Indian Vest

Take brown grocery bag and cut from middle of opening to bottom of bag, then cut circle in bottom of bag. Turn inside out. Cut holes on each side for arms. Fringe bottom. Color with crayons, write Indian name on back.

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Paper Chains

Paper Chains - colored construction paper strips looped and glued or stapled together. You could also decorate the strips before putting them together (markers, paints, glitter, stamps).


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Hand Flowers

1. Trace outlines of the child's hand on paper (probably painted by said child).
2. Cut out hand shapes
3. using a pencil roll the fingers up so that they curl up.
4.Curl the handshape vertically into a sort of trumpet/lily shaped cylinder with the finger curls curling outwards.
5. Staple the flower onto a drinking straw, along with cutout leaves.

Four or five of these make a nice bouquet.


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Macaroni Necklaces

strung colored macroni onto lengths of yarn for necklaces

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Headbands

glued differnt things like feathers, macaroni, sparkles, etc onto strips of contruction paper to make headbands.

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Wood Block Houses

on sections of cardboard of about 8"x8" glued/built houses out of small blocks of wood that someone had gathered at building site and cut into different sizes.

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Paints with Sponges

bought a bunch of sponges and cut them into shapes like triangles butterflies etc. and the kids dipped them into paint and pressed them onto to paper.

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Magic Wand

got the curling ribbon in multi colors , they let each kid cut certain lenths of it then taped it on straws , for magic wands.

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Puppets

You cut out butterflies, fish, dinasaurs, etc and get a bunch of tongue depressors. The kids can color the animals and use glue sticks/glitter. Then you stick them on the tongue depressors and they can use them for a "puppet" show.

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Tambourines

Tambourines out of paper plates w/double stick tape along the edges and dried beans inside. Use a paper punch along the outside edges and thread ribbons through them. Kids can color the tambourines before they are assembled. This segues well into sing-along time.


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Art

Shred and tear up colored paper and ribbon (what lilttle kid doesn't love doing that) and paper punch some too. Get a small clear acrylic frame from Target/KMart and press the paper scraps between the frame and the cardboard backing. Everyone's is different and can be changed for another look.

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Town

Make their own "town" out of appliance boxes. Have them paint, color the exterior, a little each day.

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Draw a twin

If you have a long roll of paper, you can trace your kids and they can draw themselves in - the 4 yr old will love that.

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Painter hats

They were available at Colour Your World fro 75cents each and we got markers, plain and coloured glue, sparkles, feathers, stickers, etc. The kids had fun and got a hat to take home.

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This is an Indian craft. It is called a 
"Nearika"
(rhymes with eureka).

Materials:
assorted colours of wool
approx. 7cm x 7cm squares of 1/8" plywood
white glue
scissors
assorted patterns of flowers, butterflies, fish, etc.

Pencil in by hand, or trace a pattern onto the piece of wood. Spread glue inside the design. With different lengths and colours of wool, begin with a portion of the pattern and lay the wool on the outside edge of the design and begin spiralling in to the center. Wool can be cut and other colours begun anywhere in the design.  Make sure the ends are secured with enough glue.

A hole can be drilled through the wood to allow the craft to hang.

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Garlands

These can be made really inexpensively, I got the idea from the Renaissance festival - they sell them there for about $15 and thought that was outrageous, so I invaded my local wal-mart and for about $2 bought the stuff to make one (and it turns out I probably have enough left over to make another) - they can be made many ways - be creative, but I will just say how the one I just made was done.

Take covered wire (cloth covered is sold for about 48 cents with about 6 - 8 precut pieces, it took about 1 1/2 peices for my garland. Measure around your head with the wire and then wind it together. Wrap it in green ribbon. To hold the ribbon down, periodically wrap on a fake flower -made of cloth and wire (they sold these in packets of 6 and depending on the type ranged from 33 - 70 cents per packet. I had bought 4 different colors. Weave on other colored ribbon (that matched the flowers) loosely - once again holding it down with flowers, until finally the flowers filled the wire. Then for an added effect I tied on some of the ribbon to hang down the back.

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Yarn Wreaths

Use 2 different colors of yarn. Cut a scrap of cardboard about 2 inches long and an inch or so wide. Wrap the yarn around this lengthwise until you have a
fairly thick (but not too thick) wad. Then slide off the cardboard, and tie in the center with a small piece of yarn. Then tie it onto a metal loop (ie: the metal loops that are often used in making dream catchers, can be bought at Wal-Mart, Michaels, Hobby Lobby etc). Continue to do this until the loop is filled (you will want to pack them together tightly for the best effect). At this point you can decide whether or not to trim your yarn or to leave it as is. Ribbon can be added onto the bottom and tied into a bow. (These make really nice holiday wreaths).

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Paper Beads

Materials:
Paper cut into triangles
Scissors
round toothpicks or straws
elmer's glue
paint brushes
needles
thread

Start with strips of paper about 8 inches long and wider at one end than the other, like a long narrow triangle with the point cut off. I took a piece of graph paper and drew four such triangles ranging in width from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches at the top and going down to 1/2 inch to a point at the bottom. I was able to fit two
each of the four styles on the sheet. I then took this to the local copy center and had them xerox this onto brightly colored paper. For 10 girls, I made five copies on each of five colors, or 25 pages in all. (It cost 9 cents per page, but this was cheaper than having to buy a whole ream.)

Notice that one end of the strip is narrower than the other. (This is the point of the triangle or the narrower of the two ends.)  Starting at the narrow end, put glue on the first inch of the strip.  Now find the wider end of the strip of paper. Starting from there, roll the strip around a toothpick. Roll as straight and as tight as you can. 
You will notice that the edge of the paper will go in on either side as you roll.  Secure the end of the strip with the glue. Carefully slide the bead off the toothpick and put the bead in your baggie.

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Snake

Pop tabs
felt

The snake itself, cut from any color felt, is approx. 20 cm. long in total.  The body is about 15cm long and 1 cm wide. The head, in a pear shape (or heart shape for Valentine's) is 4 cm at the widest part. Make a cardboard pattern and cut all in one piece. Add a piece of forked tongue out of red felt, two large goodly eyes, and thread the felt through 6 pop tabs to create an undulating body. If you begin over and under through one pop tab, the next one can be under and over, then over and under, etc. This gives the length an undulating effect. Make sure rough and sharp edges are filed down to avoid cuts. All ages enjoy this one!

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Chia Pets

Materials:
grass seed
pine shavings (like from a pet store)
potting soil
nylons (ankle size work fine, larger ok)
paints or googly eyes or both!

Place shavings into foot section of stocking so that it makes a head shape.  Place a bit of soil next and then seeds (lots if you want lots of "hair"). Knot off the top and decorate as you wish. Place upright in a paper up or mug and in the windowsill for lots of sun. Water daily! It's lots of fun to watch the "hair" grow!

Note: use acrylic paint and waterproof glue so that when you water you
don't
lose your decorations!

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CD case picture frames

You basically used "nekkid" CD cases (all inserts taken out), put a picture in it, and decorate it with stickers, fun foam, etc. Since there is some space there, you can use some 3-D stuff, too.

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Worm

half a pipe cleaner
beads

Choose a color pipe cleaner and bend about an inch.  Add beads ,use a wooden bead for the head. Then make a face on it and bend whats left of the pipe clean for hair.

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Potatoe Stamps

What you need:
*Regular old potatoes, baker's if you wany bigger stamps
*a safe carving tool, like a safety knife ( AND A GROWN-UP to help with the carving)
* water-based ink pads in fun colors (can be purchased at Michael's in stamp pads or bottles)
* white or colored paper

Directions:
Have an adult cut the potatoe in half, now you have two "stampers".  Carve a simple design like a heart, smiley, etc. in the potatoe in a 3-D fashion with the design being raised up. (This is kinda like carving in a pumpkin, it might take a few tries) Once you have the design carved, dip it on the stamp pad and stamp on the
paper. You can make cool stationary and pictures using these inexpensive stampers (P.S. since the ink is H2O based, you can wash off the stamper with soap and water and use another color) Discard used stampers after playing.

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Draw A Picture

What you need :
paper, crayons and a pencil or scissors 
What you do:
color a piece of paper so there are No white spots.  Then color over the colors with a black crayon untll the paper is all black.  THEN DRAW A PICTURE
with a pencil or scissors over the black.  Then colors will show up.  If you mess up just color black over it.

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ROLLER PRINT

old sponges or foam
scissors
glue
cardboard roll (toilet paper,paper towel, mail tube)
tempera paint
old pan or large sheet of wax paper
big paper (computer, butcher,newsprint)

On wrapping or wall paper you see the same little design repeated over and over. You can do that too, by roller printing. Cut old sponges into small shapes, such as triangles. Spread glue on them and press each one to the cardboard roll. Spread the paint in the old pan, or over a big sheet of wax paper, and stir in a little water. Roll the sponge roller in the paint, then roll it across the big paper to make a pattern over and over.
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Advent Calendar from baby food jars

Since we're overloaded with baby food jars (sick kitty) even after donating to the Y daycare and 1st grade teacher, I figured it would be great to build some of these trees with David. Then over the weekend I realized that if I built one of them like this:

(25)
(23)(24)
(20)(21)(22)
(16)(17)(18)(19)
(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)
(05)(06)(07)(08)(09)(10)
(03)(04)
(01)(02)

I would have a tree of 25 jars to fill with little trinkets and use as an advent calendar.


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Bath Salts

Epsom salts
food coloring
fragrance (ex:scented oils)

Fill a baby food jar, label, and put a pretty covering on the jar lid. (I use wrapping paper and ribbon)

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Finger Paint
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 cups cold water
food coloring
mix ingredients in saucepan. Boil until mixture thickens. Cool, pour into containers I usually double this recipe, omit the food coloring, and pour this into several
jars, then add the food colors.

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Back to the baby food jars.
If the kids are old enough they could hot-glue lace or appliques on the jars. The lids could be on or off.

Possible uses:
fill the jars with potpouri (sp?)
candy

cut slit in lid for penny jar



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A cute project one of my kids brought home from daycare 
was a baby food jar turned upside down, filled with blue water (food coloring) and oil  (like the lava lamps), and with the glittery confetti cut in shapes that you can
buy now. I think they painted the lids and then hot glued them shut so the liquid wouldn't leak. They were really cute, and I thought a clever idea for a four year old to do for a project. They may have even painted or pasted small fish shapes on the outside of the jars.

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Decorated glass jars
 -- can paint the outside or glue a circle onto the lid and gather into a ruffle with a rubberband under which you've glued, then tie with a ribbon The paint (or maybe stick-on letters) could be describing contents or say "#1 MOM" or something similar


glue a little figurine on the underside of the lid. Fill the jar with water and moth flakes. Make sure the lid seals back onto the jar.  Shake it up and it looks like it is snowing



Glue (Glossy Mod Podge) tissue paper on the outside of the jar and put a tea candle inside.

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Juggling Balls

Fill small plastic bag with bird seed. Cut end off a ballon. Strectch it around the bag of seeds. Cut end of second balloon. Stretch it around the baf of seeds in opposite direction of first balloon.

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Candle Centerpiece

Take tuna sized cans and fill them with colorful dried beans. Then put a candle in the middle and fill the can with white glue. It should take about 24 hours to set. Then tie a red ribbon around the base of the candle.

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Bird Feeders

Make bird feeders with large pine cones spread with peanut butter and rolled in birdseed. Make sure you have the fishing line hanger on first. Place in recycled grocery/newspaper plastic bags for transporting home.

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T-shirts

Make their own T-shirts (or one for Father's Day) with puff paint and white t-shirts.


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Miniature vases

paint 1 1/2" candle cups and stuffed them with moss. then insert blue and white baby's breath and attach a small bow to the front. The moss and baby's breath are also glued in case it got tipped over.

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Bookmarks

cut two pieces of laminating film about 2 1/2" x 6".  Then place a 3/4" ribbon down the middle so that it came out of the bottom of the film. then sprinkl it with glitter
confetti and stuck the two pieces of laminating film together.

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Earrings

purchase strings of amber, rose quartz and clear quartz chips from a local lapidary. also purchase gold plated hooks and pins. children string the chips on the
pins and the adults, using needle nose pliers, bend the pins onto the hooks. (for pierced ears)
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Brooches
cut pieces of thin cardboard into triangles and squares and painted them gold. glue on colored macaroni and then sprinkled it with glitter.  glue a pin on the back.


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Note Holder

Here's an easy caterpillar that can be used to hold notes to the refrigerator.

Glue small 1/2" pompoms to one flat side of a wooden clothes pin. Glue two eyes at the mouth of the clothes pin and glue a magnet to the other flat side.