crafts for children – Whimsical Publishing & Illustration

Marble Game – Craft for Kids! Easy!

Published on June 28, 2012June 29, 2012 by Micheline RyckmanLeave a comment

My kids actually came up with this idea – somewhere – years ago – and they still seem to make a new model every few months or so. 🙂

It is super easy and requires mostly average household items.

As you can see above you only need the following supplies;

– Marbles

– Empty kleenex box

– Scissors

– Tape and/or glue

– Construction or decorative craft paper

– Our printable PDF for numbering – click here to download >>> Numbers Printable Page

Step 1: Cut off the top of the Kleenex box as shown above.

Step 2: Cover the box with decorative/construction paper using glue or tape – shown above and below. You can actually skip this step if you already like the design on your Kleenex box. 🙂

Step 3: Cut out numbers from our free printable PDF and glue to the side of the Kleenex box as shown in the two pictures below.

Step 4: Cut various sized openings along bottom edge of box as shown. Make sure openings are large enough for a regular sized marble to fit through.

Step 5: Set the game up as shown above – grab yourself an opponent and see who scores the highest!

Happy marble gaming!

~ Micheline

Pencil Holder Craft for Kids

Published on March 15, 2012June 19, 2013 by Micheline RyckmanLeave a comment

If you are like me – you didn’t get to go on holiday to Mexico for spring break – <big sigh..>.

A home based spring break might just induce a few – “I’m boooorrreeed Mommy…” – so here’s a fun craft to fill up an hour or so. 🙂

You’ll need some ribbon of various sorts, a clean half-sized Pringles potatoe chip container, (that should fill an additional 10 minutes of time while they empty it 😉 ), and a hot glue gun (you could probably use regular white glue as well – just give it lots of drying time).

My daughter and I just used scrap ribbon and cording that we had around the house but you could certainly get fancy and buy ribbons that matched nicely. You will need to wrap the ribbons around the container and cut to size.

Starting at the bottom glue the first ribbon – make sure the ribbon is pulled tight and the edge is up against the metal rim on the bottom.

Working your way up – keep ribbons tight together and tight around – feel free to overlap or even put one kind of ribbon on top of another. Always start and end your ribbon wrap in the same place so the cut ends meet at the back.

Once you have finished applying the ribbon all the way up cut another piece to cover over the ends at the back – this makes for a tidy finish.

Voila – a master piece! If you decide that you didn’t really want a pencil holder after all then you can easily use the lid and have it as a container to hold your precious items instead.

Happy spring break, Micheline

Kid’s Paper Puppet Craft – Big Mouth Critters!

Published on February 15, 2012May 4, 2015 by Micheline Ryckman17 Comments

Over the years my kids and I, Micheline, have done so many crafts together and I’m super excited to share some of them with you here. This paper puppet style craft has always been a hit – especially with my son. He makes them over and over again just so he can create another funny creature. The best thing about this craft is that all you need is some 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper (the same size you use in your regular home printer) and some crayons or markers. The rest is kinda like folding an airplane. 🙂

Hannah and Hunter worked hard with me to create these sweet critters you see pictured here!

I hope you enjoy, Micheline 🙂

You can download the free printable PDF instructions by clicking here >>> Big Mouth Critter Craft Instructions