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April 8, 2020
Animals, DIY Home, Everyday Crafts, Nature, Toys, Uncategorized, Upcycled, Vehicles
Some may think it’s weird to make kids’ crafts with wine corks. But I think it’s totally natural. Like beyond natural. As natural as crafting with toilet paper tubes…there is always at least one empty somewhere in the house!
Corks are a great craft material…there is so much potential in these cylindrical little gems. Here are some of my faves…
Above: Mix nature, felt, and upcycled materials like a cork and jam jar to make this cute little mushroom and snail vignette. (From Project Kid.)
I’ve seen a lot of cork rafts and boats in my life, but these really blew me out of the water! Such simple instructions from Make n Create.
I’m beyond obsessed with little characters with pushpin legs and ball-pin noses! Found on MerolMerol’s Instagram.
Corks make great stamps because little hands can really get a good grip on them. Art Bar made these stamps by gluing craft foam to the base of the cork.
Corks make the perfect mini-owl shape! Happy Hooligans used buttons and felt to bring these little guys to life!
These balloon-cork characters from Reciclando en la Escuala bring me so much joy, I don’t even know where to begin! Even though I can’t read the instructions, I think it’s best to use small balloons or water balloons.
These cork totems were made from a kit found on Monkey Business, but if you want DIY these at home, you can def make some cute details with felt and ball pins.
Here’s my advice…never throw away a champagne cork! Why would you ever deprive yourself of a cute animal like these from Molly Moo?
Mix your love of wine with your green thumb to make these cute cork succulents from The Decorated Cookie.
April 2, 2020
Animals, Baby, Early Elementary, Everyday Crafts, Older Elementary, Upcycled, Yarn & Fabric
My kids are obsessed with getting a dog right now. Like consumed beyond imagination. And while we are totally willing to do it eventually, we keep putting them off and promising that it will happen at a later date.
I wonder what will happen if I convince them to make their own puppy dog on wheels? I say it’s the perfect pet…it doesn’t need to be fed, walked, bathed, or cleaned up after!
What you’ll need:
• Cardboard
• Pen or pencil
• Scissors
• 12 small red, 4 large red, and 5 small pink pom-poms
• 1 pipe cleaner
• White felt
• 3 tiny black pom-poms
• 3 Matchbox cars
• 2 tongue depressors
• Yarn
1 Draw a 4-inch-tall-by-5-inch-long dog on cardboard and cut it out. Don’t worry if your dog isn’t perfect or poodlelike—a general canine shape will work.
2 Glue red yarn pom-poms to one side of the dog—two small ones on each leg, two large ones on the body, and two more small ones for the head and snout. Glue two pink pompoms on top of the bottommost pom-poms to make the paws. Repeat on the other side of the cardboard dog.
3 To make the dog’s tail, cut a 3-inch length of pipe cleaner and glue a pink pom-pom to the end. Poke the other end into the cardboard and secure it with glue.
4 To make the ears, cut two small teardrop shapes, about 1 inch tall, from the felt. Glue the pointed ends to the sides of the dog’s head and finish the dog’s face by gluing the tiny black pom-poms onto the head and snout as the eyes and nose.
5 To make the base of the pull toy, glue a 12-by- 4-inch piece of felt around a 6-by-4-inch piece of cardboard.
6 Glue the Matchbox cars to the underside of the cardboard (one in front, two in back).
7 Glue a tongue depressor to each side of the base to cover the cardboard edges.
8 To make the pull cord, braid six 30-inch-long strands of yarn together to make a 24-inch cord. Glue it to the underside of the base, in front of the single car. Glue the dog’s feet to the top of the base.
April 1, 2020
Activities, Early Elementary, Everyday Crafts, Grown-Up, Older Elementary, Preschool, Toddler, Tween to Teen, Unplugged Time, Upcycled, Wood
Who gets more intimidated by detailed craft project instructions…you or your child?
Sometimes I think it’s the parent that feels the most pressure making sure everything goes exactly right. Kids are usually more adaptable when it comes to improvising. Which is why I’m introducing this concept of the Project Kid Roll-the-Dice Craft!
I labeled 3 wooden blocks with materials. One block had traditional craft supplies, one had recycled materials, and one had typical household materials. We color-coded ours using our P-touch label maker, but you can even just write the names of materials on masking tape and stick them on.
Here’s the challenge…roll the dice and craft something using those three materials! And of course there are tools and materials that are always fair game like glue, markers, paint, hole punch, scissors, etc. Here are suggestions of what you can include on your blocks:
TRADITIONAL MATERIALS
RECYCLED MATERIALS
HOUSEHOLD MATERIALS
March 27, 2020
ad, Decor, Everyday Crafts, Furniture, Kids Rooms, Older Elementary, Toys, Tween to Teen, Uncategorized, Yarn & Fabric
This post was sponsored by P-touch Embellish ELITE.
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.
What you’ll need:
MAKE THE BED:
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.
March 20, 2020
Activities, ad, Early Elementary, Everyday Crafts, Older Elementary
This post was sponsored by P-touch Embellish ELITE.
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:
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.
What you need:
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!
