Tag Archives: kids

Easter Egg Coloring Sheet

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Faux Wrought Iron Decorations

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I mentioned to my family that I’m collecting toilet paper tubes for use on some projects that were bouncing around in my head.  And an odd thing happened.  At every family function, every dinner party, every chance meeting since then, I have been inundated with toilet paper tubes.  They hand them to me when I least expect them, neatly packaged in Kroger bags, fully confident that whatever I have in mind for them is worth the extra effort.  At Christmas, I was given a bag of them along with my Christmas present.  Kinda nice, but apparently when folks look at me right now, they think of toilet paper tubes.  Not sure if that is a good thing or not.

Anyway, I decided to try my hand at mixing some quilling techniques and toilet paper tubes to come up with some faux metal wall art to spice up my Southwestern theme kitchen.
For this project I used:
A large amount of toilet paper tubes
Several Paper Towel Tubes
Aleenes Tacky Glue
Metal look Spray Paint
3/8″ Balsa Wood strips
I started by cutting the 3/8″ balsa wood strips into 10″ long pieces to form my squares and then glued them together with tacky glue.
The paper towel tubes were used for the straight pieces.  I simply cut along the length of the tube, flattened it out and used a scrap of the balsa strips to measure 3/8″ strips cut lenthwise from the tube.
The toilet paper tubes were cut in 3/8″ strips across the width of the tube to keep the curl.  Simply cut along the length of the tube, flatten out and mark 3/8″ strips across the width.  This will result in 3/8″ curls.
Using some examples that I found on the internet of wrought iron wall art, I created four 10″ squares.

I curled the cardboard with the end of a paintbrush where I wanted curls and used the tacky glue to glue it as I went.

With these squares, I started by dividing it into four equal parts and then creating the same pattern in each part. I simply created as I went and used the end of the paintbrush to make any curls needed.

Once they were completed and dry, I then spray painted them with metal-look paint.  Unless you get up close and personal and actually touch them, they look totally like metal.  But didn’t cost nearly the price.

I now have fancy looking wall art and spent next to nothing to make it.  In fact, my toilet paper loving family actually provided most of the materials.  You can’t beat that!

Valentines Day Handmade Cards

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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

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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.

 

 

Turn The Tables: Let Them Draw

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TURN THE TABLES Just this once, encourage the younger set to draw on the table. Instead of a table runner, use a long sheet of paper that kids can doodle on before, during, and even after dinner.