Baby's First Craft Project

Ever since our son Leon was born last October, I've been so excited to share my love of crafting and art with him. Since birth he's been interested in books and looking at artwork, but I've been dying for us to do something creative together!

In honor of his grandfather's birthday, I thought it would be sweet for us to make something for him out of salt dough. Leon is 8 months old now, so I thought it would be the perfect time to try a simple project at home...

To make your own salt dough, follow my sister in law's fool proof recipe here:

Salt Dough Recipe

1 Cup Sifted Flour

1/2 Cup Salt

1/2 Cup Room Temp. Water

Squeeze of Lemon Juice

1 TSP Veggie Oil

*optional – food coloring to color dough

Flour your preferred surface and roll the dough with a rolling pin or juice glass. Take your baby's foot and hand to make a cute imprint, and don't be nervous if it gets messy!

I allowed the salt dough to dry on its own - it took 48 hours, but if you're in a rush, you can also pop it in the oven on a really low temp for a few hours to dry it out completely.

Once the dough is completely dry, decorate it with acrylic paints to seal the surface.

I gifted these little imprints as they are, but you could also add a hole at the top of each one using a pencil before they dry to make cute ornaments.

Thanks so much for reading and please share below if you do try it at home with your own little one! I'd love to hear how it went!

X O X

Ashley 

artist & owner at Baby Lucas

Fairy Winter Garden

I wanted to share with you a special project I'll be making with my art students at this week. This 'fairy winter garden' is the perfect project to make this chilly November. 

If you have kids in the Jersey City area, find out more about my classes at the end of this post!

What you need:

- A sturdy white paper plate

- Round dot stickers

-  Colored Paper

- Scissors, Markers, Glue, Clear Tape

- Faux Snow or Glitter

Optional: Pine Cones, Mini Trees, Moss

Start by decorating some basic dot stickers with markers to make them look like hard candies. Permanent markers work best for drawing if you have them...

 Add the stickers to the plate first to create a magical pathway. 

Next, draw some trees and snowmen. Be sure to leave a 'tab' at the bottom of each that can be folded and taped to the plate.

Add some moss and sprinkle faux snow on top. Glitter also works great! 

If you have pine cones handy, they make great instant trees. Just dip the top in white paint or glitter for a snowy look.

Do your children live in Jersey City or Hoboken? Have them join my 'Fairy Winter Garden' workshop this week at three little birds! 

Scroll down the page here to enroll for Crafting Club with Ashley Lucas. 

This week through Christmas I'll be teaching a different holiday themed craft at three little birds in downtown Jersey City (a short walk from the Grove Street PATH station). Classes are held every Thursday from 3:45 - 4:30pm. They are perfect for children 4+. Hope to see you there!

xo Lady Lucas

Endless Summer Rainbow Pasta Bracelets

This past weekend, I hosted an arts & crafts table at the Jersey City Cultural Diversity Festival. I had to think of an activity that could entertain a few hundred children - and bracelets seemed like the obvious choice for a cultural celebration ;) 

To make your own 'End of Summer' bracelets at home, you will need:

Pipe Cleaners, Assorted Beads, Pasta, Straws, Scissors

After googling the pasta dying process online, I found a great blog post by the Artful Parent. I must thank her greatly for the perfect recipe for this - which I tried below:

In order to color the raw ziti or penne, add a splash of rubbing alcohol to a plastic bag filled with pasta as shown. Swish the rubbing alcohol around in a closed bag of pasta, then open the bag and add a few drops of food coloring. Swish the contents once more until the pasta is coated in the color of your choice. A drop of blue and a drop of red makes a deep purple, etc. 

I let the bags sit for a few hours for the color to set properly - and then opened them up to dry the pasta on a plate covered in foil. 

**If you don't have rubbing alcohol at home, you can use white vinegar. I must say the beads seem to retain the smell - so rubbing alcohol is ideal.**

To make a bracelet with the pasta, form a little loop at the end of a pipe cleaner and add a cut straw bead so the beads don't fall off as the kids work. (A big thank you to my mom who helped me loop over one hundred of these for the event!)

This craft went over really well with kids from 3.5 to 10 years of age. I hope your children enjoy it as well!

xo Lady Lucas

Cute & Easy Hot Air Balloon Craft

I've been making art with kids non-stop for the past few weeks in my studio here in Jersey City and this craft in particular I thought came out pretty cute - so I wanted to share with you how to make it at home. Pinterest offers many variations of this idea, but I enjoyed using the cardboard tube instead of a paper cup, etc. like many of the other examples show online.

This craft is great for toddlers and preschoolers - as adults can help with the tricky part - and the kids just get to do the decorating.

You will need:

paper plates, assorted cut paper, glue, a hole puncher, scissors, string, pom poms, pipe cleaners, cute animal stickers, markers and an empty cardboard roll - a stapler or hot glue

Punch a hole at the top of a paper plate and feed through some string as shown above.

Have the kiddos add a pattern to their balloon by gluing cut paper, tissue paper and pom poms.

Cut an empty toilet paper roll or paper towel roll into sections for the 'basket' of the hot air balloon. (This part - an adult definitely has to do!) Afterwards, tie two pipe cleaners to the cardboard basket as shown to form the balloon strings.

Kids will enjoy decorating the balloon baskets with markers and stickers. Animals stickers work great as the tiny passengers for the balloon ;)

Attach the basket and strings to the plate balloon with a few staples or hot glue if you have it handy.

Ta-da! My preschool morning class did a lovely job of decorating - I especially like the round circle of pom poms featured on the left.

Bonus - add some balloon coloring pages to the table as a treat after the craft is over!

xox Lady Lucas

Miniature Dime Cakes DIY

I tend to get really crazy ideas when it comes to crafting. Just like the day I looked at my cereal and saw fairy donuts ;) Well, I'm an avid ear plug user since I'm a very light sleeper. The other night I realized if I cut a set of new foam ear plugs up - they might look exactly like miniature sponge cake!

My experiment worked! All you need to make these adorable dime cakes, is a pair of beige colored foam earplugs. Cut them into sections as shown above.

Trace something small and round to make the plates for your cakes. I used watercolor paper for this. 

Add some acrylic paint for icing and add some mini berries to complete your cake. I made my berries out of red crepe paper, but you could use clay or even red seed beads.

These dime cakes would be perfect for any fairy garden, dollhouse or miniature setting. 

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

xo Lady Lucas

P.S. - Need a last minute gift for you sweetie? Check out my online shop and snag something special! Your support means so much to me and helps me keep this blog rollin'!

P.S.S - What are your plans for Valentine's Day this year? Anything special? ;)

Arts & Crafts Crate DIY

Looking for an easy way to organize all your many markers, craft items and scissors? All you need is a crate! You can find a nice wooden one at most big box craft stores or even IKEA. Decorate it for your child (or for you!) using hot glue and scrapbook materials such as clip art, buttons and gems.

Fill the crate with fancy paper or plastic cups and glass jars, then organize all your materials! A crate filled with mason jars would look super modern and organized  ;)

Love & Buttons,

Zoë

Do YOU have a craft room or craft table at home? Share a pic or URL in the comments. I would love to see it!

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