Kid Crafts Magazine

Kid Crafts Magazine is the only digitally delivered magazine dedicated to children's crafting. We strive to bring you the best craft projects for younger children from throughout the Internet. This newsletter can be viewed online. Read previous issues of our newsletters located in our Newsletter Archive.

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Featured & New Crafts

I've been spending a lot of time with my children this summer trying to get them interested in gardening, plants, growing things, etc. It's been an uphill battle because our "gardening" is confined to containers. Below are a few of the things that really got the kids interested in our garden, as well as a few other crafts that work well for the summer months.

• Painted Flower Pots - Use a clean terra cotta flower pot for this project. Have each child decorate the flower pot with markers, paint, stamps, or anything else you want to use. The terra cotta soaks up so much of the pigment that you don't have to worry about the color staying put. If you're worried about the designs staying place, however, you can always spray the pots with a sealer. Once you get the pots done and dry, then help your child to put a plant in their pot. They can be in charge of watering and taking care of their plant.

• Shrinky Dink Garden Picks - You'll need shrink it or shrinky dink material to make this project. You can find it at any craft store. Use one sheet of the shrink material and cut out a plant poke shape. It will basically look like a rectangle on a stick. Make sure that the stick part of the plant poke is at least an inch wide and 4-5 inches long to allow for shrinkage. You can write something on your plant poke like "Jason's Plant" with permanent marker and then color the poke with colored pencils. (Make sure you do all your writing and decoration on the rough side of the material) Put the plant poke on a paper lined baking sheet and bake it according to the manufacturer's instructions. It will shrink to about one third it's original size. Let it cool and then find a home for your garden pick. My kids absolutely loved doing this project, especially watching through the oven door while their project curled up and shrank down in front of their eyes.

• Washer Windchime - This windchime doesn't sound very pretty, but the kids loved it. You'll need a container of some kind, like an empty margarine tub, some yarn, some half inch washers, and something to make holes in the container. Turn your container over and put 2 holes in the bottom of it about an inch apart and in the center. Thread one end of a long piece of yarn through both holes and then tie the two ends together to make the hanger.
  
  Now poke 6 (or more depending on the size of the container) holes along the edge of the container. Thread a piece of yarn through each hole and then through the center of a washer. Tie the ends of the yarn together. Do the same thing with the other holes. When you hang it up, the washers should hit against each other to make a windchime. When we did this, we strung bells on with each of the washers so that it sounded prettier. You need the washer to weigh down whatever you hang on your windchime, but you could put whatever you want on it.

• Color Carnations - This isn't exactly a craft, but it presented a good opportunity to talk to the kids about how plants "eat and drink." Purchase a few white carnations. Create a die solution out of one ounce of food coloring, one pint of warm water, and one teaspoon of sugar. Cut the tip of each carnation stem to make sure the stems are freshly cut and can absorb the water. Now put the stems in the die solution so that it covers about 3 inches up the stem. Set the carnations up somewhere that the kids can see them, but can't knock them down. The color will start to change in about an hour, but could take as long as 24 hours. When you get the color you want, rinse off the stems and use them any way you desire.

• Paint With Clouds - Put a lump of shaving cream on a piece of fingerpaint paper. Add a drop or two of food coloring to the shaving cream for color and let the kids paint with the shaving cream "clouds."

• Learn About Plants Printable - Use this template from dltk as an opportunity to talk about how plants grow and their roots. just color it, cut out all the pieces, and glue it onto a piece of paper. Or you can use the color version here.

• Easy Fishing Toy Set - We're getting to go on vacation to Nana's house where the kids will get to go fishing. This craft was a great way to get the kids excited about our planned trip. It comes courtesy of AOK Corral.

• Cloud Painting - Give each child a large cotton ball. Pretend it is a cloud. Have them dip their "cloud" in paint and use it to make a picture. What would a cloud paint if it could? This is a great exercise in changing perspectives, empathy, and thinking about how other might feel. The kinds of things that little ones sometimes have trouble with. ~ Submitted by Linda

• Caillou Disguised As A Flower - Connect the dots from 1 to 10 to complete the flower.

• 5 Classic Car Games - I found this list of car games when I was getting ready for a roadtrip. They might come in handy if you're planning a summer vacation.