My children love making these and they’re a great way to use up scraps of fabric. If you don’t have fabric scraps, ask a friend who sews for scraps, you won’t be sorry. These projects require a lot of scissor work, so your little crafters might need a lot of help in the initial stages of the project. Give everyone a piece of card to work on - stiff paper or the back of a cereal box is perfect. Plot and plan your person  using fabric scraps and then cut the fabric to create your person. Then paint your fabric with glue (we water down our project glue a little bit because it makes it easier to spread on the fabric). Stick away and leave your person to dry completely. We cut them out when they are dry and use project glue to pop a skewer on the back of them - and a family of puppets has arrived!!! 

 

Go wild with a black permanent marker and draw a pile of wild and wacky flowers. Once you are done drawing them, bring out the water colours and paint your flowers in a multitude of colours. Once the paint is dry carefully cut out the flowers and use project-glue to stick a wooden skewer onto the back of your flower. Before you know it you will have a whole bunch of flowers! 

 

Using ordinary scrap paper and crayons, markers, pencils or paints. Fold your paper in half and draw an animal with the backbone along the fold. When you are finished drawing, cut out the animal but don’t cut along the backbone. You want to play with your animal and make a collection of animals. When you’re finished, pin up a piece of string and hang your animals up - an easy way to display your work, and you can still take the animals off to play with them later. 

 

I don’t know about you but there are times when we have dozens of little odd socks lying around. Pop some stuffing into the foot of your socks and use project glue and scraps of fabric, felt, wool and buttons to decorate your little horse. When you are done and the glue has dried, put a wooden spoon into the sock and tie a ribbon around the spoon handle. These are really easy to make and will be played with for months afterwards. 

 

Kids love watching things grow! This is a never-ending project on our windowsill. Start a collection of little jars and lids. Carrot and beetroot tops in a lid with a dash of water make amazing little gardens. The leaves of a pineapple placed strategically in some water in a jar can grow into the most amazing plant. Plain old bean seeds in cotton wool are amazing to watch grow. You don’t need green fingers for this sort of garden (but a magnifying glass could add to the fun)! 

 

I have never met a child who doesn’t love baking, and the quicker the results the better! Ready-made pastry is perfect for this task. Gently roll out a sheet on a floured surface and then cut out a small shape and a large shape in each – in the shape of the little tarts that you want to make. On the larger shape spread a little jam and then place the shape on top of it. With the help of an adult, pop it into a medium heat oven (180 degrees Celsius) until they are golden brown on top. Take them out of the oven and let cool, and they’ll be ready to munch in no time! 

 

We used this craft for a skateboard party and the kids all loved it. You need a couple of ice-cream sticks for decks and beads for wheels and toothpicks. Decorate your ice cream stick on the top and bottom – any wild and wacky design will do. Turn your decks over and pop a blob of project glue onto them where you want your wheel axles to go. Put the toothpicks onto the blobs of glue and leave them to dry. While you wait for the glue to dry you can select some beads (four of the same or all different). Once the glue is dry you can slide the beads onto the toothpicks – beads that fit exactly onto the toothpicks are perfect for the job. 

With acknowledgement to SPAR Savour Magazine