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.
I think we are all moving through this scary, confusing time with so many questions. How will the coronavirus pandemic affect me and my kids? Will my kids get sick? And what am I going to do with my kids all day long indefinitely if schools are closed because of Covid-19? This is a legit concern, and while I’m not a doctor here to dispense any knowledge on the reality that upon us, I can speak to that indefinite stretch of time that you may see ahead of you with your kids at home due to school closings.
Ok, so first, you need to have supplies on hand (and I’m not talking hand-sanitizer—though you should have that too). Start there. I’ve made this nifty Amazon list of materials that are open-ended enough to give your kids so many options for crafting. You can check out this post for different ways to use those materials, for the ones that might feel a little more mysterious to you.
Here are some of my favorite projects that will keep your kids busy and unplugged during all of this open-ended time at home!
I think my kids might choose their stuffed animals over their actual parents in a true emergency. They love and revere these stuffed creatures beyond imagination. Grab for that felt, ribbon, and Aleene’s® Fabric Fusion (I love the pen version for kids!) to make these precious super-hero capes for their favorite furry friends. Decorate with pompoms, rhinestones, buttons, or whatever you have on hand.
Making marbleized paper with shaving cream and food coloring is addictive (I swear you’ll find yourself wanting a tray all to yourself to make notecards and gift-tags!). Spread shaving cream evenly on a plate (for small projects) or cookie sheet (for large projects) and drop a few dots of food coloring around the surface of the shaving cream. Use a toothpick to swirl the color around, and then press the paper onto the shaving cream. Visit the original post for more detailed instructions.
I love this project (and this pic of my daughter) so much! This easy craft is made just from felt and string. And truly, you could do any design and just cut it in half to make a BFF necklace!
Nothing makes me happier than the return of the 90s scrunchie craze! You can make your own with a skinny strip of fabric and some of this amazing Fabric Fuse tape. (I’m loving this fruit-inspired fabric bundle!)
These DIY bulletin boards are super fun to make! We chose three designs that all had pointy surfaces, but you could really make any shape! Start with cork squares and cut them into any shape your heart desires! Acrylic paint works really to cover the brown and get into the nooks and crannies of the surface of your bulletin board.
Honestly, you will not regret getting a craft supply reserve going! It allows your kids to experiment and play…and maybe you’ll discover some of your own creative gifts at the same time! Click here to find my favorite (and sometimes totally weird) craft supply faves!
This easy paper craft for St. Patrick’s Day is guaranteed to get the kiddos out for some springtime fun! Tap into their creativity – and their playtime imaginations – with a Leprechaun Finder that’ll have them searching high and low for mysterious little guys dressed in green.
We teamed up with our favorite sticky-stuff (a.k.a. glue) maker, Aleene’s®, and made these with their nontoxic Aleene’s® Original Tacky Glue® and a few simple craft supplies for a project that keeps the fun going after the art part is done. And hey, you never know, they might just stumble upon a pot of gold!
Check out this little video that will show you how easy these are to make!
If you are looking for a low-craft, but not exactly store-bought valentine, this one is perfect-o!
Just print out these free tags, cut out, then punch holes in the corners, and voila! There are four tags that read…”Love always wins” “Let’s Play a Game of Love” “Hugs + Kisses…coming your way” and “With love, no one loses!”
You just have to sign your name and you’re done. Oh yeah, and head over to Amazon to buy these cute little tic-tac-toe key chains. Perfectly suited for Valentine’s Day with the Xs and Os!
Of all the magical process-art techniques, there are none that I love more than the shaving cream/food dye method. I’ve seen adults gasp at the results of this combo, and I’m most def one of them.
I made these simple heart cards for the 2020 issue of Parents magazine, and once the issue arrived, my 7-year-old daughter was all over it! It’s not uncommon for work and life to collide around here! If you want to make these, here’s what you’ll need to do:
Spread shaving cream (the creamy kind, not a foaming gel) to make an even layer in a tray large enough to hold your paper. Have your child dribble 6 to 8 drops of food coloring into the shaving cream, and use a toothpick to gently swirl the colors through the cream. When the colors are spread out, have your kid press a piece of thick, white paper onto the colored foam. Scrape the shaving cream off the page with a ruler. Repeat with more pages. Once dry, cut 3 1/2 x 5-in. heart shapes from the sheets. Cut 8×6-in. pieces of colored paper and fold each in half to make a card. Glue cutout hearts to folded cards. Write, “My heart’s in a swirl!” inside.
When February rolls around, it’s hard to decide on just one Valentine’s Day craft to make for friends and family. Everyone has a special place in your heart, and therefore they deserve a unique craft to commemorate it! I made these 5 Valentine’s crafts that all use Metallic Corrugated Hearts for Fun365, from turning them into kissing fish to making a love-shower mobile to making Valentine award ribbons. Pick one (or all five!) and craft your little heart out!
To make these projects, visit Fun365 and the shopping list is right there…just hit “add to cart!”.
VALENTINE HEART MOBILE
Shower someone with a lot of love with this Valentine’s room decoration. Fold three Metallic Corrugated Hearts in half and glue them back to back around a string that’s between four and eight inches long. Repeat to make about 12 total in varying lengths. Paint your embroidery hoop (this step is optional), and once it’s dry, glue or tie the stringed hearts onto the center ring of the hoop, staggering their lengths. Secure the outer ring around by tightening the screw. Cut three long pieces of string and loop them around the entire hoop; gather these together and knot at the top to hang. Make it for a Valentine’s party or to just remind your loved one that love is all around!
VALENTINE KISSING FISH
We’ve all heard of love birds, but this craft is all about kissing fish! Glue two Metallic Corrugated Hearts together, overlapping just the top edges to form an almond shape. Glue the point of another corrugated heart to the back, and create fins by adhering Bright Self-Adhesive Heart Shapes to the top and bottom of the fish’s body. Fold a heart in half and glue it to the middle of the fish to make the side fin. Glue a googly eye to the fish’s face and stick a mini heart sticker under the fish’s eye as the mouth. Make these with your kids as school valentines or just as a fun, unplugged craft project.
VALENTINE HEART CARDS
Grab your pack of 100 Metallic Corrugated Heartsand make quick and simple cards for everyone—your BFF, your favorite cousin, your bus driver and your babysitter! These are so fast to make that you can spread the love far and wide in a short period of time. Cut colored cardstock down to various card sizes: 4×6 inches, 5×7 inches, or 3×3 inches, and glue the hearts on with Aleene’s® Tacky Glue®. Vary your sizes and designs, and get creative as you go. You can cut letters freehand from scraps of cardstock to add messages like “I ♥ U”!
VALENTINE HEART-SHAPED PALS
Add some metallic chenille stem arms and legs to a corrugated heart and you have a cute little Valentine friend! First glue googly eyes to the front of the heart. Cut your chenille stem in half—use one half for the arms and one half for the legs. Fold one in half and glue the bend behind the bottom point of the heart. Bend the feet up and glue a small bead on as a shoe. Glue the other half of the chenille stem to the middle back of the heart and add a bead on either end as hands. If you want to turn these into class valentines, glue a cardstock talk bubble to the heart that says Happy Valentine’s Day!
VALENTINE HEART AWARD RIBBONS
Who gives the best hugs? Who’s your number-one teacher? Make these Valentine award ribbons with your kids to decorate the loved ones in their lives. First, flatten two cupcake liners, and fringe the ruffled part of one liner. Trim the ruffled part of the second in half, making a small cupcake liner and then fringe the ends. Glue the small liner on top of the larger one, and then glue a Metallic Corrugated Heart to the center. Cut two 3/4-inch strips of cardstock that are about 3-4 inches long. Trim the ends to look like ribbon and glue them to the back of the larger cupcake liner. Use the space on the ribbons to write love-filled messages to the award-winner!
We are really a family of watercolor painters. Once we sit down with that beautiful polka-dot palette and a piece of thick, toothy watercolor paper, we dive in excitedly. And that’s why I so adore this Valentine’s Day project that I did for the 2020 February issue of Parents Magazine.
This is a great project to do with even the littlest of hands and then a grown-up can help cut, punch, and tie ribbon through. But just start with a big ole piece of paper and you’ll be amazed at how many Valentine’s Day cards you can get out of it!
(Fun fact…my kids actually painted this paper and doodled these hearts for me so that they really looked kid-made! And yes, they each got paid, because, hey, it’s work!)
Here are the instructions from the magazine:
Have your child draw hearts all over a sheet of thick paper using an oil-based marker, like Sharpie Oil-Based Paint Markers. (Note: These markers are permanent, so protect your work surface.) When they’re dry, have her paint over the hearts with watercolors in contrasting shades. (Because the pen is oil-based, the hearts will not bleed.) Let dry. Cut 2×6-in. strips from the page and punch holes in the top of each. Thread 3-in.pieces of thin ribbon through the holes and knot. On the back, write, “I’ll always save a place for you!” pieces of thin ribbon through the holes and knot. On the back, write, “I’ll always save a place for you!”
Seeing a row of clear jars filled with colored sand gives me all the feels. The rainbow joy, the craft potential, and the throwback memories to when I used to layer colored sand in little glass bottles.If you want to give sand art a more 2020 vibe, try this fun project that I made for my friends at Oriental Trading. Head over to Fun 365 to add the project to cart and purchase everything that you need to make these!
The sand assortment that I used comes with enough sand for oodles of projects (twelve 22-ounce jars!); this would be a great activity for a play date or birthday party! Make sure to cover your work surface or use a tray, or your table will look like a colorful sandy beach!
Here’s what you need:
Here’s how you do it:
1. Cut white cardstock down to the size you want your cards to be. We made 5″ by 7″ and 6″-square cards.
2. Stick foam letters or shapes onto the cardstock. Remember that you are going to eventually peel these off, so tape them down with medium pressure.
3. With a paint brush or foam brush, spread Mod Podge® around the stickers. Try not to let the Mod Podge® pool around the sticker edges, as that will create clumps of sand that might accidentally get pulled off. You want to paint a light coat, but enough so that your sand will stick into it.
4. Using a spoon, generously sprinkle the sand color of your choice over the wet Mod Podge®. This set comes with a dozen colors so the possibilities are endless!
5. Press sand down with your hand or the back of the spoon. This helps the sand stick to the glue. Then dump, shake, or tap the sand off the card and let it dry.
