5 crafty things you can do with your kids during the school break

So the school break is here. I dare say, it’s not something WAHMs look forward too. Having the kids around the house more often than not just screws up your routine, your plans and what have you; or is it just me? When my kids are younger, I tend to block out any craft activities or work. I can never get anything done.You spend more time in the kitchen fixing food; the kids are alway hungry. You just fed them breakfast, and they’re already asking for snacks, you know, that sort of things. 

I for one tries my best not to resort to tv and electronic gadgets to fill my kids time. So, I thought I put together some of the crafty things you can get your kids to do and do these activities with them for some family bonding time.

#1 Batu Seremban

Good old fashion hand eye coordination game. Teach them how to make their own batu seremban with scrap fabrics, some coarse sand or rice, thread and needle. Nowadays, kids play with 5 batu seremban. You don’t have to stop at a set. Make extra sets so they can give it to their friends as birthday presents or a just because present. Or they can sell them and learn commerce.

#2 Rock Painting

I personally love rock painting as much as my kids do. I get a sack of medium size flat rocks, wash them and they are ready to be painted. Use acrylic paint and unleash the creativity. I used to get smaller rocks so I can get my kids to make cute stuff like these cute strawberries and I use them as pattern weights. The kids can also give them to their teachers as paperweights. Teacher’s day is in May so it’s a good time to get started on some DIY gifts. 

#3 Perler or Hama Beads

You can get a medium sized tub of perler beads from Ikea along with the base and set your kids to make their own stuff which you can turn into a keychain like the picture below. You can look up in the internet and find patterns which the kids can follow. When my son is 10, I let him use my mini iron to heat and fused the perler beads together. For younger children, you might need to help them with fusing the perler beads.

#4 Leathercraft

You don’t need to get vegetan leather. Scrap leather or faux leather would do the same trick. I have metal stamps so my kids use them to make leather keychains for their teachers and it’s hand-stitched.

#5 Air Dry Clay

You can get them from any online crafts shops. They are reasonably priced. And they are fun to play with. I made these cute kittycats many years ago and finished them as bag charms. My daughter loves them. I like the fact that I don’t have to bake them in an oven.

OK, that’s 5 crafty things you can do with your kids. From the pictures, it is hard to deny that I had a good time myself playing with things I never get to play with when i was a kid. Try it. It’s fun to let the kid in you out and play with your own kids once in a while. Leave a comment if you have other ideas for kids crafts during the school break.

Washable Paper Fabric Review

Last week, I was googling Kraft Tex and was looking around for a local supplier. Further googling and searching led me to MayMayShop and I found that she sell a Kraft Tex substitute under the label Washable Paper Fabric. That was good enough for me plus the price was pretty reasonable.

Long story short, I just got the chance to experiment with it today. i wanted to make faux leather labels with it. I've been reading up on Kraft Tex and found that  it prints out quite well. So I called up my logo. Fitted it onto a 1" square box with rounded corners. By the way, I did all the editting on Silhouette Studio because I wanted to cut it out later.

It fed through my printer quite well. It's like thick card stock so no problem running it through the printer. I'm quite low on my ink supply so I set the print for best print out. Came out very sharp. Then I heat-set the ink by pressing it with hot iron for a few seconds.

Then I set it onto my Silhouette Portrait and cut out the squares. For my test, I only use a 4 by 6 piece and got 12 labels out of it.

I wanted to test the labels for colour steadfastness so I run it under the water. Rub the print with my finger and happy to report that the colour held up very well.

This reminds me of Levi's jeans labels. I am so loving this material and now I need to make things to put these labels on.