Crafts- General

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AUGUST 7TH, 2006

Easy and fun craft to use up old crayons- Try making a Batik!

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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JUNE 9TH, 2006

Easy Gift Soaps- Decorate Soaps for Gift- Great Kids Craft

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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