Crafting corner

I'm not crafty.

I can't draw, I can't paint, I can't create something out of nothing. And I most definitely can't sew. So much so, that not only do I not own a sewing machine (and if I did, I wouldn't know how to use it), I would rather buy a new shirt than sew a button back on.

The only semi-crafty thing I do do is scrapbooking, but that's really something that morphed from my love of putting photos in photo albums. I'm old fashioned that way; I love being able to flip through a photo album rather than look at pictures online. But when I scrapbook, I don't tend to buy fancy paper and stickers, hole punches and scissors -- my emphasis is on displaying the photos, not on decorating the pages with other things.

But recently, I have an almost three year old who wants to 'do stuff'. And suddenly, I've been making trips to the dollar store to buy craft material (since I don't 'do stuff' on my own, I certainly don't have stuff to do stuff with) and have been sitting down to do crafts with him.

At first it stressed me out. Part of my inability to be crafty is my inability to come up with creative ideas. But it slowly dawned on me, that I don't need original ideas for a three-year-old to do, I just need the Internet. So, thanks to my crafty and creative friend, I've found some kid-friendly craft blogs with some pretty fun ideas.

What I've realized that while it would be nice to be creative enough to 'make things' like many of my friends do, kids crafts don't have to be super-cool. They just have to be super-cute and fun for a three-year-old to do with a little help from mom. Making a dinosaur out of construction paper and glue or heart shaped balloons with some markers, paper and pipe cleaners is not only easy, but a lot of fun.

Because at three, your kid doesn't yet know that you're not that talented -- he just thinks you're helping him do some pretty cool crafts. In another few years, he'll figure out that I really can't draw but until then, I'm going to enjoy pretending looking like a genius to him.

So without further ado, here is our wall of crafts:

Two years ago I said I don't bake and now I bake with my three year old. So I guess baking and starting our own craft corner means that anything is possible.