Archive for January, 2010

Easy Arts and Crafts Projects for Kids : Thumbprint Art: Arts & Crafts Projects for Kids

Get a Step-by-Step Guide for Craft Projects For Any Age And Ability, Made EASY 101 Easy Craft Project Ideas.. -Let me know how you like it.

How to teach young children to make thumbprint arts and crafts projects;get expert tips and advice on arts and crafts for kids at preschool through elementary school ages in this free instructional video. Expert: Debbie Noah Bio: Debbie Noah is an elementary school teacher at Bedford Heights Elementary in Bedford, TX. She has been teaching over 30 years. Filmmaker: Drew Noah

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Suz on January 20th 2010 in arts and crafts projects

Easy Back to School Art and Craft Ideas for Kids

These free art and craft for kids ideas are easy to make and a great way to save money while creating unique school supplies with your kids. Just in time for back to school! If you’re looking for some ideas, read on and I will show you some simple free craft ideas for kids. They all take 30 minutes or less to complete.

Art and Craft Ideas for Kids #1 Bulletin Board: Keep things organized with this handy bulletin board. Why spend $40 to buy a pre-made bulletin board when you can easily make one for under $10? You can customize the bulletin board with each kid – pick the favorite colors to decorate the bulletin board. This project should take about 20-30 minutes.

Art and Craft Ideas for Kids #2 Brown Paper Lunch Bags: Make your kids’ lunch extra special by packing them in customized brown paper lunch bags. Just take a regular bag and decorate it with labels and stickers. Or punch interesting shapes on the bags directly with craft punches. It will definitely give your kids something to smile about. This project will take about 10 minutes.

Art and Craft Ideas for Kids #3 Customized Notebooks: This Who wouldn’t want a cool notebook to scribble notes on? There are many way to customize a notebook – you can cover it in scrapbook paper, photos, stickers or even fabric. A beautiful notebook will surely inspire your kid to write more often. This project will take about 15-20 minutes.

I hope these free art and craft craft ideas for kids have given you some inspiration on crafting with your school-bound children. For more information on back to school crafts, or other children craft ideas, visit Kid Craft Project at www.kid-craft-project.com

Edda Shea is the author of Kid Craft Project: a website for people who enjoy crafting with their kids. It is an online directory that sources the best ideas for kid craft projects. Edda is a lifelong crafts enthusiast and enjoys everything handmade.

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Suz on January 20th 2010 in arts and craft ideas

Jina’s Arts and Crafts at Home

Christall (Jina as she’s referred to at home) surprises Dad when he gets home showing him a drawing she colored. It was the highlight of my day. We regularly have her do arts and crafts at home as well as music and story time to promote creativity.

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Suz on January 20th 2010 in arts and crafts at home

Shopping and Crafting Guides for Christmas Ornaments

Going to make this Christmas a merry one with decorative Christmas ornaments? You can get satisfied with the following shopping and crafting guides, whatever to get some from an exclusive store for Christmas decorations or to DIY the holiday ornaments with your own hands.

Shopping Guide for Personalized Christmas Ornaments

Personalized Christmas ornaments can definitely add an exciting twist to the timeless tradition of decorating the Christmas tree. If you are to buy some, here are several online stores which may offer you nice Christmas ornaments as you want.

PersonalizationMall.com offers a huge selection of exclusive personalized Christmas ornaments for all ages and interests. From sophisticated glass or silver ornaments to vibrant full color designs, there are ornaments for every style and interest. Add names, a special message or even photos to create one of a kind personalized Christmas ornaments that will be treasured for years. Use personalized Christmas ornaments to commemorate important milestones or start a family tradition of creating a new one to celebrate each year! Use personalized Christmas ornaments to decorate your own tree or give one as a gift.

ChristmasForest.com provides you evergreen Christmas wreaths to bring back nostalgic memories of family and friends at Christmas. Christmas wreath ornaments add a festive touch to your door, and the Christmas wreaths are a perfect place to display your favorite ornaments too. The Holiday Swag at the site especially invites creativity, since its natural branches are perfect for hanging ornaments. We have seen beautiful displays of bird ornaments on the Holiday Swag and many Christmas Forest customers display the Christmas swag “upside down” so it really does look like a Christmas tree. Then they decorate it with colorful ornaments just like they would a Christmas tree.

ChemArt.com began as a one-man business in 1976, and they combine several techniques to create over 15 different lines of ornaments, including custom ornaments. Their ornament making process includes photo chemical etching, plating, and screen printing, and this is all done in one location in Rhode Island.  Designing, creating, processing and marketing in one central place assures the high quality of each ornament.

Wealthwood.com is a good resource for very nice crystal personalized Christmas ornaments.  Each personalized ornament is engraved “in house” and that speeds up the lead time as well as helping to keep the standard of quality very high. Your keepsake ornaments can be delivered to your door in about two weeks.

crafting guide for Unique Christmas Ornaments

If you have a steady hand, you can use your tacky glue and paint to the crafting table and get started on creating some fantastic Christmas tree ornaments. It makes a different sense for the holiday. Here are several tips for DIYing your Christmas ornaments:

Suspend the Christmas ornaments freely, rather than rest them against branches, to make them look best. As basic glass balls are the foundation of decorating, you can place large ball ornaments close to the trunk to reflect light, and small balls near tips of branches for shine and sparkle. Place lighted or animated Christmas ornaments early in the decorating process. Use no more than 4 on a set of 50 lights to avoid strain on the light strand. Establish balance by first placing the most dominant group or largest number of similar ornaments. Small ornaments will disappear in the lowest branches, and large ornaments placed too high in the tree may look awkward. Place your most favored ornament front and center. Cluster several ornaments together on a single hook for unique dramatic effect. Personalized Christmas ornaments are available in a wide variety of styles and themes, help record family milestones, and are memorable gifts for family & friends. Take photos during the decorating your Christmas tree with ornaments. Then, import the chic pictures to PowerPoint, and add text to make it a Christmas Décor tutorial. Furthermore, convert the PowerPoint tutorial on Christmas ornament to video for world-wide sharing on YouTube or Facebook, or burn the PowerPoint to DVD so that you can tell friends or family your production at a TV with DVD player. The creation of DVD and video from your PowerPoint can be easily done with third-party conversion software like Moyea PowerPoint to DVD Burner and Leawo PowerPoint to DVD.

With the 2 guides above, you may now get an idea of how to decorate your Christmas tree with favored ornaments. Wish you a Merry Christmas in advance!

Paula Cheung, technical writer focused on multimedia software tools and tips.

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Suz on January 20th 2010 in crafting guide

Crafts Ideas To Help In Parenting

crafting is the best way to nurture your child’s creativity.It has many positive sides to deal with. Easy kids crafts and fun craft ideas can even solve many problems as they involve spending more time together with your family.When your kids are back from school give them something interesting to work on.

Myriads websites are out there to offer you free crafts ideas that you can engage your kids with. Good parenting implies teaching children social responsibilities and moral values that start from home.Children always look for their parents’ support and trust which in turn,boost their confidence.Completing a craft project successfully provides them with a sense of achievement.In the time of economic crisis you can teach your kid to grow more practical with some frugal yet fun crafts ideas.

Look for some easy projects that are appropriate for your child’s age.You will find countless.From match sticks to colored rubber bands anything that apparently seems of little use can be used to create something unique and invaluable.Assign kids some greetings card making or friendship box making project that they can gift their friends or teacher or the baby sitter. Cards made with colorful glittery hearts can be nice valentine gifts for their friends while Snowman cards ideally express the warmth of heartfelt wish during the winter.

Even if your budget has been curtailed homemade crafts are the best ways to show you still care.With your kids you too can learn some fantastic easy and cost effective crafts.Learn the art of gift decorating that conveys you care in a special way for special persons in your life.Take out your pencils,scissors,craft glue,ribbons,construction papers,stickers and paper glitters to make beautiful gift wraps in playful mood. There are numbers of options available online.

As for working moms,they do not have much time to take up knitting projects.But crochet items are quick and easy ways to improve your style quotient.From vintage caps to Bohemian scarves crochet your winter accessories to customize your dressing. Kids are going to love the patch work ponchos made with crochet.Crochet accessories definitely help to add some unique fashion elements to your wardrobe. Teenagers can easily pick up with crochet.Teach them how to knit multi-colored friendship cuff,head pieces,bags and various other accessories with crochet.

Apart from seeking online help you and your kids can join a craft group whether local or online. These craft groups offer their members easy access to many useful resources that are treasure trove of fun craft ideas.Joining craft community opens up a new horizon by providing opportunities to ask questions on projects,seeking experts’ advice as well as sharing your own ideas and experiences with others.

Participating in group craft projects with your family can be great fun during the holidays.In group activities you may have to work on time bound projects like making scarves for each one of your family within a month.This kind of healthy competition helps to inculcate creativeness, sportsman spirit as well as perseverance in kids.All these qualities sum up to good personality.So,start crafting today and enjoy together as a family.Anything done for your family is worth doing.

Emily S. Johnson is a self-published author and an artist.She writes articles on kids crafts as well as crafts for adults. For more free crafts ideas,she recommends you to visit: http://www.womansday.com/Lifestyle/Family/Crafts.html.

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Suz on January 20th 2010 in children craft ideas

How to remove acrylic craft paint from finished wood?

In a long ago abandoned project, I applied acrylic craft paint to a finished wood shelf. I never finished it and now want to remove it to just have the original wood finish. What, if anything, can I use to remove the paint without stripping the original finish?

You say that you applied the acrylic paint to a finished shelf; depending on how well the original finish was sealed, water MIGHT take the acrylic off. Acrylic paint is water based, after all, and when applied to a non-porous surface will come off with water. If you’ve ever tried painting on glass, for instance, you can easily get the paint off just by wetting it.

You might try wetting a soft cloth and letting that sit on the acrylic painted areas to soften the paint; you might then be able to scrape the paint off after waiting awhile. Use a bit of rubbing alcohol on the cloth to remove any remaining paint.

Wood, however, being more porous, might have grabbed that paint and let it sink into the pores of the wood. Which leads to it being much harder to remove. If that is the case, you could try sanding the acrylics down. This would mean that you will need to apply a coat of varnish to the original wood finish of the shelf when you get the acrylic paint removed. The only other alternative would be a paint stripper.

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Suz on January 19th 2010 in wood craft projects

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