Craft Ideas for kids

[GemB]

for ages 2-12

I'm looking for something for the kids to do for the next week as rain is predicted everyday =(

any ideas would be helpful, affordable too

Gem x

[baines]

For girls you could get some elastic thread and some beads to make bracelets.

You also start them on xmas card crafts ( but watch out for thoses orders for santa.)

You could make some mobiles.

Decorative mirros. Buy a mirror tile from a diy store and decorate with glitter glue etc.

Get some lavenda and some scraps of materilas and make some good old fashioned lavender bags to scent your draw.

[GemB]

ooh sounds good

everyone is expecting soap of me this yr so might as well surprise them

[urbancrafters]

My kids love making their own play doh.
You can make it whatever colour you like and add glitter, sequins, scents etc....
This is the recipe I use:
2 cups of flour
1 cup of salt
2 tablespoons of cream of tarter
2 cups of water
1 tablespoon of cooking oil
Food colouring

Mix all the ingredients together in a pan.
Cook over a medium heat, stirring all the time, until the mixture comes away from the edges of the pan.
Allow to cool and kneed.
Store in an air tight container (or cling film, sandwich bag etc)

We add vanilla essence to make it smell nice or you could add lavender or something.

It makes up quite a lot so you could leave out the food colouring until the kneeding part and separate it into 2 balls, kneeding a different colour into each one.

Or there's always good old papier mache!!

Have fun

[wuh2k]

Teaching Art at a school in Thailand so have a few goodies, ones I've been given by people in here too.

Run a search for "Easy Sunsets", in the forums. I posted it awhile ago with some photos of end results. Just today I did rock painting for a cultural exchange program at the school. Haven't posted the end results, but its really easy. Acryllic paints and a spray on varnish worked a treat.

We've got mothers' day coming up here (it's different coz they celebrate on the current queen's birthday), so made comic book envelopes, and continuing with comic book cards this week. Got the idea from the website for ITV's Art Attack actually. Haven't enough posts to pout up URLs yet I'm afraid. Just run a search on google for "art+attack" and it's the first result anyway.

Hope some of that helps.

[GemB]

thank you everyone

when we go to the beach I'll get them to collect some rocks

i'll have a look at those easy sunsets now

and the last time i made play dough it was like bogeys.. i didn't add the oil was a total mess and wrecked my pan lol

so we have bracelet making
playdough 2nd attempt (makes note to get a new pan)
rock painting
card making
ribbon to make scented bags (already have the lavender and some tulle)

well thats the kids calendar filled for the next 3 weeks

[susiecm3]

Too save your pan a bit try using boiling water for the play dough

For the younger one you could die pasta as its a bit bigger to thread for necklaces

[GemB]

yeh the pasta is a good one, i need to start building the kids art box back up i left a lot of fiddly bulky odds and ends when we moved for the family that moved into the house to keep the kids entertained while they unpacked

we're doing bath bombs and lavender bags this afternoon cos its raining as predicted

pics later

[annnoble]

I really love http://www.craftbits.com/ it has so many ideas for every one.

[wuh2k]

yeh the pasta is a good one, i need to start building the kids art box back up i left a lot of fiddly bulky odds and ends when we moved for the family that moved into the house to keep the kids entertained while they unpacked

we're doing bath bombs and lavender bags this afternoon cos its raining as predicted

pics later

I think boxes are an essential for anything. My first year at this school I taught Science (???????????????), and over the year I just gathered a box of bits and pieces of electrical things I had that had stoped working (phone chargers .etc), and somehow found a use for them in experiments or demonstrations later on in the year.

For crafts -I'm building up my box now that I'm teaching Art- in my own past I remember my Leaving Cert (sorry I'm Irish, Trans: A-Level) Art teacher had a room full of stull that seemed useless but he could pull out at a moment's notice for some project or other.

From my childhood, I did modelling. To be specific (some of the parents might know it) I collected Warhammer, aka; WH40K models. I had about seven boxes of bits and pieces that came with sets, which I didn't use at the time, but could never throw away in case they were somehow useful later. In the end, some of the best models I ever made (that I still have, AND I've been offered money for) were made using lots of those bits and pieces.

End of story: In any kind of creative endeavour. NEVER EVER throw anything away. As soon as you do, you'll need it, and all of the shops will have stopped stocking it.

[Boo]

I really love http://www.craftbits.com/ it has so many ideas for every one.

Thanks for the great link, I've bookmarked it for future reference

[wuh2k]

yeh the pasta is a good one, i need to start building the kids art box back up i left a lot of fiddly bulky odds and ends when we moved for the family that moved into the house to keep the kids entertained while they unpacked

we're doing bath bombs and lavender bags this afternoon cos its raining as predicted

pics later

I think boxes are an essential for anything. My first year at this school I taught Science (???????????????), and over the year I just gathered a box of bits and pieces of electrical things and so on which I had that had stoped working (phone chargers .etc), and somehow found a use for them in experiments or demonstrations later on in the year.

For crafts -I'm building up my box now that I'm teaching Art- in my own past I remember my Leaving Cert (sorry I'm Irish, Trans: A-Level) Art teacher had a room full of stull that seemed useless but he could pull out at a moment's notice for some project or other.

From my childhood; I did modelling. To be specific (some of the parents might know it) I collected Warhammer, aka; WH40K models. I had about seven boxes of bits and pieces that came with sets, which I didn't use at the time, but could never throw away in case they were somehow useful later, and in fact some of my favourite models (that I still keep to this day) were ones I made using those bits and pieces.

End of story. In any kind of creative endeavour. NEVER EVER throw anything away. As soon as you do, you'll need it, and all of the shops will have stopped stocking it.