Category Archives: Craft

Oct29

Balloon Octopus

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Sticking the tentacles on.

Sticking the tentacles on.

Making balloon octopuses (octopi?) is a quick and easy after school craft activity. All you need is some balloons, tape, crepe paper (or streamers or tissue paper) and permanent markers. I blew up a balloon for A, but L blew her own up, and tied it off. I added string to the knot so that the octopuses could be hung up.

Drawing a face onto her octopus.

Drawing a face onto her octopus.

They each cut up some crepe streamers into eight pieces for the tentacles (another opportunity to practice some counting!). Then they used tape to stick these on around the bottom of the balloon. A used the permanent markers to draw a face, including hair, ears and cheeks, while L covered her balloon in red spots, and told me it was a ‘red-ring octopus’. L also put some red spots on the tentacles. They had to be careful not to use too much pressure when drawing on the balloons so they didn’t pop. A glued a few pieces of pink tissue paper to the back of hers to make it pretty.

Once they were finished, I used blu-tack to stick the strings to the roof so that the tentacles hang down and swish in the breeze.

A smiley octopus.

A smiley octopus.

A spotty octopus hanging from the ceiling.

A spotty octopus hanging from the ceiling.

Oct29

Flowers and Vase

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Sometimes we pick flowers from the garden and bring them in to brighten up the dining room, but I always feel a little sad when they wilt and die. So we decided to make some flowers that wouldn’t die, along with a brightly coloured vase to put them in.

We used a tall, narrow cardboard box for the vase, as I just happened to have a very thick and sturdy box that was perfect for it. A clean tin would have worked equally as well. We started by ripping up some coloured paper into smallish pieces. Our paper was starry and we had the same starry print in four different colours, but any mix of colours or patterns could work. We used glue to paste the ripped up paper pieces on to the outside of the box, so that the surface was completely covered by overlapping the pieces in random order. We did this on each side of the box. L particularly liked ripping up the paper, and A was thrilled to use the glue.

Gluing paper pieces to the box.

Gluing paper pieces to the box.

Half-way through covering the box in paper, letting it dry.

Half-way through covering the box in paper, letting it dry.

I gave the kids two disposable plastic cups each and a pack of coloured permanent markers to make our flowers. I asked them to colour the cups in with whatever design they would like. Once they had finished their colouring, I cut the tops of the cups into strips, and bent them out to form the petals on our flowers. The edges of the cuts can be a bit sharp, so we had to be careful when handling the cups once I’d cut them. A coloured each of her petals in using all of the different coloured markers. Even though I put down newspaper to protect the paper, somehow L still managed to get blue permanent marker on the table… Big L poked a hole in the base of each cup, and I placed a green pipe cleaner through this hole, bending it down to form the flower stem, and then secured it with some tape on the base of the cup. This gave us four lovely flowers.

A colouring in her cups.

A colouring in her cups.

The cup cut to form petals.

The cup cut to form petals.

Finished vase with some of our flowers.

Finished vase with some of our flowers.

Our finished vase will live on our dining room table, and the kids are already planning to make some more flowers so we can change them over every now and again.

Oct26

Contact Window Art

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L's window art.

L’s window art.

We put some clear contact to a use other than covering books today. I cut some rectangles of clear contact and folded them in half, then peeled off the backing from one half, and placed it sticky side up on the table. L and A put little bits of tissue paper, felt scraps and cellophane onto the sticky contact. Once they had completed their collage picture, I carefully peeled the backing off the rest of the contact piece, folding it back onto the other half, enveloping the collage materials between the two halves of the contact. The collage items are held still between the layers of clear contact, and looks a bit like the picture has been laminated.

Placing different materials onto the contact.

Placing different materials onto the contact.

A adding more paper to her contact.

A adding more paper to her contact.

This was a sticky activity, and A kept getting stuck to the contact. L was much better at placing items on the contact without also getting her fingers stuck. It can be challenging to get the two sticky sides of the contact together smoothly and aligned, but it’s not essential for it to be perfect. I just trimmed the edges at the end so that there were no sticky bits left.

A used some blu-tack to stick the finished art to her window.

Art on the window.

Art on the window.

Some window art made with feathers.

Some window art made with feathers.

Oct26

Sticky Mosaics Tiara

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IMG_3451One of our purchases at the new Lincraft Store was a sticky mosaics kit to make a tiara. Sticky mosaics are a bit like paint by numbers, but using foam stickers instead of paint. Just peel the sticker off and place it on the corresponding number and you’re away. There is also a sticky mosaics range for younger kids, which uses shapes instead of numbers and the foam pieces are bigger. We’ve had a number of sticky mosaics and both L and A love them. They are easy and fun, and they help with number/shape recognition, using a key, and fine motor skills.

Placing the stickers onto the tiara.

Placing the stickers onto the tiara.

A chose this tiara as she loves playing princesses and wearing sparkly crowns. Though she has done several of the shape sticky mosaics, this was her first attempt at a number one. She did really well with it, and easily followed the numbers. She also managed the smaller pieces very well. She was very pleased with the finished product!

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Finished tiara.

Oct6

Headbands

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The headband craft kit box.

The headband craft kit box.

A was given this craft kit for making headbands recently. She was very keen to have a go at it, so we set out all the contents on the table and talked about the design of the headbands. Since there were three headbands to decorate, A picked one, and offered to let L decorate one too. That left one, which A suggested I might like to make up…. and then she could wear my creation 🙂 I was very pleased that she was sharing so nicely with L.

Three beautiful headbands.

Three beautiful headbands.

After much discussion about design, A insisted on making hers just like the one on the box. L just wanted the pink spotty ribbon and feathers on hers, and I got what was left. We started with the thin ribbons, which were meant to wrap around the plain satin headbands. The glue that came with the kit was terrible, so I used some silicone craft glue that we have for our craft projects. The kids found it difficult to wrap the ribbon around evenly, so I did that part for them.

Ribbons drying on the headbands.

Ribbons drying on the headbands.

I helped A glue the heart crystal onto the pink flower along with a pink feather. Then I made a bow with the purple ribbon and glued some feathers to it. Once these were dry we stuck them onto the headbands.

Decorations ready for placement on the headbands.

Decorations ready for placement on the headbands.

L used some little diamantes to decorate hers, along with some small feathers out of our craft box (the feather left in the craft kit was too big for what she wanted to do). I really like how hers turned out.

It took a little while for the headbands to dry, and the kids were not particularly patient during this time, but we got there eventually. They modeled the headbands for me, and they have been wearing them around a lot. I did most of the gluing in this activity as it was a bit fiddly to get the ribbon and the decorations onto the curved surface of the headband. Despite this, the kids really enjoyed designing and decorating, and then wearing the headbands. And we had some lovely time together whilst doing it.

A modelling her headband.

A modelling her headband.

L modelling her headband.

L modelling her headband.

 

Oct6

Pipe-cleaners and Feathers

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While I was looking for a bag of coloured feathers in one of the craft tubs I found a packet of metallic pipe-cleaners. I also found the bag of feathers I was actually looking for. The pipe-cleaners reminded me of Christmas, and Christmas is less than three months away now… I’ve already noticed Christmas things on display at the shops. Anyway, an idea for Christmas decorations came to mind using the pipe-cleaners.

We placed three pipe-cleaners together and twisted them in the centre to anchor them, and then fanned the six points out. Each of these six points were bent back onto themselves to create a star shape. Each piece was finished by twisting the ends of the pipe-cleaners around the middle. To hang them up, one of the star’s points could be used, or we added half a pipe-cleaner shaped into a hook on some of them.

IMG_2754IMG_2760I also made some tree shaped decorations using green, purple and gold pipe-cleaners, but these turned out to be too fiddly for the kids. IMG_2757

The bag of feathers were also open on the table along with the pipe-cleaners. (And yes the kids had emptied both packets all over the table because that’s how craft supplies should be displayed for ease of locating just the right item among many similar or even identical items!) L started wrapping one of the pipe-cleaners around a feather, while A was attempting to string the feathers onto a pipe-cleaner. And so the next set of decorations came about. For these L and A picked out several feathers that they liked to go together, and I helped them wind a pipe-cleaner tightly around the end of the bunch of feathers several times. The end of the pipe-cleaner was shaped into a loop to hang them up.

Feather and pipe-cleaner decorations.

Feather and pipe-cleaner decorations.

Oct1

Pet Rocks

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“Can I have a puppy? Can I have a kitten? Can I have a pet bird, frog, fish, mouse…?” Sound familiar? Somewhere around the age of two or three these questions start like a childhood anthem. Kids just love pets, and we’re lucky enough to have a very fluffy cat as part of our family. But if it was left to the kids our cat would rarely be fed, watered or brushed, and his litter tray would never be cleaned out. Big L and I don’t mind doing these things to look after our furry friend, we like having a pet, and the kids are still learning about these responsibilities. But some friends of ours bought a cute little puppy a few months back, and now we are being asked for more pets. We’re not ready for more yet (and I think our cat would be hugely put-out if we brought home a dog!), so we decided to make some pet rocks. These are the kind of pets that don’t take up much room, and they don’t mind if you forget about them now and again.

Some of our pet rocks.

Some of our pet rocks.

We picked out a number of large smoothish rocks and pebbles from one of our garden beds to use for our pet rocks. The smoother the rock, the easier it was to paint. We used paint pens (by Crayola) for ease of painting. These are used like a pencil or crayon, making them easy for A, and give a quick dry, no drip paint experience. If we had used the craft paints we have the effect would have been more vivid, but it would have been messier. Since we were stuck inside due to the weather, the paint pens were a better choice for us on the day. I would like to make some more with other paints outside another day for a different look.

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Once the paint was dry we stuck on googly eyes and used felt scraps and wool scraps to give them some personality. The felt was great for ears and tails. L also used some mini popsticks to glue onto one of hers for legs. She tried gluing some of the rocks together to make bigger pet rocks, but it took ages for the glue to dry, and it was hard to get them to stick together well.

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Sep26

Collage Craft

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IMG_2301What kid doesn’t love using glue? I gave A a pot of Clag glue, a piece of paper and some collage materials. I’ve got to watch her like a hawk with the glue, otherwise it ends up all over the place, and often in her hair, which is yuck. She just likes to put glue anywhere and everywhere. When she does get the glue on the paper she can make some fun and colourful collages. I’ve been trying to get her to put the glue on the paper first and then stick different items onto the glue sections. She likes to put the glue onto the item instead, which means getting glue on her fingers, and then everything sticks to her. She alternatively likes this and hates it.

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L also did some collage art, but she made a picture of a robot on hers. And because A was hogging the glue, she used sticky tape to affix her picture.

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Sep26

Toy Binoculars

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Today we made some toy binoculars out of toilet paper rolls. I stuck two rolls together for each of the kids and let them decorate the rolls with stickers and textas. L also added some red crepe paper to the end of hers so that when she uses them the crepe paper will hang down and blow in the breeze. I used the hole punch to put holes in the sides and attached some string so the kids can hang them around their necks. Now the binoculars are ready to use when we go exploring!

Finished binoculars.

Finished binoculars.

Decorating.

Decorating.

Sep16

Straw Necklaces

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Another beading activity, one that is very cheap and easy, but still plenty of fun. I took two packs of coloured drinking straws and cut them up into small lengths (no measurement required!). Then I gave each of the kids a piece of poly string, and let them thread the string through the cut up straw lengths, as if they were beads. After they filled the string with straws, I tied the ends together so that they could be worn as necklaces. They each made several of these necklaces, and we have plenty of straw pieces left over for another day.

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