When you were a very young child, you spent a lot of time at school or at home coloring with crayons. You may have used a coloring book, or just colored a picture on paper. What you may not have known is that you can do so much more with crayons that just color a simple picture. Coloring crayons are great for crafts because they are not as messy as paint, and there are many different colors to choose from. Crayons last a long time and are not expensive. If your kids are good at coloring, they can make very nice works of art or beautiful crafts. It takes a little imagination, a little time, some crafting knowledge, and your kids can make some very stunning and beautiful projects.
Here are a couple of ideas to get you started. Let’s say you have boys, and they want to pretend that they are medieval knights. They will need a castle. You will need to acquire some card board boxes, a cutting tool (a utility knife or scissors), some glue, some tape, and some large art paper. Begin by framing the castle. The castle can be large or small depending on how many boxes you have, the space in your basement or playroom, and how much time you have with your precious children to help them build it. You can also add to it as you go. You might want to look at pictures of castles on the Internet before you begin. For rectangular portions of the castle, you can remove one side so that you have a large interior for the children to play in. With smaller long boxes, you can make towers. Cut a hole the size of the tower box, and cut strips about three inches, and interweave these strips into the larger rectangular portion. Tape them together. Build as many sections as you want. When the cardboard framing is done, it’s time to make it look like a castle. This is where your kids can really have fun. Paste some plain white paper to the cardboard. Use enough glue or paste to make the cardboard bond to the paper, but not too much to make the paper be distorted due to too much moisture.
Have the kids begin to draw cobble stones, arch stones for the doors and windows, and have them color the stones and mix the crayon colors to achieve a fun and medieval look. If there is plenty of room inside, have them draw and color a fireplace. Make a three dimensional cardboard coat of arms. Have them spend a lot of time on it, and make it look spectacular. After the coloring is done, you can get some Hodge Podge from you local craft store to put a glossy and durable finish on their work. Their friends will be so envious. Owning a castle is only half the fun. The other half is making it.
What about making some Christmas decorations out of stuff that you would normally throw away? Take your toilet paper rolls to make toy soldiers for your Christmas tree. Have your children cut out some stencils for the hat, eyes, moustache, sword, vest, pants and boots. Have them color these cutouts and past them to the cardboard. Put some decorative string through the top, and you have some beautiful Christmas ornaments made mostly with things that you have at home.
Have your girls make necklaces and bracelets by coloring strips of paper, rolling and gluing these strips onto toothpicks, and a long piece of yarn. You can interweave these colored paper beads with real beads.
You can find many ideas for coloring crafts on the Internet, and you can come up with your own ideas as well. It only takes a little imagination and work.
More posts like this one in Uncategorized.