This page is where you can have fun with Creative Crafts.

Button Gift Tags!

You will need:

• Buttons
• Thin coloured card
• Ribbon
• Felt-tip pens
• All-purpose glue or needle and thread
• Hole punch and scissors

1. Cut out a rectangle of card for each gift tag. The card can be folded in half, or even cut to a different shape, if you prefer.
2. Glue on other pieces of coloured card to look like a landscape or beach, and add details with a felt-tip pen. Alternatively, leave the gift tag plain.
3. Arrange buttons on the gift tag in an attractive pattern than either glue or sew them securely on place.
4. Punch a hole at the top of the gift tag and thread with narrow ribbon. A ribbon bow can also be glued on.

Novelty Pen Ends!

You Will Need:

• Modelling Clay that will harden in the oven
• Modelling clay varnish
• Pencils and pipe cleaners
• Rolling pin and blunt knife
• Knitting needle
• All-purpose glue

1. All of the shapes are made by rolling the clay into a ball or tube. Start with a piece of clay about the size of a large marble and roll it in the palm of your hand until it is soft enough to shape.
2. For the spider, mouse, bird and fish, roll the clay into a ball, push the end of a pencil into the clay ball to make the hole that it will sit on. Lightly pat the clay back into shape.
3. With the knitting needle, press small holes into the clay ball for the legs, tails or feathers. Roll out another small piece of clay and shape details like eyes or ears and gently press them into place. For the spider, add a second ball for the head.
4. To make the snake, hot dog or carrot, roll the clay into tubes. For the hot dog, slice a brown tube down its length as you would a bread roll, add a smaller red tube for the sausage. Squash the carrot into a point at one end and add leaves. Twist a green tube around a pencil to shape it into a snake.
5. Ask an adult to help you bake the pen ends in an oven, following the instructions on the packet. When baked and cool, varnish the clay. Once dry, glue the feathers or pipe cleaners in the holes to make the legs, tails and other features.

 

Crayon Eggs!

You will need:

• Eggs
• Wax crayons
• Fabric dye
• Darning needle
• Bowl
• Rubber Gloves

1. Carefully pierce a small hole at each end of an egg with a darning needle. Wiggle the needle to make one hole 6mm (1/4 in) wide and the other 1cm (3/8 in) wide.
2. Gently push the needle into the egg to break the yoke. Hold the egg over a bowl and blow through the smaller hole until the contents of the egg are emptied into the bowl.
3. Holding the egg very gently, draw patterns on to it with wax crayons. Now ask an adult to help you prepare the fabric dye, following the maker’s instructions.
4. Wearing a rubber glove, dip the egg into the dye and hold it under the water until it fills. The dye will stain the egg shell but not the pattern you have made with the wax crayons. Remove the egg after three minutes and rinse.

Macrame and more!

You will need:

• Four filler strands, 51cm (20in) long
• Four worker strands 70cm (27.5in) long
• Safety pin
• Cushion

1. Tie the threads together with a 10cm (4in) tassel and pin the knot on a cushion with the fillers in the middle and the workers either side. Use the pair of workers together, as if they were a single strand. Put the left-hand workers over the fillers and under the right-hand workers.
2. Put the right-hand workers under the fillers and under the left-hand workers. Then, pick up the workers which are now on the left and put them on the fillers and over the workers, which are now on the right. Put these right-hand workers up over the fillers and through the loop on the left-hand side.
3. Pull on both sets of workers gently, to tighten the knots you have made. Repeat the process until your bracelet is the length you want. Then, tie all the threads together in a knot and finish the bracelet tassels how you like.

Collage Window!

You will need:

• Coloured acetate (you can buy packs of mixed colours)
• One sheet of clear acetate
• Glue
• Card
• Poster paint or a paint spray can
• Scissors
• Hole punch

1. Draw a decorative frame shape on card. Cut it out and use it as a template to cut another one the same size. Cut the plain acetate the same shape as the outside of the decorative frame.
2. Paint both frames on one side. Glue the plain sides and sandwich them together with the clear acetate sheet in between. When dry, glue coloured acetate shapes onto the clear acetate background.
3. Use a hole punch to make a hole in the top of the frame, well away from the edge. Loop silver thread through here and hang the frame up in a sunny window.

Jewelry Making!

You will need:

• Self-hardening clay
• Knitting needles, one thick, one thin.
• Paint
• Varnish
• Plasticine

1. Roll the clay into balls and make a hole through each one with the thick knitting needle. Let them dry thoroughly.
2. Thread the beads onto the thin knitting needle so that they can turn easily. Rest the needle between two lumps of plasticine on newspaper. Paint the beads a plain colour.
3. When the paint is dry, decorate the beads with colourful paints. When they are dry, varnish them. Leave them overnight before you use them in jewelry.

That is all for now.