creative jewish mom

Mini Cardboard T-Shirts For Birthday Party Decor!

DIY mini cardboard t-shirts are just the cutest for birthdays, anniversaries, reunions, graduation, baby showers, casual weddings, and to welcome guests or just because! Simply make some mini cardboard t-shirts, decorate them with the message or graphics that works for your party, and voila, you can hang them on a string with mini clothespins, attach them to skewers for cake decorations, add a ribbon to make gift tags, or even use them to make fun napkin rings! And that is just for starters, I'm sure you can think of some more great ideas! I just love drawing black line drawings of clothes on cardboard, and you may remember my recycled cardboard clothes on a clothesline stage set, or even my mini Purim costumes on a clothes line kids craft. Once you realize how quick these ilttle t-shirts are to make, and how adorable they are, you'll be hooked, I know I am! Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go make a whole pile of them to have on hand for every occasion! Of course this is a bit self explanatory, but let me give you a few tips to make it even more simple, shall we?

Robot Craft From Recycled Packaging....For A Birthday Party!

Introducing some super fun recycled packaging robots that you can make for birthday party decor or anytime, just because. These robots can be made by kids with some adult assistance for the assembly, or by parents who just might want to surprise a little one on their birthday, which is what I did. Mind you ten isn't so little, but my son still loved seeing these guys on the dining room table set for a birthday party on the morning of his birthday.

Best of all, this is a craft that you can do fairly quickly, and requires just a few basic supplies together with some creativity, enjoy!

Drawing Exercise For Kids: Use Small Boxes To Create A City

Here's a fantastic drawing craft that's also a recycling craft — drawing on the un-printed side (the inside) of small medicine and food packaging to create a cityscape of buildings. The results of my seven year old's efforts were so amazing that I haven't decided if I want to frame them as is, or assemble them as buildings as originally planned.

As you can see, he remembered the topiary and roman shades that he learned to draw for the depiction of our house, which I shared with you last week, and then his efforts after that were much more abstract and geometric, which I just love. He didn't quite understand that the tabs and flaps wouldn't be seen, which is why I'm not sure whether to assemble them, as some of his art would be lost. We'll see! 

All the work was done here with a fine black permanent marker for the initial drawing, and the filling in was done with regular kid-safe colored markers. A great combination and the colors look so great on white, of course. 

Oh and that little orange Dutch style building on the lower left is my effort, as I did sit with my son for a bit to encourage his efforts, which are so much more exciting and creative than mine!

 

Recycle Cardboard Boxes & Kids Can Make Adorable Gift Packages!

Been saving those cereal and cracker boxes? Now is the time to use them to make super sweet gift packages for Purim mishloach manot, or for any occasion— who wouldn't love to receive a gift packaged in one of these great works of art? And the kids will feel so proud of themselves, you they may even be able to make a ton of these. Then all that's left for you to do is glue the boxes closed, add a ribbon handle, and something wonderful inside, and voila!

You'll Need

• recycled boxes from cereal, crackers etc
• acrylic craft paint, or any good quality paint that can be used for printing (namely not runny)
• paint markers or permanent markers
• circle sponge stamp (mine have handles) for kid's crafts, or carve a potato
• a hot glue gun
• wide ribbon

How To:

1. Open boxes at seam carefully. Lie flat and get the kids to work decorating them by either printing with a circular sponge, or by painting simple pictures
2. Once paint has dried, give kids markers to add details to their paintings and faces to their circles
3. For rectangular food box, add handle before you glue it together!
4. Glue side seam of box together with hot glue, followed by the bottom.
5. For cereal box "bag" shape, fold flaps down into box and glue in place. (just thought of this, it hides the cereal box graphics a bit!)
6. Punch holes in top of cereal box for ribbon handles. Use a little hot glue to secure ribbon to box just above the hole, and under the knot on the outside so it will lie flat.
7. Fill with healthy treats or wonderful handmade presents (Don't anyone get nervous, this is the goal, not reality most of the time, well except for the healthy part, which one really can do—I'll be giving whole wheat pitas and salads for Purim this year...)
8. Have fun and send me photos of your kid's creations! Oh and by the way, if you have a chance do pick up any of the drawing books by Ed Emberly, most kids really love them. (I know I did, though for some mysterious reason, my kids have yet to realize how wonderful they are! ) Some of the faces on the circle packages were inspired by one of his books.

Oh and one more thing. Painting pictures is actually quite difficult for many kids (and me too), so for those who are perfectionist types and don't enjoy painting because their pictures look like blobs, the idea of adding details with paint markers (or permanent markers) afterwards may help them loosen up a bit and enjoy painting! Here's to helping our kids enjoy the creative process!

 

 

Make Your Own Stamps From Craft Foam, And Get Stamping!

Above: A tea box is recycled, stamped on the blank side, and then re-glued inside out! You can also purchase blank boxes and make as many as you desire for party favors or small gifts.

Rosh HaShana is in another two weeks, so you still have time to make some handcrafted cards for friends and family, and treat bags for the kids! This project is really simple and with great results considering the minimal time investment. You can make some stamps one day, and the next, spend maybe an hour or so stamping your images on cardstock which you'll use to make beautiful and unique New Year's Greetings cards. Sounds good to me!

 

A Rosh HaShana card (left) is made from stamped colored paper and embellished with metallic gold contact paper. Gift tags are made by stamping a single image on thin cardboard, punching a hole, and adding a hanging ribbon!

 

 

Brown paper bags look adorable when stamped with images, especially those done by the kids! My almost 6 year old decided to do his own thing (instead of Rosh HaShana imagery like apples etc.) and drew a man which I then cut out for him, and stamped by brushing paint onto the whole shape. After the paint had dried, my son then went back and added details with a ball point pen. Too cute!

Make Your Own Stamps From Craft Foam Tutorial:

You'll Need:

• Craft Foam
• Glue
• Plastic tops (from spice containers) or other jar or container tops
• Ink Pads and/or paint

How To:

Step 1:  Trace around the perimeter of your spice jar top.

Step 2: Draw the shape you'd like to work with.

Step 3: Cut out foam shape and glue to spice container tops. Set aside to dry. Use double stick tape if you need to use them right away.

Step 4: Press stamp onto stamp pad, or apply paint with a brush

Step 5: Applying light pressure, press stamp onto paper

Above right: the man stamp was used as is, since it's too big to glue to a spice top. One can however glue an oversized shape to a dense sponge to make a large stamp.

And that's it! Can you believe it's so simple?  Enjoy!