Crafting Secrets

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Break free of the winter doldrums with some hands-on crafting fun geared toward preschoolers. Rare is the child who does not delight in glue and paint, so snap on the smocks and get started. The four easy winter crafts below will keep preschoolers occupied and learning at the same time.

Puffy Snow People

Combine a handful of fluffy white cotton balls, a stick of glue and a snowman shape cut from construction paper for this fun and easy craft. Children will enjoy gluing cotton balls on their snow person and teachers will enjoy the low-mess glue sticks. For a jaunty cap cut a top hat from black construction paper that can be glued on after the cotton balls are adhered. Small circular pieces of construction paper can be used for buttons if so desired. Use the puffy snow people as a tie in to a discussion about the science of snow.

Symmetry Snowflakes

Teaching symmetry starts in the preschool years. It can be made easy with a simple snowflake craft that will allow the children to practice their fine motor skills. Have them take a sheet of white construction paper and fold it in half lengthwise (like a hot dog bun) and then again in half widthwise (like a hamburger bun). Prepare a snowflake quarter template for them to trace onto the folded paper after it has been neatly lined up along the folded sides. Safety scissors will help them cut out the pattern. Once the snowflakes have been cut out, open them to see the symmetry. Add coloring, glitter or glue on sparkles to make the snowflakes stand out.

Silly Seedling

Bean plants grow year round and are a great craft activity turned science lesson for the preschool set. Have the children decorate a Styrofoam cup with a silly face using magic markers. Fill the cup about 3/ 4 of the way full with potting soil and place a dried bean into the dirt. Place the cups in a warm place that receives light and watch for the beans to sprout. The children love drawing the faces on their cups and getting dirty in the soil while the teacher has an instant lesson plan in hand.

Mitten Memories

It is never too early to have children tell of things that they remember, and the winter is full of fascinating memories and stories. In this simple craft the children will trace from a pattern and cut out two mitten shapes from construction paper. On each mitten they can recite to the teacher a fun winter memory that she will write onto the cut out. After a memory has been written on each mitten the child can decorate them on the blank side and tie a length of yarn to connect the two pieces. For very young preschoolers assistance may be required with tying the yarn. Hang the mittens around the room or on a classroom bulletin board for display. This activity is great to integrate into story time or show and tell. Consider sending the completed mittens home with a note asking parents to share their favorite winter memories with their children.

Crafts provide a wonderful opportunity to integrate other subjects into a lesson. They do not have to be overly messy or expensive to be effective and fun. Allow children the freedom to express their ideas and memories this winter with the easy craft projects above.

We all love crafts!

They are a great way for kids to learn fine motor skills, and express themselves creatively, but being crafty can put a strain on your pocketbook at times.

Going to the store to buy supplies for each and every craft project, just isn’t practical. Which is why, it’s important to learn how to come up with kids craft ideas on a budget. Consider using items and supplies that you already have on hand, for fun and simple impromptu projects.
There are so many items that often get overlooked when it comes to crafting. Think back to your own childhood. The days of toilet paper roll projects and egg cartons, should come rolling back. Remember how fun it was to create something beautiful out of something so plain? Help your kids relieve that same joy and pride with these simple tips and craft projects.
Recycle and Re-Use
Teaching your kids about recycling is a really good life lesson, so why not integrate craft time and science by re-using common household items? Paper bags, egg cartons and other goodies get a second life when they are forever treasured in the form of a craft project. Encourage your kids to come up with other household items that can be used for craft projects, you may be surprised at the things that they come up with!
Here are just a few of the materials that you can recycle, discover, or re-use for your own craft projects:

-Egg Cartons

-Grocery Bags (paper or plastic)

-Cardboard inserts from packaging and boxes

-CD’s

-Old denim or fabric swatches

-T-shirts that no longer fit

-Used birthday cards or bags

-Wrapping paper

-Toilet paper and paper towel rolls

-Plastic soda bottles

-Cans (use caution with sharp edges)

-Things found in nature: A rock, leaves, sticks, etc.
Gravel Art
Here is a great little project that uses items that you should have lying around! Enjoy!
Materials Needed:

-Large Cardboard Box

-Small pieces of gravel (You will need quite a bit)

-String or Yarn

-Pencil

-Simple Coloring Book or personal drawing

-White glue in squeeze bottle

-Scissors

-Crayons (optional)
Instructions

1. Wash and rinse the gravel in a kitchen strainer. Spread out on towels to dry.

2. On your cardboard, use the pencil to make an outline of a simple drawing.

3. With the glue, trace over the outline.

4. Press string or yard onto the glue lines, cutting where necessary to form corners and angles.

5. Glue gravel onto the picture filling the spaces. You can use all one color, or use different colors for different areas.
6. If you wish to have a background, use crayons to draw and color one in.
Use Your Imagination
Once you get the hang of coming up with kids craft ideas, you will never go back to the store bought kits. There is so much more creativity and freedom that goes along with recycling and re-using common household items.

All of us have been gifted by the almighty with some kind of creativity. Some people may be good in painting, some in cooking, some people are talented writers and poets and so on. crafting is something that showcases your creativity and nurtures your talent, especially of your children. There are many easy craft ideas, which may be helpful not only enhancing your child’s creativity but in many other ways, as it gives you an opportunity to spend time with your child and get involved with him. This will make them involved as home craft ideas are always very interesting.

If you run short of the ideas, there is a plethora of websites having thousands of home craft ideas.  You can use them as it is or modify them as per your choice.  Children need support from their parents to complete any craft project and when the project is completed it enhances their confidence and gives them a sense of accomplishment.

While selecting a craft project for your child, you must consider his interest and age. It may as simple as making a ship using matchsticks, or making different masks from chart papers and so on. Making handmade greeting cards on various occasions also is a good idea of showcasing your talent and saving money at the same time. You may use different material for making these cards from paints, to glitters, to mirrors, talk sheet etc. You may not need to spend a lot of money every time, there are many craft ideas which can be made by using many waste materials from your home.

Doing creative work not only improves ones skills but also helps in the development of the overall personality of a person. Craft work also saves a lot of money too and at the same time helps you spend leisure hours doing some creative work. In their free time your children will do craft work rather than wasting their time in watching T.V. Instead of spending money on those expensive lamp shades, you can just buy some textured or handmade paper, colors and some sparkle to make your own lampshades at home. Doing this work with your children will help them gain interest in such activities and help them bring out their own imagination. Apart from that this will give your house a warm look and present your creativity.

It can be even more fun doing it with your friends and family. You can tell your child to ask his friends to come over and hold craft competitions like paper bag making competition, wrist band making competition, card making competition etc. For this you can provide them with material like paper, scissors, glue, ribbons, glitter etc. This will help them to understand community living and sportsmanship. Further it will help them in exchange of creative ideas and views. You can also hold best out of waste competitions among your family members with waste carry bags, cloth pieces etc. This way your waste too won’t go waste. At the end this will help you as well as your children to broaden their imaginative horizon and improve their skills and way of living.

Visit Crafts Advisor website to know more about home crafts and  craft ideas.

Looking for an inexpensive Easter Craft idea for your next project? This craft project costs less than .75 cents per refrigerator magnet and takes less than 20 minutes to make.

Great Project for: Sunday School, Vocational Bible School, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, School Craft Projects, Birthday Parties, and Easter Parties.

Appropiate Age Group: 4 and up

Materials Needed:

Patterns: Easter Egg, Easter Bunny Head, Chick, Cross, Basket
*note* A great source for patterns are preschool aged coloring books

Child Safety Scissors
All Purpose White Tacky Glue
Wiggle Eyes
Markets
Magnets
Foam Sheets: White, Yellow, Tan, Pink, Light Brown, Blue, etc
Miscellaneous: beads, buttons, sequins, yellow feathers

For the purpose of this project, we will assume that you are using Easter Patterns cut from a childs coloring book in the following shapes: Easter Egg, Bunny Head, Chick, Cross and Easter Basket.

To turn the coloring page into a pattern: Cut out the pattern by cutting just outside the patterns shape.

Place the paper shape from the coloring book on the reverse side and place it onto a piece of foam and trace around it. Using safety scissors, cut out the pattern from the foam sheet by cutting on the traced line.

Now its time to decorate your shapes using markers, beads, buttons and sequins.

Ideas:

Easter Eggs: glue on beads, buttons and sequins in pretty wavy patterns. If you are working with older children, you can coat your foam egg with white crafters glue and let them sprinkle on colored glitter which also makes for a pretty magnet.

Easter Chick: glue on wiggle eyes and yellow feathers. Using a black marker draw on a nose and a mouth.

Easter Bunny Head: Using markers color in pink ears and a pink nose. Using a black marker add on wiskers and a mouth. Glue on wiggle eyes.

Cross: You can decorate them however you choose or have the children write a bible quote onto them using markers

Basket: Have the children draw designs onto their baskets. They can cut out small oval shapes in pastel colors and glue them onto the front of their baskets to make easter baskets.

After you are done decorating all your magnets, flip them over and glue a 2 inch piece of magnet on the back and let dry for approximately 20 minutes.

Now you are all done! Super easy to do and they work up quickly. A great inexpensive craft project for kids!

If your home is anything like mine, you’re constantly picking crayons up off the floor. My son colors everyday, sometimes for hours on end. He loves crayons. We’re always buying more crayons because he either looses them or they’ve been worn down to nubbins and hard to color with. Well, here’s a tip for you on what you can do with the worn out crayons rather than throwing them away. You can recycle the old crayons by making them into candles. You can show your kids how they can take something old and make it into something new and colorful that’s useful too. You’ll want to burn these darling homemade candles yourself and give them as gifts as well.

Use this craft technique as a teaching moment with your kids. Before you start making the candles, talk to your kids about safety. They’ll need to know that the crayons will have to be melted using a very high heat, and they will not be able to do that particular step in the process. Tell them they will have other fun steps in making crayon candles.

Get your supplies together. Along with about six crayons, you’ll need a wax container of some sort such as an empty milk or orange juice wax carton, one pound of paraffin wax, two full ice cube trays, a double boiler, white packing string. If you’re hesitant to use your double boiler to melt the crayons and wax, an old coffee can and saucepan works great.

First, trim the top off of the wax carton, leaving it approximately six inches high. Next, cut the string at least 8 inches long and later cut the wick to fit the holder. Braid the three string pieces together to make a wick that burns easier. Melt the paraffin wax in the double boiler or coffee can. To help it melt faster, cut it into small chunks. Usually you’ll need to allow about 20 minutes for the melting process to complete.

Get your kids involved with the crayon candle making fun by letting them remove the crayon wrappers from the crayons while the wax is melting. Be creative by mixing and matching the crayon colors to create your own pretty candle.

Most folks find that they get the best results if they wait and add the crayons to the wax after it’s totally melted. Use a pair of scissors and dip the string into the paraffin. Dipping the string will make sure it’s coated with paraffin because the ice cubes may make it hard for the wax to stick to the string. Hold the string so that it is in the middle of the carton and fill the carton with ice cubes. Pour wax mixture over the ice cubes. You can even add a touch of scent to your crayon candle by adding a little cinnamon or vanilla to the hot wax.

Once you have poured your candle, make sure your kids know the importance of leaving it alone to harden. The candle will usually set in about half an hour, but leave it alone for a couple of hours and until the ice is melted. Put the candle in an area that is safe and where it will not be bothered. Be sure the little ones know they could be burned if they touch the hot wax before it’s cooled. The wax can stay hot for hours after pouring and can be a potential hazard to kids and animals. When you’re ready, all you have to do then is pour off the melted water and then peel off the wax carton.

If you’re looking for a new and easy craft project to do with your kids or with a small group of kids, then making crayon candles is great idea. You can spend a fun afternoon with your children and make a useful candle for your home or as a gift for grandparents and friends.

Have you been wondering what the perfect gift for your child, grandchild, nephew or niece would be? Are you looking for that one gift with a personal touch to it, showing them just how much they actually mean to you? Knowing from a young age that they are loved, important and special to those around them are all things children will carry for life.

Knowing, at the age of two, four or sixteen, that someone thinks they are fantastic is a wonderful feeling for a child. They make the connection that they are important to the people who surround them. Even if the personalized gift is for a baby who doesn’t quite recognize your face yet, in time they will grow to know and love you. They will also understand the story behind the gift when they reach an age to understand it.

Personalized gift giving is not a new concept – many of us remember at least one personalized gift we made, or received in our childhood: the piggy bank with our name on it, the plate in the China cabinet at Mother’s house with our name and date/time of birth, the handprints in clay made in kindergarten, or even something more recent as the apron the children made with Dad or Grandma with ‘World’s #1 Mom’ on it.

Today, there are many more items left to the imagination that can be personalized for our children. And all of them a means to remind each and every child how happy we are they are part of our lives; a feeling you undoubtedly wish to instill to their very core and remember always.

Each occasion and milestone is another wonderful opportunity to give a personalized gift to a child in your life. From books of every subject, personalized with your child’s name as well as those of their friends or family members to plates or cups celebrating eating or drinking by themselves, you are bound to find something that is as unique as the child for whom you are purchasing it.

Personalized clothing can be especially handy in a family with twins or other multiples. Not only is each item something you can pass on to them as they grow old enough to leave the home, it can also help with keeping things straight as to who has been fed and who hasn’t at 3am feedings.

Robes, sweaters and jumpers can now give not only the perfect opportunity for family photos to allow relatives near or far to individualize each child, it can also be a time-saver when sorting the clean laundry to their appropriate owners. Hooded towels, arts and crafts smocks and many other everyday items have the option to be personalized.

Whatever the article of clothing, whether for everyday use or for a special occasion or one-time affair, that wonderful child will be reminded of just how much they are loved by seeing their name added onto a gift, and not simply the wrapping. It’s the little things that go a long way.