Cherry Pit and Stem Art

Posted Jul 17, 11 -Filed Under children's activities (recycled materials), children's crafts (recycled materials), crafts (recycled materials), seasonal: summer, use for natural stuff: vines, sticks... | Leave a Comment

After you enjoy eating a bag of cherries this year, amuse yourself and your family too with these Cherry faces. Save the cherry pits and stems to create some amusing faces. My kids and I “painted” these faces using the computer after I took the pictures but all you will need is a marker to draw on the details.

Wouldn’t these be fun to make into cards? Ideas: Birthday card (smile), encouragement card for a friend dealing with stress (stresses out), sympathy card (sad face), Happy you are my teacher card (happy face)…

Glue the pits (eyes) and the stems (mouth) down on a piece of paper if you want to use it as part of your canvas. Alternatively, don’t glue them down. That way you can rearrange them as much as you want as an amusing way to spend some of you summer vacation time. (Eyes can be reversible: draw on both sides.) Here are a bunch of ideas to get you started.

Tree Frog Eggs Available: Southern Maryland

Posted Jul 11, 11 -Filed Under children's activities (recycled materials) | Leave a Comment

The recent rain here in Southern Maryland had spurred tree frog activity. I’ve discovered tree frog eggs in a large metal bucket that I use to collect rainwater to water my plants with.

If you live locally and would like to raise tree frog tadpoles for education and fun, contact me hesterjane@funinthemaking.net to arrange a pick up time.

Southern Maryland Reptiles and Amphibians: Male Broad-headed Skink

Posted Jul 10, 11 -Filed Under Nature: plant and animal identification | Leave a Comment

This broad-headed skink (Plestiodon laticeps)  is a male. It is non venomous. Males of this species are easy to identify because their head will turn bright orange during their breeding season. Also, if you compared the head size of a male and a female with similar sized bodies, the head of the male would be larger.

My daughter discovered this guy just outside our house.

Southern Maryland Reptiles and Amphibians: Broad-headed Skink

Posted Jul 10, 11 -Filed Under Nature: plant and animal identification, children's activities (recycled materials) | 2 Comments

This is a broad-headed skink that I found recently. Time to look for lizards!

The female broad-headed skink (Plestiodon laticeps) looks similar to the five-lined skink (Plestidon fasciatus). Both have a blue tail when young; the adult females might have a blue tail as well. To distinguish the two species apart, you must look closely at the scales on the upper lip.

A broad-headed skink (Plestiodon laticeps) has 5 scales on its upper lip from the nostril to the corner of its eye. The five-lined skink (Plestiodon fasciatus) had four scales.

Southern Maryland Reptiles and Amphibians: Copes Gray Treefrog

Posted Jul 3, 11 -Filed Under Nature: plant and animal identification | Leave a Comment

There are two species of gray treefrogs in Maryland: Gray Treefrog (Hyla versicolor) and Cope’s Gray Treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis). You can’t tell them apart by looking at them. They do however have different calls.

This frog is a Cope’s Gray Treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis) found on my deck. I’ve heard its call and the map (link below) confirms its range in Southern MD.

You can hear their calls and see a map of Southern MD showing their ranges here.

Cope’s Gray Treefrog

Beautiful Shell Photo Holder Craft

Posted Jul 2, 11 -Filed Under crafts (recycled materials), use for natural stuff: vines, sticks..., use for shells | Leave a Comment

If you are planning to go on vacation to the beach this summer, you might come home with a few shells. Put some of them to good use as beautiful photo holders and more!

Uses:

Label your pot luck contribution.

“crab dip”… for example

Photograph holder

I like to give these as thank you gifts.

Business card holder

I needed a card holder so I decided to see how hard it would be to cut into a shell I found. It turned out that it was do-able.

Hold reminder notes…

Place card holder

For your next dinner party, set the table with shells holding the names of all your guests.

Personalized messages

How to:

Find shells. (Finding the shells is half the fun.)

Use a hack saw to cut a slot in your shell. Use a saw blade with fine teeth. It isn’t too difficult to cut this grove but chances are your hand will get tired.

  • Translate

    EnglishFrenchGermanItalianPortugueseRussianSpanish

  • Sponsors

  • Support Fun In The Making

    Like what you see? Consider donating a dollar. If you get project ideas throughout the year consider giving $10.

  • Got Questions?

    Are you having any trouble understanding some of the instructions? Feel free to send me a quick e-mail at HesterJane@FunInTheMaking.net. I’ll do my best to answer your questions. Do you have any suggestions regarding a specific post? Maybe you have a better way and would like to share it with the other creative people visiting this site? -Hester Jane