Family craft idea Archives - Let their light shine!

Wax Resist Pictures

Wax resist pictures are fun and easy to create. All you need is some paper, wax crayons, watery paint and a paint brush. You can make patterns and pictures – it’s very easy and relatively mess free.

If you want to create a pattern then it’s fun to start with taking a crayon for a ‘walk’ around the paper. Create swirls and shapes. Then use bright wax colours to fill in some of the shapes you’ve created. You can use colour blocks, stripes, stars and circles – anything you like! Use white crayon on white paper to create some shapes. When you are happy with what you have made paint it all over with a thinned watery paint. I used blue ready mix paint that I watered down.

Let it dry and enjoy your wax resist picture!

You can also have fun making marks with a white wax crayon on white paper and painting over the colour wash.

This is a fun activity for a rainy day – here’s a link to a cup cake case craft that’s also great for the holidays.

I used crayola wax crayons which worked really well – and are bright colours.

Foy young children use chunky crayons

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Use what you have Christmas Collage

Use what you have to make a Christmas collage. There is so much for us to spend money on at Christmas that it’s a nice change to use what we already have have to make crafts.

I always keep Christmas cards as they have great pictures. And those bits of wrapping paper that aren’t quite big enough to wrap any of the gifts I’ve bought come in handy too.

If you have any paper punchers you can cut out shapes but if not just use scissors. Older children can doing the cutting out themselves.

Just use what you have – sweet wrappers, greeting cards, wrapping paper, pictures from magazines. Whatever you fancy!

Sometimes we do a ‘cover the paper’ challenge. The idea is to fill an A4 piece of paper with collage materials. It’s a lot of fun!

This year we have quite a lot of sequins left from other crafts so we’ll be adding those to the selection of materials that the children can choose from. I think that is part of the pleasure of making – choosing what to use.

Here’s a couple of my attempts – the children will no doubt do a better job than me!

A use what you have snow themed collage

These crafts would be great to make at home between Christmas and New Year. Keep your wrapping paper and cards and enjoy giving them a second life!

Here’s a link to some family ideas on the blog

A Great Light Party Lantern to make

Here’s a Light Party Lantern that is easy to make and inexpensive too! It’s a lantern that will twinkle in the dark and remind children that Jesus is the light of the World. If you are planning to celebrate a light party as an alternative to Halloween or you are looking for something to make at home then this craft is a fun make.

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All you need

See through plastic cups
Tissue paper squares
Battery operated tea lights
Pipe Cleaners (two per lantern)
Pritt Sticks
Word strip – Jesus said, ‘I am the light of the World’. We printed onto labels and then cut them out.

Jesus-said-I-am-the-Light-of-the-World.-Labels-2-x-8 Download

All the things you need to make a light party lantern craft

How to make a light party lantern

Begin by getting the tissue paper squares ready. Let children select the colours they would like to use. They can cut them smaller if they wish

Turn the plastic cup upside down and cover half with glue. Stick on the tissue paper. It’s ok for colours to overlap. Once you’re happy do the other half.

Turn the cup the right way up. Add the word strip. If the cup is tapered this need to go in the middle.

The pipe cleaners make a great handle. Lay one pipe cleaner down flat on the work surface. Secure the other pipe cleaner in two places about a cup’s width apart. You may need to adjust this a bit as you go on. Secure the first pipe cleaner to the cup’s rim – just wrap it around and twist the ends together. You should have a secure handle to carry the lantern or hang it up.

Place a battery operated tea light in the cup – and you have a lantern!

A light party lantern lit with a battery operated tea light

Cup Cake Cases Flower Wreath

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A cup cake case flower wreath is a colourful craft to celebrate spring and summer. Paper cake cases are inexpensive and come in lots of colours. You can go for the really bright or the pastels or a mixture of the two. There’s two ways of going about making this – older children can have a go at making the flowers, selecting the colours they want to use and cutting the shapes themselves. Younger children can have fun choosing colour combinations and have an adult do the cutting for them (in a large group do this preparation ahead of time) Any age can glue the flowers onto the cardboard circle. The paper cases can be layered as in the photo above. Older children might like to shade the wreath. For example start with reds, then oranges and then yellows. Let them experiment first and then glue the finished piece.

All you need

Cardboard wreath
Glue
Scissors for older children to use (for toddlers an adult can do the cutting)
Cup cake cases
Petit four cases

To turn the cup cake cases into flowers you need to make a few folds and cut an arc – take a look at the gallery below to see how.. it’s easy..

Arrange the flowers any way you choose – if you have different sizes you can layer them. You can use plain colours or patterned cases. Here are some ideas.

Weaving Craft

Weaving craft is a great activity for an after school club for children aged 4-plus. It needs a bit of prep but is well worth the effort. We made these at our children’s club and everyone joined in; there was lots of concentration!

Try to have yarn of different colours so the children can make some choices. We used a double knitting weight for the centre of the flower and then changed to aran weight. But chunky or aran weight yarn for the whole flower would be great too. Just don’t use really fine yarn as it will take forever to complete. If you want to you can use ribbon which would look lovely (just make sure that it works and stays put – satin ribbon might be a bit slippery). It’s always a good idea to test out a craft activity and any materials you are hoping to use to double check that the craft is makeable.

All you need for the Weaving Craft

Paper plate (cut the petals – we have 11. It’s best to have an odd number as it makes the weaving easier. It’s always ‘over, under,with an odd number!’)
Yarn – we used Double Knitting for the inner circle and Aran for the outer circle. Look at the photo below to see the difference. It’s helpful to have the yarn in small amounts as this helps with the weaving.
Cellotape to secure the yarn at the back of the plate
Ribbon (optional)

How to make

Cut the petals – have a look at the photos to see how far to cut into the plate.
Thread the loom – use any colour but one that stands out will make a great contrast when you are weaving.
To start weaving knot the first colour of yarn at the centre and then start weaving alternating ‘over, under’.
Change colour as often as you like by knotting a new colour to the old colour.
Use the Aran weight yarn as the circle gets bigger.

Here’s a link to another craft using yarn that is also really fun to make.

I often buy yarn from Wool Warehouse – stylecraft DK comes in many colours and is very good. You can also find yarn in charity shops and ask friends and family for any small amounts they might have that you can use for crafts.

Ascension Day Craft (5-11 year olds)

All you need –

A3 paper x2
Cloud shape cut from A4 card
Green and blue paper to make sky and hill
Glue
Cotton wool to add to cloud
Verse from Acts 1:11 (see download below) Cut into a size to fit into the cloud

men-of-galilee-acts-1v11 Download

To make the eleven disciples make a paper chain of eleven men. To do this cut a long narrow strip from the A3 paper. Fold like a concertina into eleven sections. Draw a man outline on the first one. It’s important that the arms and legs go to the edges as these connect the men. Cut out carefully, making sure that the arms and legs stay connected. Then make the cloud from the A4 card. Stick on the Bible verse. Then on the A4 paper make a sky and a hill and then carefully add the eleven disciples and the cloud.

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How to make a light party lantern

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All you need for the Weaving Craft

How to make

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