Creating with woodsies @WBCL

So what do you do with boxes of small wooden pieces and about a zillion wooden beads? This was the challenge this week for the group at the Wells Branch Community Library and they took it on successfully. Some of the wood pieces were undrilled so we had to make our own connections to string them. In an aha! moment we just hot glued a bead to the top of the pieces and added them where we wanted them. 
They made necklaces, bracelets, key chains and just strings of items. Once the creation was complete the unpainted pieces got either a bit of color from markers or some individualization from glitter glue. As usual, this is a real family activity as everyone works together on the projects. 
The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donated or recyclable materials and imagination into great projects.
You may also want to take a look at the Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. Check the library website for detail.

Finger puppets @ WBCL

What a great project this was! Initially we were going to make presidential finger puppets to celebrate Presiden'ts day. I had a boxfull of tubes from serger thread that were donated to me last summer and home made clay from the project at school today.

This was a great combination to make these from. After the faces were constructed we added yarn for hair and put a bit of Aleen's tacky glue on the plastic to adhere the clay face to the plastic tube. we then used felt to create clothes and glue them onto the tube.

I ran out of the tubes and we tried out using old medication bottles as a base and they were great for the littler fingers of our last 2 kids. This class is truely a family class and more fun for that. Join us any Wednesday night at 6 pm for a great arts & crafts project.

f you missed the recipe for the clay, I'll share it again so that anyone who wants to make some can do that. I found it on the internet and am in love with it as you can make volumes of great colored clay for pennies!

Thanks to Susan Caplan at Suite101 for this great air dry clay. http://kidscrafts.suite101.com/article.cfm/salt_and_flour_craft_dough_recipes

Cooked Flour Dough

This is another play clay, although this one needs to be cooked.

· 1 cup flour

· 1 tablespoon salad oil

· 1 cup water

· ½ cup salt

· 2 teaspoons cream of tartar

· A few drops of food coloring or tempera paint until deep enough color is achieved

Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan and use a wooden spoon to stir over medium heat. Stir constantly. The mixture will be soupy for several minutes and then will suddenly stick together and can be stirred into a ball. When the dough thickens, remove the pan from the heat and continue stirring. Turn the hot ball of dough onto a floured surface and knead as it cools.

Making paper dragons to celebrate Chinese New Year

Brrrrr! it was cold Wednesday night but a few families still turned out for a really fun project. These paper dragons were as fierce as any I've seen with fire coming out of their snouts and a row of very sharp looking teeth. 


We used a 6" paper plate, paper towel tube and a white sandwich bag as the base, added shredded paper from the diamond cutter and tissue paper cut into strips for the embellishments.

The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donated or recyclable materials and imagination into great projects.

You may also want to take a look at the Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. Check the library website for detail

Painting Pandas @ WBCL

This was a quick and easy painting session on using the brushes to create texture, in this case fur. I ran shadow copies of a panda bear on cardstock then gave everyone a stiff natural hair brush. They were to put thick paint on the tip and drag it over the area to make it look like fur. When they finished the white areas we washed their brushes and dried them on a chamois then painted the black areas. The black fur was not as distinct as the white. A couple of the painters made the fur "fluffier" around the edges.
This gave us a chance to talk about panda bears, where we might see one and what they eat. I was able to get bamboo stalks from a neighbor so we could add a stalk or two to embellish the pages. A few even were able to position the stalk so the panda could munch on the leaves!

The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donated or recyclable materials and imagination into great projects.


You may also want to take a look at the Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. Check the library website for details.

Snowman mini-books @ WBCL

This was a fun project for all and how creative they were! We started with regular Altoids containers and a long strip of paper. I pre-cut a thick piece of blue felt for the base and gave everyone a selection of felt to make the snowman--white, black, orange--and leftover sequins from the holidays. Each person drew thier snowman then cut out the pieces and decorated them to suit. They added top hats and brooms, neckties and buttons.


On the inside we created a fold-out story book from colored legal size paper. I cut the sheets to the right height but the group had to fit corners and do all the folding to fit the cans. We had leftover funfoam snowmen to use on the book cover. The book pages can be fixed into the bottom of the can with double back tape but most were not ready and like the idea of just keeping the book in the can and writing the story. One of the girls had 4-5 pages done before they left Wednesday night.


The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donated or recyclable materials and imagination into great projects.

You may also want to take a look at the new Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. Check  the library website for details.

Recycled Egg carton birdfeeders

This great project is one I did at school with the kindergarten kids and decided to enlarge on it a little for the family arts & crafts group. We do not regularly keep paper egg cartons at the library and my supply was low but a request to the neighborhood wblistserve produced enough for this program and another besides. The project uses a TP roll that is first decorated then cut in about 1" from the bottom to form a base to glue to the lid of the egg carton. We used ribbons as hangers to thread through the holes in both ends of the carton and tied them at the center with another ribbon to use as a longer hanger. 
We added a pine cone with peanut butter and sunflower seeds to the end of the tray for the bigger birds.This was a lot of fun and we were able to discuss a little the kinds of birds that might visit. I wish a safe glue would hold the tube to styrofoam as these could be placed out in the weather but I haven't found one I'd like to use at this point. 
I have posted a list of food for feeding the birds from a fellow gardener. 


The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donated or recyclable materials and imagination into great projects.

You may also want to take a look at the new Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. Check  the library website for details.