Stamp-a-Pin

Envirotex Lite is one of my very favorite products. Pour it on any project, and it gives a clear resin-like finish. Colors POP...and it just gives a very finished, professional look to your crafts.

I came across this little project for pins made with Rubber Stamp. It seems simple enough. Stamp a design onto card stock, color it in, cut it out, and then watch magic happen by adding Envirotex Lite with a paint brush.

Click here for project instructions.

Classroom Chihuli

Blick Arts and Crafts has been around for years. I was very lucky to meet with two of the representatives at a recent camp convention. I've mentioned before that they have some of the best lesson plans and ideas for Art Teachers.

They now provide beautifully detailed video lessons on a variety of their projects. What an incredible help for the Camp Art Lady! I normally don't get to "try-out" projects prior to our summer sessions, as our materials are shipped directly to camp. With these videos, I can be more comfortable selecting projects that I feel will work within our curriculum.

The Classroom Chihuli was originally presented a year or two ago, and it's always struck me as an attractive project, but honestly, the written directions confused me! Click HERE to see the video tutorial for this beautiful project!

If you prefer, here is the PDF version of the instructions.

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!

Flower Pot Pen

I kid you not, this is one of my favorite classic crafts. The "flower" you see here is really a pen in disguise. Totally cute, right?

For this craft, you'll need:

Artificial flower
Plastic encased ball point pen
Floral Tape
Mini Clay Pots
Beans or rice to fill pot
Little Plastic Bags to wrap craft
Paint or rub-ons to decorate pot

Before your campers join you, prepare flowers by removing stems. Discard stems. Remove little cap from back of your pen (depending on the brand of pen you choose, this can be a little tricky...pliers help). With a glue gun, use a drop or two of glue to adhere the flower into the pen.

Have your campers choose their favorite flower, and wrap floral tape around their pen, stretching the floral tape as they wrap.

Decorate the flower pot as you please. We've done decoupage, paint (that can be really a mess!), stickers, rub-ons, etc.

Fill the inside of the pot with dried beans,then insert the pen.

Helpful hint: So you don't spill the beans (literally!), The Camp Art Lady recommends wrapping these in plastic favor bags tied with ribbon or raffia. Makes a really pretty gift, too!

Uses: We made these once for a Girl Scout Mother Daughter Dinner. The girls each made slightly larger pots than pictured, and filled each with 3 pens. They served as centerpieces, and then each mother was given one as a party favor. So CUTE!!!

Paint your own Pottery - Plaster version

With the popularity of "Paint Your Own Pottery" studios in the last few years, we had every reason to seek out a similar activity for our groups.

Unfortunately, we hit one big stumbling block...money.

Bisqueware, the unfinished pottery pieces you'll find in these stores, is very expensive. To provide these ceramic lovely bowls, vases, boxes and figurines wouldn't be cost effective. Not to mention, they also require a second firing in the kiln, which, if space in your kiln is an issue, might be a problem.

That's why I was so happy to run into the nice people from Millie's Plaster Craft at a recent convention. They offer plaster molded pieces, at a fraction of the cost of bisqueware. They simply need to be painted with acrylic paints, and sprayed with an acrylic glaze.

Instant gratification in just 45 minutes. This project appeals to ALL ages, boys and girls alike, and the final product will look great hanging up in a bedroom, kitchen, or family room.

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

Fairy Wand

This would probably not go over well with our older campers, but I think our younger girls would enjoy making their very own magic wands. Okay, actually, I want MY very own magic wand.

I have shyed away from this project in the past, since I wanted to appeal to all ages, but I think this could be a really fun activity for our junior girls...and also...me.

Instructions can be found here.

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.

Nature Necklaces

Family Fun Magazine and website has a very clever array of original craft ideas. I kind of like this one, part nature, part jewelry.

The campers could spend the first ten minutes of their class hunting for beautiful stones, and then the balance working with wire to turn their finds into cool necklaces.

I think the younger campers would find this particularly appealing, and think this would be one of the few jewelry projects that might appeal to younger boys as well.

At our camp, we hold on to all projects until visiting day. I think our biggest challenge with this one will be keeping the campers from sneaking these back to their bunks!

Nature Necklace Instructions

Painted Rocks

This might be the simplest craft yet, I don't understand why we haven't ever done this. This would be great for boys and girls alike, and can run the gamut from simple to extremely detailed.

I love this most as a rainy day craft, since we need so little prep to get it ready. Just nice smooth rocks and stones and acrylic paint. Then we'll seal them with acrylic spray. Voila!