Using what is at hand sometimes creates a much better project than I expect and this week's scarecrow was no disappointment to this theory. I had corn husks and small cone coffee filters in the basket to use. We tried something new and used twist ties to secure the ends of the arms and legs and even the neck with great results at all ages. The husks formed the arms and body while the coffee filter made a great surface to draw a face and stuff with a bit of paper for form. we tied them over the top of the body with yarn then added paper shred for "hair" and a straw hat. This scarecrow probably won't scare any crows but they were really cute.
Much more colorful than nature is how our leaf painting project evolved. We used wooden leaf shapes to create our leaves then a pallete of colors to bring on the fall flavor. We tried to keep the leaves seperated a bit so the colors would not run but not everyone is bothered by colors running together. I am not sure what trees our leaves might come from but they are far more colorful than we are seeing locally.
What fun! We used heavy colored paper for these hats instead of brown crafts paper as we had it on the shelf from a donation. I cut the squares about 24" on a side and handed them out to everyone. We used a disposable bowl as a form instead of the kids' heads so they could make the crown of the hat. Once the paper is crimped around the bowl just add masking tape or scotch tape to keep it in shape.
We then used markers and crayons to decorate the hats and tried them on. They were offered yarn but it just didn't appeal tonight. Most of them altered the outer edge of the hats--sometimes smaller or fringed.
I love to do an end of the summer project using shells and it is always popular and really creative. This time the group was a bit younger than before but rose to the challenge. I let the group know up front that the glue gun was a parent operated devise for the kids under 9 ( almost the whole group) but the kids and parents should work together to create creatures or frames decorated with shells.
We recieved some 4x6" mats in a donation and put them out along with some red/yellow 5x5" ones left from another project. Almost everyone chose to decorate the frames and really got into it. They did not hesitate to create creatures on their frames thought adding tiny shells and eyes as needed. This is going to be on many 'fridge doors this week.
Using what is at hand sometimes creates a much better project than I expect and this week's scarecrow was no disappointment to this theory. I had corn husks and small cone coffee filters in the basket to use. We tried something new and used twist ties to secure the ends of the arms and legs and even the neck with great results at all ages. The husks formed the arms and body while the coffee filter made a great surface to draw a face and stuff with a bit of paper for form. we tied them over the top of the body with yarn then added paper shred for "hair" and a straw hat. This scarecrow probably won't scare any crows but they were really cute.
