Tag: crafts

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Try Again

Andi

I did this peacock during my friend’s and mine weekly group painting, but I hated it. The first one looked so terrible. I didn’t finish it, I just threw it away.

I stopped to think about why it looked so awful, and evaluated why I disliked it so greatly. The colors were unclear and muddled together and looked like poo. What causes that? Well maybe it was my ridiculously old brushes that weren’t even designed for watercolor being too thick and wide to make the clear lines. I was unable to make the project look correct. So I went and got a new set of brushes. I also considered that my paints were getting used and running low. Perhaps they needed to also be replaced. So i also purchased a new set of paints.

New paper. Start over. The second one came out significantly better than the first. I can stand to look at this one. It could still be better, but that will be on a different day with different paper.

When you mess up, don’t throw your hands up and give up. Look at why you made a mistake, analyze how you could improve. What would make this project move more smoothly? Once you’ve done that, correct your errors. Make those changes. And then try again. If its still wrong, go back and try again. Don’t stop, keep changing things.. Keep making corrections until you get it right.

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Paper Rainbows

Andi

I did this craft with my children. Its a pretty simple premise. I’d suggest the kid doing this activity be about elementary age. It sounds easy to you and me, but it can become frustrating for a younger kid still developing their hand eye coordination and dexterity.

Materials needed are construction paper cut in a U shape, tissue paper cut into small squares, glue, pen or pencil, white paper crumpled.

Take your U shaped construction paper and dob a line of glue along the edge. Take a square of tissue paper and wrap it over the eraser end of your pencil. Turn over and place on the line of glue. Repeat process until the entire row is full. After you finished one color, go back to the glue and start the next row of color.

Once you’ve filled your entire rainbow, take your white paper and add some glue to it. Place and hold onto the ends of your rainbow for a few seconds until the glue takes hold.

My younger child gave up the pencil and took to crumpling the tissue paper into balls and putting those on the glue. It actually turned out just fine. If your child is having trouble with the pencil and paper, you can show them how to crumple the paper instead.

Allow time to dry of course, and the hang on the fridge, or in the window, or on the wall. Or your kid can run around showing everyone they see their pretty rainbow.

This craft was a little bit of a challenge for us. I’d say it took a good 30 minutes to and hour and then time to dry. My child got frustrated and walked away a couple times. But this activity pushed the limits of their ability, and helped improve it.

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Pipe Cleaner Snakes

Andi

A bit ago, I had my kids do a beading activity. I noticed that my younger child was having a really hard time coordinating the moving string and the bead, to the point he was angrily frustrated and quit. I thought, surely there is a way for him to develop this skill without the frustration.

I’ve discussed the benefits of beading in my earlier post entitled Beading with Children. But any activity your children do should be doable without rage and irritation. Regular beading was a little too difficult for my younger child, so I adjusted the parameters a little bit to better fit their capabilities.

Instead of string, I gave them pipe cleaner to bead. Because pipe cleaners are stiff, they were simpler to coordinate. My child was able to do this craft without too much trouble. I’m fact they enjoyed it so much, they’d pull all the beads off and re-string them.

To add a little structure to this craft, we added little snake faces and positioned the snakes in funny ways. They turned out really cute with their tongues sticking out 😋.

This takes a little observation on the part of the adult. Can the children around you manage a wobbly string while they are beading, or do they need a little aide to work up to it? Another fun stringing activity involves those large wooden beads and shoe laces. Both of these will help a younger child develop their coordination to a point they can string beads, which in turns help develop other skills.

This craft did not cost a whole lot either. The beads I got in a set with some string for $1.99. You do not need that many, unless you have a burning desire to pick up a bunch of stray beads off the floor that rolled away. The pipe cleaners were $1 and I got the package of construction paper for $1 as well. Beading is so incredibly helpful and creative and costs so little. Give it a try with your kids!

Art

Octopus Watercolor

Andi

I’m really proud of this painting. A couple friends and I started doing watercolor tutorials together over Zoom a few months ago when the Stay at Home orders were issued. Before that, we had tried to get together in person to paint together. I’m honestly surprised how well the paintings turn out because none of us are professionals, but they almost always look good.

But this one is extra special. This one is an octopus. Octopuses are my favorite sea creature and my second favorite creature in general. They sit on the top with the Cats and Elephants. They are brilliant and clever and snarky. Look up some of the aquarium and diver stories about them. I love nature in general, but octopuses hold a special place in my heart.

The template was all blue and purple, but as a looked at it, I didn’t like the blue. I decided he shouldn’t be blue, he should be orange. Which immediately reminded me of Hank the septopus from Finding Dory.

I love Hank. He is cranky. He wants to be left alone. He is constantly caught up in his friends hijinks. I am Hank. If I were an animal, I would be him. He is my favorite Pixar character. Which is not an easy feat considering he’s competing with the likes of Joy, Woody, and Dante. I am almost positive Hank was based off of someone in the Pixar studio and I want to meet this person, we would be friends.

So instead of blue and purple, I painted this guy orange and red with only seven arms in tribute to my Pixar friend Hank.

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Hat with Flowers Craft

Andi

I got this hat and decorated it for the Royal Wedding a few years ago. The ribbon flowers I’d made and glued on have long since fallen off, and I was left with this, bland, little sad looking hat.

So this is what I was starting with. I had some plastic flowers, a little ribbon, and a hot glue gun with glue sticks.

First, I removed some of the lace ribbon. It was excessive and looked like it was falling off. Off with it. But I added some orange and green ribbon to give a base to add flowers to.

I picked up three bundles of flowers I thought looked good together. Three was plenty. I had extras left over afterwards.

I didn’t have much of a set plan going into this, so I added flowers where I thought they fit. I’m not an expert by any means, and a hatmaker would probably laugh at how badly my hat looked at the end. However, I’m not trying to be an expert or a hatmaker. I’m the one wearing this hat.

Final product: flowers everywhere!

I like color, I like flowers, I like eccentric things. So for my style and my purposes, this hat was a success! I do not remember what I spent on the hat when I bought it, maybe $10? The ribbon was given to me, the flowers were $1 a piece. My hot glue gun was about $10 when I bought it as well. Not a huge expense for me and it gave me an hour outside doing something in the fresh air!

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Beading with Children

Andi

Beading seems overly simple. Just string a round piece of plastic/wood/clay with a hole in the middle onto a string. Easy right? It is, but it is also wildly educational. How is something so simple teaching anything? Well, most of what it teaches is developmental.

Beading aides in developing hand eye coordination, bilateral coordination (using both hands to do different tasks at the same time) and dexterity. They have to focus and carefully place the bead on the string. If they start having trouble, it can become a learning opportunity on patience and perseverance. Beading also gives them a sense of accomplishment at creating something themselves, which fuels imagination. In connection with that it can strengthen their planning and execution skills. Letting them lay out and design a pattern they like and then putting that plan to action to make something.

But beading can also be used in a more traditional teaching sense. Having the child count their beads can teach them numbers and counting in order. It could be used to teach pattern recognition and sequences. You could use beads to teach colors.

There are so many possibilities with beading. Get creative with it. Let them get creative with it.

Use beading as a way to be a light in someone’s life. Make several bracelets to give to friends, grandparents, the kind old lady in the grocery store who always says hi to you.

Beads and string are fairly inexpensive, but the activities they can create and lessons they can teach are immeasurable.

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Activities to do in the House

Andi

With many of the schools closing, businesses closing, many families are concerned how they will fill the time without going insane.

I went over the the Dollar Tree and found several great activities, and being the Dollar Tree, it was inexpensive. They have a surprisingly large variety of crafts and toys. I got a few craft kits, some sidewalk chalk, bubbles, and a little golf set. Just to have on hand as this virus escalates and its becoming more likely we will be quarantined at some point.

I did not get crayons or play dough there however. Both of these things can be purchased elsewhere for similar or even cheaper prices and better quality. You can get both at Walmart for a decent price.

We have activities I already had that will come in handy. Things like coloring books, puzzles, board games, dress up clothes, etc. These I think will also come in handy.

Many organizations are also putting free materials out for families to use. Scholastic for example is putting an educational program on their website with activities and books for you children to make use of and hopefully help keep their minds sharp. You can find this resource at

http://www.scholastic.com/learnathome

YouTube will of course have videos you can watch with your kids, educational and otherwise.

Keep your heads up. Doctors and scientists are already working overtime to develop a vaccine. By cancelling events, citizens are hoping to slow the spread of the virus, and maybe dissipate its severity. It kind of sucks, I’m going to be honest. I like going places, and can’t because everything had closed. But I understand why this is happening. To make the best of a bad situation, I’ve stocked up on activities and crafts I know the kids and I will enjoy doing together. We can make it through this!

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Blanket and Pillow Set

Andi

For Christmas, I am making my son a blanket set. Blankets are pretty simple to make, and I decided I could walk you through the process. Since I was going to have all my equipment out anyway making my son’s blankets.

First of all, you’ll need your fabric. For a large blanket that they can grow with and use for a long time, I get a yard and a half. For a pillowcase I’d get a yard. If you don’t need it all, then it’s better to have too much than too little. I prefer fleece and flannel for blankets and pillows just because they’re soft and cuddly.

Second, wash your fabric before you use it. This is important. You have to wash the fabric before you try to work with it.

Pillowcase first:

Measure your pillow. I only say that because I have a thick fat therapeutic pillow that doesn’t fit into a regular sized pillowcase, but my son has a small kid sized pillow. So measure the pillow you’re making the case for. Add about an inch to your dimensions and cut out the base fabric. Then, cut out a contrasting fabric for the end. Length the same as the base fabric, and about 4 inches wide. This will be folded in half, so it gives you a 2 inch casing on the end of your pillow. You’ll end up with 4 pieces as pictured above.

With the casing, you’ll be sewing the two casing pieces onto the two base pieces first. Sew right sides together. Lay flat and iron the seam down. Then fold the other end of the casing over about finger width, and iron that down. Fold over to cover the seam and iron the folded edge, forming the casing. Stitch straight across. I used a zig zag stitch on this part.

I tried a new seam on the actual pillowcase part. This would be for those who don’t own a serger to seal their seams.

I sewed the pillow together wrong sides together, the direction the pillowcase will end up facing. It will look as pictured above when you get it stitched together.

Then flip inside out, and iron it flat. Stitch down again, concealing the unfinished edge inside. Be sure you make the stitch far enough over that it covers the first stitch you made. Flip inside out again and examine your handiwork.

Pillowcases usually take around 30 minutes or less to make, from start to finish.

Blankets are very simple, but due to the larger size, take longer to make.

In general, I fold over the edge and stitch down. With flannel, iron the edge down to make it easier. Then fold over again and zig zag stitch, trapping the unfinished edge on the inside.

The hardest part are the corners. To make a perfectly square corner is fairly painless. All you need to do is cut the corner off. The cut piece will be triangle shape, and your corner will now be a plateau. It will look like the picture above.

Then you can fold both sides down to make a perfect corner and pin down as shown in the photo below. I’d stitch the corners straight across to secure them down before moving on to your edges.

Another way to do the edges of a blanket is to encase it with biased tape, or ribbon. This works well with fleece as folding fleece on top of itself can get fat and cumbersome quickly. It’s a simple fold over the ends and zig zag stitch, as pictured below.

Blankets generally take an hour to hour and half. It may take me longer because I have to pause frequently to attend to children, but that’s my average.

My completed product was a fleece blanket, a flannel blanket and two pillowcases. Simple, but useful.

I know for a fact that I eyeball my sewing way too much. An act I am positive my seamstress mother would be disappointed in. One side of the fleece blanket looks like it could be sold in a store, the opposite edge looks much too haphazard. In regards to my children, they don’t care. But in regards to professionalism I know I need to work on that aspect.

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Sensory Bin

Andi

For my son’s birthday, I decided to make a sensory bin for him. For those who may not know what that is, I’ll explain. A sensory bin is typically a plastic tub or a large container of some sort filled with materials and objects carefully selected to stimulate the senses. It can be filled with a large variety of different materials such as shredded paper, water beads, water, pom poms, sand, and more.

This was not the least expensive gift, I will admit, and it did require assembly, but I think he really will enjoy it. Every time we come across kinetic sand he stands there for long periods, fascinated by it. So I knew I needed to include it. Our friend got some water beads and he attempted to get into the tub with them and sit down. So those certainly needed to also be included.

I got a jar of Squoosho’s water beads and Kinetic Sand. I want to emphasis how tiny this jar is. I was shocked when my order arrived and it was a small box. But I also want to make it a point to note how little you need to make a large quantity of beads. This one tiny jar would probably fill a bathtub. The kinetic sand however was smaller than I expected. It’s more dense than plain sand and a smaller amount can weigh more. So the 3 lbs I don’t think was enough, I might go buy another bag. The beads were $9.99, but like I said, you get a lot for that. The sand was $7.29 for 3lbs, but I would go ahead and get the 6lb bag that is $14.

*amendment: I have now learned you shouldn’t get kinetic sand wet, and being in a tote with water beads will get it wet. It’s still functional, but it sticks to your hands after being dampened. So, I now would suggest getting just plain sand.

I found a tote for $9.95. It’s a flat one designed to fit under a bed. I could’ve done fine with a smaller size, but this one is large enough both my kids can play in it and not be all over each other. The only issue I have now with the size I got is that the amount of sand is smaller than I’d guessed, but the water beads are so plentiful, they make up for it.I got some tiny plastic dinosaurs and reptiles in those assortment tubes. A couple large dinos from the Dollar Tree, and two large rocks my older child collected on nature walks.I wanted this to be the land and water with the sand and beads. But, the earth is covered with mostly water so I suppose its accurate. I’m justifying the dinosaurs in the beads with the fact some dinos did infact live in the water. Maybe not those kinds, but some of them did! I may drop back at the Dollar Tree and find a sea dwelling dinosaur. I also put a tiny shovel, and sand castle mold in the box. And then I paired this gift with a front loader truck he can also dig with. I got the truck on sale, so I was able to keep the price down!This gift took a little more effort on my part than other gifts would have, but you can’t buy these either. In total, including the front loader I spent close to $40 for all of this. I actually thought I’d save money making a gift, but I did not. It is worth it though to see my gleeful child happy.

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Precious Ornaments

Andi

I have these ornaments, and they’ve been on every tree I can remember. They are a pair of figure skaters, and they were made by my Grandma Fern.

Well, she wasn’t really my grandma. She was my dad’s brother’s wife’s mom. So she was my cousins grandma, but not mine. But she lived down the street from my aunt and uncle and we visited every December.

She did a lot of bead crafting. I can remember her craft room with an entire wall of drawers filled with every color bead you can imagine. She gave me several ornaments over the years and I still have most of them. This pair was one of the first.

She had rheumatoid arthritis, and gradually her hands became more and more stiff. Eventually she became unable to handle the small beads. The last ornament she gave me is a little elf that my son now thinks is his.

Her last few years she developed alzheimer’s and she passed this last year. I’d not thought about it until I pulled all these beaded ornaments out of their boxes and it rushed over me. I hadn’t seen her in the final stages, but in a way, I don’t regret that. In my mind, I still see the smiling face cheerfully showing me how to craft. That’s the face I want to hold onto. That’s the face I remember when I hang this skating couple on my tree.