Summer Crafting

During the summer, I like to create some arts and craft time for the girls. This summer we put together our tray of craft supplies, again. When the urge overtakes them they can sit down and create a drawing using crayons, markers, glue, scissors, foam pieces, stencils, and stickers. You never know what they'll come up with during this free art time.

Some days I try to come up with an actual activity with them. Some of the things we have tried are:

Perler beads (fusion beads)---these are a great craft to help with fine motor skills. They also encourage the development of patterns and can help children with counting and colors. The girls and I really enjoy the perler beads. It's amazing the amount of time that the beads can fill when you are looking for some quiet creative art time. I usually use my Michael's 40% off coupons to purchase the beads and just the other day I got a huge bin of them at IKEA for $5.99.

Craft kits---I also like finding various craft kits already assembled. We've bought kits for door hangers, frames, mirrors...you name it. These are easy and inexpensive.

Fabric Crayons---For years I have been using Crayola fabric crayons with kids. You create a fun design/word and print it in flipped mode. Then the kids color the design with the fabric crayons. Tip for the use of the crayons-be sure to press down hard when using them for the best effect. Then iron the design on to the Hanes $1 t-shirt from the Dollar Tree for a fun new summer top that's unique to your child.

Scrapbooks---This summer I am putting my MANY scrapbooking items to good use. At Target I purchased a pack of photo albums. The larger album holds 4--4x6 photos on each page. I have been printing out pictures from our summer activities and then I arrange them in the album...usually 2 or 3 per double page. The girls then decorate the 4x6 card inserts with information about the photos and various scrapbooking items. It's a fun way to document their summer, as well as, learn some scrapbooking techniques in an organized fashion.

Finally, I am following this fun site for more ideas in the world of art. Love the variety of art supplies she uses to create fun projects.