans were not long enough for the whole project, so while I worked I set up a painting area for them where they spent the afternoon. We played music and just got totally into our projects, its an afternoon that was full of those moments where I felt so full and happy as we all worked together!

Finally, after letting everything dry over night, the balloons were ready to be hung up with fishing line.

In one basket a little wool hedgehog peeks out,

 In the other basket, two felted blue birds (that we made last year) are snuggling.

The kids love having something that they made in a special place in the baby's room, and they keep talking about how they'll tell the baby about them, while also making up stories about where those little animals are headed on their journey. Just precious!