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Showing posts with the label Crafts

Homemade Flags for Sandcastles

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Have you ever thought to make your own sandcastle flags? They are usually just a round thin wooden stick with a rectangle or triangle of paper attached to the top. Building sandcastles is a typical childhood summertime activity and flags are often a last minute thought, even when just arriving at the beach. When the sun goes in behind a cloud, (well in a British summer, that happens), what better thing for young children to do than build a sandcastle.  Did you make sandcastles as a child? British Beach in Summer And, isn't waiting for a summer holiday is a difficult thing for children to do!  Here we are preparing with a physical activity where their thoughts are, and can still be, focused on what they want to think about - their summer holiday or trip to the beach. When children use their hands doing a craft activity, it keeps them busy, making it easier to control any excitement and keeps them calmer too. Flags can be made as simple or elaborate as you like - ...

Starting Sewing with Children

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We created a sewing starter set for children to learn to sew. The intention with this traditional set is that they learn to sew at their own pace, in the way the suits them best. There is no right way or wrong way with this set, in fact every child would be sure to create something different based on where ever their interests lie. We have included a mix of sewing supplies enabling children to be creative and produce something unique to themselves. If this sounds a little daunting, you might be wondering where you would begin. In order to give your child a starting point and gain confidence in actually achieving something initially, we have included a precut felt fish as a first project to help with this. The fabrics are a mix of textures, including a piece of fun fur -who could not resist touching that! Felt has the advantage of not fraying at the edges - fraying fabric is something that children will find difficult to deal with when they first start sewing. Felt can be ...

Children's Button Bracelet Craft

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This is an easy version of making a button bracelet which is suitable for young children to make. Here we are threading the buttons on to the elastic or thread in a straight line.   Instructions Cut a length of cord (or round elastic ) approx 50cm long and fold in half. Taking each end, thread through the first button, leaving a loop. This loop is for fastening the bracelet on to the wrist. Thread on the remaining buttons in a line using both ends of the thread. Tip - buttons with four holes are easier to use, rather than two holed buttons. This is because both of the threads would need to pass through the single hole on a two holed button. This really is a squeeze and children would find it difficult to do. Thread on the buttons Keep adding buttons until the length will fit round the wrist. We overlapped the buttons slightly so that when curved round the wrist there are no spaces. You might like to do it like that or not. There is no right or wrong way ...

A Mini Christmas Tree from Cardboard

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We made a Christmas tree from cardboard. This one happens to be a mini Christmas tree but it can be made on whatever scale you like. A Christmas tree from cardboard can be made by children of any age. Here we have used a ruler to measure out the tree shape to make it symmetrical, but a younger child might like to draw free hand. After making a template from paper, we cut out the tree from cardboard. To make the inner tree shape we used kitchen foil. We decorated with white snowflake sequins and made a base from a strip of cardboard, formed into a triangle. The lovely thing about working with cardboard is that it is strong and ridged but also can be manipulated. To go one step further:  Use hook and loop dots instead of snowflake sequins. Attach embellishments such as coloured pom poms , pony beads or buttons to the other half of the dots - great fun for a preschool child to decorate the cardboard tree ...over and over again

Making a Children's Craft Box

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The best type of box to hold children's craft supplies is a container that is inexpensive. The reason is, that as you collect craft materials for your child to use, you will find that the need for a bigger box comes quite quickly. A large shoe box with a lid, covered with either wrapping paper or plain paper, such as brown paper or coloured paper, is a good size box to start off with. Your child could decorate or personalise their box, once covered.  As you progress to a larger box, you could add handles, to carry with, made from thick cord - the type found on gift bags is suitable. Contents When filling a craft box for children, the best thing is to offer a range of craft supplies which can be used in different ways. What to put in a children's craft box Basic equipment you will need Paper scissors, glue spreaders and glue Materials to work with The following craft supplies will provide your child with materials to work with. T...