Autumn crafting...and a giveaway!

Here is the latest craftalong project from The Children's Year by Cooper,Fynes-Clinton, and Rowling. This is project # 55 on Page 71, Slippers,Sock and Baby Booties. I chose to make the booties without adding the tie, but there are several variations. I used Patons Classic Wool in the colorway Lotus. This yarn is just perfect for the fall. My son wore them to the market today and got complemented on them. I see several more projects coming soon with this pattern, It even goes up to adult sizes.

I also though I would share our latest craft project we created in my little art class, Paper Plate Spider Webs!

All you need for this project is a bit of yarn, a paper plate, scissors,a glue stick, a black pipe cleaner...and glitter is optional. Just cut a slit around the edge of a paper plate every inch or so.Cut a piece of yarn about a yard long. Then tie the Yarn around the plate pulling the yarn into two of the slits you made opposite form each other, then wrap the yarn around the plate anyway you chose to make your web, wrapping to the opposite slit on the plate makes the most obvious looking web. Then tie in the back when you run out of yarn. If you want to add glitter for a dewy web sparkle, rub a glue stick on the web strands and sprinkle glitter onto the plate. Then cover the web with another paper plate and carefully shake it to coat the web as much as possible. Then shake off the access glitter. The spider was made by cutting 4 equal pieces of black pipe cleaner and folding them in half and twisting all of the pieces together in the middle. Bending one of the spiders legs onto the web helps to keep it in place. This was a fun craft for the youngest friend in class who was 3 , and fun for me as well. Little crafters will need some help with this one.

Also check out the HumbleLuna Giveaway going on at Gardenmama for a chance to win this dragon tail!

Five Little Pumpkins Craft

I found this cute craft while doing an on-line search for my Wednesday arts and crafts class.When I find the link I will post it,I am not claiming got have made this up, in fact I have seen several similar crafts on-line. All you need is construction paper, glue, markers or crayons, and Popsicle sticks. We added the curly gift ribbon to ours as vines. My class is pretty limited in time but If we had all day to do this we could have painted the fences, as it turns out we barely had time for the glue to dry.
This is a fun little craft for all ages.

Bubble Printing....

Every Wednesday afternoon I teach a little arts and crafts class for kids. This week we did bubble prints and they were so pretty I though I would share them here with you. This is my first experience with bubble printing, I have never heard of it before a few weeks ago. I know I would have used this painting technique while I was in art school. I think it is so beautiful and fun too.
All you do is mix a bit of paint( a tsp , if that) with liquid soap and a tablespoon or so of water into a dish or bowl and blow into it with a straw until the bubbles are exploding over the top of your container. Then stamp you paper over the top and the bubbles will pop leaving beautiful prints. We used acrylic paint but I am sure tempra and liquid watercolor would work just as well.
Make sure the kids you are crafting are old enough to blow, not suck into the straw. Blowing lightly works best, one little girl left craft time with a face full of purple freckles.

A Rainy Day Craft....

I wanted to share a craft that I taught to a group of little kids last week. Portland has been having an incredibly rainy spring/summer and I though we would just go ahead and celebrate it with a rainy craft.
I have seen a bazillion crafts that can be made from paper plates and I have promised myself(for the sake of not being too predictable) not to use them every week, but then I came up with this little umbrella idea and just had to try it out.

Here is what you need: paper plates,blue and brown construction paper,blue or gray yarn,glue,scissors and tape.

Cut the paper plate in half and decorate it with paint,markers or stickers. After it is decorated cut a handle shape out of brown construction paper and glue to the back of your umbrella.

Fold a long 1 inch thick strip of blue construction paper like an accordion. Draw a raindrop shape at one end and cut (this just saves time cutting out individual rain drops).

Cut the yarn into short varying lengths about 4-6 inches long. Glue two raindrops together with the piece of yarn in between. Make as many drops per string as you like, 1-3 work best.
Then tape the yarn to the back top edge of the umbrella and... ta da, your done. It looks kinda cute hung up in a window too!