Posts Tagged ‘crafts’

Make Your Own Twig Frame

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

twig-art

Last summer I came across a book entitled Nature’s Art Box. While at a park one day, my kids and I picked up a large number of twigs of all sizes. When we got home, I asked my children to look through the book to see what art projects we could do with twigs. We found two simple twig art projects that looked really fun and relatively easy.

The first one was a twig frame. All we had to do was get a frame, plug in the hot glue gun, and glue the twigs onto the frame. My 6-year-old daughter enjoyed doing this activity, and the frame came out looking rustic and beautiful enough for a gift. (Click on the picture of the twig frame to look at it close-up.)

twig-basket

The second art activity we chose was a twig basket. We made a square of twigs and glued it together with hot glue. Then we continued putting twig squares until the basket was as high as we wanted it (or until we almost ran out of twigs; save enough twigs for the bottom of the basket). Then we hot glued twigs along the bottom of the basket. The twig basket was cute.

Roman Sculpture

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

My 10-year-old son made a Roman sculpture with white self-hardening clay. I took pictures of each stage of his work:
Roman-sculptureRoman-sculpture-2Roman-sculpture-3Roman-sculpture-4Roman-sculpture-5Roman-sculpture-6

Easter Ideas

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

Easter-IdeasThis post contains affiliate links.

If you would like some Easter ideas, here is a video that will show you some fun and easy Easter crafts as well as ways to organize Easter from year to year. It’s helpful to keep all your Easter supplies in a clear pouch. You can get a durable pouch for free when you buy bed sheets or blankets. These are the items I keep in my Easter pouch:
Easter-organization

  • The Very First Easter – A book that explains the true meaning of Easter with colorful illustrations of the resurrection of Christ.
  • Plastic Easter eggs and stackable baskets for each child for the Easter egg hunt each year.
  • Unused egg dye kits and wire egg holders left over from other kits so that each child has a wire egg holder to dye their Easter eggs.
  • It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown (a classic cartoon)
  • A plastic bag or decorated folder with clipped magazine pictures for Easter crafts you might want to do with your children in future years.
  • Resurrection Eggs (from Family Life) – The items are made from metal, and each item illustrates something from the Easter story. Lead up to Easter by reading a short devotional each day for the 12 days leading up to Easter. (Well-done and not cheesy.)

Here are some easy Easter crafts to do with your children:

1. Colorful countdown egg carton
Easter-crafts

  • Cut off the top part of a cardboard egg carton.
  • Put candy or the Resurrection Egg items into each compartment.
  • Glue colorful squares of tissue paper to seal each compartment. With a black marker, write the numbers 1-12 on each piece of tissue paper before you glue it in place. Allow it to dry overnight.
  • For the 12 days before Easter, your kids can tear through one number of the tissue paper, getting the candy or item, looking forward to Easter. This is sort of like an Advent calendar, except it’s for Easter instead of Christmas.

2. Paper sack and twig nest
Easter-crafts-2

  • Scrunch down a paper sack to make the nest.
  • Pour glue over the top.
  • Have your kids glue the small twigs onto the paper sack. Super cute nest, perfect for your glitter eggs.

3. Glitter eggs

  • Get a cold boiled egg from your fridge. Put school glue on the outside of the egg. (Make sure the shell is still on the egg.)
  • Place the egg into a plastic bag with confetti. Shake the egg to coat it completely.
  • Let the beautiful glitter egg dry in the fridge.
  • Place it into the cute twig nest the next day.

Have a great Easter!

Easter-Ideas-3

Fairy House

Tuesday, March 15th, 2011

fairy-houseI saw this little fairy house at the state fair last year. I thought it was cute.