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Fun Craft Ideas

This magical bean mosaic is a wonderful activity for kids and adults to do together.

Tools and Materials

Pencil, Canvas boards, Small paintbrush, Craft glue, Dried beans, Ruler

Magical Beans Mosaic How-To

Start by drawing a pattern in pencil on your canvas board. You can create geometric designs, a still life, or even a portrait in dried beans -- think of it as a color-by-numbers painting.

"Paint" a thin layer of glue in one area of your pattern, and sprinkle the area with colorful beans. Use a single color in each area.

Use the ruler to tidy up the edges of the beans before moving on to the next area.

Repeat steps 1 through 3 until the board is covered. Let dry for 1 hour.

Shell Creatures

Sea creatures are notoriously shy, but the ones you see here came out of their shells (so to speak) to tell you their stories. These koalas find the climate in the northern hemisphere too clammy for their taste. A eucalyptus tree of two long razor clams decorated with ring-topped cowries helps them feel at home. The baby rabbit's mini-mussel ears perked right up when his mom served him this shell-carrot dinner on a sea-biscuit plate. To make these and other shell creatures, follow our how-to below.

Tools and Materials

Shells of many colors and sizes, Seed beads, Polymer clay, Craft glue, Paint brush

Shell Animal How-To

Collect shells -- ordinary or unusual -- at the seashore or from gift shops.

Experiment with different combinations to come up with a shape before gluing everything in place. Use small cushions of polymer clay to test out various arrangements.

Build heads and bodies separately, gluing on small features such as noses, eyes, ears, or paws before joining larger parts. Bivalve shells, such as clams or scallops, are hinged; glue the edges together to form stout bodies. Seed beads make bright eyes.

For small parts, apply glue with a brush. Use polymer clay to support the creatures while the glue is drying.

Rock Frog

These frogs are up to no good. They're trying to look nonchalant, but as anyone can see, their heavy-lidded eyes are ready to pop open at the prospect of a fly lunch. Help kids create these frogs and other favorite animals using our technique.

Rock Frog How-To

Glue rocks together before painting them, attaching small stone features such as eyes, feet, or beaks to body parts before joining larger parts; attach whiskers and tails after painting. Cement glue makes the strongest bond but should be used only by parents working in a well-ventilated area. (Kid-friendly glues are less durable and are best for rock crafts that will sit on shelves.)

Kids can design a project by arranging rocks until the figure looks right. Use little cushions of nondrying clay to support parts while the glue sets; bread clay works especially well.

You can use either tempera or acrylic paint, but remember that before painting, kids should sketch out their plan: It's easier to envision what the finished project will look like if they draw it first with pencil on paper.

Clay Necklaces and Bracelets

These pendants make heartfelt adornments. The small hearts and circles can be shaped by hand; use a cookie cutter for bigger hearts. Poke the holes with a toothpick, and string with a silk cord.

Try clear cord for threading beads into bracelets and use colored string for securing rings and buttons.

Making Beads

There's no finer jewelry for summer than a string of colorful beads. When you make the beads yourself, they're sure to look especially pretty. A mixture of white bread, glue, and a few drops of lemon juice makes a perfect clay that can be colored with acrylic or tempera paint mixed right in. We used mini cutters and drinking straws to cut out some beads and shaped others with our fingers. Since the beads are air-dried, not baked, there's no oven heat to contend with on hot days. String finished beads with beading wire, waxed twine, or dental floss.

Beads How-To

To make the clay, kids can remove crusts from 3 slices of white bread. Tear bread into small pieces, and place in a bowl. Add 3 tablespoons of white craft glue and 3 drops of lemon juice. Mix it with your hands (apply cold cream to hands first) until it forms a workable ball. Add drops of paint to get the color you like; for multicolored beads, make batches of different colors and press gently together. For flat beads, roll or pat clay into a pancake; cut with a drinking straw or mini cutters (blow the beads out of the straw or cutter to keep from mangling them, above left). Shape spherical beads by hand. Let beads dry 1 1/2 to 2 hours, then make holes: For small holes, string beads onto 18-gauge wire, and leave them there until dry. For big holes, pierce beads with a straw. Let beads dry overnight, and then string.

Button Bracelet

At long last, the sun is shining, the wind is warm, and newly bared arms are sprouting bracelets in spring colors.

Collect pretty buttons and string them on elasticized cords for stretchy bracelets to be worn or swapped. Shank buttons (with smooth faces) overlap jauntily, while standard buttons, strung through the holes in their centers, lie flat against the wrist. Create some to match every outfit.

Bracelet How-To

Cut elasticized cord long enough to wrap around the wrist twice. To make a standard-button bracelet, thread elastic through from back to front and then to the back again. For four-hole buttons, thread elastic diagonally through two holes on opposite corners.

For a shank-button bracelet, thread elastic through shanks, turning every other button upside down to overlap. Once you've strung on enough buttons to reach around the wrist, thread both ends of elastic through a metal crimp tube, available in beading shops, and squeeze tightly with pliers. Trim excess elastic.

Bottle Bank

This little piggy (bank) started off at the market as a bleach bottle. To make one, rinse an empty bottle with hot soapy water; let dry. Cut features such as eyes, ears, and nostrils from construction paper (ears should have tabs). Attach with double-sided tape, as shown. Tape patterned paper around body. Hot-glue empty thread spools on for legs. Cut a slot at the top for coins, and a hole in back to insert a pipe-cleaner tail.

Vacation Memory Jars

You can keep vacation memories a little stronger a little longer with vacation memory jars. Filled with souvenirs collected on trips and pictures developed afterward, they are like little worlds that can be visited again and again. Kids can also add to them or rearrange them anytime they like. Bent wire can be used to lower and position objects in a thin-necked jar.

Sun-Print Cards

Sunlight fades construction paper, as anyone who's hung a piece of artwork in a window has discovered. Turn this drawback to your advantage by making sun prints that use everyday objects as stencils. Flat objects create sharp outlines, while bulky ones make blurrier impressions. Untreated, the images will fade eventually, but you can protect them with a UV-resistant spray.

Cut shapes from paper, and spread restickable glue on the back, then stick them to the construction paper. Tape the paper to a sunny window, facing out, and leave for at least a week (longer for higher contrast), then peel off cutouts. You can also lay three-dimensional objects (try rickrack, toothpicks, or buttons) flat on a piece of construction paper in a sunny place where they will not be disturbed.

Nature Walk Bracelet

With treasures picked up during outdoor walks and hikes, your child can make a fashionable bracelet. As she finds interesting objects, she attaches them to tape (the sticky side is on the outside) that's been tied around her wrist. Afterward, plastic wrap will protect her new finery, which doubles as a summer keepsake.

Bracelet How-To

Cut a piece of wide masking or colorful electrical tape to fit around the wrist, plus 1/2 inch more. Wrap tape around child's wrist, tacky side up, overlapping ends to secure. Press collected items onto tape. Later, with sticky side up, fold both ends under a few times. Lay plastic wrap over sticky part of bracelet, and trim excess. With a small hole punch or needle, make a hole through ends; tie a 5-inch piece of string through each hole.

Easy Napkin Crafts

Paper napkins can be cut out with regular, pinking, or scalloping scissors to create a variety of fun shapes for kids. First make templates, then place shape on a napkin. Stack up to three napkins, and cut.

Clockwise from top left: Hearts are pretty in pink. These leaves have creases just like real ones (fold after cutting). The fish's eye is made with a hole punch. Sunny flowers are in two shades.

Bubble Wands

Blowing the perfect bubble depends on equal parts science and magic. With a few twists of wire, you can make fantastic bubble wands and spend long, lazy days practicing your technique. The best bubble solution is 10 cups water to 4 cups dish-washing liquid, plus 1 cup Karo corn syrup.

For large wands, you'll need plastic-coated wire coat hangers and either floral netting or plastic-coated chicken wire. Hold the hook at the top of the hanger, and pull the bottom down so that it forms a circle. Cut away the hook and twisted neck of the hanger with wire cutters; you should have about a 31-inch length of wire. With needle-nose pliers, twist a tiny hook into one end of the wire. Bend that end around, and hook it on the wire about 9 inches from the opposite end, forming a 7-inch-diameter circle. Squeeze the hook with pliers to fasten, and straighten the end to form a handle. Cut an 8-inch-diameter circle of floral netting. With pliers, fold the netting's edge tightly around the frame, snipping off any sharp ends.

For small wands, use 18-gauge cloth-covered wire cut to a length of 15 inches. Bend the wire into a lollipop shape, securing the end of the wire where the loop meets the handle with a dab of glue. To make a star, divide the circle into five even increments, then crimp with pliers. To make a heart, crimp only the top center of the circle. A tin can, with its top and bottom removed, also makes great bubbles -- carefully trim any sharp edges, dip one end in solution, and pull through the air to make one long bubble.