For real.
Here’s how it went down on Thursday, February 11, 2010. I pick up my daughter from school at 3:15… about 1 minute passed by before I heard these words,
Mom? We have a Valentine’s day party tomorrow and I have to bring in Valentine’s for everyone.
Of course, I should’ve seen it coming… I’m not a fan of buying cards – they end up being tossed out as quickly as you sink money into them – and they can’t be appreciated at all by kindergartners. So, the pressure was on.
Lucky for me, I actually enjoy doing art projects with Claudia.
Art in my life
We tend to be do-it-yourself-ers when it comes to artwork on the walls – I guess we’ve had to become photographers as a result being field geologists. But that doesn’t stop us from orbiting around the local Art Fair (on the Square) – looking for inspiration. When we actually do purchase art, it tends to be functional art – we’ve purchased night-lights, bread knives, a cast iron chandelier, wooden toys…
Type example of functional art... with obvious lack of current function.
I was really pretty jazzed when Miss Claudia comes home raring to teach me about her latest art project – a functional art project – bottle cap magnets.
So simple. You need bottle caps, paper, crayons or markers, & elmer’s glue (oh, and magnets – which we actually haven’t sprung for yet). As we homebrew – we are wealthy with bottle caps. Although, Claudia is becoming a bit of a conservationist these days – she actually collected bottle caps from us when we went out to lunch one day. I won’t argue with that.
So, you just draw a little picture and glue it into the cap – and then drown it in glue as a top coat. Let it dry and stick a magnet on the back of it. Our small army of bottle cap art has been used as board game pieces so far – when we get around to actually making them magnets – well, then they’ll have a new functional life.
As we used to call it: Happy VD
Right, the Valentine’s party… If you’re a parent, I highly recommend investing in Crayola Color Switchers.
We managed to craft 14 individual works of art out of 4″x4″ pieces of white paper and these awesome markers. You color with one end of the marker – and then magically change the color with the other end of the marker. Awesomeness. Sort of feels a bit like having the trains – having kids is a good excuse to play with magic markers 
And while we’re on the topic of art-to-make-with-your-kiddo, do you remember Cootie Catchers? Holy crow! Claudia and I have been folding these things like mad lately. She’s turning them into flowers by stabbing them with pipe cleaners.
These little crafts are nice because they’re quick to accomplish, and if you’re cursed with the short-attention-span-theater at your home like I am, then you’ll appreciate that.
You can then reach for that job-well-done beer because you want to – not because you’re driven too 
OK, I want to make little bottle cap magnets too! Maybe a good Costa Rica kids & grownups project?
Great idea! I’m sure that we’ll have plenty of bottle caps