Baking Soda and Vinegar Color Fun

This is by far our favorite science experiment these days at Our Beautifully Messy House. It's incredibly simple and quick to put together and L loves it! Whenever she has a friend over and there's a lull in the action, I usually pull this one out to keep the hooligans entertained. 

Materials needed:

-food coloring

-baking soda

-vinegar

-medium-sized container

-cup

-medicine dropper

First, put some drops of food coloring around the bottom of the container. Remember that the colors will eventually mix, so place the colors accordingly.

Next, pour some baking soda over the little, food-coloring puddles until the colors are completely hidden.

Now, pour some vinegar into a small cup. This is a great place to stop and talk a little bit about the science behind this fun and fizzy experiment. Even though L is only 2 years old, we still talk about how it's an acid-base reaction that causes the fizzing. She loves tasting the baking soda and talking about how it's salty versus the vinegar that smells and tastes sour. (Bottom picture is after tasting the salty baking soda.)

Now for the fun part! Using the medicine dropper, squirt vinegar onto the baking soda mounds and watch the concoction fizz while the colors appear and mix together. It should continue fizzing as long as baking soda is visible and your child continues to squirt vinegar into the container. 

Not only is this experiment easy to put together, but clean-up is a cinch too! Just dump the mixture down the drain and toss the cup and container into the dishwasher. The vinegar-baking soda concoction will help clean your sink too...an added bonus! I hope your kids love this one as much as mine do! Enjoy!

Clothespin Butterflies

These clothespin butterflies are fun to make and can be clipped just about anywhere! L and I started this craft on a whim a couple weeks ago, we were trying to make butterflies with things we already had. Hopefully you have all the materials hiding around your house too! You could use paint or markers to color the clothespins. Using markers, the butterflies could be finished in one morning. We chose to paint ours...L loves to paint and I like when projects can be stretched out, keeping us busy for a few days.

Materials needed:

-clothespins

-paint or markers

-pipe cleaners

-beads

-hot glue gun and glue

First, paint the clothespins. We painted one side, let them dry, then painted the other. I helped with the touch-ups...filling in any little spots that were missed. Let the kids have fun with it! L was happy painting hers all sorts of colors...there's no right or wrong way.

Next, choose the color pipe cleaners you want to use for wings and the color beads. We used three colors of beads for the wings. This was a great learning activity to teach little ones about patterns! L strung the beads on the pipe cleaners, repeating our 3-bead pattern 4 times for each wing. 

Spread the beads out a little bit, so the color of the pipe-cleaner can be seen. Next, loop one end of the pipe cleaner around to the middle of the pipe cleaner and wrap it once or twice, leaving about half an inch of the end sticking out. Repeat with the other side of the pipe cleaner, forming a figure-8 butterfly wing shape. Twist both half-inch ends together. (This step is much easier to see in the pictures than to explain!) Repeat for the second wing. 

To make the butterfly's antennas, cut a pipe cleaner in half. Then, bend that piece in half. Put a bead on each end of the antenna and curl it down a bit.

After you've shaped both butterfly wings and the antennas, it's time to glue them to the clothespin. Using the hot glue gun, put a little bit of glue on the inside ridge of the clip and quickly press the middle of the antennas in place. 

Next, put a bit of glue inside the wire coil and push one of the wings in. Repeat the same on the other side, only put the glue above the wire coil and slide the wing in place.

Cute, right? These would be beautiful hanging in a window with the sun lighting-up the beads! We're making something special for WB's room with ours...I can't wait to show you next week! Enjoy! 

DIY Melted Crayon Art with Variations

This was the perfect "rainy day craft" for today...fun for me and for L! I'm so excited about these melted crayon creations, I can't wait to make more! Let's jump right in...

Materials needed:

-white canvas

-crayons

-hot glue gun and glue

-cardboard box

-hair blowdryer 

Although there's definitely some unpredictability in this project, you first need to plan it out a bit. Start with picking out your colors. 

After deciding where your crayons will go, use the hot glue gun to attach them to the canvas.

Next, place the canvas in a cardboard box. The box will keep your work area clean, catching the crayon splatter.

Prop the box up against a chair, table, or wall. Make sure the crayons are facing down (if you want a dripping effect) and that the box and canvas are on a little bit of an incline.

Next for the fun part, use the hair dryer to melt the crayons and blow the wax around. I let L do most of the rainbow picture. Turned out pretty awesome, huh!? 

Now, display your work in whichever direction you please. I think a ribbon pinned or glued around the outside edges of the canvas would give it a nice finished work too. 

Variations:

Wildflowers
To make the wildflower piece, I used mostly greens and browns. After I was done melting the crayons and the wax had time to cool down, I used the hot glue gun to attach flowers. Do this step carefully, so no glue shows! It works best to glue the flowers on spots without any wax. 

Wild Splatter
I experimented with this one a bit, trying to plan for some future creations. I kept the box flat to the ground and used broken crayon pieces. To hold the crayons in place while melting them, I used a fork and smudged them around a bit. The outcome was a little funky...next time I'll use smaller crayon pieces and maybe some crayon shavings instead. 

I'm hoping to make a vibrant, Autumn tree next! I'll be sure to update the blog and add those pictures as well, so check back soon!!! What "melted crayon art" will you make???