‘Craft Time’ Articles at Sweetnicks

Craft Time: Kiwi Crate

July 7, 2012 · Ad-Free, Craft Ideas

My kids and craft time are a no-brainer. The easiest way to get a bit of peace to clean the house? Sit them down at the table with a craft or art supplies.

‘Tis a much better alternative than a tv babysitter.

And besides, new art courtesy of the kids is usually my favorite thing.

Like ever.

So when I was asked to review Kiwi Crate, it was seriously a no-brainer.

A fun box delivered to your front door. Every month. Designed for kids. A stuffed full of creativity.

I mean, really, what more do we need?

When our box arrived, it was perfect timing.

Because my office at home needed some serious shoveling.

I set the kids up in the reading room and let them go to town.

…

Pin It

Craft Time: Watercolor {and Salt} Art

June 12, 2012 · Narrative

My loose goal is to do one art project with the kids every week. Some weeks are better than others, and last week ended with Nick and Madeline reminding me that we hadn’t done anything in awhile.

After a few minutes of rummaging in my desk drawers, I came up with plain white art paper and a few trays of watercolor paint. I’ve learned over the past year or so that it’s better that each of them has their own watercolor tray. Some are better at cleaning their brushes than others.

Using plain masking tape, I sectioned off the art paper into six smaller squares. Although I made the sections neat, you could certainly make haphazard lines for a completely different (and fun!) effect too.

I gave them the paint, brushes, and water dishes and told them to get creative. Although they both love art, they are very different when it comes to tackling the projects. Nick critiques his work very mightily and always worries about it being perfect. I always remind him that this is art, “there is no perfect!” Madeline is always happy with her end result, needs little direction, and takes it super seriously. She can literally spend hours painting one small 8×10 piece of paper, getting it just right.

…

Pin It

Craft Time: Crayola Art Project

September 6, 2011 · Craft Ideas

This is how we spent the Friday before Hurricane Irene. Making art work. Less than ten dollars of supplies and inspiration from Pinterest, this is a reasonably kid-friendly craft that I love because a) it has the rainbow and b) you can totally customize it to use whatever colors you want. You can coordinate it to match your kids’ rooms, or a specific theme, or do a rainbow like ours. Get creative!

With school supplies on sale, this is the perfect time of year to make this art. You will need a canvas, boxes of crayons, glue and a hair dryer. The canvas was 40% off at Michael’s for a two-pack, the crayons were 40 cents a box (I ended up using four) and the glue was $4. My grand total was $9.60 for individualized art that we could do together as a family. Which you all know is priceless, baby, priceless.

I opened up all the boxes of crayons and removed all the whites, browns, blacks, pinks, aquas and any other non-rainbow colors. Then I arranged them neatly across the top of the canvas in ROY G. BIV order, making sure the Crayola label was front and center for all of them.

Madeline helped by arranging crayons on her coloring book.

Like so. She is not the OCD member of the family.

She also helped me by grouping colors together.

Man, I love crayons. Especially Crayola crayons. And crayon art even more.

…

Craft Time: Making Personalized Stockings

December 8, 2009 · Narrative

Years ago, before I got married, eager to start our own Christmas traditions, I bought stockings. I bought one for me, The Husband, my stepdaughter and a few extra. I didn’t know how many kids we would have (I wanted six. Some days I still do.), and I wanted to make sure everyone had a matching stocking. Even though “everyone” wasn’t here yet. They were traditional red and green stockings, but we personalized them a bit. By we, I mean my mom. Have I mentioned I don’t sew? I don’t. Have no idea how. Although I would love to learn. In the new year. In my free time. She sewed a different type of contrasting fabric across the top cuff of the stocking and then we she wrote each person’s name on it. Nick and Madeline weren’t born yet, so theirs were added later, carefully saving the fabric and the pen until years later.

Flash forward twelve (!) years later, it was time for something different. I’ve grown a bit tired of the traditional red and green, and barring that, I think it was time for a change. A fresh start. With our stockings.

It started with these plain cream-colored quilted stockings I bought at Target. $9.99 each. It took two different Targets to find four of them. I would really love to find another one or two. Because you never know.

Although I loved the stockings, they needed a little something extra. At first I bought these personalized silver monogram ornaments, and had planned to attach them to the stocking, and then adding some color with buttons. But then my mom remembered these wire beaded letter ornaments that Martha Stewart made a few years ago. How could I forget?

This past weekend, we got to work.

…