Craft Ideas

Stone painting

Equipment

Clean flat stones

Powder paints

Poster paints

Paint brushes

Varnish, spray-seal or white glue

Permanent pen

Method

1. Chose a stone, and decide which side is top and which is bottom.

2. Write your name on the bottom with permanent pen.

3. Paint over the top with powder paint.

4. Allow to dry.

5. Paint on a design with poster paint.

6. Allow to dry.

7. Paint with varnish, spray-seal or white glue.

String mats

Equipment

Strong cardboard

String/thick wool/cord

PVC glue

Scissors

Method

1. Dip a length (30cm) of string, wool or cord into the glue

2. Coil the string, getting larger and larger, onto the cardboard

3. Keep adding lengths of string, until the spiral is the size you desire

4. Leave it to dry

5. Cut out around pattern

Children should always be supervised when using scissors.

Collage

This a simple activity in which pictures can be given texture.

Equipment

Paper

Pens

Interesting objects - see Ideas below

Method

1. Draw a simple outline for a child on paper, eg animals, clouds, trees, cars, flowers,

fruit, piece of clothing.

2. Cover the outline with glue, and then stick on textured material.

Ideas: sand, shells, seaweed, bits of wool, strips of tissue paper, seeds (watermelon or pumpkin), peanut shells, dead leaves, grass, scraps of material from dressmakers.

Make up a picture

The children can make up pictures with scraps of paper, card, plastic, and material. If the children will have a great deal of difficulty cutting the material, then pre-cut shapes can be offered.

Face collage

Equipment

Pre-drawn sheet for each child with the outline of a simple head and shoulders

Glue

Variety of junk and material for collage work, including silver foil, straws, wool,

polystyrene pieces, cloth scraps, buttons, beads, dried beans, pasta.

Method

1. Each child receives a sheet with the outline of a head and shoulders.

2. The child should paste glue onto the paper and then stick on the different materials.

3. Using the outline, stick on eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows and fill in the T-shirt.

4. The children could also stick on material for hair, ear-rings and a hat.

5. Leave the picture to dry.

6. The finished piece will be quite heavy, so it is worth mounting on card first before displaying on a wall.

The process also works well for other pre-drawn simple pictures, such as:

The seaside with boats, waves, clouds, stones, sand and fish

Vase of flowers

Body with material clothes

Fruit and vegetable stall

House

Car

Art for windows

Equipment

Tissue paper

Clear plastic

PVC glue

Method

1. Layer strips of tissue paper onto pieces of clear plastic.

2. Cover them well with PVC glue.

3. Allow to dry.

4. Stick to windows to allow light to filter through.

Polystyrene boats

Equipment

Polystyrene blocks (waste from packaging)

Sticks

Coloured card, tissue, and/or material

Method

1. Cut boat bases from polystyrene.

2. Test the boat in a bowl of water to see if it will float.

3. Make sails for the boat from sticks and paper/material/tissue.

4. Sail your boat.

If you plan to sail your boat on the sea or river/canal, then make the base out of something that will rot (banana wood or leaf bases work well) instead of polystyrene.

Lollystick mobiles

Equipment

Lollysticks (cheap from craft shops)

White PVC glue

Paint

Paintbrushes

String

Method

1. Give the children a set number of sticks each (3, 4, or 5)

2. Let them paint the sticks first.

3. The children arrange the sticks into an individual pattern. Make sure the sticks touch

each other.

4. Stick the sticks with PVC glue

5. When dry, attach string and hang.

Explosion patterns

Equipment

Sheets from coloured magazines

Sheets of plain paper (one per child)

Newspaper

Glue

Method

1.Give the child a circle cut out of a coloured magazine page, or wrapping paper.

2.The child cuts out sections of the coloured paper, and then sticks them onto the plain paper, slightly away from the main shape as if the circle is exploding.