Beeswax wraps! THE WAX I have done this before with a class of young children, grating up pure beeswax. They keep the air out, but are a bit brittle, and the grating method was NOT easy. The easiest way is just to melt down the block, and then brush it onto the wraps. Then you place a pile of the wraps in the oven at 80 degrees to further soak in. When you hang them up, just have newspapers below! The wax also needs the tree resin - to make it stickier, and more supple, and the jojoba oil is antibacterial as used for food. So if you buy already formulated wax blocks the hard part is already done. It is then just a matter of getting your fabric pieces to soak up all the wax, then hang dry. Wax is hard to get off your stuff so use sacrificial pans and things - I saved mine in a cloth bag for next time. Order perfect blocks from this website (or your local): https://www.lilybeewrap.com/collections/make-your-own-wraps THE FABRIC I found it really fun to use my own fabric, which I cut with pinking shears. The fabric - the thinner the better, a thin cotton - not a thick one! I had fun writing my own sayings on them as well. You cut the edges out with pinking shears (those zig-zag ones), so the fabric won't fray (but not essential - the wax helps alot too). That's just the proper way... I did invest in the shears. Here are the photos. This can easily be made into a creative art project if you use white, and just let your kids draw something on them... I even experimented with a watercolour painting on one, and it did work. PHOTOS
QUICK SUMMARY (from my Instagram post at the time) I just bought 2 Lilybee large make-your-own-wraps wax blocks which made it easy. It already has tree resin to make it sticky and not brittle and jojoba oil for antibacterial properties. I just melted down on stove and painted onto wraps on hot cookie tray - one one top of another ' add another paint etc - then put back in oven 80 degrees for 10 min. The only tricky bit is handling the hot sticky wraps after. Hanging them quickly before wax solidifies funny on them!
I had also written old wise sayings on them. One my son had made did leak ink through pile I would do such creative ones separately in future. And don't skimp on the wax!!! #beeswaxwraps
Kids sewing machine activity - the magic of making something where there was nothing before. And quickly too!
My first cloth animal when I was a kid was a simple whale shape - half black and half white cloth, a killer whale or orca. The fins were just cut out flaps of cloth.
Troy's fishes
(her design)
This activity does need guidance but they can use machine, stuff it, design it from the outset - pick materials, choose eyes, draw it pin it etc. I would help sew the tail on. It's a stepping ladder - once they discover the joy of making, they will be hooked and grow skill. It doesn't need to be laborious.
Lucan's megalodon
Lucan said, please will you make me a megalodon! (Very very gigantic shark from dinosaur times.).
Okayyyyy I said.
Lucan did not sew or design this, except I did have him sew the tail on the machine. He loved it. He was worried he would sew over his fingers but soon was starting stopping doing sharp turns (needle rolled down foot up) like a pro.
Sewing machines are easier for kids to use than sewing by hand...
If you notice something missing it's the dorsal fin. Forgot to save fabric for it! But he told me he prefers it that way. Easier to hug?
After doing this with Troy and Lucan, I designed, with Troy's feedback, sew your own colourful fish kits and held my first kids craft class at our community's new hall. It was hectic, but great.
For this activity I precut and pinned the fish in such a way that all the kid had to do was sew round the shape, sewing over the fins, fastening them same time. When you turned the fish right side out, it had fins (though flat).
I made these with my daughter's class at school (she is 9). It was a blast. The next day, her friend came over to play, and I made Fimo creations with them. We made a barbaloot bear, and a Lorax, and they had so much fun making all these foods out of Fimo for them. Then, since I had a few trees home with me for finishing - they played with them in a truffula forest. They even made a humming fish, and I cut out a circle out of blue cloth for a pond in the forest. So much fun!
Even little kids can paint a shape from a mold (this is from a dragonfly cookie mould that Luke (5) pushed the clay into himself, and later painted by himself).
Phoebe Gibbins (5)
Terracotta coloured air drying clay. We really enjoyed working with it - had a really good session.
It tends to dry out quickly when working with it – so have a bowl of water handy.
(And toothpicks - and beads for eyes.)
Very fragile until totally dry. Other than that, a very low-fuss clay for working with kids (and working with yourself.)
Paint with a high quality white primer first if you want your colours on
the surface to be bright (I always steal a teaspoon of my husband’s
expensive house renovation stuff.)
I also like how warm the terracotta clay looks, unpainted. It reminds me of Etruscan art - they often used brown clay - full of warmth and life - compared to other cultures. Even their art for burial focusses on life, not death.
This
project was almost too major - I almost threw them out in frustration. With Troy's dinosaur, I stopped
after only half finishing the paper mache and then the balloon
shrunk, so I had to do reconstruction and fixing. I also left them out at another stage and it rained - so more reconstruction. But in
the end I was glad I hadn't given up because the dinosaurs had alot of character despite
being imperfect.
For a smaller project, make smaller dinosaurs (blow up the balloons less). Or don't stop the paper mache halfway through - or leave them out in the rain!
We got this idea from a book based on the kids TV program called Art Attack by Neil Buchanan (ISBN 9781405307451). These dinosaur banks were called "beastly banks".
Stage 1. Paper mache using white (PVA) glue and water.
Georgie and Troy (7), and Lucan (5). Although he loved the banks, Luke didn't yet have the patience to make one.
Blow up a balloon, and tape on rolled up printer paper for the neck and tail. Tape on toilet paper rolls which have been cut in half for the feet. For extra structural strength, also wrap and twist wire to support head and neck - we found it essential and both dinosaurs were later supplemented with wire. I also glue-gunned the wire construction to the dinosaur. Get the children to tear up alot of newspaper, and get a small bucket with PVA glue (white glue) mixed with some water. Dip the strips in the glue solution and cover dinosaur. This is the time to "go with" the character of your dinosaur, bringing it out. You can add ridges to the back with folded newspaper.
Tip: You can create a reptilian wrinkly texture for the skin by adding toilet paper to the wet surface. But don't touch it too much or it will ball up and tear away!
Coin slot and cork hole underneath
When you are done the paper mache and it is dry, cut a coin slot in the top, and a circular hole underneath in the belly, the same size as the cork you are using. Coil up a piece of wire around your cork to size it, and paper mache the metal ring to act as a hole liner to give it the hole strength. (I originally gluegunned in a plastic tube, but since it rose up too high with its ridge inside the money couldn't get out - so I had to cut it out and do this later with a glue gun and fabric. It would have been far neater to do it at this stage. Photo below.)
Stage 2: Paint with white primer.
Tips: We used really good quality white primer paint (usually as a prep for walls). This paint provides a great base for decorating and fills in and seals the sculpture.
Stage 3: Decorate your dinosaur bank using acrylic paint and/or paint store samples.
Get the kids to mark out their designs with a marker first, and then they can start filling in. After they have done what they can handle, help them finish it off nicely so they'll be proud of their dinosaurs.
When they are done, they are like characters - encourage the kids to name them. Polka-dot and Tiger are friends - as the girls who made them are.
1. Make bread dough they can make creatures out of - which they can eat after.
Number One on my list because this is my kids (and their friends) favourite thing to do at our house. It's actually really simple to make basic bread dough. Here is my no-measuring method. As long as you have some of all the ingredients below - and enough flour, you can't really go wrong: First, get about 3 cups of warm water in a mixing bowl. Then, sprinkle yeast (any kind) over the top of the surface. Sprinkle some sugar to feed the yeast. After a minute or so, it will start to foam up.(You don't have to wait, but you can.) Then, add a sploosh of oil(optional, but this added fat will make it more of a treat, and also decrease stickiness).Add a large pinch of salt. Don't stress about doing it perfectly - as long it all the elements are there, you will have dough.
At this point you have the brew to make the dough. Mix it with a wooden spoon (or any spoon you have), then start pouring flour in, slowly. It will at first make a sticky soup. At the point where it becomes hard to stir, get your clean hands in, stir and mix around with your hands, adding more until it's - just barely - no longer sticky, or only just. Try to get it to cleave all together as one mass.
The kids may or may not be waiting on you. You can do this ahead of time and place a dish cloth over it so it will rise up - but you can also whip this up on the spur of the moment and give them a chunk to play with. It will still have the same educational and creative value! (And it will still taste fine.) After all their playing, and the time it sits in a greased pan, it will have risen enough.
Anyways, make sure when you give the kids their handful of dough that you keep the surface on the table in front of them sprinkled with flour as they won't be able to deal with very sticky dough. You can keep a bowl or cup on the table for sprinkling the dough or table as needed.
Ideas for making things - start them making balls or sausages. Cookie cutters and child sized rolling pins to use. If they aren't afraid to make things, just let them go, but their experience will be much improved by you participating and showing them how to make things. After they are rolling, you can let them go.
You can use pinto beans to make great eyes - but limit their use of them - they are hard and not really edible.
It's important to set a greased pie pan or baking pan beside them for them to place their finished, focused creations into as it gives them a sense of accomplishment when they can see what they've made.
Have the oven heating up to 160 degrees C (or 360 F). Even little kids can brush butter and sprinkle sugar over top their finished creatures.
Troy made me laugh as I was filming her and Luke for my blog, she just started hosting her own video tutorial on how to make a dough critter. I didn't stop her - their video is below.
2. Make things out of junk or scrap materials. ie houses, cars, animals, whatever they want to build.
Josh (above) loved making armour and and a sword for his clay creature out of a bottlecap, wire, cloth, a toothpick, bit's he'd found. The monkey guy also has a drum set made out of bottlecaps.
It may look scrappy to us - but their imaginations are firing away. Get a glue gun - wire, pliers, use a drill to make holes in plastic things, or just sew things together with a big needle (even cardboard). Double sided tape, card, old interesting objects you come across - save them in some designated area (if you can mentally handle the chaos). Real order can come out of the right amount of chaos. Too much and you are a hoarder. Too little, and you are a fusspot. Get the right balance for craft activities as you go!
I still remember the endless possibilities I imagined when I found a neat object.
It's so cool to hear their ideas come out.
3. Make your own toy out of clay
Sculpey
Craft stores sell a type of clay that hardens when you cook it in the oven ("Sculpey" in NZ, "Fimo" in North America). Sculpey even sellsglow-in-the-dark modelling clay! A bit expensive- around $7 for one block from Spotlight ($5 if you're a member) - but worth it for a special gift, as plasticine which stays squishy forever quickly gets ruined. I did have Troy practice on squishy plasticine first -
The dog in the photo below has glued on felt eyes as the eyes Troy made didn't stand out. Always fix screw-ups in a positive way - it teaches the kids that lesson. We
named him "Snifter" - as apparently he likes sniffing rear ends. The
horse I helped Troy with in your hand on the left we named "Spirit".
He glows green-white brightly in the dark.
3. Take them to the library
They need fuel to fire their imaginations. They won't have anything in their heads, ideas of what to make, without stories.
I remember when my mother first introduced us kids to the library - and all the worlds that were in there to be found. She just took us there and let us choose whatever we wanted, but also at times introducing us to great books.
Let the kids choose anything they are interested in. My mother would occasionally show me something she had heard of that was supposed to be good - famously, to me, C. S. Lewis's Narnia series. This series ended up being one of my ultimate favourite.
This is not a small idea - this idea is essential.
4. Make a creature or animal out of paper mache, then paint it.
The polka
dots on the dinosaur bank on the right (named "Polkadot") were all drawn
by Georgie (7) and painted by her. Then Troy painted the green back
ridges for Georgie, and added glitter. I was able to tie it all
together for her by filling in around the polka dots neatly, painting
with a bright sample of wall paint.
For
the dinosaur bank on the left ("Tiger"), I admit I took over and
painted it after Troy (7) got frustrated with marking the stripes. But
she gave lots of input. I mixed red acrylic paint in to the blue-green
colour I was using to shade the belly and feet. This project will definitely need your help. But there is lots for the kids to do themselves (like ripping up paper - and helping with paper mache - and painting). In the paper mache "piggy banks"
above (they have slots cut in their tops, and corks under their bellies) the kids have helped paper mache them with strips of newspaper dipped in PVA glue (white glue) and water. The base was a balloon, with toilet paper roll feet cut in halves. The neck is rolled and scrunched paper. Some wire was needed to provide structure and support to the
long neck and long tail. For more details on how we did it, click here.
We got this idea from a book based on the kids TV program called Art Attack by Neil Buchanan (ISBN 9781405307451). These dinosaur banks were called "beastly banks".
