Tag Archives: easy crafts

Bird’s Nests – Easy Craft Projects

My family loves to watch for the return of birds in the spring. We often get a pair of nesting robins in our yard. Here are two ways for your children to make charming bird’s nests of their own. Both work for preschool children and up. Spaghetti Nests Uncooked thin spaghetti (thin is easier to break than regular) Brown craft paint (washable works fine) A small round bowl or disposable round container Foil or plastic wrap Cover your bowl with aluminum foil or plastic wrap to protect it. If you are using a disposable container you don’t have to protect … Continue reading →

Make Your Own Envelopes

A lot of people these days are making beautiful cards with photos, stamps, trinkets, ephemera, and scrapbook paper. There are entire magazines devoted to card making. Why stop there? You can make your own envelopes very easily. All you need is your chosen paper, a glue stick, scissors, and a pattern. You can download patterns from the internet, buy a stencil pattern, or simply unfold an envelope and use it for your pattern. I like to just use an unfolded envelope. Once you’ve made a few, you can even pretty much guess at the dimension you need for special shaped … Continue reading →

Easy Paper Dolls and Paper Shapes

Here’s a simple craft that’s guaranteed to charm young children. As a plus, it only takes paper and scissors. We called this craft “paper dolls” when I was little, but it’s really paper shapes. To make your own shapes, fold a piece of paper back on itself by a couple of inches. Keep folding until you have a zigzag accordion of paper. On the top of the paper you can draw the shape you want. The simple doll shape is a favorite. But think about hearts, snowmen, gingerbread men, shamrocks, or even dinosaurs. You can also change the look of … Continue reading →

Bookmarks To Encourage Reading, and Gifts Too

Bookmarks can be as simple as cutting a rectangle out of paper. The paper can be gorgeous scrapbook paper, contstruction paper, or even a page torn from a magazine. To make sturdier bookmarks you can use cardstock. Another option is cut a rectangle out of a cereal or cracker box. Glue paper or even fabric to this thin cardboard and trim the edges. For paper you can use children’s drawings, scrapbook paper, magazine cutouts, photographs, stickers, or stationery. If you are making the bookmark for a gift, it’s fun to follow the theme of the theme of the book. Grandparents … Continue reading →

Fun With Rubber Bands

Rubber bands are good for a lot more than just shooting at your brother. Here are some craft ideas that are almost “instant”. They don’t even need glue or anything messy! All you need is some colorful rubber bands and something to put them on. Here I started with a candle, a plastic container, and a gift box. You can also use the rubber band idea on vases, pencil cups, and flower pots. To decorate them all, stretch rubber bands around them. It’s that easy. Kids like to do this so much that you may have to hide the rubber … Continue reading →

Pressing Flowers

If your flowers haven’t wilted in the hot, dry weather then it’s a great time of year to try pressing flowers. Why would you press flowers? Because they turn out beautiful with very little effort. Because they are an inexpensive project that teaches appreciation of nature. And because you can use them for cards, art projects, gift tags, and even bookmarks. Flower presses are nice to have, they offer even pressure on the flowers and are often treated with nonstick materials. But if you want to give this hobby a try before you spend any money then an old phone … Continue reading →

Fuse Bead Fun – Easy Crafts

I boxed up all our “melty beads” last week. That’s what we called the fuse beads made by Hama or Perler beads. We have done so many projects over the years with these beads. We’ve made refrigerator magnets, items for mobiles, package tags, Christmas ornmanets, and much more. If you’ve never used these beads, you should give them a try. They come in all sorts of colors, even clear, sparkly and glow-in-the-dark. You place the beads flat on a form. Some of the forms are shaped like baby chicks, children, dogs, dolphins, or rainbows. Other forms are just large circles … Continue reading →

Pencil Cups – Easy Craft Idea

Pencil cups is a very easy craft project to help ease into the coming school days. You will need empty metal containers and paper. We used empty circular tea tins, a can of nuts, and a can baking soda can. As for paper, it can be anything – construction paper, scrapbook paper, a design you’ve printed off your computer, a plain sheet of paper the children colored, or even gift wrap. I like the sturdiness of scrapbook paper, they don’t fade like construction paper, or rip easily, but the others do work. Make sure the paper will wrap around the … Continue reading →

Bottle Cap Magnets

Our refrigerator is just about covered with bottle caps. The boys and I had great fun making these bottle cap magnets over the last few days. You will need: Metal bottle caps (from soda or beer, or buy plain ones from the craft store) Magnet sheets (the ones that have an adhesive on one side make this extra easy) Glaze (Mod-Podge or Diamond Glaze or what we used – Krylon Clear Glaze) Tacky Glue Pictures, Paper, or Drawings Cut out small circles from magazines, postcards, photos, or plain paper. If the kids want to they can make their own drawings … Continue reading →

Easy Tie-Dye T-shirts

Last weekend, my family made tie-dye shirts – the easy way. We are very pleased with the results and the ease of the spray method. I have made tie-dye shirts before where you dip the shirts in dye. The results are beautiful, but it’s a messy and complicated project to do and to clean up from. Last week I noticed spray tie-dye bottles at the craft store. We bought red, blue, and yellow, thinking that the primary colors would mix. We also bought orange, because it’s my husband’s favorite color. The colors didn’t mix, but the results were still great. … Continue reading →