Little Elephants: Kids Crafts and Fun Activities

Artist trading cards

So, about a month ago we caved and bought a new TV (Euro 2008, if you're wondering why). One cool thing is we have a high def channel that's all art all the time ... at least when I happen upon it... only problem is we have so many channels I can never find it when I'm looking :-)

One day, we caught the end a program that highlighted Artist Trading Cards. This was a completely new concept to me and the kids, but Maggie immediately glommed onto it. She suggested that we do a family project of trading cards, and each make cards for everyone else in the family. One side has the art, and the other a little note or just the artist's signature and the date. Unsurprisingly, Bjørn's note to Maggie was all about how great he is and how dumb and smelly she is.

Maggie has since sent a card to her best friend from babyhood. I'm secretly hoping she keeps it up and her friends reciprocate. How wonderful to have these little mementos?

To make your own, just cut 3"x4" cards out of sturdy card stock (watercolor paper works well, too) and decorate however you want. There are no rules other than to have fun, express yourself, and remember to date and sign your card.

Our 4th of July Book

As promised, these are the pages from Friday's book. There are only three because Tor was napping (and his flag is the cover, anyway), and Bjørn opted not to participate.

On Crafty Mom today

I've posted about doing Macramé with kids on Scholastic.com today.

Please go have a look and comment with abandon -- I'd love to hear about projects you've brought back from the Seventies!

What would you wish for?

As a project for her class, Maggie made this little wishing jar with wishes so big they had to be attached. As far as art projects go, it's rather uninspired since all the kids were required to do exactly the same thing, but I do like the wishes my girl came up with and I echo every one.

...except for the part about wishing for a dolphin. When I was her age, it would have been a cheetah.

{4/17/08 -- hello and welcome to the folks visiting from Shine! Poke around & make yourselves at home, I'm thrilled to make your acquaintance}

Dangly earrings just for Mom

For Christmas we gave Maggie a jewelry making kit that I am thrilled about. Terrible, eh? She's been busy making me gorgeous dangly earrings (I have another beautiful pair not pictured here). I tried to take pictures of them on, but the shots all came out so pathetically awkward that you'll just have to take my word for it, they look incredibly lovely on, and very festive.

Looks like our holidays are handmade after-all!

Handmade for the holidays

As Tomas has already pointed out on his blog, my pledge to buy only handmade for the holidays was a bit of a flop. The good news though is that our daughter, Maggie had the brilliant idea to have us all make a gift for one other person in the family. Maggie drew my name from a hat and made me this sweet candle holder and incredibly awesome frame.

My gift to Maggie was this journal:

You can check out what Tomas and Bjørn made each other over here.

Airplanes and double-decker busses

Maggie made these at the Peninsula School's holiday fair last weekend. They had piles of wood bits, buckets of random bolts and washers, and of course there were several pots of glue. It was up to the kids to make whatever they felt like. I love it when the kids are given the elements to create and are left to do their own thing -- you often end up with the best results. I know these two little guys will be around and on display for a long time :-)

Paper plate banjo

This one was from the Peninsula School's Holiday Craft Fair.

You have to hold the banjo pretty close up to hear it well, but the sound is amazing -- reminds me of a Didgeridoo -- way cool!

To make your own:

• Wrap three strong rubber-bands around a thick paper plate
• Staple that plate onto another one so you can't displace the rubber-bands
• Hot-glue on a paint stirring stick for the arm
• Decorate
• Strum!

I can't emphasize enough how much I like easy projects :-)

Sweet pom-pom bird and nest

Oh, we had a lovely weekend of crafting outside the house! We went to three of my favorite local holiday events in the area and racked up some great new projects to do again (and again) at home. I'll be posting about the projects individually all this week.

This first one was made at the Palo Alto Art Center where they held their annual Holiday open house for kids. The picture is of a bird made by one of Maggie's friends (the shots I got of M's bird all came out horribly).

To make the bird:

• Glue two pom-poms together, one big and one small (body/head)
• Glue paper beak, and two googly eyes to the small pom-pom
• Glue feathers to either side of the larger pom-pom for the wings

To make the nest:

• Wrap one pipe-cleaner into a loose spiral
• Thread bits of ivy (or leaves, extra pine branches, or whatever greenery you have lying about) in and out of it to make a nice bed

Voila! Just lay your little bird in the nest & you're done. Very satisfying :-)

I'm thinking Maggie's little bird will make a nice addition to our Christmas Tree.

Inspired to create!

Now that I've committed to going handmade for the holidays, I am getting so excited/scared/overwhelmed all at the same time. I'm planning to do a mix of buying hand-made and doing the making myself, but I still think I'm going to need to pace myself!

I've been discovering some great projects out there, so naturally had to share a couple with my blog friends :-)

First up: Ali has posted a while back about her embroidered coasters. I love that she included her son's art, and used a pattern from one of my favorite books 'Bend the Rules Sewing'. How sad is it that the part I'm most looking forward to is using a a heat set embroidery transfer pencil for the first time? (I see many a visit to Michael's craft store in my future!)

Next up: My Mom sent me a box full of craft books and magazines from France (I know, I'm the luckiest, it's true!). One of them is called Marianne Maison, and has a project to make tiles using casting resin and fabric. I wasn't able to find molds to make tiles, but did get small ones that will work for pendants. Can't wait to try it out! I have vivid memories of making paper weights with the stuff when I was around Maggie's age -- I think this will be a cool one to do when our littlest is out from underfoot. I've found good instructions in English on the Environmental Technologies site.

Have you seen any relatively-easy-but-high-impact projects out there that I should check out?