Cupcake Liner Wreath

We’ve seen other versions of the Cupcake liner wreath around but this is our version. I made these with my friend Anna.  They are easy to make and inexpensive. We used leftover cupcake liners and vine wreaths that we got at the Dollar Tree!

Supplies:

1. Vine Wreath

2. Cupcake Liners

3. Embellishments (We used tag board shapes, flowers, and sequins purchased from Big Lots and Tuesday Morning.)

4. Hot Glue

 Directions:

1. Fold and twist cupcake liners into desired shapes.

2. Thread liners through cracks between the vines in the vine wreaths.

4. Using hot glue (with adult help) glue on embellishments.

These can be cute for any occasion. We have other ideas in mind too!

What to do with old stuffed toys…

When my dog messed up one of my stuffed animal’s heads, I came up with this idea to give it a new one. I think it turned out cute!

 Materials

1. Old stuffed animal.

2. Fuzzy fur fabric.

3. Wiggly eyes.

4. Rubber bands.

5. Hot glue.

I liked the way it turned out so much that I tried it with some other old stuffed animals too.

Directions

1. Cut the head off of an old stuffed animal.

2. Pull stuffing from the head.

3. Ball up stuffing and place in the middle of a piece of Fuzzy fur fabric.

4. Bunch fabric around stuffing and secure with rubber bands.

5. Stick rubber banded end of fabric into neck hole of stuffed animal.

6. Secure with hot glue.

7. Now you have a body with a fuzzy head. Glue on wiggly eyes and tongue if desired.

This one was definitely improved when I added a fuzzy heard.

Your stuffed animal is revitalized!

Tinsel Pencils

You can’t get much more glamorous than a shimmering trail of gold following your pencil as it moves across the page!  This craft is super easy, and fun to play with (and write with) afterward.

Supplies

1. Tinsel (get the kind where the strands are attached across the top.

2. Pencil

3. Painters Tape

Directions

1. Cut a few inches of tinsel and lay on a flat surface.

2. Place pencil on tinsel and secure with small piece of tape.

3. Roll tinsel around pencil.  

  4. Put a small piece of tape over the edge of the tinsel, securing it to the pencil.

Now go write something amazing! 

*Tip: AFTER tinsel is on the pencil, you can cut it to different lengths for different effects.

Pop Top Frames

We found these wooden frames for $1 at Michaels.  They are the perfect size and shape for two rows of bottle caps!

 

Materials 

1. Acrylic Paint
2. Wooden Frame
3. 40 Bottle Caps
4. Strong Glue (we used Eco Glue)                                                                         

Directions 

1. Paint frame and allow it to dry.
2. Arrange bottle caps on frame to decide on a design.
3. Squirt glue around rim of bottle cap and stick to frame.   

This was easy and fun!

 

 

 

 

 


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Fun-Fur letters

 

Does anyone else have piles of fun-fur they intended to turn into scarves?  We dragged our our basket of yarn and made some cool and crazy initials!  Just wrap the yarn around pipecleaners and shape into letters.  Or add wiggly eyes and fork-tine teeth for monster letters.  This easy craft would be a great party activity.  Buttons, sequins, and gems could be added to them too!

 

Materials:

Assorted Fun Fur

Pipe Cleaners

Scissors

Directions:

Wrap fun-fur around pipe cleaners.

Cut off excess.

Shape into letters.

Ta-da!

Add wiggly eyes and plastic fork-tine teeth for a monster letter!

 

Chubby Minnows

Materials

1. Small glass Christmas ornaments

2. Aluminum Foil

3. Round sequins

4. Wiggly eyes

5. Hot glue

6. Fishing line

7. Scissors

Instructions

1. Have an adult gently pull the end from the ornament. (Keep these, they’ll be used in a craft later!)

2. Cut a small pieced of aluminum foil and shape it into a tail.

3. Shape an even smaller piece into a fin for the head.

4. Poke tail into end of ornament.

5. Have an adult help with the hot glue.

6. Secure tail with glue.

6. Glue wiggly eyes on either side of the ball.

7. Glue fin to top of ball.

8. Tie short piece of fishing line in a loop and glue behind head fin.

Hang your cute fish somewhere to enjoy.  If you create a lot of fish, make a minnow mobile like we did in our class.  We covered a cardboard soda flat with silver fabric and tacked the fish to it, then suspended it from the ceiling.

Extreme Cigar Box Makeover

  

Cigar boxes are cool because they are usually made of wood, covered by paper. This makes them very sturdy.  We don’t smoke cigars, but we picked up the empty boxes for fifty cents each at a store that sells them. There are so many ways to decorate these boxes that we are not going to type out a list of directions. Instead we’ll make a few comments on the boxes you see here.  Then you can let your creativity run wild.

I covered the box above with a thin layer of glue and then scrapbook paper. Then I added random things we had around the house like buttons, gemstones, silk flowers and game pieces. If you look closely, you’ll see that the purple and pink flowers here are little plastic elephants and hippos that came out of a game.

 The boxes below are covered with fabric.  The bamboo beads around the edge came from an old bamboo placemat.  The beads were also used as legs. Adding legs to your box will make it look fancier and more complete. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                       

Used jewlery dresses up a box.

 

This last box was covered with pages from an old dictionary and then coated with Modge Podge.  A pin was added to the front to dress up the box.  The edges are lined with scrapbook trim.

Cigar boxes come in a lot of different shapes and sizes and are fun to decorate!

Fabulous Found-Object Collage Fish

 Create a Fab Fish with junk from around your house!  This craft requires help from an adult, but we like the way the skewers add dimension to the fish and that it is a good way to recycle your favorite junk!

Materials:

1. Wood board

2. Bamboo skewers

3. Glue (We used Crafter’s Pick The Ultimate.)

4. Drill (Adult use only!)

5. Assorted found objects

6. Jigsaw (Adult use only!)

7. Garden Clippers (Adult use only!)

Directions:

1. Have an adult cut a fish from a 2×6 board.

2. Select drill bit with same diameter as bamboo skewers.

3. Have an adult drill holes where you want to insert skewers for fins.

4. Have an adult cut skewers to desired length with garden clippers.

5. Insert skewers into holes.

6. Paint fish and skewers and allow to dry.

7. Glue found objects onto skewers.

We created fish in several shapes. Here are some more.  My friend AM made the blue one!

Fish Photo Gallery: Below are some the fish the students in my mom’s Something Fishy class designed this July. They turned out great, so we thought we’d share them here.

Small Sculptures

 

 Materials

1. Plastic lid
2. Glass Beads
3. Sequins
4. Flat glass marbles (Available in floral departments or at Dollar Tree.)
5. Coated wire (Available at Michaels, or other places where craft supplies are sold.)
6. Hot Glue
7. Hammer and nail, or drill

 Directions

1. Think of a shape you’d like to represent with wire.
2. How many pieces of wire will you need for this shape?  Cut pieces from roll with scissors.
3. Twist wire together at bottom, so end is small, and then bend pieces into the shape you want.
4. Add sequins and beads, twisting wire to hold into place.
5. Ask and adult to tap a hole into the plastic lid using hammer and nail. (Drilled holes work too.)
6. Insert bottom of sculpture into hole in lid and bend to secure.

(If sculpture isn’t balanced, add flat glass marble with hot glue to balance.  A small glass pebble was used to balance the tree, seen here.  A large flat pebble was used to balance coral and fish.)

 

We had so much fun with these that we made more.  We’ve updated the bases.  An adult drills a hole in a wooden block and we fit the scultures into it. My friend MCK made some of these with us. Thanks MCK!

          

 

 

Mini-Memory Collage

I had a collection of little things that I didn’t want to throw away so I decided to create a college.  Some of the items on my collage are small toys, pieces of hair jewlery, beads, and party favors. 

 

Materials 

 

1. Trinkets (Broken Jewelry, party favors, souvenirs)
2. Small piece of foam board or stiff cardboard
3. Decorative paper. (We used scrapbook paper.)
4. Glue
5. Scissors
6. Pencil

 

Directions

 

1. Have an adult help you cut a small (approximately 3’x7) piece of foam board or cardboard.
2. Lay decorative paper on flat surface.
3. Put foam board on top of paper and trace with pencil.
4. Trace around the board with pencil.
5. Cut out shape.
6. Glue decorative paper to board.
7. Arrange trinkets on paper.
8. Glue to board.