Fun with Dyed Rice

Another perfect craft for rainy day weather.  It is like playing with colored sand, but the process of making it is half the fun for the kiddos :)

What you NEED:
* 1 cup of dry white rice for each color you want (I made 6 colors = 6 cups of rice)
*food coloring (There are some fun colors out there now, but I just used the main 4 and mixed for other colors)
*vinegar (1-2 tbsp per color)
*plastic sandwich bags, 1 bag per color x2 (one bag per color for the wet process, and one for storage once it is dry)
*cookie sheet(s); used for drying out the rice
*a dish for mixing colors
*paper or card stock (since the glue gets paper soggy you might prefer card stock)
*glue

Optional:
*wax or parchment paper, this makes it easier to pour the rice back into baggies

What Next?
1. Pour a 1 cup of rice into each ziplock bag
2. In the mixing dish mix your vinegar and food coloring
3. Pour the liquid mixture into the bag of dry rice and close tight getting rid of as much air as possible.
4. Now the fun part for the kids... mush the rice around in the bag until all of the rice gets colored.  If the color is not as vibrant as you want simply open the bag drop, some more color in, close up and mush some more.
5. Once the rice is evenly colored pour it onto the cookie sheet to dry.

You can see I only eyeballed my 1 cup of rice.

6. Once it is dry pour it back into a dry bag.  **This is why I loved using the wax paper.** What I did, if you look at the image above, is push the rice to the sides and cut down the center so that I could easily pour the rice into the bag.

**another trick I learned from Andy's grandpa: put the bag into a mug and pour in without needing more hands than we have ;)

 Now the kids are ready to play and get creative with the rice.

We used glue bottles to draw the designs and sprinkle rice onto the wet glue.  Again, I used the cookie sheets for easy clean up to pour the extra rice back into the bags. 

You could also have an extra bag for a rainbow selection of mixed colors.

Ta Da!

              

 

Popsicle Stick Puzzles

Since it has been very rainy this week in the Bay Area I needed some ideas to keep the kids entertained indoors.  On Pinterest I typed in: "Rainy Day" and tons of options popped up.  Here is one.

What you NEED:
*glue
*paint brush (I used a cheap one that I didn't mind getting glue on)
*razor blade or paper cutter
*fat popsicle sticks ($2 at Joanns, or $4 for colored ones; the colored ones would be good so the kids don't confuse the puzzles, or keep them in separate bags)
*pictures (personal, magazines, greeting cards...)
*baggies or envelopes for storage
Optional:
*dish to have the glue in for easy painting (I cut a Starbucks cup down low; free if you just ask next time you go in and then you can throw it away for easy clean up)
*duplicate image for reference when putting the puzzle together (I thought of this after the fact)

Now what?

Take your first image and get ready to cut.  A razor blade works, but I prefer the paper cutter since it is a little speedier.
1. measure the width of the popsicle stick
2. mark small dots on your image
3. cut/slice a straight line across the image

This one I used the razor blade, so the cuts are not too straight

4. Now glue the strips onto the popsicle sticks

if the images are from a magazine you only need a thin layer of glue.  Spread the strip out smoothly.  While it is wet it will look rippled, but it will dry smooth. 

You can see that this puzzle has a print on both sides.  You can get 2 sets of puzzles, but you will want to make sure that both images will use the same # of popsicle sticks.

Here are some more pics:

 

 

Next time I will take a picture of the image before I cut it up so I can stick it in the baggie with the puzzle.

And let the FUN begin!