Crafter Christine Angeli's ideas can help you keep kids' minds and hands busy. The projects that follow are easy and inexpensive to make and use items you probably already have around the house. Her projects include a quacking duck made from a plastic drinking cup, sponge and wet string; a matching wand and tiara; and a mask made from a wire hanger, knee-high stockings, junk jewelry and odds and ends. Giant Masks Materials:
Knee-high nylon stocking
Wire coat hanger
Glue
Scissors
Markers or crayons
Miscellaneous decorative items such as colored paper, rags cut into strips, yarn, fabric scraps cut into strips, junk jewelry, feathers, wiggle eyes and chenille stems
- Holding the hanger by its hook, shape it to form the mask's foundation. (A diamond shape works well. It could also be a square, a heart or a circle.) The hook will become the holder at the bottom of the mask (figure A).
- Pull a knee-high nylon over the top of the hanger to create the mask (figure B).
- Decorate as desired (figure C).
Fabric-Weave Tray Materials:
foam meat tray, any size, thoroughly cleaned
Skewer for making holes in the meat tray
3 yards of ribbon or thread
Assorted 1"-wide lengths of fabric
Optional: feathers, beads
- Punch holes in two opposite sides of a meat tray, 1" to 2" apart (figure D).
- Knot thread or ribbon at one end, and thread through the holes. Knot when completed.
- Weave fabric strips through the ribbons.
- Add bows and/or feathers if desired.
The Quacking Duck Materials:
One plastic cup, preferably yellow
1 yard of thick cotton cording
One 1" x 2" piece of sponge
Black permanent marker
Small piece of yellow felt
Glue
- Make two holes, 1" apart, at the bottom of a plastic cup.
- Use the marker to draw eyes on the cup. Make a duck's bill from the felt and glue it in place.
- String thread through the holes and knot the ends together, leaving a 3" tail on the ends (figure E).
- Using the remaining tail, tie a sponge to the string.Lightly dampen the sponge and wrap it around the top of the strings.
- Pull the sponge firmly down the string to make a quacking noise (figure F).
Musical Indian Necklace Materials:
Cardboard toilet-paper roll
1/4 cup uncooked popcorn
Ribbon or thin rope
Markers
Stapler
- Decorate a toilet-paper roll as desired with markers.
- Staple together one end of the toilet-paper roll, and add the popcorn (figure G).
- Measure string or ribbon to fit over a child's head.
- Staple the other end of the roll in the opposite direction, with string to seal the roll and finish the necklace (figure H).
Tiara and Matching Wand Materials:
Two plastic straws
4 to 6 yards colored star wire in assorted colors
4 to 6 yards curling ribbon in assorted colors
Wand - To make the wand, place the end of one straw into another by pinching and wiggling it in place.
- Cut a 2' length of star wire and push through the straws.
- Cut two to three 8" lengths of wire, and push the ends through one end of the straw to create an oval.
- Press down at the top of the oval and pinch. Add streaming ribbons (figure I).
Tiara - Measure a child's head, and cut a piece of star wire large enough to fit around. Use wire as the tiara base by forming it into a circle.
- Allow the child to wrap around extra precut lengths of colored wire as desired.
- Add curling ribbon to the back of tiara.
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