Halloween hat craft

This is a simple project, inexpensive and suitable for all ages

What we need:

• 2 sheets of black cardboard
• sheet of felt (green, orange, purple, or red), you can use other materials like fake cobwebs, paper gloss, or anything your imagination wants,
• white glue,
• scissors,
• tape,
• ruler
• compass. 

How to:

1. Fold the cardboard in a cone shape, this cone has to be so tight as your head;
2. Fix the cone with tape;
3. Cut the free ends in the bottom of the cone with the scissors, this free end is the triangle that is formed on the base of the cone when you fold the paper, cut it, so that the base becomes a circle;
4. With the compass, draw a circle on the second card sheet with less 1in of radius then the opening of the hat, use a ruler to measure the diameter of the opening (the diameter is the distance between 2 points in the circle passing in the center of it). Now, divide this value by 2, you will get the radius;
5. Draw a second circle, concentric with the first but with more 2 to 3 in in radius then the first one, concentric circles have the same center;
6. Cut out the larger circle;
7. Cut out the inside of the smaller circle, This is where your head goes;
8. Place the cone centered on top of the circle;
9. Apply a layer of glue in this junction;
10. Let it dry;
11. Turn the hat up side down;
12. The small circle is slightly smaller than the opening of the hat, about 2in remember?, with small scissors make small cuts on this cardboard flap, at the end you must be able to flap it inside;
13. Apply glue inside the cone;
14. Bend the cardboard in;
15. Press;
16. Let it dry;
17. Cut some felt strips;
18. Wrap and glue them around the hat;
19. Use stencil-like images to decorate your hat.

Halloween colors:

Black, orange, purple, red and green.

You can use theses 5 stencils to decorate your hats:

Ghost

Bat:

Spider:

Pumpkin

 

Witch

Et Voila!
Bu!

Enjoy!

Frame with rolled paper tubes

This project can be done by everyone from 8 to 80. It's a recycling and inexpensive project and  it's a lot of fun.

We are going to learn how to do a frame with a cardboard stencil.

Before we start you should read this 2 posts:

• Paper rolls and paper coils, recycling old paper
• How to do a stencil?

What we need:

• rolled paper tubes,
• rolled paper coils,
• cereal box,
• glue,
• scissors,
• craft knife,
• old paper,
• varnish, transparent,
• white paint, or any other color you like best,
• paint-brush.

How to:

1. Roll about 60 paper tubes;
2. Roll a few coils too, minimum 4 like the tutorial;
3. Use the scissors to "unmount" the cereal cardboard;
4. Keep the 2 larger pieces, one will be the frame back, the other will be the stencil;
5. Use one of the big pieces and draw your image, the one you want to appear in stencil, in this tutorial is a flower, draw always on the backside;
6. Cut it;
7. Paint the front side with the color you chose, we used white;
8. In the second big card piece, same size as the first one, glue the paper tubes, leaning against each other;
9. Leave about 0,5in at the top and at the bottom, just like the image;
10. Take you paper coils and glue them in the cardboard piece corner;
11. Wait to dry;
12. Cut the excess rolled paper;
13. Apply glue both in the coils and in the stencil base;
14. Glue the stencil to the base with the rolled tubes, just like the image;
15. Press and let it dry, we used small paper clamps;
16. Glue small pieces of paper around the edges of the frame.
17. Let it dry;
18. Varnish it;
19. Let it dry again;

Et voilá!
Paper all the way!

Enjoy!

Painting old CD's

We found this Tutorial here it’s a very good idea to reuse old CD's and DVD's rather than throw them in the trash and besides, this will keep children occupied for a while

What we need:

• Paint tutorial says it can be acrylic or nail polish. Use synthetic lacquer for longstanding results,
• CDs and/or DVD's old and broken,
• Varnish.

How to:

1. If you want to leave your CD or DVD transparent, sand it, with thin sand paper, when you done wash it and dry it well;
2. If you want to keep the "mirror" effect just clean it with alcohol to remove any grass and dust. You can apply paint on the "label" side;
3. Let your restless paint the CD/DVD;
4. Wait at least 24h before you varnish it.

You can paint geometric figures or use a stencil.

This CD/DVD's can be used for a lot of things. We can place them in the wall, one by one or as a set, we can frame them, or build some, dream catchers...

Et voilá!
Young restless will love to explore this circular canvas.

Enjoy!

Stamp and dye t-shirts, summer DIY

With the summer a question pops up, what do kids need to buy... and where to buy? Most of the times this is a problem because the cloths we find in stores are not exactly the ones we are looking for besides having an exclusive T-shirt is much more "stylish".

Painting a t-shirt is not that hard, there are several ways to do this, some more expensive then others, but all of them will make your restless the "number one" at school.

First of all do some shopping, buy a few basic t-shirts, the color doesn't matter, but they must be plain., those are normally cheaper and will work best.

Buy also some fabric painting (dye, paint, spray or a pen, all depends on the method you want to use).

Using transfers with iron
How to:

1. Pick an image, scanned;
2. If the image is not on your computer scan it, high definition;
3. If you are a medium user use a image edition software to center image, adjust colors and luminosity as you wish;
4. When it's done, print the your design in transfer printer paper;
5. Place a card inside the t-shirt, stretch it.
6. Use the paper on T-shirt, follow the instructions on the package; 

One idea is to use the children drawings.

Using painted iron transfers
How to:

1. Pick a black and white image, or scan it;
2. If you are a medium user use a image edition software to center image, adjust luminosity as you wish;
3. When it's done, print your design in transfer printer paper;
4. Place a card inside the t-shirt, stretch it;
5. Use the paper on T-shirt, follow the instructions on the package;
6. Color the image with fabric paint;
7. Let it dry for 48h before you wash it.

Using your restless hands/feet
How to:

1. Buy fabric paint and a sponge;
2. Cut the sponge, 1 piece for every color you want to use;
3. Place a card inside the t-shirt, stretch it;
4. Put both on the floor;
5. With the sponge paint your restless hands/feet, you can also try this with your cat or your dog;
6. Stamp the t-shirt as you wish.
7. Let it dry for 48h before you wash it.

One great idea is to stamp the feet on the back and write something like "My son/daughter/can/dog walk over my back" on the front.


Stamp with a sponge or a potato 
How to:

1. Buy fabric paint;
2. If you use a potato: cut it in half, with the exact-O knife try to crave a pattern, you can do a star, a moon, squares, hearts, keep it simple; 
3. If its a sponge you can try to do the same thing, or you can buy them already shaped;
4. Place a card inside the t-shirt, stretch it;
5. Wet the sponge/potato on paint;
6. Stamp as you wish;
7. Let it dry for 48h before you wash it.

Using dye
How to:

1. Buy dye and some rubbers (about a dozen)
2. Use rubber gloves and a craft coat;
3. Follow instructions to prepare the paint;
4. Fold the t-shirt on her own, form some clusters and use rubbers to keep them in place;
5. When you done folding, deep it in the dye, again follow instructions. if you want a multicolor t-shirt wait about 5 hours before you deep the t-shirt on the second color;
6. Wait 5h;
7. Rinse well with water;
8. Let it dry for 48h before you wash it.

Using a stencil
How to:

1. Buy fabric paint, with stencil spray works better;
2. Buy or do your own stencil; 
3. Place a card inside the t-shirt, stretch it; 
4. Place the stencil, cover all area you don't want to paint;
5. With the spray, paint the stencil, chose a safe place, spray can do a mess;
6. Let it dry for 48h before you wash it.

Et Voilá!

New wardrobe for the whole family

Enjoy!