This fun ladybug picture was inspired by a recent ladybug sighting at the playground a few days ago. In our household, we are all about celebrating the little things in life! The best part — this project is very low cost!!
Did you know that Home Depot has paint chips in the shape of leaves? Fantastic! If you don’t already have some, you can pick some up for free! Invite your child to glue the leaves on a sheet of construction paper. Emily loves to use glue!
Next, I drew some branches for Emily to color in….
She also added some veins to the leaves. Now the fun part, cut some color coding labels (we bought a pack of 225 for $1) in half to make the ladybugs!!
I love how these two are talking to each other! Hmm.. I think one of them has an extra leg?
Add the spots, and antennae (or “cantennae“, as Emily would say. Not sure where she picked up that geeky term… I’m looking at you, Mark!)
Don’t forget to sign your incredibly CUTE artwork!
Extra bonus points for reading Ladybug Picnic
Dear Valerie,
Let's keep my love of inexpensive home wireless routers and home made antennas out of this!
Love,
Mark
That is very cute Valerie!
This is great Valerie!
Super cute.
These are so cute! And thanks for the tip about the leaf-shaped paint chips!
I'm going to Home Depot for those leaf paint chips!
I love your ladybugs.
Emily is so cute!
Love it – I have to ask my dear husband to pick up some leaf-shaped paint chips on his next trip to Home Depot. Very pretty!
@ Mark — Touche! 🙂
@ MaryAnne — My head is spinning with all the possibilities for these leaf-shaped paint chips! I'm already thinking of updating our Spring mural to a Summer one… fun!!
I'll have to see if my Home Depot has those, they're way too cute.
We love to do fun things with those stickers! Neon colors make mama happy.
It's 60 miles to our nearest Home Depot – but Emily's artwork turned out so cute, it would almost be worth the trip!
@ mandy — I'm a big fan of those bright colors too! 🙂
@ An Almost Unschooling Mom — 60 miles??? You must live off the beaten path, eh? In that case, I'd just cut a couple of leaves from construction paper! 😉
Adorable craft!
We use lots of these stickers, but I've never cut them in half to create. Great idea!
@ Scott — Thanks so much for stopping by! This isn't the first time we've cut these up to make fun pictures! Did you see the birds on a wire post?
That is so cute and creative. I didn't know they had the leave-shaped thingies.
So, when you're out and see ladybugs, does Emily ask to do crafts around what you gals see or do you suggest it?
what a cute idea! Love it!
You're ideas are always so great! Super cute!
@ Petula — It almost always comes from her. Especially the crafts with recyclables! She hates to throw things away (must have inherited that trait from Mark), and instead will ask me what we can make with it. So she usually comes up with the idea, and I figure out a way to make it happen…. and we have a lot of FUN doing it! 🙂
Adorable and what a cute way to use those colorful circle stickers. I'm sure I have some lying around. I gave you something "sweet" over at my blog today. Stop by when you get a chance.
Jen from Creative and Curious Kids!
Very cute! Thanks for sharing!
terelauritsen.blogspot.com
How do you come up with all these great ideas? I wish I could bring my kids over to your house to do crafts and play.
@ Jen — Thank you so much for the award! xoxo 🙂 It totally made my day, and I adore all of the other blogs you chose too. What an honor, thanks!!!!
Adorable. I wonder whether my daughter's preschool teachers bookmark your site . . . would it be cool if I told them they should?
@ Jessica Monte — It would be freakin' awesome! Thank you!!! 🙂
Oh dear- the people at Home Depot are gonna be wondering WHY they are in need of so many leaf shaped paint chips soon…
@ Wonder Mom — LOL I keep wondering if they are going to start banning me from the store, but every time I'm there I can't help but buy something (for crafting purposes, of course). So if they lure me in with paint chips, I guess that's okay!
THAT is adorable!
Brillant! How do you come up with these awesome ideas???
This is so cute and totally frame worthy! I am going to stop by and see if I can find some of those paint chips tomorrow. How fun!
lovely ladies indeed! Thanks for showing me that site via Twitter. Very funny!!!!
Great idea!
Thanks for sharing!!!!
My little one is still too little for artwork, but I'll be saving this idea for when she is bigger!!
What a fun craft… I am spending next month looking at bugs for my toddler… making lots of crafts that teach her colours and numbers etc, etc.. this is one craft I will love to make with her. thanks for sharing
@ Christina — I was just thinking of doing a post about how we come up with these ideas… maybe I should! Thanks so much!
@ Katie's Nesting Spot — Mark took this one to decorate his office at work. I'm jealous!!
@ Alison — I remember saving craft ideas from when Emily was too young to do them, but they grow up sooooo quickly! Clara started crafting/doodling around 15 months. Have fun!!!
@ Helen — That sounds like a lovely way to spend some quality time with your daughter!
I love this craft! My Emily is obsessed with ladybugs. Can't wait to make our own.
Fabulous idea. I love those ladybugs.
Very fun!
I think I'll stick with the construction paper ones; they'd notice if I took that many chips for all of my children! My children would have lots of fun making the ladybugs, though!
I love these!!! We will be trying this very soon great idea.
I love this idea! thanks!
We used the leaves too:
http://superheroesandprincesses.blogspot.com/2010/05/leaves-and-caterpillars.html
I just loved this one. I just noticed that we didn't do any crawling bugs, just flying ones. I guess that is what I get for trying to do the project from memory. It still turned out cute. Here is ours: http://makesthree.blogspot.com/2010/07/art-projects-inspired-by-frugal-family.html