Counting & Color Clock

I've recently gotten several packages that came with cardboard circles and decided to come up with creative ways to reuse them. The first was this Clock craft, that will help teach numbers, colors and time.

What You Need: A Cardboard Circle, plain white paper (2-3 sheets or enough to cover circle), construction paper, glue, scissor, two pipe cleaners

What to Do: Cover the cardboard circle with the white paper - one way to do this is to apply the glue directly to the circle then lay the white paper on the circle before cutting. This way you can line up edges and get full coverage. Cut out the numbers 1-12 from the construction paper or feel free to draw them directly on the white paper once it's completely dry.  Glue the numbers in place. Use the pipe cleaners - or scissor if cardboard is thick - to poke a hole in the center of the clock. Fold pipe cleaners to desired length and thread them through the hole trying them together in the back to keep them from sliding out of place.

Cardboard Box Robot Costume

Homemade costume for Halloween or anytime!

What You Need: A cardboard box, Silver spray paint, Razor/Box Cutter, silver pipe cleaners, roll of duct tape, brightly colored buttons & gems, glow sticks, anything else you can find, glue


What To Do:  ADULTS Measure and trim the cardboard box to fit your child, making sure to make arm and head holes that will not obstruct child's movements. You may need to cut the pieces and tape them back together to get the right fit. Once you have the right fit them spray paint it silver and let dry -  make sure you spray in a well ventilated area and away from children!! 

Once the base is dry, let children help you determine where the robot's buttons, knobs, screens, lights, and switches will go and glue the decorations in place. SOME MAY NEED TO BE HOT GLUED!  Also make sure you activate the glow sticks- if using them- before gluing them on.

Note: You can make the back with a slit, so that children can put it on without putting the box over their heads

The hat and shoes are a spray painted party hat and a shoe box top.

Happy Dragon/Lion Mask

Turn a Paper Plate into a fun Chinese New Year Mask!

 What You Need: A Paper Plate, Crayons/Markers, Colored Paper or Construction Paper, Scissors, Tape/Glue, other decorations

What To Do: Help your child create a Dragon face on the bottom (outside) of the paper plate. Since dragons are fictional let their imaginations run wild!

Adults: Cut out the eyes. 

Cut the construction paper into strips and glue or tape them on to the back of the paper plate. To create a curl like in the picture just roll the paper around your finger.

Use a hole punch and ribbon or glue a craft stick to complete your mask.

Dragon Stick Puppet

A simple and easy craft that you can make almost anywhere!

What You Need: Construction or Colored Paper, Scissors, Glue, Tape, 2 Straws, Crayons/Markers, Decorations

What to Do: ADULTS, draw and cut out the head, tail and body strip. Let child decorate with crayons, markers, glitter, feathers, etc. Fan fold the body strip like an accordion. Glue or tape the head on one end of the body strip and the tail on the opposite end. Turn over and tape the straws in the first fold of the body strip.


* You can use unsharpened pencils or craft sticks instead of the straws. And feel free to make any animal you kid likes. 

*We made this Dragon in honor of the Chinese New Year, but Lions, Tigers, Alligators even Kangaroos are fun to make!
 

Snake Decorations

This is a simple and easy craft activity that kids can make anytime and makes a wonder party craft because once they are done you can use them as decorations!

What You Need: Construction Paper, crayons/markers, decorations, ribbon

What To Do: Draw a large spiral on the construction paper at the end create an egg shape for the head. (If making decorations you needn't create the egg shape) Let children color and decorate BOTH SIDES how ever they choose. Don't forget the eyes. ADULTS carefully cutout the snake/spiral and put a small hole in its tail for the ribbon.

Hang & Enjoy!

The Family Turkey

Here's one activity that will allow the whole family to get involved in hunting for materials to make your turkey one of a kind.

What You Need: a turkey coloring page print out, glue and whatever you can find to decorate.

What To Do: As a family talk about what you want your turkey to look like: life-like, colorful, cartoonish, etc. then hunt for materials to decorate your turkey. (You can use grains of rice, stripes of material, leaves, tissue paper, crayons, glitter, ANYTHING that you can get to stick to the paper!! Ours has feathers, felt and a tissue paper beak)

Cornacopia: The Horn of Plenty

This is a super simple Thanksgiving craft that's great for small hands and older children. It's easily adaptable and can be made as simple or as complex as you (and your child) can imagine.

What You Need: A stripe of construction paper; glue, tissue paper, pom-poms, other small trinkets and decorations

What To Do: Roll the strip of construction paper into a cone shape that has a point (think waffle cone). Stuff the horn with colored tissue paper and then add pom poms and other decoration to be the "food" in the horn.

Math Monsters

These great homemade goblins are great for Halloween and also reinforce math skills. Use them to help teach shapes, colors, patterns, or even multiplication (3 sets of 2 arms equals 6 arms)

What You Need:  Construction Paper, glue, scissors, crayons and decorations if you have them: googly eyes, pompoms, feathers, yarn etc.

What to Do:  Cut out different shapes of various sizes and put them together to create a "monster". There really is no wrong way to do this, since it's a "monster".  Your child's monster can have three eyes, six legs, a mop of curly yarn hair. Let them be as creative as they want.

For older kids, use brass fasteners to hold the pieces together so that the monster can move. Younger kids can just glue their monsters together.

Wind Sock

This is another creative and fun craft to help your kids to enjoy the outdoors this summer. You can use up all that left over streamer/tissue paper that has been collecting from parties and gift wrapping.

What You Need: 
1 piece of card stock/heavy paper
Streamers or colorful tissue paper cut into strips
Glue/Tape
crayons/markers/glitter/etc
pipe cleaners

What To Do:
Have children decorate the card stock however they'd like. When they are finished help them construct their windsock by gluing/taping strips of streamer/tissue paper along the edge of the back of the cardstock. Roll the card stock into a tube so that the streamers hang from the inside and the decoration is on the outside. Glue/tape closed. Create a handle on the top of the windsock by twisting two pipecleaners together and taping them to the inside of the cardstock like a rainbow.

Felt Roads

Here is a simple way to help give your little ones Matchbox' and Hot Wheels a place to drive - that's not the edge of furniture, your leg, or expensive plastic track sets.

These customizable felt roads are easy to make and inexpensive. They can be arranged and re-arranged over and over in any combination your child can imagine.


What You Need: Black Felt, Yellow/White felt, scissor, craft glue, cardboard

What To Do: Cut the black felt into strips wide enough to drive a toy car on. Cut the yellow felt into thin strips and then cut those into strips about an inch long. Glue the small yellow strips onto the black felt roads and Viola! You're done. Use the cardboard as backing to make them extra durable. 

Tips: Because you're making them you can cut out whatever kind of roads you want: soft curves, corners, Y-shaped merges, 4 laned highway,  S-shaped zigzags. 

Store your roads in an hard pencil case or an old wipe container. 

Use them with train tracks, lincoln logs, plastic trees etc.

Homemade Marionettes

These homemade marionettes are fun to make and provide hours of fun once completed. Make a bunch and put on your own retelling of your favorite fairy tales- Or make up your own! This is the perfect rainy day activity as it takes some time to put together and then provides hours of fun when done!

What You Need: Plastic cups of various sizes (one large & 5 medium per puppet), Yarn, cardboard, felt & decorations, glue, scissors,

What to Do: 

Parents may want to do these first steps before hand, so that children just have to decorate and assemble.  

• Cut a lower case "t" out of cardboard for the puppet control and poke a hole in each of the four ends.
• Put a slit or small hole in the bottom of each plastic cup. 
• Put a slit or small hole in the back of the large cup (Body) and two of the smaller cups (hands) near the lip. Leave the  head and feet cups with just holes in the bottoms.
• Put two slits on the side of the big cup near the bottom of the cup. These will be where the arms attach.

Once all the cutting is done, you & your child can assemble and decorate your marionette.

1. Tie a knot on the end of the yarn and slip it through one of the arm holes. Cut a length of string as desired for arms. Slip the end of the yarn through the bottom of one of the hand cups (a cup with a hole in the bottom and side). Repeat on the other side. 
2. Slip the yarn through the hole in the bottom of the large cup, the body. Pull a large length (excess can be trimmed later) through - think of this string as the spine of the puppet, connecting the head to the legs. Cut and tie knot in the end closest to the bottom of the cup (top of the puppet) Slip the knot through the bottom a small cup (head) so that the bottoms are facing each other. (Make sure to leave a bit of yarn for the neck and a bit to attach to the control.
3. Cut a length of yarn for the legs, tie it at the midway point to the "spine"  so that you have to equal length legs hanging from inside the body. Slip one end of the yarn through a foot cup and tie a knot to secure. Then repeat with the other leg and foot. At this point your puppet should be complete (without the controls) and look like the picture below (it's sideways  now but this will be corrected shortly).

Decorate the Puppet with felt, pom poms, feathers and attach with the glue. Use permanent marker to draw a face.

For the controls:

• Slip lengths of yarn through each of the holes in the cardboard cut out. 
• Attach the top of the "t" to the yarn inside the head. 
• Attach the sides of the "t" to the hands (again by slipping into the holes in the sides of the hand cups.
• Attach the bottom of the "t" to the body by slipping the yarn into the hole in the back of the body near the lip. 

Once it's dry, Practice using the controls  to manipulate your puppet.

Plastic Spoon Puppets

This is a cheap and easy craft that you can do again & again  and can lead to hours of role playing fun!

What You Need: 
Plastic Spoons, Felt, Permanent Markers, Scissor, Glue, Pipe Cleaners

What To Do:
Draw faces on to the back side of the spoons with permanent markers. Carefully cut clothing, hair, hats, etc from felt. (Note: Fold clothing in half and use scissor to make a slit to slide spoon handle in) Glue hair on spoon. Wrap a pipe cleaner around the handle to make arms.

inspired by a post by Inspired Crafter

Stick Raft

A great craft that you can do with items from the backyard!  Have the kids gather the supplies, construct rafts and find a puddle and race!

What You Need:
Sticks, twine/thread, leaf/paper

What To Do: Gather enough twigs and sticks to make a raft base, one longer twig for a mast, and four to help steady and brace the raft.  Break or snip the branches for the base with garden shears to make them almost even - doesn't have to be perfect.  Lay the twigs side by side, holding them firmly, lace the thread around the edge of  the sticks, weaving over and under until they are secure. Repeat on the other edge. Take the four twigs you gathered for bracing the raft and split into two groups of two. Tie the two twigs of each group together. Attach one group onto the base at the back on the other to the front going across (opposite) the twigs of the raft. The raft should now be firm and steady with relatively little wiggle. Turn over and work the longer mast twig in between the twigs of both the base and the front brace. Use a large leaf or a piece of paper to attach to the mast as a sail.

You now have a stick raft, that floats!

T-Shirt Pillow Keepsake

You've bought the cutest little baby shirt and your child has out grown it in a matter of weeks. You know she can't fit it but you can't bring yourself to throw it away. Make a keepsake pillow out of it. 

What You Need: 
an old T-shirt
a pillow or stuffing
a sewing machine
scissor or stitch remover

What To Do: Turn the shirt inside out, depending on the size of your shirt, either remove the sleeves completely or remove enough of it to make it even with the body of the shirt. Sew close the neck and arm holes. Turn the shirt right-side out again. Stuff with the pillow and sew the waist of the shirt closed.

No-Sew Version: Use fabric glue to seal the arm, neck and waist holes.

This also works for any shirt you may not want to throw/give away like those from senior year, family reunions, walk-a-thons etc.

Father's Day Pillow Craft

Make Dad this simple throw pillow. It's a great way to say Happy Father's Day and perfect for little hands to make.

What You Need:

two pieces of felt , Scissors, Fabric Glue, Cotton stuffing and any other ornaments and decorations you'd like - fabric glue, felt letters & Shapes, buttons etc.

What To Do:

Take a piece of felt and let your kids decorate it by drawing with fabric paints, attaching felt letters and personalizing for dad. Craft stores sell pre-cut felt letters and shapes, so you don't have to try and cut out a set of golf clubs to stick on your pillow.

Then using fabric glue, close up three sides of the pillow by gluing the edges of the front felt to the back piece. Once dry stuff with the cotton and seal the last edge closing the pillow.

For very small kids, you can dip their hands in fabric paint and press onto the felt to make a handprint pillow keepsake.

Another fathers day idea is the Change Dish that was posted for Mother's Day!

Shoebox Fishing Game

This is the companion game to the box top coin flip game. When made together you can store the pieces inside the box and have two games in one travel case.

What You Need:

Shoebox

Construction paper

Blue & Green Pipe cleaners, pom-poms, feathers

glue

scissors

small magnet

paper clips

tape

yarn

chopstick

What to Do: Line the shoebox with blue construction paper. Glue or tape pipe cleaners, pom-poms, and feathers to act as ocean features.

Cut fish shapes out of a different color construction paper. Attach a paperclip to each fish lining it in up with the fish's mouth.

Make the fishing rod by tying a piece of yarn to the end of a chopstick. tape a small magnet to the end of the yarn.

How to play: Place the fish into the shoebox. Use the rod to try and catch the fish. two players can take turns seeing who can get all their color fish out of the box first.

Virtual Vacation: Destination Australia -Crafts

Didgeridoo

A Didgeridoo is an Aboriginal instrument usually made the the hollow branches of a tree. Each maker has their own unique symbols, carvings and designs, making this the perfect craft to allow kids to express their own individual creativity.

What You Need:

1 wrapping paper tube, or a few paper towel or toilet paper tubes, tape, scissors, glue, plain white paper or kraft paper, crayons/markers

What To Do:

If using more than one tube then tape them together end to end to create one long tube. Cut the white paper or kraft paper so that it will wrap around the tube without any overlapping. Allow kids to decorate the paper in their own designs. Once done, glue the paper around the tube.

When it's dry children will have a one of a kind instrument. Blow into one end with clicks, moans, hums, and make your own Didgerdoo music.

Boomerang

No trip to Australia would be complete without a boomerang. Make your own in two easy steps

What You Need:

Cardboard

paint/markers/crayons

x-acto knife or box cutter

What To Do:

!!ADULTS!!! cut out a boomerang shape (a wide V) from the cardboard.

Let children decorate - for a true Australian feel dip paint with a chopstick or q-tip to get line, and dots.

Box Top Coin Flip Game

This is one craft that will be fun long after the glue dries!

What You Need: a shoebox top, felt, marker, glue, scissor, a coin or button

What to Do: Cut the felt to line the inside of the box top and glue it in place. Then cut shapes with other remnants of felt to create scoring sections. Use the marker to write values on the felt shapes. Glue them randomly on the felt inside the box top to create the game board. Let dry.

How to Play: take turns flipping the coin or button into the box top. Earn points by getting the coin to land on one of the scoring sections. After 5 rounds the player with the most points wins.

Pair with the Shoe Box Fishing Game for two games in one box!

Virtual Vacations: Destination Spain - Crafts

Here are two fun Spain-themed crafts for you and your child a pair of Castanets and a flamenco fan!

Castanets

What You Need: 4 Large buttons or bottle caps, felt, glue, rubber bands, scissor

What to Do: Cut the felt into two "Glasses" shapes (circles connected by a narrow strip). Lace the felt through a rubber band to create a handle. Glue the bottle caps/buttons into the felt circles. Once dry, slip the rubber bands over your fingers and hold the castanets between your thumb and index & pointer fingers. Clack away!

Flamenco Fan

What You Need: construction paper, 2 paint stirrers/large popsicle sticks/pieces of cardboard, crayons/markers, glue, rubber bands, ribbon/yarn

What to Do: Decorate the paint sticks and both sides of the construction paper with crayons/glitter. Glue a paint stick to each and of the ends of the construction paper. Fold the construct paper to make an accordion. Use a rubber band to hold the ends of the paint sticks together.

Virtual Vacations

For awhile now, I've wanted to do a collection of posts dedicated to traveling without actually leaving home. The focus of these Virtual Vacations is to give you and your child a series of activities to do surrounding one central theme that could be focused into one day or over a weekend.


For each Virtual Vacation, you'll find recipes, crafts, fun facts, book suggestions, games and activities that will allow you and your child to be transported to another culture.

Virtual Vacation Destinations:
Spain
Australia

South Africa - Coming Really Soon!