|
|
Craft Recipes and Tips
|
|
A lot of these recipes can be made using items found around the home. These recipes are not intended for consumption but for crafting purposes only!!! This is especially important when crafting with children.
|
|
|
|
How to make Snow Paint or Textured Snow
You need: white acrylic paint, sand and craft glue
Mix 4 parts white paint, 7 parts sand and 1 part craft glue in a cleaned jelly jar or other jar of choice.
The mixture is thick. You can increase/ decrease the thickness by adding or reducing the amount of sand in your recipe. Apply with a flat paint brush or a small spatula on your item. The paint will need to dry overnight.
This is great for giving a winter effect on your Christmas crafts. This Clay Pot Snowman is an example how the paint can be used.
How to make Textured Color Paint
Follow the instructions above for the snow paint but use colored paint instead of white paint.
|
|
|
|
How to make salt dough
You need: 2 cups of flour, 2 cups of salt, 2 Tablespoons of wallpaper paste powder and 1/2 - 3/4 cups of water.
Knead all of the ingredients in a bowl and cover. Let it sit for about 30 minutes. Afterwards knead again. It should be smooth.
Cover your baking pan with baking paper. Make the desired figures and place them on the baking pan. Let the figures rest overnight.
The next day you can bake the figures according to their thickness: For each 1/4 inch thickness you need to bake for 1 hour in a 175° oven. That means for 1 inch you need to bake for 4 hours.
Then for all thicknesses you need to continue baking:
1/2 hour at 210°
1/2 hour at 250°
and 1 hour at 300°.
You can paint your salt dough figures after baking them with water paint, acrylic paint or tempera paint. When the paint is dry, seal the figures with acrylic clear gloss sealant.
|
|
|
|
How to make dried orange and apple slices
You first need to cut your oranges and/ or apples into thin slices. Take kitchen paper towel and lay it on a microwavable plate. Arrange your slices on the paper towel and place the plate in the microwave. Set it to the lowest setting and turn it on for 15 minutes. Then turn the slices over and repeat. Continue until the pieces are dried out.
If you have a radiator, you can also lay paper toweling on the top and arrange the slices on it. Turn the pieces regularily. It will take days for them to dry but this method is cost efficient if the radiators are anyway turned on. Also this method will add also a slight apple or orange scent to the room.
|
|
|
|
Paper Mache for Small Projects
Creating paper mache projects is not only fun for the kids, but for adults as well. For small projects, wallpaper glue makes an excellent paper mache glue. It is easy to mix together (mix about 1 part wallpaper glue to 3 parts water). You do not have to use it all up right away as it keeps well for days if kept in a closed container such as a plastic bowl with lid. It is recommended to cover your working area with a plastic table cloth or a large trash bag, as it can get messy. To get started, you will need newspaper torn into strips and your wallpaper glue. Now you will need to decide what you like to do. If you would like to make a mask or maybe an Easter basket, you will need also a balloon. If you want to use, for example, a plastic butter bowl to create a paper mache bowl, you will need the butter bowl and plastic wrap. Before covering the bowl with the strips, you will first wrap the outside and the outer rim with plastic wrap, which will make removing the bowl easier once the paper mache is dry. To cover your item, take a strip of newspaper and dip it into the glue. Remove excess glue by gliding your fingers down the strip and then adhere the strip to the item. You will continue in this manner by adding more strips and overlapping them as you go. You will need about 3 layers on your item and then you will let it dry overnight. The next day, add one layer of white paper strips and let it again dry. White paper is helpful later when you want to paint the item.
Paper Maché Fish
Here you will find the finished paper maché fish (the fish from the picture above) and the instructions on how to make it.
|
|
|
|
Make your own glitter glue
You need: School glue, an empty squeeze bottle (like a glue bottle) and glitter.
Fill your empty bottle about half full with glue. You simply add glitter to the glue in the bottle in the amount you choose. You may wish to enlarge the hole on your squeeze bottle if the glitter blocks up the opening. Apply it to your project. If you would like, sprinkle glitter over the still wet glue on your project for a more glitzy look. Allow your project to then dry for around 24 hours.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Create Colored Sand - Great for Kids!
You need: Salt, street chalk in different colors, small bowls for mixing and glasses, jelly jars, mustard jars, etc.... to fill the sand in.
The first step is to fill a small bowl up with the amount of salt you need. Insert the chalk and work it around the salt in a circular motion. This will start to color the salt. A little patience is needed but the salt will start changing colors! Continue until the color is as intense as you would like it to be.
Colored Salt Project for the Summer
This craft project can be made by kids and adults.
Playdough - safe for kids in case they do put some in their mouths (but does not taste good!)
You need: 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, some water and oil
Mix the flour and salt together and add water and oil. Knead until smooth. The kids can create various figures or use a rolling pin and use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. When they are finished playing, place the dough in the bowl place the lid on it to keep fresh. It will hold for a couple of days.
If you would like the dough to harden, omit the oil.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
