kids swords

If you have boys, you're going to love this project.  Actually, let me rephrase that.  If you have KIDS, they are going to love this project. 

I really can't take credit for this idea.  This is one of those projects that just kind of happened.  Dev is involved in a Medieval Fair for our homeschool group.  She was assigned to pick an historical character from that time period.  She really didn't want to wear a dress, so she chose Joan of Arc.  (I would like to say that her reasons for choosing Joan of Arc were more valid, but that would be lying.) 

For her costume, Dev wanted to make a sword.  I gave her free reign of the craft room, and she found a stash of old paint stirring sticks. 

She broke one in half, and taped it with painters tape to the bottom of the other one for the handle.  Then she used dad's pocket knife to whittle the end into a point.  Then she painted it.  She also made a sheath out of an old paper towel tube, although I don't have a picture of that.

Once my boys saw what their sister was doing, they all wanted a sword, too.  Luckily, Dad was home to give advice and help.

 This is a great project to work on while listening to an audio book or to keep little hands busy while you work. 

Homemade swords:
1.  Get two paint sticks
2. Cut one in half
3.  tape the broken pieces together with the whole paint stick between them.  (tape them towards the end of the whole paint stick to form the swords handle.) 
4.  Use a pocket knife to whittle a tip on the other end of the whole paint stick. (this step can be omitted for really little ones.  Jelly Bean didn't whittle his, and we was still really happy with it.) 
5.  Let your little one pick the color they want and paint it.  (I didn't offer any direction on how to paint it.  Just let them be creative!) 
6.  If you want, make a sheath by squashing a paper towel tube and cutting (rounded) and taping one end. 

Have fun!  If you try this project, leave me a comment and let me know how it worked! 

More fun with crayons

We had so much fun with the last crayon craft that we decided to try another one.  It involved melting the crayons again, but this time we used crayon shavings and an iron.  

I told the kids to make a doodle on their paper, because I was thinking that they could put certain shaved crayon colors in different sections of their doodle.  If you try this, don't waste your time with this step.  The crayons ran everywhere when they melted and didn't stay where we hoped they would.  Also, the colors mixed anyway, so why bother separating them? 

After the first few, we caught on.  We just took the mixed, shaved crayon in small pinches and sprinkled them all over our paper

When we were satisfied with the amount of sprinkled crayon, we put wax paper over the paper and ironed it on low heat to melt the crayon shavings.  It was cool to see how the colors blended.  (by the way, a good project for younger kids would be to spread a thin layer of glue over the paper and let them pinch and sprinkle to their hearts content.  Then let it dry and hang it up [no heat or melting!]  The sprinkles alone on the paper looked pretty cool)

Calvin's pretty colors!

Dev's pretty colors!

If I ever do this project again, I would worry less about making a shape for them to "fill in." I would also use lower heat on my iron.  I turned it down to it's lowest setting after awhile, and it worked much better (didn't melt the shavings so fast, so they didn't run all over.), and I would also just "press and lift" my iron instead of dragging it all over the paper.  Press and lift helped keep the crayon in its place. 
It was a lot of fun.  Try it and let me know how it worked for you!

Fun with crayons

 I have a crayon fetish.  I can't throw crayons away. I admit it, and I'm not sorry. Those little waxy sticks of color are just way too useful to throw away.  After the fireworks on the fourth, I was inspired to try a new crayon craft with the kids.  One that would mimic the look of fireworks in the sky.  

In retrospect, I realize we should have used dark colored paper if we truly wanted to mimic the night sky.  I don't know how that would affect the colors though.  

Sorry I didn't take more pictures.  (I think I've proven that when I get too interested in what I'm doing, the idea of taking pictures leaves my mind.)  But I think you get the jist here.  To make  your own crayon fireworks, you need to have a tupperware full of old naked crayons, a piece of heavy paper, and a hair dryer.

Ignore the iron in this picture.  We didn't use it for this project.  What you need is a hair dryer. Also, ignore the messy craft room.  It's still getting unpacked and organized.  Please and thank you. 

Have the kids pick a few choice colors for their fireworks and lightly (very lightly) glue them onto your paper at various points. (glue too thick will get puffy when subjected to heat)  Keep in mind that once the crayons melt, they go everywhere.  Prepare yourself for this inevitability by laying down a table cloth (I have one that I bought at the dollar store that we use for all our messy crafts.), also, only use a small amount of crayon.  We used about 1/4 of a crayon for each color.  The wax, it is runny and you get a lot out of a little.  You can always add more if you want more.  

Let the glue dry a bit, and then set your hair dryer on high heat and blow the holy heck out of the crayons.  We achieved the fireworks affect by holding the hair dryer directly over the crayon and watching it blow in all directions.  But you can adjust the angle of the hair dryer for different blown effects. 

Dev's masterpiece

 The kids LOVED this craft!   They really liked experimenting with the hair dryer and the angle of the air to get different effects.  It was very easy to set up and do, which is another bonus.

Go try it!  And if you aren't going to use up all your crayons, mail them to me!