cardominecrafts-co-uk

© San Jose Library

Fun and easy kids crafts for fourth of July include a patriotic pinwheel which can be hand decorated with paint and a sponge stamp. You can print out a simple pinwheel template which can be used as a guide for cutting the paper, which you can decorate by with a star-shaped sponge dipped in red, white and blue paint.

You use the sponge as a stamp , and a gold pain pen can be used to draw in dots and curly lines for further decoration. Kids can decorate both sides of the paper, then trace the template design on the paper once it's dry, and follow some simple assembly instructions to make the pinwheel. Sparklers are another simple craft for kids to make with gold foil garlands and a wooden dowel.

© San Jose Library

With students now out of school for the summer break, kids crafts are the perfect way to keep them busy. It's useful to assemble a list of many different craft ideas since kids get bored so easily. It's even better if you can find crafts that involve recycling and re-purposing things you already have around the house.

One idea is to have kids save their bits and pieces of old crayons and then make new ones from these scraps. You just peel off the old paper and sort by color into a molding tray. Any kind of mold will do, including old ones you no longer use in the kitchen. It's fun to throw in some lighter colors like white or yellow for a swirl effect in the finished crayon. You bake them in the molding tray for 10 to 15 minutes at 150 degrees until they melt, then let them cool.

© Sids1

The original Arts and Crafts movement started in 1895, with key names in America such as Elbert Hubbard and Gustav Stickley holding exhibitions and publishing magazines that touted the movement as a way to bring art in the middle-class home. They offered customers a complete lifestyle based on the philosophy of simple design and quality materials. After World War II, the style was largely forgotten until a 1972 Princeton exhibition.
"Gustav Stickley and the American Arts and Crafts Movement", organized by the Dallas Museum of Art, is the first nationally touring exhibition to focus on the career of Stickley, one of the leading figures of the American Arts and Crafts movement. The exhibition examines Stickley's contributions to the American Arts and Crafts movement and provides new insights into the artistic, commercial, and social context of his entry into the Arts and Crafts realm.