Pretty in Pink Bracelet

Oriental Trading is a great resource for art supplies and project ideas. What's even better for the group leader, they break down each craft and show you exactly the beads you need to complete the project.

We strive to offer jewelry projects that will be treasured and appreciated. This bracelet certainly fits the bill. For variety, I might order the beads in a second color to offer campers a choice.

This beading project can be found here.

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!

Eco-Friendly Shrinky Dinks

Who knew?? You can shrink recyclable plastic containers marked "6", very much the same as Shrinky Dinks...

Check out this tutorial for a very cute bracelet...

Eco-Friendly Bracelet

My Favorite Craft Book

I wanted to share a really cool craft book I picked up once at the bargain rack at Borders. It has some really beautiful craft inspirations, great from camp and home use.

It's still a bargain, only about Five Bucks (and Change) at Amazon...

Follow this link

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!!!

Fabric Dying -

I must admit that I'm a little afraid of fabric dying...we've run tie-dyes nearly every year with our campers, and I can't say we've had one year where something doesn't go wrong. This year, as a matter of fact, every campers garments were inexplicably, lost. LOST!

Can you blame me for being a little gun-shy?

But I've found a cool blog with all kinds of fabric dying instructions, and I'm particularly interested in Shaving Cream method of dying...neat-o...huh?

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.