Spring flower sketch- Birthday Card inspired from Book illustration

I am very proud in sharing this beautiful card made by my 6 year old daughter.

This was inspired by an illustration in the book "The Owl and the Pussy Cat" by Edward Lear and Jan Brett.
Recently, she did an author study on Jan Brett. She came across a lot of Jan Brett's books and was particularly impressed by the illustrations.

Inspired from Jan Brett, she wishes to write books and do the illustrations herself too.

In order to make this lovely card- her first attempt to make something similar from a book,she used

Supplies-
Blank Card
Pencil colors
Pencil
Eraser
Book as mentioned above

Personally I thought she will save this card in her treasure box,as she was so excited she could do it so good. In her words- "Almost like the one in the book".She found a better use. She gifted it to one of her best friends.

Always, encourage and inspire your kids to do crafts or sketching or painting. You never know where their imagination takes them.

Handmade Valentine's Day Favor for Preschool Kids, Caterpillar Valentine's Day Craft Tutorial

" You Make My Heart Wiggle"

 
I made these adorable Caterpillar Pencil Favors  yesterday for my son's preschool classmates.  They will be celebrating Valentine's Day today in their class and exchanging little treasures with each other. He loves Eric Carle's Book - The Very Hungry Caterpillar so I decided to make this Caterpillar. I also added Finger LED lights as pencil toppers though that is totally optional.  The earlier post with butterflies is similar but my son was more excited about this one.

Here are supplies I used for this making the Caterpillar :

- Green , Red and White card stock

-  Martha Stewart Scoring Board ( Its not necessary. You can do simple accordion fold but since I had to make multiples (25) it came in real handy.

- 3/8 inch circle punch I used one from Recollections. You can use file or hand hole punch but I found the hole little small to insert pencils easily. If you find a  hand hole punch like this one ( 5/16 inch) it might work or you may have to punch twice to make the hole little bigger.

- Martha Stewart Heart Confetti Punch  I used it for eyes and mouth. You can simply draw them using markers if you do not have this or similar punch.

- Paper Trimmer

- Red and Black markers


- Glue

- Scissors

Steps for making the Caterpillar for pencil favor : 

- Put the green cardstock on the scoring board and score it at one inch intervals as shown in the picture. ( I scored along the longer side of 8.5 x 11 inches card stock). You can totally do accordion fold by hand if you are not making  a lot of these. I had to make 25 nos. and hence it was quicker to use scoring board.

- Cut 1inch x 8 inch strips from the scored card-stock ( cut perpendicular to the scored line not along the score)

 - Punch red and white mini hearts for eyes and heart and glue them to make the face. Use black marker to make the eyeballs.

- Round one end of the strip for the caterpillar face.

- Using the hole punch , punch out circles from the strip for inserting pencil.

- For the antennae of caterpillar use the punched out circles from above and glue them to 1 inch x 1/8inch strips from green cardstock. Color the center of the circles red. Fold the antennae at bottom ( around 1/8 inch) and glue as shown in the picture.

- ( Optional ) Write " You make my heart wiggle "  and from ( child's name) on the top and bottom edge, Older kids can write themselves or you can print and glue thin  strips instead of writing by hand.

- Add the pencil to the wiggly Caterpillar.

Here is another picture of Caterpillar Pencil Favors for Valentine's Day. As I mentioned above I added LED mini lights to the back of the pencil for added interest but its totally optional.

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you and your loved ones!

Curvy and Cutie Paper Caterpillar Craft

I think the first big word that my daughter learnt when she was 3 year old was CATERPILLAR. Thanks to the story book "The very hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. There was something about this book that she was always so fascinated by Caterpillar and the fact that it becomes Butterfly.

 For a while she thought any big word can only be caterpillar. Spring is finally here and she has been learning about the life cycle of a Butterfly in her 4 yr preschool. I felt it was the perfect time to finally post those pictures I have planned to post from long.

 I am sharing the caterpillar craft she did when her cousin came to visit us.They ended up naming the caterpillar. I guess it was Curvy and Cutie. Here is how you can make your own Curvy and Cutie Caterpillar.  

Supplies:
-Green print paper or construction paper
-Google Eyes
-Chennile stems
-Pom poms
-Glue
-Masking tape
-Bangle or similar material to make circle. You can use circle punch also.
-Safety Scissors

 Instructions: Follow the pictures. 

 Notes:
 -  While making this caterpillar kids learn making circle using another material. This is an important craft skill. Kids need to practice to get better at this.
 - Cutting circles adds to the fine motor skill practice that is so vital at this tender age.
 - If you feel your child's attention span is not long you might want to cut the circle and give or do this craft in two sittings. Cut circles in one and make caterpillar in another one.
 - To make it more interesting and reinforce the story you might start by reading Eric Carle's story book. The very hungry caterpillar or click on the link and show them the video where Eric Carle is reading the story himself.
- It is a fun group craft. Kids enjoy it more when done in group.
- It is easier and quicker to fix the chenille stems or pipe cleaner legs using masking tape, however if you do not have it you can use glue. Tacky glue works best but you have to leave it for a while to dry.

 Variations: You can use different colors of circles or you can use different sizes of circles to make it more interesting.

Handmade Birthday Cake Greeting card for 5th Birthday

Recently we celebrated my daughter's 5th Birthday. The moment this new year started she was all about reverse counting the number of days left for her birthday. I guess its like this for every 5 year old. Every time she goes for her friend's birthday party I make sure that she makes a card. She was complaining the other day that "I make card for everyone but most of my friends buy the card and send it. No one really takes the trouble to make it." She is right,except couple of her friends no one really makes it. Personally, I feel that making card for someone you care about is one of those gestures that express your sentiments at a whole different level. If you cannot make it, even then if you buy a handmade card it definitely tells that you took the time and made the effort to give a special card.

 I promised myself that this time I will make a unique card for her birthday. Just to inspire her and also for her to feel that mom cares and makes card for me too. Can you believe, I made it at the day of party as I was running out of time. With a new baby at home it is hard to find time. She was about to wake up and my husband tells me to drop everything and finish wrapping the gift and make the card. There is nothing more important than that. Trust me, I did what he said and ya, I agree, there was nothing more important than that.

So here it is, the card that I made for our daughter. Both of us (mom and dad) ended up writing inside in such a way that she could read. She is learning to read right now and getting better day by day.  

Supplies needed:
- Blank card
- Envelope
- Card stock yellow, red and polka dots
- Scissors
- Glue stick
- Colored Pens and pencils
 This is a kind of a 3D card you might say. The base is like a step cut-out and then there are individual strips with corners scored with a bone folder so that it looks 3d.

Decorate it with colored pens and pencils. Write the message and give it to your loved one. I guess the rest is self explanatory. If you have any questions about how I made it, feel free to ask. Didn't get a chance to take the picture while making it.

 PS.She loved the card and says I can't believe it mommy you made such a lovely card for me. She was happy that both of us wrote.

Valentine's day Paper strips Heart Craft Tutorial

For preschoolers Valentine's day begins as soon as they start making heart crafts in school. It was amazing to see my daughter (Anna) involved so much in this year's Valentine's day celebration. For her Valentine's day is all about making crafts for someone you love. They have been making Valentine's day crafts, puzzles, mazes etc the whole first two weeks of February. She had to take something for her friends for the Valentine's day party in her class. She wanted to make something for her teachers too.This is what we came up with. It was simple, different and based on the teacher's favorite color we decided which color paper to use.

Supplies:
 -Color Print Paper strips: 0.5 inch wide and length based on how big heart you want. We used 2 strips each of 5", 6",7.5" (in your choice of color)
 -Stapler or Glue
-Fish line or Ribbon
 -Color Pen

 

 Instructions:
For the first loop using 3 strips.
1. Apply glue on one end of the strip measuring 7.5",place the end of 6" and press.
2. Now apply glue on this and place end of 5" strip. Refer pictures.
3. Make a loop using the 5" (innermost) strip and glue the end as shown. 
4. Repeat with the rest of the strips. Make the second loop by repeating the above steps. Glue or staple these two loops that you made.

 

Variations
-Anna decided to write on the outermost strips for her teacher. So we used white strips for that.
-We also used the teacher's favorite color to decide who is getting which heart.

-She later decided to make one for her favorite aunt in the colors which are her son's and Anna's favorite.This one she made with no help from me at all.
 Notes:
-We found that glue worked better than staples so in the last one we used glue to stick the loops together.
 -To attach string we used stapler.(optional)
 -Parents should do the stapler part for younger kids and supervise for little older kids. For her friends we got some heart shaped erasers and lollipops. We packed it in cute packing. It was an extension of a craft we did earlier. We will share that with you soon.

Christmas Decoration 3D snowflake or Star

With the holiday spirit all around us this weekend our Christmas tree is also up with some ornaments from past year.
Though it is not a festival that we celebrate religiously, we love the festivity of this festival. So every year it is becoming a tradition at our house that we put a Christmas tree and decorate it with beautiful handmade ornaments. We also love to make other beautiful Christmas decorations and put them all around the house. Now my soon to be 4 year old daughter is adding to the enthusiasm of making the ornaments. She demands we make one ornament everyday till December 24th. Let us see if we can fulfill her wish. With the holiday orders keeping us busy at our little shop Navanka Creations, will try my best to keep her spirits up. Even if I am not able to post it at the blog everyday, we will keep making it and will definitely share them with you as and when we will get chance. There are some popular Christmas decorations and crafts that are loved by all. We will share with all our readers what we love in particular. Sometimes it is not known who has made it originally but if  we find something interesting and worth learning we will share it with you with all the relevant details. You are also welcome to share any particular craft you like. You can leave the link in the comments or send us an email at craftideasforall@gmail.com

This particular project is a six point star or snowflake as some prefer to call it.
We have used dual color origami paper to get a better effect. You can also use single color or metallic origami paper for the project.



Supplies needed:
- 6 square sheets of origami paper( we used 5 inch square)
- Scissors
- Double sided tape
- Stapler
- Fish line

I found this video by kongo204 which shows how to make this star beautifully. I love the holiday music in the video too . Click here to watch the video.

Hope you have fun making this for yourself or another crafty friend.
Happy Holidays everyone.

Tip:
1. You can make it in a smaller size or bigger size depending on the size of the paper you have or your needs. Smaller stars make cute ornaments.

2. You can follow the steps with just one piece of paper and make that in a smaller size to make an ornament. They look cute too.

3. Make it all white or silver for it to be a Snowflake.

Crazy Incredibles Pumpkin Craft for Preschoolers

Like last year this year also we participated in the Pumpkin decoration activity for kids, organised by Michaels
My 3.5 yr old daughter was so excited for the event. She just could not wait for the event to begin. You have to buy the pumpkin and they will provide the supplies and parents or care taker has to help out kids.
This crazy pumpkin design is 100% her own creation. I guess she was actually inspired by the one they kept for demo purpose. But the color combination and the eyes are all her imagination.
She had a blast making this one. It took a long time but considering her age I guess that was expected.We were very happy to see her happy.

Supplies you will need:
-Faux pumpkin
-Self sticking Foam sheets-black and white
-Pom Poms different sizes, different colors
-Google eyes :Jumbo size
-Chennile stems or pipe cleaners
-Safety scissors
-Pinking scissors
-craft knife
-Tacky Glue
-Feathers various colors
-Pencil/marker

Step wise instructions on how to make this Incredibles inspired Crazy Pumpkin
1. On a self sticking black foam sheet draw the shape of the eye mask. Cut it.SHould be done by adults or may be Adult supervision if the child is used to cutting.

2. Similarly on a black self sticking foam sheet draw the smile of the pumpkin.Cut it.
3. On a self sticking White foam sheet draw pointed crazy teeth and cut with pinking scissors or normal scissors are also fine.
4. Use tacky glue to stick pompom. For the rest of it normal glue is also fine.
5.Stick the feathers, google eyes etc.
6. For the crazy curly hair, roll the chennile stems or pipe cleaners on a pencil or marker and take them out.Some kids need Adults help to do this till they get hang of it.
7. At the end of the curly hair, just insert a little pom pom of contrasting color.
8. To insert the chennile stem hair, use something pointed to make hole, like pointed scissors or craft knife. Adults should make the holes and let the kids insert the hair.

Use you imagination to make it more crazy or different crazy. The possibilities are endless.
Have fun. Happy Halloween!!.

Tips:

-Use tacky glue in moderation. Works really well with little amount and sticks pretty quickly.I loved this one as kids get frustrated when things take time to stick.If you take too much tacky glue it will take longer time to dry and hence does not serve the purpose.
-For making hair, little kids might get tired, Adults please help them. Little hands get tired pretty quickly.

Wooden Bead Necklace Preschool Craft

It gives me immense pride to share this craft with you all. This is my daughter's first attempt at bead craft. Both of us are so proud of this project.

I was just waiting for her to turn 3 year old so desperately that she gets to use things which are labelled as small parts, only for 3 year old and above. She was ready before that but still I was waiting.

This is one of the simplest crafts if you look at it. But, definitely a feel good craft for a preschooler. They do get sense of achievement after completing this.
I could see it is a little challenging for them.
It is very good for honing their fine motor skills.Also, they get to learn and experience patterns.
It can be tiring too, so its ok for parents to help in between just to help them to complete the project. To be honest, at the end of it my daughter was all worked up and the tiny fingers wanted rest, but the little heart wanted to wear that necklace as soon as possible. So I pitched in.


She got this cute box she got the other day from Joann, its a $1 box which comes with 4 crayons on top to color this little ballerina.
Once the necklace was completed she wore it. But she had a box ready to keep it safe.
I think it is great craft for kids.


Useful Tips:

1. Wooden beads were bought from Dollar Tree. Not all of them are perfect. Parents might want to sort the good ones and give to kids to avoid frustration.
2. For cording the beads your best bet is thin elastic as shown in the picture. I tried jewellery color cords as well as hemp meant for jewellery making, beading and crafting, but they are not great for little hands. The tip does not remain stiff for long. Craft needles meant for kids are too thick for this project.
3. The beads I bought had one sample elastic. More can be bought from sewing supply store. Walmart, Michaels and Joann have them.
4. For quicker projects you might want to make a bracelet.
5. For preschooler boys, you might want to get square beads in blue, black, red, orange or brown.You can also select a different box.

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.

Paper Quilled Theme Photo Frames for Kids

Like most of my creations, this one was inspired for two kids who happen to be my kiddo's closest and best friends. It just so happened that while thinking about some new product ideas for our online etsy shop (which I call product development) it dawned on me what to create if it were to gift to both of them. Luckily I didn't have to think much. I had a helper, my 3 yr old daughter helped me out.
She immediately told Fire Truck and balloons for Aarav and Air plane or Space ship for Arhunth. What followed was cute little photo frames with paper quilling embellishments of their choice.

It is so interesting to watch kids interpretate your creation. I was happy that Aarav could really see the fire truck in those paper quilled strips. And yes, what I thought was balloons were actually lollipops for him. Thankfully those are his favorites too. I learnt my lesson, look for a better way to make balloons :-)
This is what Aarav got for his birthday.



Now it was Arhunth's turn to get something personalised. He loves airplanes of any kinds. My daughter Anoushka had recently learnt about space shuttle so that was her obvious choice. This is what Arhunth got as a keepsake gift, a picture frame with paper quilled space shuttle and paper quilled alphabet A. This time I got full marks as he was able to identify the space shuttle as well as the alphabet A.


Both kids loved it, as well as their moms. Anoushka loved giving it to them.

Father's Day Gift Idea

This is what we made for Father's day. My student's father is a big fan of the game of cricket. So we thought a photo frame embellished with quilled cricket bat, ball and the wickets may be a great idea. This could be a great idea for embellishing scrapbook page for Father's day as well.

We used an unfinished photo frame from Michaels craft store and painted it before adding the quilled pieces. We added the letters " DAD" on top to finish the project. We don't know yet if her father liked it. She is working hard to keep it a surprise and may end up giving it to him for his Birthday that falls a week before Father's day.

Happy Father's day to all our readers.

Fun Balloon Critters Craft for kids

Recently, we had loads of fun making these Fun Balloon Critters. I mean really, this is one of those times when you suddenly come up with an idea and let the on the spot creativity do the rest of the work.

My niece who is about 4.5 yrs old was here at our home and her parents had to go shopping. I was baby sitting her and my daughter who is 3 yrs old. Both of them wanted to do some fun craft. When they want something fun it has to be really fun and that too immediate. I was running out of ideas. I had a lot of balloons in our house, thanks to my daughter's birthday party.
So, in order to make a creative use of these balloons we finally agreed on Fun balloon crafts.



These critters that you see in the picture are purely 100% their imagination. They kept telling me what kind of shapes and features they want and I was cutting them using colored peel and stick foam sheets.



I was so amazed by their imagination. What followed was more and more Fun Balloon Critters and hours of fun. Naming the balloons (eg the ones here are Spongi bobi the one with rectangle eyes, blue witch, teethy girlie monster,bunny rabbity), Balloon fights, critter stories, pretend play. You name it and they were doing it.

Supplies:
- Balloons
- Peel and stick foam sheets
- Scissors

Let your kids use your imagination and have fun doing this easy and unique craft.

Tips:
-This is a wonderful activity for a Playdate or for a Birthday Party.
-Have some extra supplies as when the balloons blow out while playing, you need to motivate them to make new ones and play again.
- You can also used pre-cut foam stickers if you want to avoid use of scissors. Advantage is that you do not have to supervise much but then that limits a child's imagination to the availability of sticker shapes.

Origami Paper Airplane

Give wings to your creativity....

As promised we are back with the step-by-step instructions for making these wonderful origami paper airplanes.
Let us start with this blue airplane. The first one we learned from our mom. Blue is the color of sky and what other color better than this to represent flying in the sky.We have started with this airplane as this is the simplest and does not have many steps to follow. For a beginner this is the best paper airplane to start with. Believe me it flies high and longer too.

So let us start making this beautiful paper airplane.

You will need:

-A4 sheet paper (yes that's about it) in your choice of color.

Instructions :
Follow the step by step instructions and refer to the corresponding pictures as shown below:


1. Take the A4 sheet paper and lay it on a flat surface.

2. Fold the A4 sheet paper in half as shown in picture. Crease and open it.

3. Hold the left corner and bring it to the crease at center. Crease. Repeat for
right corner. The paper will look as in picture step 3.

4. The paper as in step 3 has a pointed end. Hold it and fold it downwards as shown
in step 4. Crease 3 times using finger or back of a spoon.

5. Again take the left end corner and bring it to the center crease line. Press it
firmly using back of spoon or fingers three times. Repeat for right end corner.
It will look like as shown in step 5.



6. Hold the tip of the little upside down triangle as in step 5 and fold it upwards.
Refer step 6.

7. Fold the paper backwards and crease as shown in step 7.

8. Now take the upper part of the flap and fold again and make sharp crease as shown.
Repeat it for the lower flap too.Crease firmly. You can use back of table spoon
to make it easier. These will be the wings of the airplane.

9. Turn it over. Now it will resemble the shape of the airplane.

10.Turn it over again and flatten it by holding at center and rubbing on a flat
surface.

Your paper airplane is ready to take off. Have fun. The more you make the better you get at it.


Tips
-Click on the picture to see bigger image.

-Boys and girls both can have hours of fun playing together. You can even have competitions of whose airplane is faster and whose airplane flies longer.

-You can use old magazines papers as well to make this paper airplane. Also,you can take used gift wrapping paper,cut in A4 size sheet to make it.When these paper airplanes are made from such used papers they make wonderful green crafts and are more colorful and different too.

-You can use different sizes of rectangular papers to make different sizes of these airplanes.

-You can decorate them too, write your names, make your own designs or even write some airlines names too.

Paper Airplanes

Coming Soon...with more photographs and complete instructions.
Paper Airplanes have been our favorite since childhood. I remember making them along with my younger sister (co-blogger). I think our mom introduced us to the world of paper airplanes,boats and origami for that matter. When we first saw it, it was mesmerising.It seemed like magic. How a flat piece of paper can be converted to something so beautiful and 3D. All you have to do is to follow the simple steps. The idea of making the your own toy and that too in any color you want and as many as you want was so fascinating. I have recently made these for my daughter and some of the kids of my friends and they have been a huge hit. Though some of them knew how to make one of those airplanes, they were really excited to know how to make the others. I must say variety is the key with kids. Some of my readers requested to post some crafts for boys. Though all the craft we make here can be made by Boys too, I think this will definitely be a favorite among boys.Paper Airplanes, though sound simple