Arts and craft activities for kids in the holidays

Tie Dye

Tie Dyeing is an activity that is great for all ages and the bonus is that your children will be able to wear their personalised clothes for months to come. We like to use tie dying kits, my favourite is – Desire, Deluxe  Tie Dye Kit, which comes with tons of colours and simple instructions. Gone are the days of buying salt, gloves, string etc, everything you need comes in one kit. This means you only have to either buy the clothing or customise you own and add water.

Producing beautiful and unique tie-dye patterns is easy with simple folding techniques, securing with rubber bands and adding colour. You can try the crumple technique, the spiral pattern, sunburst, or the bullseye design, among others. Most of how to create styles comes with the instructions in the kit.

 *Tip: For a first attempt you might want to start with t’shirts, use 100% cotton fabric, as they hold the dye colour stronger and longer.

image: Sarah Maker

Here are 4 of the most popular patterns, to get you going

Bullseye

1. Flatten the shirt on a table surface. Take hold of a small portion of fabric from the shirt’s centre and pinch it.
2. Pull the pinched fabric upwards to form a point while smoothing out the rest of the shirt. This will create a slim cone shape.
3. Wrap rubber bands around the cone-shaped fabric, beginning approximately one inch below the tip of the cone. You can use as many or as few rubber bands as you wish
4. Apply dyes to the shirt. Alternating or using different colours between each rubber band.

Sunburst

The sunburst design is like a series of mini bullseyes

1. Lay the shirt flat on a table. Start by pinching a small section of fabric, and pull it up to create a small pointed cone shape.
2 Use a rubber band around the small cone of fabric, about 1/2 to 1 inch down from the point of the cone.
3. Repeat this process, making other small cone points, and securing them with rubber bands.
4. Make as many sunbursts as you like.
5. Use 1 or 2 colours of dye for the background colour.

Crumple, sometimes called ‘Nebula design

1. Lay the shirt flat on a table. Then, randomly scrunch small sections of the fabric together.
2. Keep scrunching. You can make the fabric loosely crumpled or squish it all together for tighter, more defined crumples. Secure with rubber bands.
4. Apply colour.

Spiral

1. Start by pinching a small area of the shirt’s centre. When you turn the cloth in a clockwise direction, hold onto the small area, you have pinched whilst twisting.
2. Continue to twist, keeping your fingers and shirt near the table’s surface to ensure that the spiral remains flat.
3. The garment will fold in on itself as you twist, resembling a flat cinnamon/swiss roll.
4. Put different dye colours between each rubber band. To create a rainbow spiral design, you can apply the colours in a rainbow order , and this will give a rainbow look.

*Tip: you can use a fork to twist the fabric from the centre (like twirling pasta, be careful not to pierce the fabric)

*all tie-dye images: Sarah Maker 

Wind Chimes

Another really fun activity is making DIY wind chimes. They will brighten up an outdoor space. Kids love creating music that connects them to nature. Your child will have total freedom in their design, using beautiful swirls of colours, dots or stripes with enchanting wind-blown sounds. This craft will give kids hours of fun and they can continue to appreciate them well into summer. A really good place to start is with a Wind Chime 2-Pack kit . It comes with everything you need: pots, chime rods, cords, brushes and a great choice of paints.

Homemade Wind Chimes:

You can also create your own Wind Chimes from recycled materials or craft supplies you already have in your home.

Beaded Rainbow Wind Chime 

(Take caution with beads if crafting with children under 3)

• Paints

• Craft sticks

• Glue

• String or bead wire

• Crimp beads (soft metal beads used in place of knots to secure clasps and beads onto un-knottable stringing material such as beading wire – purchase from amazon or a haberdashery)

• Small and large beads, maybe some crystal beads

• Scissors

• Jewellery pliers or regular pliers

Instructions:

1. Glue the craft sticks into 2 triangles. Place them on top of each other to form a star shape, then stick them together.

2. Cut 4 25″ pieces of jewellery wire or string.

3. Feed a crimp bead onto the end of one piece of jewellery wire/string and close. You can tie a knot, but the crimp beads help create sounds

4. Continue stringing beads in your pattern, and finish with a crimp bead to close.

 *Tip: Start and end with a large bead on each strand. They will hang together – producing a sound.

*images: Its Simple: howtothisandthat.com

Bird Feeder

Creating a bird feeder is an enjoyable activity that can provide children with an opportunity to learn about taking care of nature, feeding wildlife, and identifying native birds.

You can easily create a DIY bird feeder from items you have in the home.

Homemade Bird Feeder

Instructions:

1. Wash out your carton.

2. Draw and cut out the door and window or mouth. Make sure to leave enough space at the bottom of your carton to hold the birdseed.

3. Paint the carton

4. Then decorate – add eyes and wings. You can add craft sticks to create a roof or a fence, use stickers and markers to draw in features and add other recycled objects to create windows, eyes or patterns.

5. Make two small holes at the top of the carton to attach your string so it can hang. Add a hole below the window for the perch (craft stick/pencil). Add another hole on the back of the carton for the perch to go through so it is secure.

6. Push perch (craft stick or pencil) through from the front hole to the back hole.

7. String a piece of yarn, string or twine through the top two holes for hanging and tying a knot.

8. Add birdseed to the feeder.

9. Then choose a good spot in your garden to hang it. 

You can always buy a bird feeder kit, a great one to try is Baker Ross: Ceramic Bird Feeders. This double pack of bird feeders are blank and ready to be decorated. You need to buy paint separately, it is best to use porcelain paints or pens. There is no plastic involved and they fare well in all weather.

*images: crayola and supersimple.com

I like using these Acrylic paint, pens, Pain pen markers. They have 18 colours, are water-based, waterproof, fast-drying, and water-resistant, and are superb for virtually any surface,  such as wood, canvas, plastic, glass, stones you have collected from the park or pebbles from the beach

*images of stones : blog.ecr4kids.com

 Easter eggs 

At Easter, you can use the pens to decorate eggs. I find hard-boiled  are the easiest for kids to use

Perfect hard-boiled egg:

1. When boiling eggs, start with room temperature eggs rather than cold ones straight from the fridge. This can help prevent the shells from cracking due to a sudden temperature change when they hit the hot water.

2. Fill pan with cold water and add eggs here.

3. Make sure there is enough water to cover the eggs and pan is large enough so each egg has room to avoid  the shells cracking.

4. Cook for 12 minutes, then allow to cool in cold water or a bowl of ice.

Design your eggs…

• Decorations: card, stickers, eyes, glitter , feathers

• glue

• pens

Dip-dyed eggs 

1. Mix  5-10 drops of food colouring , one teaspoon of white vingar and hot water in a glass bowl.

2. Dip your egg in water and repeat until you are happy with the colour.

3. Adding rubber bands or cellotape, on the egg can create stripes.

4. Place on a wire rack and wait for egg to completely dry, kids  can customise with extra decorations if they wish.

Arts and crafts activities are not just fun, they provide an opportunity for children to express themselves, develop their motor skills, enhance their problem-solving abilities, and boost their self-esteem. See their imagination run wild, as they enjoy creating something unique and special.

*images: www.apumpkinandaprincess.com, www.fungalfunforboys.com, www.itallstartedwithpaint.com, www.rhythmsoftplay.com

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