Celebration Chalkboard Count Down

I don’t know about your family, but holidays are a BIG deal at our house! We LOVE the holidays! I thought it would be fun to create a little countdown chalk board to remember all of life’s important events! I had made some Christmas Countdown blocks last year… but I wanted to create something I could keep up all year long.  This chalkboard is perfect for that, because you can write in any holiday you want.  You can also count down to vacations, a concert, school being out…anything your families excited about!  These are SO fun and the kids will love them!

Supplies for Chalkboard Count Down:

square wooden basewooden dowelmini chalk boardpaintsuper glue“days until” printed vinylembellishments – ribbon, buttonschalk

1. Drill a hole into the wooden base (try to match the drill bit size to the wooden dowel).

2. Remove vinyl sticker and place in center of chalk board.  I cut out the vinyl sticker with my cameo, however you could always use a stencil or write in “days until.”

3. Push down hard on the vinyl and then remove the transfer paper leaving the vinyl on the chalkboard.

4. Paint wooden base, dowel and frame around the chalk board. Allow several minutes to dry. You may want to paint the back of the frame as well if it will be seen.

5. Super glue wooden dowel to the back of the chalk board. Allow a few minutes to dry. Then place a little glue in the drilled hole and around rim of wooden dowel. Push dowel into the hole and hold in place for a minute.

6. Dress your chalkboard up with ribbon and embellishments.

That’s all, simple as that!
Enjoy your new  chalk board countdown to remember all of lives important events!! 

Tagged as: advent calendar, christmas crafts, countdown

Jamielyn created I {Heart} Nap Time where she shares her creativity, DIY Projects, crafts, sewing tutorials and recipes. Jamielyn enjoys spending time with her husband and 2 little ones in Phoenix Arizona. Join her on Facebook or Twitter.  Read other posts by Jamielyn

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Fun and Easy Kids' Craft Idea - How to Make Candles from Old Crayons

If your home is anything like mine, you're constantly picking crayons up off the floor. My son colors everyday, sometimes for hours on end. He loves crayons. We're always buying more crayons because he either looses them or they've been worn down to nubbins and hard to color with. Well, here's a tip for you on what you can do with the worn out crayons rather than throwing them away. You can recycle the old crayons by making them into candles. You can show your kids how they can take something old and make it into something new and colorful that's useful too. You'll want to burn these darling homemade candles yourself and give them as gifts as well.

Use this craft technique as a teaching moment with your kids. Before you start making the candles, talk to your kids about safety. They'll need to know that the crayons will have to be melted using a very high heat, and they will not be able to do that particular step in the process. Tell them they will have other fun steps in making crayon candles.

Get your supplies together. Along with about six crayons, you'll need a wax container of some sort such as an empty milk or orange juice wax carton, one pound of paraffin wax, two full ice cube trays, a double boiler, white packing string. If you're hesitant to use your double boiler to melt the crayons and wax, an old coffee can and saucepan works great.

First, trim the top off of the wax carton, leaving it approximately six inches high. Next, cut the string at least 8 inches long and later cut the wick to fit the holder. Braid the three string pieces together to make a wick that burns easier. Melt the paraffin wax in the double boiler or coffee can. To help it melt faster, cut it into small chunks. Usually you'll need to allow about 20 minutes for the melting process to complete.

Get your kids involved with the crayon candle making fun by letting them remove the crayon wrappers from the crayons while the wax is melting. Be creative by mixing and matching the crayon colors to create your own pretty candle.

Most folks find that they get the best results if they wait and add the crayons to the wax after it's totally melted. Use a pair of scissors and dip the string into the paraffin. Dipping the string will make sure it's coated with paraffin because the ice cubes may make it hard for the wax to stick to the string. Hold the string so that it is in the middle of the carton and fill the carton with ice cubes. Pour wax mixture over the ice cubes. You can even add a touch of scent to your crayon candle by adding a little cinnamon or vanilla to the hot wax.

Once you have poured your candle, make sure your kids know the importance of leaving it alone to harden. The candle will usually set in about half an hour, but leave it alone for a couple of hours and until the ice is melted. Put the candle in an area that is safe and where it will not be bothered. Be sure the little ones know they could be burned if they touch the hot wax before it's cooled. The wax can stay hot for hours after pouring and can be a potential hazard to kids and animals. When you're ready, all you have to do then is pour off the melted water and then peel off the wax carton.

If you're looking for a new and easy craft project to do with your kids or with a small group of kids, then making crayon candles is great idea. You can spend a fun afternoon with your children and make a useful candle for your home or as a gift for grandparents and friends.

Learn more about crafting and find free patterns for scrapbooking and all sorts of craft projects at Free Craft Ideas http://freecraftideas.homestead.com

Step Up to Memories - A Kids Craft Project

If you've been looking for a creative art project to do with the kids, look no further! I recently did a fun project with my daughter and thought I'd share the how-to for other parents who are looking for ways to keep their kids busy and creative all while making something useful for around the home!

What You'll Need

A wooden step ladder

Spray paint (your choice of color)

Sponges (either cut into shapes of your choice or pre-purchased in shapes)

Letter Stencils (of your child's name)

Craft Paint (your choice of colors)

Newspaper (the older the better)

Smock or old clothing for you and your child

Now you're ready to start creating. A little preparation is needed before bringing your child into the project. Take the step ladder outside and put it on the newspaper and spray paint it, covering the entire step ladder thoroughly. Let it dry overnight and you'll be ready to bring your child into the project the next day!

Bring the painted ladder to your work area (outside is recommended). Work with your child to sponge paint the shapes onto the ladder in the colors of your choice. Let it dry thoroughly.

Next, help your child stencil their name(s) onto the ladder. I'd recommend doing it on the side, and not the top, as the top will take a bit of wear if you plan to let your child use it. If it is to be a decoration for the porch of your child's room, putting the name on top will be ok if you choose to do so. Let it dry.

Your child now has a ladder, personally designed by them, to use. Put it in the corner of their room and through their favorite stuffed animal or trophies or photographs on top. You can also use the ladder as décor in your garden or on your porch. More practically, you can let your child use it for help in reaching the bathroom sink or other out of the way place they need to get to on a frequent basis.

While you can buy a step stool in the store, making one with your child not only gives you an activity to do together to get in some quality time, but it also will serve as a reminder for many years of the time you spent together and may even end up as a hand me down to your grandchildren.

And remember, above all, have fun!

Chuck Greene is the owner and operator of a little ladder website called Ladder Fanatic. It is a testament to his unique (some may call it crazy) love of ladders ? especially the Little Giant Ladder brand ladders. http://www.ladderfanatic.com

Simple Crafts For Kids-6 easy Kids Crafts

Children enjoy arts and crafts. Creative and tapping into their imagination is what they do best. Crafting skills children every opportunity to hone that openly volunteer. It is a fun way to entertain the children while improving their cognitive skills. Learn how something works and to create an object is a fascinating way for children to spend extra time. A few hours of paper or wooden crafts can a period adhesion between you and your child. Crafts can also a great activity to keep children busy during rainy days, holidays, breaks and weekends.

There are six children easy crafts that every parent can do at home with their child. The most common craft project for children is pasta art. All you need is the various pieces of colorful construction paper, glue and a box of dry macaroni, noodles. Using different type such as penne pasta to make the art more interesting. Kids love to play around with the set-aside obligation pile dry noodles. It is a fun activity for them. Finger painting runs a close second place for easy kids crafts. The big kid in all of us loves to messy. Painting is a great form of expression. Children practice finger dexterity if they dive and glide their little fingers on the paper. Establishment of old newspaper and put special play dress up your kids that you don't mind is damaged you will ease clean-up of a stressful.

Wooden crafts are not so demanding they may sound. The third easiest children craft includes wood products. It is magnets. This is a simple project that children can have fun with. Buy wood to unfinished wood shapes, paint, magnet strips magnets that self-adhesive or a hot glue gun for standard magnets. Let your child painting their wooden toy parts or shapes, and then set to dry. After they added each additional types of decorations such as glitter or beads attach magnets and hand on the door of the fridge. Will the children smile every time they walk to the kitchen to admire their masterpiece.

Puppet is the fourth easy kids crafts. Creative craft to explore if you are making a puppet. There are many options when constructing puppets. The simplest shape is the sock puppet. A little glue and felt goes a long way in making your creature puppet. All supplies to around the House will suffice. If you would like to put on a more refined show than a wooden doll using wooden sticks and fishing line move your wooden puppet. There are kits available to produce this amazing puppet to help you effortlessly. Kids can put on their own puppet theater whenever they want.

The fifth craft project that many children enjoy is making wooden frames. Most wooden frames come already assembled in unfinished wood. All you have to do is paint and decorating to your own taste. Connected wooden balls, Finials, or small toys wheels to make the frame edges a dramatic effect. Kids can add hours glitter and painting. Similar to the previous project is the sixth child easy craft idea wooden door signs. Taking a piece of plywood which saw the careful monitoring of your child while in their desired shape or buy pre-cut pieces and decorate is a favorite among children. They love hanging from their door sign on their room. Remember when tinkering with children creativity and patience is the key.

Lara Smith is an aspiring artist and an employee at craftparts outside of Fort Worth in Texas in Haltom City, offer many products including wooden toys, wooden toys, parts wheels and plugs and a huge stock of buttons unfinished wood parts for woodworkers and hobbyists. For all your wooden parts CraftParts toys needs, check out

Lara Smith works for Woodworks, Ltd., a wholesale craft parts supplier near Fort Worth, TX, offering wood products such as wooden toys toy parts, wheels, buttons, and plugs. For more information about wooden toys http://www.craftparts.com wheels, check out

Crossing Off Your Bucket List with Just Ask

Jordan and I, along with our kids, have started to talk more about our “bucket list” and what things we want to do during our life. We’ve been talking to our kids about making goals and working to achieve them, and making a family bucket list seemed appropriate. I think it’s good to start this now and involve our kids, making goals and striving to accomplish them when we write them down. It’s also good to have something to work towards and look forward to.

I was thrilled about the opportunity to work with Just Ask, a company who wants us all to stay around for a good long while so we can all cross activities and achievements off that bucket list. That’s why they’ve developed a test that could save lives—the BRACAnalysis test—by warning about chances of getting breast or ovarian cancer.

Here’s the fun part from Just Ask… share your bucket list and you have a shot of winning a trip of a lifetime.  The grand prizes are:

A family vacation of a lifetime to Universal Orlando® Resort.A Las Olas Surf Camp SafariSki Lessons and stay at Park City Mountain Resort

Here’s my family’s “bucket list”, in no particular order of family member. Although you’ll probably know which one came from a child :)

Go on a Disney CruiseSleep in Cinderella’s CastleRun the Disney half marathon (yes, a bit of a Disney theme going on here)Travel to IndiaLearn to surfBe a secret agentMake 2 new friends this yearTry out for the local Roller Derby TeamDo a triathlonKayak through the San Juan IslandsSki the AlpsTravel to New ZealandBe a karate kidSpeak SpanishLive in China like Kai-Lan

To get the full details on how you can share your own bucket list and enter to win those Grand Prize vacation packages, head over to Todays Mama.

But wait, there’s more. Extra Prizes! I get to help you cross something off of YOUR bucket list too!

Simply leave a comment here sharing an item from your bucket list. One random winner will win $500 to go cross an item off your list! Wahoo!

______________________________________________________________

Giveaway Entries: For your chance to win one bucket list prize of $500, leave a comment on this post by Thursday November 10th @ midnight. I’ll announce the winner chosen from random on Friday morning November 11th. Good Luck!

Extra Entry – Like Just Ask on Facebook and be sure to come back and leave a extra comment letting me know you did.

Tagged as: parenting tips

Marie LeBaron is the founder and managing editor of Make and Takes. Always having a love of crafts, she enjoys getting messy with glue and glitter. There’s always some sort of project going on, her kitchen counter is often cluttered with crafts. When she’s not crafting and creating with her kids, she loves to run, read, and blog! Read other posts by Marie

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Easy Crafts For Kids

There are some really easy crafts for kids. All they need are a few supplies like pipe cleaners, construction paper, toothpicks, macaroni and a few craft supplies.

Here is a list of some kids crafts that they will enjoy. Just let them use their creativity.

Pipe cleaner people Use different colored pipe cleaners and bend and twist them into shapes. They can make people, animals, buildings and whatever they can imagine. This is great when you have more than one child and they can make up a whole zoo or whatever they want to make.

You can either save them and put them on a cork board or set on a shelve or just untwist them so that they can be used again. This child's craft can keep them busy and entertained.

Macaroni Necklaces This craft goes back many years but the kids never get tired of making them. Just string colored macaroni onto lengths of yarn. If your macaroni is not colored then let the kids paint them.

Paint with spongesYou can buy sponge figures or else make your own. Get some cheap sponges and cut them into any kind of shape you like. You can make triangles, circles, stars, half moons, or even animal shapes. Let the kids dip them into paint and press them onto paper. The long rolls of paper or construction paper are really nice for this craft.

Make your own puppets You can buy sheets of foam and any craft store. Cut out dogs, butterflies, snakes, fish or anything that the kids like. Glue them onto popsicle sticks or tongue depressors and then they can make their own puppet show.

Toothpick art This has been around for a long time and the schools even use to use it. You can use either miniature marshmallows or gumdrops and toothpicks. Insert the toothpicks into the gumdrops or marshmallows. Just keep adding marshmallows to make any shape they want. They can make buildings or bridges and any kind of shapes, like a star, or hexagon and make then as elaborate as they want.

Paper chains We use to do this one when we were kids. Cut strips of construction paper and either glue or staple them into circles. When you have one circle done, put another strip through and glue it. Just keep adding circles until you have it as long as you want it. A red and white chain looks very nice for Christmas, or you can use red and green. The kids loving doing this chain. They can even decorate the strips with paint or sparkles.

Headbands Cut construction paper into strips and make one to fit the child's head. Then they can glue anything on them like feathers, buttons, ribbons made into bows, or any scraps of material. They could use the sponges from the craft above to decorate their head band.

Shirley Atkinson
Crafters Love Crafts
http://www.crafterslovecrafts.com

Kids' Crafts Involving the Disney Gang

Most kids just love the Disney Gang. They enjoy seeing their favorite characters, such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy, get into all sorts of hilarious situations. Because of this, it is only natural that your children would want to do things that are related to these cartoon characters. That's why you should do crafts with them that involve the Disney Gang. This will not only be fun for them because you are incorporating their favorite characters into what they are doing, but it is also great because they are getting to be imaginative and creative.

One thing that a lot of children love to do is draw. You can let them draw their own Disney Gang characters if you get some paper and coloring utensils. These could be coloring crayons, colored pencils, finger paints, or watercolors. It's good to have multiple options so that they can mix the media as well. They can also make their own Disney Gang characters by cutting out shapes with construction paper and scissors. If your kids are fairly young, you could cut out the shapes for them and then they could assemble the pieces however they please.

Some children like to pretend to be their favorite characters. Because of this, you and your children could make masks so that they can do this. All you need to do is create the heads of the characters like how you did with drawing their whole bodies. They, affix a stretchy string to either side of the paper and it can be worn as a mask.

Mrs. Party... Gail Leino takes a common sense approach to planning and organizing events, celebrations and holiday parties with unique ideas for Disney Gang party supplies and fun party games. She explains proper etiquette and living a healthy life while also teaching organizational skills and fun facts. The Party Supplies Hut has lots of party ideas with hundreds of free holiday printable games and free birthday party activities. Over 100 adorable Themes including Party Supplies to fit your birthday celebration, holiday event, or "just because" parties. Party themes include cartoon characters, sports, movie, TV shows, luau, western, holidays, and unique crazy fun theme ideas.

Christmas Crafts For Kids

Christmas crafts for kids are a perfect way to create holiday memories as well as decorations that will help recall those happy childhood moments for decades to come. You can help your child create fun crafts even if you are not a crafty person in general. Kids crafts are simple and often require very simple materials. If it is too complicated, they will likely lose interest quickly. You can find simple instruction sonline for many holiday crafts and even craft kits so you have all the materials and instructions gathered for you. This can be a real time saver as you prepare for other holiday events.

Some of the most fun and endearing holiday crafts include handprints, photos of your child, and other simple reminders of how fast they grow. This years handprint picture will be a real treasure in 10 or 20 years as you try to remember how small those now grown up hands once were. A simple and creative way to showcase pictures is to create ornaments with photos from the previous year. Each year your tree will include more and more of those happy memories and will become a scrapbook of the good times in your child's life. These ornaments can be as simple as plastic lid recycled from the kitchen with a circular picture pasted inside. If you want to be more elaborate, you can use scrapbook paper and small wooden picture frames to create pretty little ornaments.

Another fun and simple craft is to use finger paint to make handprints in the shape of a Christmas tree. For a more lasting version of the handprint, you could make handprints with fabric paint on squares of plain fabric. A single handprint makes a cute throw pillow - and you can even use a premade pillow sham if you are not the sewing type. You can gather the handprints over the course of a couple of years to make a cute handprint quilt. Handprints and footprints on a t-shirt or sweatshirt make a perfect gift for daddy or grandparents.

Clear plastic ornaments are readily available at craft stores. They can be filled with various items for keepsake ornaments. One fun idea is to use a little sand and a few small sea shells to create a beach ornament - even more fun if those shells were collected on your summer vacation. Shredded crinkle paper and a little glitter also makes a fun ornament stuffer that even a small child can help with.

The most important ingredient in any craft project is fun, so be sure to make the experience fun for your child. Be careful not to criticize their efforts and understand that imperfection is part of the charm!

You can find more Christmas crafts for kids at http://www.creativechristmascrafts.com. You'll find more Christmas traditions at http://www.childelfcostume.com

Bible Story Crafts For Kids - The Good Shepherd Craft & Game

This adorable sheep is one of our Easy Bible Story Crafts for Kids for kindergarten, first grade and second grade. Creating and displaying this cute, fluffy sheep reinforces the Scripture that tells us Jesus watches over us and calls us, like a good shepherd calls his sheep.

This is one of our Kids Bible Crafts that is complimented by a game. The craft and game help children to remember the verses: "I am the good shepherd. I know each of My sheep by name, and My sheep know Me." "Those who come through Me will be saved. They will have everything they need." Scripture: John 10:1-21

Supplies

Empty toilet paper roll
Cotton balls (30 to 40)
4 Q-Tips
Elmer's School Glue
White tissue paper
Brown pipe cleaner (only if a ram)
Clear tape
Disposable container (such as a margarine container)
Black construction paper
Paper punch or scissors

Directions

For support, stuff paper (any kind) inside the toilet paper roll, leaving about an inch empty from the end.


Create the sheep's legs by taping the Q-tips to toilet paper roll.


Create the sheep's head by scrunching up some tissue paper and stuffing part of it into the end of the roll.


Pour a little glue into the container.


To add the sheep's wool, dip cotton balls into the glue and press onto the cardboard roll. Once it is covered, add another layer or more until the sheep is nice and wooly.



Create the eyes with a paper puncher and the construction paper. Use glue to adhere to the front of the sheep's tissue paper face.


For a ram, do Steps 1-6 and then add horns, which are made by twisting pipe cleaner into two curly cues and attaching with glue.


Allow to dry.


Displaying the Sheep

Before children bring their sheep home, you may want to create a classroom display:

Begin with a tray of wheat grass you've grown and trimmed short or Easter basket grass spread out evenly.

Add shepherd or Jesus figurine or paper doll.

Invite children to add their sheep to assemble the flock around the shepherd!

Stray Sheep Game

This tag game is sort of a classroom version of the backyard pool game, Marco Polo. The child playing the stranger is blindfolded and stands in the center of the circle. The others are the sheep and wander around the inside of the circle.

The blindfolded stranger tries to tag the sheep. When calling "Sheep!" the others must reply with "Baa-baa." The first sheep tagged takes the place of the stranger. This game reinforces the lesson that just like the sheep we should only answer to our Good Shepherd.

Look on our site for more Easy Kids Crafts and Bible Kids Crafts.

For more great Bible story crafts for kids you can visit Bible Crafts For Kids. Magriet is a work at home "Gran" and she has sites on family matters. For more bible story crafts for kids you can go to Fun Kids Crafts. For a fun Mother's day craft you can go to Mother's Day Crafts For Kids

Holiday Stenciled Treat Jars for Neighbor Gifts

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Children Crafts: balloons, Bubbles & balls # 2

Craft: Balloon person

Activities: Balloon hot potato, homemade Bubble Makers, balloon Toss eggs, Tarp

Snack: Balloon Snack

Selection: read Bubbles, Bubbles by Kathi Appelt

Craft


Balloon person

Needed:

# Balloon

# Construction paper

# tape

# yarn

# markers

Inflating the balloon to make a small head. Cut a outfit for the body (one piece). Take strips of paper and fold accordion style to legs and arms. Tape the arms and legs to the outfit. Then making shoes and glue to the bottom of the feet. Tracing the child hands, cut out and glue to the end of the poor. Signs of a face on the balloon and add yarn or Crete paper with tape for the head. Also, confirm a long piece of yarn to the top, so that you can hang up!

Activities/Games


Balloon hot potato

Needed:

# Water balloons

# water

# swimming pool (optional)

Fill with water balloons, tie end. Children gather in a circle. Various (4-6) carefully poking holes in the balloon. Children of the balloon passes around the circle, trying not to be on the one hand to keep the balloon as it runs out of water! To make it even more fun, especially if more than 6 children, they have pass 2-3 balloons at the same time. If you are near a group of or more, the child who loves playing a balloon when it is flushed to jump! Make sure to get rid of deflated balloons.

Homemade Bubble Makers

Needed:

# Home items such as:

# String

# straws

# coat hangers

# plastic six pack holders.

# Diswashing liquid soap and water

Only two straws and string, you can use a simple bubble maker. Just bind a piece of string by two straws to create a collapsible frame. Keep the straws and dip the frame in the solution of water and dishwashing SOAP and carefully lift it up and pull it to you. Tap the frame up or down to the break from a bubble.
Another simple bubble maker is created by bending a coat rack in a loop. If your solution bubble in a frying pan, the coat rack. Golf your coat hanger loop in the air and turn it until the end of a bubble.
Probably the simplest bubble maker of these three is the plastic six pack holder. You don't have to change it at all, in the solution and immerse the wave it around for immediate bubbles.
This activity is great for all ages. Children love having fun and they have their own call bubble machines. Challenge your children to come up with new inventions for bubble makers using various objects around the House!

Balloon eggs

Needed:

# Balloons

# Paper-mache

# Markers or crayons

Blow up your balloon, put paper mache ' around the balloon and let it dry,
When the mache ' have what looks like a large egg hardens. Decorate with markers or paint. You can even use it as a piñata!

TARP Toss

Needed:

# 1 tarp or blanket

# Tennis balls or inflatable balls

Have the children each grabbing a end of the tarp. They each take turns on a tennis ball throwing, and shaking (bounce). See how many balls you can throw up without any off!
It is a great game if you do not need a parachute.

Snack


Balloon Snack

Needed:

# Rice cake

# Frosting

# Food colors

# string liquorice

Colored frosting make by adding food coloring to the vanilla frosting. Give each child a rice cake and a small cup with the colored frosting they select. Let the children use craft sticks to use as spreaders. Have the children decorate their rice cake with frosting. Use the drop string if the string balloon. You can even decorate with more icing tube or other pastries. Have fun!

Reading selection:


Bubbles, Bubbles by Kathi Appelt

Be care when using balloons around small children. Balloons can be a risk of suffocation.

Pam Lester is a former art teacher and mother of 2. They is the owner and creator of http://www. -TheIdeaBox.com and http://www.. The sites offer free class-Parties.com children crafts, recipes, games and activities for parents, teachers and caregivers. Visit TheIdeaBox for more great ideas!

3 Kids Craft ideas for independence day

There are plenty of fun ways that you can craft your way in the 4th of July. If you are looking for some great independence day craft ideas, we have some for you. But before you look at these options, all you have to do to come up with your own is to think about the day, the reason for the day, will offer the colors and the fun. There are plenty of things you can do to this day really great. Are you ready to celebrate, here are a few craft ideas into account. To see full details in the web or to use your own creativity.

The Pinwheel. Nothing screams Happy 4th as the pinwheel. To create them, easy folding a piece of paper in a star shape. You will want to make a middle section that will allow you to place a push-pin through it. The color of the paper red, white and blue before they have children start folding. You must squares to work with. Insert the two sheets together. Then, cut the first sheet from the corners to the Center about halfway. Expand the corners to the Center, safe with push pins around a pencil on the back.

Flags. Flags are the most traditional ways to celebrate the 4th. For a simple design, have your child color a picture of the flag on a piece of paper. Then, one side of the flag to popsicle sticks for linking a pool and they have a great-looking flag to wave!

Stars. Another good way to show your pride with stars. Have each child decorate paper stars here on the front and the back in a wide range of designs. Anything goes! Red, white and blue work best. Then a small hole through the top of each village and string them together. You can hang on your 4th of July celebration for a great way to celebrate. It also makes a great decoration for around the table.

You can find many fun craft projects for the 4th July. In fact, you can make it a history lesson with a few large factsheets, color sheets on the Founding Fathers and a wide range of other things. One thing's for sure. Do you want the children to enjoy themselves. Just get out of the red, white and blue finger paint and let go on it is enough to make this a very special celebration of the 4th of July!

Nicola enjoys always celebrate independence day. They can help you pay tribute to old glory in style with 4th of July party tips and news [http://independence-day.your-holiday.info], information and views on [http://independence-day.your-holiday.info]

This article can be completely reprinted as long as the resource box and live links are intact. All rights reserved. Copyright your-Holiday .info [http://www.Your Holiday-.]

Kids Craft Project - Beaded Wreath Holiday Ornaments

When our daughter was a little girl, we spent a weekend afternoon crafting up some really cute holiday wreath ornaments using beads and lace. You can find the craft supplies listed for this project at your neighborhood craft supply store in the general supplies area of the store.

This is a great project to do with older children who are age 5 and over with some adult supervision. Over the years, I have even done this project with local school groups, scouting troops, after-school programs and youth groups.

Materials Needed For Each Completed Ornament:

6" piece of pipe cleaner (I used clear ones and they are also called chenille stems)

16" to 18" piece of red flat edge lace that is 1" in width

1 package of green plastic tri-beads

1 package of clear plastic tri-beads

1 flocked teddy bear measuring approximately 1 1/4" tall

4" piece of gold metallic cord or gold metallic string

all-purpose quick-drying liquid craft glue

sharp scissors

24" or longer ruler

Note: When you purchase the flat edge lace (non-gathered lace) look for a pattern that has a hole that runs along the edge so that you can thread your pipe cleaner through it. The best type of lace to use also has a scalloped edge that runs along the outer edge.

Step 1: Cut off a 6" piece of pipe cleaner and a 16" to 18" piece of lace and set aside. If doing this as a group project, this step can be done ahead of time by a responsible adult.

Step 2: Slightly pinch one end of clear pipe cleaner and then thread on a green plastic tri-bead. Start threading on your lace followed up by a clear plastic tri-bead. You will want to continue this pattern for the length of your pipe cleaner. (green bead, lace, clear bead).

Step 3: Once you have the pipe cleaner filled up with beads and lace, shape it into a circle and twist the two pipe cleaner ends together. It should look like a round wreath.

Step 4: Glue the flocked teddy bear onto the wreath as shown in the picture. (he should look like he is sitting inside it). Finally, take a 4" piece of gold metallic cord and thread through the lace at the top and form a knotted loop so that it can be hung on your holiday tree.

Tip: If you can not find flocked miniature teddy bears, you can glue artificial flowers into the center or around the sides of the wreath to fancy it up.

Shelly Hill is a mother and grandmother living in Pennsylvania who enjoys crafting, beading, crocheting and scrapbooking. You can visit Shelly's online craft blog called Passionate About Crafting at http://passionateaboutcrafting.blogspot.com for free craft project ideas and tips. You can find a photo of the completed project on her blog at http://passionateaboutcrafting.blogspot.com/2009/11/kids-craft-project-beaded-wreath.html

Two Fun and Easy Christmas Crafts to Try With Your Kids

Christmas is a holiday where all kinds of kids crafts are created at home and in the school environment.

Crafts for kids, however should be an activity that should bring fun and excitement to children's activities aside from adding a bonding to the adults that are doing the projects with them.

Educational arts and crafts is a way of doing crafts with children where they are not blindly copying the adults model but are creating things that they are capable of creating at their own developmental level.

When children create at their own level a number of things occur.

It creates a great feeling about themselves, as who can feel good about crafts projects that are copycat models of someone else's. Kids crafts projects that are done by using their own creativity makes them feel so much better about themselves.

An additional benefit that educational arts and crafts has is its allowance for much greater creativity. When an adult does a project and want a child to copy it, it's the perfect way to repress creativity.

There are a few categories that are part of educational art. There is the cafeteria style that allows children to choose materials to work with, there is process only art where the process is what counts along with a few more.

The point of it is that all of the crafts under educational arts and crafts should be age appropriate, and allow for freedom of creation and expression.

I am going to show you two extremely easy and inexpensive Christmas craft ornaments that you can make.

The first one uses plastic throwaway cups:

You will need to offer the children an array of colorful, permanent markers so they can color all over their cups. It will be a much nicer decoration if you get the kids to cover as much as you can with markers on the cup.

When they are done, take a cookie sheet and put the cups upside down on it and put in the over at around 350 degrees. Allow them to stay in for a few minutes as they melt. Watch them carefully so they don't burn all the way down. As you can imagine, the cups and tray get really hot so the kids must be kept away until they get cool.

When they are cool, make a hole in the center and use colorful ribbon to hang as an ornament for your tree.

For our next craft you will use any unused or not needed DVD's or CD's.

Basically: Decorate them and hang them.

There are endless methods you can use to beautify the CD's.

You can color with permanent markers, glue and glitter them, collage over them, decoupage over them, and decorate them with whatever shiny, decorative materials you can find. Once they are done, get some pretty ribbon and hang them from your tree. If you want to see what a crafts activity done in the cafeteria style is like then check out this Hanukkah Crafts collage

Faige Kobre is a former teacher and director of Early Childhood Education. She is the founder of The Educational Art Institute which teaches adults how to teach children art and give crafts that raises self esteem, teaches thinking and problem solving skills and explodes their creativity. kids crafts projects arts and crafts

Children Crafts: balloons, Bubbles & balls # 3

Craft: Balloon brushes

Activities: Balloon battle, balloon Yo-Yos!, Bubble Bubble Pop Pop!, scoop n ' throw

Snack: Coconut Balls

Selection: read Zachary the ball by Matt Tavares

Craft


Balloon brushes

Needed:

# 1 package of balloons

# sticks or chopsticks

# rubber tyres or floral wire

Collect a bunch of balloons (deflated) around a stick or stick. Take a rubber band or floral wire and securing the balloons to the stick or dowel. Have the children paint the "balloon brush" dive in and explore!

Activities/Games


Balloon battle

Needed:

# Balloons

# String

# inflated balloons.

The designation of a particular color for each team. (If you have a lot of children who have more teams you can or you have to have on all teams) A balloon tie every players only. Each team first try each other's balloon burst. The team with the last balloons WINS. If your balloon burst, pull you from the game.

Balloon Yo-Yos!

Needed:

# 9 inch balloon

# Long rubber band

# Water

This balloon yo-yo is about the size of a baseball. You will need to fill it with water and air to make it that size. (Aprox. 3/4 cup of water and hit to the right size!) The air is very important because it acts as a cushion for the water. The ratio is 1/4 water in the air of 3/4.
Bind it off. Snip the rubber band and tie a loop in one end. The other end snugly around the stem balloon tie. That's it! The children can use markers to personalize this. They are a lot of fun and about 3 cents per piece costs. They also make great party favors! Enjoy!

Note: you should always be cautious with broken balloon pieces and children. Discarding of broken latex balloons immediately.

Bubble Bubble Pop Pop!

Needed:

# Bubble solution

# White Paper

# Food colors

Take bubble solution, white construction paper, shallow pans and food coloring outside with your child. Pour bubble solution in different shallow pans. Squeeze drops of different color food coloring in each pan. Help your child dip the bubble wand in the pan and blow bubbles on the paper-make sure you have all the colors!

Scoop 'n Toss

Needed:

# empty litre milk jugs

# Foam ball

Two one litre of milk jugs and collect a foam ball. Cut the jars to form a scoop. The use of sandpaper to rub away any sharp edges. Take your child outside and have fun playing toss. The activity make it more difficult by the move further apart. Have fun!

Snack

Coconut Balls

Needed:

# 1 12 oz. package semi-sweet chocolate pieces

# 3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

# 1 tsp. vanilla extract

# 1/8 tsp. salt

# 1/8 Cup coconut flakes

In a heavy, 2-quart saucepan over low heat), melt chocolate pieces. Stir in sweetened condensed milk, vanilla and salt until well blended.

Put in the fridge for about 45 minutes, or until it is easy to form.
Shape with buttered hands, the mixture into small balls. Roll each ball in the coconut flakes.
This recipe is a delicious treat for young children with adult supervision.

Reading selection:


Zachary the ball by Matt Tavares

Be care when using balloons around small children. Balloons can be a risk of suffocation.

Pam Lester is a former art teacher and mother of 2. They is the owner and creator of http://www. -TheIdeaBox.com and http://www.. The sites offer free class-Parties.com children crafts, recipes, games and activities for parents, teachers and caregivers. Visit TheIdeaBox for more great ideas!

Crafting With Kids - Top 5 Mistakes Most Parents Make

Taking care of young children is fun, but let's be honest, it can also be a handful at times to keep children entertained and learning new things while you multitask between work and life. Sometimes parents fall into the trap of letting their TVs babysit their children for them. Kids these days spend hours during the day playing video games or texting their buddies on their mobile phones. It would be easy to just let their kids find their own entertainment, but sometimes you can't help but feeling a little guilty.

As a responsible and caring parent, you know that your children deserve better. You want them to have fun without the violence on TV. You want them to experience new things and learn new ideas. You want them to create, not just to consume brainless entertainment.

This is precisely why it's such a good idea for parents to start crafting with their children. As the DIY and handmade wave sweeps the nation, parents everywhere are increasingly passing on the tradition of crafting with their young children.

Crafting benefits children in multiple ways. It stimulates their imagination and unleashes their innate creativity. Crafting exercises their logical thinking as your children process the instructions. Crafting also enhances teamwork as they learn to share their resources and supplies with siblings or friends from school.

Before you start jumping onto a new kids craft project, it's helpful to read some tips and advice from people who have been crafting with their kids for a long time. After all, you want all the benefits of crafting with your kids, minus the mistakes that parents usually make. Below is a list of the top 5 mistakes most parents make when crafting with their kids:


Care more about the product than the process. Many parents get too caught up with making the perfect craft project that they forget to let the kids be kids. Very often, kids will make things that bear no resemblance to the craft project instructions. As long as they had fun and enjoyed the process, parents should give kids a lot of freedom in their craft activities.
Take over the process. Many parents do not like to see their kids struggle. When their kids get stuck on a particular task, instead of suggesting and prompting the kids to work it out on their own, they feel the need to complete the task for them. And before they realize it, they would take over the entire process. Kids learn better if you let them work out a solution on their own.
Become impatient. Sometimes kids have short attention span. Instead of becoming impatient at your kids for abandoning their projects, it's more effective to ask them to help you clean up and pick up the craft project at a later time.
Use negative words to describe the finished craft project. It's really not about the finished craft project. So use positive words to describe your kids' projects, even if they look nothing like what they should be. It's the experience and the process that counts.
Give their kids projects that are inappropriate for their age. Surprisingly, this is a common mistake. But it's easy to see why this could turn into a disaster. If you give younger kids a more complicated project, they may get frustrated. If you give your older kids a really simple project, they may get bored. Give them age appropriate craft projects to work on.

Edda Shea is the founder of Kid Craft Project: a website for people who enjoy crafting with their kids. It is an online directory that sources the best ideas for kid craft projects. Edda is a lifelong crafts enthusiast and enjoys everything handmade.

Free Printable Thanksgiving Coloring Pages

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and it’s time to start the celebrations! Print out these free coloring pages for the kids to color, a perfect craft to keep little hands busy while Mr. Turkey is still cooking away. There is even a fun paper cut out printable helping teach children what “Max” might wear on a cold autumn day!

Marie LeBaron is the founder and managing editor of Make and Takes. Always having a love of crafts, she enjoys getting messy with glue and glitter. There’s always some sort of project going on, her kitchen counter is often cluttered with crafts. When she’s not crafting and creating with her kids, she loves to run, read, and blog! Read other posts by Marie

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Kids Craft Project - Recycling Soup Can Lids Into Snowman Ornaments

Last weekend while my nephews were visiting me...we had to come up with an easy holiday ornament project that used a throw-away item for one of their school projects. After much thinking, we decided to recycle aka re-purpose metal soup and tuna can lids to make some hand painted snowman ornaments.

We used a can opener that unseals the tin can lids, so the edges of our lids are smooth and won't cut or hurt anyone.

Ages: 8 and up with adult supervision

Supplies Needed Per Ornament:

1 clean soup can lid

1 clean tuna can lid

acrylic paints - white, orange, navy blue and black

paint brush

foam paint brush

quick drying all-purpose craft glue

scrap of fabric or ribbon (for hanging loop)

Scissors

water dish and paper towels (for cleaning your paint brush)

(optional) clear acrylic paint sealer

Since painting is involved, lay several sheets of newspaper down onto your work surface or lay down an old plastic table cloth.

Step 1: Paint the one side (the outside) tuna can lid a dark navy blue. We had to apply two coats of paint, letting each coat dry for 20 minutes. Paint both sides of the soup can lid with white acrylic paint. We had to apply two to three coats of paint. Let lids thoroughly dry.

Step 2: While your lids are drying, cut a piece of ribbon or scrap fabric to measure 6" long by 1" wide to use as your hanging loop. Wash your paint brushes and let dry.

Step 3: Squirt some all-purpose craft glue on the wrong side of your white soup can lid and use your foam paint brush to spread it around so its an even coat. Fold your fabric strap or ribbon piece in half and form into a hanging loop. Sandwich the strap between your tuna can lid and your soup can lid and press them firmly into place. Let dry for 10 minutes or until the lids no longer slide around.

Step 4: Let the child paint on black eyes, an orange carrot shaped nose and black mouth dots. (My nephews used the end of their paint brushes just dipped in black paint to do their mouth dots).

Set your ornament aside for a few hours to completely dry. If desired, you can spray it lightly with some clear acrylic paint sealer and then let them dry for 24 hours before using them.

Shelly Hill is a mother and grandmother living in Pennsylvania who enjoys sewing, quilting, crafting and scrapbooking. You can visit Shelly's online craft blog called Passionate About Crafting at http://passionateaboutcrafting.blogspot.com for free craft project ideas and tips. You can find a photo of the completed project on her blog at http://passionateaboutcrafting.blogspot.com/2009/12/kids-craft-project-recycling-can-lids.html

Tips About Crafts For Small Children

As a former teacher's aide for grades k-4, I worked with young children on their classroom craft projects along with helping with their reading skills. Much of the work involved preparing the craft areas for each project and getting the materials together. I did a lot of pre-cutting paper strips or shapes and putting out small containers of glue, crayons or whatever was required for the day's project. This also included handling parts of the project that were too dangerous for the kids, like melting wax crayons or ironing on transfers, etc.

When crafting at home with small children it's also a good idea for the parent to be prepared ahead of time for when the weather is bad or the kids are bored. Start a craft materials stash just as you would for your own craft or sewing projects. It doesn't have to be large or expensive. Items you might have around the house work well (paper plates, drinking straws, paper or foam egg cartons, a small bag of newspaper strips for Paper Mache, rubber bands, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, cotton balls, construction paper, children's scissors, white glue, crayons, water colors, markers, etc). You might also want to include a plastic table cloth, aprons and wipes. When you want to spend some quality time with the little ones you will be ready to craft on the spur of the moment.

Safety when crafting with small children is just as important as being prepared. It's just using common sense. No sharp objects that can cut fingers or poke eyes and depending on the age of the child, no tiny items that can cause a choking hazard. Don't let the kids handle hot items like irons or hot liquids. And make sure all products that they use are non-toxic. I haven't seen very many small children who don't taste everything or at least put their hands in their mouths. We want to concentrate on having a good time and not have to worry about what goes into the mouth.

Last but not least is the craft itself. Back when I helped in the classroom it was a struggle to come up with new ideas. Most ideas were passed back and forth between the teachers. We modified projects to fit the age group. Many ideas came from the Teachers Resource Center and just plain old brainstorming. Now we have the internet. You can find almost anything if you have time to research and collect. There are many sites dedicated to kid's crafts.

Here's just one example. While I was looking for ideas for project to do with my grandkids I came across a nice little e-book by Alexandra Martinez called "365 Easy Step-by-Step Kid Crafts". As the title indicates, she has included 365 craft projects that cover most holidays and general crafting ideas. As a bonus she has included a book of children's recipes and another book of games and activities. She offers a money back guarantee and free upgrades. I purchased the books myself to have on hand when the kids come to visit. I can print out the projects that I want to use and have patterns ready to cut or color without messing up a printed book or having to go make copies on a copier (which I don't own). It saves me a lot of time searching for ideas.

I really like the recipe for play dough that's in the recipe book. I could spend a whole day making play dough animals with my grandaughter. She has to keep every one of them until they dry out and have to be thrown out. It sure saves me a lot of money when I can make my own.

Whichever craft projects you choose to do with your kids, no matter where you find them, be prepared, keep safety in mind and have lots of fun crafting away. Make the project along with them to show them how it's done but don't insist that they do it your way. Let them be creative. Let them know that they have done a GREAT job, even if you have no idea what the did. They may come up with something that's even better

than the original idea. You will be creating happy memories that will, hopefully, instill a love for crafting beautiful things for the rest of their lives.

Oh! and don't forget to take pictures. They'll look great in your scrapbooking projects.

Happy Crafting!

Tips about crafts for small children.

Charlene is an artist, crafter, craft teacher, former teacher's aide and business owner. For more information and ideas visit: http://www.kid-crafting.blogspot.com

The Hulk - Kids Crafts and Projects

Many little boys love the Hulk. Ever since the new movie came out, there has been a resurgence of popularity or this brutish green hero. Boys love how strong the Hulk can be and they wish to be just like him. If your son likes this classic action hero, then he will likely be very interested in making crafts and projects based on it. There are many things that he can do, and he will likely have a lot of fun doing them. Not only that, but it will mean you'll have quality time together and it will keep him busy.

The main theme of the Hulk is his green skin. A good way for your boy to feel connected to his favorite action hero is to emulate him. Pick up some green face paint and let your son turn himself green to match his hero. Also, you can up the ante by cutting one of his old shirts in such a way that it looks like he just became large and enraged, just like the Hulk. This is an especially good project for a Halloween costume. For an added affect, pick up some green spray hair color at a local drug store. Don't worry, it washes right out!

Coloring has been a fun activity for kids to do for decades. They like to use the colors to be creative and have fun. You can find coloring pages on the internet that have a Hulk theme so that your son can color them in. You can also make coloring pages yourself if you have drawing ability.

Mrs. Party... Gail Leino takes a common sense approach to planning and organizing events, celebrations and holiday parties with unique ideas for Hulk party supplies and fun party games. She explains proper etiquette and living a healthy life while also teaching organizational skills and fun facts. The Party Supplies Hut has lots of party ideas with hundreds of free holiday printable games and free birthday party activities. Over 100 adorable Themes including Hulk Party Supplies to fit your birthday celebration, holiday event, or "just because" parties. Party themes include cartoon characters, sports, movie, TV shows, luau, western, holidays, and unique crazy fun theme ideas.

Saturday Spotlight: Pumpkin Recipes

Marie LeBaron is the founder and managing editor of Make and Takes. Always having a love of crafts, she enjoys getting messy with glue and glitter. There’s always some sort of project going on, her kitchen counter is often cluttered with crafts. When she’s not crafting and creating with her kids, she loves to run, read, and blog! Read other posts by Marie

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Halloween Crafts For the Kids

Kids love making crafts, so take the time to look around and find some easy Halloween crafts for kids. Crafting does not have to be difficult, and you can make easy Halloween crafts for kids with a little imagination, creativity, and some common household items. There is nothing more fun for kids than to decorate your home with Halloween decorations that they have made themselves. They will feel pride in what they have created and have fun doing it. Here are a couple easy Halloween crafts for kids that you may want to try.

We LOVE fun foam that can be purchased at craft stores or department stores. Buy several sheets in colors of orange, black, green, and white. Cut out some ovals and circles from various colors. Look on the Internet for Halloween images that you can print to your personal printer. Try to find witches, bats, skeletons, and black cats. You may have to reduce these images to fit onto your base. If you are especially good at drawing, you can even try to draw your own! Cut these images out of contrasting fun foam colors and glue onto the shapes you have cut out. Punch a hole in the top, draw a string through the hole and then hang these fun ornaments anywhere you can think of!

Easy Halloween crafts for kids can even be crafts that are adapted from more difficult crafts. Want to have scary ghosts hanging from your trees? Take an ordinary plastic bag you get from the grocery store and cut off the handles. Place a Styrofoam ball in the top for the head and secure with a rubber band. Then shred the bottom into strips and poke a hole above the head to insert a string for hanging. Don't forget to draw on a scary face! For extra fun, attach a bell or two to the bottom of the strips so you can hear your ghost "singing" in the wind.

Finally, one of the most easy Halloween crafts for kids might be the most fun. Buy a few dark colored candles black preferably and provide your child with various trinkets like sequins, candy corn, fun foam shapes, or whatever you can think of. Have them glue these trinkets on the outside of the candle and you have a great Halloween decoration for your home!

Easy Halloween crafts for kids are great ways to get kids interested in crafts and instill a sense of pride as visitors marvel over your great decorations.

They can proudly say, "I made that!"

To find out more about Halloween crafts and arts for the whole family, please visit http://www.halloweeneasycrafts.com

Summer fun and easy Kids craft ideas

Summer will be here soon enough, and will be thrilled with your kids be of school and playing outside. Well, at least for a few days anyway. Once the novelty of the summer has worn off and the reality of boredom once, your happy campers sinks into ' mother I'm bored ' samples. What is a parent do to help ease the pain of ' doing nothing '? Summer craft projects in advance of plan is an idea that smart parents can use. Who knows, maybe the kiddos will even learn a thing or two at the same time.

Since the weather is perfect for get out and explore the nature, children will find objects such as seeds, leaves, grass, flowers and other items to use when you create a collage of nature. All they need to do is found the bits on a rigid piece of cardboard craft glue. They can all other items that they want to add to the collage colorful and interesting. The spray can with paint and collage color variety also add. How about spraying some glue on and then sprinkling glitter on the collage? Another idea for the use of the nature of items they collect is to arrange dried flowers in special schemes for MOM.

Of course, if children collect wild flowers they need to a beautiful homemade vase in arranging them. Making a simple vase is a great summer craft idea. Children can make a nice, simple vase from a can recycled. Soup cans and small coffee cans work well for homemade vases. The best cans have smooth exterior and not too broad. Make sure you trim away a sharp points or edges that may still be at the opening. Children can cut a piece of colorful construction paper to fit around the outside of the can and then glue it to the can, after they have furnished in anyway they wish. Stickers, markers, crayons, paint, glue and glitter ... the list goes on. A great idea for decorating the vase is a beautiful summer scene by drawing on the construction paper. They can also name their glue dried pasta, beans or seeds, add on the paper. Let all the glue to dry well before May. But they want to decorate their vase is to them. All that's left is to add some water and their flowers or dried wild flowers.

Children can also make containers and vases of empty jars. Canning jars make great vases, but all old recycled pot works well. Make sure that it is really good to clean. Let them get their hands wet by the kiddos to clean the pot itself. After the pot is dry, add nice ribbon around the mouth. Children will enjoy painting on the glass pot and maybe glitter, beads and buttons to add also.

Tin and glass jar vases have several purposes other than containers for flowers. Children can turn into pencils, pens and markers or a small add item they want.

These are just a few simple craft ideas that can help you create your children this summer. There are literally limitless ideas for summer kid crafting. You can spend some nice time with your children while the boredom to prevent sample show early. Not only will you and your children have fun, but you have some adorable items to display in your home or give as gifts to friends and family. Your children can learn of some new crafting skills and the satisfaction of the performance at the same time. Stay cool and happy crafting this summer!

More information on editing and free patterns for scrapbooking and all types of http://freecraftideas.homestead.com craft projects on free Craft ideas find

Craft Book For Kids

Most kids of all ages really enjoy crafts of all types. There are many advantages of doing crafts with children. For example, it is a great way to spend time together. It is also great because it helps practice and enhance the skills of young people. It can also help beat boredom over the summer.
 
It's a good idea to have a lot of craft ideas on hand for the children in your life and a craft book for kids is a great way to do this. With a great kids' craft book, you can get awesome ideas such as creating bookmarks, marble painting, mirror image painting, sun catchers, and much more.
 
You can choose from projects for younger children like preschool age all the way up to older kids. A good craft book for kids will have projects designed for different age levels so that older children can get more of a challenge but younger children will be able to do much of it on their own.
 
A great craft book for kids will provide easy project ideas for kids to make at home. Ideal projects will contain simple ingredients that you can find at home or easily pick up at a store for cheap. Many of them have great ideas for how you can recycle items that you already have in your home such as toilet paper rolls or used CDs.  
 
The craft book for kids should supply step by step instructions from start to finish on how to successfully complete your project. This might contain projects you can do with your kids or also those that your kids can do on their own to give you a break and to keep them occupied during the summer, weekends or just a rainy day.

Lisa Mason, Professional wordsmith for hire: gamer, wife, mother, entrepreneur, published poet, co-owner of game guides company, public speaker and Internet business consultant. You can learn more or follow Lisa's blog from her website: http://www.freelancewriter4hire.com

You can see more articles like this at: http://giftsanddecor.wordpress.com/

Kids Christmas Decoration Ideas

If you are a parent or a grandparent, uncle or aunt you already know just how excited kids get when the holiday season approaches. And this is a good thing as their enthusiasm is contagious and helps us get into the holiday spirit. For many of us remembering what it was like to hear our parents talk about the Christmas tree or getting out the outdoor holiday lights was like giving a child a five pound box of chocolate...our anticipation got the best of us but we soon were let down when we had to stay out of the way when the Christmas home décor decorating process began.

Today, however you should let your kids help decorate the home for Christmas by allowing them to place some ornaments on the tree or even help hold the lights while dad strings them on the bushes out front. Besides helping with the decorations, encourage your children to make their own special handmade decorations for the home or to give as gifts. This part does take a little pre planning in making sure you have the materials for your kids to use and choosing items suitable for their age, however the benefits associated with this are far greater than the temporary burden of planning. As an example while your kids are busy making decorations you will have free time to put up other decorations you really do not want your children's' help with or to simply take a few moments and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee.

Easy Craft Decoration Ideas

The Christmas tree is the focal point in almost every home at Christmas time; in fact many families now have more than one each with a different theme. Kids love ornaments on the Christmas tree and always feel the tree could use more ornaments. Making ornaments for the tree can be made with items found around the home such as paper, uncooked noodles, popcorn or baked dough in various shapes. If you do not have the time to prebake; almost every town has a local craft store where ornament cutouts, patterns or undecorated ornaments can be purchased and ready for your children to paint. Crafting Christmas tree ornaments is a great craft project for kids that have never made a decoration as well as small children.

Other than creating decorations for the Christmas tree, another easy and low cost idea is to have your child use his or her markers or crayons to color or paint a holiday themed picture to be displayed as part of the holiday home decor. Try placing your child's' artwork on the refrigerator for all to see or frame it and display it on a sofa table or coffee table. This will enlighten your children and teach them what Christmas is all about. Pictures of your child with Santa Claus could easily be highlighted by crafting a simple picture frame out of popsicle sticks that your child could decorate with glitter, buttons or paint. Another fun project for your children to participate in would be to create a collage from family photos including the family pet; accented with red ribbon and use as a Christmas wall décor.

Decorating for Christmas with your children does not have to be expensive and can be a fun way to have your kids spends quality time together. The easy craft decoration ideas mentioned are just a few ideas however there are numerous craft ideas for children found in kids craft magazines, libraries, school and craft projects for kids online. You may also find that your children have lots of suggestions for crafts they would like to try and some you never even thought about. Some of their ideas may require your help and dads assistance for making their craft plan a reality. As an example your children may wish to create a wood snowman cutout for the front entrance or something along those lines. Allowing your kids to become apart of decorating for Christmas will reward you with family unity.

Berri Rannells is an Interior Decorator who enjoys offering home decorating ideas, advice and solutions. Rannells also maintains a home and garden decor website which provides lots of ideas to visitors. For ready made Christmas Decorations please visit: www.decorativevisions.com.

Kids' Crafts - Ideas For Using Natural Materials

As a parent and interior decorator, crafting or "making art" using natural elements with my child is one of my favorite activities. Not only is it a teaching moment about nature and working with the environment, but we get to get our hands dirty together! What could possibly be a better family moment and photo op!

One of my favorite projects is actually a now, and in the future, idea. Whenever we see a pretty leaf, flower (pansies and violas work the best), interesting twig or other found object, we press them and dry them for future use. Pressing the items requires only some wax paper and very heavy books- items that are always on hand. You take the flower and sandwich it between two sheets of wax paper and then place it in a book. Pile more books on top and in a few days, you will have a perfectly pressed flower for future use. These flowers can be laminated and made into jewelry, glued onto note cards, even used as cupcake decorations- all of this is great for a rainy day project. The treasure hunt is as much fun as the actual projects that are made!

Stepping-stones are another project that comes to mind. I would actually start with a kit for this project, and then embellish it with found projects. Gather your child's treasures- seashells, twigs, leaves, and stones and have them make a pretty design or pattern out of them. Before actually starting the stepping stone- use a template and lay out the design first. This saves time, and your concrete is not drying out, when many crucial design decisions are being made. Place the finished stone in your garden or walkway.

I also encourage" would be artists", myself included, to set up an easel in the backyard on a sunny day. Nothing inspires a great painting more than nature itself- a butterfly fluttering amidst a flower, the perfect bloom, lush landscapes, and the sun itself. Of course, you are outside, so try different painting techniques and mediums like finger painting, splattering, even mixing your own style with a leaf or branch. Let Rembrandt out and have fun with the art.

Nature inspires in so many ways, and through a child's eye, it is positively glorious. Share the joy of crafting and love of "green things" with your child today. Rain or shine, there are endless opportunities awaiting- just look out your window!

Tracey Schabel is the editor of http://www.GirlzDealz.com and [http://www.GirlzNetwork.com] - websites "for women by women", where you can find ideas, tips, and deals about home and lifestyle trends. Be sure to check out our websites for the latest in interior decorating, green living, lifestyle trends, handpicked shopping deals, entertaining, book reviews, and much more.

Saturday Spotlight: Talking Turkey

Marie LeBaron is the founder and managing editor of Make and Takes. Always having a love of crafts, she enjoys getting messy with glue and glitter. There’s always some sort of project going on, her kitchen counter is often cluttered with crafts. When she’s not crafting and creating with her kids, she loves to run, read, and blog! Read other posts by Marie

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Children Craft-Hand and foot Print Turkey

Here is another one of my childhood. These cute Turkey uses print your children of hands and feet. It can be used as decoration and then stored from year to year as a keepsake. Best of all, no two are exactly alike, so will all of your children can create their own unique Thanksgiving Turkey.

-First, take a sheet of Brown construction paper and trace your child's feet. You can do this with, or with shoes, but you will have a more rounded Turkey if you let the shoes on.
-Cut from the feet. Glue the heals, one at the top of the other, causing the toes to be spread slightly apart. This will be your Turkey a fuller body.
-Traces of your child hands. Cut different in a variety of colors of autumn.
-Glue the hands at the back of the feet, this will become your Turkey's tail.
-Now cut out and glue a beak, lel, eyes and feet on your Turkey.

Additional options:

-When used, the downside, trace, and cut the one you have not written on, as the front of your Turkey.
-The eyes can be drawn, created with the construction paper, or wiggly eyes can be used for fun.
-If your Turkey is flat (no wiggley eyes), you can the whole thing to an 11 x 17 sheet of paper and glue the laminate to a place mat. Or you can simply the Turkey to save laminate from year to year.

Enjoy this vessel, and have a Happy Thanksgiving

If you've enjoyed http://kidsactivityalley.blogspot.com of this craft, visit for more Thanksgiving craft ideas for kids. Also provides sources of additional craft ideas. Do you have a safe and happy holiday!

Kids Recycling Craft Project With Tin Buckets

Every holiday season we get a lot of yummy goodies tucked inside beautifully ornate tin buckets. After we quickly devoured the contents, we are left with the empty containers. While they do make good keepsake container for all kinds of small items in the house such as coupons, receipts, mail, cleaning supplies and such, there are times I wish I could do more with them. Here's an easy kids craft project involving recycled Christmas tin buckets.

Recycled Luminary Kids Craft Project

Kids Recycling Craft Project Material:

Empty tin cans
Your design (simple design works best here - think of stars, hearts, flowers, trees and such)
A large nail
A hammer
Tape
A votive candle

Instructions for Recycled Tin Buckets Luminary Project:

1. Fill the empty buckets with some water and freeze the water first. This will make it easier to hammer the design into the buckets.

2. Tape your design around the can.

3. Take the large nail and hammer it until it punches a hole through the bucket. Continue to drill holes around the border of your design. You need enough holes so you can see what the pattern is, but try not to punch the holes too closely together.

4. After you have punched holes all around the design, remove the paper & tape from the bucket.

5. Wait for the ice to melt. Run water over it to speed up the process. Dry the tin bucket with a towel. Place a votive candle in the bottom of the tin bucket.

6. Sit back and admire your work.

Edda Shea is the founder of Kid Craft Project: a website for people who enjoy crafting with their kids. It is an online directory that sources the best ideas for kid craft projects. Edda is a lifelong crafts enthusiast and enjoys everything handmade.

Make Learning Shapes Fun With Kid's Crafts

Teachers are making learning shapes fun with kids crafts. You too can make learning shapes fun with kids crafts for children ranging from toddlers to preschool and learning to recognize these form patterns at an early age will help in their development. For toddlers this learning process can be challenging and using crafts will help them learn while they are having fun.

Circles, Squares, Triangles Oh My!

These basic shapes are the first that most children learn and grasp. They can be understood both physically and theoretically. You can use paper crafts to help a toddler learn the semantic associations. You can easily cut out squares, circles etc and create dioramas or scenes and have the shapes interact. For a more physical understanding using clay or created objects will allow your kids to getting more three dimensional understanding of the shapes.

Craft Projects Allow Interaction

Encourage your toddlers to interact with you and the shapes as you play. Entice them to name the shapes they are playing with and encourage the kids to create things with the shapes. Houses can be made with simple paper shapes using the triangle, square etc. Try to create a level of interaction that includes language, understanding, shape and creativity.

Kids Crafting Is About Creativity

Don't restrict your creativity to just crafts you can buy in the store. Instead, be sure to raid your garage for any abandoned objects that can be representative of the shapes you are working with. Dust off your forgotten items and look for shapes and toys that can spark creativity. Drums make for great circles, books for rectangles. Candy and food can be used as well, and can also serve as a kids reward for positive feedback.

The possibilities are endless when you want to make learning shapes fun with kids crafts. Keep an open eye and an open mind and the endless fields of the imagination will reveal their full bounty to you and your toddler.

Check out our free project ideas for unlocking your child's creativity with Kids Crafts. Make learning fun and check out the whole range of crafting supplies, projects, kits and quality beading supplies today!

Kid craft is a Hit at the birthday party

My grandson had a birthday party and his mother called me and asked me for a little help. Of course I have never been able to tell her no, so that when they arrived at the House she explained that she needed some three-quarters inch plastic pipe cut.

They gave me a sheet of paper with directions to seven-inch and three-inch chunks. When I asked them if I would cut the pieces to check the activity that they had planned for Bens (oldest grandson) party. To my surprise she had the instructions for a rifle made of the plastic pipe.

Her idea was to the parts in separate bags and then each of the children at the party assemble their guns. After assembling them would they supply with marshmallows for ammunition and send them to the backyard to play their war games. So my daughter and son in the law to save under the supervision of the controlled chaos and have a somewhat sane conclusion. When the party was over the children would be allowed to them and to keep their rifles at home.

The reality is that most parties must have some special time to make them a success in the eyes of your child. By having the marshmallow guns the party had a very memorable moment and the children take home something.

Birthday parties are very important for our children; They help them develop social skills that will affect their lives for the next few years. As the children continue to grow is the importance of being able to socialize with others is integral in their personal development. Since sites like YouTube, Facebook, as well as many others have social tie together our society is the ability to work with and get a long with others tied to their personal success.

Ron is retired and in re-purposing of furniture. For more craft ideas for kids [http://eazykidcrafts.com/wordpress]

Kids Craft Project - Easy Beaded Felt Holiday Tree Ornaments

When my nieces and nephews come to my home to spend an afternoon, they always look forward to crafting with me. I try to pick out easy projects for all of us to do together. We were able to create several of these felt tree ornaments in just a few hours.

What is really great about this particular project is that children ages 7 and up can make them with some adult supervision. All of the supplies that you will need are readily available at your local craft or fabric store. If you are a proficient crafter like myself, you might have all of the supplies already on hand.

Once you complete these beaded ornaments, you can use them to hang on your holiday tree, off a garland, on a wreath or as package toppers. This is also a great project for the kids to do and they can give them out to family members and to their teachers.

Supplies You Will Need:

Green Craft Felt

Various Round Plastic Beads (various colors and size but no larger than 4 mm)

All-Purpose Liquid Craft Glue

Sewing Needle and Dark Green Sewing Thread

Wooden Dowel Sticks (1/8" diameter by 3" long)

Sharp Scissors

Disappearing Ink Marker (for tracing pattern)

Pattern: Simple triangle shape measuring 3 3/4" tall by 2 3/4" wide cut from paper and used as your template.

Step 1: Trace your triangles onto green colored felt and cut out. You will need two green triangles for each ornament that you make.

Step 2: Center your wooden dowel onto one piece of felt, leaving 1 1/2" of the dowel sticking out beyond the felt to resemble a tree trunk. Use a little glue to glue it into place and set aside to dry.

Step 3: Using dark green thread, hand sew various color and sized beads onto the front of one of your triangles.

Step 4: Sandwich the two triangles together (the one with the beads and the one with the wooden dowel). Using a sewing needle and dark green thread, whip stitch around the entire tree's edges, being careful to not pull the stitches too tightly.

Step 5: Use a piece of thread and attach it to the top of the tree for a hanging loop. (I like to double my thread so its a little more sturdier).

Your little beaded felt tree ornaments are now ready to be hung onto your holiday tree.

Shelly Hill is a mother and grandmother living in Pennsylvania who enjoys crafting, sewing, crocheting and scrapbooking. You can visit Shelly's online craft blog called Passionate About Crafting at http://passionateaboutcrafting.blogspot.com for free craft project ideas and tips. You can find a photo of the completed project on her blog at http://passionateaboutcrafting.blogspot.com/2009/11/easy-beaded-felt-holiday-tree-ornaments.html

How to Guild a Pumpkin for a Festive Fall Centerpiece

Recently I found some inexpensive fake pumpkins for my fall centerpiece, but some of them looked as cheap as the price. I decided to try dressing one up with guilding liquid–this is cool stuff! It’s easy to use, too. Here’s how to do it. . .

Supplies for Guilding Pumpkins:

Guilding liquid (I used Martha Stewart’s Liquid Guilding in Copper)Plastic, wood, papier-mâché, tin, glass, ceramic, paper, terra cotta, canvas, or plaster object to be guilded (porous surfaces such as terra cotta and plaster should be sealed first)Soft bristled paint brushGloss enamel finish spray (Martha Stewart Crafts also makes this)Nail polish remover or paint thinner (for clean up)

1. Working in a well-ventilated area (this is stinky stuff!), lightly brush a layer of guilding liquid over object. Try brushing in one direction for best effect. Allow to dry 1 hour between coats (I only did one coat on my pumpkin!).

2. Once object is dry, spray with a light coat of gloss enamel spray to protect the finish and prevent tarnishing.Follow up with another coat for best results. Allow to dry thoroughly.

3. Clean up brush and skin with nail polish remover or paint thinner. CAUTION: guilding liquid is flammable, so do not use near an open flame! That means no guilding candles!

I placed my pumpkin on top of a candlestick. I love how rich and shiny it looks as a part of my fall table setting!

Tagged as: centerpiece, fall, holiday table, pumpkins, thanksgiving

Little Birdie Secrets are a regular contributor to M&T and was born from the crafting obsession of friends living in the Pacific Northwest. From quilting to card making to baking, they love sharing tips, tricks, and tutorials to make crafting fun and easy. Visit them at http://www.littlebirdiesecrets.com/. Read other posts by Little Birdies

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Easy Crafts For Kids That Do Not Cost a Fortune

With easy crafts for kids you want to keep your toddlers busy but not have it cost a fortune. Well with these easy crafts your kids can do them for hardly anything or even completely free. So take a look below at some of these simple to do kids crafts.

Rock painting for kids

A real simple old fashioned craft for kids to enjoy. Why not on your next walk in the country or even just around the neighborhood. Keep a look out for some medium size stones or pebbles. Collect these up and take them home. Then outside lay the rocks out and get a bucket of water and a small brush. Then get your kids to clean them up and lay them out to dry.

Then later your toddlers can use kids acrylic paints to paint some designs on them. They could simply put spots on them or even suggest they do one with stripes and a few spots. This craft activity with the walk and the cleaning. Then the painting could occupy them for a good part of the day.

Make a collage picture

Now this a really simple one for a child of any age. Save a breakfast cereal packet. Then cut out one side of the box and use it gray side up for the base of the collage. Next collect together all sorts of odd and ends. Old magazines that can have pictures cut out. Bits of ribbons, old buttons. Bits of cotton wool odd bits of fabric, basically anything that is not too heavy.

Then place all your items onto the table around your collage base. Then give you toddler glue stick(the kind that winds up like a lipstick). Then tell them to do some cutting and sticking (let them use child friendly scissors). You may need to help them cut things like the fabric. There you have it a really great way for your little one to be really creative. also to work on their motor skills using the glue stick and scissors.

Paper plate faces

Most of us with kids have paper plates at home from parties of one kind or another. So give a plate to your toddler and ask them to make it in to a face of someone they know. We have used pipe cleaners and different size buttons and some old ribbon amongst other things to make the eyes, nose, mouth and ears. You can also use knitting wool to create the hair. Anything can be used as long as it will stick. So why not give this a try and see how much your little one enjoys making a paper face.

Important Point

With all toddler crafts you must supervise at all times. One to stop them sticking glue everywhere. Far more importantly to stop them putting small items into their mouths and swallowing. This could very easily lead to your child choking. So only get involved with craft activities with very young children when you have the time to watch over them. They will also want you to share this kind of activity with anyway.

Find lots more kids craft ideas here at Easy crafts for kids

Author Lee Stevens from toddler-activities-and-tips.com