Kanzashi Flower: Basic Bottoms Up
For our Friday DIY, I decided to highlight kanzashi flowers again. This time, we turned the flower up side down to showcase the beauty of the bottom of the classic flower. Part of the reason why I like using this particular technique to make these flowers, is that if you pay attention as you are…
Slime Galore: Clear Slime
So I have mixed feelings about clear slime. I like the idea of it and even though in some ways it is easier to make then other slime, it does take several days to get rid of the bubbles in order to make it crystal clear.
Slime Galore: Magnetic Slime
Oh what can I say about magnetic slime? I first came across it about 3 years ago. I loved the idea of it so we made some in one of our classes. As you can guess, the kiddos loved it. I have not made it since then. Not because I feel strongly against it. But…
Slime Galore: Fluffy Slime
So I admit that I have been trying to stay away from the world of slime. We teach kids from 3.5 to 12 years of age and in the last coupla years as slime-mania has grown, I made the conscious decision not to do a single class on that subject. Yes, we have had students…
PLC Piggie: DIY Kit
Welcome to our first DIY Friday. Every week moving forward, we will highlight a fun DIY. For our inaugural week, we are showing you one of our most loved crafts: Paper Lantern Creatures: Piggie. This is an activity I designed for my after school students. Beyond the adorable nature of the creatures, they can also…
Hand Sewing Project: Chinese New Year Activity
This project ended up being one of my favorite ever as well as for the 2017 / 2018 school year. It was for the Craft Market class, ages 5 and 6. The activity was for Chinese New Year so it had to be dog related. I knew based on previous activities that students would enjoy…
Mad Hatter Tea Party: Part 2
So it took me a while to finally post the pix from the tea party we hosted on 6/22/18. Apologies for that. Overall, the activity and tea party went well. We had over 60 guests. It is always nice to see both parents at event and several students had both. The students had fun decorating…
Kanzashi Sunflower: A DIY
What I like about the tsumami kanzashi technique, is that you can make different types of flowers using the basic technique. For this DIY, I decided to showcase sunflowers. Beyond the classic yellow color, I decided to experiment with a few other colors: white and pink. I also used pearls instead of Swarovski crystals for…
2018 Mad Hatter Tea Party: Part 1
A few years ago I had just started working at one of my schools and worked with the kiddos on a Mad Hatter Tea Party. The following year the Director of Afterschool Programs asked me to work with her to produce the Alice in Wonderland Tea Party that the school runs for all incoming Kindergartners.…
Kanzashi Basic Flower
I first learned about tsunami kanzashi in 2011. I believe I was on Etsy the first time I saw the flowers and fell in love with the idea of them. So what is tsumami kanzashi? Tsumami kanzashi is a centuries old technique from Japan. It is said they were first used during the Jomon Period.…