Happy Monday Giveaway

Happy Monday everyone.  I haven't had a giveaway for a while on the blog so let me introduce you to this little book.








InstaCraft by Alison Caporimo is filled with 50 quick and easy little crafts. Just right when you don't have a lot of time but need a handcrafted item as a gift, party favour or accessory .

You can click on the photo for a closer look.

Here are a few examples of some of the projects.

So cute.

If you want to win your own copy of "InstaCraft" you can enter by leaving a comment on this post,  by liking this post on Facebook, or send me an email at thatartistwoman@shaw.ca

I'll make the draw on Thursday just in time for Easter.

Good luck everyone!

Gail
Disclaimer: All comments provided are my own but the book has been provided by Ulysses Press.

"We Three Kings" Christmas Craft

Here is a new Christmas Craft I've put together for our annual craft morning at school.

"We Three Kings"




It's a quick and easy project for one of our 12 craft stations.













MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- 3/4 by 3/4 cedar trim (nail strip)
- sandpaper
- felt
- acrylic paint in flesh tones
- fine sharpies, white gel pen
- tacky glue
- assorted embellishments
- glue gun, optional



PROCEDURE:

I bought my cedar trim at Home Depot.  I purchased a bundle which was about 24 - 4 ft long pieces.  That was plenty for the 150 kids who will be participating and cost me around $1.25 per 4 ft piece.

I then had a volunteer (Mrs. B's husband) cut all the pieces.

For each set you need a 4" piece, a 3" piece, and a 2" inch piece.

Sand the ends slightly.

You then want to paint one end of each piece a different flesh tone.






Let dry.

You want to cut a rectangle of felt for each King.  We are using green, red and blue.

The rectangles should be shorter then each trim piece so the faces will show and long enough to wrap completely around the piece of trim.

Put some tacky glue on one side of the felt.  Lay your trim down in the center and then wrap.

The seam will then be at the back.






Using fine sharpies and white gel pens mark on the faces.  I prefer them with the eyes closed but I'm sure we will get lots of different expressions on Craft Day.  You can color in some hair but it will only really show up on the sides of the heads.

Now add the crowns.  Use what you have.  I'm using some wired mini garland,  gold brocade trim and a gold snowflake that I cut in half.  Glue into place.  (all from the Dollar store)












Add the presents.  The kids are using little presents cut off some garland, a gem embellishment, and some little glittered styrofoam balls.  I found all of these supplies at the Dollar store.

Finally glue all your Three Kings together.  We will be using glue guns on Craft Day (operated by adults).  This just makes it go faster so the kids gave a completed craft to go into their bag.
That's it.













 A quick and easy Christmas craft.

See you next time.

This Year's Nativity Projects

Well I'm neck deep in preparations for Christmas Craft Day but I had to show you the photos of this year's Nativity Projects.

Here are Grade 2's Silhouettes.

You can find full directions from my post HERE.

Snowy Owl Ornaments

This little Snowy Owl is one of the crafts for Christmas Craft Day 2010 which is taking place on Friday Dec 17th.


I couldn't resist making an Owl themed ornament so here is the How To:

Family Snowman Portraits

These Family Snowman Portraits are the Christmas project currently being done by Grade 2.

SNOW Banner

Here is one of the crafts the kids will be doing for our 2010 Christmas Craft Day.  It is a repeat of one we did 4 years ago. (I have to wait 4 years before I can repeat crafts so the kids do not get any doubles).

It is based on a project by Leslie Johnston that was in "Pack o Fun" in 2004.

I made some changes and it is now a quick craft that we can easily cycle 150 kids thru lickety split.

I cut out pieces of posterboard that are approximately 6 inches square.

I like using blue.  I then trace out the letters SNW for the kids to cut out.  If you have more time you can get them to trace it out or have them design their own letters.

Using a circle template we then trace and cut out the snowman head.

The original design had scarves for the snowman but I found them hard for the kids to manipulate so we use hats.  I take some fleece fabric and sew it into a long tube on the machine.  I then cut it into sections.

The kids take a piece of yarn and tie off the top of the hat, roll up a brim, and slip onto the head on an angle. Using tacky glue secure into place.

We then cut out 2 eyes out of black paper.  Using a white crayon make a little highlight line in each eye.

Glue into place ensuring the highlight is in the same position for each eye.

Using disk tempera, paint on some rosy cheeks.

When the cheeks have dried use a sharpie to draw in a crooked smile.

Cut a carrot nose from orange paper, craft foam or painted paper.  Using a sharpie draw a few lines on your carrot.

Glue into place.

Make a hanger with a loop of ribbon and tape into place at the top of the S.  Then tape a longer piece of ribbon at the bottom of the S for hanging the rest of the letters on.  You may wonder why I didn't just use one long piece for the whole thing but I find the ribbon distracts from the S letter so I like it better this way.

We staple the top of the snowman hat to the bottom of the N to keep it balanced otherwise the snowman flops over and the banner doesn't hang right.


We also tie on a Christmas bell at the end.  I find these at Wal-mart, 21 bells for $6.00, in the Holiday section.

That's it, a great little door banner that is easy to make, perfect for our Craft Day.

Give it a try.

How to do Batik with Kids

During the school year I needed to find a kid friendly batik idea. I had done wax batik with kids before but it can be a bit difficult using hot wax. It also is not much fun having to iron away the wax with lots of newspaper. I had heard about glue batik with white glue but the results were disappointing. I stumbled on this blue glue idea and I LOVE IT!!!


It is now the talk of the school because it is so user friendly. So lets get started:


MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- washable gel glue
- wax paper
- fabric, cotton muslin works well
- acrylic paint
- paint brushes
- sink or tub for soaking
- dryer or iron to heat set

You need this type of glue.  I first did this batik with the Sparkle version but this is better.

I also buy a no name brand at the Dollar store that works great.

I used 5 bottles for 24 kids and we were able to do 3 projects with it.





I cut my fabric to size and I have a layer of wax paper underneath.

Draw your image straight on to your fabric with your glue bottle. For the butterfly I lightly pencilled in my design first. The pencil marks come off in the wash stage.


If the kids have difficulty with squeezing the bottle pour a little in a cup and use a paintbrush.






When finished let dry completely about 12 hours.

Now you get to add color. Instead of using fabric dye which could wash out the glue prematurely I use watered down acrylic craft paint. You can almost achieve a watercolor like effect with it. I don't use fabric paint because it costs more and it only has a bit of softener in it. This works better.

Having fun painting (Jeff age 5).

Make sure you use an art shirt to protect your clothes.






When finished painting let dry completely. Depending on the weight of your fabric this might take a few hours.

When dry you need to soak your fabric in a warm (almost hot) water bath. Depending on the fabric's weight this soak can be anywhere from 10 minutes to 1/2 an hour, (heavier fabrics take longer). I use the bathtub because it works best for a large number of pieces. Don't worry about the paint coming off you will only get a few flakes of dried color in the water.
To help it along you can also scrub it a bit with a nailbrush.

When the glue is all off the fabric wring out your piece and dry. I use the dryer because I'm impatient and with 24 pieces I wanted it done.



Sew up into your finished project. In this case Jeff wanted a pillow for his room.

This is one of the projects I did with the school for Father's Day, homemade windsocks. I used very light fabric (polyester lining material) for this one.

We also did a name sign out of heavy canvas for all the kids.

In both cases the blue glue batik worked terrific!!

Give it a try the possibilities are endless. You could make flags, banners,tote bags,custom shirts or just a nice wall hanging.

see ya later
gail