Personalised Frame Art and Tissue Paper Flowers

This summer creativity is in air. The summer craft classes are in full swing and I am glad I have such curious and amazing students.

The age range is 6 to 9 yrs and it is a great pleasure to share their lovely creations with all of you.

The above frame art was created by a brother and sister for their father.
The process of creating personaliazed pieces of art is very interesting.
For the same person, different people have different views. Like in this case for their Dad the kids have different opinions. They have different best memories with him.
At such a tender age they do have an opinion and know how to express it. One wants to call their father Dad and one Papa. The boy's memory of the best time he and his father spent together was when he played Cricket with him and the daughter's was when she went to Washington DC with him and she also said she loves it whenever they go outside together.

The picture frame project was designed to capture these special moments. Whenever they will look at the frame it will remind them about the wonderful time they spent together as well as the thought behind the project. Later they put their favorite picture with their father in the frame.

The best thing about the discussion was, it made them super excited about the project. Apart from learning expressing one's thoughts and feelings using craft projects, they learnt about template design, use of templates to cut various shapes,cutting intricate shapes using scissors, different kinds of glues, working with wood, working with self sticking foam and felt. The kids later told their Dad/Papa loved it.





During one of their classes they made tissue paper flowers. They made Fringed double color tissue paper flower and pleated multi-color paper flowers. They came out real well considering they made tissue paper flowers for the first time. Definitely this time the girl liked it more than the boy but I must say that the boy also tries his level best to attempt and enjoy all kinds of crafting challenges. As a teacher it is very fulfilling to see the students enjoy what they do.I wish them all the very best and many more hours of crafting fun.

Thanksgiving Table Centerpiece

Happy Thanksgiving to all. Hope all of you had a wonderful time with family and friends. This year we did loads of shopping and some quick craft too.
It was an improvisation over a craft I made earlier. It did not take much time and it did brighten our little thansgiving table.

Supplies:

Candle stand
Artificial Fall leaves
Turkey

You can use any Turkey craft you made or any turkey toy at hand. The one I used was made of origami paper using very simple techniques and some self sticking foam sheets. For detailed instructions on how to make Paper Turkey click here.

Simply wind the fall leaves stem around the candle stand. Use a length which is suitable to your candle stand. There are no hard and fast rules here. Just make sure it is away from the flame. Keep the turkey near the candle stand.
Your beautiful and easy Thanksgiving Centerpiece is ready.
If you are interested in knowing more about Thanksgiving in United States click here.
Thanksgiving is celebrated in different countries on different days. For example in Canada, Thanksgiving is the second Monday in October. Thanksgiving is celebrated all around the world to thank Lord for bountiful harvest, His blessings and the prosperity that he bestowed upon us.There are variations in the way it is celebrated and the day it is celebrated. You can read about it here. However, the underlying theme of this wonderful festival remains the same. Thanking God for everything. We use this opportunity to thank God, our family and friends.
Happy TURKEY Day.

Coin Purse with Foam Stickers

This cute little coin purse was decorated by my 2 year old daughter on her birthday. I was not too sure whether this project was ideal for her age or not. Still I gave it a try. To my pleasant surprise it was a great hit. The moment I showed her this coin foam purse and the glitter stickers, she got so excited. This purse is still the favorite handmade possesion she has. Decorating the foam coin purse with attractive foam stickers is a very good activity for little kids esp girls.
You as a parent just need to give them the supplies and let their creativity juices flow. Help only when they ask for it. Once it is done, they feel so happy about creating something on their own. It boosts their confidence.What follows is hours of playing and admiration of their own little creation. This is a good idea for birthday favors as well as play dates.
This is how we did it.
Supplies needed-
Ready to decorate Foamies Coin purse 3 1/2" tall & 4" wide .
Foam stickers with glitter flowers and leaves

Follow the pictures for the steps of creating this cute craft.



Tip
The purse and stickers are easily available in craft stores like Michaels and Hobby Lobby. It is cheaper to get them online if you need them for lot of kids. Click the links above for some of the resources I found online.

Foam Sheet Flower Wall Art

This Foam Flowers Wall art is one of those quick crafts that your toddler will love and cherish everytime he or she sees it. It needs a little preparation ahead of the crafting time. In your leisure time (which I know is hard to find with a toddler in the house:-)) cut 4 petal flowers using craft knife or scissors. As shown in the illustration you need to cut them in three different sizes. I recommend using contrasting colors. Cutting them on peel and stick foam sheets make this a lot easier and quick. Now, take the largest flower as base (do not peel off), stick the smaller flowers one over the other in decreasing sizes. Also, cut a small circle to make the center of the flower. Refer to the illustration to see how the flower should look like. These peel and stick foam sheets are easily available in Michaels or Walmart or online on Amazon.com

Once your flower is ready only other supply you need is contrasting card stock of a suitable size that can accomodate the flower. Let your toddler peel the largest flower and stick it to the card stock. If your toddler is trying stickers for the first time it is a good idea to make two such flowers so that you can show them how to peel and stick. Display this Foam Sheet Flower Wall Art in your kids room where he can see it everyday and be happy that he made it. Believe me it adds lots of confidence in them. I made it with my daughter and she is so proud that she made it. Do try it.

Tip: You can cut any thing attractive which appeals to your toddler, like umbrella or butterfly using different colors of peel and stick foam sheet.

Quick Framed Art

When I bought bedding set for my newborn I found that the set includes Valance which I could not use as I live in an apartment and it has huge windows so it won't fit anyways.
The whole bedding set was utilized optimally except this valance. As my baby grew a bit older and started looking at things close by with great interest I realized since the valance has great embroidered patch work of Lion and Elephant it will make great wall pieces and will interest my daughter a lot if place on the wall.

Quickly I cut out two separate pieces one each of that of lion and the elephant embroidery. After measuring the size of the final art piece with a measuring tape I kept about 1.5 inches on all four sides and cut out two cardboard pieces. I used the box of a recently bought toy for her.
The next step was to cutout strips of self adhesive foam sheets.

I selected fluorescent green as that was the base colour of the bedding set and seemed to go well with the design. I had bought these foam sheets from Michaels. If the color you like is not available in self adhesive foam sheets you can use the regular foam sheets and stick them with glue.
Its best to cut the foam sheets using craft knife. I used Fiskars Fingertip Craft knife
Once the frame is ready the last step is to put the hanging cord. I used a beautiful cord I had kept from one of the gift bags received. You can use any other thick cord or ribbon for this purpose. Cut a piece of about 3inches. Now, on the back of the frame mark two points about 1.5 inches apart so that its the center of the frame. Place the cord there and fix it using tape. You can use scotch tape or double sided tape for this purpose. Michaels is a great place to shop for craft supplies. Usually the things that I use are the basic things you will need to make most of the crafts so its a good idea to have the various kinds of glues, ribbons, tapes in stock.
Once the cord is attached then you can hand the framed art to a place where its easily visible for your baby to look at and enjoy.