Nothing makes me happier than an upcycled craft…you know the stuff: toilet paper tubes, bottle caps, newspaper. But these days, I run out of supplies before I even use up the next product. Luckily you can buy cardboard tubes, called craft rolls, so you can make these Halloween characters for days! My friends at Oriental Trading supplied me with the goodies to make these spooky and sweet characters. Head over to Fun365 for the how-to’s!
The spiders above are made from a half craft roll and black pipe cleaners. Tie them with fishing line and hang them on your front door or over the mantle.
What I love about making monster crafts is that there are no rules! One eyeball? Two? Twenty-two? All is allowed! These eye stickers are a great buy for crafts galore.
These ladies give a new meaning to the word “witch craft!” The Oriental Trading felt pack will give you everything you need for these and more! (Even the broom and cauldron are made from toilet paper tubes!)
8 year-old-kids bring the best of both worlds…they are still cuddly little people, needy in all the delicious ways, but they can also get themselves dressed and can put their plates in the dishwasher (um, sometimes). Snuggles mixed with a dash of independence—what’s better than that? This age also welcomes the chapter book obsession, but luckily they still enjoy and benefit from the lessons of picture books. We have been Mo Willems fans from the start, and when Disney Book Group sent us the newest in his Unlimited Squirrels early-reader series, I Want to Sleep Under the Stars, we were immediately making up voices in order to give the book the dramatic reading it deserves (with stuffed animals, of course). And since stuffed animals are literally members of our family, Sommer wanted to craft a little tent and campfire under the stars…so we got to work!
The story is one of best intentions—Zoom Squirrel announces that he wants to sleep under the stars, and his squirrel buddies throw all of their encouragement behind him, but to a fault. Their cheers and chants actually prevent him from sleeping, under the stars or anywhere! It’s a simple story about listening to the needs of others and finding a way to bring joy and satisfaction to the people that you love.
As a family that loves to camp, we got so into making this little camping scene under the stars. You can size it to fit stuffies of any size, but this particular one fit our animals that are about 7 inches in length. A day of reading, crafting, and then playing…what could be better?
TENT:
Felt
Cardboard
Craft paper
Glue
Scissors
String
2 buttons
Cotton balls
Starting with a 12-by-10-inch piece of cardboard, with a fold breaking the 12-inch side into two 6-inch halves, draw a rectangle centered on a 10-inch side, about 6 inches wide by 5 inches tall. Cut this out.
Trace this cardboard onto a piece of scrapbook paper, and cut out.
Glue the craft paper to the cardboard, making sure that it easily folds to the inside.
Trace the cardboard onto a piece of felt, adding 4 to 5 inches to the length (making it 17 to 18 inches by 10 inches). Line the window edge up to one end of the felt, and this time don’t cut out the rectangle. Just cut slits up the sides of the rectangle, leaving the top line intact. Glue the felt to the other side of the cardboard.
Now add glue to the “feet” of the cut sides of the tent and glue them down onto the extra felt, giving the tent a bottom or floor.
Trace the side triangles of the tent twice onto felt and cut out. Glue these triangles to the sides of the tent.
Glue two pieces of string to the cardboard under the tent’s flap.
Glue buttons to the back top edge of the tent. When the glue dries, roll up the tent flap and wrap the strings around the buttons to keep them in place.
Make a pillow by cutting a long rectangle of felt, about 2-by-6 inches, placing cotton balls on one side, then folding the felt over and gluing to seal.
FIRE:
Sticks
Red, orange, and yellow felt
Glue
Break twigs and glue them together in a triangle. Cut flames from red, orange, and yellow felt. Make the red pieces the largest, and the yellow pieces the smallest. Stack and glue them together.
Glue the felt flames to the inside of the sticks. Add extra sticks around if needed.
STAR MOBILE:
Wire
Wire cutter
Spool
Star stickers
Fishing line
Scissors
Cut a 10-inch piece of wire and form it into a circle.
Cut a 12-inch piece of wire and twist it onto the circle.
Cut pieces of fishing line, and sandwich each end in between two silver star stickers. Tie the fishing line to the wire circle. Repeat until you have a star mobile.
Wrap the other end around the spool to make it hang above the tent.
Don’t forget to check out Unlimited Squirrels in I Want To Sleep Under the Stars! The series addresses a range of physical, emotional, and social development markers that helps spark conversation between parents and early-readers. You’ll find interesting and educational content in all of the Unlimited Squirrels books, packaged with quizzes, jokes, and entertaining stories from a hilarious cast of Squirrels! We love it!
Lumpy, bumpy, twisty mini-gourds are a strange bunch, but they so perfectly lend themselves to being converted into a wacky gaggle of Halloween critters, creatures, and bugs. Pipe cleaners, beads, and drinking straws are all you need to bring these weird-o pumpkins to life.
Head over to Parents Magazine to see the rest of the kooky Halloween pumpkin bunch!
How to Make It: Stick ball-head pins into pom-poms to make eyes. With screwdriver, poke small holes into gourds and insert chenille stems for legs (and/or wings). Slip beads over the ends of the legs to make feet. For a different look for the legs (as shown at far left), slip paper straws over the chenille stems.
There’s a chill in the air, and round orange fruits are popping up on street corners! It’s pumpkin-time! We may have no idea what Halloween is going to look like this year, but one thing is for sure…pumpkins are going to find their homes on front porches, stoops, and doorsteps, and if there’s any year to trick these guys out more than ever, it’s NOW!
This super-fun little weird-o is one that I made for the current issue of Parents magazine. We really wanted to play with whimsy this year, and this pumpkin creature has all of my heart.
There it is again…that buzzword, STEAM. Or STEM. In case you haven’t heard of this term, it stands for Science Technology Engineering Art and Math. It basically encompasses all the things that parents want their kids to excel in academically, minus the humanities (still waiting for that acronym).
I crafted these STEAM-inspired projects, invented by some of my fave STEAM experts out there, for Family Fun magazine. For the most part, you’ll likely have most of the materials, but for anything that you don’t have, I’ve included links below!
(Above) ThisBalance Sculpture by Babble Dabble Do is as beautiful as it is educational. Design yours with lots of colors or keep it monochromatic like this green one.
Generally, if I can use one upcycled material per craft, it’s a win. When I can nail down three upcycled materials, I feel like a magician! This upcycled lighthouse that doubles both as a nightlight and a bookend is one of the projects. All of the recycled materials are used relatively in tact, and they piece together beautifully to make this multi-purpose, satisfying craft.
If you have a kid that dreams of the ocean. loves boats, or has a thing for lighthouses of course, then this is your project.
What you’ll need:
One 10-ounce plastic bottle, empty and dry (mine was a Method Home hand-soap bottle, but you could also use a vegetable oil bottle)
To create the lighthouse’s gallery ledge, center the opening of the empty bottle on the tennis ball can lid and trace. Cut a slit into the plastic and cut out the circle. Set this aside.
Use the funnel to pour alternating layers of red and white sand into the bottle. (You can measure out even stripes or just eyeball it.) Fill all the way to the top and seal the opening with electrical tape.
Wrap electrical tape around the threaded part of the baby food jar, and color the bottom of the outside of the jar with the black permanent marker. Slip the gallery ledge around the mouth of the bottle.
To create the lighthouse’s lantern room, stand a tea light on top of the bottle and cover it with the baby food jar. (My jar lid sat perfectly atop the bottle and tea light, but if you find yours is less steady, use glue dots to keep it in place.)
The USPS is something that most of us have never questioned. It just exists and that’s the end of it. We all have a love/hate relationship with the mailbox…it brings holiday cards and party invitations, but also bills, IRS statements, and junk mail. But in all seriousness, we have to remember that the Post Office delivers medicine, food, stimulus checks, tax refunds, and, of course, mail-in ballots. The fact that this institution has existed since 1775 (Did you know that Ben Franklin was the first Postmaster General?) and serves every citizen equally and equitably, we need to do all that we can to make sure that it exists for all people, and for all reasons.
So here are some action items you can take to help keep the USPS alive and well!
Buy stamps! They say if just half the US bought a sheet of stamps ($11), the USPS would raise $1.5 billion immediately. Amazing.
Email, call or tweet your representatives! Ask them to speak out publicly on the issue and why the USPS is important.
Text USPS to 50409. After texting this number, Resistbot will send letters to your senators in support of the postal service. (I did it. So quick and easy!)
Teach your kids about Snail Mail...we did a post about it! Make postcards and send them to your friends and relatives!
Make a dental floss mailbox (instructions below) for your kids’ dollhouse! Ok, maybe it won’t do anything to help but it’s dang cute!
How to make your dollhouse mailbox: Just pull out and discard the empty floss wheel, paint the outer box blue, and attach small white letter stickers to the front. Use glue dots to attach to the side of the dollhouse.
Of all camp crafts that exist, I think none are more universal than the lanyard…or gimp…or boondoggle…or scoubidou! It was the first craft that we included in the Camp Wannabee kit and the most essential to learn if you want to call yourself a true camper!
Summer camp memories are full of loud cheers, splashing in the lake, and, let’s not forget…s’mores! The love of s’mores is timeless…I love making them as much today as I did when I was a kid.
My daughter and I did a fun little DIY Instagram Live last night, showing friends how to make these happy little s’mores. Check it out!
And if you LOVE camp crafts as much as we do, head over to the Project Kid shop page and take a look at Camp Wannabee…it’s a crafty summer camp that comes home to you!
Here are the materials that you need to make your s’more:
Cut two cardboard squares, about 2 1/2 inches square. Cut one 2-by-2-inch cardboard square.
Use a pencil to poke holes on the top of one piece of cardboard to resemble graham crackers. Draw a line down the center. (If you want to make it into a hanging ornament, poke a hole up through the center of the “graham cracker” and make a little loop.)
Thread needle and knot the end. Stitch eyes and mouth onto felt (or other white fabric). To make the eyes, we made tiny asterisk shapes (*) and we did the backstitch to create the mouth.
Wrap white fabric around the pom-pom (or cotton balls), and glue it in the back.
Wrap brown thread or yarn around the small piece of cardboard to make the chocolate. If you don’t have brown thread or yarn, you can cover it with brown felt, or even just paint it brown.
Glue the chocolate to the bottom cardboard, then the marshmallow on top, and finally the top graham cracker.
As part of Project Kid’s collaboration with the Museum of the City of New York, we focused on fun “Summer in the City” craft activities that would keep kids busy with materials that they could find around the house.
The fourth and final video in this series will go live on August 5, 2020, celebrating the 100th birthday of Brooklyn’s most famous ferris wheel…Deno’s Wonder Wheel! Using upcycled materials kids can learn to make their very own model of the Wonder Wheel and also learn about its interesting history.
Click here to register for the streaming event, and don’t forget to post your final projects on Instagram, tagging #ProjectKid!
