![]() Fairly easy craft for a preschooler or older child and not a lot of materials. This was inspired by one of the many Usborne drawing and craft books. 1. Have your child draw a large circle in crayon (brown or orange are best for more realistic lion but any color is fine) on the paper. This will be the face of your lion. 2. Then draw semi-circles at the top (or as close as possible) for the ears. 3. Draw the mane by having your child draw lines out from the circle's edge (the way one would make sun and its rays, just a lot more lines). 4. Draw a loose upside triangle in black for the nose and "U" shapes for the mouth. Add whiskers with quick lines. 5. Draw circles for the eyes.
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![]() An easy craft for kids of all ages to make for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day or any other special occasion. Materials Needed:
1. Draw a heart shape on your piece of paper or card stock. 2. Cut out your heart. 3. Use glue to attach buttons and other embellishments in pattern of your choice. ![]() This is a great craft for kids of all ages and fairly quick to complete. Materials Needed:
1. Take a piece of paper and fold it in half and then draw half a heart. 2. Cut out the heart and unfold it. Place it on your piece of white paper. 3. Take a pencil and dip the eraser end into your paint and dab it on your white paper around the edge of your heart. Continue until you have "stamped" around the entire heart. Adults may need to help younger ones stamp and hold the template in place. 4. Remove your paper and you should see a heart shape stamped in paint. 5. Repeat steps 1-4 for the next size heart. I'd recommend starting with largest to smallest heart. 6. Let paint dry. You can keep it plain as we did or decorate further or write a special Valentine's Day message. ![]() A very elegant looking Valentine's Day craft that is still very easy to make. Materials Needed:
1. Place small doily on one piece of paper and trace the doily shape. Cut out the tracing and then glue it to the back of the small doily. Repeat this step for the next doily. You can use solid or pattern paper as your background. 2. Once all doilies have been glued to their paper backgrounds, then glue the smallest doily to the next biggest doily and so on for a layered effect. 3. Decorate the front as desired. We used a foam heart sticker and then dipped a pencil's eraser in some pink paint and "stamped it in an outline. 4. Write your message on the back and/or decorate the back as well. ![]() I Only Have Eyes for You Here is a very easy and cute craft that even the youngest child can do, with a little help. And there are several variations you can choose. Materials Needed:
2. Pres thumb to smaller piece of paper. If you want a small monster, then it will take one or two thumbprints. A larger monster (as seen above) will take several prints or you can use the sponge. 3. Take a paintbrush or use finger to paint the arms and legs. 4. Let the paint dry a little and then use glue to apply the googly eyes. The number of eyes is up to your little artist. 5. If you want, use scallop scissors to cut a border around the paper. Then glue it to your larger sheet. 6. Use marker or pen to write your special Valentine's message or you can write something for any other occasion. You can make your monster as small or large as you choose and you can design a fancier card as well. See below: ![]() Supplies Needed:
A wonderful Father's Day craft for all ages. My son's preschool did this craft. I couldn't find the exact template so I made one with a different font for the words. You can download it here.
Here are alternatives for this craft that you can do as well:
![]() Supplies Needed:
This is a great Father's Day craft that kids of all ages will enjoy. Younger kids will need more assistance but they can do it. This craft was inspired by the rocket craft from All Kids Network. 1. Print out the template from All Kids Network and cut out (or have your child cut) the rocket ship and moon. I would have an adult cut the circle in the rocket to accommodate the photo. 2. Trace your child's hand (older kids can do this themselves) - one hand on orange paper and one hand on red paper. Then cut them out. 3. If you don't already have a photo on hand, then print one out. 4. Cut the photo to the proper size and tape it in position to the back of the rocket. 5. Have your child position the hands the way they want to look like flames. You may want to cut off the thumb at least, if not the thumb and pinky, to make it look right. You can tape the flames to the back of the rocket and then glue the whole thing to the paper but it seemed unwieldy for my younger child. We found it easiest to position the rocket and flames where you want and then glue the flames in place on the paper and then glue the rocket. 6. Have your child write a message. In my 3 1/2-year old son's case, we shortened the message from "I Love you to the moon and back" to "I (heart) you" with a heart sticker because he can't write very well - see picture below. 7. Glue the moon. Place the star stickers where desired. 8. Decorate the rocket. My kids both chose self-adhesive gems but you can use any kind of foam or regular stickers or even draw a design. With my preschool-age son, we used the larger gems because they were easier for him to handle and place on the rocket all by himself. My elementary-school daughter had the dexterity to use the tiny gems. ![]() Supplies Needed:
This is probably best for school-age kids to do for Father's Day or even for Daddy's birthday. My daughter did this in school but you can find the template to make your own from All Kids Network here. They had instructions for using string to hold the book together but you can also staple it. Note: If you're more experienced with computers and printers you can double-side print pages 3-4 and 5-6. And swap pages 1-2 (using a photo editing program is easiest) and then you're down to two pages for the book and no cutting and string necessary. However, if your child uses markers then the images will bleed through. Print the three template pages from All Kids Network and let your child draw and write what they're thinking. You might end up with some funny ones. Depending on your child's attention span, you might want to break this project up into mini sessions. ![]() This Disney Frozen landscape was a lot of fun to put together and a great addition for my daughter's Frozen Birthday Party and took about two hours to put together. One note, it is very difficult to find snow or winter items in the off-season (our party was in May) or very expensive. I was lucky to borrow several items from my mother's decoration stash and from my own holiday decor. However, she only had one can of fake snow spray. I had enough for these windows but ran out for the other windows in the room. There are several homemade alternatives such as using icing, which did look like snow, but I didn't want to attract ants. I chose to use toothpaste instead and no one noticed the difference in the windows. Big tip: If you use toothpaste, do it at least the night before a party because the entire room will smell like mint. ![]() These Frozen figures really were a hit and accented the winter scene nicely. It took about an hour for me to make them. I found pictures of all the main characters and printed them out on white paper. I cut out the shape and then traced it onto cardboard (I used the box all my goody bag items came in - recycling at its best!). Then I cut out the cardboard (in the same shape as the paper picture). And then I used a glue stick to attach the paper picture to the cardboard. I took a small piece of cardboard and taped it to the back to stand it up. I also used stuffing to help the figures stand in the "snow." ![]() The rest of the scene took about 1 hour for my mother and I to create. I used fake snow spray on the windows. We strung a wire across the top and hung glittery plastic snowflake decorations (using wire) . We strung two strands of snowflake lights but you could also use icicle lights. The crystal trees were fake decorations that can be found in craft stores like Michaels. Some were placed in glass vases filled with plastic crystals. ![]() The snow along the bottom was simply stuffing that we rolled out. Then we glammed it up with fake snow shavings, small plastic glittery snowflakes and irridescent stuffing (kind of like what you'd use in an Easter basket). The glass tree looks ice-covered. My mother found them at a store a while ago, which was lucky for me but you can find something similar at a craft store. The windows were "frosted" with fake snow spray. There are other homemade options including using toothpaste or white icing. ![]() Supplies Needed:
I was inspired by some of the crayon crafts in The Usborne Big Book of Playtime Activities and Usborne's I Can Draw Animals. I did this with my preschooler (4-5 yrs old), basically guiding her but she drew everything in this picture herself. Depending on your child's ability and attention span, it may take a few practices to get a picture like this. That's ok. 1. I asked my daughter to draw circles to make the faces first. Then I suggested she make ovals for the ears and for the inside of the ears. 2. For the bodies, I suggested circles or ovals. As you can see the purple bunny isn't really either shape, but it still looks cute. We kept it simple by adding a circle for the tail. 3. Then she added grass by scribbling in green. 4. Then she made shrubs by drawing swirls in green and yellow. There is a great app called Squiggles (from Lazoo) for teaching young kids to draw swirls and other shapes. |
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March 2018
AuthorSandra K. Lee is a freelance writer and stay-at-home mom with a 8-year-old princess & a 4-year-old superhero in Middlesex County, New Jersey. |