I found the idea to use contact paper (sticky side out) on a table on Pinterest and Lily loved it. I have since tried it on the wall and Lily loves it even more.

I had thought at first to buy Lil some pattern blocks because I saw on some blog that her kids had fun with it, but keep putting off actually buying them. One day I decided to see if Lily would even like it and took some craft foam sheets that I had bought but didn’t really have a use for and cut it into different shapes. Lil went crazy for it.

Since she like doing abstract shapes so much I thought I’d try using the craft foam to celebrate the seasons and holidays.

First up: Spring.

While Lil was downstairs playing with Waldo’s parents I started cutting foam sheets up into flowers and a sun and some clouds.  Lil walked in and saw the stack of foam sheets and went straight to the drawer where I keep my exacto knife (well covered so the sharp end isn’t a danger) grabbed it and the cutting board it came with and proclaimed I needed to make her more shapes.  First off I have to say that I didn’t know she even knew my knife was in the drawer of my craft dresser-thing and I’ve since moved it and secondly holy crap I guess she liked the sticky board even more than I though.

I showed her what I had already made her and asked what else she needed. Lily decided that we needed some red and orange clouds, a tree (which I thought was an awesome idea and couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it), a bird (see ‘a tree’), a butterfly and a snowflake (from a pre-cut winter foam sheet set we had).

The spring board was a huge hit and is still up on the wall.

*****

Second sticky board: Easter bunnies.

We aren’t religious people and do a very secular version of Christmas and Easter. It’s all about family, fun, crafts and being together. That’s just so you know why there are never any crosses in my art with Lily. 🙂

We stopped at Michaels last weekend so I could grab some pastel paint for our eggs. Let me just point out here that I found it very hard to get pastel paint anywhere, do you have a secret place you get it from? Anyway we were looking around and I grabbed some foam sheets cut like eggs and I figured I’d do another sticky wall with them or a mobile or something. I also grabbed a spring colored collection of foam sheets. The more I thought of the foam eggs the clearer a craft idea became. Of course in the end it only barely resembled the grand plan in my brain, but it was fun none the less.

Thursday I gave Lily the foam eggs and some puffy paint since she loved it so much last time and she went to town.

I showed her how to make lines, she was one happy girl after that.

I know she looks really bored, but I checked and she's just concentrating.

The green is just craft glue that I added some green dye to for fun.

I wasn’t sure how long the huge globs of puffy paint was going to take to dry so I planned to do the rest of the sticky wall on Saturday instead of Friday.  I’m really glad I did, the largest globs weren’t dry till Saturday morning.

After I put Lily to bed Friday night I started getting everything ready for Saturday morning.  I put a new piece of contact paper up on a free space of wall (I’m running out of free wall space in the family room very quickly) and figured out how to make a very simple basket. I normally would let Lily put everything up on the sticky wall, but I wanted a few things “just so” on this particular wall so I did a few of the items.

I put a little easter grass in the basket and set to work on making my bunnies.  I honestly had no idea how I was going to make them when I started looking around the family room for inspiration.  I initially thought they’d be pretty small, but ended up using one of the foam eggs as a template for the belly portion so they are bigger than the eggs and that worked out just fine, thankfully.  After cutting two body portions out of craft foam I grabbed one of Lil’s tiny tea cups and used it to trace a circle for the head. I free-handed the ears and then decided that they needed some additional dimension and added a little almost round piece to the belly, a muzzle on the face and inner ear colors. I loved my little bunnies. I took them in and showed Waldo, who tried really hard to not roll his eyes too much.  I then decided they needed arms and legs and this was almost the end of my cute bunnies.  The arms and legs got very cartoonish and long and at first I hated it, but Lil ended up using only the arms and it worked out great. I know that I’m the only one that the arms and legs being weird would bother, but I worked hard on my little buddies bunnies and wanted perfection.

I put the bunny parts together and just placed the eyes on the tray so Lil would be able to see what they were, but would be able to customize.  I shouldn’t have been surprised that she put them all together just about exactly how I had them laid out. I mean Mr. Potato Head has only one suitable configuration, oh well.  I stayed up very late to get my bunnies all finished and make sure everything was ready for when Lil woke up in the morning.  I find it funny that most Mom’s would stay up late on Saturday night to make it look like the Easter bunny had been busy with baskets and eggs for Easter. I stay up late Friday night so that Lil can do a fun easter craft instead.

Saturday morning bright and early Lil woke up and we started our day.  She didn’t disappoint me with her reaction to my bunny craft.  We spent a little time gluing the eyes on and then she got to work.

I love that she used poof balls for feet, unfortunately poof balls don't stick to contact paper very well.

The bunnies got moved around a bit before Lil was totally satisfied, but once she was it was all perfect.

I love making sticky walls for Lily with craft foam shapes and other items we find around the house and craft closet.  She has a lot of fun with it and learns along the way too.  Most of the time the foam sheets are repositionable, but sometimes they get totally stuck and you can’t move it without ripping.  Such is life I guess and we all move on.  I have a sticky wall idea that’s forming involving fish, I can’t wait to see how it works out.