When I was about nine years old, a friend of a friend of a friend was getting rid of the most ginormous dollhouse. When my older sister and I saw a picture of this dollhouse, we freaked. It was huge and it was FREE…we just had to figure out a way to get it home. So my folks, being the YES parents that they were, rented a trailer to tow this thing home (it was THAT big).
Once we got the empty house into our house, we had work to do. There were floors to clean, peeling wallpaper to repair, chipped paint on the roof begging for a patch-up, and we were there for all of it! Once the reno was done, it was time to fill the empty rooms with furniture. The problem was, this dollhouse was so oversized that regular furniture looked like a scene from a movie. So we set forth to make beds, rugs, tables, chairs and all the things! We even spent hours using polymer clay to make the right sized foods.
When I was coming up with ideas for a new P-touch Embellish ELITE craft, I was so excited that they were game for me to make a miniature bed (and my daughter was pretty thrilled too). You can use their printable ribbon to make a custom quilt, and if you want to take it one step further, you can add decorative tape flourishes to the headboard. I started with a medium-size yellow gift box, but you can use any that you have on hand.
1 Glue four straws to the corners of the box large half of the box, making sure that the open part is facing up. You want the “legs” to be about 1-inch tall. Trim the tops of the straws—make the headboard posts about 1” tall, and the footboard posts about ½” tall.
2 Glue beads to the tops of the straws.
3 Cut off the ends of the box lid and glue them across the taller posts to make the headboard.
4 To make your mattress, fill a plastic bag with cotton balls. Make sure the bag fits in the box; fold the opening over and tape closed.
5 Wrap the plastic bag in fabric and glue it closed. Tuck the mattress inside the box.
MAKE THE QUILT:
1 Cut a piece of felt that drapes over the end of your bed.
2 Use your P-touch Embellish ELITE and print ~1”-wide ribbon to fit around the felt as the border. Print thinner ribbon on your P-touch Embellish ELITE to make a patchwork-like pattern.
3 Use a hot-glue gun or fabric tape to attach the ribbons to the felt.
4 Make a pillow by rolling two or three cotton balls in felt and glue the back and the side seams.
We are a gaming family through and through…we love it all from board games to video games to card games to the classics like chess, checkers and tic-tac-toe. We love solo play and some healthy competition, so we definitely have a game closet that’s filled to the brim.
Tic-tac-toe is a classic that you can play with your little, little kids, and it’s even fun to watch the older kids play it with the younger. We teamed up with P-touch Embellish ELITE to craft a simple, portable version of this classic game. What’s the best part of crafting your own rendition of tic-tac-toe? You don’t need to marry yourself to the classic Xs and Os…explore the hundreds of symbols that the P-touch Embellish ELITE offers. It’s so fun to let the kids choose their own symbol pairings!
Here are some fun pairing ideas:
Mouse and Cheese
Sun and Moon
Soccer ball and Sneaker
Music note and Guitar
Shirt and Pants
Airplane and train
Strawberry and Apple
We made our game board on a fabric bag so we could take it on the go, but you can apply the 1-inch wide tape or ribbon to any surface you have.
1. Print out Xs and Os on the 1-inch wide P-touch Embellish tape. Print your font as large as possible; this font was printed at 48pt. You’ll need twenty-four Os and thirty Xs (X always goes first in the game!). Trim off the necessary excess to make them fit on the 1-inch block, and adhere the printed tape to the blocks on all six sides. (Remember…if you don’t want to do the classic X and O game pieces, you can choose from the hundreds of symbols that the P-touch Embellish ELITE offers!)
2. Print out four 8-inch pieces of ribbon using the pattern of your choice.
3. Adhere a dash of fabric tape to the ends of each and fold them over to prevent fraying.
4. Adhere a long strip of fabric tape up the entire length of each ribbon, and then adhere them to the bag in the typical “#” shape. Put your playing cubes in the bag for a cute, mobile tic-tac-toe game!
This is a hard and fast rule in my house: Never, ever, EVER throw away toilet paper tubes! Or paper towel tubes for that matter. Basically all cardboard has a second life around here. Toilet paper tubes provide such a wide variety of bases for crafting, and I really believe you can never have too many! And actually, if you ever run out, don’t fret! You can actually buy naked tubes now and they are super sturdy and perfectly shaped with no straggling toilet paper residue!
Here are ten of my favorite toilet paper tube crafts but some of my favorite crafters out there!
1 LLAMAS
I love the simplicity of these toilet paper tube llamas by Mer Mag.
2 ICE CREAM CONES
There’s no one better than my friend Jodi Levine of Super Make It when it comes to toilet paper tube crafts!
3 TUBE KNITTING
Another one from Super Make It…this one uses the tube to help you knit these amazing finger puppets!
4 ABSTRACT PUZZLE SCULPTURE
Paint tubes in various colors, cut slits in the sides, and use them as building blocks like Picklebums did.
5 WINDMILL
One Little Project did some simple engineering to make this cute windmill spin!
At Project Kid, our mission is to open kids’ eyes to different ways of crafting. We want kids to think outside the aisles of a craft store and really explore to find their materials to help them build and design something that they can play with, wear, use or even just display (I mean, it’s art, right?).
But today I want to talk a little bit about process art which has a different focus. I love Meri Cherry’s definition:
Art that’s all about the making and the doing, rather than the finished product. Process art doesn’t mean there isn’t an amazing product at the end. There very well could be. It just means that’s not really the point. We’re trying to get kids and their adults to find value in making and doing, where they are making decisions, taking risks, thinking outside the box, taking their time, working with challenges, cultivating connection, and building empathy. Those things are the point.
I have always struggled with sharing projects that have such nit-picky instructions because I worry about kids’ fear of failure. When I wrote the draft of my first book, I kept all of the instructions very loose and open, hoping that parents would be encouraged to let their kids make decisions. But as editors do, they were afraid that parents would get frustrated with the lack of specificity, so I added the details back in. As much as possible, I always say—make it your own! Make choices! My way is not THE way, it’s just how I was feeling that day!
Here are a few of my favorite process art masters and some prompts and projects that you can pepper into the crafting that you do with your kids.
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1 SELF PORTRAITS
This is the perfect activity…all you need is a Sharpie, watercolor paints, paper and you! Once the permanent marker outline is down, you can paint over with the watercolor and let the colors flow! Image via Meri Cherry. I love the idea of doing these at least once a year to see how kids’ self-image changes.
2 WACKY WOOD SCULPTURES
Another gem from Meri Cherry are these delightful, open-ended sculptures. I’d suggest using Aleene’s® Tacky Glue to really hold it all together. But with oil pastels, paint, and gluing on little doodads, each one comes out totally original. And there’s no pressure to attain a certain skill level…this project (like most process art), really meets there kids where they are.
3 DRAWING STICKS
This idea from Art Bar Blog is genius. Tape markers or paint bushes to a stick from outside (or dowels if you have them), and tape paper to the floor. Challenge the kids to make some art by holding the sticks with their toes!
You can let them just run wild or give them prompts that will result in some hilarity…like “draw a self-portrait” or “draw what you want to eat for dinner” or “draw your favorite vacation spot.” They will most like giggle though it but you’ll all be amazed at the results!
4 ENVELOPE CITY
I adore this project from Art Bar…it reminds me of an envelope house project that appeared in my first book! When a child can see that the shape of a traditional object references something else, that’s when my heart sings…like how an unfolded envelope looks like a house.
Color some of the wide wood craft sticks to look like people and set up a little play village! Markers, crayons, or oil pastels work just fine on these!
I think this abstract painting is frame-worthy, and you can also cut it up to make postcards, gift tags, or shapes to make a pretty garland.
6 CONTACT PAPER COLLAGE
The only thing you may not have already in your home for this one is clear contact paper—get it! There are so may creative ways to make the contact paper collages from Art Bar…I want to get started immediately! Magazine clippings, cupcake liners, string, newspaper, or paper scraps of any kind!
Just let kids put their materials down on the contact paper (sticky side up of course) like it’s a big piece of scotch tape. It’s probably a good idea to use some paper masking tape to hold the contact paper down to the table so they don’t get frustrated with it curling up on itself. The end results are so varied and fabulous!
7 PAINTING RECONSTRUCTIONS
I love how Katie Vernon cut up old paintings to make new assemblages. If your child makes something that she really rejects, encourage her to look at it another way. Maybe it was meant to be a different shape? Maybe it was meant to have eyes painted on it to turn it into a monster? It’s so hard talk them off the ledge when they insist on bad-mouthing something that they made, but there are so many ways to reconfigure what we create into something new. (Also, how beautiful is Katie Vernon’s work?)
8 STICKER PROCESS ART
There is no denying that stickers are fun. I love this idea from Tinkerlab of drawing a frame and using office stickers, available online or any office store, to create an abstract composition. Consider adding some drawing lines to connect shapes and give the piece some different line weights.
Definitely explore the websites of these creative women for endless ideas! The beauty of process art is that I think you as parents or caregivers will be inspired to start playing around with materials in experimental ways!
If your Amazon shipment of craft supplies (click here for my list of essentials) hasn’t arrived yet, you’d be surprised that you have some fun materials in your closet that can work as a great starting point. And when we say closet, yes, we mean your clothing closet! Raise your hand if you have a lone sock, missing its mate. Or a single glove? Or a t-shirt that has a pesky stain? Or jeans that are too grungy to donate?
Here are four crafts that you can make using defective clothing items that you have laying around the house.
MONSTER GLOVE PUPPETS
At least twice a year my kids come home, complaining that they lost a glove. I always keep the lone ranger in the hopes that the other one will reappear, but alas, I end up with a bag of single gloves. Raid your craft bin and use anything you can find to add personality to your glove monster puppet—the wackier the better! We recommend using Aleene’s® Tacky Glue to keep everything nice and secure. Click here to find the instructions for the blue puppet!
PENGUIN BOOKEND
Do you have any itty bitty baby socks left over from the early days? If not, you can always just cut off the toe of a cute sock to make the head of this penguin book end. Upcycle a plastic bottle as the base, and fill it with sand or pebbles to keep it weighted. You can find the instructions for this craft here.
DENIM HOBBYHORSE
This project has a bit more heavy lifting for the parents, but it makes such a cute result and you’ll feel so proud of the work you’ve done. If you don’t have cotton batting at home, you can always empty out an old pillow (that you didn’t know what to do with!) and use that. You can find the instructions for this here.
T-SHIRT JEWELRY
I always end up with a pile of t-shirts that have holes or stubborn stains that aren’t suitable even for donation. But the colors and patterns are so great, so cut them up to make jewelry! Here’s how to do it…
To make a beaded necklace, cut T-shirts into strips as thin as possible, 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 inch wide. The strips should be at least 2 inches long.
Glue the ends of each strand together, then slip on a bead to cover each joint. Use a toothpick to help thread the fabric strips through the bead holes. Add a dab of glue at each point so the bead stays in place. Repeat to reach the desired length, and then knot.
To make a tassel necklace, cut a 1-inch wide- by-2-inch-tall piece of T-shirt and fringe it vertically. Roll it horizontally and glue the unfringed end into the hole of a bead. (Use the toothpick to help get the fabric into the bead.)
To finish the tassel necklace, glue the ends of two 10-inch-long T-shirt strips into the other hole of the bead. Knot in the back.
Giddy up and get crafting to make this adorable denim hobbyhorse from old jeans!
What you’ll need:
• Old kids’ jeans, about a size 4
• Scissors
• Seam ripper (optional)
• Rubber band
• Batting
• T wine
• Brown felt
• Hot-glue gun
• 2 small black buttons
• 2 large colored buttons
• Long stick
• Bandanna
Cut the jeans in half vertically, through the fly. Remove both back pockets (a seam ripper makes this a bit easier) and set aside.
Turn one leg inside out. Rubber band the ankle tightly, then turn the leg right-side out. Fully stuff the leg with batting.
To create the horse’s head, tie the center of a 4-foot-long piece of twine around the leg about 3 inches from the rubber-banded ankle, wrapping it two or three times. Knot the twine and then bend the stuffed pant leg and wrap the twine around the thicker part of the leg (the horse’s neck). Tie in a knot, leaving the remaining twine to hang off the back as reins.
Cut a 3-inch-wide piece of brown felt, about 24 inches long. Cut a 1-inch-deep fringe along each long edge (leaving about an inch intact in the center). Have an adult apply a line of hot glue in the center and fold the felt strip in half.
Have an adult hot-glue the edge of the fringed mane down the center of the horse’s head and neck, in between the two pieces of twine.
Have an adult hot-glue each small black button to a larger green button and hot-glue in place as eyes.
Fold the outside edges of each jean pocket to form an ear shape and have an adult hot-glue the ears on either side of the mane.
Insert a long stick into the bottom of the horse’s neck and wrap tightly with the bandanna, making sure to seal in all of the batting. Giddyup!
Using a mix of household, recycled, and traditional craft supplies, your kids will feel so proud of the work they’ve done when they see this colorful penguin holding up her books!
What you’ll need:
• One 17-ounce plastic drink bottle
• 2 to 3 cups of sand
• Funnel
• 1 baby sock
• 4 to 5 cotton balls
• White and yellow felt
• Scissors
• 2 tiny black pom-poms
• Tacky glue
• One 2.-inch piece of wire
• One 2 cm felt bead
• 1 Tyvek envelope
• Washi tape
• 2 colors of yarn
Clean out the bottle and remove all labels. Fill it with sand and replace the cap.
To make the penguin’s head, stuff the baby sock with cotton balls and slip it over the top of the bottle.
To make the eyes, cut two circles about the size of a plain M&M from white felt. Glue a tiny black pom-pom to each. Glue the circles onto the sock.
To make the beak, fold a piece of yellow felt and cut a 1⁄4-inch triangle on the crease. Glue the crease onto the sock about 1⁄2 inch below the eyes.
To make the earmuffs, bend the wire into a headband shape. Cut the felt bead in half and glue a piece to each end of the wire, rounded side facing out. Slip the earmuffs onto the penguin’s head and glue to secure.
Cut two wing shapes (pointed at one end, cut straight across on the other) from the Tyvek envelope, about two-thirds the height of your bottle and about 3 inches across at the widest point. Cover the wings with strips of washi tape and glue the top, straight edge of each wing around the neck of the bottle.
To give the penguin a scarf, braid three 20-inch strands of yarn (the finished scarf will be about 16 inches long). If the yarn is thin, you may want to double or triple it (as shown) to give it some thickness.
Finally, to make the feet, fold a 3-inch square of yellow felt in half and cut a 2-inch-tall half heart shape on the crease. Glue it to the bottom of the bottle, rounded points facing out.
Excerpt from Project Kid. Photo by Alexandra Grablewski.
Whether your kid is playing Kermit in the school play or you just have a big ole pile of green cupcake liners laying around, this frog-mask craft is so cute and fun to make. Here are the step-by-step directions that are as easy 1-2-ribbit.
Step 1: Make the Base
Make a base for the mask by drawing two slightly overlapping 3″-diameter circles onto green cardstock; cut out the shape without cutting through the intersecting lines.
Tip: Use a jelly jar or similar size jar to trace the circles. Fold two matching regular-size green baking cups in half. Attach the folded cups to the bottom half of each mask circle using glue dots.
Step 2: Form Face
Flatten a mini green baking cup, and fold it in half for the nose. Mark two black dots for nostrils on the center, unpleated portion of the baking cup. Cut a regular-size green baking cup in half, then fold one piece in half to make the mouth. To make a tongue, cut two 3/4 x 2″ strips from a red baking cup. Adhere the pieces together with right sides facing out. Round one end, and glue a black pom-pom to the end. Cut a small heart from white paper, and glue it to the pom-pom to make a fly. Adhere the nose, tongue, and mouth together with an adhesive squares as shown. Attach the pieces to the center of the mask using adhesive squares.
Step 3: Add Eyes
Fold four regular-size green baking cups in half. Attach the pieces to the mask as shown using adhesive squares. Add details using a black marker. Place a mini white baking cup inside a standard green baking cup. Cut a circle through the layers in the center. Then, use a marker to outline the hole with a thick black line. Join the pieces using adhesive squares to make an eye. Repeat to make a second eye.
Step 5: Finish Mask
Attach the eyes to the top of the mask using adhesive squares. Trim the mask base to prevent it from blocking the eyeholes. Attach a crafts stick to the back of the side of the mask base for a handle.
Just a week ago when I heard that schools had closed in Japan, I was flabbergasted and thought there is no way that can happen here in the United States. But now it appears that a quarantine of sorts is upon us and while chatting at the school bus stop this morning, my fellow parents were really panicking about what they were going to do with their kids for weeks on end, with all after-school activities closed and no kids’ entertainment venues open.
So today I put together this list of craft supplies — some you may already have in your craft cabinet and some might surprise you a bit. We’ve got the basics…a glue gun, paint, buttons…and some that are way more random like shaving cream and clothespins.
In this post, I’m highlighting three of the materials that might not be as obvious to you, in hopes that it inspires you to craft, and perhaps invent your own creative uses for these things.
Clothespins usually come in packs of a gazillion and seriously that’s okay! They are useful for so many things beyond hanging the sheets out to dry or closing up the pretzel bag. Here are some of my fave crafts to do with clothespins.
Color thebottom “feet” 1/2” of the clothespin black.
Make a pom-pom by wrapping yarn approximately thirty times around an object about 1 ½” inches wide. Cut the bundle from the skein, slip it off of the object, then cut and loosely tie a 6-inch piece of yarn around the bundle.
To get the clothespin in the middle of the pom-pom, wiggle it down through the middle top of the loops until it comes out the bottom. Tightly tie the center tie, and snip through all loops until a pom-pom is formed. Trim pompom to form a tutu shape.
Wrap yarn around the clothespin just above the pom-pom, leaving about ½” of the tip of the clothespin exposed. Add a dot of glue to secure end.
Fold felt in half and cut a 1”-long wide heart shape. Glue on the back of the wrapped yarn as wings.
Paint hair onto the wooden doll head and let dry. Draw eyes and mouth on, then glue bun bead to the back top of head. Push head onto the closed end of the clothespin.
Design each one to look like a member of the family and use them as an old-fashioned message center…no texting required! You can find the instructions here.
Clothespin Watermelon Fan
As we are nearing warmer weather, we gotta get our gear in gear! This accordion-folded fan uses a clothespin to keep it all together.
What you’ll need:
2 sheets of thin pink scrapbook paper
Scissors
Glue stick
Green, pink and thin light green washi tape
Black marker
Pink clothespin
Cut each piece of paper to 8” tall.
Stripe the top edge with dark green washi tape and then a light green strip just below.
Accordion fold the papers into about ½” segments. Glue stick the two ends together.
Draw watermelon seeds on the pink paper.
Clip the clothespin to the gathered side and wrap pink washi tape around it to secure.
I know this sounds like a random supply, but wood blocks are such a simple material and kids can get really excited and inventive when presented with a 3D solid wood shape. And…don’t feel left out! You can get in on the fun too with this fun decor DIY below!
Painted Blocks
You can paint them with abstract patterns on the blocks, with letters and numbers, windows and doors to create buildings, or paint little pictures on each to make story-telling blocks. (If you are looking for the basic cubes, those are also available.)
Painted Block Pendant Light
This painted wood block pendant lamp hangs in my kids’ room and I still love it as much as the day I made it! The instructions that are linked in this post are super easy.
Painted Box Car
This craft is made with paper boxes, but imagine how sturdy and awesome it could be with a few tweaks when made with wood?
Aside from the obvious baking use, cupcake liners are a great craft supply! They come in bright colors, adorable patterns, and they hold paint and marker pigments really well! Here are three projects that were featured in Better Homes and Gardens many years ago.
Award Ribbons
We could all use a little encouragement these days, so go ahead and make award ribbons from cupcake liners, celebrating all of life’s little accomplishments. Stack your faves and trim the inner ones down to let the outer ones show. Use ribbon or paper or even strips of cupcake liners as the pieces that hang down. We used glue dots to hold it all together which keeps this craft super clean.
Frog Mask
I have no memory of what possessed us to make this craft, but I love it! Follow the step-by-step photos here to turn you little one into your own living Kermit the Frog using cupcake liners!
Cupcake Liner Butterflies
Cupcake liners AND clothespins! This craft wins the prize for using two of my favorites. Use paint or markers to add some color to the wings.
Fold four cupcake liners in half, then in half again. For younger kids, draw a scalloped line with a pencil, then have them cut each baking cup into rounded edges.
Dampen a foam paintbrush before dipping into watercolor pigments. Paint the edges of each wing using watercolor paint, or grab a marker and get coloring! You can use glitter and glue, markers, stickers, and more to make each butterfly unique.
Overlap two wings so the scallops are staggered and don’t line up exactly. Glue the wings together and repeat with the remaining pair of wings. Hold the wings together at the inner folds using a clothespin. Cut a single piece of twine for antennae, and insert it into the clothespin above the wings. Bonus points if you color the clothespin, too!
Clothespins are a staple in my craft room. While they work wonders to keep my pretzels from going stale and make for a gorgeous, old-fashioned scene of hanging the white sheets out to dry on a breezy summer day, they are also a super fun craft supply that can be made into a gazillion things.
I made these fun magnet clips for my first book, Project Kid, and they still remain one of my faves. You can find the instructions below, and check out this post for a way to turn them into one of our favorite furry friends!
1. Color one side of each clothespin with a marker. Adhere a magnet to the uncolored side of the clothespin.
2. Draw faces on the larger circles for adults, and the medium ones for kids. Glue to the top of the colored side of the clothespin.
3. Create hair by wrapping embroidery thread around your fingers eight to ten times: one finger for a baby’s tuft, three for short hair, and four or more for longer hair. Cut the thread from the skein and twist once in the middle. Glue onto the circle at the point of the twist.
4. To create a necktie, tie a knot in a 1⁄2-inch-wide ribbon, leaving about 2 inches below the knot. Cut the bottom of the ribbon into a V shape. Glue it below the face.
5. To create a neck or hair bow, simply tie a bow with ribbon and glue it to the face.
6. To create a lollipop, draw two swirls of contrasting colors onto a small wood circle. Cut the toothpick to 3⁄4 inch and glue it to the back of the circle. Glue to the face.
