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Craft city

The moment will come this summer when, in boredom, your children will rise against you. Occupy their hands and minds (yours too) with crafts that are worthy of display

There will come a rainy day this summer when you are stuck inside with antsy kids. Be prepared. Nothing will satisfy your kid’s creativity and make your home look better than a quick and easy craft. So we asked four crafters and artists from across Canada for a craft any kid will enjoy (and yes, they provided instructions, too).

Weaving doesn't require any special equipment, and kids will love hanging the finished product up on the wall. (Rita Van Tassel)

Yarn Ends Mini Woven Hanging

Make if you have: 2 hours to kill

It’s no mystery why young ones are natural crafters.

“Kids are really fearless. They don’t have the apprehension about a new material or a new technique, they just go for it,” says Rita Van Tassel, manager of the Lunenburg Makery, a crafting space in Lunenburg, N.S.

“Weaving is a traditional craft that people of various cultures across the globe have been practising for centuries. The beauty of it is that you don’t need any fancy equipment or training to make some striking textured hangings. This small-size craft is lightweight, portable and can be done as easily in the back seat of a car as it can sitting under a tree.”

Materials

Yarn leftovers or selected colours

Scrap cardboard (corrugated)

Branch or driftwood

Scissors

Ruler

Pencil

Instructions

Prepare the Loom

1. Cut out your loom from a piece of cardboard. Our piece is 14 centimetres by 18 cm (about 5 inches by 7 inches). Use a ruler to find the centre point on the top and bottom edges and mark it with a pencil, then measure out and mark regular intervals out from there. We marked every 1 cm for a total of 11 cm across.

Tip – You can use any size loom and make your marks closer together or farther apart, but the more strings you have the longer it’s going to take to complete.

2. Use your scissors to cut a small slit in the cardboard at each of your marks.

3. The yarn you wrap around the loom and weave the rest of your strings on is called the warp. Prepare your warp by taping one end on the backside of the loom and then wrapping the yarn around the cardboard through each of the cut notches. When you get to the end, cut off your yarn and tape that end to the backside as well.

Weaving

1. The weaving can be done with just your fingers, but using a yarn needle or some kind of large-eye tool can make things much easier (and faster). We used an inexpensive metal bodkin (for threading elastics) and it worked great.

2. Basic weaving is accomplished with a very simple over/under approach. If you go over the first thread on your loom then you go under the next one, then over the next, then under, etc. When you start or finish a piece of yarn, always leave a tail approx. 5 or 6 cm long. These ends will get secured in the final steps.

3. When you get to the end of a row, just start the next one up by continuing to alternate over and under – if you finish a row going under, then you start the next one by going over.

Tip – Be careful to not pull too hard on the side end warp threads as it will cause your weaving to pinch in the middle.

4. ALWAYS be squishing and compressing your threads toward the bottom of the loom. The tighter your rows, the more stable your final piece will be.

Staggering Colours

1. To create a staircase effect and to stagger colours, don’t go all the way to the end of a row before you turn around. Stop one thread in on your warp and make this your new end point for two rows. Then stop another warp thread sooner and go for two rows, and so on.

2. Start your second colour where you want it and in the same way you did in the beginning – leave a tail and go over or under the threads below it. Go as far as the last warp thread in that row that has your first colour wrapped around it before turning around to go back. Both your colours should share that thread.

3. Continue working your way up row by row.

Tip – Some people find it easier in this technique to complete one colour and then go back and add the other, some people like working with both colours at once (two needles). Play with it and see what works for you.

Finishing Touches

1. When your loom is full, flip it over to the back and carefully cut through the centre of your warp threads.

2. Flip your loom back to the front and, working in pairs from one end of the loom, tie a double knot in the threads all the way across. Do this for the top and bottom.

3. You can now take your yarn needle and use it to tuck your tail ends through some of the woven rows on the backside. Trim any excess.

4. Use the ends of the tied yarn to now tie onto whatever branch or rod you want to use to suspend your hanging from. Get creative by adding an additional piece of yarn or string as a hanger or pom poms.

5. Hang on the wall and admire.


Have some paper and five minutes to kill? You've got what you need to help your kids make origami jellyfish.

Origami Jellyfish

Make if you have: 5 minutes to kill

According to Joseph Wu, a Vancouver-based origami artist, the key to crafting with kids is to build the activity around something they care about. Origami, he says, is well suited to the task since it’s “so open-ended.”

To wit: this ocean-inspired folding craft (who doesn’t love a jellyfish?).

“This one’s fun because it allows kids to use a destructive technique, crumpling, to create something beautiful,” Wu says. “Precision is not required, so younger children can participate. Hung from a thread or string, these can make lovely decorations.”

Materials

Sheets of paper (8-1/2 by 11 in) that will hold a crease

Instructions

1. Put your finger in the centre of a piece of paper. Crumple the paper up toward your finger, pressing tightly. Do not twist.

2. Reverse the paper inside out and again squeeze tightly. Repeat twice.

3. Hold the closed end in your fist. With your free hand fold the paper out and push it down over your fist.

4. Take the paper out and squeeze it. Holding the bottom in your fist, spread the top of the paper open. Squeeze it open and down, creating the circular top of the jelly.

5. Turn the paper over and open up the bottom slightly to create the tentacles of the jelly.


This sun printing craft from Arounna Khounnoraj combines art and science. (Arounna Khounnoraj)

Sun printing

Make it if you have: 1 hour to kill (Less if the sun is shining strong)

The worst mistake people make when they’re trying to get kids excited about crafting is also the most common, according to Arounna Khounnoraj, a multidisciplinary artist in Toronto and co-founder of Bookhou, a company that features handmade and small production pieces.

“People sort of dumb projects down and don’t feel that the kids have the capability of doing more,” says Khounnoraj, who recommends sun printing – using a special dye and sunlight to develop images on cloth – for all levels of experience.

“This is a great project to do with kids because there is no specific skill that is required and it’s fun for them to go outside to forage for plants and planning and to watch how the sun creates the negative image, so it’s a bit of science and art,” she says.

Materials

Jacquard SolarFast dye

Jacquard SolarFast wash

Foam roller or brush

Palette or disposable plate

Packing tape

Wood or cardboard

Objects to solar print (we used botanical objects found outside such as sprigs, leaves and branches)

Cotton fabric (should be prewashed to remove any shrinking)

Instructions

1. Take your cloth and tape the edges to a hard surface such as a piece of wood or cardboard.

2. Pour the solarfast dye onto a palette or disposable plate and use the foam roller to apply it evenly across the surface of the cloth. While the dye is still wet, lay out your botanical objects. Try to choose objects that are not too thick.

3. Allow the objects to sit on the cloth for about 30 minutes in bright sunlight until the fabric darkens, you will notice the treated cloth slowly change colour before your eyes.

4. After the fabric darkens, remove the botanical objects and remove the tape from the cloth and soak in a sink with hot water with a few capfuls of the solarfast wash. Agitate the fabric in the water till the cloth feels clean. Hang to dry and iron if needed.


Paper, scissors, drawing tools and imagination are all kids need to create a Paper Accordion City. (Annyen Lam)


Paper Accordion City

Make if you have: 40 minutes to kill

“Kids are so open and expressive. There’s so little overthinking that goes into the process,” says Annyen Lam, a Toronto-based artist, of crafting with kids.

“This simple project is based on the accordion fold, also known as the zigzag fold. Kids can creatively interpret the colours, lights and textures in a cityscape to make a mini-paper city of their own,” she says. “They also have the opportunity to explore patterning, linework and bold colour combinations through a variety of drawing media.”

Materials

Large sheet of paper or bristol board

Scissors

Drawing tools (such as crayons, pencil crayons, markers, gel pens, pastels)

Instructions

1. Cut a wide strip of paper. Fold your strip in half, then into quarters and eighths (if possible); this will give you the crease marks for an even accordion fold. Briefly unfold your strip, then refold one crease at a time, alternating between mountain and valley folds.

2. With scissors, cut building shapes on the top end of your accordion. Cut an upside-down “V” for a roof and thick rectangular shapes to make a building silhouette.

3. Decorate your paper city, colouring as much of it as possible. Explore a colourful palette and make patterns of windows, roofs, doors and lights.