{kid craft} Kate's paper cup poppers

Would you say it's cheating if a craft takes you literally two minutes and can be done while cooking dinner? All with stuff you're likely to have around? It feels a bit like cheating. After all, the whole purpose of my kid craft series was to sit down with the brothers every week and have them practice all the nice, non-destructive things you can do with paper, scissors and glue.

You could of course argue that the whole purpose is for the kids to have fun and enjoy making things instead of just buying things (or getting bored). In this case we've found a new favorite.

I have to thank Kate of MiniEco for these. In case you haven't seen her newly released book, go check it out . Seriously, go have a look. I'll wait until you're back.

See? Told you it was great. What I love most is that it's got lots of craft ideas for boys. I thought it was funny how many crafts were photographed with girls, because really, this is finally a craft book that's not pink or frilly or requires precise coloring in the lines. But if you know Kate's blog, you wouldn't have expected anything pink or frilly. In fact, this is so great that I got to flip through it exactly once before the brothers ripped it out of my hands, announcing the things they wanted to do and taking the book with them to preschool the next day. It's been there ever since. 

Big brother's preschool teacher was equally impressed and has already done a few of the crafts with the kids, so I have a hard time catching up. When he came home with one of these paper cup poppers cups, little brother wanted do have one, too. Which is why I had to do this right now mommy, while making dinner. Luckily I had a paper cup in my kitchen left over from Easter, ballons are always in the kids' stuff and a yellow (of course) felt pompom wasn't hard to come by either. 

Oh, and a daddy home early who happened to be nice enough to do the actual crafting, as in cutting the bottom off the cup, pulling the balloon over the opening and securing it with clear packing tape (as opposed to the rubber band Kate suggests). Done. 

The brothers went off, happily shooting felt pompoms all over the living room, crawling under the couch and scrambling to catch the pompoms before the cats got hold of them.

I have a feeling I should plan some more time for next week's craft.

Happy crafting,

Swenja