These 4th of July pinwheels would make a great party activity, camp craft, or simply summer rainy day fun!

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More 4th of July Kids Crafts

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4th of July Crafts and Ideas

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This is what your final project will look like!

Summer Camp Door Sign Craft Materials List

1 brown foam sheet (5 ½ inches x 8 ½ inches)

1 tan foam sheet (5 ½ inches x 8 ½ inches)

letter foam stickers

circle foam stickers

1 black foam marker

1 brown foam marker

Here are all the materials you'll need—lots of foam stickers!

How to Make this Summer Camp Door Sign Craft

This will be the base of your craft.

Set aside 2 foam sheets in brown and tan.

Draw a wood grain pattern on the brown foam.

Using the brown marker, draw a wood grain pattern on the foam sheet. TIP: If you are unsure about how to draw the pattern, search for images online and copy.

Pick any color combination you want for the circle foam stickers.

Write C-A-M-P on the foam circle stickers.

Have fun decorating your Summer Camp Door Sign!

Spell out your name across the wood sign. Then start decorating the sign with the rest of the stickers. We layered some of the flower stickers. TIP: Lay out the stickers in the configuration you want before removing the adhesive.

Here’s a boy version of the Summer Camp Door Sign.

Boys will probably prefer frogs and other animals to flowers!

What you’ll need to do some bubble painting:

• Water
• Dish soap
• Shallow dishes or pans
• Straws
• Paper (we used blank cards and envelopes to make stationery)

Supplies for bubble painting.

Fill your pans about halfway full of water and add a couple of drops of dish soap.

Add in several drops of food coloring and stir. (It needs to be pretty dark to really show up on the paper.)

Insert a straw and start blowing until the bubbles are almost spilling over the top of the pan or dish.

I just thought this picture of bubbles was really cool, so I included it. ;-)

Lay your paper over the top of the pan and smoosh the bubbles down with it. ("Smoosh" is a very technical term, by the way.)

When you pick up the paper, you'll be able to see marks where the bubbles touched it. (You can actually see where a few bubbles are stuck on still. They pop on their own.)

Do this several times to cover the whole paper.  We also used more than one color on a paper to make more colorful designs.

Here are a few of our finished bubble art pieces:

Blue and purple bubble art hand made stationery.

Hand made stationery in all kinds of color combinations.

What I Learned the Hard Way: You need a LOT of food coloring in the water.  I think we ended up using about eight drops to about half a cup of water.

What Dot Learned the Hard Way: Blow, don’t suck.  (Oops!)

Easy Friendship Bracelets

But I do have one trick up my sleeve that I know you will want to learn – and that’s how to make one of those sliding knots so that you need no clasp, and so that the bracelet is adjustable for any size wrist. I learned this knot in college as a rock climber under it’s other name, the Double Fisherman’s Knot. I’ve also heard it called a Chinese Sliding Knot.

Either way, it’s one of the most handy knots you will ever learn to make – because the beauty of this knot is not just that it is adjustable, but also that the more you pull on it, the more it tightens itself.

How to Tie a Sliding Knot

How to Tie a Sliding Knot Diagram

The sliding knot diagram is easy to follow, but it can get a little tricky if you create the knot loosely and then tighten it sloppily. My advice: be really careful about keeping all the strands in place as you tighten it – trust me, it will save you plenty of headaches and tangled cording later.

Make a friendship bracelet with a sliding knot

Here’s a picture of the sliding knot in action on the back of the braided friendship bracelet.

What You Need to Make These Easy Friendship Bracelets

• Leather lacing (in at least three colors for the braided bracelet).
• Six wooden beads with bead holes big enough for the leather lace to fit through (for the beaded bracelet).
• You can also use colorful nylon cording instead of leather for either of these friendship bracelets.

For the beaded friendship bracelet, first cut the end of the leather lace at an angle, which will make it easier to slide on the beads. Then simply tie a regular knot, slide on a bead, and repeat until all the beads are on your bracelet.

Finish off with the sliding knot.

Cut the leather lacing for easy beading

Easy Friendship Bracelet with Beads

For the braided leather bracelet, knot together three strands of leather laces. Keep one of them longer than the rest on the top end, because you will use it to tie the bracelet off.

Braid the laces, then tie another knot to keep the braid together. Then simply clip off two of the three stands near the knot as shown in the first photograph below.

Finish off with the sliding knot.

Braided Leather Friendship Bracelet

Easy Braided Leather Friendship Bracelet

Be sure to check out all of our camp crafts and teen crafts while you are here! One that is hugely popular is this nightlight made from Mod Podge and a recycled plastic drink mix container.

Easy Friends Frame

Friends Photo Frame Craft Materials List

3 white craft foam sheets (5 ½ inches x 8 ½ inches)

letter foam stickers

geometric foam stickers (We like using hearts, circles, squares and triangles for this project)

foam markers

Creative Hands® sm’ARt foam® foam glue

ruler

Friends Frame Materials

How to Make this Photo Friends Frame Craft

Apply glue to one of the white craft foam sheets, leaving a 1 ¼ inch space clear along the bottom edge of the wide end.

Adding Glue to Foam Sheet

Lay down the second foam sheet, making sure to again leave a 1 ¼ inch space at the bottom. The third foam sheet goes on top. Leave a 1 ¼ inch space along the top edge. The foam should be layered like they are in the closeup below.

Friends Frame Closeup

Once the glue is dry—wait about a half hour—spell out F-R-I-E-N-D-S in foam letters across the top of the middle foam sheet. Use any color combination you want. Remove the adhesive from the back and press the stickers down hard on the foam sheet.

Adding Letter Stickers to Friends Frame

Start laying out the other foam stickers along the border of the top foam sheet. Don’t remove the adhesive until you know how you want to position the stickers along the border. We found it easiest to begin at the bottom left corner and work clockwise.

Adding Geometric Stickers to Friends Frame

Finishing Border on Friends Frame

Once the foam stickers are all placed, apply glue to the back of your photo, which should be no larger than 5 inches x 3 ¼ inches. Carefully lay down the photo in the center of the border.

Gluing Photo to Friends Frame

The next step is to apply small foam stickers along the photo’s borders, further helping the picture adhere to the foam frame.

Adding Stickers to Photo Border

Completing Photo Border on Friends Frame

Last but not least, write your friends’ names on the photo using the foam markers.

Decorating Friends Frame

Now proudly display your Friends Frame in your room or locker at school!

My daughter and I had such a fun time making this necklace – she picked out the beads, tied the knots, and then modeled it, too!

Related Pages: Friendship Bracelets, Easy Teen Sewing Patterns, Cut Up T-Shirt Surgery

Easy Beaded Ribbon Necklace Craft

What You Need to Make This Beaded Necklace

Beads with a  large hole opening – this makes it so much easier for kids to thread the beads themselves.

Ribbon – almost any kind will do.

How to Make This Beaded Necklace

It helps when making jewelry to do a little planning first. Pick out the beads you want to use and place them in a line as to how you want them to appear. Especially when you are using beads of various colors and sizes, you’ll want to make sure that the final result looks balanced. Generally your biggest beads will go in the center and each side will get progressively smaller. But don’t feel like you have to be locked in to that – random works, too!

Start with a fairly long piece of ribbon. You don’t want to run out half way through your masterpiece, and the knots can take up a decent amount of length. I suggest at least a full yard,  up to two yards if you want your final necklace to be long rather than short like the one we made.

Cutting the Ribbon End for Easy Beading

Depending on how large your bead holes are, you might want to trim the end of the ribbon like this. It makes it easier to get though the bead holes.

Making the Knotted Ribbon Necklace

Tie a knot about 14 inches from one end of the ribbon. Then slide a bead on the long end, tying another knot right next to the other side of the bead. You can see the store bought necklace I printed out as a helping guide for my daughter as she was making hers.

Keep adding and tying knots in between the beads until you are all done. Be sure to add that last knot on the end of the last bead. Cut the ribbon so that the two end lengths are about the same.

My Necklace Model, Isn't She Lovely?!

Now tie it on and look extra adorable!

Remember, this is Day 9 of Twleve Days of Gifts Kids Can Make! 9 down, 3 to go!

Disney's Tinker Bell Fairy House

A few weeks ago, Disney brought me and a group of other moms out to California for a private screening of the new Tinker Bell movie, Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue. The movie was truly precious – kind of like a Peter Pan story just for little girls. But my crafty heart was set afire when there was an appearance of a homemade fairy house built by Lizzy – the adorable girl that befriends Tinker Bell. It comes out September 21.

I’ve always been a big Tink fan anyway – but this trip was nothing short of amazing. Not only did we get a personal presentation straight from the movie Director, but we also got to spend time with the Art Director. You know Disney animation – their cartoons are pure eye candy. The Art Director actually had a full 2 foot tall replica of the fairy house made in the movie.

Related Pages: Fairy Coloring Pages, Evolution of Disney’s Tinker Bell Pictures, Fairy Tale Crafts

You can see the fairy house better in the trailer:

I came home totally inspired to make my own fairy house. But I wanted to be an easy project – Tinker Bell’s fairy house (and most others) are elaborate abodes that take hours or days to complete. I don’t have the patience for that kind of project – how can I expect my kids to?! Then I found mini bird houses in the dollar section at Joann – perfect!!! (I would link to it, but evidently they must only sell them in stores because I can’t find them on their website – blah!)

So over the weekend I made this easy-peasy fairy house:

Easy Fairy Houses

It might not quite be up to Tinker Bell’s standards, but my 8 year old daughter flipped over it!

Making Fairy Houses

To make a fairy house like this, start with an existing wooden bird house. It can be the cheap $1 models from Joann, or you could also refinish an old bird house.

Unfinished Wood Mini Craft Birdhouse from Joann

Next, paint it in pretty Tinkerbell-ish colors of craft paint:

Painted Fairy House

Then gather up supplies from outside and your craft stash to decorate your fairy house:

Fairy House Supplies

I used a fake silk leaf, a few dyed feathers, petals taken off of an old silk flower, and acorns. You could also use (with varying levels of permanence):

• Pinecones
• Beans
• Sticks
• Grass
• Real leaves and petals
• Pebbles
• Shells
• Driftwood
• Yarn
• Beads
• Dried flowers
• Buttons
• Matchboxes
• Bark
• Moss
• Seeds

After you’ve decided what to decorate with, do a ‘dry run’ and arrange the items on your painted fairy house to ensure you know where you want to glue things in place. Then whip out a glue gun and stick it all on!

You may think you’re done, but NO. In order to make this a truly awesome fairy house, you need a secret ingredient.

Fairy Dust.
(AKA Glow in the dark glitter!)

Using regular glue, dab it onto your fairy house decorations as much or as little as you like:

Adding Fairy Dust to the Fairy House

Then sprinkle the glow in the dark glitter fairy dust onto the house. NOW you are done!

Finished Fairy House Craft

More on Making Fairy Houses

Recycled Fairy Houses Craft	Fairy Houses Dewing Pattern (Not Free)	Making Stick Fairy Houses	Amazing Fairy Houses Ideas

Disclosure – Disney did not commission this post. I did it because I like fairies. The End.

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Check out all of the summer kids activities from the Woo! Jr. Network!

I typically like to do more sewing and clothing crafts & projects in warmer months. Summer clothes are just way more fun to make. And t-shirt refashions are one of those things that amaze me with the sheer brilliance of my fellow craft bloggers. How they come up with all of these amazing ideas is really beyond me. Every time I cut up a tshirt I end up not liking it so much and it becomes sleepwear. But I would totally wear some of these refashioned tshirt ideas any day!

Related pages: Teen Crafts, Recycled Crafts, Winter Crafts

More Cut Up T-Shirt Designs

For more t-shirt surgery brilliance, check out the T-Shirt Surgery Flickr Pool, and the 99 Ways to Cut, Sew, Trim, and Tie Your T-Shirt into Something Special and Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt books on Amazon!

Be sure to check out this great tutorial on how to preserve fall leaves from Gingerbread Snowflakes! This simple technique can make most of these projects last for years rather than weeks.

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Check out more fall crafts with these fall paper crafts, acorn crafts, and owl crafts over at Animal Jr.!