Fun Projects To Do With Kids

These are number's 2 and 3 on my list of fun things to do with kids (this summer or anytime!)

Geometric Canvas Art:
I did this project with my Create and Innovate Home Edition kids and it was a huge hit.  It is a very tactile activity and one that the kids finish with great pride! Appropriate for ages 4 and up.

Supplies:

• Canvas of any size
• Painters tape
• Acrylic paint and brushes

To Do:
1. Have each child put painters tape on their canvas in their own design. If working with younger children, you should tear of the tape for them so they have long enough pieces to run across their canvas. For older kids, show them an example to they understand the length of tape they will need to go from one side to the other.

2. Secure the tape down firmly so that none of the edges are lifting off the canvas.  You won't have a sharp edge if paint sneaks under loose tape.

3. Paint each open section and let it dry.

4. Remove the tape. The kids love this part!

5. Encourage the kids to draw doodles like dots, scallops, circles in or around the sections.  Other ideas include writing words in the white spaces or gluing down buttons and other embellishments to add texture and dimension.

Garden Glove Flower Can 

• A large tin can.  I used bulk sized chili cans that I found in the trash at our church (Yes - I dumpster dive in the name of art.)
• Patterned or colored garden gloves - 1 glove per flower.  I bought mine at the dollar tree.
• A large faux Gerber Daisy.  You can get these at Michaels.
• Large buttons
• Glitter
• White glue
• Fabric and Ribbon
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• Piece of cardstock cut into a circle the size of a large silver dollar.

To Make The Flowers:

1. Cut the fingers off of your gloves and set aside.

2. Pull 5 or 10 petals off of your Gerber Daisy. (This will depend on the width of the flower petals. You want the combined flowers petals to balance with the width as the glove fingers.)

3. Lay out your flower design on top of the cardstock circle by staggering the petals between the glove fingers and the faux flower pedals.  The cardstock circle will be the base in the center and you will glue the petals on to it. You may need to adjust your layering to make the flower proportionate. 

4. Hot glue all the the pedals in place.  Roll and glue glove finger pedals that are extra bulky at the open mouth.  Don't worry about the bunching in the middle; this will be covered by the buttons.

5. Put glue and glitter on one or more buttons and stack them to create your flower center.

6. Once the glue under the glitter is dry, hot glue the button center onto your flower.

To Cover The Can:
1. Measure the diameter of your can.  To do this you can take a piece of string, wrap it around, cut it where the tail meets the strand, then measure the string.

2. Select fabric scraps and ribbon to glue around your can like strips of old jeans, pieces of a t-shirt, fabric remnants and assorted ribbon from your stash.  Be sure to measure your strips to make sure they are long enough to cover the diameter of the can.  Our cans were 19 inches around so I pre-cut the material for the kids so they wouldn't end up with pieces that weren't long enough.

3. Glue one edge of each piece of fabric/ ribbon in the order you want it to go down the can.  If you are overlapping edges, be sure to glue the bottom pieces first.

4.  Now wrap each piece of fabric/ ribbon around the can, adding hot glue every few inches to make sure the piece stays in position. 

5.  Secure all of the ends so nothing hangs off the finished can. Cut off all loose strings to prevent unraveling or accidental pulls.

6. Hot glue the flower on your can.