Kid’s Crafts – Page 2

How to Recycle your Christmas Cards

Simple Craft Idea for Recycling Christmas Cards

I couldn’t take it anymore and have de-Christmassed my house today! I know it’s a bit early, with the 12 days of Christmas and all that! Hubby went up for a nap and when he came down he declared ‘that Christmas must be over’ as everything was down and ready to be boxed up and put in the loft. We live in a small house and the boxes everywhere were doing my head in. I can’t stand chaos.

Space is a premium

This afternoon Madame and I spent the afternoon sitting on the sofa watching the Sound of Music, as you do on New Year’s Day, cutting Christmas Gift Tags out of the cards using pinking shears for next year. She didn’t quite understand why we were doing it now and not next year. I had to explain that I didn’t want to save the cards for a year.

Necessary Evil

Last year we made mosaic placemats with our old Christmas cards using our laminator. I’d come across Helen from Actually Mummy’s idea for Thank You Cards using Recycled Christmas Cards but she wasn’t quite ready. This year was the perfect timing as she had the dexterity to do it. It’s simple really. All you need is cards, doubles sided sticky pads, pinking shears and a silver pen. Surprisingly I had everything in the house to do it.

I think they’re fabulous we now just need to get her to write them and get them posted sometime before Easter.

There are also a lot of schools, charities and organisations that will re-purpose your old cards. Click here to find local Christmas Card Recycling places.

Easy Christmas Decorations to make with kids

Fimo Candy Cane Christmas Decorations

Don’t laugh but I’ve been doing a bit of ‘pseudo’ Christmas crafting so I thought I’d share. Growing up in Canada we always added edible Candy Canes to our Christmas trees when decorating. I know you can get them here in the UK, but on occasion I’ve got caught out leaving it too late or when I retrieved them from the loft they were broken.

Plus, I was also looking for something to entertain my daughter on a Sunday afternoon.

They really are as easy as they look

Directions:

Use 2 or 3 different colours (red, white or green) of Fimo. Soften the Fimo in your hands then roll out a long snake of each colour. Try to keep them the same diamter. Then simple twist them together. Once you have twisted them into one multi-coloured snake, roll them gently on a flat surface like a table or cutting board to smooth them out a bit. You could trim the ends if you like.

Bend them into a candy cane shape, place on a baking tray and cook in a pre-heated oven (120 C) for 30 minutes. Let cool.

If I get time I hope to varnish them.

What do you reckon???

Fimo Craft Ideas for Younger Children

‘Sh*t! Are you supposed to bake Fimo????’ ‘Er, yes petal!’

How the h*ll was I supposed to know, I’ve never used the stuff before and crafting is not my strong point. I was sent a box of it to play with from Cost Cutters Education Supplies. So, as a good mother and my daughter is studying minibeasts at school, I set her and my husband to making one of these.

I thought it was rather impressive.

But, over the coming weeks a large grease spot has developed around the Dragonfly. This is when it donned on me that you are supposed to bake it. Well it’s modelling clay I really should have thought of it.

Anyhow, now that I’ve worked out what it’s for, I’ve spent the evening searching the net for ideas of what to do with the plethora I have left over.

Click on the images to visit the sites for more information/instructions.

Do you have any other suggestions of what we can do with it? Bearing in mind my daughter is only 5.

Activities for Kids Over Easter 2013, near St Albans, Herts

Just having my pre school holiday panic! We don’t have any built in playmates for our 5 year old except the cats and us and we can only take so much so I do try and arrange a few things for her over half-term. As an only child we really like her to socialize with other kids and to be active.

On my travels around the net I found the following activities and thought you may find them useful. We haven’t signed her up to all of them we do like to set aside a couple of days to chill.

Westminster Lodge is running Activity Camps over the holidays. It’s a bargain at £20 a day!

Ashridge Easter Egg trail – We are huge fans of Ashridge Forest and have been on the Easter Egg Trail before. We have plans to go on the Sunday possibly followed by lunch at The Red Lion in Lower Dagnall.

Butterfly World Looks like they have lots on. I like the sound of Easter Art on Easter Sunday

Stockwood Discovery Centre (Luton) another one of our favourites, also looks like they have a lot on during the holidays. It’s free to get in but then you just pay a couple of quid for craft activities. If it’s a nice day bring a picnic and a blanket, alternatively there is a cafe.

Down in the Woods – I’m absolutely gutted that I’ve already booked our daughter into something on the 2nd of April as I love the sound of their play scheme. Children spend either a full day or half a day the in the woods playing woodland games, camp building, natural crafts and cooking on an open fire. (scroll down the page for the description)

Fine Art 4 Kids – Are running a series of 2 hour workshops for kids. They learn about an artist then make their own work of art. I’m still undecided as I’m not sure if it’s too old for our daughter.

I’d really like to find something that involves dance or drama. If you of anything please do leave a comment below!

Thank you cards using left over Wrapping Paper!

What on earth can you do with all the left over wrapping paper? It takes you ages to wrap them and about 5 seconds for the kids to tear them apart. If I’m honest we do burn a lot of it but I do hold a small selection back for crafting.

I’ve done this in the past for Birthdays but decided to do it again for Christmas as it’s incredibly easy. I’m a bit of a stickler for Thank you cards as I feel it’s very important but do find them taxing at times.

You will need

Selection of wrapping paper
PVA glue
Water
A4 paper
Prit Stick
Scissors
Wiggly Scissors (Pinking or Scalloped)
A4 Card – any colour will do.

How to:

Tear the wrapping paper into pieces
Mix a bit of PVA glue and water
Cover the A4 paper, the more random the better using the PVA Glue
Leave to dry
Cut out a random selection of shapes. We chose hearts as it as for Thank you cards, but you could be a bit more creative and cut out a big T and Y for Thank you.
Cut the A4 card in half and then fold to make A5 cards.
Use the Prit Stick to Glue the shapes on the front of the cards
You can use the wiggly scissors to cut the edges of the card.

Voila you’re done!

If you decide to have a go I’d love to see the results! I’d also love more ideas for using up some of this paper.

I hope you’ve had a fabulous Christmas!