Mix and Match Animal Book

This is a fun activity to make with or for your children. I was thumbing through some craft books (specifically Step-by-Step Crafts for Children published by Kingfisher) and saw this idea. I simplified it a little, but the sky is the limit.

First I found some free clipart pictures of animals. I selected ones of similar sizes.

 Next I cut each one to the same size. (I chose 5" squares.)

I glued each picture to colorful cardstock that was a little larger than the pictures. Then I cut the pictures in half as shown here.

.I stapled the pictures inside the cover and then used a type of duct tape to cover the staples.

This would be very fun to do with family photographs or with pictures the children color.
Have fun!

Create Your Own Wrapping Paper: 3 Techniques

Nana and Papa are having a great time visiting with the grandchildren (and their parents!) this week.  Since I had actual kids to work with, I decided we needed to do a craft together. The two older kids and I had a grand time making our own wrapping paper.

Here's what we started with:

• Spray bottles (these from the dollar store didn't work that well. You might want to try some that can give you a finer spray and that won't break in use)
• Foam stickers
• Sponge shapes
• Shaped post-it notes
• Acrylic paint
• Shaped cutouts
• Stamps
• Plain wrapping paper or brown craft paper

I got these stamps  at the Dollar Store.  They came with finger paint. Fun, but took a long time to dry.
First we tried those stamps.

We started using more than one color on each stamp and came up with some pretty designs.

Next we used the acrylic paint and sponges.

For our third variety, we used the foam stickers, the post-it-notes, and the cut outs. We used an repositional glue stick on the back of the cutouts so that we could remove the cutouts better when we were finished. If I had been at home, I would have run the cutouts through my Xyron machine and applied temporary adhesive.

Next I poured about half a bottle of paint and some water (about at 2:1 ratio) into the spray bottle and shook it up. We sprayed the paper. Once the paint dried, we removed our shapes. This version didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. I also got paint all over Jordan's driveway. Next time, I will try it on a more absorbent paper such as brown craft paper and I will protect my surface!. I think it will be very cute.





Here are some of our finished products.

And here they are in use:

We had lots of fun making the paper-- and that's why we craft, right?

Hard Candy Ornaments

This was one of our favorite Christmas crafts we did when the girls were young. It is a quick, fun craft that has good results.

You need assorted hard candies such as starlight mints, Jolly Ranchers, or cut candy (that you find at Christmas), metal cookie cutters (round works best) or canning jar rings, aluminum foil and cooking spray.

Preheat your oven to 325. Line a cookie sheet with foil (make it as smooth as possible). Spray the foil and the cookie cutters with cooking spray. (You can just oil them if you don't have the spray.)

Place the unwrapped candy inside the cutters in the design you would like. Remember they will be spreading, so leave some space. You can break the candy if you want for a different design.

Place the tray in the oven for about 5-7 minutes. Keep an eye on the candy. The Jolly Ranchers melt faster than the mints or the cut candy.

Once the candy is melted, remove from the oven. Don't let the children touch it-- it if very hot. If desired, you can take a toothpick and swirl the candy. The one below and right was swirled.

While still warm, use a tooth pick or chopstick to create a hole for the ribbon to go through.

Carefully remove the ornament from the ring or the cookie cutter. I have more trouble removing the Jolly Ranchers ornaments, so they got a little distorted. If the ornaments  aren't flat, you can put them in the oven for a minute or two. Peel the foil off and allow to cool completely.

Finally tie a ribbon through them to hang on the tree.

They are edible--- but we never ate them.



This is the back of the first one shown in this entry. Pretty cool!



Another idea: When making cookies, leave spaces in the cookie (like windows). When the cookies have about 5 minutes baking time left, fill the cookies with hard candies such as the Jolly Ranchers. You will have stained glass cookies.

"Tin" Ornaments for Children

When the girls were young, we wanted to make December a magical and fun month for them. I collected children's Christmas stories, activities, recipes, and crafts all year long. I made a notebook for all my ideas and consulted it often. Each year, I got a big calendar on which we tracked and planned our activities. I tried to have a craft or activity plus a Christmas story each night. We kept some of our treats and crafts we made; others we gave away as service to others.
Over the next 6 weeks, I am going to share some of the crafts that we did. They are usually very easy and inexpensive.
Today's craft- Faux Tin Ornaments.

Supplies-
Aluminum trays or pans.
Note: I bought a very inexpensive one that was really too thin. Try to get one trays that are heavier than heavy duty aluminum foil. Because my tray was so thin, the ornaments bent too easily when handled. This doesn't happen so easily with heavier foil. We still have many of the ornaments the girls made more than 10 years ago.

Cookie cutters or Christmas object shaped stencils.

Ball point pens, scissors, pen or nail

Ribbon


Trace shapes on the tray with a ball point pen. The ink will not show up. You can burnish out creases you may find in the tray.

Cut out the shape. Lay the shape on a magazine, stack of paper, or corregated cardboard. Use the ball point pen to draw shapes on the ornament. (This makes the lines softer and broader.) You can draw on both sides to add texture. This will make the ornaments look embossed.

Note that the lines on the wings, and the dots were drawn

on one side of the angel, and the heart was drawn on the

back.

The star has designs on both sides as well as small holes that will allow light to shine through.

If desired, an adult or older child can carefully punch holes through the ornament for a new look. You could also use permanent markers to add color to the ornament.

Finally, punch a hole for a ribbon or ornament hanger.

Mini envelopes with windows

As Jasmine told you, we tried our hand at gum paste a couple nights ago. You may notice that my post is not labeled gum paste. My rose  didn't turn out so well. I think the class will be fun, and I will get to add gum paste and fondant to my cake decorating skills.

So.... instead I am going to share a few ideas about mini envelopes with cut out windows. I have 2 templates for making small to medium envelopes. I happened to get it from a home sales stamp company, but I am sure you can get one from other sources. If you can't find a template, find some envelopes that you like and take them apart. Create your own template.

I traced my pattern on to the back of the paper I selected for my first mini envelope. I chose a medium blue paper with snowflakes on it.  Make sure to press hard with your pen or pencil when you are marking lines for folding. This will make your edges sharper. I like to use a straight edge just to make sure they are straight. I also cut out a rectangle in plain white for the card inside the envelope. Then I used a snowflake punch on the front of the envelope. I saved the snowflake and glued it on the card. I turned it so that the snowflake does not show through the window when sealed. To glue the flaps down, I use either a glue stick or double sided tape. I punched another snowflake from a shiny gold fold adhesive paper. I used this to seal the envelope shut.

Envelope two has a photo showing through the window. This would be great to use for a child's thank you notes. You could snap photos of the gifts and have it show in the window.

Finally, I made a third envelope with a pumpkin cutout. I glued a Halloween paper on the back of the cutout.

For the second two, I actually traced tiny cookie cutters and then cut them by hand.

There are many other ways you can use mini envelopes. I made a bunch of them without the top flap and put word sorting activities in them for school. The students enjoyed pulling the words out and using the words.

Magnetic Paper Dolls

While I was in Rexburg, Idaho recently, I visited a store I am sure all paper crafters would love called Artco. They had tons of paper, cards, guest books, matchbooks, and other items for sale at a very low cost. I bought 8  12" x 17" sheets of thin magnet paper for a project for church. (Only $.50 each.) But alas! we decided to go in another direction so I was left with lots of magnet sheets. I decided to make some personalized paper dolls for the grandchildren who will be here in a few short days. In the past, I used photographs and my Xyron 900 machine and the laminate/magnet roll to create refridgerator magnets of mom, dad, both grandparents, some aunts, and the children themselves. (They lost the magnet with my photo! How could that be?) This time, I wanted to have lots of costumes for the children to use with their dolls so I decided photographs wouldn't do.

I found a great website called Making Friends with lots of multi-cultural paper dolls with many costumes. Then I found some good shots of the grandchildren's faces. I selected the paper doll page I wanted to use, then right clicked on it and selected COPY. I opened a NEW file in Photoshop (you could use any digital photography program), then pasted the page of dolls. I also opened the photograph of my grandson with Photoshop. Using the lasso tool, I selected just his face. I copied this on the clipboard and then pasted it on the face of the paper doll. I rotated it just a bit to make it fit the angle of the head of the paper doll.



I have started to fill in the edges using the clone tool in this shot.

 Of course they were not the same size, so I used the clone tool to fill in the shape of the head with his skintone. (The paper dolls are a little fat-headed!) I used the blur tool to blend in any lines. This took me a long time to get it how I wanted it, but now I think I could do it pretty quickly. I painted the ears to match the face skin, but I didn't change the body color. (Laziness.) Sometimes I had to redraw the outlines with the pencil tool.



I used the blur tool to soften the lines that the clone tool left.



Once I had my paper dolls personalized, I went back to the website and found the clothes that I wanted. I pasted many of them into my Paint program and then selected only the specific items I planned to use. (I was trying to squish them together to save paper.) Then I printed them with my Inkjet printer on the magnetic sheets. I was concerned that they might smear, but it worked great.

One thing I encountered after I had printed out everything was that the magnets weren't very strong. Only two layers will stick together at a time. Next time I would test things out first before I printed everything.

If you can't make it to Artco, you can buy magnet sheets at craft or office supply stores. You could also printed the dolls on cardstock and glue them to those thin magnets you get as free advertisements or you could use a Xyron machine to laminate and apply a magnet.

Note: If you decide to change the size of any dolls or clothes, make sure you change all of the images by the same percentage so the clothes will fit.

Mother's Day Cards for Kids, 2 pop-up cards for children to make.

Here are 2 more cards for children to make for Mother's Day--- or any other day!

First, you will need two pieces of paper the same size. They can be the same color or coordinating colors.  You will also need scraps of printed paper, markers, and scissors.

First: Fold one of the pieces of paper in half hamburger style. Fold in one corner on the fold as shown below..

 

Open the card and refold the triangle as shown.

Write your message on the inside of the card. Then, cut out a shape that you like. (The heart is shown below.) Carefully tape or glue it on the center foldline. You will want to make sure it will lie flat when you close the card. You may need to reposition it. (I did several times.)

Close the care and apply glue on the outside of the card, both top and bottom. Fold the remaining piece of paper in half and put it over the first card. (It will be a cover.)

Decorate the outside and you are all set!

PopUp Card 2

(I learned this on EnchantedLearning.com and used it in my classroom, too.)

First, you will need two pieces of paper the same size. They can be the same color or coordinating colors.  You will also need scraps of printed paper, markers, and scissors.

First: Fold one of the pieces of paper in half hamburger style. Make two cuts (about 1 1/2" long) on the folded edge of the card.

 I have darkened the lines for easier viewing.I have also drawn dotted lines to show where to fold, but you don't need to draw lines. Fold down the two cut sides. Open the card and push the folded flaps to the inside.

From the outside, it will look like this:

Now, make 2 more cuts and folds as shown. Your popups will have a stairstep effect.

Study the photo above to see which flaps come forward and which go back. (I learn better from photos than words.)

Now it is time to decorate your card.  For this garden motif, cut flowers and stems and glue them as shown,. I thought animals or jewels might also be nice.

Finally, you are going to glue the second piece of paper on the outside, just like card 1.

Enjoy!