We all know that children love to do get creative: colouring, sticking, cutting, making; the many variations of arts and crafts are far-reaching, but if you think these are purely frivolous activities, you would be wrong. There are a huge number of things you can make and create that involve a healthy amount of both history, and expertise. Here are 7 educational ways to get crafty and arty!Beading Using beads for jewelry is certainly not a new invention. In 2004 an archaeologist in South … [Read more...]
Silhouette Project: Disney Freeze Paper T-shirt
The Back Story I got an email from my mom saying that she had been searching for Disney t-shirts but couldn't find what she was looking for. As a backup plan she included in her email links to a picture of a mickey head and a freezer paper shirt tutorial, she figured it would be easy for me to cut out the pattern on the freezer paper with the Silhouette and then send her the paper and she would make the shirts. Here is everything I used to do this project. The Design I needed a picture of a … [Read more...]
Silhouette Project: Fan-tashe-tic Birthday Card
The Back Story It's my brother's birthday next week so I decided to look on pinterest to see if I could find anything 'pinteresting'. After a little bit of digging I found this:Fan-tashe-tic Birthday Card This post is more of a show and tell rather than an actual tutorial because all it takes is a rectangle some text and and mustache picture. Here is card designed in Silhouette Studio.Just as a small side note, I went with the traditional mustache look on the card but there are tons … [Read more...]
Silhouette Tutorial: Valentine Pixelated Popup Heart Card
The Back Story When we first got our Silhouette CAMEO I started looking for Silhouette projects and tutorials on pinterest. One of the very first things I found was a popup card of a heart that someone else had made on their Cameo. Unfortunately, when it came time to try and make the card the pin was just a picture, it was not a link to a website tutorial. After doing a little "pinsearching" I found a pin for a website with the tutorial on how to make the card. The tutorial goes through … [Read more...]
Silhouette Tutorial: Checker Board
My wife and I have wanted to get a Silhouette Cameo for a really long time, so when Black Friday came around and we saw that the Cameo was on super sale, we thought it was too good to pass up so we bought one. Here is a tutorial for one of our first Silhouette projects.The Back Story One of the classes that my wife took in college talked about human development. In the section that talked about babies, she learned that when babies are first born they can only see black, white and red … [Read more...]
Creating a Baby Shadow Box
The arrival of a new baby is an exciting time and definitely one that needs to be documented. Most of the items such as baby announcements and then the birth announcements will be arranged in a scrapbook. However, some items will not fit in a scrapbook. A shadow box is an ideal solution for displaying memorabilia such as these. A shadow box is simply a shallow box with a frame on the front. Items are arranged inside and a glass panel is placed across the front within the frame like a window … [Read more...]
DIY Candle Project
Wondering how to make a great-looking present for birthdays, holidays or housewarming parties? Making your own floating candles at home is an incredibly simple project that looks fantastic and can be done with ingredients you likely already have around your home!To get started, you'll need:Paraffin wax or old candles. Play dough. Cookie cutters. An old, clean tin can. A saucepan or pot. Candle wicks. A pencil, pen or Popsicle stick.1. Shape your can. Pinch the sides … [Read more...]
Bowling Pin Snowman Tutorial
I like to have a mixtures of holiday themed and winter themed decorations in my home as we head into the winter months. I know Snowmen are pretty popular with a lot of people so I wanted to share this darling craft my sister introduced me to. It was easy to make. After gathering the supplies it doesn't take long. The longest part is waiting for the paint to dry.Check out this bowling pin snowman. Hopefully you have some left over bowling pins from making the Halloween Mummy and Ghost I … [Read more...]
Poinsettia Craft
Getting in the mood for Christmas!! Here's a cute craft for ya!What you'll need: Green Paper, Red Paper, Yellow Paper, Paper Plate, Scissors, Pencil (or marker, pen, etc), Glue (or tape or stapler) First thing they'll need to do is trace their hands several times on both green and red paper. Depending on the their hand size- I'd say they'll need 10-12 of each color. My kids got seriously sick of cutting out hands, so I cut the plate to … [Read more...]
Cute Thanksgiving Treat!
My preschooler and her classmates take turns bringing the snack to school. She just happened to be assigned the last day before Thanksgiving break, so we decided to make something festive. Now, normally we take something healthy- so don't judge me!! I saw several versions of this treat, but decided the others were more intensive than necessary (drawing with icing, etc) and they all added more cookies and candy while using frosting as the "glue". I just can't feed my kids that much sugar!! And I … [Read more...]
Pumpkin Jars Tutorial
So one of my favorite Halloween crafts is making Pumpkin Jars! I love these cute pumpkins because unlike real pumpkins they are not going to rot! They will be as cute in a month as they are the day you pain them! Here is what you'll need for this easy craft:Glass jars of different sizes. I only had a jam jar laying around so I went to Goodwill and bought 3 more. 1 for everyone in my family. Orange and Black paint. We used acrylic because that is what I had on hand. Paint brushes- both … [Read more...]
Autumn Letters Tutorial
Autumn makes me feel crafty! I think because the weather is cooler I feel more inclined to do things rather than just sit in front of the air conditioner! I was searching on pinterest for some easy fall decor crafts and found a couple things. Here is the easy tutorial for my first autumn craft!I searched several craft stores for some wood letters in a font that I liked. Finally I came to Michael's and liked this font the best. I also settled for the paper that was on sale. I didn't get … [Read more...]
Ghostly Halloween Tree
My girls have been asking to do a craft, and since I’m starting to put Halloween décor everywhere, it’s getting me in the mood for some spooky crafting! I decided to take a page from the Easter crafts we did and just make it Halloween-ish. While the kiddos were at school, I found a gnarly branch in the front yard, spray painted it black and stuck it in a pot on the front porch.When the girls came home from school, I had our stuff ready: a box of tissues, yarn (you could always use ribbon- … [Read more...]
Cute Fall Tree Craft
I decided to mimic a craft that my oldest daughter did last year in her Kindergarten class. It is SUPER easy and so cute! All you need is construction paper and a glue stick. Here's what you do:1. Have a piece of blue paper ready2. Tear a thin-ish strip of green paper for grass and glue it to the bottom of the blue paper3. Tear brown or black paper in the shape of a tree and glue it onto the blue and green paper4. Tear little squares of red, orange and yellow paper; glue them to … [Read more...]
Fabric Flower Tutorial
We are about to leave on vacation to go to Seattle for my Brother's-in-law wedding. For this wedding my Mother-in-law made my daughter a dress to perfectly match their wedding colors. She then sent me the scraps of fabric and asked that I make a hair accessory for her. I've never made a fabric hair accessories so I searched online for some easy tutorials. This is what I came up with! My favorite tutorial came from Wise Craft. She provided a template to download, so you could cut out the flower … [Read more...]
