Paper Mache Recycle Bin: Lettering

This is the finial entry in my Paper Mache Recycle Bin series.
Here are the others:
Paper Mache Bin: First Coat
Paper Mache Bin: Second Coat with Wide Strips of Newspaper
Paper Mache Recycle Bin: Third Coat with Small Pieces of Torn Christmas Wrapping Paper

Now for the lettering:

• Write

"Dry Recycle"

in large letters on a piece of white paper.

• Tear

small pieces of the wrapping paper you want to use for the lettering.

Dry Recycle Lettering and Wrapping Paper Pieces

Cut out the letters.

Letters Cut Out

Glue them on.

Glue Letters on the Container

As you can see, the wrapping paper I chose blends in with the background, so the words aren't clear.

Wrapping Paper Blends In

We actually liked the color of the pen I used to write the letters with. So I thought we could either reprint the letters on a new piece of paper making them thicker, so they don't need to be covered,

or
find magazine pictures in colors that might contrast the wrapping paper, tear those up, and use them to cover the letters.

In the end, I decided to use the red wrapping paper to cover the lettering and see how that works.

Lettering Covered with Red Wrapping Paper Pieces

If I had to re-choose the wrapping paper I used to cover the bin with, I'd select the less bold light blue and light green paper.

For the lettering, I'd use the silver and the red paper, so they would stand out more than they do.

That's all right. I like my bin. I've even got it filled too.

Ready to Take Out

Later, if I want, I can store it with my Christmas decorations and use it to collect the wrapping paper people are tearing off their gifts.

Simple Craft: Little House in a Watercolor Aurora Borealis

This little house could belong to one of Santa's elves and so turn into a Christmas craft, or it could simply celebrate such beautiful and unique natural phenomena we have on this earth of ours.

After looking at pictures of the aurora borealis in post cards I have from Alaska put out by Accent Alaska and in Donna Walsh Shepherd's book of Light Shows in the Night Sky Auroras, I attempted similar skies in watercolor.

Humble beginnings of four future crafts

Updates of these watercolors: 

The bottom left watercolor became: Watercolor Craft: Little Igloo Under the Northern Lights  (Dec. 16th).

The top left watercolor became: Reindeer Against the Watercolor Northern Lights Sky (Dec. 20th).

The bottom left watercolor became: Snowy Pine Trees Framing the Watercolor Aurora Borealis Sky: Paper Craft (Dec. 27th)

If you check out www.accentalaska.com and search northern lights, you'll find impressive photos of auroras so fabulous you won't want to take second look at my creative interpretations here. I myself felt like throwing them out except that the beauty of watercolor skies is that the foreground can make all the difference and complement the colors as to make attractive what at first may have seemed to have very little potential. Above, again, then is the humble beginnings of what turned out to be future crafts.

Below is the background, not pictured above, I chose for the little house in the aurora borealis craft.

Little House background

Watercolor skies are great crafts for all ages and abilities as it's all in what you do with it, and how you decide to view it.

The northern lights are so varied, that each artist has so much room to let his or her imagination run wild. Donna Walsh Shepherd's little book is rich in essential facts about this phenomenon and it is from her that I learned southern and northern lights can reflect each other. It's a book older children could read themselves. For me it's a quick read with enough detail to accurately help me understand these unique lights.

I love combining learning and crafting.

Now back to the craft.

Materials:

• 2 sheets of letter size printer paper
• 1 sheet of red construction paper
• 1 sheet of brown construction paper
• 1 sheet of yellow construction paper
• 1 cotton ball
• watercolor paints and brush
• glue
• scissors
• and a ruler if you want straight lines ( I don't always use one.)

This is a craft that I like to do a lot of estimating and playing with pieces and placement.

I've put my little house in the snow. Since I used white 8 1/2 x 11 letter size printer paper for the background, it was easy to take another sheet and to cut a wavy line about 2 inches up from the bottom for the snow.

Snow on the ground

It fits nicely along the bottom of the watercolor background.

Just place it --the snow-- on without gluing it yet.

For this craft, I like to cut out all the pieces first before gluing, so I can make adjustments as needed.

After cutting out the snow, I cut a square out of red construction paper about the size I wanted my house.

Red base of house

I tucked the square under the snow--again only placing on the background without gluing--to see if it was the size I wanted.

Next, I placed a piece of brown paper on the top of the red square and marked how large I wanted to make the triangle for the roof. 

Brown triangle roof topping the red square

Then I cut out the door from brown paper and a knob from red paper, and put them both in their place.

Door and knob

Next I chose the windows to be yellow paper to give a warm glow for the inside. I also used a brown marker to add the look of wooden frames into the panes.

Windows with marker frames

Almost finished, I cut a small rectangle out of red construction paper.

Rectangle for the chimney

and tucked it into the top of the roof.

The chimney all tucked in

Last I stretched out a small portion of a cotton ball and tucked it into the top of the chimney for the smoke rising up out of the fire in the fireplace of the cozy little house.

Smoke out of the chimney

After I was happy with the size and placement of all the pieces, I glued them all on , putting a small puddle of glue on a scrap of paper and dipping a cotton swab into the glue to run across the edges of each piece of the picture.

The order I glued the pieces on is the same as the order I used to cut them out: 1. snow, 2. red base of house, 3. triangle of the roof, 4. door and knob, 5 windows, 6. chimney, 7. smoke.

Apply glue with a cotton swab to the back edges of the snow first

Glue on pieces in the same order as they were cut out

Since all the gluing is done at once, it's easy to tuck pieces under one another as long as you leave the edges loose. That is, don't smooth all the edges down after gluing them in place. Wait until all the pieces are exactly where you want them before smoothing all edges over and sealing them down.

Leave the edges loose to easily tuck under other pieces

To  attach the chimney smoke, put the glue on the background instead of the cotton, so the cotton swab doesn't get stuck to the cotton smoke and tear it all apart.

Little House in a Watercolor Aurora Borealis Finished

Silver Bells

This is a simple little craft that once the bell and poinsettia are made to trace, children can create with them freely.

The first picture is my idea. I sketched a bell, petals in the shape of large tear drops, and leaves onto a piece of cardboard and cut them out. The cardboard shapes should stay in good condition for using in many other crafts.

From there children can do what they want. My daughter liked tracing the bell on foil and cutting them out and adding her own touches.

Our foil is rather thin, and the thicker foil may rip less easy, but the edges can be sharp. The thinner foil doesn't have as sharp edges, but carefulness is still needed.

I thought is was nice to trace the bell with a silver crayon, the petals with a red crayon, and the leaves with a green crayon. Then if the lines show after cutting out the pieces it can look like a frame.

As you may notice, I couldn't find green paper and so colored some white paper with the side of a green crayon before I traced the leaf and cut it out.

The middle of the poinsettia is a torn out circle. Tearing the paper instead of cutting out the petals and leaves might make a nice effect too. It may be a little tedious, though, for children. Even cutting 10 petals ~~ 5 petals for each poinsettia can be a little much. Help may be needed here.

Just glue all the pieces on.

Angel Hair Pasta Christmas Tree

What makes this craft a success is using a lot of glue and waiting for it to dry before coloring or painting. I used tacky glue, but the thinner Elmer's glue might work just as well, and it may be easier to dribble on a lot.

I just broke the pasta in half and in half again so that about one quarter portions of dry pasta were for the tree branches. For the bottom, I just broke some of those quarter portions in half again to make one eighth pasta pieces.

For the brown bottom, I used a non-toxic marker to color it after the glue was dry.

For the tree, I used non-toxic poster paint, and applied it with a cotton swab after the glue was dry.

Then I put drops of glue around the tree and sprinkled paper scraps for tree decorations.

It could be decorated with lines of glitter or bead chains. Your children's imaginations can make this tree much more beautiful than this picture.

Here's to the tree of dreams!

Snowing on Frosty the Snowman

I originally thought this craft could be done using hole punch scraps. Well, I didn't have any hole punch scraps, so I collected scraps from recent crafts, and cut them up a bit. It doesn't take very much. Using scraps from paper snowflakes is an idea too. I did it with all different color paper, but to make it Christmasy it could be done with green or red paper background, and all white snowflakes and snowman.

I don't like to run to the store for one craft, and this blog focuses on using what is already in the house, so I like to throw out ideas that may not always be traditional, but still can be fun and practical. Perhaps these colors are a little closer to Hanukkah colors. Frosty could be made with foil and they decorated with beads, beans or pasta, or small scraps of paper.

For young children, it may be a good idea for an adult or older child to cut out the three balls for the snowman first. After the snowman is glued on, it is easier to color with markers when the glue is dry. But markers will still work before the glue is dry whereas, crayons will be harder to deal with.

Last touch is to drop glue across the sky and sprinkle on scraps for flakes.

Happy Hanukkah!