cheap childrens crafts

An easy way to gather stuff for crafts rather than having to go out and buy stuff all the time is to simply keep a box somewhere and throw in loo rolls, small boxes, rinsed and dryed milk cartons, milo tins, old fabric oddments and so forth along with a few purchased items such as pva glue, poms poms, pipecleaners and  just about anything you can think of really, then on a rainy day or at a time when the kids are bored and cash is tight, you can pull out the box and let your little ones imagination run wild.

Paper plates. A fantastic invention if I may so, not only can they reduce the dishes when having peeps over for a bbq or what not but great for kiddies to paint on.  Ratbag and I have spent the morning painting tiger masks using a paper plate, paint pompoms and pipe cleaners along with a couple of tools for cutting out eyeholes.

So cut out the eye holes, then paint the face on, let it dry then use 3 pipe cleaners for whiskers, 2 large pompoms for ears and a smaller one for the nose. Using an adjusted length of elastic to fit the mask. Enjoy!

As for the caterpiller, we randomly painted 10 plates and did a face on the 11th. Used a pipe cleaner for the antenna and 1 pipercleaner for 2 legs per each plate (so 20 legs in total). I painted on the numbers 1 - 10 and then taped together and plan to blu tack it to the wall in the hallway. a fun and easy way to display numbers for your childrens learning pleasure! :)

Making biscuits, cakes or fruit skewers or pretty much anything in the kitchen can be a fantastic way to keep children busy for a while and doesn't have to be an expensive activity either. You can get the packet mix muffins and biccies from the supermarket or even making something from scratch with stuff you already most likely have in your pantry.

For example,

cheesy vegitmite pull aparts.

2 cups of SRF, 30 g of chilled butter, 3/4 cup of milk, 1 tablespoon vegemite, 3/4cup of grated tasty cheese and milk to glaze.

preheat oven to 220*c/200*c fanforced. line a baking tray with baking paper. sift flour into a bowl and using finger tips rub in butter to resemble breadcrumbs. make a well in the centre. Add milk, using a flat bladed knife, stir mixture until it forms a soft dough, adding more milk if necessary. turn out onto a lightly floured surface, knead gently until smooth. roll out to a 30cm x 20 cm rectangle. spread over with vegemite leaving a 1cm strip along 1 side, sprinkle on cheese, roll up firmly, transfer to tray, seam side down. using scissors cut into dough at 3cm intervals without cutting all the way through, pull slices to the left and right, brush with milk and bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until golden.

This equates to about $1.15 per serve and makes 6 serves. Not only is it a good way to spend time with your kidlets , but for the older ones measuring out ingredients is a great way to include some maths by saying 2 Cups of SRF is the same as 4 1/2 cups etc. for younger kids stirring is good for dexterity and just generally fun. obviously with knives and scissors being involved you must take care and if the child is not at an age where those particular activities are appropriate, supervies or take control. I love cooking with my son and it is an important life skill that I would like to teach him and hope he enjoys. And at the end, they get the reward of eating what they have cooked.

no one said scrapbooking had to be personal pics. LOL but the fundamentals of scrapbooking is a wonderful thing to teach your kids.

thing of it, you are teaching them colour, shape, symistry (omg my spelling is bad today), the way things go together. etc.

so print out pics you find online, like animals and make a page of A4 paper. you magazines, newspaper, wrapping paper, pressed flowers. and go nuts.

scrapbooking is and can be similar to collage.

Display on wall or fridge for the ego boost of the child. (Heehee and to show off to ya friends)

*side note

if you want to add these to ur scrapbooking collection be aware of the acids in the paper

quilting or patchwork

go to any fabric store  and get the odd bits that are left overs, they will often have bags of the stuff. or use what you have at home.

make a design on paper

cut out fabric with seam allowance, I personally use 1cm so I know I have sewn prperly.

older kids can use the sewing machine

once done you can quilt or make a pillow case.

( I will add patterns at a later stage if anyone is interested)

my daughter loves collecting flowers and big leaves on our adventures and keeping them forever to remember the day so we press them!

pressing flowers and leaves is really easy and can be great to add to things like scrapbooks or collages or used to make homemade cards, they look really pretty too!

all you need is a heavy book and two sheets of paper.

collect your flower or leaves and arrange them how you want them to look when dry on one peice of paper and sit the other peice on top of it then put in the middle of a book and leave for several weeks.

OR

put in the microwave between two sheets of paper with something heavy on top and zap for 30 seconds at a time.

glue to your creations and your done!

(make sure your leaves or flowers are dry before you press them or they will rot, not pretty )

making pot purri for your home or for a gift is a nice cheap craft idea for kids.we like to go walking and pick flowers along the way but we use alot of lavender out of our yard too.

this process takes awhile but its pretty much free depending on what you use.

steps

1. pick flowers (from your yard or go to someone elses lol)

add lots of different colours but the best are lavender and roses for scent i think so make sure you have at least few bunches of those. they dont have to be perfect dying flowers might not smell as strong but they will still dry.

2. dry the flowers

you can dry flowers in a dark place pretty much anywhere if you hang them in bunches upside down, but to make the process quicker i use my hot water cylinder lol! i use a baking tray for any lose flowers or flowers without stems and just sit that on top of the cylinder with the flowers inside and then tie any bunches with wool and tie them up around (it can take a couple days to a week depending on what your drying)

3. make containers

decorate reyclyed jars or bowls anything you want to put the finished potpourri in using paint beads or anything creative or make bags using scrap fabric from around the house.

4. mix it up

once they are dry take the flowers and remove any stems and mix all the flowers together. you can either fill your containers now or do the next step for extra fragrant potpourri

5. make it extra smelly

you can skip this stage depending on how fragrant you want the pot purri. if you want it extra smelly, pop the dried flowers in an airtight container or ziplock bag and add 8 drops of essential oils(your choice) leave for several days then fill your containers with the finishes product

voila! we have potpourri!

when chloe was little this is something id do with her to keep her occupied in summer.

water

bucket

paintbrush

food colouring

we would get a bucket (or big bowl) and fill it will water mix in a few drops of food colouring and id take her outside and let her "paint" the fence she would end up painting the concrete and herself too but its only food colouring lol

you can make several colours and hose it down after they are finished or just elave it for the next rain to wash away

 

well here are a few basic easy cheap craft ideas

no cook playdough

1 cup salt

2 cups flour (plain)

1 tablespoon oil

1 cup cold water

2 drops food colouring

mix it all together and play with it! you can store it in an airtight container in the fridge.

baking clay

1 cup salt

1 1/2 cups of water

4 cups flour

mix the salt with the warm water then leave it to cool down, add food colouring if you want colour.  add flour when cool and need for about 10 mins. create your art and bake in the oven for a half hour at 180 degrees.

paper mache'

newspaper (ripped)

balloon(inflated lol)

glue

make glue using flour and water till its gluggy. using a paintbrush cover balloon in glue and used the ripped paper to cover the balloon, keep doing this in layers untill the balloon is well and truelly covered and leave to dry, when its hard use a pin to pop the balloon and decorate the balloon by paining or covering in sequins ect (can also be turned into a collage)

collage

old magazines, collected goodies

glue

using old magazines cut out lots of pictures and make glue using water and flour, cover a peice of paper with glue and decorate with the pictures! easy! you can also use things like leaves collected from the yard to decorate :)

gloop

2 cups cornflour

1 cup water

put cornflour in bowl and add water a bit at a time while stirring.

use it to play with! it will go hard when its moving then turn back to liquid when its not.

rainbow goo

4 cups water

1 cup cornstarch

1/3 cup sugar

food colouring and  zip lock bags

using everything but the colour and bags mix in a saucepan and heat on medium. when it starts to get thick leave to cool.

seperate to as many colours as you want and add a couple drops of  the food colouring and mix well then pop into bags.

to play with use a bit of each colour and pop in one bag and seal it then give to your child to play with! the colours will all mix and go swirly like a rainbow.

 

if u have a big cement area in your yard u can use chalk on it and simply wash it away when ur done!, the kids like to draw around their body (outline) the draw clothes on their outlines and draw a face / hair etc!

sometimes we go out side and collect all sorts of things to make a collage, things like leaves sticks flowers grass or anything interesting the all u need is a big sheet of paper and some glue and let them stick it all down however they like!

we once bought a packet of blank cards from the 2dollar shop and some postal stamps then i let the kids decorate the front with stickers and all sorts of crafty things then we wrote little note inside and sent them to the grandparents that live all around australia and posted them off just to make them smile! :)