Flag Windsock

Last week was supposed to be week three of our at-home summer camp, but my son attended a half day art camp all week and we just didn't have enough time to work on things.  The week one overview can be found HERE.  But, today I wanted to share with you one of our easy crafts we completed during our week two at-home summer camp.  The theme was America the Beautiful, in honor of the 4th of July.

We made small flag windsocks using only a few supplies - small flag on a stick, toilet paper tube, yarn, glue and masking tape. 

We started by wrapping a piece of masking tape, sticky side facing out, around the tube.  The kids stuck pieces of yarn onto the tape.  These would hang down for the  bottom of the windsock.

After the kids had their yarn in place, we put another piece of tape, sticky side down this time, over top of the yarn to keep it in place.

We also had some leftover foam stars from another project, and the kids decided to use these and tied them onto the yarn.

Next, we ran a line of glue down the length of the tube to hold the flag in place.  These flags are the mini flags on a stick; we just removed the flag from the stick.

Then, we wrapped the flag around the tube, and put a little more glue to keep it in place.

Last, we added one more piece of yarn for hanging, by taping it inside the top part of the tube.

We hung these on our front porch, to help with the drying, but the kids wanted to use them inside to decorate our sunroom.  I think they turned out super cute and would like nice anywhere!



Planting Flowers

"Flowers always make people better, happier and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the soul.”

Luther Burbank, botanist (1849-1926)

Did you know that today, March 12th, is National Plant a Flower Day?  Although it was a beautiful start to the weekend here in Maryland, it's still a tad too chilly to plant anything outdoors.  But I know that Spring is on it's way, so we decided to take advantage of this day to plant some flower seeds indoors.

I like to do our part to recycle and reuse as much as possible, and our seed planting today gave us a good excuse.  We used some empty toilet paper rolls to create seed starting pods.  We started by cutting each roll in half, then cutting four slits on one end of each, to make tabs to fold over and create a bottom.  If you bend the tabs into the tube, then straighten them out to create the bottom they stay down, and the added soil will keep them in place as well.

 

Next, I cut the bottom from an empty cereal box to create a tray to hold our seed pots.  I lined it with aluminum foil so when there was water drainage, the box didn't fall apart.

We headed outside to gather some dirt to fill our seed pots, and found a few friends along the way.

Then, we started planting our seeds.  My daughter used a small stick to make holes in each seed pot, then added a few seeds to each.

We watered our seeds with some water and plan to sit them in our front window for plenty of sun.

My daughter was pleased with her seed planting, choosing Zinnia, Morning Glory, Snapdragon, Daisy and Poppies to plant.  We even made plant markers with some craft sticks to keep track of the flowers.

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Quirky Momma

Cheer Sticks

We are cheering on our hometown team, the Ravens, in the playoffs.  To help the kids cheer them on, we made some cheer sticks using some empty paper towel tubes and leftover party streamers.

 

We cut some strips and stapled them inside the ends of each tube.

Next, we applied some Mod Podge along the outside of the tube and

wrapped the party streamer around the tube.

Fun and simple!  Now it's time to cheer on the team!