Donna's day: Creative family fun
Clean Messy Fun for April Fools'
By Donna Erickson

Don't cry over spilled milk when someone in your family pulls a trick on you this April Fools' Day. Kids usually have a joke or two up their sleeves come April 1, and this idea for making fake spills is a winner. It has been requested by many of you readers, and it's one of our family favorites.

Making and staging fake spills such as a pool of mustard on Mom's kitchen laptop computer, a melted chocolate icecream bar on Dad's loafers or a carton of milk spilled all over a new tablecloth are the ultimate clean messes your kids will enjoy concocting with two simple ingredients: paint and glue. You might want to stir up a few yourself and catch your kids off guard with your own caper. See who can fool who.

Here's how: Choose an empty, clean product container, mug or jar as a prop for your spill. In a separate bowl, stir food coloring (for translucent spills) or acrylic paint from squeeze bottles or tubes (for opaque spills) into 1/2 cup (2 ounces) of Elmer's white all-purpose glue. When adding the color to the glue, try to create the exact shade of the product you are imitating. You might need to mix some colors to create an authentic effect.

Cover a cookie sheet with plastic wrap. Set the container prop you have chosen on its side on the plastic wrap. Carefully pour the colored glue mixture onto the plastic wrap next to the spout or edge of the prop. Try to pour it in a way to simulate a real spill. Add realistic touches onto the "spill" such as mini marshmallows for a spilled mug of hot chocolate, uncooked noodles for pasta sauce and a popsicle stick for an ice-cream bar.

Keep out of reach until completely dry and hard, then remove the plastic wrap. (It might take as long as 24 to 48 hours.) Double-check to be sure the "spill" is dry underneath to avoid having a real spill on your hands!

Place the fake spills in the perfect place to trick friends, family or even a teacher!

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Write Donna with your questions and ideas at www.donnasday.com. Donna's latest book, "Donna Erickson's Fabulous Funstuff for Families," is available in bookstores nationwide.

(c) 2007 Donna Erickson Distributed by King Features Synd.