Craft list

As winter approaches, I wanted to visit a craft store soon
to grab some supplies for myself and my nearly-four year old to
make things with. However, I'm not particularly crafty myself so
I don't really know what to get. Drawing/Painting things we
have, but what might I want from a craft store to make our
winter fun? Thanks.



P. Tierney

P. Tierney wrote:
As winter approaches, I wanted to visit a craft store soon
to grab some supplies for myself and my nearly-four year old to
make things with. However, I'm not particularly crafty myself so
I don't really know what to get. Drawing/Painting things we
have, but what might I want from a craft store to make our
winter fun? Thanks.

Is she the crafty sort? For my boys, my answer would
be "none" because they couldn't have cared less about doing
crafty things (for the most part). For a 4yo who likes doing
crafty things, I'd just cruise the aisles and look for things
that were reasonably priced and looked fun. Beads are usually
fun (have her string them on chenille stems). There are a
zillion and one things to do with that craft foam (and they
have big buckets of foam shapes with sticky backs, so you
don't even have to mess with the glue). Kids often love
glittering things, though it's a hideous mess. If she's
very patient and has really good fine motor control, she
might even be able to do some simple needlecrafts (like
one of those knitting mushrooms, or yarn on plastic canvas
with a big plastic needle).

Best wishes,
Ericka

P. Tierney wrote:
As winter approaches, I wanted to visit a craft store soon
to grab some supplies for myself and my nearly-four year old to
make things with. However, I'm not particularly crafty myself so
I don't really know what to get. Drawing/Painting things we
have, but what might I want from a craft store to make our
winter fun? Thanks.

Well, different kids like different things, but some things my son
likes (although he's a little younger):

scissors which cut zig-zags (not sure what these are called)
stickers
pipe cleaners
non-standard paints like foam paint
stamps and ink pad
glitter

One thing that's fun is getting interesting objects which can be
painted/decorated. The craft store near here sells cheap boxes made of
some kind of papier-mache cardboard that are great for embellishing,
and at day care they've done plastic masks, paper-bag masks, and so on.
Bread-dough sculptures offer a two-for-one as you can make the
sculptures, bake them, and decorate them the next day (and if so
constructed can be used as ornaments).

Beth

"Ericka Kammerer" wrote in message
. ..
P. Tierney wrote:
As winter approaches, I wanted to visit a craft store soon
to grab some supplies for myself and my nearly-four year old to
make things with. However, I'm not particularly crafty myself so
I don't really know what to get. Drawing/Painting things we
have, but what might I want from a craft store to make our
winter fun? Thanks.

Is she the crafty sort?

Yes.

For my boys, my answer would
be "none" because they couldn't have cared less about doing
crafty things (for the most part). For a 4yo who likes doing
crafty things, I'd just cruise the aisles and look for things
that were reasonably priced and looked fun. Beads are usually
fun (have her string them on chenille stems). There are a
zillion and one things to do with that craft foam (and they
have big buckets of foam shapes with sticky backs, so you
don't even have to mess with the glue). Kids often love
glittering things, though it's a hideous mess. If she's
very patient and has really good fine motor control, she
might even be able to do some simple needlecrafts (like
one of those knitting mushrooms, or yarn on plastic canvas
with a big plastic needle).

Thanks.


P. Tierney

P. Tierney wrote:
As winter approaches, I wanted to visit a craft store soon
to grab some supplies for myself and my nearly-four year old to
make things with. However, I'm not particularly crafty myself so
I don't really know what to get. Drawing/Painting things we
have, but what might I want from a craft store to make our
winter fun? Thanks.



P. Tierney

One of my regulars was homemade playdough which is easy to find online.
She'd paint her peices once they dried (I didn't use dye in the
playdough so it was always white). One time I used beet juice to make
it read.

Let's see: crepe paper is fun in that you can rip peices of it and put
it on white paper and use a wet paintbrush to create peices of art. We
also did a lot of beading...and if you buy fimo, you can make beads.
Stamping is pretty cool too; finding stamps and various colors of
inkpads is fun.

Photography is a whole other world that can be utilized in art. You
can make holiday cards with your children, thank you cards, etc. Print
out pictures of your children holding the actual gift that they
received and cut it out. Glue it onto a plain peice of white paper and
have your child (age appropriately) go at it. Whether they use stamps,
crayons drawing a heart, paint or actual writing, it's fun for them and
the receiver will love it.

There's also little kits on beginning sewing, k nitting, crocheting,
pot holders, making door signs, visors, decorating pots for plants,
etc. That should get you through winter and spring :-)

In article .com,
" wrote:

scissors which cut zig-zags (not sure what these are called)

Pinking shears.
--
Sara
accompanied by TK, number two, due in April of 2006

Anonymama wrote:
In article .com,
" wrote:

scissors which cut zig-zags (not sure what these are called)

Pinking shears.

Thank you!

Beth

P. Tierney wrote:
As winter approaches, I wanted to visit a craft store soon
to grab some supplies for myself and my nearly-four year old to
make things with. However, I'm not particularly crafty myself so
I don't really know what to get. Drawing/Painting things we
have, but what might I want from a craft store to make our
winter fun? Thanks.

If she likes to make actual things I think there are kits and other people
have good ideas. My boys liked craft time a lot but had zero interest in
actually producing anything specific at that age so that was just
frustrating. They were content with the process. I have google eyes,
various sized fuzz balls, beads, seqense (how the heck do you spell that!?),
yarn, craft sticks, paint, glitter, glue, glitter glue pens, various papers
(tag board cut to smaller pieces is nice), scissors, colored tooth picks,
colored electrical tape, pipe cleaners and beads, stickers, foam
stickers/pieces etc. We'd drag it out and they would create something
unidentifiable and have a great time :-) Sometimes we'd make cards for the
grandma's. That was less fun for me because I wanted something finished and
somewhat recognizable. I only brought out specific supplies for those
projects and had the basics already done before hand. For this kind of
thing you don't need quality supplies so the dollar store was a good place
to get some of the stuff.

At 6 Hunter is getting interested in making specific projects but not so
much for Luke, 4, so I still haven't done much project stuff at home other
then baking. Making our own playdough was fun for the kids.


--
Nikki
Hunter 4/99
Luke 4/01
EDD 4/06

I'm not a mommy but I have done a ton of babysitting and love these
forums.
Something I have done with my babysitting group is to make plain sugar
cookies and buy various things to decorate them with. Also they seem to
love painting so sometimes we would take big pieces of heavy paper,
paint one or two colors all over the surface then when that layer dries
you can put another layer of paint on top (using a different color)
really heavy and thick. While the paint is still wet a let them make
designs using combs, nuts, bolts, sticks, and even their fingers. It's
fun because if you do a light color underneath and a dark color on top
the designs come out really well. You can do a few of these and make a
craft case or something.. or even just a pretty art piece. We also went
out and found large flat rocks and painted things on those, like things
for their mom's garden etc. You could also order things from Oriental
Trading Company, they have tons of little craft kits that come with
everything you need!
Have a good time!

In article ,
"Nikki" wrote:

I have google eyes,
various sized fuzz balls, beads, seqense (how the heck do you spell that!?),

sequins

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"In Melbourne there is plenty of vigour and eagerness, but there is
nothing worth being eager or vigorous about."
Francis Adams, The Australians, 1893.