This week we had a go at weaving using a small homemade loom. To make this loom you will need sturdy box cardboard – the type with internal fluting. I used the fluting to thread the warp threads in and out of. For your interest, the strings that go up and down on a weaving loom are called the ‘warp’ and the horizontal threads that you weave back and forth are the ‘weft’. Weaving Loom Instructions (Pdf)
Make sure you have an odd number of warp threads. At the end of each pass we wrapped the thread around the border of the frame to prevent the sides of the weaving from tightening inwards.
Younger children will find it easier to weave on a more open loom. Space the warp threads further apart to make it simpler. My 6 year old made the weaving above right.
For something a little more complex we wove shapes into the picture by weaving threads halfway then weaving them back to the same side. To finish we decorated card frames and glued them to the whole loom.
Make your own outdoor birdhouse using an ordinary 2lt soft drink bottle. Besides the bottle, you will need some string, thick twine and PVA glue. I wrapped the twine around the bottle to form the walls of the birdhouse. Of course, you could decorate the bottle however you please. Small children may find it difficult to wind and glue the twine to the bottle. An easier option may be gluing on craft foam, leaves or bark.
Click here for full instructions (Pdf) *Postscript: Ok, so I did some research (i.e. typed stuff into Google) and it turns out this is a bird feeder not a bird house. I must admit I didn’t know there was a difference, but it does seem rather obvious now…. Thanks Teresa!*
Finally – we have a wobbly tooth! A good friend once gave me some wise advice about the first Tooth Fairy visit. When her daughter lost her first tooth, the enthusiastic Fairy left, not only coins, but a dazzling display of glitter trails, streamers and hand-cut paper flowers. Several teeth later it dawned on my friend that old TF may have peaked too soon and failed to take into account that children lose about 20 teeth in total. As my friend had twin girls she was naturally concerned that TF would struggle to continually meet the very high standard she had left on her first visit. (Personally I suspect TF may have had too much fairy chardonnay that night, but I digress.)
With this in mind, we decided to make it easier for the Tooth Fairy and create a little spot dedicated to tooth retrieval. I saw these cute mini doors here. I haven’t found anything locally so I thought I’d have a go at making our own.
For this project you will need a piece of regular box card – the type with corrugated fluting on the inside. The fluting is important as the door is hinged via a skewer threaded down the centre of the cardboard.
I liked the idea of an outside world inside the box, so we painted the interior with landscape colours. Then we made a little tree from ‘Make & Bake Clay’. In the tree is a tiny nest to place the tooth in. To strengthen the tree I first twisted a wire frame, then we wound the brown clay around it. I rolled out some green clay and cut leaf shapes with a craft knife. Click here for full instructions (Pdf)
Tomorrow my eldest will begin Grade 1. At the end of last year parents were asked to attend a brief meeting with the Year 1 teacher. The meeting went well, until we were all given 5 scrap books each and asked to cover them with contact. A ripple of panic washed over the room. “Don’t worry if you get any bubbles or wrinkles” the teacher kindly said. How can we not worry about bubbles in contact? Isn’t the number of bubbles and wrinkles inversely proportional to how how much my child can learn? Or something like that.
The video below shows my method for covering books. It may not be a terribly crafty post, but I hope it is an informative one. If, like me, you are facing another 10-12 years of covering school books, you might as well get off to a good start.
Apologies to the parents who have already spent tonight wrestling with books and sticky plastic, I really did mean to get this out a week ago….
This little paper frog has its own folded paper springy legs to jump on. At the bottom of the instruction sheet you will find printable templates for the 5 frogs pictured. You can either colour by hand, as pictured, or print them onto green paper. Alternatively you could draw your own and add 4 even strips to the bottom of your frog.
More of my animal crafts:
This year Chinese New Year falls on January 23rd. Time to revisit a couple of ‘Chinese inspired’ projects: My Red Lantern and (seeing as 2012 is the Year of the Dragon) my Flying Dragon Puppet.
Children will love how their little mosaic torches magically light up at night. If they can’t wait until nightfall, try a dark spot in the house. Individual, mini solar lights are found at the hardware or home store. You can often find them for as little as $2 each, making this a surprisingly economical project. For a classroom project, a multi pack of lights will work out even cheaper.
To make your own Mosaic Solar Light you will need a mini solar light, a large plastic cup, glue and coloured cellophane. Younger children may find it easier to attach stickers or pre-cut coloured contact pieces to the cup. If using stickers, attach them to the inside of the cup to protect from the rain. Click here for full instructions (Pdf)
More of my projects using light:
Recycle a juice or milk box container and make a cute gingerbread house that doubles as a money box. Click here for full instructions (Pdf)
You might also like my:
When it comes to Christmas dresses, I’ve found the choices to be rather slim – or brief, to be exact. Last year I needed something festive to wear to a children’s Christmas Party. The only festive outfits I could find were of the skimpy/after hours/in-private variety. Hardly appropriate! (“Mummy, why can I see Mrs Claus’ undies?”) SO, I found a second hand red dress, pictured on the left, and transformed it into the dress on the right:
It even lights up!
This is how I did it:
1. Stitched white fur trim to the collar, pockets and hemline.
2. Replaced the buttons with gold bells
3. Unpicked an opening in the hem and threaded plastic garden reticulation hose all the way around, inside the hem.
4. Decorated a pair of red shoes with bells and plastic holly.
5. Fortunately the dress had an extra lining skirt underneath. To this I safety pinned 5 novelty flashing Christmas necklaces.
And there you have it; a Christmas Dress that flashes in a child friendly/G-Rated kinda way…
This is my last post about baubles. Really. Here is a simple way to make a plain Christmas bauble into something special with round glass pebbles. These pebbles are normally available in small bags at discount or craft stores. The string used to hang the baubles will need to be replaced with fishing line, as the pebbles make the bauble considerably heavier. Due to their weight, the baubles are not suitable for hanging on a Christmas Tree. I attached the pebbles with a hot glue gun. Click here for full instructions (Pdf)
