Ahh, look at these smiling faces. Who doesn’t feel happy after crafting with friends? We took a week long camping vacation with some friends and family and these little ladies were excited to craft together. I got these cute little Pom-Pom Necklace Kits from eeBoo and they were excited to bust them open and get started.

You can find these fantastic little kits in the eeBoo shop by clicking here: Arts & Crafts eeBoo Shop

Here is what the kits look like opened up. They have everything included that you need to make the necklace.

The girls started by sorting out the pom pom balls and mixed them up with each other.

Then they started threading the pom pom balls on to the string. The kit includes easy to follow instructions.

Look how great they are turning out!

Such a fun and simple craft for the girls to make at the camp site picnic table.

(This is a sponsored post. See my disclosure policy here.)

The post Summer Day Camp | Pom Pom Necklace Kits appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

Welcome back to the second week of Summer Day Camp. This week we are featuring a round-up cereal box crafts. This week’s post is written by Finding Sanity in Our Crazy Life. You can find this week’s full post here: Finding Sanity In Our Crazy Life – Cereal Box Crafts.

Here is a little more about Gwendolyn –

Gwendolyn is a Christian Wife and Homeschooling mother. She has two children ages 10 and 15. When she isn’t blogging, she loves to read, bake, cook and come up with craft ideas with her mom and daughter. When you visit her blog you find a little bit of everything as she shows you how her family finds their sanity in their crazy day to day life.

Join us next week for another Summer Day Camp project. We love to read your comments, let us know if you have tried out a Summer Day Camp project from this year or a previous year.

Here are some links to previous Summer Day Camp Project favs!

• Sun Paper Art – have some fun in the sun creating mini masterpieces using Sun Paper and toys or flowers
• Hula Hoop Hideout – create a simple outdoor hideout using a hula hoop, sheet and pins
• Recycled Robots – use recycled containers to create unique robots

The post Summer Day Camp | Cereal Box Craft Round-up appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

T-shirt decorating is always a fun summer time craft. My kids always beg me to decorate any plain t-shirt they have. Yes, even the ones that are supposed to be school shirts. So I gave in and we headed to Dollar Tree this week to find some $1 shirts to decorate. (Have I told you how much I LOVE Dollar Tree for kid craft supplies?) So find some old t-shirts or pick up a couple new ones from the dollar store and let’s get decorating!

(This is a sponsored post. See my disclosure policy here.)

Supplies:

• T-shirts and other fabric items
• Fabric Markers
• Rolli Stamps

How To:

1. Wash your t-shirt ahead of time. Next, draw and color your t-shirt with Fabric Markers. Then accent with Rolli Stamps.

2. We also decorated socks from the dollar store.

3. When you design is finished put your shirt in the dryer on high for 2o mins. to set the ink.

4. Wear and do a fashion show with your cool new shirt!

The post How To | Decorate a Shirt appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

We are kicking off the Summer Day Camp Series with a project using Sun Paper. Creating these little masterpieces using items from around your home is easy to do. The kids will love seeing how shadows turn into art!

Supplies:

• Sun Art Paper
• Assorted Toys – Little Dolls, Tiny Cars, Tractors
• Flowers
• Plastic Letters or Letter Stickers
• Large piece of Cardboard, Tray or Box Lid
• Cutting board
• Accessible Water – Faucet or Hose

How To:

1. The best time to use Sun Paper is on an extremely bright sunny day with no wind. It will work best if the sun is at its highest point in the sky. You will get the best images that way because no large shadows will be cast off of the objects you lay on the paper.

2. Choose a piece of Sun Paper. Prepare your creation in an area where there is no direct sunlight. Lay the Sun Paper on a large piece of cardboard or on a tray (any portable flat surface).  Quickly lay out all the pieces you want onto your Sun Paper.

2. Cover your design with a cutting board or piece of cardboard. You don’t want your art to be exposed to the sun until you have it laying flat and still.

3. Carefully take your covered box lid with your Sun Paper art outside.

4. Lift off the cover and keep it absolutely still while your Sun Paper is exposed to the sun’s light. The paper starts off a medium blue color as shown below.

5. When it is finished being exposed it will be a very light blue, almost white.

6. Cover it back up and take it inside. Pull the objects off the paper and you will see a shadow of what was on the paper.

7. Rinse the entire piece of Sun Paper with water. Squeegee excess water off by running the paper between your first two fingers. Lay the wet Sun Paper on a towel to dry.

8. When the Sun Paper is completely dry it will like very dark indigo blue. Now you can frame your art or glue the art to the front of blank cards.

Join us next week for another Summer Day Camp project. We love to read your comments, let us know if you have tried out a Summer Day Camp project from this year or a previous year.

The post Summer Day Camp | Sun Paper Art appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

Summer is here and in full swing and the Summer Day Camp 2014 series is about to begin. Stay tuned for lots of fun kid based craft projects coming in the next couple weeks. And read below to check out our Day Camp Instructors!

Gwendolyn from Finding Sanity In Our Crazy Life

Gwendolyn is a Christian Wife and Homeschooling mother. She has two children ages 10 and 15. When she isn’t blogging, she loves to read, bake, cook and come up with craft ideas with her mom and daughter. When you visit her blog you find a little bit of everything as she shows you how her family finds their sanity in their crazy day to day life.

Rebecca from Finding My Blog

Rebecca shares her passions, dreams and things that work for her. From recipes to parenting escapades, the blog, like Rebecca’s life, is incomplete and taking shape as it goes.

Alanna from The Craft Nest

Hey, yes, this is me! Alanna was a Design Manager in the scrapbooking industry until the birth of her first child. She then turned freelance designer, crafter and stay-at-home mom. Her website features family and kids crafts, recipes, handmade gift ideas and advent activities.

We look forward to sharing our Day Camp Projects with you over the next couple weeks! See you soon.

(If you are a blogger and would like to be a day camp instructor shoot me an email at: alannageorge (at) alannageorge (dot) com)

The post Summer Day Camp is Arriving Next Week appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

My kids and I had so much fun creating these sock animals to slip over their water bottles. We had lots of laughs as our creations morphed into what we were hoping they would become. What little boy doesn’t want a Ninja Turtle to hold onto while taking a sip of water during T-ball. Can you believe how the blue dog turned out?

This is also a great sewing craft for kids who can handle a needle and thread. Look at how my daughter’s bunny turned out. So cute.

Instead of buying new socks, you might have a few mismatched socks you can use!

Supplies:

• Socks (ours are from Dollar Tree)
• Stuffing or Cotton Balls
• Embroidery Floss
• Sewing Needle
• Buttons
• Felt
• Ribbon
• Scissors

How To:

1. 

   Select your socks, floss and buttons.

2. 

   To create the nose or muzzle area, turn the sock inside out and place stuffing in the heel of the sock. If you want the nose area to be oblong, pinch the top of the heel to the bottom of the heel and sew together (i.e. turtle). For round nose area see below.

3. 

   If you want the nose area to be round, cut a circle of felt and sew it over the heel full of stuffing.

4. 

   After the nose area is complete, slide the sock onto your water bottle. Use embroidery floss to sew on the nose, eyes and other details you want on the face.

5. 

   To create the ears, cut a slit in the top of the sock. Ears can then flop down or you can tie a piece of embroidery floss around the bottom of each ear to make them stand up as we did with blue dog. For the bunny we used a second sock and cut it in half and sewed it onto the polka dot sock to make long floppy ears.

6. 

   Finish up your animal sock cozy by adding any extra details. Then slide it over your favorite water bottle and fill with an icy cold drink!

    

    

My Summer Day Camp series will be starting soon! Don’t forget to come back to visit and see what fun summer crafts your kids can do!

This post originally appeared on Skip To My Lou.

The post How To | Water Bottle Sock Animal Cozy appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

You’ve seen those chunky bead necklaces that cutie-patootie little girls are wearing in sweet photos? Well this post is not so much of a how to as a where to buy these necklace kits and assemble them yourself! I can no longer keep this awesome source to myself!

You saw last week when I showed those fun hair clips and accessories I made using supplies from my friends at the Sunshine Shoppe, right? Well, they also carry these beaded necklaces in kit form! Oh my gosh, I know, right! They have TONS to choose from. Assembly is really easy. Basically put them on the include fishing line and use a pliers to flatten the included crimp beads. It is so simple that trying to photograph the how to steps didn’t even make sense. So head here to see all the fun chunky necklace bead kits you can purchase: Sunshine Shoppe – DIY Chunky Necklace Kit. Get out your daughter’s favorite Matilda Jane outfit and then go and purchase a necklace kit to match. Your daughter will look more than cute in her next photo!

Make sure you visit the Sunshine Shoppe for purchasing all of your hair accessory and beading craft supplies! Tell them Alanna George | The Craft Nest sent you!

The post How To | Chunky Bead Necklace for Girls appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

The end of summer sort of got away from me and here we are in Fall already! During one of our camping trips this summer I made this keepsake ornament craft with all the kids. We were up in the Northern part of Michigan where fossil rocks are abundant, so I decided to help them make a keepsake ornament with their favorite rock, a cork and some wire.

Supplies:

• Cork
• 2 Screw Eyes
• 2 Finish Washers
• Floral Wire
• Bakers Twine

How To:

1. Screw a Screw Eye through a Finish Washer on each side of the cork.
2. Use the wire to wrap around your favorite rock or treasure and attach wire to the screw eye on the bottom of the cork.
3. Create a hanger by tying baker’s twine through the top screw eye.
4. Hang on your tree at Christmas to remember your family vacation.

The post How To | Cork Ornament Keepsake appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

Emily from The Benson Street is our Summer Day Camp Instructor this week. This is our final week of the day camp series and we have all had so much fun sharing our summer craft project ideas with all of you. Thank you so much for being a reader of my site!

A little about Emily – After graduating from college and working for a couple of years, she needed to find an outlet for her creative juices and a way to learn new things. Not only is it an outlet for her, it is motivation. Blogging helps her to get her projects done, share ideas and connect with friends.

Head over to The Benson Street and check out her full instructions for making these fun stained glass paintings. You can find the full instructions by clicking here.

Again, thanks so much for following my Summer Day Camp series!

The post Summer Day Camp | Stained Glass Painting appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

Hi everyone! My name is Cindy and I blog at Skip to my Lou. I love to blog about simple crafts, sewing, crochet and recipes. I hope you will come visit me if you are looking for more fun crafts and activities.

School is getting ready to start, but we are trying to have just a few more days of summer fun! I love a super quick activity that will keep the kids entertained. These DIY Bubble Blowers are made with items found right in your home and are sure to bring on loads of laughter! Making bubble snakes would be a great after school activity too!
Grab some dish soap, a wash cloth, a rubber band (we used a ponytail holder), an empty water bottle and a small container.

Carefully cut the bottom off of the empty water bottle. A pair of scissors works great.

Place the wash cloth over the cut off end of the bottle and secure with a rubber band.

Mix about a 1/2 of cup of water with 1/4 cup of liquid dish washing liquid in a shallow container. Dip the wash cloth covered bottle into the soap mixture. Remove and allow excess liquid to drip off.

Now let the fun begin! Remove the lid of the bottle and blow through the opening and you will create amazing bubble snakes!

The post Summer Day Camp | DIY Bubble Blowers appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.