Get out some jars or containers for your dyes- I like old mayonnaise or jam jars with screw on lids.

Put 2/4 cup of hot water and 2 tsp. of vinegar in each jar. Add your food colouring. You will need a total of about 25 drops.
Let cool.

Drop in your hard boiled eggs and let sit for 2-5 mins. Take our with spoon and let air dry.

Orange - mix about 10 drops of red with about 15 drops of yellow
Turquoise - mix about 5 drops green with about 20 drops of blue
Violet - mix about 12 drops red with about 12 drops blue

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Posted by Administrator as Holiday Crafts, Easter and Spring Crafts, Great Kids Craft Ideas, Crafts- General at 2:00 PM EST

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Free Christmas Cross Stitch Charts

Do you have a link to free Christmas cross stitch pattern? Please post in comments section and share with others

Small cross stitch projects are a great way to introduce cross stitching and needle work to children. They are relatively quick to make and children are thrilled with the results- it is a real self-esteem builder to look at something beautiful that you made. They also make perfect gifts. Christmas is the perfect time- there are so many free cross stitch patterns for kids to choose from. Here are a selection of links I have put together…
“Snowy Village” Free Cross stitch pattern and chart
Lots of great free cross stitch patterns here from The Chart Shop including Santas, candy canes, reindeer and more. Any of these could easily be backed with cardboard, bit of stuff and made into an ornament.

Free Angel Cross Stitch Patterns Huge assortment of Christmas angel patterns.

Cross Stitch Christmas Stocking Pattern- nice free pattern

Lots of free patterns here, including Christmas patterns.

Very pretty Christmas Cardinal

Assortment of Free patterns, Christmas, holiday charts in pdf format.

Christmas Trumpets, cross stitching chart for bookmark

Two cute little designs , snowman and Santa

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Posted by Administrator as Cross Stitching and Free Cross Stitch Patterns, Great Kids Craft Ideas, Crafts- General, Christmas Crafts at 3:21 PM EST

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Of course girls can make these to- instead of saying this is a crafts for boys I should say a craft that boys might be interested in. I do avoid sexual stereo-typing but experience has shown me that not too many boys enjoy scrap booking or bead making as much as girls.
Wow- did kids go crazy for these! I saw these last year but never had an opportunity to make- my sons were too young and it looked like a big task. The kids I saw playing with were 8-16 years old. It has ALWAYS been a challenge for me to get boys interested in any kind of a craft and I was thrilled with how much they liked this.
Well- we have been going a group lately where the kids ( mostly boys) seem to gravitate towards swordplay- broom handles, mops and sticks were being whacked all over the place. It was only a matter of time boffer some one got hurt and it twigged that I had an email about how to make these cool “swords” called boffers. There is a whole culture of making and playing with these things- but for our purposes we needed something kids could use as a sword and not kill one another.
These were a HUGE hit- the kids totally loved them and I was a hero. The great thing about these is my 3 year old was as able to join in and have fun as much as the 11 and 12 year olds.
Basically- You take a length plastic (PVC) pipe and thread it through the center hole of a pool noodle- then wrap the whole thing in duct tape. There are many variations but I stuck with the easiest and fastest as I was going to make about 12 of them.
I used this generic boffer design.

The instructions above say to use 3/4 in PVC pipe, I ended up using 1/2 PVC conduit ( cost me 5.00 / 10 foot length)
If you decice to pursue this and want tp make fancier boffers- Here is list of some other good sites offereing intructions on how to make boffers:

The Art of Boffer Smithing

http://www.dagorhir.com/HowTo/howto.htm

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Posted by Administrator as Great Kids Craft Ideas, Crafts- General, Crafts for Boys at 11:28 AM EDT

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Wow- how cool is this! I think I may try this with a group of kids- making an area rug with fabric scraps! Remember the old fashion rugs your great grandmother had- or ones you see in a cozy cottage? Well You can make your own area rug just like it.
This site has quite a bit of information on making your own braided area rug:

Make a Braided Area Rug

This site has still more ideas- area rugs and a bath mat made from old maternity clothes:)
http://www.4ormore.co.uk/projects/ragrug.htm

Books on Making Your Own Braided Rugs and Area Rugs:

The Braided Rug Book: Creating Your Own American Folk ArtInstructions for making your own hooked and braided rugs

How to Make Braided Rugs

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Posted by Administrator as Great Kids Craft Ideas, Crafts- General, Crafts for All Ages at 10:53 PM EDT

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Using diagram below- this is how your attach your boondoggle project to a key ring.

When you get length you want- use a glue gun on elmer’s type glue on the end- when it dries- snip tails off with scissors.

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Posted by Administrator as Great Kids Craft Ideas, Crafts- General, Gimp-Boondoggle-Scoubidou at 4:00 PM EDT

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Whatever you call it- kids love it and find it addictive!
Gimp, also known as boondoggle is a type of flat, plastic thread used for making many types of crafts, necklaces or bracelets, zipper pulls. The designs can be fairly easy or complicated so they are good for a wide range of ages. I think under 5 years old can be pretty frustrating without a lot of help from someone older.
Scoubidou is very similar to gimp- the difference is the thread is round and hollow and not flat like gimp. The knots and techniques are exactly the same, and end appearance very similar.

The standard size for gimp is 3/32″ wide but there are larger sizes (1/4″ and 3/8″) You can get 100 yard spools, but most projects only take 3-6 yards. You can buy at most dollar stores, Walmart and Michael’s or other craft stores in many different colours- from bright neons to glow in the dark.

Boondoggle, Gimp, Plastic Lacing and Scoubidou Projects and Sites

Very cute barrette made with gimp a neat boondoggle craft for girls. Plastic Lacing Project: Boondoggle Barrette - A Gimp Craft

Boondoggle/Gimp Craft Ideas: This site has some pretty neat ideas- some are pretty far out! The instructions are very well laid out.

Boondoggle: Making Bracelets with Plastic Lace (Kids Can Do It)

TONS of free gimp/plastic lacing craft ideas here Some very nice ideas- well worth the look. Including a nice backpack USA flag made from plastic lacing, also a neat first aid kit using gimp and film canister. Each craft comes with supply list and instructions.

Cute Boondoggle Dragon Fly pin

Lots of nice ideas for gimp/scoubidou/boondoggle crafts Also shows you how to make different types of knots- from easy to complicated. Very nice, easy to understand instructions.

Nice scoubidou site
Scoubidou Site Lots of nice knots well explained.

Nice photos of Scoubidou/Gimp knots

Gimp Pencil wrapper Craft
Gimp Key chain Craft
Buy Gimp plastic lacing in bulk

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Posted by Administrator as Great Kids Craft Ideas, Crafts- General, Crafts for All Ages, Gimp-Boondoggle-Scoubidou at 10:14 PM EDT

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One of the earliest memories I have of doing a craft with my mother is when she my sisters and I do our own batiks. I was about 6 years old and to this day it remains one of my favourite memories of me and my mom.
I have often done this kind of batik with my daughter- it is an easy batik to try and do as a beginner or to try batik with younger children, It does involve hot wax so be careful.

You will need:
old muffin tins ( this is will be your “pallet”) You could also use disposable foil ones or pick up at garage sale, goodwill, etc.
old crayons ( every mom has PLENTY of these!!) This will be for color. Put like colours together, it doesn’t matter if a bit of pink get in with the red.
Paraffin canning wax
electric plate warmer or electric frying pan ( to melt wax and keep wax melted)
something to do your batik on- pillow case, T-shirt, old sheet - silk and cotton work best.
fabric dye ( use cold water dye if you can)
artists paint brush
pencil or charcoal

Divide colours in you muffin tins and add some paraffin wax. Put the muffin tin in the electric frying pan- make sure the frying pan has about 1-2 inches of water in it ( to keep wax from burning) and set the temperature VERY low- maybe around 200 degrees or less.

You can also place the muffin tin with the cups filled with wax on one of the electric plate/food warmers from the 70’s if you have kicking around- I see them all the time at garage sales- they are neat for another craft involving oil pastels.

Make sure whatever fabric you are using is NATURAL and does not have any polyester in it- it will not dye properly.

Draw your design with your pencil or charcoal- or go freestyle. Paint on the colours using your melted crayon/wax “paint”.
Keep you design simple- try not to go for too much detail. You can;t make a mistake with batik- it really is an easy and fun craft to do with kids - and a craft for both boys and girls.
As for ages this is suitable for- I think about 4 years old depending on the child- the wax can get hot so you would need to supervise.
When you have finished and wax is hardened- crumple of your fabric to crack the wax- this creates the beautiful veins you see in batik- this is where your fabric dye will go into.

Dye your fabric and let dry.

Now, fun part is to take of the wax. I use newspapers. On an ironing board I place newspapers over the fabric and using hot iron iron off the wax until it is all gone. This should NOT be done by young children .

When its done you will have a beautiful batik to treasure for years to come! My mom still has our orginal batiks hanging on her wall 30 years later

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Posted by Administrator as Great Kids Craft Ideas, Crafts- General, Batik, Crafts for Boys and Girls, Crafts for All Ages at 6:52 PM EDT

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We have doe this a few times- results are great. This makes an especially good kids craft to do as a group. Transparent soap works best- we got a ton cheap at bulk store. Also white looks nice too- what they don’t tell you in instructions is that you HAVE to get soap with no writing on indents on it- will really ruin the look.

The craft is from Familyfun.com. Found here: http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/season/feature/famf117gift/famf117gift4.html

Basically you paint soap with an acrylic paint- use fairly good quality brushes to get any sort of detail. Wait for paint to dry and the brush melted clear wax over to protect. The wax really does work. We made soaps with our initials on and some funky colours for the bathroom. The who project took about an hour. “Painting” wax on soap I did- probably not best idea for younger kids to do. But thin coat of paraffin ( canning wax) works great- or an old white candle.

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Posted by Administrator as Holiday Crafts, Great Kids Craft Ideas, Crafts- General at 12:10 AM EDT

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