One of the things I love about school holidays is the chance to make things with my kids. I am a big fan of craft, sewing and generally getting creative. And even though I have boys, I am not going to let any gender stereo-types ruin our crafty days. So here’s our bucket list of holiday craft to make over the September break. You might find something fun to do with your kids too …
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Paper-craft
I can’t tell you how much my kids love paper-craft. A printer, some card and a little bit of tape add up to hours of fun. If you don’t have a colour printer, it just means they have to colour in first. I have a Pinterest board filled with great (Pokemon) printables that are quite easy to make. They are neater if you use glue, but much easier if you use tape. My seven year old can do them independently and we have been having a lot of fun with the evolution kaleidoscope.
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Lava Lamp Experiment
YouTube has some great experiments for kids and this “lava lamp” is a (non-messy) hit.
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Nature Mandalas
I love this beautiful idea shared by Bron @ Maxabella Loves to make mandalas at the park. It’s a gorgeous photography project as well. And as we will no doubt be spending time at the beach, I am looking forward to making some with some sandy finds.
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Spirograph Craft
Last holidays we picked up a spirograph set on sale. I ADORED them as a kid and I enjoyed sharing the delight with my boys. This holidays we will get ahead of the Christmas tag game and create some gorgeous cards with white ink on dark red cardboard. There are some great spirograph ideas here.
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Paper flower canvas
I might have a little trouble encouraging my boys on this one, but I hope I can get there. I think this is such a pretty idea for a canvas or even a greeting card. I think we’d probably make paper flowers and anything with Wasi tape makes me happy.
image courtesy of Mumtastic
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Potato printing
We potato printed last holidays in preparation for the school fete and the kids had a ball. Some tips if you are going to do them on calico bags like we did:
> Place card into the bag before stamping to avoid any paint seeping through
> Use cookie cutters on potatoes to get the exact shape of things (that’s how we did the ice-creams)
> Use a paint brush to transfer the paint onto the potato stamp, rather than just dipping straight in, to get a better print.
The doily print was achieved using steps from the darling Claire at Pillar Box Blue.
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Wasi tape pegs
My gorgeous friend Deb at Sew Crafty Goodness has some beautiful ideas when it comes to wasi tape pegs. We will probably store a few for Christmas presents I think.
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T-Shirt printing
Like most kids, my boys like t-shirts with characters on them. Sometimes we can’t find exactly what we want. Peppa pig merchandise tends to come in too many shades of pink for the liking for my youngest and Pokemon doesn’t come in all the varieties the eldest wants. So thanks to the internet, we can download pictures of their favourites, add their own words and print t-shirt transfers.
I’ve had success with t-shirt transfers in the past but you really do have to follow the instructions when you iron VERY CAREFULLY. These tips are great. My other little hack is to actually cut around the transfer print and iron that on. It just looks less stark without obvious borders.
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Cardboard house construction
I really, really, really want to make this house with the boys. It’s all kinds of awesome. Do we all have the patience? It’s like the paper craft but on a huge scale. And the sticky tape probably won’t work.
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Fimo modelling
For mother’s day, my eldest’s class made the most gorgeous FIMO necklaces. And (ALL) the kids loved doing it. I think we might whip out the modelling clay again and make a few more presents for all the lovely ladies in our lives. There are some FIMO ideas here. My biggest tip with FIMO (or Scuply or whatever other polymer clay you can find) is not to have the oven too warm when you bake the beads. Stick to darker colours, or roll lighter colours first, so that you don’t transfer the dye when rolling.
And if you need to get your holidays sorted, this calendar might help …
Will you be having a crafty holiday?
Linking up with Kylie Purtell – Capturing Life and IBOT
What a fun set of ideas! Thank you for adding our Pokemon Kaleidoscopes! So pleased you like them!!
Thank YOU so much for sharing such a wonderful toy. My seven year old son took them to school yesterday and was so popular that I think I will have to make some for all the class. Hoping that the teacher can integrate some geometry lesson with them 🙂
Wow!!! I love this, Robyna and I’ll be sure to share it later on this week. I love the idea of the flower canvas and the potato printing 🙂
Renee Wilson recently posted…7 things I missed about my husband while he was away
Thanks so much Renee – I wanted to have a list of realistic things that I know my boys like doing so hoping others do too.
Thanks for these. I’m off to check out that lava lamp experiment, Miss 8 would love that!
JF Gibson recently posted…When all else fails, bring out the word prompt
My seven year old is obsessed. You can put glow sticks in there too for a real “lamp”.
Very handy! My daughter loves craft and my son does too once he gets started. I tend to take them out and about too much then we all get exhausted, so will note this post and have the kids read it too to choose some at home fun stuff to do. Thank you!
I do that all the time – go out every day and then wonder why we all collapse. These are good rainy day ideas too – hopefully we don’t have too many of those though.
A great list of craft ideas! I will Pin this if I can and keep it for the coming weekend when all the fun starts. Thanks for sharing and inspiring.
Thanks Jody – would love that!
Great round up. May try the lava lamp out with my Beaver scout group. Thank you for mentioning my doily stencilling.
It is a good one to hold the interest of both girls and boys. I LOVE your doily stencilling project.
These ideas are pretty cool but my favourite would be t-shirt printing as that was one of the only things i could do when i was young. #teamIBOT
Natalie @ Our Parallel Connection recently posted…Focus on what you can control, let go of the rest
We love a good t-shirt print around here.
OH GOD SCHOOL HOLIDAYZZZZZZZZ. I don’t think I’m quite ready to deal with this yet.
It seems to have snuck up.
I’ll be sharing this post with my mum, she loves school holidays for all the craft and fun things she can do with her grandkids xx
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I hope they have fun together! Mine loves doing that too.
I love the idea of getting ahead with the Christmas cards ideas – how good to weave some craft activities into making them (adding that to the list for the holidays, too)!
Helen K recently posted…And it’s a wrap – My first ProBlogger event
I like to get those two birds with the one stone 😉
Oh I love that calendar! How pretty.
Thanks lovely – I think I spend more time making my organisational tools pretty than actually organising. But that’s okay. 🙂
I’ve been offline for awhile and only just noticed this. Thanks for including my washi tape pegs. We’ve been getting a little bit crafty these holidays and now I have some new activities to add to the list. Spirographs took me back to my childhood. Must try to find our set. Love your calendar. x
Spirographs are so much more relaxing that then colouring in trend I think. Was super pleased to pick them up from Target at $5 or something ridiculous like that.