It isn't always easy to come up with a home made gift for a big brother who is into Legos, Star Wars, and Pokemon. But I think his reaction last night indicates that Camille succeeded! Ooey-gooey alien brains and monster snot turned out to be a huge hit. Easy enough for Camille to make and disgusting enough to delight Noah. We used this great tutorial from Skip to My Lou. Once you get to the stage of near solid, just dump out the extra liquid and immerse yourself in the slimey fun. After we got to that stage, we bottled them up in empty baby food jars and Camille made some great face labels for the tops.
My favorite part of the whole gift are her drawings that describe the monster and the alien. "The Monster (named) Horn: double headed with eyes on each head, two horns, snot coming out of his head, no nose, lots of sharp teeth, claws, and only one leg". And the "A Friendly Alien: It is a girl alien, but soon it will be mean just like the monster and then they will live happily ever after".
As Noah was opening his gooey gifts, I couldn't help remembering this cool alien gift he made for Camille when he was five. We can't seem to go wrong with aliens in this family!
I need to incorporate my children giving gifts to each other in our program. I need to get over the fear of the extra work, so that they can learn the spirit of giving. Design Mom has a great tutorial this week on how to make t-shirt that are bleached out with logos. I think those will be on our list for next year.
I LOVE this gift idea! The drawing is too cute - and final product - how perfect! I think this is a great idea for siblings to make for each other. Glad to have stumbled upon here from Keeping Time's blog - and wow... Sicily!?!
Kelleyn, I hope you give the sibling gift making experience a try. It is worth the effort. We are continuing the tradition of hand made gifts that my family had when I was growing up. Now that my kids are getting older, the gift exchanges are becoming even more rewarding and sweet. I have to go check out the t-shirt tutorial you mentioned. Sounds interesting.
The Art of Family, Welcome!
It's me again with one more comment on this issue of sibling gifts. I have been thinking about it over the past couple of days. It was spurred by this "conversation" but also by my own kids. Noah has been playing with the snot/gak every day since getting it and yesterday Camille brought the pillow Noah made for her to show and tell. Not the new baby doll or the other Hanukkah presents, but the pillow Noah lovingly sewed for her. It was a store bought Hello Kitty sewing kit. Nothing super fancy, not entirely home crafted, but he chose it and he worked hard at it and she loves it.
And I still remember one Christmas when my sister and I made each other snowmen out of old socks. They really weren't anything fancy or elaborate, but I was so excited I was to open that shoe box with the sock snowman she had made for just for me. I don't remember any other gifts from that Christmas.
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