Baby Animals- May Kids Craft Club

Spring crafts: baby animal crafts from the Kids Craft Club! If you’re not already in the club, there’s one week left to subscribe for this craft package.

If you visit a farm at this time of year, you might be lucky enough to see mama animals with their new babies. Farms aren’t the only place that baby animals are being born – this is the time of year when all sorts of animals in the wild start having babies too!

Make your own baby animals with this month’s Kids Craft Club supplies.

Subscribe by April 23rd to receive this craft package at the beginning of May.

New – Message Stickers Sold Separately!

thank you stickers, birthday stickers, anytime stickers

If your craft cupboard is already stocked full of card making papers but you’re still looking for a fun way for the kids to decorate cards, we’ve got the solution. Now you can buy our fun Message Stickers separately. They’re great for card making, making goodie bag ‘thank you‘ tags, or even to stick a ‘Happy Birthday‘ message onto a birthday boy’s or girl’s shirt or hand! Check them out here.

Earth Day Craft Tips and Ideas

Recycled Paint Brush

recycle craft idea toothbrush paintbrush

A super-simple way to give your cast offs new life – old toothbrushes make great paint brushes! Use them for dipping and spreading paint with an interesting finish, for dabbing paint on in a sponging style, or (if you’re feeling brave) for splatter and spray art. To make spray art, dip the brush in paint and then use a finger to bend bristles back, releasing them to create a spray.

Plantable Greeting Card

Our April Kids Craft Club project included a plantable card using cool seeded paper flowers — a wonderful surprise to send in the mail for Earth Day. If you missed the club project, here’s a modified version:

Supplies: card stock or construction paper, grass seeds crayons

Make and decorate a card using supplies such as card stock, tissue papers, and coloured pencils or crayons. Our example is a ‘Happy Earth Day’ card.
Once your card is complete, carefully dab some glue and sprinkle seeds into glue area. We used grass seed in this example.
Your gift recipient can either sprinkle some dirt and water onto patches of seed, or just plant entire card in the ground to make it grow!

Easter Craft Idea for Giving

Painted Strawberry Patch Pot

Easter is a great time to get together for family celebrations. If you’re like us, you probably like taking something small with you for the kiddos in the family. This year we’ve got the kids busy making the gifts –they’re planting pots with strawberries for their cousins, so the cousins can start their own little strawberry patches

You will need: Clay pot, potting soil, strawberry plant, paints (acrylic or tempura; tempura paints will wear off faster, but this probably won’t bother the kids)

Use the paints to decorate the pot. For younger kids, sponge painting is easiest, while older kids can use paintbrushes to make Easter themed paintings such as bunnies, eggs, etc.
Let your pot dry, and then paint on a protective top coat….this is optional. If you don’t do it, the paint will wear off, but then the pot can be painted again
Once your pot is complete, add some potting soil and plant the strawberry plant
Give your gift! Tip – the person who receives the gift can place their pot somewhere on top of soil – the strawberry will trail down over the summer, and start new plants in the soil.

Card Kit Giveaway – Fun Messages Sticker Set

Congratulations to Beth, who won this month’s card making kit draw from our homepage! We’ll be contacting Beth by email to get shipping information for your Message Sticker Set. 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

The November Kids Craft Club theme is hibernation, and we’ve got some great ideas to share with the kids!

Build a blanket fort or den – classic rainy (or snowy!) day activity, when we often do feel like hibernating. Sometimes these forts entertain for the entire day at our house! Add a comfy duvet or blanket floor, along with a fort door and a ‘Hibernating’ sign. The kids always get a kick out of this easy activity and all you need is chairs, blankets, and a little space. Tip: before they get started, remind the kids that whoever builds it must help take it apart too!
Make some animal masks and role play hibernation – use your Kids Craft Club package to get started. Extend your fort/den play by becoming a hibernating animal! Use craft supplies to become a tired bear, raccoon, hedgehog, or even a bat. The kids can collect food for the winter, hibernate, and wake up when someone declares that spring has arrived!
Sensory Box: make a hibernation nest – small animals that hibernate, such as hedgehogs, will build themselves nests to snuggle into for the winter. They use leaves, dried grass, and other available vegetation to build their nests. Go on a nature hunt to look for small items that might be comfortable in a nest. Add them to a shoe box or basket to make a comfy nest. This could be a bed for a small stuffed animal, or you could also search for pinecones or large seeds that could be transformed into a small hibernating animal with the help of some stick-on eyes! We found some chestnuts and turned them into little critters. Tip: extend this activity by talking about animals that hibernate in nests, and deciding what kind of animal your critters most look like. Another idea: cover your little critters with more leaves and ‘bedding’ and when it’s time for them to wake up, the kids can dig through the leaves to find them.
Do a hibernation experiment:
1. before hibernating, animals spend a lot of time eating to create excess stores of fat for insulation. Here’s a simple experiment to see how that extra layer keeps them warm: have your child wear a glove or mitten on one hand, giving that hand an ‘extra layer’. Place ice cubes in both their gloved hand, and their bare hand. Which one stays warm? Which one gets cold? Why?
2. Animals Hibernate to survive through harsh winter conditions. One of the ways they get ready for hibernation is by building a shelter or nest. Have the kids lay down and pretend they’re hibernating, without going into any extra shelter. Plug an electric fan in and point the air flow at the children. Now have the kids go into their fort or den to hibernate. Again point the fan air flow at the kids, who are now protected by the walls of the den. Do they stay warmer in the den than they did without the den? Why?
Plant a winter bulb – use winter dormancy in plants to help explain winter hibernation in animals. Bulbs, tubers, perennials and trees sit quietly over winter, and then ‘wake up’ again in the spring. Demonstrate this sleeping-waking similarity by planting bulbs. Plant your bulb in it’s ‘nest’ of dirt, keep it in a cool place over the winter, and watch for signs of it ‘waking up’ in the spring. Here’s a ‘how to’
Read some hibernation books – our top 3 picks:

Bear Snores On

By Karma Wilson

Illustrated by Jane Chapman
Time to Sleep

Written and Illustrated by Denise Fleming
Animals in Winter

By Henrietta Bancroft

kids gardening

5 Hibernation Themed Activities for Kids (okay, 6)