Vegmom Crafts

SEASHELL POTS

Story here... Vegmom Moments 

 

FUN CRAFT SUNDAY

Handmade Hanging Towel from my Kiddo...See the details here :

 

And Dye Free Tie Dye, Details here:

A GOOD WAY TO MIX PAINT

Veg was needing something to mix paint colors in.  He loves making new colors, and didn't want "ANY" of them touching... He is quite a picky Artist...

Then I saw this in our closet and it was perfect for the job...

MY VERY FIRST HAIR TOWEL WRAP

Hubby is the person that sews in our family.  I do not SEW about as much as I do not IRON or use the Weed Eater (that's dangerous)....  So when I saw this post from Skip to my Lou I sent hubby the link and said "Can you make this for Mother's day"

NOW - I must also say that I'm not one to ask or want Mother's day gifts, but knowing he could possibly make this, I thought using the Mom Day thing as inspiration, I could have it done quickly...

Who knew, that he would start that moment, and have it done before I arrived home from the grocery store...

Look, my Very own Head Wrap...  I used it tonight and really liked it... fit my noggin just perfect... and had my hair drying, no dripping water while exiting the shower.... and the other towel just for my Bod. 

Hubby said it was harder then he thought to make, but now that he has it under control, he will use all our old towels to make me more!  *Big Smiles* 

Kudos to hubby!!  He can be pretty alright some times  *wink*...  Don't forget to get all the instructions from Skip to my Lou and many other great ideas too...

CRAFTY SUNDAY

Now we couldn't let a holiday weekend go by with out some crafting, and so today was a busy one!!

I found the idea in a book to make our own paper...but never wanted to bother with it....But for some reason it looked like a good idea today and I didn't have any of the correct ingredients, so we improvised...

Some old mesh metal from my scrapbook stash, stapled to a cut out plastic lid, gave me my straining frame.  Then we used some dryer lint (yes, I said dryer lint, talk about recycling) and torn sheets of paper left over from our Name People (shown below)... And mix mix mash mash with the Magic Bullet..... 

This is what we came up with:

So I know it doesn't look quite lake paper, but I'm sure it will be pretty when it dries... And by the way... this is quite a lot of work to deem one piece of paper.  I think I will be treating it as gold when attaching pieces to my cards.... And those lovely recipients will know that it came straight from my Dryer....  Is that love or what?

Then I found this idea online... Who needs Sand for art when you have A Grain of Salt??  Yup some Kosher salt and food coloring... Oh and a paper funnel and old spice jar!...  This was a fun project.  We used sticks to make the designs.  If I had more coloring it could have been more beautiful according to Veg.

While looking through our junk mail and sorting recycles from garbage, I found a little deer and thought of this card... It was quick so not the perfect vision, but cute none the less...

And then I pulled out some foam pieces on this rainy day to keep the Veg Man Busy... He decided to make a sea, and as the day went on, there was a ship, a submarine, some fish... and more has been added as well...  Scissors and colored foam... and a little bit of imagination... FUN FUN:

Lastly we made these Letter creatures... HOW FUN....  You basically write someone's name on a piece of paper at the fold, then cut it out and open the fold to see what you have....  You'll see the word Veg first which turned in to a butterfly.  :-)  And I can't show the other names for privacy sake, but you'll see their images after the fact... 

Try to make the names of everyone in your family... Animals included, it was tons of fun... Paper, scissors and coloring supplies is all you need for this one!

RECYCLED GIFT TOWER

The story is here:

The pictures are Below:

 

RECYCLED MAILBOX & CLOCK

Veg is all in to inventing these days and has spent lots of time in the recycle bin looking for his latest creations... Today he suggested we make a Mail box for his Fort... and later said he needed a Coo Coo Clock.... So using stuff he grabbed from the bin, some markers, scissors, crafting brads, Foam 2 Sided stickies, and a tiny little plastic chicken, This is what we came up with:

The Clock:

Closer look at the CooCoo Part (when the doors open the chick folds down... it was actually pretty cool):

And here is the Mail Box with the flag up... You really have to use your imagination for this one:

And Mailbox with the flag down:

So the great part of these projects weren't the projects themselves, but the creative play that came after.

Every time the CooCoo Clock said "coo coo" then the mailman "me" was supposed to deliver mail to the Mail box... This became a 3 hr adventure....  And Veg would get SOO excited each time he found mail as if it was not known I was walking in front of him and setting mail in the box... ha ha...

We wrote letters and mailed pictures and YES, Veg does have his own little metal mailbox from a friend, but he wanted to Make one instead. 

Encourage your kids to dig in the recycles at home... Its quite amazing what they come up with...

For the little ones, I remember taking an empty bottle and just filling it with different kind of beans noodles etc. and making our own instruments and rain sticks... There is so much you can do with things you can no longer use!  HAVE FUN!!  Imagine... and Recycle!  *smile*

RECYCLED ROCKET

Look what Hubby and Veg made from the recycle bin....

TIC TAC TOE GAME - SCRAPPING STYLE

I was browsing blogs for a couple minutes and came across this Paper Smiles post about Tic Tac Toe boards.
I didn't even finish reading nor did I look at her great tutorial... I saw the first picture and then ran upstairs to make one with Veg.  He is loving Tic Tac Toe these days... And even better that we make one our selves.  Of course mine isn't near as cool as hers, nor does it have as much detail... But its good enough to play the game.  *smile*

So I used scrap paper, scrap cardboard, a few punches, and stamps... some markers pens and rub on letters...  And the best part was I found an old clear sticky envelope from a scrapbook page I tried to make a few years ago.  And it worked perfect to hold all our pieces on the back of our game board!

Too Fun!!  I love these spur of the moment, totally unprepared, easy projects!! 

Here is our version:  (we went with boats and light houses)

 

TOILET PAPER ROLL SQUIRREL FEEDER

  This was just one of those things that I decided to do this morning with Veg... No rhyme or reason but a fun activity none the less... And what a better way to recycle/reuse a Toilet Paper roll, then to feed the birds Squirrels...

Yup they took this thing over and devoured every bit of it within a couple hours.  Watching the little critters provided a lot of enjoyment and we will surely do these again.

Peanut butter and bird seed, along with a little string for hanging is all that it took to make this project.  (and the paper roll of course)

SHIMMERY GLIMMERY BUBBLE WRAP

Another great fun project from Kids Craft Weekly...

Here is their version along with detailed instructions:  Issue 53

And here is our Version:

Getting Started!

The Finished Product (so pretty!) :

 

MEMORY GAME

I'm getting ready to go visit my Nieces, and thought it would be fun to take them a craft kit for each to work on.  But I've been having trouble finding that "perfect" thing.  Until last night - I was scanning some websites and came across an idea on Split Coast Stampers for making a memory game out of crafty supplies.  I didn't follow any patterns.  As soon as I saw the suggestion, I jumped on the floor and started playing.

I Cut out a LOT of squares from some left over card board I had lying around.  And then cut the same size squares from scrap paper.  Decorated the paper and glued them to the cardboard....

Here is the end result:

Then I couldn't figure out what to do with the Games.... Until today, I found these perfect size wooden boxes to put them in... Along with some supplies for the girls to decorate their boxes.  Not only is this now a game, but the boxes can be used for an activity, and play toy later.

Too Fun!!!  And the boxes were only $1 at Michaels which was extra cool!! 

KID COLLAGE

Give a kid Supervised access to noodles from the pantry and supplies from the craft closet... a tube of glue and some paper... then see what they make...  Here is a Veg Creation from yesterday:

BOTTLE PIG

My Friend is filling me with inspiration this weekend..... She sent this link for Bottle Chick...  I thought this was a great Recycle & Re-use craft....  So I grabbed an already dried out bottle from our recycle bin, and then looked for the rest of my supplies... Realizing quickly that I didn't have any Yellow Chick Feathers... I decided to make a PIG!  *smile*....  Hubby and Veg are lounging on the couch, so I gave them each a pair of scissors and some pink paper and told them to cut strips.... THEY DID!...  Veg punched all the circles and I did the sticking.   A  real family project... and so cute!  ha ha...

Can't forget the tail.... (pipe cleaner)

THE NUBBIN TREE

The Kids craft weekly Newsletter came out this morning, and it was perfect timing.... Not only was it Saturday, but Veg was sitting next to me when I opened it.  He instantly wanted to work on the Flower crafts but we were missing tissue paper.  So he took HIS wallet, and we went to the store in search for tissue paper.  It was quite cute....

For those of you that asked me a long time ago for basic staples of a craft cabinet.... Colorful Tissue Paper should be added to that list!!

We came home, and ran around the yard looking for sticks....Then I found a little old (cleaned) food jar to decorate in my paint supplies... This turned in to our Vase....  And as we were crumpling up little pieces of tissue paper, Veg says "Hey Mom, Its a Nubbin Tree"  ha ha... And so that is what it is now called....

We decorated the "vase" and Tree with nothing but tissue paper and glue....  We also made a little flower with the pipe cleaners and paper... its in the center, at the bottom.  The, whole thing is now happily displayed on top of our wall unit!!

This is the same thing but two different shots... You'll see it is bright and cheery and SPRING'ish!

Thanks Kids Craft Weekly... For some more great suggestions!!

PAINTED FOIL EGGS

The Kids Craft Weekly Newsletter came out today, just in time for me needing some crafty inspiration.... During that sick spell, I sort of left my crafts in their cabinets... But today I wanted to do fun kid crafts with Veg and it was perfect....  Her issue was all about Eggs this time.. And when I saw the Painted Foil Eggs one.. I ran upstairs, cut out some recycle card board eggs, Veg helped me cover them with Tinfoil, and then we did our painting.....  They dried quickly, we poked holes then hung them up with string!!   

So Pretty! *smile*  Thanks again Kids Craft Weekly!!

Here is our version:

THANKFUL BOARD BOOK

Who needs to buy chip board when you have lots of card board lying around....  I notice the perfect thickness for making my own chip board projects is the cardboard that packages Creative Memories Page Refills...  So this idea is using that cardboard, some scrap paper, on the spot pictures, scissors, an old key ring, the Cropadile, some glue and some glue dots.

But more importantly its using the idea that my friend sent me "to make a thankful journal for the kids" and my son's thankful thoughts...

The mission:

"Tell me what your thankful for, and we'll find pictures in magazines of those things to cut out and place in a book"

The Actual:

He ran through the house finding things the was thankful for and then we took pictures with our camera.  Thanks to digital technology, I loaded the pictures on my computer and then Veg printed them using my photo printer....  He then cut the pictures, while I cut the cardboard....  Here are the supplies (I forgot to put the scissors and cropadile in the supplies picture, so pretend they are there) and the end result....

By the way, he was thankful for the dogs, his bed, the curtains, and a few things he could see from his window outside... One was his stepping stone and the other was a tree....

CALENDAR TURNS PAGE

Taking down my flimsy Advent boxes did end up destroying the boxes.  So I decided to cut off all the tops and make this scrapbook page.  This Advent page will make a great memory, Especially since I didn't take too many Christmas Pics this year...   Veg loved this project, so maybe making a new one every year, won't be so bad. 

In about 11 months, please send me a cyber slap for making that comment!  *smile*  This thing was a lot of work!  But well worth it!

QUICK ORNAMENTS

My little guy loved his Advent Calendar of boxes this year and the whole idea of finding something different each day to hang on his tree was especially exciting!  So when I ran out of store bought ornaments to fill up the boxes with he was quite disappointed.  We put little gifts instead, but he wanted ornaments. 

I was talking to my friend who is a very resourceful and amazing crafter... She reminded me of all the fun things I have in my crafty cupboards and how I could make my own ornaments... DUH!!! Now why didn't I think of that!  ha ha!  I guess I didn't think of it because I didn't think that would be exciting for our little man.  However he was THRILLED!  I did one with our picture on it, and when he woke up that morning he squealed with joy.  "Mommy Its Beautiful, Thank You"  .... Ahhhh, how perfect.

So today I got in the mood again, and made a couple more.  Here are two that were my favorites:

And here is a picture of all the supplies.. You'll notice they are all scraps.  Including the string, paper, and cardboard that I glued to the back to make my own chipboard:

I made a few more including a Square that says "It's Christmas" for him to open on the 25th...

Had I known that handmade stuff would have made him so happy, I could have saved a lot of money on those fancier store bought gadgets, but heck, I will know for next year... Thats for Certain!  I may also be making some of these to add to our cards for next year!  Shhhh, Don't tell my Family!  ha ha

PLASTIC BAG WREATH

My friend sent me this great link to make Plastic Bag Wreaths.  She new it was up my alley with it being a Recycle Craft, and the fact that its EASY...  You will see the instructions from that Two Peas Link were VERY easy to follow and her end product came out much better then ours.  But we gave up, once our hands started hurting (from cutting) and used the bags that we had.

My only complaint is the hand hurting.  My Shears are very hard to use and Veg was unable to help with that part.  So he was my helpful folder, and enjoyed this craft a lot.  In fact he wouldn't even go to bed until we were done... ha ha (Another reason we cut it short).....

You'll see by my supplies picture below that I used Target bags because they had the red circles, I thought it would go cool with the whole Christmas theme.

And here is our finished product..  Turned in to a cute wreath that is hanging from our Pantry Door!  Oh and Veg decorated those Green Circles to put on top:

COMPUTER FOR THE IMAGINATION

When Veg was around 2-3years old, he always wanted to play on my computer.  Although he could play games at times and operate a mouse at a very early age... He wanted his very own, so he could make and email pictures (for pretend)!  So I had a light bulb moment one day, and this was the result!

I Took an old Binder brief case, and stuck a piece of 12x15 card board in the top.  Added some fish stickers because he wanted aquarium wallpaper  *smile*.  And then I took a 12x12 sheet of Silver Scrapbook paper and stuck it to the card board.  We cut out a whole bunch of index prints from family photos and stuck those to the paper.  Making a Photo Collage that he could pretend to print and email, etc.

For the Keyboard, I used a cheap notepad that we had lying around.  And I used Scrapbooking bubble letter/number stickers on the bottom.  Along with a silver (space bar) that said "Inspire".  I added an On and Off button to the top (color coded of course) and some arrows....  The coloring decorations are from Veg.

We added a Mouse!  By transforming a shoe box lid and tying it with a string to the briefcase...

 

And then offered different screens... Here is the Clock I made with Cardboard, Paper, Stickers and a Brad!  The hands really moved and he would put the clock up on his screen to move the hands and match the real time of day.

I also added a keyboard changing page so he could make music and learn the piano keys, when he wasn't too busy sending emails.

He spent hours using his Imagination computer laptop, pretending he was making music, looking at the clock, typing messages to mimic me.  Everything I did, he sat right next to me and did the same! 

And the best part was the briefcase would zip back up with everything inside, in one neat tidy package.  Including a folder of different stickers, the notepad to color on and a bunch of markers and crayons.  I think several months passed before he was bored of it.

Sorry for the dark pictures.. Hopefully you can click on them to see them more clearly, but if not let me know.  If you make something like this of your own... Please send pics, and I'll post your version...

FRAMED ART

Still digging in to the Archives, but I wanted to post these because they are soooo easy, and can be anything you or your kids want them to be.

With Paint, glue, stickers, beads, glitter, rocks, shells, scrapbook embellishments and more.  We were able to make several of these framed-art projects.  That are fun to hang around the house or give as gifts.  I found these wood frames for $1 at the craft store.  And depending on what you use to decorate (age appropriate), these can keep all age toddlers and children happy for a while.

TRAIN PROJECT

Here is one that we did in October....(Idea from kidscraftweekly)  Making a Train  We used recycled boxes, duct tape, paint, Water Bottle caps, and popsicle sticks.  Click here for the full story!

The Crafting Pantry

So back to the original question by my friend:  What items should I have on hand for crafts and projects?

Here is a list depending on the type of projects you do, there may be more or less supplies needed... Of course the best projects are the ones that you can use things already in your house, like Sponges, or noodles, potatoes and apples for stamps, leaves and such from outside....  But for those of us that need more..... Here ya go!!

• Paints (non-toxic of course)
• Beads
• Pins
• Buttons
• Foam cones and balls
• Stickers
• Crayons
• Markers
• Card Stock Paper or Construction Paper
• Card Board (recycles)
• Cans, Jars, Bowls (recycles)
• Small boxes (recycles)
• Pipe Cleaners
• Popsicle Sticks
• Yarn/Thread/String of some sort
• Glue (for kids) and really sticky glue or glue gun for adults
• Scissors (kids and adults)

I'll also try to list the items I used on each project that I post.  But due to limited time... The descriptions may not be complete.  Always leave a comment or send me a note if you need more info.

CRAFTING RESOURCES

So let me first start by saying that I don't craft just out of my head all of the time... Some things just come to me as the day goes on and others I enlist the help of some really great websites!

Every crafting Mom should either subscribe, or have these in their favorites for a great reference:

Kids Craft Weekly Is an amazing Mom that does crafts with her kids all the time and decided to post them all in newsletter format for all to see.  She also is making printed books as well as online books that you can order from her website.  The best part is, that most of her items are just household things that are lying around.

Kaboose has tons of ideas for every season, holiday and anything else you can think of.  In some cases I've looked to this great resource for some learning experiments (like the erupting Volcano)

Martha Stewart Kids Crafts Pages also have a lot of great suggestions and are divided in to easy to find topics.

Lastly, I must explain that even with ideas from other places my stuff NEVER comes out looking exactly like the suggestion.  Some I say is due to imagination (not much) and other part is because I'm just horrible at copying.  I tend to make due with the items I have on hand and just fly by the seat of my pants, so to speak.

It usually works... If it doesn't then I post about my failures too!  *smile*  So I hope you'll browse along and report back what works for your or doesn't..

If you don't want to leave a comment, feel free to email me at vegmom@tds.net

Another Crafting Blog

How this site came to be.... 

For Crafting!   A Friend requested a list of things to have on hand for crafting with her kids, and it dawned on me how much information I've posted the past few years and it is all kind of hard to find now...  Through the years, I've posted in different places and thought it would be nice to have everything compiled in one spot!  So this is my attempt to get that done...

Feel free to add comments with your ideas, things you've tried, questions, feedback, or your own ideas, and possibly we can get a little Craft Idea Exchange going on!!

And if you just want to see the ramblings of a Vegmom and her family, feel free to check out Mommy Moments..  Where the majority of my posts occur.

Feel free to add comments with your ideas, things you've tried, questions, feedback, or your own ideas, and possibly we can get a little Craft Idea Exchange going on!!

And if you just want to see the ramblings of a Vegmom and her family, feel free to check out Mommy Moments..  Where the majority of my posts occur.