Simple Crafts

I tend to get very intense about thinking up crafts for my kids. I usually intensively research a craft, analyzing all the ways that other people have approached a specific project and then synthesizing them. Most of the projects I've done with my kids involve a link to a specific artist or theme for inspiration and the introduction of a new technique.

(Some of you may recall the three cool but complicated crafts I presented at my daughter's Egyptian-themed 4th-birthday party--an amulet, a hieroglyphic name plate, and a clay scarab beetle. Yikes; I was a nut!)

But sometimes I forget that the simpler the materials, the greater potential there is for creative freedom--and fun.

I started out this morning wanting to create a snow globe with my toddler. However, he preferred this project:



Step 1: Pour beads through funnel into jar.

Step 2: Pour beads out of jar.

Step 3: Repeat steps 1 and 2 until bored.





Step 4: Discover a shoelace with handmade beads strung on it.

Step 5: Strip off beads.

Step 6: Put beads back on shoelace.

Step 7: Repeat steps 5 and 6 until bored.







This past weekend we went to a maple festival in Vermont, and we checked out the Kids' Corner in the elementary-school art room. The kids and I sat for about an hour making small carvings out of Ivory soap. I remember carving Snoopy out of a bar of soap when I was in 4th grade, and I think that this is one of those vintage '70s crafts that needs to be revived. It's relaxing and easy, and the cleanup is simple! Plus, you end up smelling like you've just bathed, a plus when you're slogging through rural Vermont during mud season.