Related Pages: Easy Bulletin Board Decorating Ideas, Recycled Frame Photo/Jewelry Holder Craft

To make this barrette holder craft, you will need:

• Wooden shape
• Paint and paintbrush
• Hot glue
• Ribbon
• Buttons or other decorations

Supplies to make a barrette holder craft.

Paint the wooden design to match the decor of the room where you'll hang it.

Cut a ribbon to length. We went with 35", but you can do whatever works for the space.

I have learned that when using the narrow ribbon, it’s very helpful to tie a knot in the end to avoid fraying.

Decorate the wooden design. We've been using these colored buttons all over Dot's room, so it ties it in to the overall decor.

Glue the top of the ribbon into a loop.

Add hot glue to the back so the ribbon lays flat for your barrette holder.

Like this!

Hang it up in your room, and clip your cutie's barrettes to it.

What I Learned the Hard Way: The original used a much wider ribbon, and I think that was a better choice for lying flat against the wall.

Related Pages: Pig Coloring Pages, Printable Pig Mask

What you’ll need to make your own piggy ears scrap felt craft:

• Pink felt
• White batting
• Headband
• Scissors
• Glue (we used hot glue, but if you’re more patient, your kiddo can totally do this with white glue)

Scrap supplies for this toddler craft.

Cut the pink felt into two diamonds. We folded it in half and cut out a triangle. (You get to learn about two shapes at once!)

Cut two triangles, a bit smaller than the pink ones, from your scrap batting.

Add glue to one side of the diamond and wrap it around the headband.

Fold it in half and then add the other ear to bring your piggy costume to life.

Glue on the batting.

You can't tell me that's not the cutest thing you've seen all day.

What I Learned the Hard Way: We were totally making this up on the fly, so I didn’t think to measure the ears out in advance; and they’re a little on the big side.  One of my friends suggested that maybe we were playing Olivia from the children’s books.  Yeah…that’s…that’s totally what I was going for!

Related Pages: Printable Cell Diagrams, Solar System Projects

3D Cell Model Project

Here’s one of those projects I’ve been putting off posting for a very long time. The evidence is clear: that’s last years’ pumpkin patch in the background!

What You Need to Make a 3D Cell Model

Cell Model Styrofoam Balls

• 2 Styrofoam balls, one 6 inches in diameter, the other 1 1/2 inches in diameter:
• Play dough in at least 6 different colors (we used a set from the dollar store, but you can also make your own play dough).
• 10 inch square piece of foam core board
• Paper scraps
• Toothpicks
• Small piece of plastic or saran wrap (about 3 inches square)
• Pen or marker
• Clear tape

How to Make a 3D Cell Model

Grab a cell diagram to use as a guide for creating cell parts: My son made an animal cell model, but you can do a plant cell model of course, too.

Have an adult cut the styrofoam balls in half with a steak knife (older kids can probably handle this on their own).

Covering the Styrofoam with Play Dough

BTW, the color choices we used were pretty arbitrary – go with whatever works for you. Start by putting a bit of play dough in the center of the flat side of the large ball and place the small ball on top of it. The play dough acts like a glue to keep the pieces together. Then start covering the small half ball (the cell nucleus) with one color and then the area around it with a different color.

Creating the Cell Model Nucleus

Using the diagrams as a guide, start adding cell components out of different colors of play dough. This will make them easy to distinguish when you need to label them later.

Complete Unlabeled Animal Cell Model

When complete, cut a circle in the center of the foam core board about 2 inches in diameter as seen above. Then cut a small piece of plastic wrap to cover it before you place the cell model into the hole. This will protect any surface you place the model on when finished.

Protecting the Cell Model Bottom with Plastic

Place the finished cell model onto the plastic and nest it into the hole to keep it in place. You can cut away the excess plastic and then cover up the ends with a little more play dough like this:

Mounting the Cell Model to the Foam Core Board

(BTW – that top edge looks pretty janky in this photo. We cleaned that up a lot before he turned it in!!)

Gently turn the cell model over and place toothpicks into the bottom like in this photo to keep the model snug in place on the mounting board.

Securing the Cell Model to the Board

Lastly, have your child write out the names of all the cell parts on small pieces of paper and make little flags out of them with toothpicks and tape. Then have your child place the flags in the appropriate spots to label the parts like this:

Finished Animal Cell Model Project

If you want to add the title like I did to the mounting board, I just typed that up in Word and printed it out. Otherwise it’s done!

My boy got an A on this assignment, and he had a blast making it. In fact, my other daughter wanted to make one, too, even though she is 2 years younger and had no such assignment from her teacher.

1.  I hate glitter

2.  Some of my favorite projects start out as something else

When I originally started making this alphabet wall art, I was really just planning to work with my preschooler on four letters.  The idea was to do a “little project” that was educational.  I figured, why not make some glitter letters to put on our Christmas stocking so that Santa would know whose was whose?  It turns out, however, that four letters just doesn’t cause enough of a glitter explosion to satisfy an almost-three-year old.  At that point, it was “Why not?” and we went ahead and did the whole alphabet.

Of course, since I’m in the midst of decorating her room (yes, I’m making pretty much everything), it occurred to me that a glitter alphabet on the wall is pretty darn cool.

Related Pages: Printable Alphabet Letters, Printable Animal Templates

What you’ll need to make this alphabet wall art:

This kids' alphabet project doesn't take a whole lot of preparation.

• felt that matches your decor
• glitter
• white glue
• scissors
• mini craft clothespins (I got 50 for about $3.00 through Amazon)
• spool of ribbon that matches your decor

Cut felt into rectangles.  Mine are approximately 2 1/2 x 3 1/2″.  I didn’t make them uniform in size, but the are similar.  The lettering is varied a bit, too, so the end result is very nicely mis-matched.

Use white glue to draw each letter onto your felt.

Try not to twitch as your child sprinkles glitter all over your dining room...I mean, the letters.

Sprinkle the letters liberally with glitter.

Shake off the excess glitter and put the letters aside to dry.

Hang the alphabet on a ribbon using miniature craft clothespins and then nail the ribbon to the wall.

This alphabet art is a learning project that adds nice color to your child's room.

What I Learned the Hard Way: I was literally on the letters X and Y when it occurred to me that I could have drawn a bunch with glue and then let Dot sprinkle five or ten all at once.  Instead, I spent a lot of extra time doing them one at a time.

Homemade Play Dough

This play dough recipe has been one of our best craft projects yet.  Dot has been known to play with it for literally HOURS during the day.  The hardest part is convincing her not to mix all of the colors together, but we do what we can, right?  The recipe itself is pretty easy, although I had a bit of a scare, as I figured I didn’t have cream of tartar around the house.  It turns out my husband had purchased some for something he made back at Thanksgiving, so we were able to add it in.  Apparently, it gives the play dough better elasticity.  (By the way, don’t let the number of pictures in this post make you think this is a complicated project.  It was actually really, really easy.  I just took a lot of pictures.)

Related Pages: Coloring Pages for Kids, Peanut Butter and Jelly Recipes, Circus Crafts

Homemade Play Dough Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup (warm) water
• 1/4 cup salt
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• food coloring

Homemade play dough ingredients

Measure dry play dough ingredients into a saucepan

Play dough ingredients start out a little soupy

As you cook over medium heat, the play dough firms up, it only takes a few minutes

When the play dough is firm, take it out of the pan and knead it.  It’s probably not too hot, but check it just in case to make sure you or your kids don’t get burned.

Coloring your homemade play dough

I then cut the dough into six roughly equal pieces, one of each color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple)

Five drops of food coloring per play dough ball

I placed each ball into a plastic bag and then kneaded it to get the color to spread evenly.  To get the colors, try this.

• Red = 5 drops of red
• Orange = 3 drops of yellow, two drops of red
• Yellow = 5 drops of yellow
• Green = 5 drops of green (or three drops of yellow and two drops of blue)
• Blue = 5 drops of blue
• Purple = 3 drops of blue, two drops of red

You can also make your play dough smell good by adding things like peppermint extract, cinnamon, vanilla extract, etc.  I added banana extract to the yellow, but apparently I needed more, as we couldn’t smell it when all was said and done.

Make scented play dough

A play dough rainbow!

Keep your play dough in an airtight container, and it will last quite a while.  We’ve had ours for about two weeks, and it’s still in pretty good condition!

What I Learned the Hard Way: Mixing the color into the play dough is harder than it looks.  The majority of the time we spent making the dough revolved around mixing in the color.  You can make all of your dough a single color by adding the food coloring to the mixture before you heat it, but I wanted to have lots of colors and think it was worth the extra work.

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!

Here’s another project inspired by something in a store that is way more expensive than it needs to be! Ballard Designs has a very lovely set of 9 prints in small square frames for a rather unrealistic $168. They were a lot less lovely at that price! My dollar store had remarkably similar frames, and I already had a ton of pretty papers laying around – so I made the set myself for less than $10.

Well, I correct myself – my kids made these, not me! And my girls were fighting over who got to use them in their rooms when we were all done!

Related Pages: Bulletin Board Decorations, Cricut Crafts, Recycled Frame Photo Holder Craft

Easy Wall Art From Dollar Store Frames & Scrapbook Paper

Here’s the Ballard Designs Inspiration

Ballard Designs Inspiration

What You Need to Make this Easy Wall Art

Scrapbook paper – 9 sheets that coordinate well with each other

9 square dollar store frames

A paper cutter or scissors

How to Make this Easy Wall Art

First you need to pop out the frame parts to measure how large to cut your scrapbook paper. Mine were 7 inches square.

My frames had plexiglass and not real glass, which made this a very kid-friendly project. Make sure that your frames are the same or supervise carefully!

Measuring the Art for the Frame

Next, cut 9 pieces of paper into your squares for the frames.

Note: if your scrapbook paper has large designs, you may want to make sure that your cuts don’t intrude on the art on the paper. It would be a shame to cut the head off of the bird in the first frame, for example! Also, if you have smaller patterns, try to cut the squares so that the pattern is centered side to side and top to bottom.

Using a Paper Cutter

Always explain to kids the dangers of using a paper cutter and supervise accordingly!!! Scissors will also work, of course, and the frame will generally hide edge imperfections anyway.

Then simply pop those scrapbook paper squares right back into your frames!

Framing the Scrapbook Paper Artwork

This would be a great project for a kid to make and give to a sibling, don’t you think?

Remember, this is Day 10 of Twleve Days of Gifts Kids Can Make! 10 down, 2 to go!

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!

Guess what?! You were right!

I fell in love with some Marimekko designs (ok, who hasn’t?!), and thought the same thing. So I put it to the test. I printed out some simple modern art designs off of the web, gave the kids very general instructions, and let them at it. Behold, my little artists in waiting:

DIY Marimekko Plates So Easy a Kid Could Do It.

Related Pages: Christmas Family Keepsake Plate, Advent Calendar Crafts

So yeah, they are gorgeous – but that’s only half of the awesomeness of this project:

• I made them with $1 Dollar Store plates
• I had paint markers on hand – so the project cost a whopping $3
• These would make The. Most. Awesome. Holiday. Gifts. No more lame presents that you display for the sake of your kids artist’s ego! These turned out SO well you will actually want to display them – I am!!

And for the record, here’s some of our original design inspiration:

Marimekko Line Art Inspiration

Marimekko Plates Display

Marimekko Flower Fabric

What You Need to Make Kids Modern Art Plates

Kids Modern Art Plates Closeup and Materials

Plates

Paint markers or porcelain paint

Pebeo Porcelain Paints (Dick Blick affiliate link) WERE the only paints I’ve found that are permanent on glass/ceramic and food safe. But their product description changed and now says they aren’t food safe (yet they say they are non-toxic – so WTH?!) If you just want them for display, use Folk Art Enamel Paints (Joann.com affiliate link), though I wonder if you could also just use permanent markers? I’ll have to try it and see! I’ve used both kinds of paints, and I do recommend treating the plates/glass with kid gloves once complete. They say they are ‘permanent’, but do scratch somewhat easily with wear (especially with silverware use!).

Modern Art With a 10 Year Old Flourish

Finding inspiration is easy – I poked around on Google Images looking for Marimekko stuff, but I also recommend looking for vintage mid-century modern dishes by Arabia, Figgjo or the Fajance line by Royal Copenhagen (my vintage collecting habit is showing!). Ebay is another great place to find these products with artwork that kids can easily reproduce. And for really young children, you could draw the outline yourself and let them color in the shapes. With this kind of art, they don’t really need to stay within the lines. ;)

Teen sewing projects are great for adults, too – mostly because of the wonderful easiness and instant gratification they offer. I really love nothing more than to sit down at my sewing machine and have a finished project an hour or two later. Longer projects are fun too, but they frustrate my teen because she easily loses patience when things get tedious. I was the same way back then.

The best part of these easy sewing projects for teens is that almost all of them can be made with less than a yard of fabric – or sometimes even things you already have laying around the house!

Recycled T-Shirt Scarf	Recycled Denim Room Organizer Sewing Project	Easy PJ Pants Free Pattern	Easy Summer Top to Sew
Swimsuit Cover Up Tutorial	Reversible Bag Novice Level Pattern	Easy Drawstring Backpack Pattern	Newsboy Hat Pattern and Tutorial
Jeans Purse Craft	How to Turn Old Jeans Into a Mini Skirt	Cell Phone Case to Sew from Recycled Jeans	Beach Towel Blanket Sewing Project

More Sewing for Teens

These books on Amazon are perfect for teens who really love to sew!

One-Yard Wonders: 101 Sewing Fabric Projects; Look How Much You Can Make with Just One Yard of Fabric!

I own One Yard Wonders and I can’t say enough great things about this book! It’s great for both beginner and intermediate sewers and includes pattern pieces for all the projects in the book. Plus it’s only $15, which is what you would pay for only one full price sewing pattern!

Sew Teen: Make Your Own Cool Clothes

I don’t own this one – I found it while writing this post. Next time I buy books from Amazon, I’m totally buying this!