Polymer Clay Pens

I love crafts that are useful. Here's an old favorite of mine, that fits the bill perfectly!

Click here for HGTV tutorial.

Marbleized Paper

In my first summer teaching Arts and Crafts, we offered paper marbling to our campers. It remains one of my favorite crafts, as it truly appeals to all ages. Below is a clip from Martha Stewart on marbling, you can see how much fun it is.

She uses a gelatinous water thickening agent and acrylic paints to cause the separation of liquids that creates the funky marbleized design. We have used marbling dyes that can be ordered through enasco.com. They are oil based, so there is no need for any thickening agent.

In a group setting, we use one pan of water shared between 3 to 4 campers. They agree on a "color palate" between them. They each take turns dipping paper in the solution. You can marble nearly any kind of paper. (We've used blank stationary).

Enjoy!

Wow, SAFE Candle Making

Our utmost priority in all of our creative projects is SAFETY. I love the idea of candle making and we have done traditional candle dipping in the past, and truly, it is one of my favorite standard activities.

Beeswax candles are a wonderful alternative to the traditional candle making, and of course we are not working with heat, so they are an incredibly safe and simple and a perfect immediate gratification project...

Oooh, and dig the pretend sushi candles!!! Cool Beans!

Buggy Hut

It's always a challenge to come up with cool projects for boys. Maybe it's because I'm the ultimate girly-girl and I'm drawn to the more feminine projects. Nevertheless, we see boy campers once a day. The boys I see are 6-10, so Bug Catchers are a staple.

I found this one today, and I love it especially, because, I get to use our Ellison Die Cutter, which, by the way is THE COOLEST piece of equipment in the art center.

Instructions

An Oldie But a Goodie - Paper Clay Bowl

This was our first project EVER at camp. In fact, the bowl pictured above was created by my daughter when she was 8 years old. It is so simple and useful, and considering this one was made in 2003, it has held up pretty well after all these years.

The bowl above was made with Paper Clay, we softened with our hands, and then folded in glitter specs. We eventually started adding tempera paint right into the clay. When you work the paint into the clay, the clay changes color. Super cool. We rolled the clay out and molded around little plastic bowls from the dining hall. They dry overnight, feather light, yet surprisingly sturdy.

I found instructions for a similar project from Crayola.com

You can find project instructions here.

Sculpey Swirley Frame

We have used Sculpey clay every year. The colors are vibrant, the clay is easy to work with and the funnest part is when you can mix the colors to make new beautiful marble-y patterns.

Sculpey has come out with a new product called "Studio" by Sculpey. The colors seem richer, the finish is suede like, and they say that the finished product is more durable than projects made with traditional Sculpey.

Picture frames are always divine, everyone can use and enjoy them, and this project seems simple enough. Even though this is shown with the new Sculpey, I'll bet the good old classic Sculpey will work just fine.

Instructions for Sculpey Frame