Valentines Day Handmade Cards

Materials:

  • Cardstock
  • Crayola® Glue Stick
  • Crayola® Markers
  • Scissors
  • Pencil

Instructions:

  1. Pop-Up Hearts Card
    Fold two square paper pieces in half. Take one and cut two parallel, 2-inch slits about a ½ inch apart on the right side of card. Repeat and decrease length of slits until you have 3 strips.
    Open the card and use your index finger to gently push the strips into the card.  This will form the small “steps.”
  2. Pop-Up Hearts Card (Continued)
    Close the card.  It should now have a missing notch along the fold since you’ve pushed the pop-up portion into the center of the card.
    Glue the second blank card over the card with the pop-up so you can’t see the missing notches.
    Use glue to adhere cut hearts to the front of the steps inside the card. The hearts will pop up when the card opens. Embellish card as desired with markers.
  3. Heart with Arrow Card
    Fold square paper piece in half.
    Cut heart and arrow from contrasting paper colors.
    Glue shapes to card’s top as shown. Embellish card as desired with markers.
  4. Flower Card
    Fold square paper piece in half and then half again.
    Cut 4 hearts and a small circle out of contrasting paper colors.
    Glue shapes to card’s top to form a flower as shown. Embellish card as desired with markers.

Valentines Day Tic-Tac-Toe

Materials List:

  • Clay – Hot Pink
  • Clay – Red Hot Red
  • Clay – Violet
  • Clay – White
  • Oven (for adult use only)

Instructions:

  1. Teardrop – Start with a ball of clay and then taper it on one end with your fingers.
  2. Coil – Roll a lump of clay until it’s long and skinny.
  3. Create Shapes: Ball – Take a lump of clay and roll it in your palms until its smooth.
  4. Roll a lump of clay until it’s long and skinny.
  5. Cut off 1/4 of the White and set it aside for later. Shape the rest of the White into a large smooth ball.

  6. Flatten the White ball into a disk about 3″ wide. Smooth out any bumps with your finger.
  7. Roll Hot Pink into a long skinny coil. Flatten the coil as you press it into place on top of the White disk making the criss-cross pattern you need to play Tic Tac Toe. Press some more of the Hot Pink coil around the outside of the White disk.
  8. Take eight tiny pinches of Red Hot Red and shape them into teardrops. Flatten these into heart shapes on the game board by pressing two teardrops side by side with the points down.
  9. Make 5 balls with Red Hot Red and 5 balls with Violet. The balls should be as wide as a dime. Flatten the balls into playing pieces. Use White to decorate the Red Hot Red pieces with X’s. Put a tiny White ball in the center of each Violet piece to make O’s.
  10. Adults only- Bake all the pieces and the game board in the oven at 275 °F for 15 minutes. Don’t handle any of the pieces until they are completely cool.

 

 

New Year Color Sheets & Decorations

Here are some coloring sheets your family can print our, color and use as decorations to help you bring in the new year! Try using them as a competition between all members of your family with the winner winning a specially embellished blow horn and hat!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right click and save to your computer, then print as large as you want from any publishing program or click on image, select print and choose what size you want to print it as! Have fun!!! Happy New Years!

Kwanzaa Noodle Necklace

Materials
Assorted uncooked noodles
Food coloring
Elastic thread

General Supplies & Tools
Newspaper
Plastic gloves
Plastic sandwich bags
Craft scissors
Yarn needle

Instructions
1 . Cover work area with newspaper, and wear plastic gloves when coloring noodles.
2.  Place one handful of noodles in bag, using one bag per color. Sprinkle a few drops of desired food color­ing in each bag, blow in some air, twist top closed, then gently shake until noodles are evenly coated. Add more color, if needed. Leave bags open to allow noodles to dry.
3.  Cut elastic thread slightly longer than desired length of necklace, then thread elastic onto yarn needle.
4. Tie one noodle to end of elastic thread, leaving a 2″ tail, and begin beading. Mix noodle shapes and colors as desired. Untie first noodle, then tie ends of elastic thread into knot. Slip loose ends back through center of noodles to conceal.

How To Play “Jacks”

WHAT YOU NEED
• A small, bouncy rubber ball
•  10 jacks
• A hard, smooth, level playing surface (floor, sidewalk, patio, or blacktop)

HOW TO PLAY
Sit on the ground and toss the jacks gently onto the playing surface.

Using one hand, gently toss the ball into the air, let­ting it bounce on the playing surface. With the same hand, pick up one jack and catch the ball before it bounces again.

Repeat until you have picked up all ten jacks. This round is called “onesies.”

Toss the ten jacks on the playing surface again.

Toss the ball into the air, letting it bounce once on the playing surface, and pick up two jacks at the same time. Repeat until you have picked up all ten jacks, two at a time. This round is called “twosies.”

Increase the number of jacks you pick up during each round until you pick up all ten jacks at once and catch the ball.

If you fail to pick up the correct number of jacks, fail to catch the ball, or drop the jacks from your hand, your turn is over and the next player goes.

When you get another turn, con­tinue where you left off. If you went out during “threesies,” toss the ten jacks, and start with “threesies.”

To make the game more chal­lenging, forbid players from touching jacks other than the ones being picked up and require players to place the jacks in their free hand before catch­ing the ball.

The first player to complete “onesies” through “tensies” wins the game.

For a variation on the game, require all play­ers to go from “onesies” to “tensies” and then back down to “onesies” again.