July 29, 2008

Under the sea: kids' quilling picture

Sea world: quilled picture

A picture like this can be created together with children using the paper quilling technique. We called this one "Under the sea", and it features sea animals and creatures: fish, a seahorse, an octopus, seashells, sponge tubes, a jellyfish, and a starfish (sea star).

Seed-bead friendship bracelet

Friendship Bracelet

My daughter asked me to make her a bracelet. We've chosen glass beads for it. How to make a simple friendship bracelet step-by-step: Learning to weave bead friendship bracelets (it's in Russian, but the pictures are self-explanatory). The child was satisfied with both the result and the process: she not only enjoyed watching me but also sorted the beads.

Another very nice friendship bracelet at Art Projects for Kids — a wonderful arty blog.

Tutorial: An introduction to paper quilling

Simple quilled flower

As you probably know, paper quilling or paper filigree can be used for creating greeting cards, decorating objects and even building three-dimensional sculptures.

This is a getting started quilling guide, where I'm showing the basics of paper quilling by the example of making a simple flower. The entire process should take about 30 minutes.

July 5, 2008

Printed pizza nature craft for kids

Pizza

We made this pizza using some beige paper, paint and fresh vegetables. The idea of vegetable stamps has been taken from the "Nature Printing" book. Kids have lots of fun with them, and they are much easier to make than rubber stamps.

July 4, 2008

Easy dragonfly collage nature craft

Dragonfly

This is an easy-to-make dragonfly craft, made using natural materials: samaras, like maple ones, for the wings, a twig or a stem for the body, and allspice or black pepper for the eyes. Arrange the elements and glue them onto a sheet of white or colored paper.