Posts Tagged ‘Kids Crafts’
by Katy
In this project we were studying Africa and created a Hamsa as part of that study. A Hamsa is an ancient good luck sign that has been adopted by almost every culture and religion in North Africa and Central Asia. They are often created at stained glass pieces and hung in windows to help protect the home. I decided to make ours in a similar fashion.
To make the Hamsa, you will need:
An assortment of light colored crayons (red, yellow, orange, etc.)
wax paper
black and white construction paper or sticky foam
A hair dryer (may substitute another heat source like an iron if necessary)
pencil sharpener
dark permanent marker
The first thing you do is turn your crayons into shreds. A really easy way to do this is with one of those little hand-held pencil sharpeners, but before I figured that out, I was just snipping at it with a pair of scissors and that works too.
You want to get a lot of shavings, and it’s best to stick with light colors. The darker colors just read like black or brown when they mix together. Once you have a nice little pile of shavings, place them between two sheets of wax paper.
Now, most of the crafting books I’ve read suggest using an iron to melt the wax. I tried this, and it was a complete disaster. Wax ran everywhere, residue got on the iron, and I was a little afraid I was going to catch something on fire. I found that pointing my hair dryer at the wax paper worked just as well, felt safer, and created a lot less mess.
Once your wax is melted and cooled, take your child’s hand and place it on top. Hamsa’s are traditionally thought of as right hands, so go ahead and use their right one. Then, cut out the hand.
Create and eye with your construction paper and attach it.
And that’s it! You can hang it in a window to catch the light if you’d like.
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Katy is a mom of three who loves art, mystery novels, and anything involving peanut butter–she blogs about raising her little miracles at Bird on the Street.
2011 was a great year for us here at No Time For Flash Cards and one of the best parts of it was how our community has grown. This linky, our facebook andpinterest pages are all thriving and it’s because of you. I love what I do but I cherish the online community around it. Whether you are a blogger who links up , a teacher who inspires others with your creativity or a reader who participates in our sometimes ( but not usually)heated facebook topics I thank you for being a part of our year.
This week let’s link up your best posts of 2011- feel free to add a few, I know it’s hard to just pick one.
Have a great week.
Writing Thank You cards is a task that is more manners than tradition. But it is slowly fading out. Parents can always text it or a phone call will usually suffice. I think Thank You cards are the perfect way to promote manners while practicing valuable skills. So this year we made snowflake cards with salt to spice things up.
You will need posterboard (or cardstock), glue, paint brush, pencil, marker, salt, scissors, and a tray or large flat bottom bowl.
Cut up your posterboard into smaller pieces that will be easier to mail.
Now write “Thank You” on the front and draw your snowflake. The simpler the better. If your child is writing then go ahead and let them do this.
Have your child write their name or draw the item they received on the back. Sometimes they might want to draw a heart or just doodle. That is okay. I tried to encourage my daughter to write her name, but she really doesn’t know how to yet. So her version of her name was just perfect. At least she tried and got some practice.
Let your child paint glue along the drawing of the snowflake. This where the simpler snowflake is very important.
Place the card inside the tray and have your child pour salt over it.
Be sure to cover the entire glue area with the salt. Shake off excess immediately.
Now let your snowflake dry. Your Thank You card is ready to mail!
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Kim is a contributing writer for No Time For Flash Cards, a mom to a toddler, a preschooler, and a foster parent, too. She juggles her day by trying out fun activities and crafts with the kids. After all, she is just a big kid herself. See what she has been up to over at Mom Tried It.
This year I have cut every corner there is to cut. My daughter has me chasing her , making sure she hasn’t swallowed any of my son’s Legos that may have escaped his room, I have much more grey hair this year… but a more full heart too. This project isn’t ground breaking but using stamps and cookie cutters with the air dry clay was a great way of making this project attainable for both my kids. Air dry clay is not as easy to manipulate as say salt dough or play dough that little hands are used to so using tools like these help make it a fun successful activity.
- Gather your materials. You will need some air dry clay ( although you could do it with salt dough or ready to bake clay too), cookie cutters, Christmas themed rubber stamps, a toothpick . Once dry you can paint with all sorts of paints, we used water color.
- Start by just playing with the clay. Then cut out with cookie cutters. Both wanted a star .
- Using stamps you can make designs on the clay.
My daughter loved this and unlike when she uses stamps on playdough the clay was stiff enough that the impressions stayed.My son cut a second and started creating his own shapes … he still hasn’t painted it but if he never does that’s ok too, it doesn’t have to be painted. 
- Add holes for hanging using a toothpick.
- Let dry for a few days.
- Time to paint.I loved using the water color because it was a great opportunity to have a lesson about colors with all in front of my toddler without a huge effort.
- She explored the paint… make sure it’s non toxic especially if you are doing this with a teething toddler like I did.
- I was impressed how vivid the colors stayed on the clay.
- Let dry and hang up.
Book
The Little Christmas Elf (Little Golden Book)
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This was supposed to be a craft just for my daughter, but when my son and his friend saw what we were doing they jumped in too. I was not planning on 3 kids doing it all at once so it was a little chaotic but the playroom and all the kids survived… remember to use washable paint . The kids have all used bubble wrap to print on things before so switching it so they painted the bubble wrap was new and a big hit.
- Gather your materials. You will need some bubble wrap, paint, painter’s tape, paint brushes , heavy paper ( paper grocery bags are perfect), a pencil and scissors.
- Start by taping the bubble wrap to the work surface with the painter’s tape.
- Next paint the bubble wrap with green. For my toddler I gave her a big brush for the green to encourage coverage. She was encouraged …
- Next add the lights colors. Let kids decide which colors they want, this helps with color recognition too.
- Ok this is when the boys busted in pretending to be Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader ( I know impossible right… not for two imaginative 5 year olds! ) and grabbed some brushes.
- Keep painting the wrap.
- Draw some trees on the paper and cut out.
- Press the paper into the wrap and peel back carefully.
- For my toddler I left the paper big so she could do as much as possible herself , the small tree would have probably gotten ripped. Leaving it big let her do it herself feeling the wrap under the paper and “bang banging” her hand to make the print.
- Let dry and cut out the tree shape for the toddler.
- Hang up and show off the fun ( and wee bit of chaos…) remember washable paints!
