On a recent rainy day, my children and I made temporary window art. This activity is especially fun because kids can go as wild as they want. We used coffee filters, Play-Doh shapes (for tracing), scissors, children's washable markers, a spray bottle filled with water and our dining room window.  First, we traced the shapes we wanted from Play-Doh shapes onto the coffee filter paper. We cut out the shapes and then colored them with markers. Then we went into the kitchen, held our shapes over the sink and sprayed them with water from a spray bottle. Once the colors start "bleeding," meaning …

I realized today that the only flower left in my garden that has not been eaten by deer and has survived the heat this summer is a big cluster of black-eyed-susans. That is truly a sign that fall is around the corner. But to keep those flowers in memory, I thought of incorporating them in a kidfriendly craft project. So we made a card for my daughter's friend. All you need for this simple craft is some time outside to gather your plants (we picked ferns, the lonely black-eyed-susans and some phlox from a friend's house), a hammer, watercolor paper, card stock, parchment paper, a glue stick, a…

No excuses here! This is one of the easiest crafts ever! And we all have the needed supplies at home: wrapping paper, pencil, glue, scissors, flower pot/glass/small vase. Yes, this is all you need to create a piece of summer that will make you smile, and it is useful, too! Take your wrapping paper and cut the length first, I chose to go a little longer than pencil-length. The longer it is, the "fuzzier" your flower will be. Next, fold the paper in half lengthwise and then a second time. Now you can choose how long you want your "fuzz" to be. Cut the paper to this size.  Draw a line about the …

I remember this craft from a craft blog from years ago, and I had to re-create it since everything shiny is to my daughter's liking! I, like most people, have CDs that I burned but never used, so this is an easy up-cycle craft. You need two CDs per creature, foam sheets (I got ours at Joann Fabric, right here in Brighton), tacky glue, scissors, scrap paper and a pen.  We started by tracing around the CD onto our scrap paper and added feet, tails, fins, beaks and lips. Before we cut the shapes out of the paper, we made sure the tracing lines extended into the CD-area, as this area would secure…

I just realized that it is really just a short time until school starts! Wow, this summer has gone by quickly.  In preparation to get ready for the big day, I thought of a bookmark that will do double duty as a mini-stationary set. I usually use scrap paper to help me remember the best parts in a book, or find the areas I should reread. This bookmark will have paper and pen ready to jot down ideas, questions, quotes. You need scrap paper (to make it look pretty), ruled or graph ruled paper, small post-it-notes, scissors, glue, a stapler, some ribbon or other embellishments and a hole punch. …

I am a paper crafter and have tons of scrap paper, including a big box containing just paper strips. Those can be used for many, many projects, but this is just one of the cutest: Birds! You don't need many materials: scrap paper (cut in 1.5" strips - this width is easy to handle for little fingers), glue, decoration material (we used feathers and silk flower petals, purchased at Jo-Ann Fabrics), and, of course, googely eyes, which add character to any creature-project. We chose our strips (one for the body and one for the head) and made a circle by glueing one and to the other, overlapping a…

I have a habit of collecting empty toilet paper rolls. Just because one day I might find a craft or another use for them. This week, I challenged myself to find an easy craft to do with them and came up with bug-making. You need toilet paper rolls, paint and brushes, vellum, scissors, glitter a 2-way-glue-pen, liquid glue, googely eyes and wire.  We started out by painting the "body". While it dried, we took the vellum, folded it in half and drew the outlines of the wings on the top half paper. Now we cut it out of both halves and had our set of wings. Using a 2-way-glue-pen, we designed them…

How fun is it to build your own aquarium, stocked with the most unique fish -- that actually move? We made this craft with limited supplies and tons of fun: All we used was old cardboard, green scrap paper, acrylic paint, paintbrushes, glue, tape, a plastic string, beads and of course a googely eye. We cut our cardboard to "aquarium" size, then cut the waves on the top. After this, we mixed several blues and white to paint the water with a foam brush. I punched one hole each on the left and on the right side. While this dried, we drew and cut a fish. These, of course, were painted as well and…

Are your children treasure hunters? Do they collect sand, stones, shells and other items during your vacation? Do they need to take them home ("pleeeeeeease mommy!")? Well, I like my memorabilia, too. But instead of having a box of rocks, a bag with sand and a jar with shells, I found an idea online that inspired me to make these Memory Jars.  We took our Lake Michigan treasures (sand, rocks, shells) from years ago, jars, paper and decoration to make the tags, some string and scissors and sorted through our favorite photos.  First we filled the sand into the jars, about an inch high. We then …

I finally found a beautiful way to display all the "flowers for you, mom!" bits of nature that my daughter keeps bringing in from outside. We recently made a sun catcher showcasing a trip through our garden. It is surprisingly easy to make and we were done in a few minutes, but we will make more. I was thinking instead of flowers, for a girly look we will try glitter, paper, foamies, and for my son screws, and other mechanical finds. There are endless variations for this project! This is what we used for ours: a paper plate for the frame, clear contact paper, masking tape to hold the contact …

Here is a very easy craft, which also offers tons of entertainment should the neighbor kids come over, or your child has a summer birthday with several children attending: We used Paper Shapes purchased at Jo-Ann Fabric. To get started, we used my go-to-paint: Acrylic paints. I love them for the variety of colors, for their ability to mix into even more brilliant colors, they are easy to clean of skin, surface, and wash out of clothes easily. We painted with sponge brushes and small children's brushes. Decor has not been a big hit today, but I offered foam flowers, beads, glitter glue. And …

There is a Crabby Crab in town, and he is really, really easy to make. All you need is a plastic bowl, googly eyes, glue and eight pipe cleaners (or nine if you want to hang it on one). Start by punching a hole on the top of the bowl, then 8 more evenly spread out holes in the rim of the plate, I used a paper piercer for this and had the kids watch -- it should be done by an adult. But now it's the kids' turn: They can pull the pipe cleaners through the holes and bend them around at the top to secure them. If you decide to hang Crabby Crab from a pipe cleaner, too, then pull the cleaner …

Meet Jeffrey. He was supposed to be a "regular" wind streamer, but my daughter decided last-minute to give him a face and make him a monster friend. I love when kids think outside the box! To create this new friend (or a fun decoration piece), we used an empty oatmeal container without a lid, spray paint, a hole punch, scrap paper, scissors, glue and lots of curling ribbon. First, we spray-painted the oatmeal container. Next, we punched a hole into the top (a nail and hammer works well, too) and threaded our curling ribbon (one piece of each color) through it. We made a big knot into it on …

Are you planning a fishing trip this summer? If the weather doesn't comply, here's a craft that will make up for it: Make your own school of fish from paper plates. You need paper plates, pencil, ruler, scissors, paint, brushes, google eyes, skewer, string, scrap paper and any kind of embellishment you want. We started by cutting out a pie-shape from our plate -- this would be the fish's tail later. Then the kids colored and/or decorated their fish. Anything was allowed. We used acrylic paints because they dry quickly, mix into millions of different colors, and are easy to clean off surfaces…

It looks like rain is in the weather forecast all week, but this is a little craft that will make everyone smile - rain or shine! You need paper (I like to use double-sided paper, but wrapping paper or even ribbon work very well), scissors (if you have a paper cutter or trimmer - use it!), glue, a paper piercer or strong needle,  a medicine measuring cup (or another small circle shape) some brads, wooden skewers and some tape). Start by cutting your paper into long strips. My flowers are made of 1/2-inch strips, but I find that 1-inch works well too and is easier to manage for smaller …

For a lot of families this is a special time of the year -- while the kids can't wait to get out of school, the parents need to come up with activities throughout three long summer months. And what happens when there's a rainy day? Here is a project that is fun to do right at the beginning of the summer break, since it helps organize all those pens, pencils and markers floating around the house. All you need is an empty can, a heat gun or strong glue, paper (newspaper or gift wrap will do perfectly, too) a ruler, scissors and some embellishments to make the project pretty. Let the kids pick …