Be happy

-be happy-

There is nothing better than brand new asphalt, chalks and a bunch of kids eager to make pretty pictures and leave happy sentiments for all the park users.

Days like these make up for all those drizzly December ones.

-smile, you are wonderful-

-have a great playtime-

That stripey wreath

 Every year I try to have one craft project with the kids that stays in the Club.

A memento of that year.

This year it was a Christmas wreath. 

Surprisingly, we didn't have one.

Remember these stripes?

Acrylic paints and wide brushes were handed to the kids.

They painted stripes on brown paper.

Then we cut them out.

I cut a cardboard base, very simple.

The strips are wrapped around and secured with painter's tape.

 Finally I cut a banner from the same brown paper, painted it gold and added the text.

Who doesn't like stripes I ask?

Unfinished business- part 2

This was finished in January.

My aim is to finish one thing a month, anything more is a bonus.

So, yay, a bonus!

It was buried under s.t.u.f.f. on my desk at work since November.

Our principal is retiring this spring and all grades are making a piece for a rag quilt.

I had an idea for this piece of fleece for a while.

In the end it was done in a couple hours spread over two work days.

I always think of our Club as a circus.

I drew a circus tent and then handed fabric pens to the kids.

I cut small bits of fabric for flags and then sewed it all together several times with black thread as if drawing lines.

The last part was embroidering underneath.

Cute, even from the back.

Oh I know, shall we let them paint a wall?

 Last fall we were looking around our space and thinking of ways to spruce up our crafts room. It was just a little blah, needed a splash of color to bring some brightness into it.

In the end we decided to hand a piece of white wall to the hands of our second graders.

They decided on a theme, which was under the sea.

Then everyone who wanted to take part sketched something they'd like to paint.

My job was to turn into a smurf.

Or rather to paint the background.

Then the kids drew their sketch onto a transparency which was then used to draw outlines on the wall.

It was great coming in each day and see progress.

The kids were loving it!

Here is the finished mural.

It makes me smile.

I mean, come on.. that is one happy whale!

Swim little Mermaid, swim! There's a shark behind you!!!

The original plan was that for next year, we'll paint white over it and let next year's second graders paint a new one.

I'm not sure we'll have the heart.

Last school year's crafts

 Around Easter time we needle felted onto styrofoam eggs.

 

 I'm particularly fond of this old Chinese fellow :)

We also made chicks and bunnies from egg cartons.

One of my favorite crafts of the entire year were the clay sunflowers.

 We used air drying clay, painted with acrylics and glazed.

 

For May Day, which is our equivalent of Mardi Gras carnival madness, the kids decorated fun glasses for themselves.

I love my job.

*grin*

Getting buggy

 This was a fun craft!

Do note that it takes a couple days of prepping time.

I mixed some regular plaster that I put into plastic spoons for two hours.

 Took me a while to figure out how to keep the spoons level, but a rye cracker box, blue tack, two dowels and a cardboard strip eventually did the job. Sometimes crafting is all about problem solving :)

A little tip: once you have the plaster in the spoon, give it a little tap to level it out. I didn't do that with my first batch and had to carve off the peaks with a craft knife... Crafting is also a learning experience :P

 

After two hours I popped them out and let dry. Could take as long as 48 hours for the plaster to dry properly.

Then we took out paints.

Base coat with a regular acrylic paint and topped with metallic and glitter paints.

To finish off, I glued magnets on them.

Acorn cap fun

 Sometimes you come across ideas online you just HAVE to give a try.

So Niina and I got out watersoluble felt pens and colored the insides of acorn caps, that had been washed and cured in the oven (175C for 20 minutes) to get rid any possible bugs.

They don't look like much, do they?

Then we stuck them upright with the help of blue-tack and filled to the brim with white glue.

And waited very impatiently for 24 hours.

Would you have believed they'd turn into jewels?!?

Beyond cool.

And oh so vivid and pretty.

Has to be magic.

We now have pirate's loot :)

One planet, two planets, three...

We've been creating our own solar system in the afternoon club in the past two weeks.
This one has at least three suns.
I love how the planets look hanging by our windows :)


These are fairly straight forward to make.
Grab two paper plates (we had two sizes), add some creative kids with paints and glitter glue.
I taped a yarn inside one plate and attached the two sides together with super strong two-sided tape.


I couldn't resist making a planet of my own.
*grin*