You made those with what??

Back in my college days, I worked at the most amazing child care center.  It was a dream job for me.  I loved it so much that I even worked as a volunteer until they could pay me.  I learned so much at that place – things that I have used in my former teacher days, as well as my current mommy days.

One of the most amazing tips I learned was about milk filters.

Now, don’t let me lose you on this one.  It’s not quite as crazy as it sounds.

First of all, you find milk filters in a farming store – I found mine at Fleet Farm.  If you don’t have anything like this around you, I’m sure you can find them online somewhere.  And believe me, it is worth all the crazy looks you will get from the actual farmers.

This is what the milk filter looks like.

I zoomed in so you can see the texture.  It is very thin, but somewhat stiff, so it holds shape well.  This is important!  Because these lovely little gems are excellent to use for:

Felt/flannel boards!

Because of their texture, you can easily use markers or crayons on these filters.  So you can transform them into a lovely Goldilocks and The Three Bears scene for your child to play with!

This Christmas I used them as a base for some “paper” dolls for my niece.  I made all the clothing and accessories out of felt, but the dolls were sturdier out of these milk filters.

You can’t tell in these photos (which were taken in the car, with my iPod), but I had lightly colored the doll to be “skin” colored.  The filters take better to darker crayon colors, but you could see the skin color in person.  (And you don’t have to be a super amazing artist to make these… as you can clearly see that I’m not!)

A quick, easy project that you can do with (or without) your kiddo.  I do love quick and easy!  Especially when the littles like it.

Maternity pants coming later this week, after I hopefully shake this nasty bug I managed to catch (boo to prego colds!)