Crafting Secrets

Christmas is among the best feasts of the year for your kids. In order to turn this feast into a real enjoyable activity, you simply have to teach your kids some uncomplicated Christmas crafts projects, so that the celebration is full of joy for you and for them!

As soon as a child helps you choose what the Christmas-projects will be, everything will flow just fine, because kids have better imagination than adults! However, have in mind that preschoolers typically need to be helped and guided, but that will be better, because you will have to assist in smaller crafts projects, right? As an example, you will only add sprinklings in addition to the styles of Christmas trees or adhesive ribbons on the wreaths.

Moreover, children who have already attended school, show the tendency of being more creative and will typically construct all crafts projects on their own. As usual, parents organize parties for smaller children with their neighbor’s kids. However, you have to consider that even older children, just about the age of nine, really enjoy socializing with other children at their age. Therefore, if you have kids at this age, you may perhaps want to organize a Christmas-craft meeting together with your kid’s friends or neighbors.

One of the additional extras for the Christmas-projects may be a customized Xmas card. Everything you actually need would be a piece of cellophane, a constructing paper list, and a few extra materials for the designing style of the card. When you start, you need to assist your kid fold the cellophane and the construction paper to the required size.

So, now just let them design the card in the means they need and offer them basic materials like crayons or colored markers. If you wish to give them some inspiration, show some typical Xmas characters, such as Santa Claus, snowmen, the Rudolph deer, Xmas-trees etc.

As soon as you have completed these Christmas crafts projects, help your kids write his or her Xmas-message that they would like inside the Christmas card. In conclusion, that way, your kids will be ready to take these cards to the post and to send letters to the family and their friends!

Children, as well as adults, love to play the Dreidel Game during Hanukkah (also spelt Chanukah), and a wide range of dreidels can easily be purchased online at judaica shops. The selection and variation of styles available can be overwhelming, but the game played with them is always the same!

A dreidel (also spelt draydel and draydle) is a four-sided top or any shaped spinning item with four Hebrew symbols on it. The symbols are each a different Hebrew letter: nun, gimel, heh, and shin. These four letters stand for the words: nes, gadol, hayah, and sham. The translation of these four words is: “A Great Miracle Happened There.” In Israel, the last letter on the dreidel is peh instead of shin. This last letter stands for the word poh, which changes the meaning to: “A Great Miracle Happened Here.”

To play the Dreidel Game, you start with a “pot” in the middle. The “pot” can be made of candy, coins, chocolate gelt, or any other small thing of value, although most times children play with gelt. Gelt is the Yiddish word for “money,” but in this context, gelt often refers to chocolate coins widely available during Hanukkah. Each player is given a certain amount of gelt and puts one piece into the center to start the “pot.” The players then take turns spinning the dreidel, and whichever side faces up (or whichever Hebrew letter is pointed to) when it stops spinning determines what you do:

If the letter NUN is facing up, you do NOTHING.
If the letter SHIN is facing up, you PUT ONE piece of gelt into the pot.
If the letter HEH is facing up, you TAKE HALF the gelt from the pot.
If the letter GIMEL is facing up, you TAKE ALL the gelt from the pot.
If ever the pot is empty, each player puts one piece of gelt into the center. When a player runs out of gelt, he or she is out of the game! The winner is the last one left in.

Some dreidels are hollow and can be filled with candy or chocolate. Some play music when they spin. And still others can be stacked on top of one another as they spin. They are made from many different materials, including plastic, wood, ceramic, glass, gold, and silver. The plastic versions cost as little as ten cents, but gold and silver dreidels can cost in the hundreds of dollars. Even though dreidels are mostly enjoyed by children, no matter how young or old, many adults collect ornate and beautiful dreidels, and display them in china or curio cabinets.

“L’dor l’dor” means “from generation to generation,” and it refers to the importance of passing down traditions and religious practices to your children. Hanukkah is one of best times to pass down your Jewish traditions to your kids because of how many resources there are, and how much fun the holiday is.

Fortunately, it’s easy to help your kids enjoy and understand the Hanukkah season, and to get them involved in Hanukkah activities. Of course, most popular is the dreidel game. If your kids don’t have dreidels, buy at least one for each of them and teach them how to play. If you want to encourage their artistic side, you can get dreidels your kids can color and decorate themselves, or even ones that they can build themselves such as the new clay dreidel that can be molded, dried and then painted before it is played with.

Other activities during the Hanukkah season include reading Hanukkah books, eating candy and gelt, coloring, putting together puzzles, sending out Hanukkah cards, making cookies with Hanukkah cookie cutters, playing with Hanukkah stickers, and more. Kids can even get Hanukkah yo-yos that play traditional songs like The Dreidel Song, which begins, “I have a little dreidel.”

It is common for each child in the family to have their own Hanukkah menorah to light. But if you have kids who are too young to light candles, then you may want to consider some of the kid-friendly menorahs available today. For instance, there are stuffed menorahs with flames that Velcro on, and thin plastic ones that stick to the window and have separate plastic flames that can be attached.

Because the Hanukkah season is so festive, there are big parties and family gatherings. Many families give their children a present each night of Chanukah and decorate their homes with blue and white festive decorations and electric lights, often shaped like dreidels. Gifts run the gamut from gelt to clothing, from hanukkah toys and crafts to video games.

Some families choose to get and fill Hanukkah bags for their kids so they don’t feel left out when their non-Jewish friends receive gifts and candy in stockings. Again, all of these wonderful items are easily available online as you shop from your armchair, and you can shop to your heart’s content as you plan on making this a hanukkah for your kids to remember with hanukkah toys, activities, dreidels, puzzles, cookie cutters, menorahs, and more.

The idea of arts & crafts for children is something that you really should have. If your kids talk about being bored, then you can really give your children something to do away from the computer games while helping them grow with crafts. Many parents do not advise to you how important arts & crafts are for helping them grow as individuals.

When you do crafts, it is important to remember that some arts & crafts have age limits. This is due to the things you use and the time that is needed. Lets give you a few of those ideas for different age categories that really benefit from completing arts & crafts.

Lets start with preschoolers. Now, with preschoolers, you will have to provide a lot of assistance. Yet, arts & crafts such as gluing things on is a great thing to work with them on. For instance, one that we like to do is cutting out the outline of a butterfly then allowing them to glue things to the butterfly which are quite vibrant in colors.

Something that we like to do with kindergartners is to create items that they can play with when arts & craft time is over. Something that we have found for this age is that making hand puppets is fun. They can cut out the pieces to create the eyes and so forth and then glue the facial features on. This is one form ofarts & craft you can do with your children.

The last age is the elementary school age. You will find that when a child enters the classroom, they can incorporate colors with their projects. You tell them to use a color and they will use it. Something that we like to do in terms of crafts with this age though is helping them to think multi dimensional. For them, you might try to have them craft things out of clay or even with beads like creating jewelry. All of these things help them with that.

One thing that many of us want is to find cool projects that we can do. Something that our kids found very cool are spider webs that you let them create the web part out of glue and coat it with glitter. From here, then while that is drying you can help them make the spider for their spider web.

We have found that what happens when you help children to do craft projects it allows them to display their creative side that everyone has. You see what colors they like. You see the dimensions that they work in. Then, you can see the true side of them come out.

Formore kids crafts visit and info: www.simplekidscrafts.com info@simplekidscrafts.com Also visit: www.artsandcraftstv.com Manualidades para niños en Español www.manualidadesconninos.com Manualidades para adultos en Español: www.manualidadestv.com Muslim Kids Videos and Crafts: www.muslimkidstv.com Background Music: Free Royalty Free Music from: www.partnersinrhyme.com Free Music by Kevin MacLeod from: incompetech.com Public domain music downloaded from: www.virushead.net About Simple Kids Crafts: Simple Kids Crafts is a blog dedicated to reviving the old art of handicrafts. and art that has been lost to fabricated toys. We provide easy fun crafts, with step by step instructions, coloring pages, home school resources, educational resources, kids arts and crafts projects for teachers and all for free! The focus of the site is mainly on preschool, kindergarten, and elementary school crafts. Make wonderful, easy, simple crafts with things found around the house featuring: paper crafts, animal crafts, decoration, painting, beading, gift making, gardening, felt crafts, puppets, play date tips, scrapbooking, yarn and needle crafts, photography, home decor, reading, poetry, jewelry making projects and science projects. About the author of the videos: My name is Merve, I am a Muslim, an engineer from New York, a mom, a wife and a crafter by nature. My parents introduced me to arts and crafts at a very early age. I love doing arts and crafts as a hobby but most importantly to …

Button crafts are a great way to represent your individual taste and sense of style. The best part about button crafts is that they can be used in a variety of different setting and situations. They can be added onto existing clothing items or simply used as display pieces and so on. If you are someone that wants to stand out in a crowd and make people pay attention to you and your unique sensibilities, button crafts are undoubtedly the way to go.

The world of arts and crafts is blossoming like never before. People throughout the world are choosing to move towards using more personalised products that are made by small-scale manufacturers. This is happening because smaller companies and individuals who create these products put their heart and soul into virtually every piece that they create. As such there is very little homogenisation and every single item feels and looks different. As far as the quality of the product goes, these products are far superior to those that are mass produced.

Also there is an element of great satisfaction that the customer feels knowing just how much hard work and effort has gone into the creation of a particular item. Additionally, since they can relate that effort to an individual, they are continually reminded of the human face behind the products that we love and cherish. As such, these embroidery products are becoming more and more fashionable and mainstream.

Ella and Skysie Designs is an online shop dedicated to the finest embroidery products available. All of the designs showcased here are original creations and represent a wide variety of tastes and interests. There is something for everyone and there is undoubtedly something that will catch your fancy or look great in your home. For more information about the different kinds of products or information related to ordering products online, please visit www.ellaandskysiedesigns.com

Halloween usually conjures up images of strange shapes, dark movie characters and popular animals. These days though, these common figures can be made in more ways than one and using an assortment of different materials. Here are the top eleven variations on the most popular Halloween arts and crafts for kids.

Bats

There’s no need for you to buy plastic bats for Halloween since you can make your own. You can easily cut patterns or two dimensional bats from construction paper or cartolina. Bat Halloween arts and crafts for kids can also be creatively made out of egg cup cartons to hang or out of clothes pins to clip on curtains.

Pumpkins

These days, you don’t have to worry about messy pumpkin carvings anymore. You can easily have pumpkin paper lanterns as Halloween arts and crafts for kids projects. If you don’t like lanterns, you can still make pumpkins out of paper plates, milk containers and construction paper. One other great alternative would be pumpkin baskets made of paper mache.

Witches

Witch Halloween arts and crafts for kids can be made out of paper plates and cardboard. As an alternative, you can create a witch doctor look instead of a western witch by incorporating beaded necklaces and homemade stuffed voodoo dolls.

Spiders

One favorite Halloween arts and crafts for kids is the spider. Spiders can be as simple as construction paper or egg cup carton hangers. They can also be made of pom poms or colored cotton balls.

Vampires

Vampire masks with fangs can be easily made with paper plates. More imposing ornamental life size vampires however can be made out of coat hangers and black garbage bags.

UFO

Aliens and UFOs are not common Halloween figures but stories of alien kidnappings and abduction makes great Halloween tales. Make UFOs out of paper plates that you can hang from the ceiling. You might also want to complement the ships with cookies shaped like stereotypical aliens instead of ginger bread men.

Worms in Cans

Worms in cans can be made of brown crepe paper. They can seem yuckier to the touch though if you use gummy candies and cooked spaghetti.

Ghosts

Ghosts can also come in variations. You can make ghost Halloween arts and crafts for kids made of socks, packing foam, old cloths, crepe paper, helium filled balloons, white painted jars, tissue and clay.

Mummy

Use tissue paper or gauze and wrap it around a jar for a mummified figure. Cut out some eyes from construction paper and stick them on the jars before you put on the tissue so you can have the eyes slightly covered and just peeking.

Cats

What’s Halloween without black cats? Use paper plates to create cat masks or some cotton and crepe paper to create billowing streamers.

Skeletons

White or luminous paint on a black figure would be perfect for the usual skeleton man. You can however create a good looking skeleton with different kinds of pasta.

If you have an artistic mind and you love you make something decorative and attractive for your home then clay pots are definitely a great idea to work with. You can make different items or can also so some painting on the clay pot in such a way that it will make the plant look better. It may also happen that you not even notice the plant just because the pot is so attractive.

To make a painted clay pot you need to have 4″ clay pot, opaque apple green acrylic paint, opaque blue lagoon acrylic paint, opaque yellow acrylic paint, semi opaque pumpkin acrylic paint, semi opaque white acrylic paint, fine point permanent black marker.

Steps to make a painted clay pot:
1. First using a small ruler and pencil, you should measure the height of the clay pot starting just below the rim. Then mark off the halfway point between the top and the bottom of the clay pot. Altogether you should measure and mark off the halfway point at four opposite places on the pot.

2. Now holding the plastic measuring tape up to the clay pot, connect the halfway points and then draw a light pencil line between all the halfway point marks around the pot.

3. Line up the ruler with each of the halfway points around the pot one at a time and draw a light pencil line from the top of the plant pot just below the rim to the bottom of the pot at this point. You will have 8 squares drawn on the pot.

4. Then you have to decide on the color scheme or arrangement of the colors into squares you have drawn on the pot. In one set of squares you can fill any combination of two colors and in the other one also you can fill other set of colors.

5. Squeeze a small amount of the pumpkin acrylic paint on the paper plate and gather a small amount of paint on the straight edge of the brush and paint along the straight lines of one of the squares with a generous coat paint on the paper plate. Outline and fill in one of the square completely with a generous layer of paint. Now paint the square diagonally across from it pumpkin using the same method as you did for the first one and let the paint dry. Rinse out and shape the brush again.

6. When this paint is drying, you can turn the pot around to other set of 4 squares. Squeeze a small amount of yellow acrylic paint on the paper plate. Outline and fill in one of the squares with a generous coat of the yellow paint. Paint the square diagonally across from it yellow suing the same method as you have did for the first one and then let the paint dry.

7. When the paint on this side is drying, turn the pot around to the first set of 4 squares. Squeeze a small amount of apple green acrylic paint and paint the square diagonally across from it green using the same method as you did earlier. Again let the paint dry and you can rinse out and shape the brush again.

8. Again while this paint is drying turn the pot around to the second set of 4 squares and squeeze a small amount of blue lagoon acrylic paint on the paper plate. Next outline and fill in one of the squares with a generous coat of blue paint. Paint the square diagonally using the same method and let the paint dry.

9. When the paint is drying for the last squares you have painted, it is time to paint the edge of the pot white. Squeeze a small amount of white acrylic paint onto the paper plate and paint the edges.

For further information, visit craft-books.net

Formore kids crafts visit and info: www.simplekidscrafts.com info@simplekidscrafts.com Also visit: www.artsandcraftstv.com Manualidades para niños en Español www.manualidadesconninos.com Manualidades para adultos en Español: www.manualidadestv.com Muslim Kids Videos and Crafts: www.muslimkidstv.com Background Music: Free Royalty Free Music from: www.partnersinrhyme.com Free Music by Kevin MacLeod from: incompetech.com Public domain music downloaded from: www.virushead.net About Simple Kids Crafts: Simple Kids Crafts is a blog dedicated to reviving the old art of handicrafts. and art that has been lost to fabricated toys. We provide easy fun crafts, with step by step instructions, coloring pages, home school resources, educational resources, kids arts and crafts projects for teachers and all for free! The focus of the site is mainly on preschool, kindergarten, and elementary school crafts. Make wonderful, easy, simple crafts with things found around the house featuring: paper crafts, animal crafts, decoration, painting, beading, gift making, gardening, felt crafts, puppets, play date tips, scrapbooking, yarn and needle crafts, photography, home decor, reading, poetry, jewelry making projects and science projects. About the author of the videos: My name is Merve, I am a Muslim, an engineer from New York, a mom, a wife and a crafter by nature. My parents introduced me to arts and crafts at a very early age. I love doing arts and crafts as a hobby but most importantly to …

Formore kids crafts visit and info: www.simplekidscrafts.com info@simplekidscrafts.com Also visit: www.artsandcraftstv.com Manualidades para niños en Español www.manualidadesconninos.com Manualidades para adultos en Español: www.manualidadestv.com Muslim Kids Videos and Crafts: www.muslimkidstv.com Background Music: Free Royalty Free Music from: www.partnersinrhyme.com Free Music by Kevin MacLeod from: incompetech.com Public domain music downloaded from: www.virushead.net About Simple Kids Crafts: Simple Kids Crafts is a blog dedicated to reviving the old art of handicrafts. and art that has been lost to fabricated toys. We provide easy fun crafts, with step by step instructions, coloring pages, home school resources, educational resources, kids arts and crafts projects for teachers and all for free! The focus of the site is mainly on preschool, kindergarten, and elementary school crafts. Make wonderful, easy, simple crafts with things found around the house featuring: paper crafts, animal crafts, decoration, painting, beading, gift making, gardening, felt crafts, puppets, play date tips, scrapbooking, yarn and needle crafts, photography, home decor, reading, poetry, jewelry making projects and science projects. About the author of the videos: My name is Merve, I am a Muslim, an engineer from New York, a mom, a wife and a crafter by nature. My parents introduced me to arts and crafts at a very early age. I love doing arts and crafts as a hobby but most importantly to …