Recently this project was in the Disney family fun magazine. Usually each month I give the magazine to my son and say Pick something. He breezes right over the hairclips and pretty things to the boy items. Once they had some star wars thing you could make out of egg cartons or something an A-T A-T Walker? does that sound right? We know my son is a Star Wars fan. Even wrote George Lucas a letter at the age of 4. Needless to say. he likes the projects in this magazine because there are always some “boy projects”. I highly recommend it when you have a son and he is not interested in butterflies and hairclips.

So this time around I said… it’s Father’s Day. Find something to make for Father’s Day. He perused the magazine and laughed and laughed when he saw the “for a fungi”.  He asked me more then once “do you get it?” I said “yes”. and prepared for our plan for Father’s Day.

I had some jars that held food that were about the right size and had been sitting on my jar shelf. so I got those out and put in baking soda to soak up any smells. These sat on the counter for a few days my husband didn’t even ask. Haha. He has learned that I usually have a reason. It may be warped, but there is a reason there are jars with white powder sitting on the counter.

I bought some white clay (from my grocery store that has a craft aisle! so awesome) I could have my son form and bake  and then we could use my Bic Mark-Its. I love them. ( Thank goodness school is coming again so I can refresh my supply for cheap. I use these for Den meetings, home use, kiddo use, and they just look pretty in a tin with all the colors. Yes I am in love!) I chose white so I could buy one package for this one time package and not many packages for different colors.

So we formed them and then I baked them at 225 for about 45 minutes. Cleaned out any clay that ended up on the inside of the cap. Colored them and then Glued on the white dots to form the Mushroom top.

I created a cutter file for the tag and gave it away last week. My son decided he liked his picture better. One thing I have learned in life when it comes to crafts with my son.. It’s okay and more important that he do it and it be “perfect” for him then I do it and make it “frustratingly perfect” for him. And it was reinforced in my mind when my hubby took the card with the hand drawing up to show his Dad for Father’s Day. Who knows maybe next year my FIL will end up with some “Fungi” jars. But they didn’t come out just like the family fun magazine photo, but my son was so proud. He kept opening the jars and looking at them. the best!

Also, the contents.. we thought about candy, but we are on a health kick here at the Durnan house. My son has been riding his bike regularly with my husband about 2 miles or so while my husband runs. I am considering a new mountain bike with my birthday savings. And so we decided on things to put in the jars that would mean something…  after much discussion we had the earplugs for when they practice shooting and building and make loud noises. And the Mechanical pens and erasers for when they draw all their plans up on what they are going to build… and erase and change and draw. And then my son said.. I’m gonna make a jar-o-fun for those days when it seems like there isn’t alot of fun going on. So I gave him paper and pen and he wrote them all out. I did not see what he wrote, I just know he sure thought hard about what he wrote. So perfect.

It was a great project in that it really didn’t take a lot of time and used up some of these jars I have collected over time. And both my guys were very happy with the outcome.

So the items I used were: White Clay bakeable, Bic Mark-its, Family Fun Magazine, Gorilla glue, Cookie Sheet, Tinfoil for baking, some random jars and my sons creative mind.

It was a great project. Love my life.
Enjoy!
Chris

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