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The shift from summer to school can be a tricky one – especially when it’s still swimming weather! But one of our favorite ways to smooth any transition is to spruce up your space. Setting up a homework area with your kids that’s as fun as it is functional will help them ease back into school mode. To keep them organized, turn a standard office supply into something a little more special. We’ve pinpointed the best prickly patterns for cork boards, so follow our 3 how-tos below—or if you’ve got another sharp shape idea, let us know in the comments!

CACTUS

What you’ll need:

• 2 cork placemats
• Sewing Pins and thumb tacks
• Pink pom poms of various sizes
• Green paint, in two shades
• Chalk
• Scissors/ utility knife
• Hot-Glue gun
• Command Strips
• Cactus Template

How to make it:

1. Size the template to fit your cork, then print, and cut out. Trace template onto two pieces of cork or freehand draw a simple cactus shape onto cork placemat using chalk. (Chalk can easily be wiped off if you make any mistakes! ) Cut out the shapes.
2. Glue the two pieces together, pressing to avoid gaps.
3. Paint the top layer dark green and once dry add lighter green vertical stripes.
4. Glue pom poms to the top of thumb tacks to create functional flowers.
5. Add sewing pins along stripes and secure to the wall using command strips.

HEDGEHOG 

What you’ll need:

• 2 cork placemats
• Small pieces of black and tan felt
• Chalk
• Scissors/ Utility knife
• Hot Glue
• Sewing Pins
• Command Strips
• Hedgehog Template

How to make it:

1. Size the template to fit your cork, then print, cut out and trace the template onto two pieces of cork. Cut out the shapes.
2. Glue the two pieces together with hot glue and press to secure.
3. Cut out small black circles of felt for the eye, and a half circle for the nose then glue to the cork. For the ear, cut a larger circle from the tan felt, cut a small slice then overlap the edges and secure with glue. Glue to the cork.
4. Add pins along the hedgehog’s back to give him his spikes.
5. Secure to the wall using command strips.

ARCHERY TARGET

What you’ll need:

• 7″ Cork Trivet 
• 3 wooden skewers
• Red, Blue, Yellow, White, and Black Paint
• Red Duck Tape 
• T pins 
• Scissors
• Hot Glue
• Pencil
• Archery Target Template

How to make it:

1. Print out template and cut out each circle of the target individually. Trace each circle on the trivet one at a time, making sure your pencil lines are visible.
2. Starting at the center (so you can hold the edge) paint each layer in its regulation color—gold, red, blue, black, white. Let dry and add a second coat if necessary.
3. To craft arrow pins, cut two inch long strips of duck tape and fold each piece over the top of the pin, evenly sandwiching the “T”. Cut out an upside down teardrop shape to make “feathers.”
4. Press two skewers into the bottom edge of the trivet an to create legs; add a dot of hot-glue to secure. Add a third skewer perpendicularly on the back to create a tripod stand.
5. Set up on desk and add arrows.

For more workspace inspiration check out our post on 10 Kids’ Desk DIYS

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(image above via: @artsacessvic)

If you attended summer camp at any point in the last 50 years, chances are you learned to make a god’s eye. Whether you used twigs, dowels, or popsicle sticks, the classic craft was the right blend of simple yet time consuming – perfect for keeping kids occupied and giving counselors a breather. Kids this summer are just as likely to be weaving a god’s eye as you were at their age. There’s definitely something to be said for a craft with such staying power!

Time travel isn’t the only magic that’s been attributed to god’s eyes. The objects were first made in Mexico during the 15th century by the Huichol people who used them for prayer and protection. Though today the craft’s wooden cross is sometimes associated with Christianity, the Huichol focused their worship on nature and the earth. The four points represented the elements and the hole left at the center of the weaving served as a portal to the spirit world (Sol Mexico News). Often the charms were made when a child was born and added to each year to help ensure a life of health and happiness. In a mysterious world full of uncertainty, they provided knowledge and understanding.

(images via Laura a Love Land blog)

In the late 1960’s, god’s eyes were adopted by the counter culture movement on the West Coast. Gigantic versions of the weavings showed up at rallies and gatherings during the Summer of Love such as the Be-In in 1967 pictured below. (Refinery29)

(image credit: Lawrence Ferlinghetti)

Though it’s hard to find any information about the craft first being adopted in summer camps, it fits right in with the era’s other woven wall hanging trends such as macrame. It’s still possible to purchase tutorials from the time, like this book found on Etsy,  ‘The Advanced Creative Ojo Book’.

Though they may be groovy, god’s eyes are also super graphic, which stops them from feeling stuck in the 70s. Crafters and artists have continued to reinvent them in all different sizes, starting small and working up to wall worthy. Below are some examples of our favorites.

Toothpicks and embroidery floss are the tools needed to make the craft charm sized. A bracelet full of these would be so fun! (via Concien cia Concentrica )

These layered beauties from blogger Honestly WTF are used as present toppers but are gift worthy all by themselves.

Aunt Peaches adds pom poms to cover one of the most colorful Christmas trees we’ve ever seen – she calls it granny chic.

Trading pom poms for tassels is another way to up the trendiness! (via Pinterest)

Mixing a variety of sizes and colors makes a show stopping wall collection. (via ClaireabelleMakes)

Hobby Craft blog moves off the wall and into the air allowing for a 360 degree view of a craft that truly looks good from all angles.

Pae White‘s installations aren’t made of god’s eyes but are certainly inspired by them. Her silkscreened versions float like falling leaves. Wouldn’t you love to walk through them?

There are some projects that are immediate wins, and others that make you, or the people around you, scratch your head a bit.

When I was writing Project Kid: Crafts that Go! I named the chapters after where transportation takes place…City, Country, Water, Space, Sky, etc. And for many of the chapters I crafted projects that related to these locations rather than the vehicles themselves. So for Sky, I thought…okay, clouds, sun, rainbow. Sure. Makes sense to include.

But once the book was laid out, my editor didn’t think this project really fit. I didn’t argue because I knew it would appear here one day. I still love the idea…so I’m sharing it with you today!

What you’ll need:

• One 12-inch-diameter embroidery hoop
• Yellow fabric
• Scissors
• Permanent glue dots
• Thick gray yarn
• Scissors
• Plastic child-safe needle
• Safety pins
• Felt in the colors of the rainbow
• Fishing line

Make it!

1.To make the sun, stretch the fabric tautly in the embroidery hoop. Trim excess fabric and glue-dot the edges to the inside of the hoop.

2. To create the cloud, you first need to make five large pom-poms. To make each pom-pom, wrap yarn approximately fifty times around an object about 3 inches wide (like a smartphone). Cut the bundle from the skein, slip it off of the object, then cut and tie a 6-inch piece of yarn tightly around the bundle. Snip through all loops until a pom-pom is formed. Give it a haircut to trim up the messy yarn. Repeat to make four more pom-poms.

3. Cut a 20-inch piece of yarn and thread it in a zigzag fashion through the center of all five pom-poms, stacking two pom-poms on top of the other three. Use safety pins to attach the cloud to the sun, making sure to grab the joining yarn in the pin.

4. To make the rainbow strands, cut three 12-to-18-inch pieces of fishing line. Cut about sixty 3/4-by-2-inch rectangles from all colors of felt—cut an even number of each color. Lay a row of felt rectangles, spaced 1/2 inch to 1 inch apart, on your work surface in rainbow order and add a glue dot in the center of each rectangle. Lay fishing line over the glue dots and sandwich it with another rectangle of the same color. Tie the ends of the rainbow strands to the joining yarn stitched within the cloud pom-poms.

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Barbecues, popsicles, fireworks…yes, July 4th is nearly here! Whether you are marching in a parade or just running through the sprinklers in your backyard, it’s a day to hang out with friends and family and celebrate summer.

Here’s a quick little noisemaker craft that will get the kids in the spirit! This project is easy enough that kids’ can make it on their own or with little supervision. You can also use these noisemakers for other holidays…think green for St. Patrick’s day, red and pink for Valentine’s day, or multi-colored for a DIY Purim grogger!

What you’ll need:

• Small cardboard jewelry box
• Popsicle stick
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun
• Beads, beans, or rice
• Red, white and blue tape (I love this variety set!)

Use scissors to carefully poke a slit in the bottom of the box and press the popsicle stick through. Hot glue it in place.

Fill the box with beads, beans, or rice. (I happened to have star beads, but anything small will do!)

Put the top on the box and use the red, white, and blue tape to seal it shut, making it look like a striped rocket pop!

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Artwork by Chicnawdie. All proceeds from the sale of this print go to RAICES Texas.

At Project Kid we spend so much time thinking of meaningful ways to spend time with kids—creative ways, playful ways…collecting and inventing activities that will help your kids see the world with bigger eyes and more possibility. We love this challenge and we love inspiring families to unplug and create.

But there is always something in the back of my mind that tells me that I need to infuse the real challenges of our world as parents and as global citizens into this conversation. And it’s not just the fact that there are billions of kids without a fancy set of markers and a stocked craft closet, because frankly, you can exercise your imagination with rocks, string, and scrap newspaper. But rather, it’s about the families, both old and young, that are struggling on a wide spectrum of issues. The far right end of that spectrum is the current situation at our Southern borders—families who are coming into our country seeking asylum from gang violence, abuse, and sex slavery who are being met with more division, an extreme lack of empathy, and frankly, soullessness.

There is so much to read and so much confusion on what our best course of action should be—I feel this close to flying down to Texas to parade separated children in front of detained parents. But that is clearly not happening. I found this article on Cup of Jo to be clear and concise, with great actionable items for ways to help. (There’s a follow-up article here since Trump’s executive order to stop the separation of families.)

I know I am not changing the world with this post, nor am I carrying a child on my hip, helping him find his parents at a Walmart detention center. But I’m recognizing that KIDS are our PROJECTS…families are works in progress and we are all responsible for one another. Life can feel really overwhelming…health, money stress, relationships and school worries are real and can loom large when they are hovering in your life. But, as the voice behind Project Kid, if I don’t take the time to join in on these conversations, then the fun stuff—the crafts, parties and beauty—feel meaningless and empty.

I’ve felt nervous to tackle these topics here because I’m not a reporter and I know the trolls of the cyber world can be cruel, but I hope as I start to talk more about bigger issues—and I swear they won’t all be political—I hope you will join in on the conversation with advice for my audience and also for me.