Last minute gift idea, Christmas baking ideas for kids, Christmas craft ideas

July 8, 2016 admin

Last Minute Gifts? Kids Craft Club Subscription!

If you need a last minute gift or stocking stuffer, hop to our website to join the Kids Craft Club! You can print a gift announcement card, roll it into a fancy scroll, and give a gift that lasts all year long! Easy for you and fun for your kids, the Kids Craft Club sparks creativity with new eco-friendly crafts every month. Join Today and call your Christmas shopping done!

December Kids Craft Club – Photo Gallery Winner

Congratulations to Ella, who is this month’s Kids Craft Club Photo Gallery Winner! Look for an extra crafty Christmas present in the mail Ella!

If your child is in the Kids Craft Club and wants to show off his or her work, send us a picture! We’ll add it to our gallery and you’ll be entered to win more great craft supplies. Simply send a picture with your child’s first name and age to Craft Caravan, subject line “Kids Craft Club Gallery”

Holiday Baking: 3 Yummy Recipes to Make with Kids

Excessive baking (& baked goods consumption!) seems to be part of our Christmas tradition, and our kids join in to help make the treats. This year our lineup includes shortbread, a new gingersnap recipe, and these yummy mini butter tarts. Find the recipes on our blog, along with tips for how the kids can do their part in the kitchen. Holiday Baking

Christmas Crafts – Ornaments and Wreaths

source: childhood101.com

We are still going full tilt with Christmas crafts, and have put together some of our favourite ideas for Christmas Ornaments here. And, if you haven’t yet hung a wreath, make your own – be inspired by these beautiful home made wreath ideas.

**Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday and a crafty New Year!**

Five Holiday Decorating Craft Ideas for Kids!

July 7, 2016 admin

Winter Memories – January Kids Craft Club

Make winter memories come alive with crafts from the Kids Craft Club! If you’re not already in the club, there’s just less than one week left to subscribe for this craft package.

There’s something magical about trees that are covered in a light dusting of snow. Can you imagine a whole forest of trees in the winter? What would it look like? Make your own winter forest collage with this month’s Kids Craft Club supplies. Then make a memory book so you can keep track of special moments all season long.

Subscribe by December 23rd to receive this craft package at the beginning of January.

Five Holiday Decorating Crafts

With mounting excitement as the kids start their winter holidays, now is the perfect time to get crafty for the holiday season! Here are five easy craft ideas to help you Deck the Halls or trim the tree!

	1. Pine cone Christmas ornament – pretend your pinecone is a mini tree: paint it green and add ribbons, pompoms, and sequins to trim it. Mount it on a piece of cardboard as a table decoration. OR – skip the paint and decorate your pinecone with sparkles and ribbons, looping a ribbon through the top to hang it on your tree
	2. Personalized doily angel craft – You’ll need one large and one small paper doily, a clothes pin, and a headshot of your child. Fold large doily in half, and then in half again. Affix to clothes pin, with point of folded doily at the top. Glue your child’s head to the top of the doily ‘dress’. Add angel wings by folding small doily in half and gluing to back of clothspin. Clip to your Christmas tree
	3.Toilet paper roll Christmas Crackers – fill several toilet paper rolls with fun surprises such as candies, sweet messages, or cute photos. Decorate a piece of paper with festive colours, or use old wrapping paper, and wrap toilet paper roll with paper, tying ribbons to close at either end. Place rolls on dinner plates for a family gathering, and open your Christmas crackers together!
	4. Christmas tree mobile craft -make tree segments by cutting pairs of paper strips, tapering strips into a Christmas tree shape. Lay bottom pieces of tree on work surface and cover with glue. String a couple of wooden beads onto a thin ribbon or string, and lay on top of bottom segments, looping back to a top star shape. Cover with matching top segments. Decorate your tree with leftover paper pieces and other decorations
	5. Finger-knit garland – all this requires is some yarn and a nimble set of fingers! Our six year old could do this independently once we got him started, but younger kids might need mom or dad to lend a helping hand with looping the yarn around. For instructions, watch our crafty girl explain it in this ‘how to’ video

Contest Winner – Thank You Card Kit

Congratulations to Jade, who won this month’s card making kit draw from our homepage! We’ll be contacting Jade by email to get shipping information for your Thank You Card making kit! You can enter next month’s draw here.

Be sure to join our Facebook page and follow our Twitter feed as well – for quick craft ideas, interesting articles, and giveaways

Kids Craft Ideas for December 2007

June 29, 2016June 29, 2016 admin

Stuff Your Stockings…

Thinking of Craft Caravan for Christmas? With every Kids Craft Club gift subscription (4,6, or 12 months), we will send the gift-giver a welcome card and Christmas craft to stuff into stockings or place under the tree. Simply indicate ‘Christmas gift’ in the comments area of the online shopping cart system.
Deck the Halls…

Decorating for Christmas moves to a whole new level with preschoolers around. Little sets of hands are always ready and willing to decorate anything and everything they can reach! The countdown to Christmas has already begun, so why not channel some of that excited energy into Christmas crafts. Homemade play-dough makes great tree ornaments, while preschool-friendly gingerbread houses are delightful displays for the table or mantle.
Play-Dough Tree Ornaments:

Supplies: Christmas cookie cutters, homemade play-dough (see recipe) or modeling clay (air-dry or baked), toothpick, paints, decorating accessories such as sparkles, ribbons, glitter, etc, family photos or old Christmas cards, wire hooks or ribbon/string.

Directions: Make play-dough according to recipe. Roll out the dough and cut shapes with cookie cutters. Place shapes on baking sheet and make a hanging hole in each, using toothpick. Bake and cool. Decorate ornaments with paints, decorating supplies, clippings of old Christmas cards, family photos. Let dry. Hang with wire or ribbon.

Play-Dough recipe:

1 cup salt

Mix Salt and Flour together. Mix water with oil. Combine all.

4 cups flour

Knead for 10 minutes. Add flour if too wet, water if too dry.

1 ½ c warm water

Roll to ¼” thick and cut shapes. Prick bottoms of shapes and place

4 Tbsp salad oil

on greased pan. Bake at 350 for ½ hr to 3 hr, depending on thickness
Milk Carton “Gingerbread” House

Supplies: Graham crackers, clean cardboard milk carton (500ml, 1L or 2L), icing, candies, spreading knife

Directions: If starting with a large milk carton, cut to about half height. Build the house by icing one side of the graham crackers and then attaching to carton. Add more icing and decorate with candies. Let icing harden.
Back to Basics

In the early days, Christmas tree ornaments were usually hand-crafted or edible. Nuts, candies, fruits, and pieces of coloured paper were the most common. Think of your tree as a blank canvas for creative little minds! String popcorn garlands or paper chains around the tree, and hang decorations made from beads, clay, paper, or anything they’ve deemed an ‘ornament’.
Jokes, Jokes, Jokes!

Mixed up words make kids giggle, so have some fun with word play this month. Classic Christmas stories and songs are even more fun when mommy or daddy get it wrong. The kids will love correcting you! Some examples

Dashing through the muck
In a one-horse open truck…

‘Twas the night before Christmas,
When all through the garage,
not a creature was stirring,
not even a porcupine
Five Minute Fun – Glitter Glue Christmas Ornaments

A piece of waxed paper and some creativity can turn glitter glue into sparkling ornaments. Draw a few easy shapes (circle, triangle, square) on regular paper and cover with waxed paper. Ask your little one to trace with glitter glue. Let dry, gently peel from waxed paper, and hang with ribbon or thread. For the really young ones, recognizable shapes might be a tall order – any ‘scribble’ will work; as long as it has one loop to string ribbon through. For older kids, encourage them to draw and then trace their own shapes. Some suggestions: Trees, stars, stockings

Tip: To make the glue flow more easily for your tot, snip off the end to make a wider opening.
Blatant Product Plug

We’re very excited about our Christmas and Seasonal card making kits , and with December just a few days away, the Christmas card lists will soon be making an appearance. Try our card making kits with your kids!

We’d love to hear about your crafts, jokes, or Five Minute Fun. Let Us Know!

Kids Craft Ideas: Five Easy Homemade Christmas Ornament Crafts for Kids

June 15, 2016June 15, 2016 admin

If you’re putting up a Christmas tree this year, put the kids in charge of decorating by crafting handmade ornaments and hanging them on the tree. Handmade ornaments also make great gifts for Grandparents and other family, especially if they involve a picture of your kids in the centre! Here are a few handmade ornament ideas:

1. Salt dough ornaments – we looked forward to making ornaments every year when I was a kid. If you’re not quite ready to put the tree up yet, this is a great way to channel the kids’ excitement into a Christmas project! Roll out the dough and cut shapes with cookie cutters. Place shapes on baking sheet and make a hanging hole in each, using toothpick. Bake and cool. Decorate ornaments with paints, decorating supplies, clippings of old Christmas cards, family photos. Let dry. Hang with wire or ribbon. Here’s the recipe:

1 cup salt, 4 cups flour, 1 ½ c warm water, 4 tbsp salad oil
Mix dry ingredients and then wet ingredients; combine all and knead for 10 minutes
Roll to ¼” thick and cut shapes. Prick bottoms, bake on greased pan at 350 for ½ hour to 3 hours, depending on thickness

2. Edible ornaments – no one likes ‘undecorating’ the tree at the end of the season, so make yours a tree that naturally becomes more sparse as the days of Christmas-ing go on! Before baking your gingerbread men and sugar cookies, use a toothpick to make a hole at the top for hanging. Popcorn garlands can be strung, and of course candy canes can be added to your tree as well.

3. Pinecones! A great natural addition to your Christmas tree. Go outside to collect pinecones, remove any dirt, debris, or snow, and let them dry if necessary (you can dry them in the oven at low temp ~200 degrees). Add small dots of glue and sprinkle with icing sugar, sugar, or sparkles if you have them. You can also roll them in glue and then put them in a brown bag or resealable bag full of sugar/sparkles and shake shake shake to decorate. Glue or tie a ribbon to the top for hanging.

4. Ribbon ornaments: if your child is ready to learn how to tie bows, use wide ribbon to tie several bows for the tree. You can also fold ribbon back and forth in a zig zag (about 1” per zig…or zag), and then pull a needle and thread through all thicknesses to make a small stack of ‘ribbon candy’

5. Bead ornaments: Candy canes are a simple beading project – all you need are some wooden beads and a pipe cleaner (chenille stem). Bend the pipe cleaner into a cane shape and slip on the beads! Icicles are just as easy – simply string 6 or 7 beads and buttons, and loop onto a tree branch.

If you have any special handmade ornament ideas that you use year after year, let us know about it!