Easy Homemade Crafts
"The life so short, the crafts so long to learn." Geoffrey Chaucer.
I agree with the writer. It does take a lot of prolonged hours of practice to hone a particular talent to perfection. But, amazingly the beauty of easy homemade crafts is that all and sundry can learn to do it in a jiffy. Believe me it is that simple. So, check out the following easy handicrafts and see the gleams of admiration appear in the eyes of friends and family, as you slowly emerge as the art and craft queen.
Easy Crafts to Make for Parties
Instead of spending money on decorative party accessories, here are a few things you can do on your own and yet stand out.
A Flower Basket Collage
It doesn't really get simpler than this. Just choose a flat woven basket for yourself. See to it that it has a wide base and the rims are not more than 2 inches in height. Now, place about five or six empty containers such as old jam bottles, beakers or even glasses on it. Next, take six or eight different types of flowers and foliage in bundles, one type for each container. Now, slowly place each kind of foliage in the separate jars and do not commingle them with the other types as they look nicer in clusters. However, make sure that they form a canopy covering the base and the bottles below. So, spread the clusters out a little bit. If you notice that the containers can still be seen from the sides, given their height, arrange some ornamental ferns and dry hay on the inner edge of the basket, just above the rim. Voila! Your collage of variant flowers is ready and believe me they make for beautiful Thanksgiving centerpieces or even for other purposes for that matter.
Foliated Ice Bowl
This makes for not only an ornate serving trough, but lessens the load of washing up after a party! Here's how you go about making this bowl. Make sure you start making it at least 24 hours in advance.
Choose two freeze-proof glass bowls, one a little smaller in diameter than the other and which when placed inside the bigger one leaves about a space of at least one inch between the two walls and rims of the bowls. Now place a big flower, like a sunflower at the base of the big bowl and then place a smaller bowl on it, in a manner that the flower gets sandwiched between the two bases. You can also place a few other herbs, dry fruits or even smaller, more colorful flowers around the larger flower. After you have put the smaller bowl in place, just fill the gap with chilled water. See to it that the water level makes it only halfway between the two bowls and now let this arrangement stand in the freezer overnight. In the morning, push vibrantly colored flowers, nuts, herbs, fern and even shrimp into the top empty area between the two bowls and fill it with more cold water, just enough to cover your embellishments. Return it to the freezer. Just before the party, take it out of the chiller and fill some tepid water to loosen the small bowl on top and similarly, slowly remove the bowl at the bottom as well. Keep the molded bowl in the freezer again before you use it. They make for excellent fruit salad serving dishes! Take care and do not serve salty dishes on it as salt melts ice faster.
Easy Crafts to Make for Gifts
"The greatness of a craft consists firstly in how it brings comradeship to men." Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
Need I say more as to why you should hand-make your gifts for your loved ones? Here are some stuff that you can opt for, instead of clichd, commercialized presents.
Bottle Full of Joy
For this, you can choose an old empty alcohol bottle that is transparent and long-necked. Make sure they are clean and dry and then use translucent glass paints to color the bottle in any shade you like. Let it dry overnight. Choose either a photograph, or a picture of something that has great meaning for the one you are making the gift for, like may be a guitar for a guitarist friend or a printed quote from a magazine for someone who collects quotations. Then tear out the edges so that only the silhouette of the main object remains. Do not cut it, otherwise that ragged, abstract look will be lost. Stick it on the surface of the bottle. You can even use small mirrors to cover up the entire broad surface of the bottle or make small patchy sequined designs on the outer layer and then fill the bottle with white colored pebbles. Use clay threads to make designs on the bottle and then make indentations and grooves on them to get that three-dimensional look. You can even use beads or sequins on the clay when still soft. Allow it to dry completely. Then color the clay with silver, golden or copper fabric paint. When the paint dries up, you can make anything out of the bottle like a lampshade holder or a candelabrum or even an incense sticks holder. You can even use it for a vase or a photograph stand by sticking a split twig or thin bamboo stick on the cork of the bottle.
Jarred Brownie Mix
Here's an idea that is not only easy but very tasty as well. Yes, you can gift this to a friend on any occasion or just like that and see her smacking away her lips to glory. Take a simple air-tight glass jar, uniform in diameter with a wide opening. Now combine a cup of flour, 1 tsp. of baking soda and 1 tsp. of salt and place it as the first layer at the base of the jar. Now make layers of 1 cup of brown sugar, cup baking cocoa (unsweetened), a cup each of semi-sweet chocolate chips and vanilla chips, cups of white sugar and a cup of chopped walnuts one on top of the other. Now take a decorative piece of paper and write: "Mix all the ingredients in the bottle. Then add 3 beaten eggs, a cup vegetable oil, and a dash of vanilla extract. Blend all the ingredients well to make a uniform mixture. Now bake for 35 minutes at 350 degrees centigrade in a well-greased pan". Place this instruction card on top of the walnut layer. Now place the lid on the bottle, cover it with a decorative piece of cloth and tie it up with some twisted jute strings or even ribbon swirls if you like. Your friendship brownie mix is ready to be gifted away.
Easy Homemade Crafts for Kids
You can always employ children with fun homemade crafts for kids. In order to keep them away from trouble and unscrupulous activities, fill up your child's head with these super easy kids' crafts to keep that empty head from becoming a devil's workshop.
Paper Lanterns
Get a solid colored construction paper (12"x 18") and help your kid to fold it into half, length wise, in order to get a rectangle. Now using a ruler, draw a 2-inch wide margin along the broader rim of the paper. Remember to do so on the open side and not the folded spine of the paper. Now cut equal strips on the paper at 90 degrees with the margin. Do not cut through the margin. Make colorful designs and motifs with sequins or paints as per your wish on the margin. After it has dried, unfold the paper and staple the two top and bottom edges together so that the entire thing looks like a round cylinder. Make a separate strip of paper and staple it on two ends on top to make it into a handle. Use it to cover bulbs to make them look like colorful, decorative lampshades. You can add tassels on the lower rim of the cylinder to make it more festive. A really easy paper craft for your kid to make.
Map of Lentils
Here's an easy albeit a little time-consuming kids' art, that will also help your kids to learn the names of all the states of his country, in a fun yet permanent way.
First, provide your kid with different colored lentils, pulses and rice grains in separate small bowls. Then ask him to draw a large outline of the map of your country, replete with each internal state boundary. Now help your kid to stick same colored grains onto the space of a single state, with a good quality adhesive. But use a single different colored grain to mark the position of the state capital. Also use black colored beluga lentils to make the borders of the country as well as the states, to make them more well-defined and prominent. Use different colored grains for each of the states and you shall have the names of all states and their capitals at your child's fingertips. One of the best easy-to-make crafts and very academically useful as well!
Potpourri for Bath-times
This craft is the easiest thing to make and it will be able to lure young one to take a bath without any ado at all! You need the simplest of things for this creation. You need to have a brightly colored and patterned organza pouch (a muslin one would also do), a bright red ribbon, and an assortment of dry herbs. Now, these herbs should be of the variety that have soothing effects on people. Check the list below to find out which ones fit the bill.
Herbs that act as deodorants...
- Basil
- Lovage
- Sage
- Thyme
- Chamomile
- Clary sage
- Frankincense
- Lavender
- Lemon grass
- Marjoram
- Mint
- Rosemary
- Ylang ylang
- Bay
- Bergamot
- Hyssop
- Meadowsweet
- Muira puama
- Schisandra
So, there you have it. Seven nice and easy homemade crafts, that will not only fill up your time constructively but will also help you to spend some quality time with your children. Enjoy!
