Beautiful DIY Bean Art The Whole Family Can Create

DIY bean art for kids and tweens

Handmade Charlotte inspired us to create with beans after we saw their amazing masterpieces based on Dr. Dolittle. It’s a great movie for kids, by the way. Our kids loved it! There is always major creativity and talent happening at Handmade Charlotte, so check it out.

So, we recently invested about $8 in a couple bags of beans, and had so much fun. Gabriella and I spent the afternoon creating unique art…with beans! You can do this year-round, and all ages will enjoy it. No glue-gun needed. Just basic Elmer’s for this.

We shared all the details here, at Momtastic.

Here Comes The Sun: Sunshine Party Just for Kids

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As you know, we’re thrilled about summer. We’re spoiled by the Colorado sunshine. There’s nothing like a sunny, blue-sky Colorado day. We celebrated sunshine with our little darlings, and it was so much fun! Oriental Trading Company helped us make a bright and colorful party – they were the source for all our party goods.

Not only is this party all about the sun, but it helped us introduce the Beatles to our kids. Here Comes the Sun is a classic, so you can bet the kids had “doo, doo, doo, doo” stuck in their heads, just like we did.

All the details from the party are below.

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DIY Felt Banners
Cut the felt into a banner shape. Cut and trace paper (or stencil) letters onto colorful felt. Once all the letters are traced, cut them out. We made banners with the lyrics to the song, Here Comes the Sun. Glue (hot glue worked great) the letters onto the white felt banner. Find tree branches or wood rods to hang them. We used hot glue to roll them on a tree branch. We made DIY Tassels to hang on the bottom of each one from felt. First we cut strips of felt, then cut tiny strips 3/4 way up each piece, and rolled it into a tassel. We used hot glue to keep it rolled tight.

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DIY Sun Decor
A sunshine party is not a sunshine party without, well, the sun. Buy yellow tissue paper fans, open them up, and then glue a circular piece of orange paper in the center. Easy-peasy.

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Sunshine Craft
Our girls love to craft, so the highlight of the party was the sun sand key chains from Oriental Trading. They made colorful sand art that they now proudly carry on their backpacks.

When they weren’t crafting with sand, they were doodling with chalk. The girls drew variations of the sun and its rays, and hopped on each one. They were walking (or hopping) on sunshine.

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Other Details
A fun favor from the party was a sweet new pair of sunny shades.

Popcorn is always a favorite snack for our kids. We served the popped goodness in bright yellow popcorn boxes. We pulled the sun shapes from extra pairs of sunglasses for a fun popcorn box detail.

We absolutely love, love the glass milk bottles. They were perfect containers for the sand, as well as juice for the girls. A straw was taped to each bottle with yellow patterned washi tape.

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Enjoy the summer sun!

Oriental Trading sent us some items of our choosing for this post, free of charge. We’re so happy they did! All opinions are honest, and our own. No other type of compensation was received. Thanks for supporting the companies that support j. sorelle. We love Oriental Trading, even before this post.

you are my sunshine

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are gray
You’ll never know dear, how much I love you
Please don’t take my sunshine away

My mom and I sing this to my kids all the time. My daughter particularly loves it ~ her eyes light up when she hears it, and when the song is over she always asks for more.

It’s a meaningful song to me, so I brought it to life with my inspiration board today. Hope it brings a little sunshine to your winter day…and I think it’s a sweet spin on Valentine’s Day for your loved one {make your Valentine feel like he/she is the sunshine of your life}.

I’ll leave you with a cupcake recipe that looks like it tastes as refreshing, yummy and sweet as sunshine. It makes me wish summer was here.

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes by Half Baked, The Cake Blog

images via:
Zappos Hunter Original High Gloss Rain Boot | Sugarboo Designs You Are My Sunshine Art Print |  Country Living Yellow Painted Bedroom | Yellow Centerpiece with Chevron Runner from Oh So Beautiful Paper | You Are My Sunshine Sign by Etsy seller Go Jump in the Lake | Flower Necklace by etsy seller RachelleD | Yellow and White Sailor Tote Bag found at Damsel in Dior and sold by Etsy seller Bayan HippoJonathan Adler Grapefruit Pop Candle |  You are my Sunshine Cake found at P is for Party | Pinterest Hello Sunshine pillow | Mulberry Fashion Ad from Damsel in Dior | Half Baked, The Cake Blog | Sunflower Soiree Party by The Party Dress | Invitation by Fleur de Lis, a paperie