Valentines Cards, Valentines crafts, and kids parties made easy

July 7, 2016 admin

Puppet Master – February Kids Craft Club

Chinese New Year crafts and Valentines Crafts

Chinese New Year Crafts, Valentine’s Day Crafts from the Kids Craft Club! If you’re not already in the club, there’s ten days left to subscribe for this craft package.

In China, the lunar new year will be celebrated with Chinese New Year on February 3rd. Dragon dances and lion dances are often part of Chinese New Year celebrations. Make your own dancing puppet this month with the Kids Craft Club . Just like the ones you see on parade, make your brightly coloured puppet shake and shimmy from head to tail!

Then make a ‘hearty’ Valentine’s box that will be just what you need to collect Valentines from friends and family!

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

Make Valentines Cards – It’s only a Month Away!

Yes it’s true, the next exciting kids ‘holiday’ is a mere month away. Instead of getting caught at the last minute, scribbling names onto Valentine’s cards, choose one of our Valentine Card Making kits for immediate shipping, so that your kids can work on their one of a kind Valentines well in advance of the big day! Choose ‘Critters’ or ‘Construction‘ themed cards in packages of 8 cards with matching envelopes, or 24 mini cards for the whole class.

Simple Party Planning with Themed Party Crafts

Kids Craft idea for parties - crown craft

Planning a party in winter can often seem burdensome – the Christmas holidays have just ended and are usually exhausting for parents and caregivers. Make your winter party planning a little easier by choosing one of Craft Caravan’s New party crafts. Whether you’re planning for a houseful of super heros or a palace of princesses, our party crafts will make your party a little more simple to plan, and a lot more fun for the kids!

**Your party crafts can be personalized with bright letters to spell the name of each child! Your party guests will love decorating a craft with their name on it

Crafty Idea – Message in a Bottle

Message in a Bottle craft, recycling craft

This is a fun craft idea for a special Valentine or just ‘because’, and it’s a great way to repurpose your recyclables too!

Supplies: clean jar or bottle from the recycle bin, coloured tissue paper, glue, scissors, piece of writing paper, something to write with, ribbon, sponge or cotton swab

To prepare: Make sure your jar is clean and dry before starting. Pour a small amount of glue into a shallow bowl or old plastic lid. You may want to thin the glue by mixing 2 parts glue with 1 part water, for easier application. Cut tissue into squares that measure about 5cm x 5cm (2” x 2”).

Decorate your bottle: Dip your sponge or cotton swab into glue and dab onto a small area of the bottle. Cover glue with tissue. Dab another area with more glue, and add new tissue squares. Continue covering small patches of the bottle with glue and then tissue until the bottle is entirely covered with tissue. If there are any dry corners of tissue that are not entirely stuck to the bottle, simply dab a little glue on top and press into place.

Tip: Your finished bottle doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth! You can give your bottle more texture by placing tissue onto the glued area and then pushing tissue onto itself, creating some bumps.

Write your Message: put a special message on your writing paper, roll up the paper, and tie it with a ribbon. Carefully insert the message into your bottle so that it’s possible to pull the message out again. Give your message in a bottle to someone special

Crafty Idea – Heart Book Mark

Here’s a simple craft idea that your kids can make for their favourite bookworm. Pop it in an envelope and put it in the mail as a special Valentines surprise!

Supplies: red, pink, or other construction paper, decorating supplies, scissors, glue, ribbon of any width and ~15 cm in length

Cut two medium sized hearts from the construction paper and decorate the hearts. If you’re giving the bookmark to someone, you may want to write a special message on the hearts. Once the hearts are decorated, put the end of the ribbon at the point of one heart so that it hangs down from the heart. Glue the second heart on top of the first, so it catches the end of the ribbon in place. Cut two small sized hearts and sandwich them at the end of your bookmark. You’re finished!

Card Kit Giveaway – Construction Valentines Card Making Kit

Construction Themed card making kit for kids

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

Craft Ideas for kids – February 2009

July 7, 2016 admin

Hearty Heros!

Cupid isn’t the only one who flies around making people fall in love! How about a Valentine’s fairy? Or perhaps a Valentine’s superhero? February is heart month, so help the kids spring into action with some Valentine’s inspired playtime props:

Superhero Wrist Bands:

Supplies: toilet paper roll, aluminum foil, scraps of coloured paper, fabric or ribbon, glue

Directions: Cut toilet paper roll in half cross wise, creating two small cuffs. Snip each cuff vertically, so that child will be able to slip cuff onto wrist. Cover each cuff in tin foil. Cut paper or fabric into stars, hearts, lightning bolts, or other superhero symbols (such as child’s initials) and glue onto cuffs. Let dry, and then let the games begin!

Heart Tipped Fairy Wand:

Supplies: wooden dowel or old wooden spoon, cardboard (e.g. from cereal box), red or pink paper, ribbons, packing tape, glue

Directions: Cut heart shape from cardboard. Lay dowel on heart so that one end is at the centre of the heart, making a handle coming down from tip of heart. Secure in place with packing tape. Glue ribbons to bottom of heart shape to create a ribbon fringe. Cut two identical hearts out of red or pink paper, making hearts slightly larger than cardboard heart. Cover both sides of cardboard heart with the red or pink hearts, pinching edges together to secure around cardboard heart. Let dry.

Made with Love for Valentine’s Day

Help your child create one-of-a kind unique Valentine’s Day Cards with our exclusive Valentine Card making kits . Choose a class pack of 24 mini cards for your child to give to classmates, or standard size cards (packages of 8) to send to close friends and relatives. A crafty way to make Valentine’s Day just a little more special! Check our card selection here .

Have A Laugh!

Not only is laughing a lot of fun to do, but it’s proven to be good for your heart. Your heart rate increases with laughter, and then dips below normal when you stop, giving your heart a workout. And did you know that kids laugh about twenty times as much as adults? That’s 20 giggles for every one of our chuckles. So, get a little crazy with the kids this month, and get laughing! .

Kitchen with Kids – Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

A little bit of (dark) chocolate is good for the heart, as is the fibre provided by delicious red strawberries. Try this simple Valentine’s treat with the kids! .

Strawberries, washed, but not hulled
• 2 oz semi-sweet bakers chocolate, chopped up, or chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons milk

Melt chocolate in microwave; add chopped chocolate and milk to microwave safe bowl, and heat for 30 seconds. Let stand for 30 seconds. Stir. Microwave slightly longer if necessary. When chocolate is melted, cool slightly, and dip strawberries, letting the kids hold them by the hull. Tip: if you prefer to remove the hulls before serving, use corn picks to hold the strawberries for dipping.

Simple Science- Geometry Lesson

Cut several pieces of paper into squares and circles. Can you use the pieces you have cut to make a heart? Note: Pieces can overlap. Use a heart template to make it a little easier for little ones to see what they’re striving for!

Five Minute Fun – Folding Heart Card

Make a quick Valentine card with your child by folding a piece of paper in half and cutting a heart along fold line. Open your heart and decorate with crayons, markers, stickers, and other embellishments. Let dry and then close the heart card, pop it into an envelope, and send it to someone special.

Stick to My Heart

Planning a party this month? Try playing pin the heart on the human! Draw an outline of your child, and draw a heart in the location of the real heart. Give each child a heart stick to the human. Blind fold the child, spin them once or twice, and lead them to the picture, giving them a chance to stick their heart to the picture. Get as close to the real heart as you can! If you need party crafts, check out our supply here

Kids Craft Ideas for February 2008

June 29, 2016 admin

Directions: Turn your toilet paper roll into a little man by adding googly eyes, glitter glue nose, and heart-shaped mouth. Add a hearty bow tie by gluing the points of two hearts together, just below the mouth. Add ears by folding two hearts in half, and gluing the back-side of the hearts into ear position – the hearts will fold out to create flappy ears. Punch holes in toilet roll using end of pen or pencil, and insert the pipe cleaner arms. Make hands by gluing two hearts back to back, catching the end of the arm in between. Lay the ‘feet heart’ flat and stand the Hearty Man over the point, gluing to create two feet. Finally, make hair by bundling the 5 rolled tissues, stuffing into the top of the toilet paper roll, and fanning out to make ‘bed-head’ hair.Note: Turn you little man into a super hero by cutting a heart-shaped cape, adding the crafter’s initials, and gluing the tip of the heart cape to the back of the manBefore Mass-Production Step back in time this year and make handmade Valentine’s cards. The tradition of giving Valentine’s Day cards dates way back to the Middle Ages. At that time, Valentine’s wishes were sung or read as poetry. Written letters and cards slowly replaced the spoken greetings. Hand made cards were often created using coloured paper, watercolours, inks, lace, and ribbons. Mass-produced Valentines were introduced around 1850; today there are roughly 1 billion Valentine’s cards sold every year.Word PlayNeed some catchy phrases for Valentine’s cards? Take a look at these classics (from those early 1800’s Valentine’s): “To My Valentine”
“Valentine’s Greetings”
“Happy Valentine’s Day”Want to spice it up a bit? Choose a kid-friendly theme to say it all, or be inspired by our Construction or Critters themes:“I Choo Choose You” (Train)
“You’re the Write Type” (Book)
“You’re a Hoot” (Owl, from Critters Kit)
“I Dig You” (Excavator, from Construction Kit)Five Minute Fun- Heart Shaped MessagesMake mundane tasks more fun by decorating cleaning supplies with heart-shaped labels. The kids can cut out hearts (or you can help them) to decorate and affix (with supervision) to dish detergent, laundry soap, or even the vacuum. The next time you put yourself to work, you will see their testimonials of love and smile!

February is Brought to You by the Colour….

RED does double duty this month; the Chinese New Year begins on February 7th and is celebrated with an abundance of red – Dragons, Lanterns, and red envelopes of ‘lucky money’. Valentine’s Day means hearts a plenty, and what better colour than red? Get out the red paper and the scissors, and try these fun February crafts:

Chinese New Year Lantern:

Supplies: Construction paper, scissors, tape, decorating supplies (such as crayons, markers, stickers, glitter glue, etc)

Directions: Use decorating supplies to create abstract design on your paper. Fold the paper in half length wise, and draw cutting lines that are 2 cm apart, starting at folded edge, and stopping ~ 2.5 cm from open edge. Cut along lines, making sure to stop at stop line. Unfold the paper and match short ends together, taping in place to create a lantern. Add a handle by cutting a strip of construction paper and securing with glue or tape

“Bed-Head” Hearty Man

Supplies: 5 pieces of facial tissue (folded in half and rolled up), toilet paper roll, construction paper for hearts (1 for mouth, 2 for ears, 2 for bow tie, 4 for hands, and 1 large heart for feet), googly eyes, 2 pipe cleaner pieces for arms (~ 5 cm each), glitter glue or marker, pen or pencil