ROBOTS ~ PAPER MACHE

Simple Robots created out of cardboard boxes, pieces of cardboard, some springs and paper mache.  Robots can be just about any size, from 4 or 5 inches to a few feet high.  After cardboard is taped together, robot is covered with a layer or two of paper mache, a coat of Gesso or white base paint, and it's ready for painting.  A fun craft for all ages.

Materials  

Cardboard boxes, pieces of cardboard, scissors, masking tape, liquid starch and torn newspaper strips, little springs and or wire, Gesso and assorted acrylic paints and brush.

This robot is about 8 inches high and is made with a box for the main body, a smaller box for the head and 2 pieces of folded cardboard for arms.  A little spring was poked into the top of the head but you can also use a piece of coiled wire.  

After boxes and cardboard are taped together, cover with a layer or two of paper mache.  I prefer liquid starch and torm newspaper strips.  Liquid starch is only sold at a few select markets like Stater Brothers but you can use any paper mache recipe you like.

After paper mache is dry, paint a coat of Gesso (or any white acrylic paint) so robot will be nice and bright for painting.

I prefer acrylic paints for paper mache projects as it covers really well.  The little inexpensive bottles sold at craft stores work great.  Let kids pick out the colors they like and encourage them to paint their robots any way they choose.   You can use a clear acrylic top coat for a nice shiny finish which is not necessary but looks great and makes objects a little  stronger.

Small cardboard robots are fun and easy to take to kids spending time in the hospital for example.  But be sure to try creating other sizes and even extra large ones made from large boxes.  You can also cut face pieces and "controls" out of pieces of cardboard and glue them on your robot.  Keep it super simple or make it detailed, lots of possibilities.

 

HOLIDAY CRAFTS ~ EASY AND FUN

GREAT PROJECTS FOR GROUPS AND CLASSES, ESPECIALLY FOR YOUNG KIDS.

SNOWMAN ~

Basic Snowman is made out of cardboard discs (called baking drums and circles) used for baked goods.  Discs can be purchased at a craft store but if you are needing a large quantity, they are much less expensive when purchased from a paper supply company like Paper Mart (online and Amazon shop).  They are sold in packs of 50 and come in different sizes, from 6" to 14".  For this project I used 6" and 9".
Once you have your basic snowmen you can decide if kids will be doing the very basics (sticking on pre-cut pieces) of they will be creating features with paper and or fabric and glue, markers or paint.  If I am working with a large group of kids in limited space I go for the basics and have everything organized and ready for kids to peel and stick. For this group I had snowmen pre-glued together with hot glue gun and also cut and glued on the hats but kids can also do this part themselves and hats can be any type of hat such as snow hats etc.
Instructions and materials listed here will be more for the large group but if you are working with just a few kids or want to give kids more room for creativity, just give them the basic snow man along with a variety of materials such as markers, paint, fabric or colored paper for scarf, hat and mittens.  You can get more creative by adding stars, snow, a little tree, some lights, candy canes, stickers or whatever works.

MATERIALS ~
White bakery circles, 2 sizes, amount you need.
Hot glue gun
Black railroad board or heavy poster board for hats.
Black peel and stick felt sheets for eyes, mouth and buttons. (sticky back foam sheets can also work)
Orange peel and stick felt for nose. (foam sheets also work).
Assorted colors of construction paper for mittens or white if kids are going to be creating their own designs on the mittens with markers. If you want to make it super easy and not use glue at all, cut mittens out of sticky back felt or foam in assorted colors.  For mittens it is less expensive to use colored paper but both work.
Red fabric (fleece) for scarf or any fabric you like.  Mittens can be cut from this fabric if you choose as well.
DIRECTIONS ~
With hot glue gun, glue discs together overlapping just an inch or so.
Cut a piece for hat ( mine is 6.5" high by 6" wide and is for the 6" disc) any size you like, and a strip for the rim.  Glue rim to hat and glue hat to snow man.
Cut out  little squares (appx 1/2") from the black felt for the face and buttons (as many as needed).  It is easiest to cut 1/2" strips first, then squares, as many layers as you can do at a time.
Cut noses out of orange felt, mitten shapes, and scarves (mine are about 30"x2".
If kids will be using glue for their mittens, you can put some in a few paper plates with some sticks as this works a lot easier than bottles and glue sticks don;t always work.

Put everything out for kids and have fun.  If you need to keep it really simple make little packs with all materials for each child.

  

CHRISTMAS TREE CRAFT

Christmas trees are easy to make and fun for kids to decorate.  After basic tree is done, kids can use a variety of materials  to decorate their tree including, pom poms, beads, glitter, stickers or paint.  For tips and How To's see December 17, 2016 post n this blog.

THANKSGIVING CRAFTS

Signs and Turkeys

Thanksgiving signs are easy to make and you can do any number of variations.  Start with a piece of cardboard, any size you like (I used a 10 x 12 square) and paint with a few coats of chalkboard paint.  Kids can then use chalk to write any message they choose on their signs which is always fun for them and if necessary they can erase and start over or change messages.

For leaves and turkey I used watercolor paper and some colored paper for turkey body and head.  Kids can paint the leaves and turkey feathers any way they like or they can even use markers or crayons.  

Copy the turkey and leaf shapes from the picture or make your own, cut and glue to cardboard chalkboard and it's ready to paint.  Kids or helper can then paint a message and it's ready to hang up.

PINE CONE TURKEYS

All kids love making pine cone turkeys because they look so adorable and they are so easy.  

Helper will glue a walnut head on first with a glue gun (to make sure it sticks) and then eyes, beak and red piece.  

Give kids a bunch of colored feathers (from craft store) and a bit of glue to dip end of feather into just to make sure they stay in place.  For more about pine cone turkeys see November  2016 in this blog.

JELLYFISH ~ PAPER MACHE

Paper mache Jellyfish are easy to make and fun for kids to paint as there are so many different ways kids can make their jellyfish their own.  After Jellyfish is painted, you can add a coat of clear acrylic finish and a little glitter for a sparkly, watery effect.

Jellyfish is created from a balloon covered with a few layers of paper mache. I like to use torn newspaper strips and liquid starch but you can use any paper mache recipe you like.  When Jellyfish is dry it's best to paint an undercoat of white (I like Gesso).  For tentacles you can use wire, pipe cleaners, fabric, or ribbon.  Even paper would work.  Attach tentacles by making little holes in Jellyfish or use tacky glue if using ribbon, paper or fabric. For final coat acrylic paints work best and you can use the little inexpensive bottles sold at craft stores.

For more detailed instructions go to the Easter Basket craft dated Sunday April 9, 2017 in this blog as the projects are very similar.  Follow instructions up to cutting the edge. Where Easter basket has a jagged edge, Jellyfish will be more of a scalloped edge.  After base coat is painted you will attach tentacles and Jellyfish is ready to paint.  Encourage kids to paint their Jelly any way they like.  Attach a piece of fishing line and hang it up!  Make lots of Jellies, they look beautiful together,  

SCARECROW ~

Easy fun craft for kids of all ages using simple materials ~ cardboard and fabric scraps.  For tips see Fall Scarecrow Craft 10/2/16.

Halloween Paper Crafts

HALLOWEEN PAPER CRAFTS

Simple, fun and easy ways to help kids celebrate Halloween.

Pumpkins, Haunted Houses, Witches and Zombies are easy paper, glitter, and glue projects for kids and kids love Halloween crafts. Haunted House is created out of black tag board and a few other Halloween colors (any sort of colored paper will do).   Witch and Zombie shapes are made out of poster board colors glued together but if you want to use brads to connect arms and legs etc so they can move, this works too.  When you figure out how to create and assemble these basic shapes, you can help kids create lots of Witches and Zombies in a variety of shapes and colors.  Put them in your windows ~ or anywhere!   

MATERIALS

Poster board, assorted colors, extra white.

Poster paint or acrylics, assorted colors, brushes, markers, scissors, glue, yarn or string or pipe cleaners, glitter and other decorations.

HOW TO ~

WITCH ~ Start by cutting simple shapes for witch.  Body is basically a big sort of long triangle (about 18" high but any size will do) with top point cut straight across.  Arms can be incorporated into the triangle as shown in picture or you can skip arms, or add arms with brads.  You can use traditional black or a color works too, like orange, pink or red.  Green works well for face and hands.  Hat is black and if you are not comfortable cutting hat shape, make a pattern using newspaper.  Perfect is not important!  Head is a basic circle shape, extended a bit where hat will be glued, and a neck which will be covered up with the dress.  Witch hair can be just about anything, yarn, straw, string, paper, poster board, or pipe cleaners.

Assemble your witch parts and glue pieces together.  Witch hair is glued to side of head first, hat next on top of hair.  When dry, witch is ready to be decorated.  Provide child with paint, glue and cut shapes like swirls and dots, glitter, and glue.   You can also provide google eyes, foil shapes like swirls, circles, and stars, and pom poms.  Encourage kids to have fun and make Witch fun and funky. 

ZOMBIE ~ Zombies are pretty simple shapes.  See the picture for help and ideas.  The head is a rectangle shape with a neck that will be covered when gluing on the body, which is a larger size rectangle or square.  The no neck look is good for Zombies.  Zombie hair can be cut from colored paper and glued on or kids can paint the hair but you should cut the jagged edge for them and incorporate into the head.   You can incorporate the legs into the body piece or add separately.  You can do the Zombie all white (to be painted) or in colors and along with paint you can provide cut shapes in fun colors.   You can also use brads to attach all body parts.  For clothing, face, etc poster or acrylic paints can be used.  You can cut some shapes for eyeballs and mouth or kids can paint them.  

PUMPKINS ~ Pumpkins are easy.  Cut a variety of sizes and let kids paint the faces or pre cut some black face parts and let them glue how they choose.  Pom poms are great, especially for very young kids as they can glue them all over and it's good for their small motor skills. Some glitter is always a good thing.

HAUNTED HOUSE ~ Kids love creating their own haunted house and they will have lots of creative choices once you help them with the basic house.  You can cut the house for them or do it together.  You probably don't need a pattern as the house is crooked and imperfect which makes it easy to make.  If you want to make a pattern out of newspaper, that is fine too.  It's always helpful to make some sketches on newspaper as well.  Include a fence with your house and cut out a big yellow moon and black crooked tree to add to house.  Once you have the house, moon and tree, you can cut out all of your shapes which would include, windows and doors, pumpkins, cat, owl, ghosts, bats, skeleton and any other shapes you prefer.  Provide a little tacky glue and a black marker and encourage child to place objects where they choose and then draw faces and details with marker. 

To make skeleton pattern, start with basic head shape, 2 squares, one on top of the other, bigger.  A small neck, square center body.  Do 2 long pieces each for arms and legs and add some extra to the ends of each long shape.  Hans and feet can just be rectangles, tapering a bit where connected to limbs.  Then round off all of your edges a bit, cut and use for a pattern.  Just make arms and legs do anything you like.