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Showing posts from August, 2013

Hot Weather Fun: Summer Crafts for Kids

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Summer crafts for kids are a great way to keep little ones cool and having a great time! These activities are perfect for everything from practicing phonics to building a foundation for science learning. Summer is the one of the times I get really excited about crafting. It brings back all the memories of what we made at summer camps or vacation bible school. There’s a nostalgia there that makes it fun to relive. I want to be able to create that same nostalgia feeling for my own kids when they’re older. These are some fun summer crafts for kids to make that I think will give them that same feeling. These summer crafts are what I believe to be classic summer crafts for preschooler and kids of all ages. They all give me that warm fuzzy feeling of remembering making them as a child.

Christmas Craft: Bead and Pipe Cleaner Ornaments

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Christmas ornaments made from ordinary pipe cleaners and inexpensive acrylic beads are very pretty and easy to make.  They look quite impressive yet are easy enough for small children to make.  This is one Christmas craft idea to use again and again.  Older people will enjoy making this Christmas craft, too, which can be varied to make a number of different sparkling ornaments for your Christmas tree. To make the bead and pipe cleaner ornaments, you need common pipe cleaners in desired colors and acrylic beads.  Two types of beads are particularly effective when strung on pipe cleaners.  One type are called sunburst beads, but are also known as paddlewheel beads, snowflake beads, or starburst beads.  These beads have six faceted paddles spaced equally around a center that contains the hole for stringing.  When several of these sunburst beads are strung consecutively, they fit against each other in an interlocking pattern. The other type of bead that is...

How to Come up With a Craft Idea for Kid

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Are you a camp director or Sunday School teacher looking for a craft idea for kid enrichment?  Maybe you feel like you are just not the creative type, and you struggle with coming up with craft projects.  It is true that some people just have a knack for finding or even inventing craft ideas, but your creativity can be improved.  There are ways to make it easier to find a craft idea for kid needs. First, lay aside any perfectionism.  Locking yourself into thinking there is only one right way to do something makes every decision harder.  Regardless of the kid program you are helping with, there are always many suitable craft ideas out there.  Don't worry about picking the wrong one!  If you've taken into consideration the age and skill levels of the kids involved, your choice will be adequate. Next, consider your budget.  When choosing a craft idea for kid programs, you need to be aware that some of them are expensive.  Prepackaged kits to ma...

Craft Idea for a Group: Make a Mural

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Most craft ideas are geared to individuals, whether kids or adults.  Sometimes you'd like to have a craft idea that works for a group of kids working together.  Making a mural together is an idea that works for a group.  By working together, you are creating something to decorate a shared area.  Individual crafts can be displayed, but one unique item is often more effective than a group of items that are almost identical.  In addition, sometimes kids' crafts, like it or not, just become clutter when they are taken home, and it isn't long before Mom throws it out.  This craft idea of making a group mural can be displayed for several weeks and will not become clutter in anyone's home. The basic materials for a kids' group mural is freezer paper.  Freezer paper is about 18 inches wide, and it is very tough.  One side is plastic coated.  That is the side that is designed to be placed against the food.  You will have better luck drawing on a...

Scrapbooking Techniques

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There are 3 common Scrapbooking Techniques that usually used.   Journaling Handwritten or printed journaling -- the art of telling a story in print -- separates scrapbooks from photo albums. As you plan journaling for a scrapbook page , keep these tips in mind: Try to let your journaling connect the page viewer with the actual event. Record more than just titles, dates, and names. Describe your reactions to what was happening, tell what the subject was doing, and why, share how you feel when you look at the photos, or point out what you notice now that you didn't when the photo was taken. Let someone else proofread a draft of your journaling before you add it to the page. Check for spelling and grammatical errors, or use the tools in your word processing program. Practice hand-journaling to perfect your penmanship. Try writing your text in pencil before going over it in pen. Also experiment with different styles of script and a variety of writing instruments. Use computer type to r...

9 Tips for Creating a Great Scrapbook Album

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Tips for Creating a Great Scrapbook Album 1. Identify as many people in your photos as possible, and add specific places and dates whenever possible. Ask other and older family members for help in identification. Family get together are very useful for soliciting this type of help. 2. Be sure to wash your hands before handling old photos. The dirt and oils from your skin could damage them. The same is true for handling photo negatives. 3. Since all of the elements in your album should be acid-free, it only makes sense that you store your supplies in archival quality boxes and envelopes. You'll find these at most stores that carry scrapbook, photography, or stationery supplies. 4. Create an interesting composition by placing photos of different shapes and sizes together on the scrapbook page. Back some photos with colored papers cut out with decorative-edge scissors. Leave others unframed. 5. Use your heirloom photos in your album or make color photocopies of them. If you decide to ...

How to Place Your Pictures in Scrapbook

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Deciding how to display your collected photos can be the hardest part of creating a scrapbook page. Here are some ideas to get you started creating a scrapbook . Use Copies, Not Photos! Photocopies of photographs allow you to play with the sizes and shapes of the images: enlarge some areas and cut them into silhouettes; shrink others to fit inside stamped frames; or trim away uninteresting portions of backgrounds to make unusual shapes. Plus, photocopies allow some creative room to work with color Polaroid photos. Black-and white Polaroid photos can be cropped, but color Polaroids will separate into thin layers. When making photocopies of your photos -- color, sepia-tone, or black-and-white -- do it on a color photocopier. The detailing in the black-and-white photo is all but lost when copied on a black and white photocopier. The middle tones go very light or very dark, and you lose all the fine detailing. See how much more closely the color copy, right center, resembles the original, ...

Scrapbooking Materials

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Albums Photo-friendly, acid-free albums are available in standard 8-1/2 x 11-inch, 12 x 12-inch, and 5 x 7-inch sizes. Most will let you insert plastic page protectors. The most popular types of scrapbooking albums are: Three-ring: These familiar favorites have rings that snap apart for easy page insertion and removal. Spiral-Bound: Albums with this type of wire binding have permanently attached pages and are ideal for one-topic and themed scrapbooks. Strap-style: Albums that use plastic straps allow the pages to lie completely flat when the album is opened. Adhesives There are lots of different scrapbooking adhesives available, but some will work better than others for particular applications. You can choose from adhesives that set up instantly as well as repositionable adhesives that let you safely lift and rearrange elements (wet bonds usually are permanent while dry bonds usually are repositionable). Here are the most popular types of adhesives and the applications where each works...

Scrapbook Supplies

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Since the purpose of compiling a scrapbook is to preserve memories, start with supplies that protect your precious photographs and memorabilia. Choose archival supplies; acid-free and lignin-free paper; acid-free or pH-neutral adhesives; and permanent, fade-resistant inks and pen. The basics of scrapbooking include an album, adhesive, a pair of scissors, and a journaling pen. With your own photos, you can create pages using just these four items. Choose a photo album that contains acid-free pages, or purchase acid-free sheet protectors and slip them into a three-ring binder. Be sure the sheet protectors are PVC-free (polyvinyl chloride-free), or chemically stable; look on the packaging for a "photo-safe" or "archival" notation. Adhesives to secure everything to the album pages come in many forms, including photo tape, photo corners, double-sided adhesive dots, squares or strips, glue pens, glue sticks, non-permanent glue, and bottled glues. Like all of the material...

How To Create Your Own Scrapbook

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Creating a scrapbook is a great way to record your family's most precious memories -- including summers, vacations, special birthdays and graduations. Photos are the heart of most scrapbooks. Below are some tips on how to gather these and handle them safely, as well as ideas on other kinds of keepsakes you might want to include in your own scrapbook . Using Photos Gather as many photographs as possible. Sort them so they relate to one another and to the album's theme. You can affix the original photos in your album. However, if you want to save them for other purposes, make copies of the originals on a color photocopier. Remember your collection of slides and reel-to-reel 8mm films. These can be converted to photographs at a relatively low cost. Check you local photography supply shops and photo studios. Handling Older Photos Be sure to wash your hands before handling your old photos. The dirt and oils from your skin could damage them. The same is true for handling photo negati...

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