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Make Your Own
- Jewellery
Get started with what you have at home. Do you have string, wire, or fishing line? Thread beads, shells, buttons, elbow noodles or cheerios on the string. If you have coloured string, you can braid it to make an easy and pretty bracelet.
- Photo album
- Scrap book
A scrap book is a book that you can glue or tape things you would like to save like drawings, photos, newspaper articles.
- Board game
- Homemade cards
- Puzzle
Find an old photo, picture from a magazine or an old postcard. Make sure it is okay to cut it up. Glue the picture/photo to a piece of cereal box that is the same size as your photo. This will make your puzzle pieces strong. Cut your picture into different shapes and sizes and then try to put it back together!
- Name tags for the people at your dinner table
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Weaving, etc.
- Popcorn string
Materials needed: popcorn, needle, string
Pop some popcorn in an air popper (do not use microwave popcorn). Thread a needle with a long piece of string or thick thread. Stick the needle through the popcorn. Keep adding popcorn until you run out of string.
Long garlands of popcorn can be placed on the Christmas tree or hung outside for animals to snack on.
- Knit / Crochet
You can read up on how to knit or crochet, but it is easiest to learn from someone who already knows how. (They might even let you borrow some of their supplies.)
- Beading
Make jewelry, key chains, bags and much more by weaving beads together.
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| Rocks |
- Paperweight
A paperweight is something that looks nice. It is also heavy enough to hold papers on a desk so they won’t blow off.
A pretty rock can can make a good paperweight. Or if you want to make it ‘prettier’ you can paint or glue interesting things to your new paperweight.
- Inuksuk
Inuksuit originated from the Canadian Arctic. These rock statues are used to help hunters find their way. In other areas of Canada they have become popular for decoration. For instance, in some parts of Ontario it is common to see Inuksuit beside the road.
You can make your own Inuksuk by stacking rocks. Rocks that have a flat top and flat bottom are the easiest to stack. You can make an Inuksuk as big or as small as you like. If you want to make one for inside, use small rocks (pebbles) and glue the rocks together. Make sure to ask for help if you use big rocks.
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Decorate
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Decorate a mug
Many photo labs will let you print a digital photo on a cup. As well, art studios will sometimes let you paint on cups. And some printing shops can print 'digital labels' that you have made on your computer onto a cup.
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Decorate a picture frame
Some ideas: Use paint or markers to colour a plain frame. You can also glue pictures, fabric, ribbon or other interesting things to the picture frame. HINT: Look in a dollar store, second hand store or at a garage sale for cheap frames. (Decorated frames make good gifts.)
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Decorate a hat
You can decorate a hat you already have. Or you can make a paper hat using the instructions found in paper and scissors and decorate that. Depending on the hat, you can paint it, colour it, sew things onto it, add stickers, tape pictures to it, glue feathers, beads or flowers.
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Use Your Head
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Make a mask
There are lots of ways to make masks. One simple way is use a paper plate.
Materials needed: paper plate (or a piece of flexible cardboard cut into a circle), string, markers (crayons, paints, or pencil crayons), scissors.
Draw a face on your paper plate mask with markers, crayons, pencil crayons or paint. Ask an adult to cut out the eye holes and poke a small hole by each ear (the edge of the plate). Thread a piece of string through the poked holes. Tie it tight enough to hold the mask to your face.
HINT: you can glue things like pipe cleaners, strips of construction paper or string to make whiskers. You can glue felt or fleece to make a fuzzy, soft nose. Be creative!
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Pets
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Make a cat toy
Dangle Toy: Take a scrap piece of cloth like an old sock and cut out a small strip (about 15 cm long and 5 cm wide (6 x 1 ½ inches)). Tie this strip onto the end of a tough piece of string or yarn. Make the string about two times as long as your arm. Pull the toy along using the string. (You can also tie a feather or a cat toy to the end of the string instead of cloth.)
Catnip Toy: Stuff catnip into the toe of an old sock. Tie or sew the sock closed. (Don’t forget to snip off the part of the sock that you don’t need.)
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Make a dog toy
Take an old sock—the bigger the better. Stuff the sock full of old cloth. Tie a knot on the end of the sock so the stuffing doesn’t come out. Play fetch or let your dog pull on one end of the sock while you pull on the other end.
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Crafts
- Pencil container
Materials needed: empty jar or can about 8 x 10 cm (3-4 inches) tall that has a wide opening at the top, tissue paper, pencil, white glue, and a small, shallow container for glue (like a jar lid).
Cut the tissue paper into small squares (3 x 3 cm or 1 by 1 inch). Gently wrap one square of tissue paper over the eraser end of a pencil. Dip it lightly in the white glue so ONLY the middle of the tissue paper is covered with glue. Stick the tissue paper to the jar or can. The middle should stick to the jar with the four corners sticking out. Continue until the jar is covered, placing your squares close together.
HINT: If this seems like too much work, you can also take the tissue paper square and completely cover one side with glue and place the tissue paper flat on the jar.
- Pipe cleaner animals
You can buy colourful pipe cleaners at craft stores. Bend the pipe cleaners into the shapes of different animals.
- Magnets
There are many different ways to make your own magnets.
If you are good with computers and have a printer, you can buy a magnet sheet at a stationary store and print photos or words from your computer onto the magnet sheet.
If you want to get a bit more crafty, you can use old magnets and cover them with something new. Using glue, you can place pictures, drawings, funny sayings, feathers, and well, just about anything on the magnet! Just remember that if you make it too heavy, the magnet might fall off your fridge!
- Memory box
A memory box is a decorated box for storing special items. Usually they are made to remember a special event or a person. For example, if you went on a vacation, or a friend was moving away, you might make a memory box.
Materials needed: a small box with a lid (like a shoebox), mementoes (things you want to keep like ticket stubs, photos), glue or tape, ribbon, photos, glitter, stickers and other things you would like to use to decorate your box.
Decorate the box both inside and on the outside. You can glue your mementos (special items like pictures, ticket stubs and other things that you have collected that will remind you of that person or place) into the box or you can glue them to the inside or outside of the box.
- Centrepiece
A centrepiece is something you place in the middle of a table for decoration. There are hundreds of different ideas and types of centerpieces. What do you think would look nice? Something made of flowers? Pinecones? Wood? Paper? Be creative. If you need ideas or designs, try craft books at the library.
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| Paper |
- Paper flowers
Materials needed: tissue paper and pipe cleaners.
Take 4-6 rectangular pieces of tissue paper. Stack the sheets on top of each other and fold them together like an accordion--about 5 folds. (To fold like an accordion: Take one edge of the stack and fold it up about 3 cm (an inch). Then flip it over and fold that fold up 3 cm. Flip it over and fold your folded bits up the same amount.) When folding, fold up the long end of the rectangle, so you have a long, skinny strip when you are done.
When done folding, wrap a pipe cleaner around the middle of the tissue paper accordion. Gently pull each layer of tissue paper upwards on both sides of the accordion to make the flower. Twist another pipe cleaner onto the one wrapped around the tissue paper to make a stem. You can add more pipe cleaners onto the stem to make leaves.
- Coffee filter butterfly
You will need: a white paper coffee filter, washable markers, a black pipe cleaner, scissors, spray bottle that can mist water, and two pieces of paper towel.
Cut your pipe cleaner in half (you need a piece about 4-5 inches long). Set it aside. Colour the filter with the markers. You don't need to cover the whole filter with colour. Hold the coloured filter over the paper towel (to catch any drips that might happen) and mist the filter with water (using the spray bottle). Make sure you get the whole filter wet (but not soaked). The marker's colour should be a bit runny. Make one twist in the middle of the filter to make two wings. (See above photo.) Wrap your pipe cleaner around the middle of your filter (the twist), leaving the two ends sticking up to make antennas. Lay the butterfly flat on a dry piece of paper towel. In about an hour, it should be dry.
Variations: Glue a magnet to the back of the butterfly to make it a magnet.
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| More |
Adult Help Required |
- Sew something
- Go to a craft store and pick a project to make
- Sidewalk chalk
Materials needed: water, Plaster of Paris, moulds (empty toilet paper rolls or other small round containers), powdered tempura paint (available in most craft stores), spoon, bowl.
Mix 250 mL (1 cup) water and 250 mL (1 cup) plaster together. Mix in the tempura paint powder to add colour. You can make swirl coloured chalk by using different colours and by mixing them in just a little bit. Let the coloured mixture sit for one minute, and then pour it into your moulds. (If using toilet paper rolls, seal one end with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and use an elastic to hold it over the end.) Set your moulds aside until they look completely dry. Remove them from their moulds and let them dry even more (about 24 hours). The bigger your moulds, the longer it will take for your chalk to dry.
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- Candles
Safety First: You will need an adult to help you with this one.
There are many, many different ways to make candles. If you have never made candles before, the easiest thing to do is to buy a kit from an arts and crafts store that comes with instructions and supplies.
- Tie-dye
Materials needed: clothing for dying, dye, water, buckets, rubber bands or thick string, rubber gloves and an adult.
Find an item of clothing (something white is best) that is okay to dye a different colour. If your item is brand new, wash and dry your item.
Tie strips of cloth around the item you are dying. Where you tie the strips will remain the original colour. Make sure that the ties are very tight so dye doesn’t seep underneath them. Have an adult mix your dye according to the package directions. If you mix the dye in a large bucket you can dip your item into the dye. Make sure you wear old clothes, rubber gloves (so you don’t dye your hands) and cover your work area with plastic or newspaper. After dipping the item in the dye a few times, rinse it really well in cold water and then again in warm water. Afterwards you can take your ties off and admire your new tie-dyed item. (Lay it flat to dry.)
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