The Craft Club: Child Initiated Papercraft

I know I should cease being amazed at the things the kids draw, make and create completely on their own, but I am still always amazed, I just can't help it.

I have no idea what the impetus was for these at all, but B spent an entire afternoon working on these two creations.

His Ferris Wheel, utilises skewers for the frame and it really does turn. He has even included a ticket booth.

The whole structure is only about 7 cms high so it would have certainly been fiddly to put together. He has planned the colour scheme and each seating area is identical.

Again, in the same afternoon, this waterfall complete with flowing water, fish and lilypads. He thought, after the fact, that he should've/could've made it slightly larger so he could fit a hippo bobbing up out of the water. I think it looks great regardless.

There's that huge part of me that wonders why he often can't/won't produce things when requested as part of our studies and I find that frustrating, and then he goes on to produce things like this, completely of his own accord. These are the times that always ground me and remind me that all is good, all is well. We are on the right path and he is excelling with his life, how he wants it to be.

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The Craft Club: Candle Making Part 2

Remember our candle making experience from a few weeks back? Well we had Crazy Candles come out again, since the kids just loved their candles so much. The older kids tried something different this time, something a little more challenging.

Balloon dipped candles. Basically the process is the same as before except this time they used a balloon with cold water in it. The tricky part of this design was keeping their levels even. With each colour they had to make sure as best they could to get the wax to the same level each time.

Then with a new colour choice, they needed to lower the level by roughly 1cm and so on.

B chose to have little shapes cut out of his, which would look nice when/if he places a tea light candle inside. K left hers as is and I obviously didn't get a photo because I can't find one.

Although the process was technically the same the experience and end products were quite different.

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The Craft Club: Paper Towel Tie Dye

I think the best thing about this oh so simple little activity is that everyone can join in. If you can hold a felt pen and make some colour appear on a page then you can do this.

Now granted it isn't really tie dye at all, but it does give a similar effect.

All you need is paper towel, felt pens and a spray bottle filled with water.

Draw your design on the paper towel. We used a few layers in prepartion for the towel getting very wet.

When you are happy with your design, grab the water bottle and spray away.

And watch the magic happen. The colours spreading, joining, forming new colours.

Wait for them to dry and admire your handiwork.

We also did a few with simple colour blotches that are destined to be used for something else.

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The Craft Club: Pipe Cleaner Fairy

We've been making Pipe Cleaner Fairy's. They are so easy and so very cute.

Here's how:

Cut two pipe cleaners, 16cm long and 8cm long. These will become the body, the arms and the legs. Also cut 8 lengths of wool, 16cm long.

You just want to make sure that you hide those little sharp ends on the pipe cleaners. So whilst it is difficult to see in this image, just fold each end over a little so they aren't so sharp.

Next, bend the longest pipe cleaner in half.

Put the wool in the 'bend' of the pipe cleaner.

And feed on a wooden bead.

Grab the small pipe cleaner and wrap around the body, just below the bead.

To form the arms.

Measure a piece of ribbon approximately 3cm in length and use double sided tape to wrap around and adhere to the body of the fairy, just below the arms.

Push a flower up over the legs, this will become her skirt. (pick up a cheap lei, the flowers should be perfect for this).

You may like to dress up her hair a little. If you wish you can pull apart the strands of wool to give her a 'wavy hair' look. Then grab another piece of wool (in the same colour) turn her over and tie off the wool slightly above the head (about 1 - 1.5cm away from the bead.

This will allow the hair to sit nicely around the head (bead).

Cut from a simple butterfly design from a pice of card or stiff fabric for the wings. Use glue or double sided tape to adhere the wings to her back.

Use a marker or pencil to draw on her face and she is all done! 

Isn't she the cutest!

The Craft Club: Fathers Day Handprint Keepsake

Happy Fathers Day

I am embarassed to admit that in the 8 years of having children I have not done any type of keepsake handprint craft with them.

But not any more. We whipped up these little numbers just in time for Fathers Day. Four in fact, dad, grandad's and great grandad. Many thanks to this blog for the inspiration.

They were very easy to put together. Originally I had thought I would put out various plates of coloured paint and let the children choose, dump their hands in and print. Thankfully I saw sense before we headed down that road. Three, children, plates of paint, hands coverd in paint, a moderately windy day and supposedly waiting their turn!!!

So one by one I had them choose their colour of preference, I painted their hands and then they stamped. They washed their hands ready for the next go. Remember we made four of these so we had a nice little production line happening. All flowed rather smoothly, until C decided on his very last turn that he wanted to do the painting. This I had anticipated, but granted that it was right on his bed time I knew that I could have had a potential disaster on my hands. Thankfully somehow, I managed to explain to him that he couldn't possibly paint both of his hands with the paint brush and thankfully somehow I got through to him. phew!

I love these, they are so simple but will bring many memories for years to come.

Happy Fathers Day.

The Craft Club: Candle Making

Aren't these the cutest? The kids had an absolute blast making these candles today! I'll try to explain the process they used, it is fairly straight forward and probably something you could do at home, although it would be quite an effort to set it all up.

There were several large pots of hot melted wax in various colours. The children were each given a wick (piece of string). They had to choose a starting colour and dip there wick into the colour, remove, wait for it to stop dripping, dunk it into a tub of water (that was sitting next to each pot of wax) and repeat, for approximately 15 times.

Then it was time to move onto a different colour to repeat the process over and over again. A little time consuming and a bit of a work out for the arm. They continued in this fashion until the the wax was roughly 4cm in diameter and they had built a few different coloured layers on their candles. Surprisingly it didn't take all that long, an entire candle was finished in roughly 45 minutes, and in even less time for the older kids.

Next was choosing a design for their candle to be carved into. I would have loved it if the kids had been shown how to carve, but he was using a very sharp implement and it would need to be done in very small groups.

Once everyone had made their candles and walked away with huge smiles on their faces we (some of the straggler mummies) were shown  another design. You begin with a stick candle (but much thinner than what the children did and adhere it to a wax base, so it will stand on its own.

Imerge the candle in water, grab a cup of hot melted wax and pour (whilst swirling) the wax onto the candle. Most of the wax will spread out over the top of the water, you kind of need to drop the stick candle deeper and pull the wax into shape, wrapping it around the candle. (does that make sense)

Add a few more colours by working the same way and you end up with something like this (picture above). Much more fragile though and definitely trickier to create.

Everyone had a blast with this, if you are in Australia, check out Crazy Candles to see if there is one near you.