Creepy Crafts

Getting ready for Halloween? Well this might help you out... I found this great little website that Ben & Jerry put out - just for the spooky holiday. This page is all about fun and creepy crafts you can do for everybody's favorite time of year...

Here's a preview...

Make your own Halloween decorations. Print out these craft pages, color them, cut them out and fasten them together to make your own Ben & Jerry's Halloween decorations. Stick them in your office, your classroom, your car, put them everywhere. Stuff you'll need:

• Computer and printer - that sort of goes without saying
• Scissors
• Paper fasteners - available at office supply shops or department stores
• Hole punch
• Crayons, colored pencils or markers
• Optional - glue stick or white glue or paste, light cardboard

Check out Creepy Crafts and make your kiddo crow with delight...

Until next time...
BusyMOM

Paper Bead Necklace

Here's a great project that you can do with old scraps of colorful paper. Making these beads comes from Victorian times. The ladies back then would get together and sip tea and cut out triangles from old scraps of wallpaper and make beautiful colorful beads. They would string them and use the strings of paper beads in doorways to separate rooms.

You can make the same beads and use them to make necklaces, bracelets or garlands. Here's how you do it.

What you'll need:
- scraps of magazine pictures, wallpaper or colored paper
- ruler
- scissors
- pencil
- glue
- drinking straws
- heavy thread or yarn

Read these instructions first before you begin:

1. With scissors, cut long triangles from the scraps of paper that you've collected. Make them about 1/2 inch wide and 2 1/2 inches long. It's easier if you draw out a template first.


2. Cover one side of your triangle with glue making sure you put it on the side that's less colorful. You want the colorful side to be on the outside.


3. Place the glued side of the bottom of the triangle on a straw and roll it up (see the illustrations below.)


4. Once the triangle is completely rolled around your straw, cut the straw on both sides of the newly formed paper bead.


5. You can make different shapes and sizes of beads. Simply make your triangles smaller or larger. Look at the different shapes you can use too (see below.)


6. Let all your beautiful beads dry and then string them together with yarn or thread, knotting the thread together.

You won't believe how gorgeous these beads turn out and it's fun to make them too.


This project was adapted from Papercrafts Around the World, by Phyllis and Noel Fiarotta (Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., New York)

The ABCs of My MOM Book

Here's a great activity for a classroom project or for some kind of organized group like Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts. Have your group make a book all about MOM. You can also do this for Dads, too. It can be made for a gift for birthdays, Mother's/Father's Day, Christmas, or just because you love your Mom or Dad!

What you'll need:
- a blank notebook
- crayons, markers and/or colored pencils
- scissors
- magazine clippings, newspaper clipping or photos
- glue

What to do:
Decorate the outside of the blank notebook with cut out letters of the alphabet. The letters can be drawn, painted, or cut from pictures or magazines. Make sure you put the title on the cover too. It can be something like, "The ABCs Book of Mom," or "All About My Mom - From A-Z," etc...

Next, pick one attribute about your Mom starting with a letter in the alphabet. For example on the "C" page, the attribute or quality could be "Cook" and then put in pictures that show cooking or photos of your mom cooking,while writing a short sentence like, "My Mom is the BEST cook!"

Make the book with as much as the alphabet that you can and wrap up to give to her for a present.

Musical Notes Collage Cards

Making musical notes cards is a way of showing your love and thoughtfulness for those special in your life.You can create a beautiful series of collaged note cards just by beginning with a piece of sheet music.

What you'll need:
- Blank note cards
- Old sheet music
- Crackle-finish varnish
- Gold and silver paint for paper
- Paintbrushes
- Handmade or textured papers
- Fresh leaves
- White craft glue
- Netting or other widely-woven fabric
- Pieces of paper doilies

What to do:
First, paint the sheet music with a coat of crackle varnish. Make sure you follow the directions for the crackle paint. Then, follow this by painting a coat of gold paint over it.

After the paper dries, tear it into small and randomly-sized pieces. Then, tear the handmade or textured papers into small pieces as well.

Next, prepare the leaves you collected by diluting a small amount of white craft glue with some water. You'll then paint the front and the back of the leaves with the glue mixture and then allow them to dry.

Here's the fun part, start arranging all the items you've collected and painted in layers on top of your blank card. When you are satisfied with the arrangement, simply paste them down in the order you created and add some gold and silver paint to the background. Beautiful!

You can use these cards for any occasion - Valentine's Day, Birthday, or any special memory you'd like to share with someone.

Mixed Up Beach Towel

Kids Crafts

I know it's not quite time for the beach, but you can never start too early for getting ready! Here's a really fun project to do with your child while you are waiting for the weather to get warmer. Make your own fun and crazy beach towel.

What you'll need:

• Adult permission
• 1 White beach towel
• Acrylic paints (pick colors you like)
• Craft sponges: In a variety of shapes (animals, flowers, hearts, stars, whichever you like
• Old plastic fly swatter
• Old newspapers (for the mess).

What to do:

1. Cover the work area or floor with newspapers
   
2. Place your towel completely opened onto the newspaper. If you are using a new towel, be sure to wash it first so it won't be stiff.
   
3. Dip your sponges into the paint (not too much paint) and sponge them onto your towel in different places.
   
4. Dip the fly swatter into the paint and pat it on some newspaper to clear the paint out of the holes. Pat the fly swatter onto the areas of your towel that do not have a shape on them.
   
5. If you are allowed, you may place your hand and feet prints on the towel too.
   
6. Let it dry completely.
   
7. Help clean up the mess.
   
8. Ask your Mom if she would sew a pocket on one end of the towel by folding it over and stitching up the sides and then two or three seams evenly spaced across. That's so you can put all your beach goodies somewhere safe!

This is a really fun (and messy) project, but if you have the room, the patience and the time to do it with your child, you will end up having as much fun as he or she will. And, you'll end up with a beautiful and useful piece of art! Move over Picaso!

Kids Crafts
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