Stanciled memo board

I made this little bulletin board  in no more than half an hour. It’s Cub Scouts’ style (see the wolf print?), but you could easily decorate it how you prefer, it depends on the stancil you decide to use.

Since it’s very easy to make, and it requires only cheap materials, I think this craft is suitable for children of all ages!

I used THESE cork trivets from Ikea: they are very cheap, and they just have the perfect size.

Here’s what you will need:

This is the how-to:

1) Tape the stancil to the board, then paint your design. In this case I made a wolf’s print, because I thought this activity for my cub scouts; otherwise I’d have rather painted flowery or geometrical designs, or someone’s name or a quote…

2) Starting from the middle top, glue the rope to the board. Consider that the knot should be tied at the middle bottom.

3) Tie the knot.

4) Press the two small nails into the cork board to attach the hook. I’m sure that it has another name in English, but I have no idea what is it!!

The last thing to do is prevent the rope ends from fraying: you may use white glue or super glue (the last is more resistent but it will change the rope’s color where you apply it)

You are done!!

Have fun!

Cecilia

Linking to:

Twine and wooden beads [wish bracelets]

These bracelets are so easy to make, and require so little material: just twine and a few little beads. I chose twine over jewelry cord, to give them more of a natural look.

Isn’t this a perfect activity for a relaxing summer camp?

Their name is “wish bracelets” because you are supposed to give them as a present to your friends: they can make a wish, and when the bracelet falls off, the wish will come true.  Will this happen? Sometimes it’s nice to believe in such stuff

Make your own treasure chest

This week I made a small treasure chest, a little wooden trunk, using some paper and boxes that I had at home.

This is a treasure box to be found at the end of a scavenger hunt, to contain a gift for a friend, a prize for a tournament winner, and can be many many othe things…

Making papier maché with 30 children not easy, but with fewer of them, it would be surely fun to see who creates the most beautiful or original trunk.

Happy crafting!

Kids Christmas crafts – ideas -

Browsing the internet I found 4 Christmas ideas that I liked;

and I found them perfect for a Christmas activity with the Cubs: not too easy, not to hard.

The Cubs could also make a small sell of their creations to raise a little money for some collective project.

Click on the pictures to see the tutorial! Some of them are in other languages but the photos are self-explaining

In our last activity we made THESE decorations.

Enjoy my features:

Toilet paper poinsettias

The Crafty Crow

Popsicle stick Xmas tree

This is a very very easy Christmas decoration, suitable for kids of all ages.

I didn’t even take how-to pictures because the craft is self-explaining (is this correct in English?)

The important thing about these little hand-made Christmas trees is that we can re-use all of those popsicle sticks that we collect during sping and summertime.

The idea is from “la casetta delle idee“: I just changed and added something.

Autumn Leaves Art

I know that somewhere in the U.S. it’s already snowing, but here in north Italy it’s all about fog. It’s so foggy sometimes that when I look out of the window I can barely see the apartments across the street. BUT last sunday we enjoyed a great beginning-of-fall very sunny sunday.

And my cub scouts surprised us with their creativity!

The goal was to create something artistic with very few material. They were only required to use fallen leaves.

Each group had a white cardboard poster, glue, scissors, markers, fabric scraps. Everything else was to be found around the countryside.

(the fish above was made by me and the other pack leaders)

A first aid pouch (tutorial)

Sewing is not as hard as it may seem. Once you learned where you should slide the thread through, you are halfway done. And making some every-day object is not too difficult.

It’s always useful to know how to make what we need, exactly in the color and size that we need (with very few money, moreover).

For instance, I needed a small pouch to carry around my first aid kit: plasters, peroxide, disinfectant, gauze, ointments. There’s always some child that meets the floor too quick and hard

My creation was featured by The Gunny Sack!

I am very proud of my button!

Halloween Snails

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Here in Italy Halloween is not quite celebrated, but yesterday I saw some children going around asking “Trick or Treat?”, so I guess… we’re getting americanized. I didn’t post any Halloween themed craft, but this snail COULD be a differend and unusual halloween monster to create with kids  (I kind of hate pumpkins, bats and ghosts after 1 month of halloween themed crafts)

You just need some empty snail shells (kids can collect them), some silicone and a little bit of ink, the color you like.

Before going to the tutorial, I’d like to thank Toni from Design Dazzle, who chose my Garden Bees as one of her favorites crafts of the week. That was a great opportunity to reach some new readers and show off a little bit with my friends.

Here’s the little button I am now so proud of:

Snowmen

It’s not too early to start thinking about Christmas activities. And it’s not too early either to start collecting white plastic bottle caps for this little and easy craft… snowmen to hang on our Christmas tree!

Another Christmas decoration idea: popsicle stick Christmas trees: click HERE

Cub Scouts Gift – Nutshell Hat

Here in Italy, our little Scouts are called “Little Wolves”. When they join the pack, and they haven’t pronounced their pledge yet, they are called CUBS.

This year we had an enormous number of new cubs (happy!! ) and we decided to give them a little present to welcome them to the pack. The day before their arrival, the oldest wolves crafted some scout hats out of half nut shells.

I assume in other countries uniforms must be with different colors, but I think the cubs’ hat must be similar.