We had my great-nieces visit last weekend and they were very excited to play in Auntie Ra-Ra's craftroom. The problem with that is which is actually the office too at the minute and there isn't room for 3 kids and 2 grown ups, so I decided we'd be better in our newly carpeted dinning room..... So here is how I put my mess free krafting plan into action with a little forward planning to make up some "sticker style" card kits that were easy for all to make (from 2 years upwards)
I used a couple of Mama Elephant dies that were designed to go with their favor bag die but they work brilliantly on cards as well - one die gives two different characters too so lots of fun for your money. I used Santa/Elf and Snow/Deer and just picked one of each design to make (you can tweak the elements and make 3 different snowmen, deer, Santa's etc depending on how you place the elements)
To make them mess free (ie no glue!) I simply covered my card with stick-it sheet glue before die cutting all the elements and thereby creating "stickers" for the kids to just peel off and stick onto their cards.
We added rosy cheeks with the aid of a blending tool and replaced die cut eyes with googly eyes for some of the characters.
I used hints of glitter paper for some of the elements to add some mess free sparkle and added more fun kid-friendly embellishments like a sparkly pompom nose and a pipe-cleaner collar complete with added jingle bell.
To give all the characters a body I just die cut semi-circles using a circle die. As the snowman card was lacking colour we added a stamped sentiment to him using a wooden Season's Greetings stamp by Hero Arts - wooden stamps are easier for kids to handle as they are thicker and easier to hold than an acrylic block.
We crafted for a couple of hours and each kid made all four cards and we also finished with a wreath for each of their bedroom doors.
This was made using a foam wreath (I bought a pack from the Range but you could just use a green die cut card circle instead cut using two dies so you get a hole in the middle) and LOTS of die cut holly leaves. Now you may think of my that's too many leaves to cut, but there is a little trick - I cut them all in just a few passes by using crepe and tissue paper folded over so you cut a lot in one pass. I used Reverse Confetti's Holly Die as you get two different sized leaves but but are a good size for wreath making. I did a few in copy paper weight too to be the base layer but again folded the paper to but a few in one pass. The thing to note is that cutting many layers of thin paper at once works fine, but your papers become compressed within the die - so you'll need to spend a little time "peeling" the layers apart after (took me an episode of Corrie to peel about 20 different die cuts but that gave me enough to make 6 wreaths at least)
We (as in the adults in the room) simply randomly added dots of wet glue (Lawn Fawn of Ranger Multi Medium would be perfect) all over the wreaths and let the kids stick the holly on. More glue for the next layer and repeat until the whole wreath is covered in multi-coloured layers of green. Finished with red tinsel pompoms and a big gold bow with a tinsel pipe cleaner centre - the bow is die cut from gold pearl paper using Lil' Inker Designs Large Bow Die (a fold in the base layer provides the dangly tails rather than a straight across line)
15 kids projects made and the only thing that ended up on the new carpet was a lunchtime yoghurt ;-)
Hope this inspires you to get crafting with the kids if you don't already.
Catch you on Sunday with some more Christmas crafting.
Tara
I used a couple of Mama Elephant dies that were designed to go with their favor bag die but they work brilliantly on cards as well - one die gives two different characters too so lots of fun for your money. I used Santa/Elf and Snow/Deer and just picked one of each design to make (you can tweak the elements and make 3 different snowmen, deer, Santa's etc depending on how you place the elements)
To make them mess free (ie no glue!) I simply covered my card with stick-it sheet glue before die cutting all the elements and thereby creating "stickers" for the kids to just peel off and stick onto their cards.
We added rosy cheeks with the aid of a blending tool and replaced die cut eyes with googly eyes for some of the characters.
I used hints of glitter paper for some of the elements to add some mess free sparkle and added more fun kid-friendly embellishments like a sparkly pompom nose and a pipe-cleaner collar complete with added jingle bell.
To give all the characters a body I just die cut semi-circles using a circle die. As the snowman card was lacking colour we added a stamped sentiment to him using a wooden Season's Greetings stamp by Hero Arts - wooden stamps are easier for kids to handle as they are thicker and easier to hold than an acrylic block.
We crafted for a couple of hours and each kid made all four cards and we also finished with a wreath for each of their bedroom doors.
This was made using a foam wreath (I bought a pack from the Range but you could just use a green die cut card circle instead cut using two dies so you get a hole in the middle) and LOTS of die cut holly leaves. Now you may think of my that's too many leaves to cut, but there is a little trick - I cut them all in just a few passes by using crepe and tissue paper folded over so you cut a lot in one pass. I used Reverse Confetti's Holly Die as you get two different sized leaves but but are a good size for wreath making. I did a few in copy paper weight too to be the base layer but again folded the paper to but a few in one pass. The thing to note is that cutting many layers of thin paper at once works fine, but your papers become compressed within the die - so you'll need to spend a little time "peeling" the layers apart after (took me an episode of Corrie to peel about 20 different die cuts but that gave me enough to make 6 wreaths at least)
We (as in the adults in the room) simply randomly added dots of wet glue (Lawn Fawn of Ranger Multi Medium would be perfect) all over the wreaths and let the kids stick the holly on. More glue for the next layer and repeat until the whole wreath is covered in multi-coloured layers of green. Finished with red tinsel pompoms and a big gold bow with a tinsel pipe cleaner centre - the bow is die cut from gold pearl paper using Lil' Inker Designs Large Bow Die (a fold in the base layer provides the dangly tails rather than a straight across line)
15 kids projects made and the only thing that ended up on the new carpet was a lunchtime yoghurt ;-)
Hope this inspires you to get crafting with the kids if you don't already.
Catch you on Sunday with some more Christmas crafting.
Tara
Love your ideas. I am making ornaments with the grandkids as they each have trees in their rooms. I am going to tweak a couple of your ideas here for more ornaments. Thanks for sharing.
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