Single hole punch via Wikipedia

Are you a camp director, teacher, or homeschool mom looking for a new arts and crafts idea for your kids?  Or maybe you are a recreation director at a senior center or nursing home and could use a new project.  Either way, this arts and crafts idea will be interesting and fun for all.

This glass case can be used, given as a gift, or converted into a necklace purse.

To make the glasses case, you will need the following simple materials:  a square of craft foam, plastic or large blunt needles, lanyard lace or thick yarn.  Cut two rectangles from the foam, each 3-1/2 inches (9 cm.) by 6 inches (15 cm.).  With a hole punch, make holes on three sides of each rectangle, leaving one short side unpunched.  Make the holes 1/2 inch apart and allow at least 1/4 inch between the hole and the edge of the craft foam.  The holes need to line up so that the two pieces can be laced together.  If you are preparing the craft for small children, you should make the holes yourself.  Otherwise, the crafters can do this step if you have enough pairs of hole punches.

At this point the crafters can cut decorative shapes from other colors of craft foam, or you can buy sets of ready-cut foam shapes.

If you are doing the craft at a special event, like vacation Bible school, choose shapes that echo the theme of the event.  For instance, if the Bible school or camp has a cowboy theme, find shapes that fit well, such as boots, cowboy hats, and stars.  Let the kids choose the shapes they like and glue on as desired.  You might also like to provide beads or sequins to glue on as well, especially if the crafters are a little older.

The next step in this arts and crafts idea is to thread the plastic needle with the yarn or lanyard lace.

Yarn might be a little easier to handle, but lanyard lace is shiny and attractive.  In a pinch, some teachers of small children use a bobby pin as a needle.  It is certainly a safe alternative.  Simply loop the yarn through the opening and use the open end of the bobby pin as if it were the point of the needle.  The children can now begin to lace the front and back of the glasses case together.

To turn this arts and crafts idea into a necklace purse, simply attach a piece of lanyard lace to each corner making a long handle.  Kids will enjoy using this case as a place to store secret notes and small objects.  If they’d rather, they can give the glasses case to a parent, grandparent, or friend who wears glasses.  Either way, this arts and crafts idea will be interesting for all.

Kids can benefit greatly from their own creativity, if you allow it.

While some people mistakenly classify creativity as the possession of specific types of skills related to artistic expression, that’s only part of what the term comprises. Creative people typically are better problem solvers because they are able to seek out unique approaches and solutions that others may not recognize. This can be a useful skill for any career, for their education, and for their future.

To help children reap these rewards, parents can use arts and crafts for kids and other efforts to encourage creativity.

Encourage Free Creative Exploration

Handing over arts and crafts for kids is just part of the process. If you’re standing over your children and passing judgment on their results, they are not going to feel comfortable with their creativity. Children will eventually develop the ability to evaluate their own work and others’ work but now is the time for them to feel relaxed and free to use arts and crafts for kids as they see fit.

When children are given an environment that makes them feel free to be creative, they are going to open up their imagination and produce their best results.

Adapt to the Child’s Ideas

In many classrooms, kids are being reprimanded when their creative vision does not match the vision of the teacher. When you’re giving arts and crafts for kids to your children, you should make sure not to stifle their ideas or to force those ideas to conform to your own. For example, if the child draws a picture of the park and uses unusual colors for the trees don’t criticize the child’s color choice. Instead, begin talking about the choice and give the child freedom to express their creative ideas verbally as well as with arts and crafts for kids.

Encourage Children to Use Creative Problem Solving

Providing arts and crafts for kids is only one part of the process. You should also encourage your children to apply that creativity in other ways. For example, you could present your child with a problem and asked him or her to come up with a creative solution. Remember this requires thinking outside of traditional thought patterns. Not only can this be fun but it’s a great extension to what your child is learning from the arts and crafts for kids. It’s also a good way to work on creativity together and to express your encouragement for creative thinking.

Look for Schools that Share Your Appreciation for Creativity

If you have a chance to choose your child’s pre-school, kindergarten, or even primary school, make sure to look for schools that provide high quality arts and crafts for kids but that also have other methods of using creativity in the daily activities. You also want to work with teachers who share your vision about the importance of creativity and the appreciation for the role arts and crafts for kids can play in your child’s future.

The Flint Journal – MLive.com

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Art and craft

Art and craft convey the inner feeling of the artist. Art is a talent which each person has to discover and it is the indication of the changing time, ideas, thoughts, science, technology and overall culture of the land concern. Craft, on the other hand, has much more to do with working with hands and involves skill, technique, and practice.

Wood carving could be defined as cutting and carving the wood in a desired way. Carving means design or cutting by chipping away at a surface. It is necessary to first identify the texture of wood before the process of carving is initiated. Wood used for carving can be classified into two kinds, namely, hardwood and softwood.

Hardwood -refers to wood that is obtained from deciduous broadleaved trees, which shed their leaves annually. Examples of hardwood trees are teak, oak, rosewood, sandalwood, walnut etc.

Softwood- it comes from trees bearing cones, most of which are evergreen. It is ideal for carving, since it is easy to cut, doesn’t splinter, glues well and is good for laminating. Softwood includes pine, cedar, and fir trees.

Wood carving Techniques

There are various techniques to carve wood. Wood carving may be broadly classified into four types:

Relief Carving: it is a type of wood carving that is basically a two dimensional carving, used for things like wall plaques and household decorations.
Chip Carving: it is one of the oldest and simplest types of wood carving. This is a method of literally removing chips from the wood to form a design or geometric pattern.  Chip carving is used to decorate many household items such as music boxes, spoons, hope chests, beams, borders and ceilings.

Carving in the Round: It is a three dimensional type of wood carving.  This type of wood carving opens the door to every tool you can imagine and any kind of wood.   Some of the more popular figures to carve are birds, people and fish.
Whittling: Whittling is the art of taking a piece of raw wood and carving it into shapes by using a knife.  It is reminiscent of a “simpler” time.

Carving Tools

A set of tools is extremely essential to carve wood into desired shapes and designs. The most common tools used by craftsmen to carve Wood:

Carving knives are basic carving tools. They are available in various shapes and sizes.
Chisels have a cutting edge, and are forced into the Wood to produce carved patterns. Square and skew are the two kinds of chisels.
Gouges are chisels with a partly cylindrical blade. They have curved cutting edges.
Rasps and files are used for detailed carving. They have separate conical teeth, and are excellent for shaping decoys.
Grinding Tools are also called Rotary tools, these are one of the most commonly used and preferred tools. Grinding tools should be used in ventilated areas as they generate a lot of dust.
V-tools are known as parting tools, have cutting edges in the shape of a ‘V’. V-tools are used to make sharp incisions and fine carving.

The wood carving helps to develop creativity and imagination by seeing the world around us and its tradition. The creative process itself gives us many aesthetic experiences and the final effect gives us a huge satisfaction.

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Art and craft is not only meant for children but even many adults have adopted arts and crafts as their hobby. Art and craft provides mental peace to your mind and enhances your inner creativity which usually gets uncovered with other things of life. Being a responsible father or mother you always want your child to enjoy his childhood and to provide him all forms of entertainment. However the intelligent parents will avoid communication mediums like television and video games and will give more emphasis on arts and crafts.

Buying arts and crafts for your child is not a difficult task. There are many sources available but online art and craft store emerges as the best option. This is because if you go to a local store nearby your area then you will only get to see limited collection of art and craft items but online stores provide wide range of art and craft items which gives an opportunity to select the best one suiting your child’s ability and interest.

Convenience is one of the other benefits associated with buying arts and crafts online. Parents usually don’t have enough time to take their child out for shopping so internet acts as the perfect source eliminating limited variety and crowd hassles at local city store.

Online store also helps to buy arts and crafts at cheaper prices as many online stores offers discounts, coupons and festive offers to lure the potential customers. Online buying also gives you an opportunity to compare the prices of arts and crafts available at different online stores to get the best deal at cheaper price.

Earlier online shopping was considered to be costlier because of the shipping costs attached to the items, however now most of the online stores offer free shipping to customers who shop for a certain amount from their store.