Looking for a great craft to get those creative juices flowing? How about something to keep the kids occupied on a rainy Saturday? There are many great crafts that children of all ages can do and enjoy.
This sculpture requires no major skills to create but some supervision is recommended for little hands. The aluminum foil can cut tiny (and not so tiny) fingers and no one wants a huge mess with glue. Otherwise this is a project that is suitable for a wide range of interests and ages.
Some items may require a hot glue gun in order to properly adhere. Small children should always be supervised when using a hot glue gun though it is possible to limit the project supplies to those that can be used with regular glue alone to reduce risks.
Supplies:
* Paper plates (stiff or Styrofoam plates work best for this particular project)
* Glue
* Popsicle sticks
* Odds and ends (the goal here is to find small things that have shape to provide a 3 dimensional quality to the project: Styrofoam half balls, small sections of wire screen, and coins are excellent choices)
* Aluminum foil
* Pencil
* Grease pencil
* Hole punch
* Yarn
Instructions:
1) Turn paper plate so that the top of the plate is facing the table. The bottom of the paper place will be the surface you are working on.
2) Place various odds and ends items on the back of the plate to create a template or pattern to represent the finished product. The beauty of this project is that it is three-dimensional. Be creative and build things up for varying heights and textures.
3) Use the pencil to trace the outline of items and identify where various items in the sculpture should be glued. (Hint: if items are stacked mark pieces according to location on the plate and position in the stack-grease pencils may be used to write on metal pieces).
4) Use glue to attach items to the paper plate and to other craft items if needed. For many items regular glue will suffice. As the project is heightened, hot glue may be required. Some height is recommended; but avoid building the sculpture too tall as the entire project will ultimately be covered with foil.
5) Allow the glue to dry completely.
6) Cover the paper plate and sculpture with foil. Take extra care to really dig in and show off the nooks and crannies on the surface of the foil. It’s these subtle differences beneath the foil that really make this a neat project.
7) Use the hole punch to punch a hole in the top of the sculpture. String yarn through the hole and tie a knot.
Hang the sculpture where it can be appreciated by all. Enjoy!
Andrea Bullock is a freelance writer for Crafts for Kidlets, a fun craft idea blog for moms and dads who need something creative for the kids to do.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrea_Bullock
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When you have kids, storage containers can’t be far behind. They are a simple system that can help them to stay organized in their rooms and play areas. Let the kids in on the act so they can learn that staying organized can be fun.
Kids like bright colors. Whatever the organizational structure in their room, incorporate color into it so they can make it their own. Speaking of rooms, kids also need a say in how their areas are designed, since they will be the ones occupying it.
To that end, try to get your kids involved in storage container art. This is the process of letting them decorate the organizational features of their room. This will also keep them from having the desire to draw on the walls and other surfaces that don’t need to be enhanced.
Encourage creativity in your child by giving them an outlet. When you help them to tidy up their area, bring a few special extras and the storage containers. Your kids will love you for it.
Clear an area to work. Show your kids the storage containers that they will use to keep their rooms clean. Before you start, let them choose what containers they want to use for their stuff. Start with two or three and then grab more as needed.
Lay out the special extras that you brought with you. Kids can decorate their containers with stickers, non-toxic paints, pictures, foam lettering and ribbons. Let them go wild. Resist the urge to straighten their stickers or correct their designs. It is for their stuff so it needs to look good to them.
Set aside a special place for the decorations so that your kids can grab and use them whenever they need to. Be sure that you reiterate that the stickers are not for the walls, but storage containers. But, just in case they get mischievous and one or two end up on the wall, use decals that are designed for walls instead of regular stickers for their container art. These can be removed and reapplied without ruining surfaces.
Once the containers are decorated, it is time to put something in them. Let your kids decide what toys will go in what container. Help them to move the containers to an area where they will stay permanently to keep their items off the floor.
Now, whenever you tell the kids it is time to clean up, they get to use their decorative containers. Cleaning before bed won’t be such a chore. You can even turn it into a game by letting them pick up each other’s toys and throw them in the right bin.
Use storage containers as a way to unleash your kid’s creative side and teach them responsibility at the same time.
There’s nothing quite like the morning sun streaming through the windows unless, of course, you have a sparkling sun catcher to catch the rays and spread a rainbow of color around the room. Sun catchers aren’t hard to make and they may be something your children would enjoy trying their hand at.
Sun catchers are easy to make. All it takes is some crafting wire, translucent colored beads, and fishing line. The benefit of using crafting wire is that you or your child can create any number of shapes with it. Your child can use their imagination to create butterflies, stars, birds, or anything their heart desires. They can even make completely abstract shapes if they prefer.
Your child can make a drawing and use that as the pattern to shape the wire, or they can find a picture out of a coloring book. The simpler the drawing and pattern, the easier it will be to create the desired shape. Your child may want to place circles, colored in with the color of the desired beads, on the drawing to show where the beads will be placed.
Do you want a simple sparkling sun catcher with only the outline of the drawing or do you want it to be more elaborate? You can use a larger gauge wire for the outline of the sun catcher and then use a smaller gauge wire for adding more colored glass beads. The choice is yours or your child’s – you can add as many pieces of wire as you like.
Parents will want to cut the wire to length rather than allowing children to do this step. You can then place one bead onto the wire and wrap the wire around the bead to keep it in place. Now it’s time to get the wire into the right shape by bending it.
Your child can begin threading the beads following the color pattern they made on their drawing, being sure to either put glue on either side of the bead or placed within the bend. They could also wrap the wire around the bead and then continue with the pattern. When the final bead is placed and you’re near the end of the wire, hook the end into the bead or wrap it around the bead to finish it off.
To display your sun catcher, cut a piece of fishing line long enough to hang it from a nail around the window or from a suction cup with a hook. Sit back and enjoy the beauty that your child helped to create. And when the sun gleams through your window, you can think back to the fun you and your child had making it.
People enjoy crafts of all kinds. Some take up little space; some take up a lot. Some crafts need very few supplies, and some require enough to fill a cabinet or more. Whatever the crafts, if there is more than one person in the family, creating the perfect craft area in your home is probably something you all only dream about.
Crafts like sewing require quite a bit of space. You need to have a sewing machine, ironing board and iron, an easily accessible space for notions, and space to store fabric and patterns. Dad and the kids have their own crafts. Wouldn’t it be great to have one room where all of this could be located?
Begin by deciding which room you will turn into a craft room or if you will have to add one to your home. If you have a room to use, measure it and draw the room to scale on graph paper. Measure each piece of furniture that will go into the room and transfer those to the same scale size; cut out each piece so you can try different room arrangements without having to move heavy furniture.
One recommendation would be to divide the room into zones. If someone is interested in painting, they will want to have access to direct sunlight. Sunlight wouldn’t be so important to someone who was scrapbooking or putting together models. Create a painting zone nearest the windows.
Be sure to have plenty of overhead as well as task lighting in the room. Each task requires lighting for close tasks as well as something more general. Lamps that can be adjusted for specific tasks would be a good idea. Do you have enough wall outlets or do you need to add more?
Work space will probably be a premium concern. Someone who sews would need a place for the machine as well as space to spread out fabric when cutting out patterns. Of course, that area could be used by someone scrapbooking, as long as they weren’t trying to do so at the same time. The longer the flat surface, the better it would be. If it were long enough, it might be able to accommodate two crafts at one time.
Seating would be another area to consider. Comfortable chairs are a must, especially if you’re sitting for long periods of time. However, you don’t want to get lounge chairs. Something that is ergonomic and practical would be best. You want to be comfortable while working on your craft, but not so comfortable you fall asleep. Good quality office-style chairs will probably do nicely.
The final component is where to store everything. How much of the supplies needed for each craft can be stored on shelves rather than in cabinets on the floor? Peg boards, wall-mounted organizers, and multiple shelved units could store a good amount of things. What about putting strips of metal along the walls near each work area? These would be a handy place to hold scissors, little jars to hold beads or buttons, and more. The options are limitless if you think about it.
Crafts are an important part of our lives. They help us relax and give us a creative outlet. They help us to dream. If they’re so important to us, why is it we don’t enjoy doing them more often? Having a great space designated just for crafts might be the answer your whole family is looking for. Think about the benefits, and then create the perfect craft area for your home.
Kids of all ages love to craft. If you have younger kids, here are some really fun craft ideas to try with them:
FINGER PAINTING
All kids love the messy feeling of finger painting. Put an old shirt or paper apron on your kid before giving them the paints. For an even less-messy clean-up, take your kids outside and sit them under a tree in the cool shade to paint.
PLAYDOUGH ART
Another favorite of kids is play dough and clay. Lay newspaper on the floor and give your kids small tubs of their favorite-colored play dough. Encourage them to create sculptures with their fun dough.
SOCK PUPPET SHOW
Sock puppets are easy to make. Just glue on a pair of wiggle eyes and make a nose and mouth from felt. Then add a sprout of hair, made with colorful yarn. Make several of these sock puppets out of different sizes of socks and let your kids put on a sock puppet show for you.
PIPE CLEANER FUN
Buy a couple of packs of colorful pipe cleaners and let your kids create art with them. You will be amazed at what they can make from something this simple!
NOODLE ART
Give your kids a sheet of construction paper and a mound of dry macaroni noodles (any fun-shaped dry noodle will work for this craft). Let them draw a picture on their paper with a pencil or crayon first. Then glue around the outline of their picture with white school glue. Let them place their noodles on top of the glue to create a fun noodle art picture.
