kid craft Archives - Joanna Anastasia

kid craft

The series that’ll inspire your kid to craft and create !

September 12, 2016 / Lifestyle / 0 comment

Today I’d like to share with you my latest discovery, the new interactive Amazon Original Kids series, that’ll inspire your kid to craft and create. Because if you’re anything like me, then probably you love seeing your kids being creative and learning while playing and crafting, right? So I’ll assume, that just like me, you really appreciate series that are both educative as amusing? Oh, and also series that encourage kids to actually get up, play and do something fun, right? I thought so!

So I’m sure that you’ll love looking at your kids crafting and learning while following their favorite characters from the Creative Galaxy series, Arty and his silly side-kick Epiphany, as they travel around the galaxy to solve problems using many different forms of art. And because is a “make-along, create-along” animated art adventure, it really celebrates creative thinking through crafts, story, music, and dance! And each episode highlights a creative medium, like painting, music, sculpting, or cooking, to teach kids that art is all around us and that it exists in many different forms!

And my both my daughters and I , we are really exited for the new season, and so we decided to make one of the crafts featured in it, a tiger mask!

Now, you know I’m not about perfection, but experience, fun and creativity! So this mask isn’t perfect. But you know what, it doesn’t have to be. Because what I want my kids to learn, is that creativity is an adventure and that the process is sometimes more important then the result. And that’s exactly what they’ll learning with Creative Galaxy!

If you’d like to make the same one with your kids, you can either print out my imperfect mask or draw your own and follow the instructions, or get creative and make it in a totally different way!

What you’ll need:

Paper
Crayons
Scissors
Pipe cleaners

1. Print out our imperfect mask / or draw your own.

If you’re crafting with a toddler, help them draw some tiger stripes and a nose!

2. Let your kids color and decorate it as they want.

Remember, it’s all about experiencing the creative process, and not necessary following the instructions, so if your child wan’t its tiger mask to be purple and green why not let him?

3. Cut it out and pierce tiny holes with pipe cleaners and insert one on every edge.

4. Put them on and get ready for the all new season of creative ideas and adventures!

Now, next time it’s rainy outside and we can’t play in the garden, we’ll be right here watching our new favorite Creative Galaxy series and crafting along. And I hope you’ll join us too! And remember, the second season will be available starting this Friday, September 16!

Disclosure:I was compensated for this post. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience!

Valentines salt dough craft two ways

January 23, 2015 / Kids crafts / 1 Comment

You might not know it, but making a valentines salt dough craft is a very satisfying activity. First, the pleasure of making a toy from scratch ( littearaly ), second, playing with it’s soft texture, and third creating vimiscal valentines craft that’ll decorate you or your place :).

You see, I love to show to my daughter that we can make something lovely from nothing. I believe that it teaches her creativity and it gives her the feeling that anything is possible!

But coming back to our salt dought: it’s really fast to prepare, and so versatile! We didn’t make a big quantity, just enough for one kid to play with, so if you have more kids, or if you’d like to make a longer garland, just double this recipe.

And as you see, the creative process took us in two directions: we made one garland, and one small neckless :). I’m not saying I’ll wear it every day, but it’s a great accessory for our dressing out sessions 🙂

Here’s what you’ll need:

1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup salt
2 tablespoons warm water
3 drops of red food colouring

Mix all the dry ingredients, then add water and food colouring, and mix it really well together. Now it’s ready for your imagination 🙂

Start by cutting your shapes with a cookie cutter. This is a great toddler / kid activity, Lili was all concentrated and amused and it made her calm for more than 30 minutes (bliss).

Place your shapes on a cooking sheet , and if like me you’re planning to make a neckless or a garland, than poke little holes with a chopstick. Then bake on 350F for around 20 to 25 minutes.

Now put them on a string, hang on a window, in your kids room, or make a valentines neckless with it! You could also use them as valentines day gift tags ! Have fun :).

Potato stamped gift tags

December 14, 2014 / Kids crafts / 0 comment

In my attempt of putting the Christmas cheer in to a discusting, gray and cold morning, we made these simple, Scandinavian inspired potato stamped gift tags:). It’s such a simple craft, looks really nice and can be made even with a toddler!

Personally I love this simple black and gray palette, a bit rustic and a bit modern, but I’m pretty sure it would look great with a white cardboard and green or red paint.

Cardboard gift tags
Potato
Knife
Paint

Cut a shape of your choice from a half of a potato. We opted for a Christmas tree shape, but a star would also be nice! Now let your kid get creative and dirty :). Just remember that these potato stamped gift tags look the best when there isn’t much paint on your potato stamp! It might be difficult to explain this to a toddler, but otherwise you’ll just end up with a black stain on your gift card (what happened to us twice 😉 ).

When you’re done just write a name with a pretty pen on the othe side, and you’re done !

Fall memory keeping toddler craft

September 10, 2014 / Kids crafts / 1 Comment

Do you sometimes feel like the time is passing by too fast? I do. Of course it’s never that way when I have to make dinner, while taking care of a whining baby, and a toddler that’s dangerously bored, aka I’ll-throw-a-tantrum-any-minute-now.. It’s when we sit down to craft with my daughter, and I look at her hands, and I see that these are not baby hands anymore.

She’s growing up. Little by little, but she is. The summer dresses that I’ve bought couple of months ago seem to be suddenly too short. Her vocabulary is growing every day. She’s dressing up on her own, and finally eating with her fork :). I fell that pretty soon she’ll be going to school. She’ll have her own friends. Her life. But for now she’s still mine. I wanted to capture this moment, her chubby hands, the feeling of this fall. So this is what we’ve made.

Since I really like the contrast of colours that you get by using black cardboard, here it is again :). Of course you can use white as well. Here is what we’ve used:

big cardboard sheet

Paper

finger paint

dry leaves

glue

We started by stamping her hand on the yellow sheet of paper.

..we glued it on to the cardboard:

And then my daughter was gluing the leaves.

And here it is, our simple and really easy, fall memory keeping toddler craft:

I think think that we might be making them every year :). I plan to add them to our photo albums. Yes, I still make them. And how do you preserve your baby/ kids souvenirs ?

Giant DIY birthday card

July 25, 2014 / DIY, Kids crafts / 1 Comment

Today you can find me at Typically Simple blog where I share the tutorial for this Giant DIY birthday card, made totally by my toddler (and a tiny bit by me 😉 ).

It was so much fun to make, and it’s one of these projects that you could make equally with a toddler as with a big kid. So it’s perfect if you have more than one child ~~to entertain~~ that wants to prepare a birthday card :). And it also lets them get dirty… I don’t know how about your kids, but what I’ve learned as a mother is that a dirty kid is a happy one !

To see how to make one yourself head to Typically Simple blog !

Rainy day toddler activity : paper roll animals

June 27, 2014 / Kids crafts / 10 Comments

Even thought it’s summer, we still had couple of rainy days. I know, we could still go outside and look for snails and frogs, but somehow I didn’t really fell like it ;). Instead I took out from recycling some toilet paper rolls, paint and plastic eyes from dollar store.
And we got dirty with paint, our hands got sticky with glue, and we didn’t even notice when lunch time arrived :). If you would like to make one of these creations here is what you’ll need :

Toilet paper rolls
Paint
Glue
Plastic goggly eyes
Scissors

Start by painting paper rolls. I wanted one black, one white and two colourful, but they turned out kind of mixed. And I think it’s just fine :). My daughter wanted me to paint face on to some of them, so I did a squirrel and a dog ( or a rabbit, you choose ).

Cut stripes of paper roll for ears, and little triangles and half circles – they will make for a nose and paws:

Let your toddler glue the eyes,ears, nose and paws.

Now, are you ready for some role play ? Have fun with these ! 🙂