Subway Art Present

Remember the Subway Art Tutorial post a couple weeks back where I made this cute piece for Brad?



Well, I made another one for my dad for Father's Day. Yes, I realize Father's Day was a couple months ago, but I hadn't posted about it yet. This is mainly due to the fact I took first pictures of it today when I was at my parents' house. My many apologies for my tardiness.



Anywho, I made this for my dad using two posters since it had my grandparents listed, where they are from, my parents and their original address when they were married, my sisters and where we all live now. I did this the same way I made Brad's. My dad is super handy and made the frame for the artwork. I love how simple the frame is and it looks great with the subway art. Don't you agree?





Should I feel bad he worked on his own present? Oh well- he loved the present so that is all that matters!


Please be a fan of lil Mop Top on facebook!! I link up to these parties!

Painting with Golf Balls

I had heard about an arts and crafts activity where you dip marbles into paint and then roll them around on paper. But then I saw this post (via One Pretty Thing which I LOVE!)where someone commented about using golf balls instead of marbles. So I decided to try it out today with John John. He really seemed to like the activity and it kept him entertained for about 20 - 30 minutes which is a long time for an 18 month old kiddo! We did end the actvity with a bath since John decided he also wanted to paint his arms, but that is ok!

Here is how it went for us...

We started with our paint and golf balls. I put an old sheet on the tile floor just to make clean up easier and I am very glad I did! I would have been mopping up quite a bit of paint!



I tried to use a big tupperware box first in case John was wild with his rolling of the golf balls. But the balls kept rolling in the grooves on the side so it wasn't working out well. We switched to a pan which worked much better!




John first used the golf balls like stamps with the paint.



He would put each golf ball back in a pile of paint and then put them back in the pan. So cute! I threw in a little mini-lesson of colors while he did it!



It took some 'progression' for him to roll the balls. I had to put the balls on one side of the pan and then ask him to roll the balls to me. Then he would manually roll the balls back and forth. Then he was able to lift one side of the pan to roll the balls and I would have to tilt it for him to get the balls back to him again. He finally figured out how to lift the ends of the pan to make the balls roll back and forth all by himself! Yay for John John!



And here is the final result! We ended up with three pretty art pieces!



I have a felling these will be turned into Father's Day cards for this weekend just like our last arts and crafts project. So, Dad, act surprised when you see your card on Sunday! :)

Father's Day Flashback

Father's Day is going to be here before I know it and I haven't though of anything cute to make for Brad yet! So, as I think of something new, let's flashback to last year...

For Brad's first Father's Day I made him two crafty gifts! The first was a project that John and I made for him- his handprints with the wording 'Hands down, You are the World's Greatest Dad!'. Brad has it hanging up at work still! This was so easy to make even when John was eating the paper instead of helping me glue. :)

The second project was making him some 'Daddy Dark Ale'. I found this from some random blog back in the day and it was really easy to make. The lady who made them said to soak the beer bottles in soapy water to take the labels off the bottles. I was way too lazy for that and left them on. I printed out labels with different pictures of John and Brad together and taped them onto a 6 pack of Shiner beer- Brad's fav! He loved it and still has the empty bottles in the garage. I also made a sign for the cardboard box that the beer comes in so tie it all together.


The morning of Father's Day Brad woke up to his favorite breakfast (donuts!) and presents.




We had lunch at his favorite Italian restaurant (I think this was John's first time to sit in a high chair at a restaurant!!)




We finished the day by playing in the baby pool in the backyard. It was a wonderful and relaxing day!







This was such an easy way to make the day special for Brad without spending a ton of money...and getting to be crafty all at the same time! :) Anyone doing anything fun for Father's Day this year?