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Here's the scoop..... in October, I am going to be attending a family reunion/birthday party (my granny is turning 90!). There will be tons of little kids there... and they've put ME in charge of arts and crafts for them.
Now, I've only been stamping for about 4 years and my boys are all older, so I'm totally blanking on what to do with 'toddlers' and such. I'm thinking those little purse boxes would be great for the girls.. in brights and pastels. I'm loaded with old stickers they could use. Now, for the boys? The tattoo set?
I'm already planning facepainting and ...... see this is where I get stuck!
Any suggestions (with or without instructions/pictures) would be awesome!
I think face painting and the tatoos for children that are toddler age is a great idea. If you are looking for ideas for them to create items themselves, kids of all ages love to stamp & color. If there are going to be take-home treats for everyone, maybe you can provide some plain white or colored bags that they can decorate and put their own names on (mommy or daddy can help for the really little ones).
Because Halloween will be coming up soon, maybe you can purchase some of those metallic masks from Oriental Trading and provide glue, glitter & other embellishments for the kids to decorate their own. Here's a link to Oriental Trading's page for "color your own" crafts for kids. The prices are very inexpensive and you can purchase many kits by the dozen or half dozen. I've always had great service from OT and they are quick to ship items. They sometimes have free shipping if you purchase a certain dollar amount.
I'm with Jeanne and Bonnie too -- provide them with lunch bags and if you have any halloween wheels, you could let them go crazy with the wheels and then color in their designs.
I'm sitting here with my 7 year old and he said "finger paint" mom -- little kids love to finger paint. Although I agree, you'd have to make sure you had lots of wet cloths handy! I think the book mark idea is great because they are not too complicated and can be done in a short amount of time. Oh, my son also just mentioned coloring -- maybe you could do a little crayon resist -- have them color something on the book mark and then brayer it with their favorite color (i.e., think draw a ghost with white color and brayer with blue) and voila - a halloween bookmark - simple and cool at the same time.
Have you ever been on the "making friends" site? They sell craft supplies but they also have free projects. My girls love making the Little Friends paperdolls.
DLTK has soom crafts too - and they divide them by age group. Even just printing out some coloring pages of their favorite characters can keep them entertained. here is the link to that one: http://www.dltk-kids.com/
This summer I taught week long stamping and craft classes to kindergarteners and 1st graders. We made cards for dads (the ones folded like shirts - it was right before Father's Day) and gift bags, decorated white cardboard purses (ordered from Oriental Trading), we stamped wide twill bookmarks, stamped cards with our thumbs (hearts, balloons, etc.), the biggest hit were magnets. I got the large clear flat-sided marbles at the dollar store and they either stamped or drew pictures. I ran out they loved them so much (and I had bought A LOT!). They made composition book journals (they ripped old brown grocery bags into pieces and glued them on and when they were dry we ran over them lightly with brown shoe polish to make them look "old"). We did buttons from OTC. They decorated the paper and we just put them into the buttons. OTC also has really nice plain white small brag book type photo albums - cheap. They can be decorated really easily with stickers, patterned paper, etc. Something like that might be cool for them to keep pics of that special time. sorry to ramble, but it sounds like it will be lots of fun ! Good luck!
Just another thought - could you get one of those inexpensive small photo albums (4x6, maybe) and have each child make a card out of a piece of cardstock that would fit in the protector - for a souvenir for grandmother? They could each sign the piece of art.
I would totally get kits for Oriental Trading CO. Just remember that if you get foam kits that need gluing, you need foam glue to make it work (available at Joanne) Another idea is painting t shirts. T's are cheap in 3 packs in the boys undies dept. Mask off stripes across the front (have the older kids help) then put large star stickers in the upper right. The little ones use red paint and handprint the areas between the tape. Blue paint with sponge paint daubers or handprints around the stars. When dry peel off the tape and have american flag t shirts with hand prints!
__________________ ~Vee
It's not who you know-it's whom you know.
My other idea could also be adapted to t shirts. You make a pumpkind shaped cut out stencil as big as a small tummy on 12 x 18 construction paper. Get them laminated at kinko and then recut the laminate out of the pumpkin shape. Put this on a t shirt and have the kids sponge in with orange. later paint or draw a face.
__________________ ~Vee
It's not who you know-it's whom you know.
How about they each make a very simple card for Granny? They could write their name inside and stamp a picture on the outside and color it in.
Granny would get lots of extra cards that way!
Gina K.
__________________ Be polite to those who are rude to you. Not because they are nice, but because you are.
Owner- Gina K. Designs
Because Halloween will be coming up soon, maybe you can purchase some of those metallic masks from Oriental Trading and provide glue, glitter & other embellishments for the kids to decorate their own.
As an EXPERIENCED GS leader I would not give little kids glitter, unless you are outside. Your cleanup will make you wish you didn't. Otherwise I agree with all the ideas. Young kids love to stamp- but just take black ink and let them color in- or they could mess your colors if they aren't careful. Face painting is always popular. Kids also like the fun foam-they could make a door hanger and you can get a huge bin of precut shapes for every season really inexpensive at AC Moore. The rolled paper sacks would be great to carry home the goodies.
Diane
~* Alright Ladies! I need help! *~
