When children stay home from school...

N was not feeling very well today at all.  Not the croup this time (I'm still telling myself that he won't wake up with it tomorrow), but enough to stay home...so, of course some crafting was in order.

In about 18 days there will be an art show at the boys' school, where they display their art made out of recycled/repurposed materials.  This is N's project. He is making his initials out of buttons.  Years ago...about 10 years ago in fact, I had made a project similar to this with white buttons on a piece of cream toile in the shape of a heart and framed in a vintage wooden frame for a customer.  I had kind of forgotten about it until I came across these button initials on etsy and decided the boys could probably manage this project.  The N is drawn on in chalk so that it can be erased after.  The buttons have come off various clothes not good enough to donate (rag bin clothes) and buttons saved from a variety of sources (my grandmother's button jar and my brother-in-law's grandmother's button jar have been added to my own collection).  

This is how far he got today, in about 4 sittings...

I have to say he is really enjoying this project.  In fact, I am the one holding him up a bit... he still needs my help to thread the needle.  The colours aren't quite right in this photo, but the buttons are all green on a dark olive green/black background.  He plans to make the S in all blue buttons.

On a side note:  yesterday I posted about how much fun they were having with giant grasses they picked while on our walk...Today, we came across some tops I had made for them back when they were maybe 3 and 6 or 4 and 7.  Simple toys really are so much better (straight out of S's mouth today).  They played with these for hours today!  Easy peasy to make...I cut a thin wooden dowel and sharpened the end in a pencil sharpener and poked it through a wooden bead that I had painted.  That's it...no glue, no nails/screws, nothing.  You could probably make these with all different shapes of wooden beads (Sorry, I don't have a source, they were just in a bag of bits I had around...and that was 5 or so years ago).

Competitions ensued...S can make his spin in his hand, and then drop it, still spinning on the table.

N can make his spin on the sofa...upside down...and hit it with something and watch it recover.

A quilting hoop was turned into a stadium (or battleground depending on who you ask).  

I can't wait to see how everyone else is getting their craft on with KEEP CALM CRAFT ON over at Frontier Dreams (Tuesdays).  Wanna come join?

Linking up with Eco Kids Tuesdays at Like Mama Like Daughter