Are you hosting a whole crowd for Thanksgiving? Are you the out-of-town auntie who needs to arrive with magic tricks up your sleeves? Either way, I am a big fan of forced crafting. Seriously. While dinner is cooking or after the table has been cleared you can insist that everyone join you in making something. A few will complain, but if you are insistent you can get a good participation level. The memory of making something together will be with everyone for years; long after the memory of seeing Bolt at the multiplex fades.
What are some good crafts for the multitudes?
I like beaded snowflakes pictured above. Get out all the still-clean soup bowls from the china cabinet and fill them with 6-0 beads and other sparklies. Show Grandpa how to twist the wire on the ends to make a loop and let the kids make snowflakes nature never would. It's o.k. to make a mix of crazy colors. Hang these all in Aunt Edna's window when you take her back to the nursing home or send one home with each family to remind them how you are all alike, but different.
Try making some bottle cap magnets with a resin (Amazing Glaze or Diamond Glaze) and old magazine photos. Grab some buttons, bits of tinsel and other found objects to add the the fun, or let your family members cut up some dictionary pages to make magnets with a message. Glue a magnet on the back of the bottlecap after the resin is dry or cooled off.
Cover something with Decopatch paper...a chair or table, Uncle John's truck, whatever. This is a big project that all can help with...if you want to go the easy route try covering individual paper mache animals or buy a box of new pencils...voila! great stocking stuffers!
What are your favorite crafts for groups? Post them in the comments section..
Great ideas, Cynthia!
ReplyDeleteOne year we did mosaics on shoes: Attached the tiles on Thursday while the turkey was cooking, grouted them on Friday while eating pumpkin pie for breakfast (you know it's my favorite). There's really nothing like a pair of cement shoes around the house to make you thankful. Well, thankful that you're not wearing them.
We did decopatch pins on cardboard paper cut out in a reindeer pattern. Everyone got to choose the paper & we even glued on googly eyes. Some made magnets instead of pins and some hung the poor reindeer and had ornaments.
ReplyDeleteA couple of times I have had the guests at my childrens' birthday parties color shrink plastic. The kids loved it! I cut the shapes out in advance and they colored them with prisma color pencils. After shrinking we attached the shrink platic piece to a hook so the kids could put them on their backpacks.
ReplyDeleteHi Cynthia!
ReplyDeleteOne year I was too bored at home and I decided to do a crèche with some peculiar materials: different rolls of coloured streamers, the corks of the bottles, some round corks and glue. And it still stands on my living room every Xmas as the only decoration, as my father hates putting up the Xmas tree and we no longer have our beautiful and big crèche :)
Cheers,
Bea (Madrid, Spain)
Ps- Great idea to do mosaics on shoes! ;)