I think this is a really cute Wee Leprechaun St. Patrick’s Day craft using toilet tissue tubes, craft foam and pipe cleaners.

You could also do this one with construction paper instead of foam… especially if you want to make it easier for younger kids and more cost effective. I also think you could maybe use something else for the beard… like paper spirals or tissue paper maybe?

The end result of this craft looks so sophisticated that even older kids will enjoy making it!  There’s even a video to show you how to make it!

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Wee Leprechaun St. Patrick’s Day Craft

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When it gets this close to Spring, it’s hard to beat those Winter blues with the kids.  It’s often too cold to play outside and they’re getting cabin fever… at least that’s the way it is at my house.

So I thought I’d post some sunshine craft ideas to help beat those Winter blues…

Enjoy!

Paper Plate Sun

1.  Cut triangle wedges out of the edge of a large paper plate and go all the way around the plate.  These will be the sun’s rays.

2.  Paint the back side of a paper plate yellow and let dry completely.

3.  Glue on wiggle eyes (or draw them) and draw nose and mouth with black marker.

These are cute and they give kids some great cutting practice!

Handprint Sun

Have the child dip their hands in yellow paint and stamp them onto a large piece of paper.

The idea is to stamp the hands so that they form a circle with the fingers facing out and the palms overlapping.  Take a look at the picture above for clarification.

Kids seem to love anything where they get to put their hands in paint!  This is a great sunshine craft to beat the Winter blues!

Edible Sunshine Craft

I think it’s fun to do edible crafts once in awhile… my kids love this one!

1.  Use food coloring to tint cream cheese yellow.

2.  Spread the yellow cream cheese on half of an english muffin.

3.  Use skinny pretzel sticks to make sun beams.

4.  Eat the sun and enjoy!

You could also do this with some kind of yellow jam… we’ve tried orange marmalade before.  It’s not as yellow, but a good substitute for children who don’t like cream cheese.

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Sunshine Crafts To Beat Winter Blues

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This cute little necklace is always a big hit with younger children. My own little ham, who was two when I took this picture, wouldn’t hardly taken it off after she made it… Except when she ate dinner.  She liked it so much that she didn’t want to get any food on it. If that’s not an endorsement from a two year old, then I don’t know what is!

What You’ll Need:

• Foam heart shapes (cut them out yourself or puchase pre-cut hearts)
• Drinking straws (2 or 3)
• Yarn
• Scissors
• Hole punch

What to Do:

1. Punch a hole in the middle of each heart. Once you have your hearts ready, cut the drinking straws into one inch lengths. The straw pieces and the hearts will be the “beads” of your necklace.

Note: If you’re cutting our your own foam hearts, you’ll need a bunch of them measuring about 1-2 inches across. If you’re buying them, don’t get the ones with the adhesive backing. A tub of hearts is inexpensive and you can pick them up at your local craft store.

2. Cut a piece of yarn long enough to make a necklace for your child that will easily go over their head. Put a loose knot is one end to keep the “beads” from falling off.

Note: If you child is very young, wrap a piece of tape around the other end of the yarn to make it easier to thread the beads on the yarn. Kids who are a little older will have no problem.

3. Thread the hearts and pieces of straw onto the yarn in an alternating fashion… one heart, one straw, one heart, etc. until you’ve put as many beads on your necklace as you want.

4. To tie off the necklace so that the knot won’t come out, put both ends together and loop them into a knot. Don’t forget to un-tie the loose know from step 2 and cut off the tape on the end if you used it.

That’s it!

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Valentine Necklace Craft

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Now that we’re in February, I guess it’s time to start posting Valentine’s Day crafts… I can’t believe how fast the time is flying by!

These little stuffed Valentine hearts are a great project for children of all ages, including scouts and elementary classrooms because you can choose to make them as simple or as complex as you want.  Plus they are REALLY inexpensive to make.  You may have seen this one here before, but they’re such a great craft that I had to post it again… Did I mention that they’re just plain fun too?!?

What You’ll Need:

• Lunch sized paper bag
• Newspaper
• Red acrylic paint
• Scissors
• Stapler
• Paint brush

What to Do:

1. Cut out two identical hearts from the paper bag.

The way we did it was to cut the bottom of the bag off, and then cut down one side to make a large sheet. Then we cut the paper in half, put the two halves together and folded them in half. This way we could cut two identical hearts at the same time by cutting a half heart on the fold.

2. Put the two hearts together and staple all the way around them, leaving a three inch (more or less) space open on one side. This will make a little pocket.

The staples should line up close together about a quarter of an inch from the edge of the paper. This doesn’t have to be exact, but it looks better when it’s pretty uniform.

3. Crumple up pieces of newspaper and put them through the hole you left in the staples. Do this until the heart is as stuffed as you want it to be. When you’re satisfied, staple the hole closed.

4. Paint both sides of your stuffed heart with red acrylic paint. You may want to paint one side, let it dry, then paint the other to make it less messy.

Variations:

There are a lot of things you can do to this basic craft to make it more pretty or useful…

• Write a love note on it and present it to your special Valentine.
• Dip your hand in white paint and stamp your handprint on the heart.
• Decorate the heart with other objects like buttons, beads, glitter, gems, paper, etc.
• Staple in a piece of yarn when you’re joining the two hearts to make a hanger.

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Stuffed Valentine Hearts Craft

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These little mittens are a lot of fun to make and very adaptable for children of all ages. You can make them look as elaborate or as simple as you like, and they also serve as a nice little winter keepsake craft. Best of all, you probably already have all the materials available!

What You’ll Need:

• An old file folder or pieces of thin cardboard
• White glue
• Scissors
• Hole punch
• pencil
• Scrap yarn

What to Do:

1. Trace around your hand with your fingers together and your thumb sticking out onto an old file folder. This is your basic mitten. Cut it out and do the same thing for the other hand to make a set of mittens.

2. Punch a hole in the top of each mitten so you’ll be able to hang it when complete.

3. Spread some white glue on each of the mittens. A popsicle stick works well for this, but you can also just use your finger.

4. Use the scrap yarn to create pattern on your mitten. The idea is to cover the entire surface of the mitten and to make it look like a real knitted mitten. Let the glue dry when your pattern is done, then put a piece of yarn through both holes punched in step two to make a hanger.

Don’t Forget…

Don’t forget to write your child’s name and the date on the back of the mittens. You’ll look back at it in years to come and wonder if your child’s hands were ever really that small.

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Hanging Mittens Craft

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This is a cute little penguin that will come in handy if you’re working on a Winter theme, Winter animal theme, or Penguins themselves.  It would also be fun for any kind of winter themed scounting event, and we’ve even done them for homeschool!  I’ve shown some other options for creating a couple of different kinds of penguins like Emperor Penguins and Macaroni Penguins.

NOTE:  Some people have expressed a concern that they can’t use toilet paper rolls in preschools, even if they sanitize them first.  For this craft, you could roll up a piece of file folder and staple it to make a tube, cut a paper towel tube, or even make it with heavier construction paper if necessary!

These are the basic instructions for the penguin…

What You’ll Need:

• Toilet paper tube
• Black and white construction paper
• Scrap orange construction paper
• Scissors
• Glue
• 2 Wiggle eyes
• The templates below

What to Do:

1.  Cover your tube with black construction paper.  Print out the template below for the penguin parts.

2.  Trace the tummy template onto white construction paper and cut out.  Trace the wings template onto black construction paper and cut out.  Trace the feet and beak onto orange construction paper and cut out.

3.  Glue the tummy onto the tube so that the flat edge is at the bottom of the tube.

4.  Lightly crease the wings and then glue them onto either side of the tummy.  Creasing them before you glue them will help them stick out from the body a little.

5.  Glue on the wiggle eyes and the beak.  Fold the feet on the line to create tabs.  Glue the tabs to the front inside of the tube so that the feet stick out in front of the penguin.  (See picture above.)

To Create An Emperor Penguin

It’s really easy to create an Emperor Penguin by simply coloring his belly.  I used chalk in the picture to the left so that the colors would blend easily.  Simply color around the outside of the belly with yellow chalk and then put a line of orange next to that.  Blend the colors together.

You could do the same thing with crayons or watercolor paint, but the blending won’t be as smooth.  Younger children won’t care about that a bit.

To Create A Macaroni Penguin

It’s also a lot of fun to make a Macaroni Penguin.  First cut a piece of paper to fit around the inside of the tube.  Cut slits in the tube to make a fringe, and then glue it to the inside of the tube.  Rough it up to make it look more fuzzy.

Fringe too difficult? Use strings, yarn, or even a pom pom to make the crazy hair on the head of a macaroni penguin.

By the way, the picture above is a little deceiving.  Macaroni Penguins are supposed to have a little bit of yellow or orange hair on the outside edges of their top knot — but this is just too complicated for younger children!

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Tissue Tube Penguin

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This easy bead Christmas wreath ornament craft is really easy to make for children of all ages to create. It makes a great project for small groups like scouting or classrooms too.

One of these little wreaths would also look great tied onto a gift!

What You’ll Need:

• A 12 inch white pipe cleaner
• 35 green tri-beads
• 7 red tri-beads

What to Do:

1. Feed 5 green beads onto the pipe cleaner, then feed on one red bead. The beads should interlock over each other.  Keep alternating the beads until you have them all on the pipe cleaner.

2. Move all the beads so that they are in the middle of the pipe cleaner and there are equal lengths of pipe cleaner at both ends.

3. Bend the beaded pipe cleaner into a circle and twist the two ends together to make a circle. Use the remaining ends of the pipe cleaner to make a bow.

When you get ready to hang the ornament on the tree, you can use a wire ornament hanger and hook it through the top of the ornament where the pipe cleaners are tied. You can also tie a piece of thread around the ornament to make a hanger.

Don’t forget about our Little Kid Christmas Crafts book!  It’s only available for a limited time!

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Easy Bead Christmas Wreath Ornament Craft

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It just wouldn’t be crafting if we didn’t make something out of a recycled toilet paper cardboard tube.

This craft can be adapted to make just about anything including: Santa, Mrs. Claus, Reindeer, Snowmen, Elves, Angels, etc. In addition, you don’t just have to use toilet paper tubes. You can also use paper towel rolls and wrapping paper rolls.

You’ll Need:

• Recycled toilet paper tube
• Construction paper (red, white, pink, and black)
• Markers or cryaons
• Glue (or gluestick)
• Cotton balls
• Wiggle eyes (optional)

What to Do:

1. Wrap a cardboard tube with a 4 x 2 inch sheet of red paper and glue in place.

2. To make the face, use a 3 inch wide circle of pink paper and glue in place.

3. Cut a 4 inch wide half circle and roll it into a cone. Glue in place. Glue the cone on top of the tube to make Santa’s hat.

4. Cut a thin black strip of paper that is long enough to go around the tube. Glue it in the middle of the tube to make Santa’s belt.

5. Use the markers or crayons to make Santa’s facial features. You can use the optional wiggle eyes if desired.

6. Tear apart cotton balls and glue onto the tube to make the beard and hatband. Make a small ball of cotton and glue it to the point of the hat.

My kids are absolutely crazy about these things!  We have to make new ones each year.

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Tissue Tube Santa Craft

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The paper plate wreath has probably been around just about as long as the paper plate itself, but what Christmas craft season would be complete if we didn’t do at least one paper plate wreath?

So here are a couple of ideas you might like to try this year!

Tissue Paper Plate Wreath

What You’ll Need:

• Cheap Paper Plate
• Green Tissue Paper
• Red Tissue Paper
• A Piece of Ribbon or String For Hanging
• Scissors
• Hole Punch
• White Glue

What To Do:

1.  Cut a hole in the center of the paper plate so that you have a ring that is about three inches wide.

2.  Cut your tissue paper (or tear it for a different effect) into 2 inch squares.

3.  Crumple each square up slightly and glue the center onto the plate. Fill the plate in with the green pieces, then go back and add red pieces randomly to make berries.

4.  Punch a hole in the top and thread the ribbon through to hang the wreath. You can embellish this project with a bow, glitter, etc.   You make this craft as fancy or as easy as you want and it’s suitable for kids of all ages!

Variation on the Tissue Paper Wreath

The tissue paper Christmas wreath above probably won’t work well with the youngest kids, but there is a variation that seems to work much better.

All you have to do is leave the tissue paper flat and glue the squares onto the paper plate, rather than crunching them up.  The project will go much faster this way and younger kids understand what they’re supposed to do better when you do it this way.

Plus it still makes a pretty wreath.

Evergreen Paper Plate Wreath

What You’ll Need:

• Cheap Paper Plate
• Cheap Evergreen Garland (Dollar Store Type)
• Red Pom Poms
• Glue (Hot glue or white glue)
• Stapler
• Ribbon

What To Do:

1.  Cut a hole in the center of the paper plate so that you have a ring that is about three inches wide.

2.  Cut a piece of the garland that’s long enough to go all the way around the surface of the paper plate… probably about 18-24 inches depending on the size of the plate.

3.  Staple the garland to the plate, making sure the place the staples on the center cord of the garland.  You’ll need to staple it every four inches or so all the way around the wreath, then fluff it up so that you can’t see the staples.

4.  Glue red pom poms onto the wreath using either white glue or hot glue (adults only).

5.  Tie a ribbon into a bow and glue it onto the wreath.

6.  If you want to hang your wreath, punch a hole in the top and use a string or simply tie a string around the wreath.

This is the wreath pictured and would work well for older kids, scouts, etc.  If you don’t want to use staples, you could always hot glue the garland onto the paper plate, but most kids shouldn’t use a hot glue gun on their own.

I hope you enjoy the wreaths!

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Paper Plate Wreath Ideas

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This is a fun way to keep track of the days until Christmas, especially for younger kids.  It’s also a good way to get in a little counting practice if you make them count the days off each day.

But don’t think it’s limited to younger kids — This is a big deal at our house where we make a big production of tearing off the next ring after dinner each night.  The kids absolutely love it!

What You’ll Need:

• The template below printed on yellow construction paper
• Red construction paper
• Green construction paper
• Glue
• Scissors
• Stapler
• Crayons (optional)

What to Do:

1.  Cut 13 strips of red construction paper that are about 1 inch wide and 8 inches long. Cut 12 strips of green paper with the same dimensions.

2.  Print out the bell pattern below on yellow construction paper. Color with crayons if desired and cut out. (You could also decorate the bell with glitter, sequins, markers, etc. if you want.)

3.  Roll one of the red strips of paper into a loop and staple it onto the bottom of the bell. Loop a green strip of paper through the red loop to get the chain started. Continue to alternate the red and green strips of paper to make a chain that has 25 links in it.

4.  Hang the bell and chain up in a prominent place and tear off one link at the end of each day until Christmas.

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Countdown to Christmas Bell

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