Seeking Crafty Moms

I saw an absolutely lovely "flower" arrangement given as a gift the other day. The maker used long wooden skewers to make "stems". The flowers were made of watermelon sliced to about 1/4 inch thick cut out with a flower shaped cookie cutter. Honeydew or some other melon of that type, cut the same way only in a size smaller and then the center wae 1/2 grape. As another kind of "flower" she had skewered strawberries whole with the stem side looking like roses with that little green at the base of the flower. This clever lady took the rind of the fruit used and cut wedge shaped pieces and cut a few notches in them to create "leaves" as filler at the base where the wooden skewers went into the vase.
I wish I could show you a photo.

try making a flower arrangement with the fruit. I tried it and it came out beautiful. use long skewers with atleast 1 per child. you put the grapes to cover the length of the stick, use honeydew, watermelon or cantelope to make the pettals of the flowers and use strawberrys, bluberries for the middle of the flower which ends up being the end of the stick. Have fun.

J.
Fruit kabobs are always a hit with the kids, especially if you cut the fruit into shapes.

Good luck

You might wnat to try FRuits with soem health foods treats, mix them with yogurt or make a Jello and add the fruits.UNless it has to be fresh frutis. Kids liek yogurt or jello so adding fruits to them you can prepare it ahead of time. Or you can get a watermelon and carve out balls of water melon and place them in a cute tray with soem toothpicks. and add otehr fruit in the watermelon bowl.Kids like cute containers so you might wnat to buy soem small bowls and plastic forks or spoons and make a fruit capote. Theres a lot of ideas here for fruit cups (capotes) (without the Liquor for kids.
http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,raspberry_fruit_jel...

J.,
First I commend you on doing the fruit thing. My boys' old daycare was the kind which gave sweets, poptarts, coffeecake etc for snacks, I HATED IT. I ended up taking my son's lunch and snacks everyday. When it came to parties though, I always got compliments on my fruit baskets.

Ingredients:
1 Large Watermellon
3 Bananas
1 Cantalope
2 Starfruit (or any fun shapped fruit)
2 or 3 Oranges (depending on size)
1 Honeydue Mellon
and whatever fun fruit you see that's colorful in your grocery store or local market stand.

First, cut the top 1/3 of the watermellon off and set aside. Use a small ice cream scoop or better yet a mellon baller and 'clean out' the fruit from inside the rind. Do the same 'balling' with the other mellons. You can also take the cantalope or honeydue and cut it into thin slices and then use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. (the kids loved then at halloween. I had fruit bats, pumpkins, etc in the bowl.) Mix everything in a large bowel.

Slice up the bananas, starfruit, etc and you can either put them in the mix with everything or use as a garnish.

I don't have a picture online of the ones I've bad, but I found this link in case you want a visual. Pretty simple but you can always do a google search for "watermellon basket" in the images section and it give you MANY ideas.

http://www.penandfork.com/images/istockwatermelon.jpg

Hi..You could do fruit kabobs but don't have points on the sticks...How about a watermelon 'bowl' full of fruit? How about cutting some 'flowers' from pineapple,canteloupe, other big fruits with simple scalloped cookie cutters Or fruit lollipops all made up and sticking out of a fruit rind like a watermelon, canteloupe . If you are allowed you could make a dip to go with the fruit made of cool whip mixed with fruit yogurt. Have fun. I hope you get lots of great ideas.

Try fruit Kabobs they were a big hit in my daughter's class.
Sarah

a quick idea for the next time it's your turn is a fruit kabob. Watermelon triangles, pineapple squares, grapes, cantaloupe rectangles...J.

I haven't read any respones yet, so sorry if this is a repeat - but what about putting the fruit (if allowed by the school) on srewers and have them coming out of flower pot as a arrangement or even an old decorated shoe box - and this way both girls can help by putting them together and decoration the box/pot - Good Luck

Do something with shapes.

Melon balls arranged a circle. Apples cut into Strips like french fries, but smaller. Or if you have one of those apple pealers that cut the apple into a slinky type thing. You could get a platter and start the apple slinkies around the outside and in the spaces made by the spring looking apples, you could place a slice of color. IE: Red, Green, yellow apples If you want all kinds of apples to show them. Or fill the spaces with any type of colorful fruit. Strawberries, Grapes, oranges, Kiwi will look pretty and cool. Then just sit back and watch their little faces when they go to pick one up and taste it. LOL Just go wild.

Shapes and color all the way. You could throw a mix of melen balls in a small bowl in the center. Make a smily face or a girl with curly apple hair. plum eyes a strawberry nose and bannana smile. Only fruit huh??? You can do alot with veggies too.

Gosh darn it they need spell check on here, LOL.

How about a watermelon bowl? Kids love them! Cut out the center of the melon (you can even make a basket handle with the rind if you cut it on both sides instead of the entire middle) fill the opening with the cut out watermelon pieces. Use a melon baller (available at most grocery stores and Walmart, of course) to make cantaloup and honeydew balls. Add grapes, diced apples, mandrin oranges, etc. Make it the night before, being sure to drain everything well, because it will make more juice while sitting overnight. Use fancy toothpicks as utensils or even pickle forks or colored plastic utensils with matching plates from a party store are fun, too.
Hope this helps!
XO
L.

I saw a cute picture in a magazine recently where they used a heart shaped cookie cutter and cut hearts out of watermelon. Then they put a toothpick diagonally through it and cut orange pieces to make it look like an arrow. It was adorable.

I don't know if this idea has been shared yet but what about doing melon balls (watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew), that would be prepared ahead of time and stored in individual containers. You could set up a station for the children to make melon fruit kabobs. Of course you will need supervision and kabobs without points.

I have done this before in my preschool classroom and the children enjoyed being able to decide on their own which melon to select. And making a kabob extends the experience. You can even provide a "dip" in individual serving cups like vanilla yogurt.

Try making fruit kabobs or make a fruit dip w. cream cheese, fluff, vanilla extract and red food coloring. You could buy strawberries and slice them and arrange them like a flower and use the dip in the center. Good luck.

Although I am not a crafty Mom,, I have a very close friend who is!!!! So she gives me good ideas from time to time.
Take either a plastic beach pail or a little metal one,, Easy to find at a craft store. Cut up all kinds of fresh fruit and make fruit kabobs! just thread the fruit on skewers. If your artistic at all you can sometimes make them appear like flowers. A good way to stand the skewers up in the pail is to place marbles or such in the bottom of the pail.. or even decorative sand. The kids love this ! It makes fruit fun! Good Luck

B. ,, ,mom of 12

hi J., go to familyfun.com and type in fruit in the search box, there are more ideas than you will know what to do with. have fun :)

What about fruit kabobs. You can find fancy long tooth picks at cooking shops or Target or take a bamboo skewer, cut in half and add fruit. You could get creative and roll some of the fruit in coconut or nutty ice cream topping. Have your child make a pretty "end cap" flower (or race car or safari animals ect.) and thread through skewer and push up to the end.It is a great "mom-child in the kitchen" opportunity and his/her classmates love them, the end caps are a great conversation piece with the kids. Your child will beam with pride!

Our family just received several baskets from Edible Arrangements--go on the website for ideas--they make fruit on skewers that look like flower boquets. I know that may be a tad extreme (!!) but you can take those ideas & run with it on a smaller scale--use cookie cutters of different shapes --even flowers--making it a little more fun to eat--use blueberries, kiwi & even seedless watermelon. Pineapple also cuts well--then use a melonballer to scoop a canteloupe or honeydew as the middle to make a cute flower . Now, Edible Arrangements uses plastic skewers but that may be a little too sharp for 4 year olds...if the shapes are small and light enough, you may be able to put them on pipecleaners (??) Are you allowed to bring yogurt or even applesauce to have them dip the fruit? Hopefully, this will help! Have fun with it!

I make a monkey out of fruit for my daughter every year on her birthday- if you to google and type in fruit monkey and look under images tab there will be lots of pictures of fruit monkey sculptures- I used honeydew for a head on a pinapple body (attached with bamboo skewers) and and orange for a mouth- blueberry eyes- etc. It is a lot of fun and then I would put berries and cut up fruit along the bottom.- Just a thought- lots of luck.

Look at the arrangements on http://www.ediblearrangements.com/

Since they are overpriced about 4 times over, copy it and make your own. I would suggest using small styrafoam(spelling way off, I know!) cups and making each child their own lil cup of beautiful fruit. They are so easy to make on your own and so much cheaper than ordering.

Good Luck!

Not sure which child you are talking about, but if it's the older one, what about doing shish kabobs - threading pieces of fruit on a stick? (Could perhaps do that for the younger one if the stick is not sharp - not sure about that.)

Sounds like fun.

A.

How about a watermelon fruit basket? All you have to do is cut it in half , lengthwise. Scoop out all watermelon(a melon baller works good or a small ice cream scoop)Completely scrape the watermelon out.....Then you can add the watermelon balls into it.Some other fruits that would go good with that are melons, cantaloupe, bananas, and kiwi. Good Luck!

Jen,

Get some cookie cutters and get a fresh pinapple, mellons, mango, whatever and some sticks for kabobs and make some flowers

OR

Get some blue berries , raspberries, and strawberries several small plates fill the plate with the blue berries, cut a strawberry in half and make a nose, make a smiley mouth with the raspberries, and eyes with the yougurt covered raisins
place 1 uncovered raisin in the cener of the white

ITS GROVER from sesame street

OR

Elmo with all red berries,

OSCAR with all Green grapes

ORANGE fruits for ZOE

you could use vanilla flavored yougurt and blue food coloring
to make ROSITA, or whomever you can think of.

thomas the train with small cakes.

ECT..

Hope it helps

M

Hello. Watermelon is in season at that time and they sure do make great baskets or bowls. You just have to trace out your design and then cut it out. Once you do that you hallow out the watermelon until right before the rine starts to shine through. I usually ball some fruit and slice some as well. It makes a great container for the fruit and looks great at the same time! Hope this helps!!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Annies-Fruit-Salsa-and-Cinna...

Check out this recipes. DELISH!

Hi J.,

My name is J. too. Try some garnishing techniques & making animals out of fruits & vegetables. I know that Papmered Chef used to have a simple garnishing book, but I am sure online there are probably a lot of different sites that you can find step by step pictures on. Making animals with the fruits will make it even more fun for the kids to eat them. (And play with them...)

J.

Hi J.,

What a great idea for exposing the kids to healthy snacks, kudo's to the school. How about fruit kebobs? Instead of the pointy wooden sticks, use drinking straws. I bet the kids will find these fun.

M.

J.-

I recommend melon since it will be in season. You could cut large slices and make a face with blueberries for the eyes and strawberry slices for the mouth --the berries could be attached to the melon with a little yogurt. You could also use star-friut and make flowers with slices of stawberries and a blueberry in the middle.

Fruit kebabs are always a good idea. A grape on the end of the skewer will keep everything together. Then I like to stick all the kebabs in a halved cantelope (fleshy side down, stick all the skewers of fruit in the rind) and put it on a pretty plate or tray.

The other thing is to take your really ripe fruits and cut them all with shaped cookie or cheese cutters. Just arrange them on a plate or tray.

That's great that your school encourages eating fruit. In my youngest sons preschool, all the children have to have a try-it bite... and I think it's helped my VERY PICKY eater be not so fussy at meal-times!

Good luck and enjoy!

Kiwis, plums, peaches, blueberries should all be in season and all should be easy to slice-if you get firmer plums. What a great idea that is.

Well, depending on how much time you have and how creative you want to be...there is a book called "Play with Your Food", which is full of pictures of fruits and veggies that have been turned into various faces, animals, etc. Do a search online to see sample pictures from the book. (I my self don't have that much time, but I would like to try some of them someday. :o)

How about a pomegranite? You just cut them open, (most kids have never had one) and you eat the juicy seeds. It's pretty neat to see how with this particular fruit you eat the part that usually gets thrown away with other fruits!! They are also very healthy.

I was wondering if you thought of cutting out a
Watermelon(possibly in a shape) and then filling it with all kinds of fresh fruit (grapes,kiwi,apples ect.).You can also
eithr add whip creme or add it as a topping.

i'm not so sure if this could work for your situation or not...but my mother used to make this for just about every spring/summer party we've ever gone to. she used to get a pineapple, and then a bunch of cut up fruit (whatever you choose) and take toothpicks, put a couple pieces of fruit on them, push the toothpick in the pineapple, and top the toothpick with a grape. being that it's for school it may be a waste for the pineapple, so you can always make fruit-kabobs. just get the kabob sticks, and a bunch of cut up fruit and do whatever combo you want with them. you could also try to bring a lil side of fruit pops, something your daughter can have fun making. again, cut up fruit (usually i see grapes, strawberries, and apples) and get a deep ice cube tray, place a piece of fruit (or 2) in the tray, then pour grape or apple juice in the tray (if you do a couple trays (being that it's for her school) do 1/2 the trays grape and the other 1/2 apple) put them in the freezer, and check on them every 20 min or so, once you see that it's starting to get hard, put the sticks in, and then wait until it's completely frozen. once frozen you have fresh fruit ice pops. that of course you'll have to have a cooler to bring to the school...but it's something to think about for a little extra something. and if not, it's something to do at home for your daughter during the summers.

That's such a great idea! What about finding some small cookie cutter shapes and using them to cut our different kinds of melon, and try something new like kiwi or starfruit the kids might like but may not have tried before.

Hi J.,
I make baby carriages out of watermelons & fill with pineapple, melons, berries [ your choice, strawberries, raspberries,biueberries,etc.[, watermelon of course, & anything you really want. The pineapple gives a nice sweetness & of course you don't want a baby carriage! It's not hard to carve what you want.....if you are interested in more ideas, especially what & how to carve it please feel free to email me @ ____@____.com. I would be happy to help you & I have received alot of compliments on it. When the fruit & juices blend inside the watermelon it's really good ! Also cut friut as shapes or balls with small scoop.

You can make fruit kabobs... made with cut up Kiwi,pinneaple,and grapes. They look great and are fun for the kids to eat.
-M.

I made fruit Kabobs for my son's class. They loved them. I used pineapple, honeydew, cantaolpe, apples and strawberries. I cut them up into chunks and skewered them on wooden skewers. Then I made a yogurt dip for the kids to try. They loved it!! I love the idea of fresh fruit Fridays. Kodos to your child's teacher!!

Star fruit is fun - when cut it is in the shape of a star.

I ran a daycare from my home for 10 years and I used to serve this treat to my children.
Cut up fresh fruit and layer it with yogurt in a parfait cup.
Yogurt,fruit, yogurt, fruit...ending with yogurt, then put one piece of fruit on the top or you can top it off with cheerios or fruity cheerios to give it color.
My kids loved it!! Good Luck

You could try unusaul fruits like star or dragon friut. Have them cut up and ready to eat but have a whole one as an example of what it looks like. There are sites out there you could check out, just Google exotic fruit. I'm looking forward to doing things like this when my daughter goes to school - have fun!

Get a yellow cake mix, one small cool whip, one small carton of blueberries, one small carton of strawberries.
In a square pan make the yellow cake mix, cool
Take cool whip and and completely cool whip top and sides of cake
Cut strawberries in forths and place them in lines to represent stripes
Put whole blueberries to in box shape to represent stars
When you are finished, your cake will look like a flag and you have all nutrional food and be very patriotic
x=blueberries
__ = strawberries
__________________________________________________
x x x x x x | ____________________________________
x x x x x x | ____________________________________
x x x x x x | ____________________________________
x x x x x x |_____________________________________

and so forth and so on - You can count the blueberries to represent the states and I believe there are 6 lines of red and six lines of white (which is the cool whip)

Good luck and have fun
J. O'

Go to www.ediblearrangements.com

They sell theirs, but you can get some real good visual ideas. By the way, I love the idea of Fresh Fruit Fridays.

Hi, J..

June is a good month for melons. How about hollowing out the inside of one of them, like a boat, and refilling it with a mixture of fruit.