Kids Crafts

Tissue Paper Rainbow Craft

bstchn@craftalot.com — 7/1/2007

Tissue Paper Rainbow Craft

Prep Time:

5 minutes

Age Group:

4-13 years

What is needed:

OVER THE RAINBOW!! TISSUE KIT from Oriental Trading item #IN-57/62110
Pencil
Table covering
Craft Tray or paper plate

Mess Factor:

** The glitter gets everywhere. I recommend doing this outdoors.

* = little to no mess
** = small amount of mess
*** = a significant amount of mess and cleanup
**** = very messy

Time:

Approximately 30 minutes to complete.

Instructions:

1. Remove protective paper from rainbow exposing sticky surface.

2. Starting at the top wrap one tissue square around the end of a pencil and push onto the sticky surface.

3. Continue until each color has been added creating a rainbow.

4. Sprinkle glitter onto cloud area.

5. Shake off extra glitter.

Comments:

To make this easier on the younger kids I used an x-acto knife to score the protective paper. This way I only removed the paper where the kids were working. This did add about 30 minutes to the prep time. I used the craft trays (or paper plates) to collect the excess glitter. Also some of the kids choose to just use glitter and not the tissue squares.

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Clay Creations

bstchn@craftalot.com — 7/1/2007

Clay Creations

Prep Time:

10 minutes

Age Group:

3-10 years

What is needed:

AWESOME AIR HARDENING CLAY from Oriental Trading item #In-56/8004
cookie cutters
Craft Tray or paper plates
paint and paint brushes
table covering

Mess Factor:

** When painting the kids can get messy. I recommend covering the table and using craft trays or paper plates to help keep the mess down.

* = little to no mess
** = small amount of mess
*** = a significant amount of mess and cleanup
**** = very messy

Time:

Approximately 45 minutes to complete.

Instructions:

1. Roll out clay to about 1/2 inch thickness

2. Using any cookie cutters cut out shapes.

3. Allow to dry 30 minutes

4. Paint creations.

5. Allow to dry 24 hours

Comments:

I did find that the clay dried faster without being painted. I choose to paint before the clay dried to make the project in one day instead of two. I also rolled out the clay for the younger kids before hand. This did increase the prep time a little but not by much.

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Foam Visors

bstchn@craftalot.com — 6/3/2007

Prep Time:

none

Age Group:

3-8 years

What is needed:

Mess Factor:

* No mess

* = little to no mess
** = small amount of mess
*** = a significant amount of mess and cleanup
**** = very messy

Time:

Approximately 10 minutes to complete.

Instructions:

1. Choose a visor.

2. Choose various stickers to apply to visor.

3. Remove sticker backs and apply stickers.

Comments:

This was an easy craft. The kids enjoyed wearing their new creations. You can use this as a themed craft project depending on the foam stickers you purchase. There are several themes such as religious, sports, abc’s, princess, and shapes available at Joanne Fabrics.

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Foam Purses

bstchn@craftalot.com — 6/3/2007

Foam Purses

Prep Time:

None

Age Group:

5-8 years

What is needed:

Colorfoam Sheets 9""x12"" 2mm Thick (1 per purse)
Kids Craft Needles
Plastic Lacing
Foam Stickers
Colorfoam Sheets 9""x12"" 2mm Thick - cut in 1 inch strips (2 strips per purse)
Small Hole Punche (I used a leather punch for making belts. If you use a standard hole punch the holes will be too big.)

Mess Factor:

* no mess

* = little to no mess
** = small amount of mess
*** = a significant amount of mess and cleanup
**** = very messy

Time:

Approximately 30 minutes to complete.

Instructions:

1. Fold Foam Sheet in half

2. Punch holes into sides of foam to pull lacing through.

3. Thread plastic lacing through bottom hole of one side of purse. Tie a knot.

4. Continue threading lacing through each hole until you reach the top hole. Tie a knot at the top.

5. Trim extra lacing off the top and bottom.

6. Repeat on opposite side.

7. Place one foam strip on the front side of the top of the purse close to one side.

8. Making sure you go through the purse and handle strip, punch two holes.

9. Thread plastic threading through holes so that the string is facing out. Tie a knot and then a bow with extra lacing.

10. Trim lacing.

11. Repeat for second side of handle on other side of the front.

12. Repeat on back side of purse.

13. Apply stickers to purse.

Comments:

This is a small purse not intended to hold much. This is an easy craft to create in a theme. Theme foam stickers such as religious, abc’s, sports, princess, and shapes can be purchased at Joanne Fabric.

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Father's Day - Hanging "Dad" Photo Frame

bstchn@craftalot.com — 6/1/2007

Prep Time:

10 Minutes

Age Group:

4-12 years

What is needed:

Hanging Dad Photo Frame Craft Kit From Oriental Trading Item #IN-48/2860
Glue
Picture to insert into frame.
Q-tips
Table Covering

Mess Factor:

* Little mess. Glue can get all over with the younger kids.

* = little to no mess
** = small amount of mess
*** = a significant amount of mess and cleanup
**** = very messy

Time:

Approximately 20 minutes to complete.

Instructions:

1. Glue one 'D' onto one of the large stars.
Glue 'A' onto a large star.

Glue 'D' onto last large star.

2. Glue two smaller rectangles together to create top of frame.
Glue picture to frame. Glue rectangles on top of picture to finish frame.

3. Allow all the glue to dry.

4. Glue small stars to larger stars. One on each star.

5. Tie a knot into one end of the ribbon. String beads onto ribbon.

6. Place large stars and photo frame onto ribbon. Make sure the large stars spell out DAD. Glue into place.

7. Loop the top of the ribbon and glue onto photo frame to create a hanging ribbon.

8. Allow to dry before hanging.

Comments:

This was a little too easy for the older kids, but everyone liked the end result. I used the Q-tips to spread the glue. The kids used less glue that way and it dried much faster.

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Mother's Day Hanging Photo Frame

bstchn@craftalot.com — 5/2/2007

Prep Time:

10 - 15 minutes

Age Group:

4-12 years

What is needed:

FOAM "#1 MOM" PHOTO FRAME CRAFT KIT (IN-48/5084)
White Glue
Photo of child or child and mother

Mess Factor:

* Little mess. Glue can get all over with the younger kids

* = little to no mess
** = small amount of mess
*** = a significant amount of mess and cleanup
**** = very messy

Time:

Approximately 40 minutes to complete.

Instructions:

1. Open Kits

2. Start with gluing one letter on each on the medium sized hearts.

3. Glue smallest hearts onto medium hearts in any way you like.

4. Glue photo into frame, then onto largest heart.

5. Glue last of the smallest hearts onto the largest heart.

6. Allow glue to dry for half an hour.

7. Make a knot in the bottom of the longer ribbon.

8. Thread beads onto ribbon until they are positioned at the knot.

9. Lay out ribbon and position all the hearts evenly onto ribbon. Glue the hearts to ribbon.

10. Allow to dry.

11. Glue shorter ribbon onto largest heart to create a loop to hang craft from.

Comments:

This went pretty quickly. The kids really liked making something special for their moms. I used my digital camera and took pictures of the kids then printed them on my computer while they started working. Although it takes a while to allow the glue to dry the actual time working on this craft is only about 10 minutes. I used the time while the glue was drying to make home made cards to go with this craft.

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Homemade Mother's Day Card

bstchn@craftalot.com — 5/2/2007

Prep Time:

20 minutes

Age Group:

5-12 years

What is needed:

Construction paper
Markers
Scissors
White glue
Table covering
Poem for mom (see below)

Mess Factor:

** Small amount of mess. Paper gets all over after cutting out shapes and markers can bleed through paper.

* = little to no mess
** = small amount of mess
*** = a significant amount of mess and cleanup
**** = very messy

Time:

Approximately 30 minutes to complete.

Instructions:

1. Fold one piece of construction paper in half to create card base.

2. Cut out heart or flower shapes to decorate card. Use several different colors.

3. Write poem into the card.

4. Glue shapes onto card.

5. Allow to dry

Comments:

For the younger kids I cut out thier shapes so they only had to glue them.

Poem:

aMazing

lOving

paTient

cHerished

awEsome

caRing

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Awesome African Paper Masks

bstchn@craftalot.com — 5/1/2007

Paper Masks

Prep Time:

5 minutes

Age Group:

3-10 years

What is needed:

Craft kit from Oriental trading. Awesome Aftrican Paper Masks Item #IN-57/6258
Poster Paint
Paint Brushes
Table covering.

Mess Factor:

** Slightly messing. The paint can get all over especially with younger kids.

* = little to no mess
** = small amount of mess
*** = a significant amount of mess and cleanup
**** = very messy

Time:

Approximately 30 minutes to complete.

Instructions:

1. Set up paint colors you wish to use.

2. Start painting masks.

3. Allow a minimum of half and hour to dry.

Comments:

I cut out some pictures I found of real African masks for the older kids. Using the pictures they tried to make more realistic masks. The younger kids just painted whatever they wanted. I found the less paint used the better. When the younger kids used to much paint the masks warped and took over an hour to dry.

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Paper Bag Puppets

bstchn@craftalot.com — 4/15/2007

Prep Time:

1 hour

Age Group:

4-10 years

What is needed:

Choose and print your favorite paper bag puppet decorations like these.
1 Brown paper bag for each puppet
White glue
Poster Paint
Scissors
Paint brushes

Mess Factor:

** Lots of pieces of paper after cutting the templates, paint can be messy,

* = little to no mess
** = small amount of mess
*** = a significant amount of mess and cleanup
**** = very messy

Time:

Approximately 45 minutes to complete.

Instructions:

1. Print templates.

2. Cut out templates.

3. Paint bag (optional)

4. Allow paint to dry.

5. Glue template pieces to bag following template instructions.

6. Add extra embellishments. For example: feathers, sequins, or stickers. (optional)

Comments:

I cut out the templates for the youngest of the kids. The younger kids did not use paint. This made the craft faster and less messy. The older kids took the extra time to paint and add little embellishments. I would recommend it for children aged 4 -10 years of age.

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Suncatcher Craft

bstchn@craftalot.com — 4/15/2007

Prep Time:

Approximately 10 minutes.

Age Group:

5-10 years

What is needed:

Super Mega Suncatcher Craft Kit (Item #IN-57/85830) from Oriental Trading

This Kit included 48 suncatchers, paint, droppers, and cording to hang when finished.

Paint Brushes
Vinyl table cloth
Art smocks
Paper towels for cleanup

Cost:

$29.95 per kit

Mess Factor:

*** Paint is very thin and gets on everything.

* = little to no mess
** = small amount of mess
*** = a significant amount of mess and cleanup
**** = very messy

Time:

Approximately 30 minutes to complete.

Several hours to dry craft

Instructions:

1. Start with one color and put that color in each spot where you want that color

2. Clean paint brush between colors.

3. Continue with each color until completely painted.

4. Allow to dry several hours.

Tip:

I opted not to use the droppers with the kids and used paint brushes instead.

Comments:

The younger kids will not be very precise. Some of the designs had very small areas to paint that the kids couldn’t skillful paint them. The kids were quite messy with the paint and constant clean up was necessary. Each craft took several hours to dry and then could be hung up. I would recommend purchasing suction cup hooks to hang them in windows. I would recommend it for children aged 5 -10 years of age.

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Tissue Paper Flag Decoration

bstchn@craftalot.com — 4/15/2007

Prep Time:

Little to none

Age Group:

4-10 years

What is needed:

Tissue Paper Flag Decoration craft kit (Item #IN-48/4356) From Oriental Trading

This Kit included 12 flag shaped adhesive papers and Red White and Blue tissue paper squares.

Pencil
White glue
Exacto Knife (optional)
Ruler (optional)

Cost:

$5.95 per kit

Mess Factor:

* - No mess

* = little to no mess
** = small amount of mess
*** = a significant amount of mess and cleanup
**** = very messy

Time:

Approximately 30 minutes to complete

Instructions:

1. Peel off the protective paper to reveal the sticky surface.

2. Using the eraser end of the pencil wrap one tissue paper square around the eraser and then stick it onto the paper. Start with all of the blue.

3. Continue with alternating the red and white strips until design is complete.

4. Attach star appliqués to blue area of flag with white glue.

5. Allow stars to dry for half and hour

6. Attach string to back of flag with white glue.

7. Allow to dry for a day before hanging.

Tip:

When I did these for smaller kids I used a ruler and an Exacto knife and scored the protective paper in the pattern of the flag. I then only peeled off each section as they were working on them. This made for less mistakes and a better flag pattern.

Comments:

All the kids enjoyed this craft. Some of the kids decided to roll their tissue squares into little balls instead of putting them on with the pencil. This made for a less dramatic flag, but cute just the same. Punching holes and putting the string through and tying them before attaching the tissue paper would make hanging much easier.

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Sand Art Craft

bstchn@craftalot.com — 4/15/2007

Prep Time:

No prep time needed.

Age Group:

4-10 years

What is needed:

I purchased sand art kits from Oriental trading.
Everyday Sand Art Picture Craft Kit (#IN-48-1515)
Plate or paper to catch extra sand

Cost:

$6.95 per kit

Mess Factor:

* - Extra sand can get all over, so you may need to vacuum after finishing the craft.

* = little to no mess
** = small amount of mess
*** = a significant amount of mess and cleanup
**** = very messy

Time:

Approximately 30 minutes to complete.

Instructions:

Follow the instruction that come with the craft kit.

1. Choose where each different color will go.
2. Peel off the protective paper where the first color will go.
3. Shake sand over exposed areas.
4. Shake excess sand onto plate or paper.
5. Continue this process for each color until the design is complete.

Comments:

The younger kids did this craft relatively easily. They did run out of sand quite fast and made more a mess than the older kids. The older kids got a little more bold and mixed colors and tried to make it more fun. I would recommend it for children aged 4 -10 years of age.

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