Crayons From Kindergarten to Professional Art

Crayons often bring back memories of innocent, carefree childhood days. The wide array of colors allows children to unleash their imaginations while filling in their coloring books. Even the fresh aroma of the wax adds to the experience. However, crayons are not just for kids. 

 An adult can choose to become a crayon artist. In the right hands, the crayon can be wielded like a paintbrush. Some crayon artists are so creative they are invited to exhibit their works in art galleries. In addition, these artists may give lectures at schools, often to the enchantmentnt of young people. Whether you aspire to be a renowned artist or you just want to try something new, there are several ways to delve into crayon art.

Arrange Them in a Pattern 

An artist may place the crayons in a pattern so that from a distance they form a recognizable image. This can require using hundreds or even thousands of pieces. They are carefully slotted in a base according to colors and shadings. This is often delicate and painstaking work.

Melt Them 

If you want to "wax poetic" on a canvas, you could melt the crayons. Initially, the melted wax will be very hot, so make sure you don’t touch it or let it splatter on your skin. A hot glue gun can be very handy for the purpose of distributing the wax onto the canvas.

Color With Them 

Crayons can be used to fill in drawings, preliminary sketches and finished works. This can allow you to revisit your childhood and use either wax or chalk crayons. It is important for artists to find the right types of surfaces for the rich textures and intense colors.

Many people never outgrow the love of crayons. The best artists take crayons to the level of sophisticated fine art.

 

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The 1st Advent

"Soon it will be Christmas day... " goes one of those classic Christmas songs. And indeed, it will soon be Christmas. Next Sunday is already the 1st advent. And this year, for the first time in the 11 years of living here in Germany, I finally managed to make a round advent wreath, and a week early at that!

I bought the wreath structure made of Nordmann fir and then put in the candles and decorated it with my eldest while my husband looked after the baby. I realized I missed doing crafts with my eldest since it had been a while since we did something handmade together. 

We went for a semi-natural theme, and used what I already have at home from our previous Christmases: cinnamon sticks, pine cones, wood figures, red berries, and repurposed the star ornaments that I usually hang on our Christmas tree. I wasn't able to buy some white ribbons to emphasize the candles. I will be adding them as soon as I purchase some.

So there... We are now ready for the 1st Advent. What do you think of our creation?

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Crafts Day: DIY Photo Frame

My daughter was invited to a birthday party by her twin friends last Friday. Because it was short notice, we didn't have time to go out and buy them gifts. So my daughter decided to make them something instead: a picture frame made made out of paper towel cardboard roll, jute strings and paper. She set out to do it herself without any help from me the day before the party. 

It took her a number of hours but I thought it really turned out great. My only contribution was printing the photo she used in the picture frame and then wrapping the frame in a gift wrap.

So what do you think? It looks like my little Miss is more creative than I am. I guess those days of crafting with her when she was smaller (and I had more time) has really paid off.

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Decorate Your Own First Communion Candle

An essential in your child's first communion is the communion candle. It symbolizes Christ, who lights our way and guides us in our journey as Christians. 

For my daughter's first communion candle, we decided to decorate it ourselves. We found a colorful design on the internet which suited our daughter's personality and used it as our reference. 

In decorating the communion candle, it is important to keep the following in mind:

1. Leave at least 13-15 cm space on the top so that the decoration will not immediately melt away while the candle burns. Also allow a 15 cm distance from the bottom so that your child will be able to hold the candle easily without covering the decoration while handling the candle.

2. Signs of the eucharist and Christ such as the chalice, the host, grape vine, fish, alpha and omega, sun, cross, etc. are just some of the symbols relevant to first communion. Explain to your child what each symbol means and allow them to choose the symbols that they want on their candle.

3. Materials: you will need candle (we used 35mm x 500 mm, with 10% beeswax), wax sheets in various colours, crafter's scalpel, cutting mat, templates for the symbols, wax paper.

3. Don't forget to also place your child's name and the date of the first communion so you will always be reminded when your child first received the body and blood of Christ.

4. Have fun decorating. This is also another chance to spend quality time with your child and sharing with them your faith.

Self-decorated candles are also great gifts for your loved ones. You can easily customize the design according to the occasion.

Happy crafting!

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DIY Baptism Favors

We welcomed another beautiful angel into the Christian family last November. As a little token for the guests of my godson who came to witness his baptism, I made these little glass jars filled with chocolate kisses. I found this great idea featured on Pinterest and proceeded to make something similar to it. Instead of the candles, I put in Hershey's kisses. Yum! :)

The materials are readily available in any craft shop or paper supplies store. The small glass jars (Mini Einmachgläser mit Deckel in German) and Hershey's kisses Cookies and Cream and Milk Chocolate, I bought online (via Amazon) because they are cheaper.

My ever so helpful little girl was also very happy to do her part in cutting, gluing and putting things together. Unfortunately, I lost the photos I made to document how to make these baptism favors on my old Samsung when it went kaputt last month so I only have this single photo of our crafts day. :(

So what do you guys think?

And oh, my little girl's first communion is coming up so I will have another opportunity to do some crafts, specifically on how to decorate your own communion candle. Will be sure to make photos to share with you all.

Until then!

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Bunny Softy from Socks

Each week, me and my not so little girl try to do crafts together. This is my way of bonding and spending quality time with her and an avenue for her to develop her creativity. Since we went away for the weekend during the Easter holidays, we opted to make something with an Easter theme when we got back. My daughter so loves everything cuddly and soft to the touch and I found this very great idea on Pinterest on making use of old baby socks to make bunnies out of them. So we rummaged through her closet and luckily found a few pairs that were already too small for her.

And this is what we came up with:

I did most of the sewing since it needs fine stitching. My daughter did the filling and drew on the cheeks. 

Ain't she cute? This also makes a nice gift for babies but be sure to use brand new socks. :)

If you want the detailed tutorial on how to make the sock bunny, click here.

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Handmade Birthday Party Invitation Cards

My little girl is turning 8 soon and she is so excited about it! So last Wednesday, for our "Basteltag" or Crafts Day we started making her birthday party invitation cards. We decided on the slider card because while watching You Tube videos on how to make them, it was very interesting and challenging on my first since it's my first time making one.

Our materials. :)

Gathering up our materials made of glitter board paper, colored paper, gift wrapper, 3D stickers in various motifs, double sided adhesives, scissors, puncher, ribbon band, self-adhesive velvet border, sandwich plastic bag, and our creative and free imagination, we came up with something that is quite elegant and cute at the same time. 

The invitation details were printed on colored paper using a color printer. The little girl wrote the names of her friends on each card and also her name to make it more personalized.

We made 10 invitation cards for her girl friends.

The inside of the cards have different paper colors. We have light blue, rose and pink. The white ribbon band is used to help pull or slide out the two cards that contain the details of the party. I am really glad we did this together. She was very happy about it and can't wait to hand them out to her friends next week. I also think they are cool and cute. How about you, do you like it? Want to know how to make one for a special occassion? I can show you how or I can make one for you. Just comment away!  

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Crafts Day: Colorful & Soft Felt Owls

So my daughter's girl friend came last weekend for a pyjama party. The girls were pretty excited to spend the night together since it has been a while since they last saw each other. We decided to do crafts in the evening and made felt owl softies. It was a good thing that we had a fresh supply of craft felt. We searched through the internet and found a pattern which I modified to suit the girls' taste.

It was pretty simple and easy to do. For the materials, you would need craft felt in various colors, a pair of scissors, board paper for the pattern, thread and needle, some cotton for the filling. We printed out the pattern and then I modified some of the parts, traced it on the board paper and cut it. I let the girls choose the colors for their owls and then cut the owl pieces accordingly. I just placed the board paper on the craft felt and cut my way through following the edges since the pattern is pretty small.

Then it was time for the girls to do the sewing in between watching the cartoon series Winx. I had to show them first how to do it and then they sewed up the parts together. The difficult and small parts like the eyes and beak, I volunteered to sew on for them. 

The owls were so cute and sweet and soft! And the girls loved it! They named both owls Meggie. Aren't they adorable? Try making this simple craft with your children too! They will definitely love it and it also helps develop their fine motor skills too!

P.S. Since Christmas is coming this could also be a good custom gift idea for your loved ones. Instead of owls, you can make other animal figures or Christmas symbols to give to your loved ones. It also makes a good idea for a customized Christmas tree decor. You can use high quality felt so they don't fuzz too much.

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DIY Modeling Clay Project

There are so many modeling clay products out there in the market today. In different sizes and colors. Many of them claim to be non-toxic but if you want to be safe and sure, might as well make your own clay right? It is easy to do and your kids will also love it knowing that if they run out, you can always make them using ingredients from the kitchen.

If you want to make your own clay, here is a recipe that I got from one of our family excursions during our summer holiday:

I know it is in German, so here is the translation:

Our recipe:

400 grams flour

200 grams salt

2 packs of citric acid powder (I used the one from Dr. Oetker)

3 tablespoons oil (vegetable)

500 milliliters boiling water

Mix everything and then knead in the desired food color (until the color has well blended).

-But be careful: HOT!-

You can ask your little ones to do the kneading once the temperature of the dough has cooled down. I am sure they would enjoy adding in the different food colors into the dough and knead them, and also learn how to mix them (food colors are mostly available in primary colors red, blue and yellow) to create other colors.

So there! Easy peasy right?

And here's my not so little girl S showing off her tiny creation she made from our excursion.

I just made a batch of clay today using twice the recipe to make 6 colors for my not so little girl. I will try to update this post once I get the chance to take photos of the finished batch that I made.

How about you? Do you have your own clay recipe too? I would love to learn more about it. The more variations, the better. And if you made your little ones clay using this recipe, please tell me about it too. I would love to hear about your DIY experience.

Happy crafting!

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Crafts for Kids: Bambi and Friends

My little girl has been asking me thousands of times that we create something together. So on this day when the Kindergarten is closed and there is only her and me in the house, this Mommy has no choice but to oblige. It has been Bambi lately... 

Source: spoonful.com

Last Monday, when we both had to stay home because she was sick, we created this Bambi Shadow Box Playset which was unfortunately done in grayscale since we didn't have a colored printer. :( It would have looked better, like the one in the photo from the website where we got the printable from. But it was fun for her... And she gave it away as a gift to her friend at the Kindergarten yesterday. Sweet ain't she?

And today we found this pattern of a doe from macula.tv. We printed it out, again in grayscale and the little girl is in the process of cutting them out. We will try to paste them on brown board paper and put them all together. Hopefully, we will get it right. If not, we will try again tomorrow as it is another "no-Kindergarten-Day". First, I must buy some colored paper and other craft supplies since I am running out of them.

If you want to try them out, check out the websites that I have linked to. Happy crafting!

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Tinkerbell.... We Just Love Her!

Last Sunday, I decided I needed a little break before going back to writing... After church, we went to the cinema to watch the latest Tinkerbell movie: "Tinkerbell: Geheimnis der Feenflügel". It was the family's first time to watch a full-length movie and armed with popcorn, sodas and chips, we headed off to our seats. I was going to take a family photo as a souvenir of another one of "firsts" but I wasn't able to charge my phone so.... So much for my "preparations". Hehe!

But the movie was really nice. It is all about Tinkerbell discovering that she has a sister who lives in the cold and snowy side of Pixie Hollow. It was a great film that the entire family really enjoyed, especiall my little girl who so loves fairies and all!

And because she is one great Tinkerbell fan, she even sent an entry to a kids art contest that was advertised on Disney Junior.. Here it is and she drew it all by herself... Ain't it nice?

We didn't know who won yet but whether she wins or not, she will always be my great artist. I can see so much potential in her and I know that she will create more finer artworks in the days to come. Yes, I am one proud momma!

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Proud of My Little Artist

My little girl loves to draw... She draws just about anything and most of her drawings even have a story to tell. Sometimes she would ask me to draw something for her, like animals and then she would draw in her own characters to complete the story. On most days, she draws everything by herself, because we encourage her to explore and be creative and because I have housechores to do. Hehe!

One day, she drew something on paper which she gave to our Aunt friend. Too bad I forgot to take a photo of it. It was really nice. She drew a rainbow, a hill with a house and a woman who is on her way from the hospital going back home. She even asked me how the name of her Auntie-Lola is written so she can write it herself.

And here is another drawing which she made recently:

She drew first a hill, and (from L-R) a house pet, flowers, a house, herself with the long hair, me, her "big brother", her daddy, and the garden with a playground consisting of a set of swings and a slide. In the middle is a flower and the scribbles are supposed to be the names of her friends who she invited to come over to play. I guess the photo shows how much my girl wanted to have a house pet. See the dog tied on a leash and the little girl with the long hair holding the leash? Maybe when she is bigger and can take bigger responsibilities, she can have a pet dog. And I guess my little girl is also longing to have other siblings in the house. Lately, she has been drawing not only three human figures but four, the fourth one being a brother or a sister. 

Ain't she a good artist? I try nurture her talent by allowing her to be creative and encourage her by telling her she is doing a great job when she is finished drawing something. I sometimes show her how something is drawn and she will later copy what I drew. I also allow her to play some coloring games on the internet. There are pretty good websites that offer crafts and coloring activities for kids. Our favorites: kikaninchen.de, nickjr.de and disney.de/disney-junior. 

I am one proud Mommy!

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My Lil Girl's Origami Bird

As I was fetching my little girl from the Kindergarten today, she showed me a purple origami bird with a green-colored feather for a tail. I thought that it was really cute and I asked her who made it. She said she made it herself. One of the practicants showed her and the other kids how to do it.

When we got home, I asked her to show me how it was done and she gladly obliged. I couldn't believe that she actually remembered how it was made, at least the first few parts. I am really impressed! Looks like my little girl has a very good memory. I guess I will have to teach some more simple origami so that she can show her friends how it's done.

Here's a video that I made while she was making her origami bird. Vogel pronounced as "foo-gel" means bird. Apologies to those who cannot understand German.

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