Tag Archives: craft

Jan13

Toddler Craft, Bottle Cap Beetles

Posted on January 13, 2014 by thestick81

Here’s a cute fine motor activity for the little ones using recycled objects from around the home. Made by All Tizzied Up over the school holidays.

Hover over or click on the images below for more details.

Bottle caps of your choice, craft glue, a round piece of card board or plastic, pipe cleaners and goggly eyes

Let the kids glue the caps all over the circle shape

Glueing bottle caps

Glue goggly eye into caps at the top.

attache pipe cleaner or paddle pop legs using PVA or hot glue

Attache ribbon to hang

Jan3

Rainbow Tutu Bag. With Step By Step Instructions.

Posted on January 3, 2014 by thestick81

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Rainbow Tutu Bag. With Step By Step Instructions.

How cute are these? And so simple to make if you can get your hands on a few cheap materials. All Tizzied Up and her girls put these together as little Christmas gift bags.

All you need is some tulle in your choice of colours, a cheap elastic headband and some small calico or reusable bags (available at most $2 shops) and some ribbon or other embellishments if you choose. Oh, and a hot glue gun, of course!

Cut the tulle into lengths long enough to reach the bottom of your bags when folded over. For these bags, that was 30cm. You can buy tulle in 15cm wide rolls, this makes the job a lot easier than cutting the strips from a large piece, it is quite fiddly to work with. Fold the now cut strip of tulle in half and push the folded part through the bottom row of the head band so it is poking through a little, then thread the 2 loose ends through the loop you have just created and pull tight. Repeat this process right around the head band. Stretch over the bag and hold in place with a few spots of hot glue.

For the embellishment on the above bag, several ribbons were secured with hot glue, then piled together and stuck down, finishing off with a fabric embellishment. You could use anything though, buttons, curly ribbons, or just leave it as a plain skirt. Here is another example that All Tizzied Up made for my DD as she is a huge Peppa fan.

More detailed instructions available by running over the photos below.

What you need

Cut into 30cm lengths or as long as you need to cover your bag when folded over

Fold in half,

push the folded end through to create a loop,

Pull loose ends through the loop to secure

Repeat until you have a mini Tutu

Gather then strip and cut off any uneven ends

Flue to your bag (card is to stop glue sticking back together

Glue ribbon loops

Glue on top of each other.

Add embellishment if desired.

Tutu Bag Complete.

Dec11

Christmas Craft for Kids, Snowflake Garland

Posted on December 11, 2013 by thestick81

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Christmas Craft for Kids, Snowflake Garland

We started making snow flakes from patty cake pans – as you do, they were so pretty, I figured we should use them for something more than making a mess.

I am sure everyone has made snow flakes before, so I won’t worry about elaborating on instructions. We used the tin foil patty cake pans, then laminated them so they wouldn’t break and could be strung up easier. I strung them up with fishing line, but any kind of string would have been fine. Pretty Cool results I think.

Dec11

Easy Kids Craft – Hanging Christmas Decoration

Posted on December 11, 2013 by thestick81

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These are really simple to make and kids of all ages can help. Mr8 actually showed me how to make one, then we extended on the concept to create this hanging ornament.

It is really just 2 card board stars slotted into each other at right angles to create a ‘3D star’ as he calls them. But we made 4 different sized and hung them form some cotton. We covered each star with some paper from a themed wrapping pack, so they were not all exactly the same, but similar enough to ‘match’. The whole project took about 20 minutes for 3 of us and looks pretty cool! Further instructions available if you open or scroll over each picture.

Draw the star shapes on some card. We used cookie cutters to make it easier.

If using plain card, glue on some wrapping paper

Cut out and glue paper to the other side

Covering second side then cut out again.

Cut one star to the middle from one side, then the other star from the opposite side to the middle again.

Slot together and you have 3D stars

Hand on some string

3D Star Ornament.

Dec5

Christmas Tree Decoration

Posted on December 5, 2013 by thestick81

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Maybe I should rename this blog ‘101 alternate uses for Christmas Baubles’, lol. Here is something we put together this afternoon. It took about 45 minutes and stands over a meter tall. As usual, I struggled to take a photo of it, I really need to learn how to use my camera properly.

The sticks are those ornamental ones you buy from home decor shops, I think these ones actually came from The Reject Shop as around $4 a bundle. We cut them to size with secateurs and glued with hot glue, I reinforced the corners with zip ties. The stem is glued on – it is not weight bearing! Then starting at the top we glued the bead string to one side, worked out the length needed to reach the other side, cut the string, threaded on some baubles, and glued the cut end to the other side. Repeat, working your way down the tree. To create the zig zag look, the strands are 12cm/5cm apart down each side.

Once upright, I shortened each string on the baubles by just tying another knot in them. Glued on the star (came with the pack of baubles, $8 for the lot), and we are done.

What you’ll need

The tree frame

Mr8 helping glue

Glue the beads to what will be the back of the frame

Work your way down.

Christmas Tree Wall Art

Bauble Tree.

Dec5

Paper Plate Angel Garland – Christmas Craft

Posted on December 5, 2013 by thestick81

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Paper Plate Angel Garland – Christmas Craft

These are very easy to make and can be as fancy or as simple as you like.

I usually avoid glitter when doing craft. Sure it’s pretty, but after we use it, that stuff turns up all over the place for the next month. ‘The herpies of the craft world’ a friend of mine called it, I think she was right. But today I caved, because an angel needs her sparkle! Honestly, there was no template, just trial and error until I got the shape I was after. You can see the steps in the photos below. Double sided plates for the body would have made pretty dresses, but I couldn’t find any of those, so we stuck with white. Of course you could get the kids to colour them or even use a different colour glitter on the body too. But I was all glittered out after the wings alone!

Cut your plate something like this, that’s right, no pattern, trial and error was all I went by

Secure with tape or staples.

Apply a generous amount of hot glue to the bauble

Place on top of the body. Tie a ribbon around the neck once glue has dried to cover any mess.

Run some glue (we just used a glue stick) along the edges and sprinkle with glitter

Once the wings are dry, attach to the body.

Hang from a string

Christmas Angels

Paper plate craft.

Nov28

Easy DIY Christmas Table Centrepiece

Posted on November 28, 2013 by thestick81

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These were so quick and easy to make and I could not be happier with the results.

I picked up this wool a while back with nothing particular in mind, I just loved the colours. The styrofoam tree shapes are available just about anywhere at this time of year. These came from a $2 shop. However, there’s no reason you couldn’t just make a cone shape from cardboard and achieve similar results.

I tied a tight knot in one end to stop fraying, then pushed through the wool and down into the middle of the cone. Then gently began wrapping the knit around the top of the cone, before fastening again a few rows down so that it doesn’t spin off. Continue down the full length of the cone until you reach the bottom. Cut with enough room left over to tie another knot, then secure with a 3rd pin. Done!

What you need

Close up of the pre knitted wool

Pin fastening to the top, and again at the side

Fasten at the bottom

Wool Christmas Trees

Christmas Table Centrepiece.

Nov23

Peg Angels Quick Toddler Christmas Craft Activity

Posted on November 23, 2013 by thestick81

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Peg Angels Quick Toddler Christmas Craft Activity

Check out these cute little Christmas Angels Miss4 and I put to gather today. The best part? The whole kit, with everything except glue – $2 from Kmart. Win.

Ok ok, they have no arms, but who cares! We used hot glue to stick on the hair and faces, because hot glue rules the craft world (and I didn’t have time to PVA to dry). The project is not something Miss4 could have done on her own, but it was quick, simple fun and the results are pretty cute. She has been playing with them throughout the day and they have not fallen apart yet!

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If you didn’t have access to a Kmart, the kit is made up of 4 old style wooden pegs, 4 paper doilies, wool, gold string and some pre cut wings. All things that are easy to get your hands on from a craft of $2 shop.

Nov16

DIY Heart Shaped Christmas Wreath

Posted on November 16, 2013 by thestick81

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I actually started today out with the intention of making some bell tree ornaments, but the bells I had were too big. I then attempted another type of wreath and it was a big fat fail too. So after a few hours of feeling sorry for myself, I decided to make a different kind of wreath using the same principle as the bauble tree I made last year.

Run your cursor over or click each image for step by step instructions.

Draw or trace out the outline of the shape . I used silver card, but you could use any colour card. Something that has a little bit of flexibility, but is strong enough to support the weight of the baubles.

I used hot glue to stick each bauble down. You could use PVA or craft glue, but hot glue dries really fast, which is very helpful when you are dealing with things that roll!

I removed the strings and holders off each bauble, and glued them so that each top was touching the line, as a gauge.

Once the outside was complete, I did the same with a row of smaller balls on the inside.

Once the glue had completely dried, carefully cut around the outside and inside of the shape, as close as you can to the baubles, but still leaving just enough card to hook any tinsel on if desired.

The glue is quite flexible, so you can weave the tinsel in and around each bauble easily, it will just hold in place when the baubles sit back into position.

Poke some tinsel between the 2 rows to fill any gaps.

I hung a start ornament from the bottom just for some extra bling and dimension.

Bauble wreath

Heart shaped christmas wreath.

Nov16

Pine Cone Christmas Tree Decorations

Posted on November 16, 2013 by thestick81

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Yep, it’s that time of year again kids. I can deny it all I like, but that doesn’t help at all. I am disgustingly unprepared this year, but don’t really have the time to care, I am sure I will pull it all together in time. I do however, have time to think about some Christmas projects, YAY! So this very simple Idea should have probably taken a single afternoon, but things have been so hectic around here lately it took several afternoons over a week. It didn’t really turn out as well as I had imagined, but they are still pretty cute, and we have plenty of left over cones to make something else out of when inspiration hits me.

The shaggy wool (I’m sure it has a real name) was $2 a ball. There was wayyyy more than we needed in each colour. I just used cheap spray paint, Mr 8 did the first few coats then I went back and got the bits he missed. I tried sticking on some plastic ‘diamonds’ for extra sparkle, but you can’t really see them. We all had a go at wrapping the wool into the cone, then I gave them a hair cut to tidy them up. Simple as that!

: Mr8 Spray painting the pine cones

: gluing on some bling with hot glue

: Ms4 wrapping around the wool

: Before the hair cut / tidy up

: Finished pine cone trees.

: Christmas Tree Craft

Nov13

Autumn Tree, Family Craft Activity

Posted on November 13, 2013 by thestick81

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This week I am excited to feature a project from a local crafty mumma from All Tizzied Up . She and her gorgeous girls have brought nature and some textiles together to create a colourful fall themed wall hanging.

They have gathered up some bark and leaves and painted the leaves while still fresh using acrylic craft paint. The paint has slowed down the drying out process and kept them supple so they don’t crack through the next few steps. The rest if fairly self explanatory, or run your mouse over each picture for more details.

Some lovely leaves and bark

MissM paints the leaves

Blue leaves

MissM starts gluing on the bark to the trunk

First layer of bark complete

Coat with a thick later of PVA glue

Dust over PVA layer with saw dust or dirt for texture

Start gluing on the leaves

Alternating colours for effect.

The leaves

Coat with another thick layer of PVA as a sealant.

Allow to dry.

Colourful Tree!

Once all the collage was together, mum then filled in the surrounds of the tree with blue paint and there you have it.

Oct30

DIY Halloween Wreath.

Posted on October 30, 2013 by thestick81

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There is lots of variations of this all over Pinterest, but I thought I’d have a go myself. I was excited to see a decent range of Halloween themed fabric in Spotlight this year, which made choosing my materials easy. I bought 40cm of each one, figuring 20cm strips would be sufficient. The ring was a pre-made one from there as well. Around $4.

I cut the fabric into 2x 20cm wide strips, then cut those large strips into roughly inch wide strips. I was not too fussed about them all being perfect, as the over all results I was going for was messy anyway. Then the tying on. I finished the whole thing in the car on a day trip to the city and back, so just over an hour. I think the cutting into strips actually took longer than that!

Not far into it, I realised I had made my strips way too short for the size of the loop, it just looked too sparse. But they were already cut, so I decided to continue on then just cut the hoop smaller later. That solved the problem just nicely! The witch hat was a last minute addition, it was actually part of a halloween headband, again from Spot Light, I just chopped off the headband. The kids helped paint the wooden letters and I glued them onto the most appropriate coloured ribbon I had on hand. Done.

I didn’t take a photo of it against our door, because the Kookaburras, white timber and glass just didn’t quite work!

The chosen fabric,

Cut into 2cm wide strips

Tying on

The finished wreath

Halloween wreath

Halloween entrance decoration

Jul27

Autumn Theme Mobile, Using Oven Bake Clay

Posted on July 27, 2013 by thestick81

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Autumn Theme Mobile, Using Oven Bake Clay

I have had this idea in my head for a while, but wasn’t sure what medium to use. This product is really fun and easy to work with, however, it sets more like a hard rubber than a ceramic clay, so it did not achieve the wind chime noise I had in mind. Oh well, its still pretty!

Nature theme mobile / sun catcher.

Sculpey Oven Bake Clay. It is quite firm out of the packet, but softens up quickly with some kneading.

Ms 4 Rolling out the clay.

Cut just like a cookie or play dough

Reshape to make leaf like

Press in between the backs of 2 leaves

Leaf print

Ready for the oven, bake at 130c for approximately 15 minutes

After baking

Ms4 threading the fishing line and adding some beads.

Some things we collected on our bush walk

Drilling some extra holes in the piece of bark.

Autumn mobile,

Nature theme mobile / sun catcher.

Autumn and bush influenced mobile.

Apr21

DIY Sun catcher/Wind chime.

Posted on April 21, 2013 by thestick81

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This project was inspired by another bloggers post, which I can’t find again on Pinterest, so will have to edit it back in later when I can find it. Anyway, I ended up doing something completely different to hers, because I couldn’t get my hands on the right kind of cups. The original mobile was created with plastic (recycling number 6) disposable drinking cups. I hunted high and low however, the only ones of them here were solid colours, so I had to settle for these shot glasses. The shot glasses are a lot thicker though, so the entire method required adjusting. As you can see in the gallery images, melting these at a low heat basically make little plastic globs that would only be good for playing jacks with. Eventually I worked out that by turning the heat up enough, I could get them to melt flat. However, they did emit a nasty smell at this temp, so I took the project out to the BBQ.

Adding the next colour

After melting the first cups, I added another cup, so there was enough plastic to cover the base of each muffin hole. I was not too worried about thickness, some ended up with 3 cups, I broke a few cups up to splash some other colour around. The BBQ was set to 220C with the lid down. After cooling, this is what you get;

The finished disks

They actually set really hard and when clicked together sound like glass rather than plastic. Makes them perfect for a wind chime. Just like with my previous sun catcher, I drilled holes in the sides of each piece using a normal drill bit. None of them broke this time, which was an extra win. Then we threaded some fishing line through, held each end together and threaded random shiny and transparent beads along the 2 lines. Admittedly I do have a ridiculously huge stash of beads and stones accumulated from over the years, but you can pick up cheap beads at $2 shops that will still make the project inexpensive if you were starting from scratch. The first line was 11cm, then I continued along making each one 1cm longer, there is 17 in total. My darling partner tied them on to the pre made metal loop (from spotlight – and much to his disappointment, he is not a crafty person). Once they were all tied on, I just slid them around until they were spaced evenly. And done!

Close up

** Please note, breathing in the fumes from melting plastic is probably not a very good idea. So if you do try this at home, try to use the BBQ or make sure the room is well ventilated, and preferably don’t be near the oven while its all happening. It not like burning tyres or anything, but it sure doesn’t smell like something you should be breathing in!

Ready to melt

Fail

Thats more like it.

Adding the next colour

Use the BBQ, so you don’t fill the has with toxic burnt plastic smell.

The finished disks

Ms 4 helping bead the strings

Beading the strings ready to hang

Finished product

Wind chime

Sun catcher

DIY sun catcher

Close up

Wind Chime

In bright light

Sun catcher

Mar10

Decorated Eggs, Easter Egg Dying and Decorating.

Posted on March 10, 2013 by thestick81

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Decorated Eggs, Easter Egg Dying and Decorating.

While we did the Tie Dying, I also started experimenting with a few other methods of colouring eggs using a home made dye using ingredients that almost everyone has already in their kitchen. These were some of the results;

These are obviously pretty straight forward. Dyed in a food colouring/vinegar/warm water mixture. Then a scrap booking embelishment stuck on. Would have preferred embellishments without the clear plastic behind them, but the craft shop didn’t have any like that and you can’t really tell from a distance anyway.

I love how these turned out. Just use leaves from the garden, lay over the eggs then cover with a stocking or pantyhose. I actually used some stocking I had on hand and didn’t even need to ruin them in the process. Dip dye for a few minutes and you’re done.

Crepe paper results

We actually discovered this dying method accidentally. After we had finished the Tie Dying from a previous post, we placed the eggs on this pre shredded crepe paper. Some of the eggs still had a bit of water in them from the boiling process, so when that ran out and wet the paper, the colour transferred onto the eggs! So I took it a step further, wet a hand full and covered them in it. The results are pretty cool I think!

The dying solution we used was 3 parts hot tap water to one part vinegar, with as much food colouring as you wanted, we only used about a teaspoon per large cup.

Some of the other patterns we created can be seen below.

Boiling in water, food colouring and vinegar (later discovered boiling is not actually necessary)

Some foam stickers to create patterns where the dye cant reach.

Trying to keep the eggs afloat to only colour one side – not very successful!

The leaf wrapped around egg within stocking prior to dipping in the dye solution

Leaf patterns

covering in crepe paper.

Wet crepe paper

Crepe paper results

Cant have a craft project without glitter? Yes, actually you can and you should

Egg decorating

Samples of some of the eggs we created

Egg Craft

Eggsperimenting with dying EGGS!

Feb4

Valentine Craft – Hanging hearts Wall/door Decoration

Posted on February 4, 2013 by thestick81

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Valentine Craft – Hanging hearts Wall/door Decoration

I saw something similar to this on Pinterest, thought we would give it a go. I just used some scrap booking paper we had already, picked out 10 different pink patterns. Using the paper cutter, cut strips approximately 1 inch wide. Then folded them in half, ready to be rolled, as demonstrated by Ms 4 below. The kids did them around a round pencil, but you can also curl them with a blade like you do curling/gift ribbon. The blade was much quicker, but I was not letting the kids do that.

Once both sides are curled towards the middle, fix the to sides together in the centre of the heart with a staple. I didn’t worry to much about a uniform size. Variety is the spice of life and all that.

You could use a coat hanger, pice of dowel, or even just a long stick for the hanging frame. We used some mettle light extension rods we had in the shed, kept them thinking they would come in handy some day and looky here, perfect size for a door way! I decided on 5 strings of 10 hearts, because lets be honest, the novelty was already wearing off making them after the first 10.

Then came the tricky part, threading them onto the fishing line. I temporarily hung the rod from a fan so I could manoeuvre around it easier. Then threaded through the centre of the heart and tied a knot around where it is stapled together, so the line was centre. THEN, using a needle, threaded the remaining line through the centre at the bottom of the heart, to keep the heart upright. Thankfully putting fishing line through a needle is very easy! The threading process probably took 10 minutes for each strand. To finish off, I hung some sparkly gift ribbon between each row. And there you have it!

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Stapler, fishing line, paper and paper cutter (or scissors)

Cut strips 1 inch wide.

The cut strips.

Roll the paper strips around a pencil

Finish rolling at the centre then repeat on other side.

Staple the together in the middle.

Threading the hearts onto the fishing line.

Top View

Side View

Bottom View

Purple back drop.

Bed back drop

Against black curtains

Back light

Hearts in the door way.

Purple wall background

Different exposure.

Behind bed, off white wall

Feb2

Beaded Mobile/Chandelier/Wind chime Family project.

Posted on February 2, 2013 by thestick81

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Beaded Mobile/Chandelier/Wind chime Family project.

Sorry if the beads are getting old. I really made this up as I went along. I wanted to use the rings I had bought to make Christmas Wreaths but never got around to. I thought this was something we could all do together and the results are pretty cute, although would do it differently next time.

We threaded some plastic jewels with beading wire, to make the ends. Then created patterns with different coloured beads, around 20cm long.

Finish off the ends by wrapping the wire into a loop around some needle nose pliers. The loop needs to be big enough to not let the beads slide off, and to allow you to thread more string on in the next step.

Then I just tied them around the ring, suspended it with some gift ribbon and suspended a glass sun catcher in the middle. All pretty straight forward. Ms 4 wants to hang it from her light, but as she has a light fan combo, there is nothing to hang it from.

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What you need

Twisting off the end of the wires

Threading patterns

Ms 4 threading

The other end of the wire

Wire ends

Twist around a pencil to make a spiral

spirals

Attache to mobile frame

finished product

sun catcher

Chandelier

Jan25

Christmas Decorations, Easy Toddler Activity

Posted on January 25, 2013 by thestick81

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Christmas Decorations, Easy Toddler Activity

These really are too easy and turned out so well! I will be using this concept for some other projects as soon as more cookie cutters arrive.

We used a tupperware baking sheet under them, but I think any flexible non stick surface would do, (baking paper). Simply fill some metal or oven proof cookie cutters or moulds roughly 2 layers deep, and bake at around 180c. Keep an eye on them until they are all melted. The plastic beads we used did not emit any nasty smell and did not burn, even when I got impatient and turned the over up to 200c, however, make sure the area is well ventilated just to be on the safe side.

Try to pile the beads up in the middle slightly, but only leave them 1 high at the edges, to avoid any bits sticking to the sides higher than other areas (you can see where this happened on the small man) Once cooled, remove the cutter and there you have it. I ran cool water over them to cool them a bit faster and this didn’t damage the shiny finish at all.

The husband drilled some holes in the top for string, and there you have it.

We will make a stack of smaller Christmas coloured ones for the trees next year.

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Place the beads, trying to keep them at only 1 high around the edges

Green and red for the tree

Nice and flat and smooth edges

Once out of the oven,

Drilling the holes for string

Ms 4 showing off her man

You can see some sharp edges on this one where the beads were 2 high.

The finished 3d tree from jelly mould

In the sun

Catching the sun light

Pink baby

Jan22

Memory Wire Bracelets, School holiday and Toddler Activity

Posted on January 22, 2013 by thestick81

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Memory Wire Bracelets, School holiday and Toddler Activity

Beading is hardly new as a way to entertain the kids and improve fine motor skills, but I have never let them try it with memory wire before. For those who don’t know what that is, Memory wire is tempered wire that “remembers” its shape and retains its coiled form. You can pick it up really cheap on ebay and then just cut to desired length as required. Due to the fact its wire rather than thread, it also makes it much easier for the little ones to get the beads on.

Once cut to length, just turn the end over with some needle nose pliers into a loop big enough that it wont allow your chosen beads to slip over, or in the case of really big beads, as I have done above, making sure no sharp ends will dig into their little arms.

The kids just made single loops today. Mr 7 experimented with patterns and Miss 4 went random.

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Memory wire cut to length

Mr 7 threading some beads.

Ms 4 threading onto the wire

Mr 7s own design

Ms 4 modelling some bracelets.

Dec14

Easy Toddler Craft, Christmas Reindeer

Posted on December 14, 2012 by thestick81

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How cute are these? Mr 7s year 6 buddy made him one for Christmas. I had to give them a go with the little ones.

Super simple and we had everything lying around the house (I will admit I do buy wooden pegs just for craft, they are not much good for hanging out washing!)