Play and Learn Every Day

Making Bird Feeders

14:30

10 Easy Thanksgiving Crafts for Kids

13:12

Today we are lucky to have a lovely guest post from Kate over at Crafts on Sea, thanks so much for all of the Thanksgiving inspiration Kate!

Are your children looking forward to Thanksgiving? I love any excuse to get the family together
and celebrate and it’s a great idea in the build up to keep the kids busy with some fun crafts for kids.
Thankfully these Thanksgiving crafts for kids are all easy meaning that there’s less pressure on you
and both you and your family can concentrate on having a fantastic time, stress free.

Easy Thanksgiving Crafts for Kids

This paper plate turkey craft uses pom poms for a fun way to paint

I love how this paper bag turkey craft can also be used as an easy DIY puppet - why not get your kids
to put on a little show for everyone!

Ok, so strictly speaking this one is more an activity than a craft but my kids adore coloring and my
daughter got started on this free Thanksgiving coloring page for kids the moment she saw it.

This pumpkin pie craft is a great way to encourage gratefulness and thankfulness in kids - what things
would your kids write on it?

Handprint crafts make brilliant keepsakes either to keep for yourselves or give as gifts to Grandparents,
this handprint Thanksgiving turkey would look great on a card too.

Aren’t these Thanksgiving place cards super cute? I’d love it if my table was decorated with them.

The colours in these clay gratitude leaves are beautiful and I love that you could use them year after
year.

I can’t resist paper plate crafts as we always seem to have some spare and this paper plate Mayflower
Ship is great as it’s movable too!

A Thankful jar is a great activity that you can do as a family and this tutorial shows you how to make a
really pretty one.

These simple paper pumpkins would make perfect Thanksgiving decorations.

4 1/2 years old

Halloween Crafts with Paint Sticks

17:05

We have been sent some of the new Fabric Paint Sticks from Little Brian as well as their regular pack of 24 Paint Sticks (which now include day glow and metallic colours!) And as it is nearly Halloween, our task was to have fun creating some spooky Halloween clothes and crafts with the different paint sticks, and have we ever!

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First we used the Fabric Paint Sticks to decorate some plain t-shirts for Halloween. If you haven't used Paint Sticks before they are so easy to use. They're basically like a glue stick, but with paint. You simply take off the lid, twist up from the bottom and draw whatever you would like. For the Fabric Paint Sticks I put a piece of card between the layers of the t-shirts to make it a bit easier to draw on and to avoid the colours going through.

Ethan started by drawing a design for his t-shirt. Because the t-shirts that we picked up were green, we thought that a monster theme might be best. So there were lots of eyes involved and even some spooky speech bubbles.

I like to give the children complete control over creative projects like this, I do give some suggestions but ultimately they do things exactly how they would like to. So I had mentioned that this may have worked better with some brighter colours on this dark coloured t-shirt as the white has come out so well, but Ethan liked it just the way it was.

Ivy got started straight away, she knew that her design would be to cover her t-shirt with as many colourful eyes as she possibly could! Both children found using the fabric paint sticks a bit of a challenge at first, but soon learned that if they held onto the material to stretch it out (or had a bit of help to do this) then it made drawing on the fabric a bit easier. And it also helped to draw slightly bigger designs as the paint sticks are quite thick.

In the end both of their t-shirts turned out really well and they can't wait to wear them and show everyone their designs.

Next we used our Fabric Paint Sticks to decorate some plain canvas bags, perfect for collecting treats on Halloween. By now the children really had the hang of it (and maybe this thinner and lighter coloured material was also easier to draw on) so these bags really do look terrific!

After our Fabric Paint Sticks had dried, I then used the iron to set the paint into the fabric and they were ready to wear and use!

Finally we used our 24 Pack of assorted Paint Sticks to colour some pumpkins! This is great as there's no worry about doing it too early and having a pumpkin that gets all rotten after being carved and no mess to clean up!

You can colour and decorate your pumpkin any time (and with no sharp knives!) Both of the children really enjoyed doing this, but especially Ivy (4 1/2) because she was able to sit and colour however she liked with no rules or restrictions, she made a rainbow polka dot pumpkin and sat focused for ages making it just how she liked it. Ethan went for a more traditional pumpkin face, and they both look great!

We had such a great time crafting with our Paint Sticks and we would definitely do it again, it's so easy to just get them out and do a bit of painting with no mess and no brushed required. Happy Halloween!