Halfway Through....

I am halfway through the first group of class offerings and the kids have been terrific!  They are so creative when given a project and the freedom to run with it.  Tuesday, we made button books.  We began with an accordion folded inner page, which the kids had very different ideas for personalizing for the recipient.  Some carried a simple "I love you" message with illustrations, others were all pictures of things that remind the creator of the person they were making the gift for.  The MiMBY Girl went with strictly decorative innards.

For the first book we used antique shell buttons - a very traditional look.  Then we turned to shrinky dink paper for our next books.  Here the kids got really creative and I'm sorry that I got so involved in the project that I neglected to take pictures before they left with their books.  One child drew a great picture of her brother and another made monster covers.

We attached linen string so the button book could either hang as a pendant or as a tree ornament.  

By creating a small loop at the bottom before we laced through the button holes, the children were able to "clasp" the books closed.  This was a fun project.

Yesterday, we worked on blank card sets as gifts.  One thing I really love is having fun cards to send out as thank you notes or hope all is well messages.  I figure I can't be alone in this.  When I told the kids what we were doing, one exclaimed, "Oh no!  Not cards!"  I'm happy to say that once started on the project, he was difficult to tear away.

I had three ideas in mind.  The first was to attach black scratch art paper to white cards and let the kids play.  They loved this one, from the 4 year old who came to pick up her big sister to my 16 year old helping with the class.

The second idea I found on Pinterest.  We penciled an outline of a Christmas ornament (you can outline simply anything with this!),  used fine Sharpie markers to fill in the ornament and then erased the outline.  I was happy with how these turned out and the parents picking up chose to sit down and do one too.

The final project was string art on the cards.  They went home, but we did a star, a circle, and I had a tree prepped, but no one chose to try that.  

Cards had the kids completely engaged for the entire time they were here, aside from the cookie breaks and were a tremendous amount of fun for me!  I can't wait to see what they create next week!  The scheduled crafts are Tuesday - yarn bowls, and Thursday, gratitude ornaments.