Posts Tagged ‘craft’

How to Make a Paper Leprechaun Town

Monday, March 4th, 2013

leprechaun-city

Are you looking for St Patricks Day crafts? You’ve come to the right place! This super cute Leprechaun Town was built by my 9-year-old son in about an hour.

The supplies you will need include green card stock paper in many shades of green, stiff cardboard for the bottom base of the town, tape, glue, scissors, green markers, green pipe cleaners, green fake jewels, and green plastic vines. Or just use whatever green craft supplies you already have in your home. You might also want a hot glue gun if you want green plastic vines to grow all over your town.

Start with the base. We glued grass paper to the cardboard. You can buy scrapbooking paper that looks like grass at any craft store. Or you can grow some real grass in a tray, and then build your town a week later on top of the fresh new grass.

Make your buildings out of green card stock paper. Draw windows and doors on them before you tape them together, since it will be harder to mark on the buildings later. Tape roofs to the buildings. You can tape the roofs on from the inside so that the tape doesn’t show. We used glitter paper for a couple of the roofs.

We made a crazy miniature swing set for the leprechauns to swing on. Cut out two letter A’s out of card stock paper. Make a swing from pipe cleaner, winding it around the top bar. Add a seat to the swing with a small rectangle of card stock paper. No glue was necessary for the swing set. We just stabbed the pipe cleaner through the A’s.

Decorate with fake jewels, and hot glue some plastic vines to the houses. Now your Leprechaun Town is complete.

Snowflake Card

Tuesday, December 18th, 2012

snowflake-card

My daughter and I made an easy snowflake card. You will need the following materials:

  • black card stock paper
  • white string
  • scissors
  • blunt needle
  • pencil
  • ruler
  • thumb tack

How to Make a Snowflake Card with Yarn

Step 1: Cut the black card stock paper in half and fold it. Now open up the card, and on the left side, draw a snowflake in pencil with a ruler.

Step 2: Grab the thumb tack and poke a hole at the beginning and end of each line. It’s like you’re making a dot-to-dot picture.

Step 3: Thread the needle with white string. Tie a knot in the end and begin sewing the card, making sure that the front of the card is producing the design you want.

Step 4: When you are finished, you can use a silver pen to write a message to someone before putting the snowflake card in an envelope.

snowflake-craft-with-yarn

You can make any design on a card, as long as the lines are straight. You could draw a cool gnarly tree with bare branches in the dark moonlight. My 7-year-old daughter designed a simple pine tree. It only took her about 5 minutes to sew and was quite easy!

Linked to Snow Day Activities:

SnowDay

Thankful Cards

Tuesday, November 20th, 2012

thankful-card

Why not write thankful cards to each member of your family this year, and hand them out at the Thanksgiving table? You can tell each person what you enjoy about them and why you are thankful for having them in your life.

My kids created some thankful cards by gluing pieces of textured paper, scrapbook paper or cloth onto a folded piece of card stock paper. Make sure you have envelopes that fit the card size. For me, it was easy to cut a card stock paper in half, creating two cards with each piece of paper. This fits the bulk envelopes I bought years ago for regular-sized cards. Then we arranged different shapes on the card. Make sure the colors go together—I used autumn-colored paper and cloth samples. We glued them to the card with white school glue.

thankfulness-card

For family members not coming for Thanksgiving, you can put the cards in the mailbox. Imagine the surprise people will get when they open the card to find how precious they are to you, and why they are important in your life. It reminds me of those old Hallmark greeting card ads on television, you know, the tear-jerker ones that made you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Yes, those…

Turkey Candle

Wednesday, November 14th, 2012

turkey-candle

To make this easy turkey candle, you will need the following supplies:

  • yellow and orange tissue paper
  • brown ribbon
  • a picture of a turkey
  • white school glue
  • hot glue
  • glass jar
  • tea light candle

How to put the craft together:

  1. Cut the yellow tissue paper into squares. Glue the squares all over the jar until the jar is completely covered.
  2. Glue the picture of the turkey onto a square of orange paper. I found the turkey on a scrap of fabric I had. You can also buy a turkey sticker or clip out a turkey picture out of a magazine. Glue the turkey paper onto the jar.
  3. With hot glue, attach the ribbon to the top of the jar. I used sparkly brown ribbon.
  4. Place a tea light into the jar. Light the candle, and enjoy your beautiful Thanksgiving turkey candle!

To find more fun craft ideas for Thanksgiving, check out Pilgrim Unit Study.