Using a variety of craft materials from the Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Arts and Crafts Library, these mini houses are easy to customize with your library or supplies you already have in your art kit at home. I chose traditional Halloween colors including black, orange, purple and green, but luckily the washable Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters paints come in every shade of the rainbow so you can make your haunted house to coordinate with your other fall décor.

To create your own haunted house, gather the following supplies and let’s get crafting!

Materials Needed:

• Wooden Craft Sticks
  • Included in the Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Arts + Crafts Library
• Fuzzy Sticks in various colors
  • Included in the Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Arts + Crafts Library
• Felt in various colors
  • Included in the Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Arts + Crafts Library
• Googly Eyes
  • Included in the Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Arts + Crafts Library
• Glue Dots or Hot Glue if crafting with an adult
• Scissors
• Black Marker
• Paint in colors of your choice
• Paint Brush
• Optional Materials to customize your Haunted House:
  • Wooden Beads
  • Sequins
  • Pom Poms

Instructions:

Step 1

Select 14 wooden craft sticks and paint them the color of your choice, these first 14 sticks will be the base of your haunted house.

Step 2

If you want to create the cut wooden craft stick style roof, shown in purple, place 1 wooden craft stick in between your scissor blade and hold it at an angle, cut through the wooden stick. This is the toughest part of this craft, just press slowly but firmly to cut through the stick.

Now place the angled wooden stick-on top of the next stick and cut along the same line, this will ensure your roof line aligns.

Follow these same steps until you have 14 wooden craft sticks segments cut at an angle. Feel free to cut them at different lengths for a “dripping” effect.

If you want to create the A-frame style roof, shown in green, skip this step.

Step 3

Paint 7 of the 14 cut craft sticks, then turn the remaining 7 sticks over so their angled point is opposite of the first 7 and paint them.

For the A-frame style roof, paint 8 full wooden craft sticks.

I used 2 different colors for mine, painting 4 light green and 4 dark green.

Step 4

When your first set of painted stick are dry, place 2 on your work surface vertically and 1 craft stick length apart from one another. Lay a painted craft stick on top, lining up the tips of all sticks together and glue in place.

Step 5

Continue gluing more craft sticks up the vertical sticks until you create a solid square.

Step 6

Next, it’s time to add your roof. To make the cut edge roof, start with 2 sticks, 1 with the high point on the left and 1 with the high point on the right. Glue them to the front of the square you just created, these first 2 sticks should be in the middle and create a point when the angled line up.

Continue gluing more cut wooden craft sticks next to the original 2 until the roof structure is filled across the entire square.

For the A-frame, glue 4 wooden sticks onto the front of the square you just created, be sure they are glued at a sharp angle. Then glue the other 4 on top, going the opposite direction to create a triangle where they meet.

Step 7

Add 2 more craft sticks on the backside of the roof to create a chimney, glue them next to each other to create a point like the first two roof pieces.

Step 8

Now it’s time to decorate your haunted house!  Here’s a few ideas for how you could decorate:

• Cut out shapes from felt like blobs to look like ghosts, bats, or pumpkins.
• Add curved fuzzy sticks to create a door, a tiny pom pom doorknob is a great addition!
• Cut squares from felt and draw a windowpane with a black marker, glue them to the front as windows.
• Add a spiraled fuzzy stick from the chimney to look like smoke.
• Cover the roof in googly eyes, sequins, or glitter!

The possibilities are endless to customize your haunted house, get creative!

I hope your haunted house is the perfect addition to your house this Halloween season!

Happy Halloween!

About The Author:

Fiber artist and craft enthusiast, Tessa Anderstrom, is the owner of handmade shop Studio Jane which focuses on sustainably made home décor and handmade art. As an avid DIYer with a passion for learning new skills, Tessa enjoys sharing that knowledge with crafters of all ages. 

Materials Needed:

• STEAM Fuzzy Stick Sculpture Set
• Pasta noodles with holes
• Acrylic paint
• Ziploc bags
• Parchment paper
• Cookie sheet or tray

Instructions:

Step 1

Paint your pasta! You can use any tube-shaped pasta (like ziti or rigatoni) for this project. To paint your noodles, place a handful into a plastic ziploc bag. Squirt 1-2 tablespoons of acrylic paint into the bag and zip it closed. Use your hands to gently shake the bag and rub to coat all of the noodles. Place a piece of parchment paper onto a cookie sheet or tray. Dump your pasta onto the paper and spread it out to dry for a few hours. You can make any colors you would like in your sculpture.

Step 2

Open up your Fuzzy Stick Sculpture Set. Find the paper tubes and cut several tubes into 2-3 inch pieces.  Place these pieces into your board along two opposite edges. You can place them on the outer row or move them in. Place the end of the fuzzy sticks into the paper tubes to create arches that stretch across the board.

Step 3

Remove your fuzzy sticks one at a time and place your colored pasta and/or beads to cover the length of the fuzzy stick. Once it is full of pasta/beads, place the fuzzy stick back into the straws. Work until you love the look of your sculpture! One of the great things about this set is that you can change your sculpture down the line and work with your materials to make something new. What will you make next?

Materials Needed:

• Autumn Craft Kit
• Brown paper (like a recycled paper bag)
• Red, green, orange, yellow, and pink paint
• Cardboard
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun

Instructions:

Step 1

First, you will paint the paper for your leaves. Lay your brown paper out on a flat surface. If you are using a paper grocery bag, cut along the edges and open the bag up. Next, drop small blobs of paint in each of your different fall colors all over your paper!

Step 2

Cut a long rectangle of cardboard (roughly 10 inches by 4 inches) with a straight edge. Use the cardboard to scrape the paint blobs across your paper. This will spread the paint out and blend your colors together. If your paint is still very thick after you spread, you can press a second piece of brown paper onto the paint and then gently lift it off. This will make a print and double the amount of painted paper you can use to create leaves! Next, let your paper dry completely.

Step 3

Once your paint has dried, cut your paper into leaf shapes. I like to have a few different sizes of leaves and chose to do a simple shape. If you want, you can cut your leaves into more complex shapes or keep them all the same size.

Step 4

Next, cut a donut shape out of cardboard to be the base of your wreath. You want the cardboard to be about 2-3 inches thick. The hole in the center can be any size you like. This does not have to be a perfect circle - it will all be covered up!

Step 5

Use your hot glue gun to glue leaves all around the cardboard donut. I began with a layer of the larger leaves and then added additional leaves where they were needed to make the wreath look full. Trim or fold over sections of leaves that are too long.

Step 6

Take a pipe cleaner from the Autumn Craft Kit and bend it into a hook shape. Use your glue gun to glue this to the back of the wreath as a hanger.

Step 7

Decorate your wreath using items from your Autumn Craft Kit! We glued one of the large felt leaves onto ours and used the gold paper tubes to spell the word “FALL”. Pom Poms, beads, and sequins look great arranged in a ring around the center of your wreath. Have fun with the materials in your kit and decorate as much or as little as you’d like!

We hope this fun fall project brings you as much joy as it did for us!

Emily Limer is a mom of three and teacher from North Carolina. She loves getting creative with her kids - at home and school - and has a passion for creating with recycled materials!

Luckily, there are lots of ways to celebrate National Dog Day. You could do something huge like adopt a dog from your local shelter or rescue, but also something fun and simple like make a craft in their honor!

With that said, here is a fun suggestion for making a dog craft to honor the pup in your life. For this craft, we combined our general love for pups with one of our favorite movies. The character Slinky Dog (better known as Slinky) is a toy dachshund who speaks with a Southern accent, and was the inspiration for this craft.

Using some simple materials from our Arts and Crafts Supply Library and the directions below, you and your kids can create their very own “slinky dog”.

Materials Needed:

From Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Arts and Crafts Supply Library:

• Felt (we used white, brown, black)
• Giant fuzzy pipe cleaner
• Pom poms
• Googly eyes
• Pipe cleaners
• Glue
• Scissors

Additional Materials:

• Pencil
• Piece of brown paper (we used a recycled grocery store bag)

Instructions: 

Step 1

Gather your materials. Create the face of your Slinky Dog using white felt, cut into a door shape (see photo for reference). Place a pom pom at the end for a nose.

Step 2

Draw the face onto a piece of brown paper (we used a recycled grocery bag) and cut it out. Next, glue the white felt nose onto the brown paper.

Step 3

Glue googly eyes on your face. We used a piece of brown felt underneath to add some dimension. Use your imagination and have fun with it!

Step 4

Add your ears. We freehand drew an ear shape onto felt and cut it out (you can also do a simple Google search to obtain the shape). Create the second ear by tracing the ear shape onto a new piece of felt and cut it out. Then, glue your ears on to the back of the dog’s face.

Step 5

Reinforce the ears by gluing them on from the front, as well.

Step 6

Create your body using strips of felt. We rotated between black and brown. Glue the ends together to form a ring. Then, connect the rings using glue.

Step 7

Secure the body to the head using glue. You can use a glue gun for this part for a faster hold.

Step 8

Use your fuzzy pipe cleaner to make a tail! Bend it whichever way you’d like. Then, glue on some embellishments. We used pom poms and smaller pipe cleaners to give the tail some character.

Step 9

When the tail is complete, secure it to the end of the body. You can use a hot glue gun for this part, as well.

This slinky dog craft is really so much fun and the perfect way to celebrate National Dog Day this summer. So, gather up some of the simple supplies needed and take some time out of your busy day to make this craft with your family and remember how special the dog in your life is.

About the Author:

Jaclyn Ryan is a mom of four and former teacher. She lives in Connecticut with her family and prefers to engage her children in activities that foster creativity and connection -- and that are also fun!

Luckily, there are plenty of creative and inexpensive ways to DIY locker decor, because believe it or not, lockers are a big part of going back to school. My kids already start talking about their locker placement before they even know who their teacher is!

You see, to kids, lockers are more than a place to keep books and lunch. They are a space to hang out in between classes, and so for some kids, it’s important to them to show their personality and have some fun locker decor to show off! Luckily, it is fairly simple to create some DIY locker decor, so we hope this clay garland inspires you and your kids to make some of your own!

Materials Needed:

• Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Clay Garland Kit
• Scissors

Instructions: 

Step 1

Start with the clay. There are five different colors of polymer clay that come in the kit. Use your fingers, a knife or the included clay tool to break the pieces of clay up into smaller pieces. Then, put all of the pieces in your hand and gently massage them together a bit (this is also a great way for kids to practice those fine motor skills!).

Only massage the clay long enough so the pieces start to stick together. If you massage them for too long, the colors will blend together.

Step 2

Form the clay into the shape of your choice. Choose whichever color combination you like best. You can roll them into different shapes - circles, ovals, flat pieces, etc.!

In this case, we did mostly circles and a few ovals and we combined 2-3 different colors of clay to make cool swirly designs.

Step 3

Use a pencil or similar object to poke a hole through the top. This hole is where you will thread your garland twine through.

Step 4

Lay the clay flat on a cookie sheet and bake your clay according to package directions. When done, the clay should be dry and hard to the touch.

Step 5

Make a knot at the end of the twine and thread a sequin or piece of clay through. Then, add your clay pieces and some accessories to your garland! We used a bunch of sequins to enhance the appeal of our locker decor. The end result is a fun, colorful combination!

This DIY Clay Garland is the perfect way for your kiddo to spice up their locker with their own unique style. It’s so simple to create and with the open ended supplies included in Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters’s Clay Garland Kit, their locker decor can be designed however they like. Just give your children the supplies and let them take the lead!

About the Author:

Jaclyn Ryan is a mom of four and former teacher. She lives in Connecticut with her family and prefers to engage her children in activities that foster creativity and connection -- and that are also fun!

For this activity, we created our ice cream bar using just a few simple materials. We used some simple felt on top of cardboard to make the ice cream bars, and then used Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters’s awesome Rainbow Craft Kit to decorate them!

Materials Needed:

• Felt
• Glue
• Pencil
• Cardboard
• Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Rainbow Craft Kit
• Scissors

Instructions: 

Step 1

Gather your materials. Use thin cardboard to make the backing for the ice cream bar. We used a cereal box and a pasta box. To obtain a nice, round shape at the top of your ice cream bar, trace the outline of a plate at the top of your cardboard. Once you have your ice cream bar shape, cut it out from the cardboard.

Step 2

Trace the top of your ice cream bar cardboard shape onto a piece of felt. Then, cut out your felt using a good pair of scissors (children may need an adult’s help with this part). Next, glue the felt onto the cardboard.

Step 3

Glue your decorations onto the felt. Use your imagination and have fun with it!

Step 4

Add “sprinkles” using straws, or “candy” using pom poms. Allow all of the decorations to dry completely before moving on to the next step.

Step 5

Create a popsicle stick to support your ice cream bar from cardboard and felt material in the same way that you made the ice cream bar part. Trace a long rectangle from cardboard, then a piece of felt, and glue them together on the back of the ice cream bar.

This ice cream bar craft is really so much fun and so simple to make. It makes the perfect craft to display to brighten up your home, and to get everyone excited for summer! So, on this summer break, go ahead and grab your kids and craft supplies and give it a try!

About the Author:

Jaclyn Ryan is a mom of four and former teacher. She lives in Connecticut with her family and prefers to engage her children in activities that foster creativity and connection -- and that are also fun!

In the US, 4th of July celebrations are quite literally a blast, with bonfires and fireworks being the predominant way to celebrate, along with picnics, barbecues, and parades. It’s a fun occasion to celebrate and get together with family and friends!

This 4th of July, take some time out from the busy festivities and have fun with your kids with this easy fireworks process art project (a project that focuses on the process, more than the product) for kids! All you need is some simple supplies!

Materials Needed:

• Cardstock or watercolor paper (sturdy paper)
• Wondrous Watercolor Kit
• Paint Brush
• Glue
• Salt (table salt will do!)
• White pencil or crayon
• Cup or bowl of water

Instructions: 

Step 1

Gather your materials. Please note that you’ll need some sturdy cardstock paper or watercolored paper for this craft, as it can get a bit messy.

Step 2

On a dark piece of paper of your choice, draw fireworks using a white colored pencil or crayon.

Step 3

Use white or clear glue to cover your fireworks drawing. Use a paintbrush or your finger to smooth out the glue.

Step 4

Immediately after applying the glue, sprinkle table salt on top of the paper. Let the excess salt fall to the bottom of the paper and discard. Let the glue dry completely before moving on to the next step.

Step 5

Once the glue is dry, use your watercolor paints (and water) to decorate the fireworks. Be sure to observe the process and what happens to the colors. You will notice that the colors spread out once they come into contact with the salt, as the salt acts a resist of sorts. You may also notice that the area where the salt touches the paper will be lighter in color the salt pushes the watercolor pigment away! This part of the process is really fun! Watch as your kids transform their white, salt drawings into vibrant, beautiful designs.

This part of the process is really fun! Watch as your kids transform their white, salt drawings into vibrant, beautiful designs.

Step 6

Allow your artwork to dry completely and hang them up as a display!
(Note that this sort of project can be on display for a short time but does not last forever as the salt will crumble and come away from the glue, even when dry.)

Once your fancy fireworks are complete, keep the fun going! Your kids’ creative juices will likely already be flowing, so allow them to create bonus artwork using these amazing watercolor paints if they would like to. My daughter couldn’t resist making this vibrant tie dyed work of art once she was done with the fireworks!

These habitats are among the most fascinating parts of the ocean, but sadly, they are under threat. Making a coral reef craft alongside your kids is a great opportunity to discuss and teach the ways in which coral reefs are important, and ways in which we can help protect them!

To inspire you this month, we used Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters’s Arts and Craft Supply Library to make our very own egg carton coral reef!

Materials Needed:

-Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters's Arts and Craft Supply Library

-Hot glue gun

-Scissors

-Egg Carton

-Marker or pencil

-Blue Paint (we used Seaside and Deep Sea from Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters’s Washable Paint Set)

Step 1:

Gather your materials. Use the bottom of an egg carton to create the base of your reef. We cut ours in half and then hot glued it back together at an angle, but you can choose to shape it however you would like. Once you have cut it in half, paint the egg carton using the darkest blue you have.

Step 2:

Add some dimension to your reef by painting over the dark blue with a lighter color. Allow the paint to dry completely before moving on to the next part.

Step 3:

To make a simple plant, roll a piece of felt together and hot glue the ends.

Step 4:

Use your scissors to cut vertically along the top section of the felt plant. 

Step 5:

Add some coral! We used felt and cut the shape out of the pink felt pieces, laying them vertically.

Step 6:

Create some sea life for your coral reef. We made a couple of fish and attached them to craft sticks so that they could be used for play. Cut a fish shape from felt and attach the craft stick at the bottom, then add whatever details you’d like!

Step 7:

Add some final finishing touches to your coral reef! Comb through the many items from Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters' Arts and Craft Supply Library to decorate your coral reef. Have fun adding lots of color and dimension by using a variety of materials.

We created plants from pipe cleaners, pom poms and beads. We added colored paper shells and circles and a few gems. Once we got going, we found it hard to stop! The possibilities were pretty endless!

When you’re finished and the glue is dry, your kids can play with their DIY Coral Reef craft. My girls could not wait to get their hands on it. It was amazing to see their imaginations come to life so quickly. We hope this craft inspires your children, too!

About the Author: 

Jaclyn Ryan is a mom of four and former teacher. She lives in Connecticut with her family and prefers to engage her children in activities that foster creativity and connection -- and that are also fun!

With Father’s Day just around the corner, now is a great time to make a handmade gift every dad in your life would enjoy! This homemade coaster is actually quite simple to create and uses just a few basic materials. Kids of all ages, from preschool aged on up, can easily complete this craft with just a little bit of help from an adult.

So, grab your Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Arts and Crafts Supply Library, some basic supplies and your kids and get them involved in the process.

Materials Needed:

From the Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Arts and Crafts Supply Library: 

-Craft sticks

-Embroidery thread

-Scissors

-Glue

Additional Supplies:

 -Black marker

-Pencil

-Hole punch

-Cardstock paper

Step 1:

Gather your materials. We used ten of each of the following colored craft sticks: red, orange, yellow, green and blue.

Step 2:

Glue the bottom layer of your coaster together. Ten craft sticks glued together make a nice, square bottom layer. We glued ours in “rainbow order”, but your children can do this however they’d like. Simply place glue inside the edges of the craft sticks and press together. Allow the glue to dry before moving on to the next step.

Step 3:

Once your bottom layer of the coaster is complete, move on to the next layer. Use cardboard or some other surface while working to protect your table from a mess.

 Spread glue all over the top of the coaster. Then, lay your craft sticks in the opposite direction. Feel free to use your creativity here and let your kids create fun and interesting patterns, as there is no right or wrong way to do this!

Step 4:

Press down firmly to allow the glue to seal.

Step 5:

 Repeat the process until you have used up all of your craft sticks. Allow the glue to dry completely before moving on to the next step.

Step 6:

Grab some of the embroidery floss and cut a piece long enough to wrap around the coaster several times. Then, wrap the floss around the bottom, cross it at the center and tie it in the middle. We tied the ends in a bow and trimmed them.

Step 7:

Add some finishing touches. We cut a piece of cardstock out and punched a hole in the end to make a nice card for the coaster. We then attached it to the bow with a simple knot. This is totally optional but does add a little personal touch! 

When your Father’s Day coaster is complete, go ahead and make the dad in your life’s day by gifting him this simple and useful homemade gift. It is easy to create, doesn’t require much in the way of materials and is a lovely way to show him how much you care.

About the Author:  

Jaclyn Ryan is a mom of four and former teacher. She lives in Connecticut with her family and prefers to engage her children in activities that foster creativity and connection -- and that are also fun! 

The first full week of June each year is National Garden Week. As a family, we love spending time outside, and while we try all the time to plant seeds and create flower arrangements, I can’t say that we are a family blessed with green thumbs. We wanted to take this opportunity to use one of the suggestions from the National Garden Clubs to beautify an existing garden.

When our My First Arts + Crafts Library arrived, we looked through all the great contents and landed on creating pinwheels. We have a really nice arrangement of green plants outside, but we knew some painted rocks and pinwheels would enhance the area further. Plus, while talking about National Garden Week and making our pinwheels, we actually planted some more seeds and are going to try our hand at growing a mini cactus from a seed this summer. Hopefully it works!

The My First Arts + Crafts was the perfect kit to use for this project for a lot of reasons, but my favorite one was that most of the items in the kit are sticker backed, so we didn’t have to add to the weight of the pinwheel with glue. If you make pinwheels, or any other crafts, with this kit, I promise you’ll appreciate that too!

There were a few steps to this project that need to be done by an adult, but there are a lot of times that creativity is involved and can give chances for kids of a variety of ages to participate. I’d definitely encourage you to make multiple pinwheel templates so each of your kids can make one.

Supplies you'll need:

• Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters My First Arts + Craft Library

• Plain Paper

• Markers

• Scissors

• Pencils with erasers to use as stakes

• Pushpins

• Ruler

Step 1:

Cut your paper into a square. I used watercolor paper to have a good weight to it, and I created 9” x 9” squares.  

Step 2:

Draw lines from the corners to the middle to use as guide lines for cutting the pinwheel templates

Step 3:

Cut a tall and skinny V shape from the corner into the middle to create body of the pinwheel.

Step 4: 

Fold one corner of each wing into the middle. Once all four wings are gathered, pin the four wings to the center of the pinwheel. The box came in really handy here, as I was able to press the pin into the box to hold the pinwheel still to decorate.

Step 5:

Push the pin into the eraser of a pencil, and either decorate the pencil or attach a popsicle stick to the pencil to cover it up. You’ll see that one of our pinwheels used a popsicle stick and the other used a pipe cleaner to dress up the pencils.

Step 6:

Decorate the pinwheel. The nice thing about using a heavier weight paper is that the pinwheel can hold a lot of decorations. Depending on whether you care if the pinwheel actually spins, talk to your kids about the weight of the items. I suggested to my daughter to make the pinwheel symmetrical so that it would spin evenly.

Step 7:

Press the pencil into the ground in your garden. If you want, add decorations besides the pinwheels like we did!

The pinwheels were really fun! They take a little more adult supervision, even for my 6 year old, but once the base is created, they’re great to decorate.

We hope you have fun celebrating National Garden Week! Use this activity with a school or community group and then go beautify your gardens!

About The Author

  Meghan is a busy mom to Olivia and Maddie. She’s a full time teacher and part time playtime planner. She runs the playtime planner business and would love to help you fit more playtime and activities into your busy schedule.

Meet Michelle

Michelle is a Senior Product Designer here at Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters, as well as an amazing artist. Read below to discover what a typical day at Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters looks like, what her favorite Kid Made products are, as well as where she finds inspiration!

What does a typical day working at Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters look like for you?

A typical day at Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters is pretty fun for me.

I spend my time creating new craft kits, illustrating artwork, and choosing fun components to make the kits as interesting as possible! 

Let's use the Shrink Art Jewelry Kit as an example. I started working on that by drawing fun graphics of unicorns, sparkles, and ice cream cones for the shrink art. Then I chose the beads, and the color palette for the cords, and colored pencils! 

I'll also brainstorm new concepts, review samples of new kits, and sometimes I even get to craft the kits to test them out.

Where do you draw inspiration from when creating products for Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters?

I like kids' designs in general so I am always looking at toys and watching cartoons! I also try to think about what I wanted to make when I was a kid - or even what I think would be fun for me to craft now!

One of my biggest inspirations is my boyfriend's daughter. She is a very crafty lady! She'll bring me ideas of what she wants to make and we'll make it together. Most recently she made a magical secret lock box out of an old tea box that I had covered with iridescent paper. One time I brought over a bunch of foam pieces and we spent the afternoon cutting it into shapes, hole punching the edges and sewing them into stuffed buddies.

What is your favorite part of designing products for kids?

My fave part of designing products for kids is that it's never boring! I like bright colors and silly graphics so I feel pretty lucky that I can spend my time drawing purple unicorns and yellow dinosaurs as part of my work day.

Fave Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters product and why?

My favorite Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters product is the Fuzzy Stick Sculpture set. It's really easy for anyone to use, it can be set up aa million different ways and I think the finished craft looks great as an art piece! 

And a few quick questions...

Hometown? 

Temecula, CA

Fave color?

Mustard Yellow

Favorite Animal?

House cat - all day, every day, forever and ever

Learn More about Michelle and see more of her amazing work here!

Add some rainbow and sunshine to any space with our printable mobile.

Use our printable worksheet and color and assemble your very own mobile to hang and brighten up a room. Download the Free Printable Here! Share a pic of your little one with the finished product on Instagram (use hashtag #gomakestuff) and we may feature it on our Instagram page.

Painting rocks can be fun for the whole family, and you can really let your children’s imaginations take off with this project.

With that said, with spring in full gear and summer being just around the corner, we thought it would be fun to make some fun and decorative rocks using some of our favorite Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters supplies!

To make your own Monster Rocks, grab your kids, your Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Washable Paint Set, your Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Arts and Crafts Supply Library, and read along!   

Materials Needed:

-Smooth rocks (the smoother, the better)

-Hot glue gun

-Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Washable Paint Set

-Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Arts and Crafts Supply Library

Instructions 

Step 1:

Gather your materials. You can find smooth rocks outdoors if you are lucky enough to live near a beach, or you can purchase them at most craft stores! 

Step 2:

Start by cleaning off the rocks with a wet cloth. Then, paint your rocks a base color. We love Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters’s Washable Paint Set for their vibrant colors and fun names!  

Because of the dark, natural color of the rocks, we found we had to do 2-3 coats of paint to get a nice, vibrant color. Just be sure to let each coat dry in between.

Step 3:

If you’re feeling brave, try sponge painting a different color on top of your base coat. This was an experiment, but one that turned out well, we think!

Step 4:

Alongside your children, brainstorm some fun designs for your monsters. You can have fun with this as there is no right or wrong way to make a crazy monster rock! Feel free to add some fun facial details (a mouth, teeth, scars, etc.).

Step 5:

Use your hot glue gun to add some more fun details! We glued on pom poms and googly eyes - definitely use your imagination and get creative!

 Step 6: (optional)

If you will be placing your rocks outside, you’ll want to cover it with a waterproof sealant first, otherwise the paint will wash right off.

These Monster Rocks are so much fun and relatively simple to create. When your rocks are ready to go, you can either simply keep them inside your house or take the kids outside to hide the rocks for someone else to find! Enjoy!

About the Author:  

Jaclyn Ryan is a mom of four and former teacher. She lives in Connecticut with her family and prefers to engage her children in activities that foster creativity and connection -- and that are also fun! 

When it comes to connecting with our kids, most parents have their preferred ways. For some it might be through sports, reading or cooking. For my family, crafting is one of the best ways to connect with my children.

With that in mind and with Mother’s Day around the corner, we thought it would be fun to make our very own “Mommy and Me” peg dolls together. It turned out to be the perfect activity to do together around the kitchen table as we prepared to celebrate Mother’s Day.

When crafting with my daughters, I try to have our projects be as open-ended as possible and I like them to take the lead on their projects. I encourage my children to get creative and use their imagination, as there is really no right or wrong way to go about doing this sort of thing. I find that once they get going on their projects, the creative juices really get flowing and they really get in a groove. We also have some great conversations while sitting down creating stuff together, and some of my best memories with them are the conversations we’ve had while crafting.

To make your own “Mommy and Me” peg dolls, grab your children and your Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Arts and Crafts Supply Library, and read along!

Materials Needed:

-Scissors

-Hot glue gun

-Black marker

From your Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Arts and Crafts Supply Library:

-Peg dolls

-Embroidery floss

-Felt

-Craft sticks

-Gems

-Pom poms

-Sequins

-Pipe cleaners

 Instructions

Step 1

Gather your materials. We used a bunch of different items in our design. One of the best parts of this project is that you can use so many of the materials!

 Step 2

Start by cutting your craft stick in half to make two legs for your Peg doll. Then, hot glue them on to the back. Let the glue dry for a minute or two before moving on. 

Step 3

Add your hair. We used embroidery floss and pom poms when doing our doll’s hair. (Simply cut both the floss and the pom poms to make hair!) Secure the hair with hot glue. 

Step 4

Add your dresses. We used the felt strips included, as they were the perfect length for our dolls. Wrap the felt around the dolls to make a dress and secure it in the back with hot glue.

Step 5

Add some fun details! We added sequin hats, pom pom hats, gem shoes, embroidery floss scarves – we also used pipe cleaners as bows, a belt and even a pair of arms!

Step 6

Use your black marker to draw a face on each of your Peg dolls. 

To create these DIY “Mommy and Me” Peg dolls, all that we really needed was some interesting materials and basic supplies. I hope we have inspired you to do the same, because to me, there’s nothing better than connecting with kids over a fun project like this one.

Well, this kid-friendly craft mimics the best part of those dried floral frames using paper flowers and recycled materials instead. With some additional materials like paint and fuzzy sticks, we’ll give this frame some extra pizazz and make it easy to hang to decorate for the Spring.

Materials Needed: 

• Fuzzy Sticks
  • Included in the Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Arts and Crafts Supply Library
• Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Washable Paint
• Paint Brushes
• Construction Paper in an assortment of colors
• Cardboard
• Two bowls in different sizes
• Marker
• Scissors
• Plastic Wrap

Instructions:  

Step 1

Start by tracing your bowls on the cardboard, first with the largest bowl and then place the second bowl centered in the middle of the large, traced circle and trace it as well.

Step 2

Cut the circles out, cutting along the line of the largest circles first. Next, place the circle on your table top and hold the tip of your scissors in the middle, pull the cardboard up toward the handle of the scissors to create a hole in the center. Now that you’ve created a hole your scissor can fit in, cut the interior circle out and you should have two circular frames.

Step 3

Now it’s time to bust out your artist skills and draw some floral shapes on the construction paper. I used four different colors and drew a collection of different flower and leaf shapes, as well as some small circles to be flower centers are accent shapes.

Step 4

Cut each of your floral shapes out and assemble some together using glue dots, such as attaching flower shapes and leaves so they’ll stay connected.

Step 5

Line one cardboard circle with glue dots, placing them every 2” or so. Place a square of plastic wrap over the circle, pulling it tight and pushing it against the glue dots to secure it in place.

Step 6

Place your paper flowers on top of the plastic wrap, arranging them a composition you like; you can overlap them, fill the whole center or just place 1 special flower in the middle.

Step 7

Next, place a second square of plastic wrap on top and press the pieces together in the center so the plastic wrap seals the flowers in place.

Step 8

Line the second cardboard circle with glue dots, just as you did with the first, and place it on top of the first circle and plastic wrap. Now trim the additional plastic wrap off by cutting along the edge of the circles.

Step 9

It’s time to decorate your frame, attach 2 fuzzy sticks around the edge of the cardboard frame using glue dots. Next, paint a fun design along the entirety of the frame. I went with a polka dot and tiny leaf pattern, get creative to make your frame your own!

Step 10

Lastly, let’s attach an easy way to hang out new piece of art. Bend a fuzzy stick in half and twist the ends together to create a looped end and a point on the other. Put a glue dot on the pointed end and push in between the layers of cardboard and press to secure the glue dot against the cardboard.

And just like that you’ve made your own floral wall hanging!

I can’t decide if I like the original inspiration or the crafted version better, as much as I love natural florals, being able to make my own artwork in any color palette and be creative always makes me so happy! Hope this gives you and your kiddos some inspiration to craft for the Spring season!

About the Author:   

Fiber artist and craft enthusiast, Tessa Anderstrom, is the owner of handmade shop Studio Jane which focuses on sustainably made home décor and handmade art. As an avid DIYer with a passion for learning new skills, Tessa enjoys sharing that knowledge with crafters of all ages. 

This month, we used a cardboard box and some contact paper to make a rainbow butterfly collage. This is the perfect activity for toddlers and preschoolers and one that can be used again and again! It is also a great tool for getting in some fine motor practice - a skill that needs to be practiced many times before children can learn to write!

To inspire you to create your own upcycled craft, we used Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters’s Deluxe Arts & Crafts Supply Collection  to make our rainbow butterfly collage. In addition to being a fun and educational activity at home, this is a versatile craft that can be used in any early childhood setting as well!

Materials Needed:

• Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Deluxe Arts and Crafts Supply Collection
• Cardboard box lid
• Scissors
• Contact paper
• Pencil

Step 1

Gather your materials. Use a piece of cardboard as the base - you can even use the lid of your Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters box!

Step 2

Trace an outline of a butterfly onto the cardboard with pencil. We did a google search to find a butterfly outline. You can also free hand draw your butterfly if you’d prefer.

Once you have your butterfly shape drawn on the cardboard, cut out the butterfly with a good pair of scissors. Children will need an adult’s help with this part as it can be tricky to cut through without damaging the frame. You can also use an exacto knife.

Step 3

Place a piece of contact paper sticky side up onto a flat surface and then put the cardboard butterfly cut out on top.

Step 4

Lay your butterfly out and use the items from Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters's Deluxe Arts and Craft Supply Collection to decorate and design your butterfly.

Use craft sticks, fuzzy sticks, felt, pom poms, etc. to enhance your design. Remember to allow your children to use their creativity and imagination when doing this part, as there is absolutely no right or wrong way to complete this.

Step 5

After children have admired their work, since the contact paper makes everything temporary, encourage children to take everything off and create a new design! For this reason, this activity makes it a particularly great one for use within a classroom or homeschool setting.

This upcycled rainbow butterfly collage lets kids create their own butterfly design using various craft materials. Children will tap into their own creativity while making their own butterfly, and once they are done they can repeat the process over and over again! The contact paper involved in this craft makes it easy to remove and replace each butterfly design with a new one. If that isn’t a great way to recycle, I don’t know what is!

About the Author:

Jaclyn Ryan is a mom of four and former teacher. She lives in Connecticut with her family and prefers to engage her children in activities that foster creativity and connection -- and that are also fun!

Within our bug box, there are three sides of mesh to provide lots of fresh air, a big observation window on the top that is clear (a recycled fruit container), and lots of nature-inspired decor. 

When making your own bug box, encourage kids to follow the ‘catch and release’ rule, and try not to hang on to your bug for too long. There is no harm in bringing a bug home for a day to observe it closely and to learn more about them, but bugs are happiest in their natural environment.

To make your own bug box, you can use any clean, dry box or jar. We constructed our bug box from mostly recycled materials, as we are big believers in using what we already have on hand when making crafts for kids. Of course, we had a lot of help from Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters’s Deluxe Arts & Crafts Supply Collection, too! 

Materials Needed:

•  Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Head Deluxe Arts and Crafts Supply Collection
•  Cardboard box
•  Scissors
•  Mesh lining (from produce bag)
•  Hot glue gun
•  Recycled plastic container (a fruit or berry container works great)
•  Paint and/or colored craft tape (optional)

Instructions:  

Step 1

Gather your materials. From the recycling bin, we used a cardboard box, a plastic berry container, a plastic lid and the mesh from a produce bag.

Step 2

Draw four rectangles on each side of your box, not including the bottom. We just eyeballed it! Just be sure the window openings aren’t too big for your plastic lids and mesh bag.

Step 3

Cut open each window using a good pair of scissors - you can also use an exacto knife if the cardboard is too thick. Children will need an adult’s help with this part.

Step 4

This is optional, but fun! Use craft tape to give your bug box some flair. Alternatively, you can paint it! We chose the color green so that our bug box would blend in with it’s natural surroundings.

Step 5

Use a glue gun to attach the mesh from a produce bag to the inside of your bug box windows. Then, attach your plastic lid to the top inside window to create your “observation window”.

Step 6

Use your Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Deluxe Arts and Crafts Supply Collection to add some flair! You can create your own flowers or bugs, and use many of the items in the kit for inspiration! We used craft sticks, fuzzy sticks, felt, pom poms, and more to enhance our design. We used felt to create a natural grass layer on the bottom inside, and we put foam down at the bottom of the bug box so that it would be nice and soft for our bugs.

Remember to allow your children to use their creativity and imagination when doing this part, as there is absolutely no right or wrong way to complete this.

When your bug box is complete, head outside and set it down on the ground along with items from nature inside. When your bug visitors arrive, use the clear plastic observation window to observe the bug's features and behavior. After a little while you will be able to tell that your bug is ready to go back to their own natural environment, and you can set them free.

About the Author:  

Jaclyn Ryan is a mom of four and former teacher. She lives in Connecticut with her family and prefers to engage her children in activities that foster creativity and connection -- and that are also fun! 

To start this craft, you need to collect some bits of nature to assemble into your own sculpture, take a walk or explore the backyard to collect twigs, fallen leaves, seed pods and more. Enjoy the walk and point out your favorite parts of nature, whether it be the layers of tree bark or the smell of freshly cut grass, this just might be my favorite part of this creating this piece of artwork.

Materials Needed:

• Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Arts and Crafts Supply Library – There are countless elements you can use to adorn your collection of nature, the list below are items we used in our assemblage sculpture.
  • Wooden Beads
  • Plastic Beads
  • Pom Poms
  • Fuzzy Sticks
  • Embroidery Thread
  • Rhinestones
  • Scissors
• Glue Dots
• Collection of found natural elements
  • Twigs
  • Thin twigs for beads to fit on
  • Leaves
  • Seed Pods

Instructions:

Step 1

Start with your largest natural element, whether that be a twig, rock or large leaf. This will be the base of your assemblage art, everything else will be attached to this piece and your sculpture will grow from here.

For my sculpture, I started with two beaded elements, first threading beads onto a tiny pliable twig and using glue dots to secure them at the end. Then using embroidery thread to attach it to my base stick.

The second beaded element is made by stringing plastic beads onto embroidery thread and tied onto the stick. To start this string of beads, tie one bead onto the thread to be the stopper, when your string is long enough tie it onto the base stick.

Either or both of these beaded elements can be added to your sculpture.

Step 2

Next, add a few of leaves by attaching them with a glue dot. Clustering some of the leaves together adds a nice look!

Step 3

To add some dimension to my sculpture, I used seed pods and attached pom poms with glue dots to each pod, then glued them onto the stick in three different places. This step could also be done with small rocks, pinecones or more leaves.

Step 4

For the next step, bend two fuzzy sticks into a rainbow shape and glue each end onto the base stick for some added height on one side. Lace a few beads onto one fuzzy stick rainbow for a little extra color!

Now your assemblage art is complete, but you can add as many different elements, both craft supplies and natural to build up your sculpture in countless ways.

Making this kind of art for Earth Day is always unique and one-of-a-kind, just like nature itself, which is exactly what makes each one so special!

About the Author: 

Fiber artist and craft enthusiast, Tessa Anderstrom, is the owner of handmade shop Studio Jane which focuses on sustainably made home décor and handmade art. As an avid DIYer with a passion for learning new skills, Tessa enjoys sharing that knowledge with crafters of all ages.

In this tutorial I will walk you through painting a flower wreath made using the Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Studio in a Box . It only requires the kit and a couple other supplies.

Supplies:

• Studio in a Box
• Paper Towel
• Paper Plate
• Scissors
• Ribbon ( for hanging)
• Glue dots or Glue Stick

Step 1

Grab the 8x10” canvas board from the kit. Then grab the colored pencils. Choose a pencil to use to outline the word “Mom” in the middle of the canvas board. I chose to use one colored pencil but you can choose to use up to three different colored pencil colors to outline the word. 

Step 2

Next, you want to create a palette for your acrylic paint. Since there is no official palette in the kit you have a few options. You can use a piece of the watercolor paper, on top of the box to stabilize it, and squirt the acrylic paint on it. Your other option is a paper plate or a palette you already have at home. I chose to use the colors: blue, pink and yellow for this project. Feel free to use whatever colors you think your mom will like best!

Step 3

Once you have your paint on your palette start filling in the word “Mom” on your canvas board using one of the paint brushes from the kit. I started with yellow, then blue and the final letter I painted pink. 

Step 4

Wait until the paint dries and apply another layer of color to make the colors more bold and less transparent. 

Step 5

While the canvas dries, move on to your next step. Grab 3-4 sheets of both watercolor paper and mixed media paper that came in the kit.  

Step 6

Grab the watercolor paper first and use a mix of colored pencil colors to create outlines of flowers. Use the colors you like best. I used yellow, red and pink. Create different sized flowers to have a variety. 

Step 7

Now you want to fill in the flowers, so grab your watercolor palette and one of the paint brushes from the kit. Make sure to wet your brush and then move it along the surface of the watercolor paint to get it nice and wet. Go back and forth between the water and paint until you have a good amount of color on your brush. Create the middle of the flower first with yellow paint and then add in the pink for the petals. 

Step 8

Continue to paint the flowers with watercolor until you have 3-4 sheets of flowers painted. Then put them off to the side to dry. 

Step 9

Now grab your mixed media paper and you are going to do the same thing like you did with the watercolor paper but instead of using colored pencils to outline the flowers, use the markers from the kit. Also use the marker to create the yellow center of the flowers.

Step 10

When you are done creating the outlines you should have a variety of flowers and if you want you can add some fruits. I made strawberries and grapes. 

Step 11

Using your watercolor palette fill in all the flowers and fruits. Do not worry about staying inside of the lines. 

Step 12

Make sure your flowers are all dry before moving on to this next step. You will also be using scissors so adult supervision is needed. Using your scissors carefully cut out the flowers. Use the outline as a guide. This step will take some time so maybe ask for some help!

Step 13

Once the flowers and fruits are all cut out you should have a pile of all types of beautiful flowers for your wreath!

Step 14

Next you want to attach the flowers to the “Mom” canvas board. To do this you can use glue dots (like shown) or a glue stick. If you do use a glue stick make sure to not lift up your board until everything is dry. 

Step 15

Using a glue dot, place one on the back of each flower and stick it to the canvas board. Create your first layer of flowers around the board. Feel free to overlap flowers, like shown in the sample. I put some bigger flowers in the corners to start creating the wreath. 

Step 16

Continue adding flowers big and small around the board using the glue dots. 

Step 17

Once you have your first layer complete you should not be able to see any of the canvas edges. 

Step 18

Use the remaining flowers to add another layer to the wreath.

Step 19

Once you have finished it should look something like this! You don’t have to use all of the flowers. I had some remaining at the end that I did not use. 

Step 20

Take a closer look at it!

Step 21

If you want to hang it you can apply some glue dots to a piece of thick ribbon and stick it to the back of the canvas board.

Your Mother’s Day Floral Art is complete!

About the Author:

Rachel is the artist and founder of Pink Puddle Studio LLC. Her mural work has been televised on CNBC’s Cash Pad. Her work has been featured in HGTV Magazine, Phoenix New Times, Phoenix Home & Garden, Arizona Highways Magazine and College Times.

Connect with Rachel on instagram @pinkpuddlestudio and www.pinkpuddlestudio.com

I don’t know about the littles in your family, but my nieces and nephews have always loved pretend play and can get carried away with their imagination, one of the best parts about being a kid. This craft of making fairy friends is perfect for the kids in your life that love imaginary play as well!

Following along with the steps, you’ll be able to make an adorable fairy, but in addition, you’ll know how to create this type of craft to make countless fairies to fill an entire imaginary world. Make some skirts from felt or cluster sequins for a petal-filled look, cut out different hair styles and accessorize with rhinestones, sequins and more.

Another plus, small scale crafts like this can be made with scraps from past projects which is always great and even less clean up time, creating more time to play!

Materials Needed:

• Wooden Craft Sticks – included in Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters’s Arts and Crafts Supply Library
• Felt – included in Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters’s Arts and Crafts Supply Library
• Sequins – included in Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters’s Arts and Crafts Supply Library
• Fuzzy Sticks – Included in Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters’s Arts and Crafts Supply Library
• Rhinestones
• Scissors
• Glue Dots
• Marker
• Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Washable Paint
• Paint Brushes

Instructions: 

Step 1

To make the base of the fairy, start with 3 wooden craft sticks. Add 3 glue dots down the first craft stick and add the other 2 craft sticks on top directly next to one another to cover the entire craft stick with the glue dots. Attach the 2 craft sticks lightly lower than centered so you can only see the back craft stick showing on the top, this will make it easy to have the bottom of the craft sticks look like feet when we’re finished.

Step 2

The side with 2 craft sticks side by side is the front of your fairy, starting about ¼ of the way down from the top, paint ¼ of the front to be a shirt for your fairy.

Step 3

Using the felt, cut out a floral shaped skirt and hair. Lay the felt over the craft stick base to ensure the felt cut out will be wide enough at the top of the skirt to cover the whole width. Using glue dots, attach the skirt to the wooden craft stick base just below the painted portion.

To create hair, cut a rounded shape with a bun or ponytail on top, attach with a glue dot.

Step 4

It’s time to add your fairy wings! Using 3 metallic fuzzy sticks that measure 6” long, bend 2 in half being sure not to fold them but keep them rounded where they’re bent. Flip the wooden craft sticks over and glue dot the bent fuzzy sticks onto the single craft stick on the back with a slight upward angle.

For the bottom portion of the wings, cut the third fuzzy stick in half and bend each half in the same style. Glue dot them below the large wings angling down to create butterfly style wings.

Step 5

With black paint, add shoes to the front of the fairy. Using the paint brush, paint a curved line on the bottom two wooden craft sticks and fill in with paint.

Step 6

Using a marker, draw a small face under the felt hair that has already been glued on. Feel free to add as many facial features as you want!

Step 7

Lastly, continue adding any additional decorative details, such as sequins in the fairy’s hair, a fuzzy stick belt or rhinestone accessories. Now your fairy is complete! Make multiple fairies using the same materials in numerous ways so each one is unique!

Now all that’s left is creating an imaginary place to play with your fairy! If you made your own fairies, I’d love to hear all about how you made your make believe, winged friends come to life through crafting!  

About the Author: 

Fiber artist and craft enthusiast, Tessa Anderstrom, is the owner of handmade shop Studio Jane which focuses on sustainably made home décor and handmade art. As an avid DIYer with a passion for learning new skills, Tessa enjoys sharing that knowledge with crafters of all ages.

As we enter the Spring season, we’re seeing signs of new growth and renewal, our earth in bloom! All these beautiful details are reminders to take care of our globe, our home; and recycling materials to create crafts is one of my favorite ways to do just that!

With egg cartons and paint, you’ll be able to make your own recycled wreath for Spring.

Follow along for all the steps to make your own wreath, then get creative using extra elements from the Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Arts and Crafts Supply Library to add a little sparkle, texture and three-dimensional effects. I chose to add in black, sparkly details for a modern look, but you can create your wreath in countless different ways for Spring or any season to come!

Materials Needed: 

• Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Arts and Crafts Supply Library
  • Fuzzy Sticks
  • Pom Poms
  • White Craft Glue
  • Scissors
• Glue Dots
• Cardboard – 10” square or any size depending on the size wreath you want to create
• Recycled cardboard egg cartons – My wreath used 2 egg cartons
• Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters washable paint
• Paint Brushes

Instructions:  

Step 1

Draw a 2” circular ring on a piece of cardboard and cut it out. Next paint the cardboard ring and set aside to dry.

Step 2

Next, using scissors cut apart the egg cartons, isolating the rounded cup portions away from the triangular separating pieces.  Both pieces will be used to craft different types of flowers for the wreath. Cut the uneven fragments of cardboard from the top to start with smooth surfaces, then cut decorative shapes and edges to create flower patterns.

We used a few different styles; including fringe edges, rounded petal shapes and triangular points.

For the triangle cardboard pieces, cut down each corner toward the pointed end to create four sides, then add decorative cuts to each quarter.

Step 3

Paint! This part can be as basic or as creative as you like, start by painting a solid coat of paint on each egg carton flower. Paint one side at a time, setting aside to dry before turning over to paint the other side.

After each flower has a coat of paint, add fun details with other colors of paint. From painting the edges of some flowers with different colors to bright brush strokes in the center of the flower, there are countless ways to decorate the flowers with paint.

Step 4

Once all your egg carton flowers are dry, glue them onto the cardboard ring. White craft glue will work perfectly for this step, but glue dots or hot glue are also options to construct your wreath.

It’s best to glue the larger flowers down first, clustering them next to one another. Then fill in with the triangular flowers that can squeeze into smaller sections.

Continue gluing flowers until the entire wreath form is covered.

Step 5

Add flower centers and details using pom poms, put a glue dot on the back of each pom pom and press into the center of some of the flowers. Mix and match different colors and size pom poms for a dimensional look.

I used a combination of different color but focused on black metallic pom poms for a modern look.

Step 6

For the last step, to add some extra details using fuzzy sticks, cut 6” fuzzy sticks into three pieces. Cluster the three 2” pieces together and add a glue dot on the back where the three pieces meet at a point, then attach the cluster of fuzzy sticks to the wreath. Slide the cluster in between flowers to hide the glue dot end and your wreath will appear to have little bursts of fuzzy sticks to mimic greenery and added detail.

With your beautiful and completed wreath, you can be proud of recycling your trash into a newly crafted treasure. On that note, I’m going to hang my wreath on the front door to kick of the season!

Thank you for crafting with us! Happy Spring!

About the Author: 

Fiber artist and craft enthusiast, Tessa Anderstrom, is the owner of handmade shop Studio Jane which focuses on sustainably made home décor and handmade art. As an avid DIYer with a passion for learning new skills, Tessa enjoys sharing that knowledge with crafters of all ages.

Make paper Easter eggs decorated with fuzzy sticks, pom poms and more for a three-dimensional look.

Each egg can be crafted with countless colors and materials from the Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Arts and Crafts Supply Library, so whether you create one or a full dozen, they’ll each be unique and beautiful!

Materials Needed: 

• Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Arts and Crafts Supply Library includes:
  • Pom Poms in various shapes and colors
  • Fuzzy Sticks
  • Felt Strips
  • Rhinestones
  • Scissors
  • White Craft Glue
• Construction Paper
• Glue Dots
• Pencil or Marker

About the Author: 

Fiber artist and craft enthusiast, Tessa Anderstrom, is the owner of handmade shop Studio Jane which focuses on sustainably made home décor and handmade art. As an avid DIYer with a passion for learning new skills, Tessa enjoys sharing that knowledge with crafters of all ages.

We’ll be exploring the Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Arts and Crafts Supply Library to create our mini bunny masks that feature pom poms, fuzzy sticks and wooden craft sticks. We’ll also give you some extra inspiration to adorn the wooden craft stick handle if you want to give it a little dimensional detail as well. Each bunny mask uses a small number of supplies but can be customized in tons of color options so everyone in the family can have their own bunny mask! 

Materials Needed:  

• Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Arts and Crafts Supply Library
  • Fuzzy Sticks
  • Pom Poms
  • Wooden Craft Sticks
  • White Felt Strips
  • Wooden Beads (optional for extra pizazz!)
  • White Craft Glue
  • Scissors
• Glue Dots

Instructions:  

Step 1

To create your mini bunny mask, start by cutting the felt strips into small white rectangles, these will become the bunny teeth on your mask. Using glue dots, attach the two rectangles to a wooden craft stick, about 1” from the top.

Step 2

Next, add 2 medium sized pom poms to the wooden craft stick, using glue dots, one on each pom pom, layer them slightly on top of the rectangles to cover the top of them and leaving a small portion of the wooden craft stick visible at the top.

Step 3

Using another glue dot, stick 1 small pom pom on the exposed wooden craft stick above the two medium pom poms to create a bunny nose.

Step 4

Cut two 12” fuzzy sticks into thirds and turn the wooden craft stick over. With a glue dot attached to each end, place the fuzzy sticks onto the craft stick. Adhere the top and bottom at slight diagonals and the third fuzzy stick centered to create whiskers on both sides.

Step 5

Turn the wooden craft stick back to the front and your mask is ready to wear!

I love sharing these seasonal crafts with you and hope they give you a few moments of creativity and happiness as you get ready for an upcoming holiday!

Hold up your bunny mask and make your best impression of the Easter Bunny all Easter long!

Thanks for crafting with us and Happy Easter!

About the Author: 

Fiber artist and craft enthusiast, Tessa Anderstrom, is the owner of handmade shop Studio Jane which focuses on sustainably made home décor and handmade art. As an avid DIYer with a passion for learning new skills, Tessa enjoys sharing that knowledge with crafters of all ages.

In this tutorial I will walk you through this cute painting, using the Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Wondrous Watercolor set. It only requires the kit and a couple supplies that you probably have laying around your house.

Materials Needed: 

• Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Wondrous Watercolor set
• Pencil
• Paper Towel
• Water Cup
• Print out of Easter Image by Pink Puddle Studio
• Window or light box for tracing image
• Artists tape 

Instructions:  

Step 1

Gather your Supplies

Step 2

First you will need to trace out the design from the Pink Puddle Studio Easter print out image. Grab a sheet of the 8x10” watercolor paper included in the set, a pencil and artists tape. If you don’t have artist’s tape you can use painters tape but don’t push it down too hard on the paper, otherwise when you lift it off it will lift the paper with it. Place the watercolor paper over the print out and center it to fit on the paper. Then use two small pieces of tape on both sides to secure the papers together.

Step 3

Next, you want to trace the image. I find that in the day it is simple to use a window. All you have to do is tape it to a window and use your pencil to trace the image. If you have a light box you can use that instead.

Step 4

Open up your watercolor palette from the Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Wondrous Watercolor Set to start painting. Start with the larger flowers. Put some yellow on your brush and paint your first flower.

Step 5

Then while the flower is still wet add some purple to the center of the flower.

Step 6

Continue painting the larger flowers using red and purple and then add yellow for the centers.

Step 7 and Step 8

Once those flowers are dry, paint the body of the bunny using light blue and turquoise green.

Step 9

Fill your brush with dark blue and line the bunny for definition.

Step 10

Once the body of the bunny is dry, paint the tulips. The large one is painted yellow and the smaller ones are red and orange.

Step 11

Paint the roses pink and then add dark purple along the lines for shadow.

Step 12

Next, paint in the leaves using a variety of greens and orange from the palette.

Step 13

Paint the berries dark blue. 

Step 14

Now that the bunny is done, finish off the painting by filling in “Happy Easter” at the bottom. Start by painting “Happy” with light blue and painting each remaining  letter a different color in the blue green color family.

Step 15

Paint “Easter” using colors from the pink and red color family.

You have completed the project! You can frame it or give it as a gift! Happy Easter!

About the Author:  

Rachel is the artist and founder of Pink Puddle Studio LLC. Her mural work has been televised on CNBC’s Cash Pad. Her work has been featured in HGTV Magazine, Phoenix New Times, Phoenix Home & Garden, Arizona Highways Magazine and College Times.

Connect with Rachel on instagram @pinkpuddlestudio and www.pinkpuddlestudio.com

An iconic craft from my own childhood was creating pom pom bunnies for Easter and I’m excited to bring you the step by steps to make your own this Spring!

Using a collection of embellishments from the Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Arts and Crafts Library with any color yarn you most likely have in your craft supply collection already, these little bunnies are a simple craft with an adorable impact!

I love the idea of making an entire bunny family in every color of the pastel rainbow, filling a fireplace mantel or shelf with all your handmade creatures and being able to play with them year after year.

So, gather your supplies from the list below and let’s getting hopping on this Easter craft!

Materials Needed: 

• Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Arts + Crafts Library
  • Fuzzy Sticks
  • Felt
  • Googly Eyes
  • Pom Poms
  • Scissors
• Yarn
• Cardboard
• Marker
• Glue Dots

Instructions: 

Step 1

To craft your pom pom bunny, we’ll begin with creating a cardboard template to make the pom poms themselves.

Draw the top of a block printed, capital letter H on your piece of cardboard like the image and cut it out.

Make a second template in the exact same style but twice the width, this will give you two different size pom poms.

Step 2

Using the small template and your yarn, hold one end of the yarn on one prong of the cardboard template and wrap the yarn around both prongs until you have a thick bundle of yarn at the top of your template.

Be sure leave room to still see the cut-out portion in the center of the prongs.

Step 3

Cut a 6” piece of yarn and insert one end into the center of the cutout portion of the template, tie the two ends of yarn around the center of the yarn bundle.

Step 4

Slide the bundle of yarn off the template and cut all the loops of yarn one either side of the center knot.

Step 5

Your bundle of yarn should now look like rough pom pom, using your scissors, trim all the excess ends of yarn off to create a rounded and fluffy looking pom pom.

Step 6

Follow steps 1-5 on the large template to create a second, larger pom pom.

Step 7

Using 3 glue dots, glue the two pom poms together by stacking the small on top of the large. 

Step 8

Draw and cut out two oval shapes from the felt strip, these will then be glued to the bottom of the large pom pom to be bunny feet. Using a black marker, draw 3 lines on the tip of the ovals to create toe lines for the feet.

Step 9

Cut a large fuzzy stick in half and bend each fuzzy stick piece into an oval, attach the ends together with a glue dot. Now add another glue dot on the bottom of each bunny ear and push it into them into the top of the small pom pom sticking up straight.

Step 10

Cut out a tiny circle from the same felt you used for the bunny feet, this will be the perfect bunny nose! Ideally, this felt circle should be the same size or smaller than the googly eyes you’re using for your bunny.

Step 11

Using glue dots, finish gluing on all your additional elements; the felt nose, googly eyes and a medium sized pom pom on the back for a bunny tail.

Now that you created an adorable pom pom bunny, you can make one in every color to play with the whole Spring season! Plus, these fluffy baby bunnies will surely make the cutest Easter gifts that are full of handmade magic!

I hope you had as much as I did making this spring time craft! Happy Easter!

About the Author:

Fiber artist and craft enthusiast, Tessa Anderstrom, is the owner of handmade shop Studio Jane which focuses on sustainably made home décor and handmade art. As an avid DIYer with a passion for learning new skills, Tessa enjoys sharing that knowledge with crafters of all ages.

When considering projects to promote the Unplug to Play initiative, we immediately thought of dress up crafts and ideas to get us thinking and playing creatively indoors. There are plenty of activities and things to do to unplug, but some people might be surprised to learn just how easy it is to make their own toys and dress up materials. Our hope is that after reading just how simple it is, you’ll be inspired to do the same! 

To inspire you to unplug this month, we used Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters’s Head in the Clouds Craft Kit to make our very own princess crown! This is a versatile craft that can be used for dress up play, birthday parties, costumes and so much more! 

Materials Needed:

• Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Head in the Clouds Craft Kit
• Hot glue gun (adult supervision)
• Scissors
• 1 sheet of cardstock (any color!)

Instructions:  

Step 1

Gather your materials. Use a piece of cardstock (we used white, but you can use any color) to create your crown. You will be cutting out the shape and decorating it using the glue provided in the kit, or alternatively, a hot glue gun.

Step 2 

Fold your piece of cardstock in half, lengthwise. Press along the fold.

Step 3

Then, cut four triangles along the fold. The triangles should end about halfway down the middle of the paper. This will form your crown’s shape. When you open the paper back up, you will see the crown’s outline.

Step 4

Separate the two pieces and glue the two ends together. I recommend using a hot glue gun for this step, if you have one.

Step 5 

Lay your crown out flat and use the items from Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters's Head in the Clouds Craft Kit to decorate your crown (remember to decorate the outside of your crown, only). Use the pipe cleaners to create a nice border, and add whatever details you’d like!

Use a pencil, or your finger, to wrap the pipe cleaners around and get a nice spiral shape. 

Remember to allow your children to use their creativity and imagination when doing this part, as there is absolutely no right or wrong way to complete this.

Step 6 

Add your finishing touches to the crown. Be sure everything is glued down well before proceeding to the final steps!

Step 7

When your decorating is complete, glue the outside edges of your crown together. (I recommend using a hot glue gun for this part as it will be a little bit sturdier than regular glue). 

When you’re finished, have your child try on their crown and watch their imaginations come to life!

We hope this activity inspires your children to unplug and to engage in the world around them this month. After all, there is nothing better than creating lasting memories, connection and fun with your family!

About the Author: 

Jaclyn Ryan is a mom of four and former teacher. She lives in Connecticut with her family and prefers to engage her children in activities that foster creativity and connection -- and that are also fun!

These Easter Table Napkin Rings are super easy to make, and will have your kids jumping up and down with joy! This is a fun and straightforward craft, so grab your Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Easter Craft Collection and your kids and get them involved in the process. They’ll love everything from constructing the napkin holders to the actual folding of the napkins, and it will make them all the more excited for Easter Day!

Materials Needed:

● Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Easter Craft Collection 
● Scissors
● Hot glue gun (w/adult supervision)

 
Instructions:

Step 1

Start by giving the felt bunny faces some personality! Add pom poms for the nose, googly eyes and pipe clears to construct the bunny’s whiskers. Pipe cleaners are actually the perfect tool to use for the whiskers – simply bend the pipe cleaner in half to get the correct length for two whiskers on each side of the bunny’s face. Straws can be used as well, just cut them down to size! Try using the card stock to add some depth to the bunny’s ears. You can even outline the bunny ears with pipe cleaners!

Step 2

Use the sparkly card stock included in the Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Easter Craft Kit to construct the ‘holder’ part of the napkin holder. Hold the card stock longways, press both ends together and secure with hot glue. The resulting shape should resemble a circle.

Step 3

Attach the ‘holder’ made from cards tock to the back of your bunny’s face using hot glue. Hold it in place for a few seconds to make certain it is secure.

Step 4

Add any finishing touches to your napkin holder and then place a napkin inside!
These Easter Bunny Napkin Rings are so adorably cute! They are a really easy and quick Easter craft that your whole family can make together. They would certainly brighten up any Easter table beautifully. We hope you love them as much as we do.

About the Author: 

Jaclyn Ryan is a mom of four and former teacher. She lives in Connecticut with her family and prefers to engage her children in activities that foster creativity and connection -- and that are also fun!

Materials Needed: 

• Fuzzy Sticks in Red, Blue and Metallics
  • Included in the  Arts + Crafts Supply Library
• Pom Poms in Red, Blue and Metallics
  • Included in the Arts + Crafts Supply Library
• Felt Stripes in Blue and White
  • Included in the Arts + Crafts Supply Library
• Embroidery Thread
  • Included in the Arts + Crafts Supply Library
• Paper Plates (2) or Construction Paper
• Red Paint
• Paint Brush
• Scissors
• Glue Dots or Hot Glue
• Marker

About the Author: 

Fiber artist and craft enthusiast, Tessa Anderstrom, is the owner of handmade shop Studio Jane which focuses on sustainably made home décor and handmade art. As an avid DIYer with a passion for learning new skills, Tessa enjoys sharing that knowledge with crafters of all ages.

Materials Needed: 

• Fuzzy Sticks in an assortment of colors
  • Included in the Arts and Crafts Supply Library
• Pom Poms in an assortment of colors
  • Included in the Arts and Crafts Supply Library 
• Felt Stripes in an assortment of colors
  • Included in the Arts and Crafts Supply Library 
• Sequins in an assortment of colors
  • Included in Arts and Crafts Supply Library 
• Wooden and/or Plastic Beads in an assortment of colors
  • Included in Arts and Crafts Supply Library 
• Metallic String
• Cardboard
• Marker
• Pink Paint
• Paint Brush
• Scissors
• Glue Dots or Hot Glue
• Craft Glue

About the Author: 

Fiber artist and craft enthusiast, Tessa Anderstrom, is the owner of handmade shop Studio Jane which focuses on sustainably made home décor and handmade art. As an avid DIYer with a passion for learning new skills, Tessa enjoys sharing that knowledge with crafters of all ages.

In this tutorial I will show you how to create a watercolor flower painting with 3D hearts, using the Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters I Heart Watercolor. It only requires the kit and a couple supplies that you probably have laying around your house.

Materials Needed:

• Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters I Heart Watercolor 
• 2 pieces of 11x14 watercolor paper (or heavy weight mixed media paper)
• Scissors
• Glue Dots or Hot Glue Gun
• Pencil
• Paper Towel
• Water Cup
• Ribbon (optional for hanging)

Instructions:  

Step 1

Gather your Supplies

Step 2

Take one of the 11x14” pieces of paper and use your pencil to draw about 15-20 hearts. They don’t have to be perfect. You want different sizes.

Step 3

Next, grab your Kid Southgeorgiaveincenters Watercolor Set, use the pink to start painting over the hearts. Notice in the image how loose the paint is applied. Do not worry about staying inside the lines because they will be cut out once they are dry.

Step 4

Continue painting the hearts with the gold, red and silver. Once all the hearts are painted, set the paper to the side to let it dry.

Step 5

Let’s start painting our flowers! Grab the second piece of 11x14” paper and put some pink on your paint brush. Start your tulip by painting a curved petal, starting on the right side of the flower.

Step 6

Next paint a petal more up and down right next the first petal, this will be the middle petal. Finish the flower by painting a third petal curving the left side of the flower. You have created a tulip!

Step 7

Continue painting tulips around the paper leaving white space in between them. Remember to paint different sizes to make the bouquet more interesting.

Step 8

Next put some red paint on your brush and start filling the white space you left, with red daisy-like flowers. Paint approximately three large ones.

Step 9

Start with a red open circle and use it as a guide to create the petals around it. Some of the petals should be hitting up against the tulips you have already painted.

Step 10

If you need to add more tulips, as you add in your red flowers, do so now.

Step 11

Next, to add some pretty details, put some gold paint on your brush and create thin lines for stems coming out of some of the flowers, then add little gold circles for berries.

Step 12

Continue adding gold berries throughout the painting.

Step 13

Mix the red and gold paint together.

Step 14

Use the red and gold mixture to fill more of the white space with loose flowers, like shown in the image.

Step 15

At this point you should have some pretty flowers and gold berries on your paper!

Step 16

Mix the green and silver paint together.

Step 17

Using the green mixture, create thin lines for stems at the bottom and along the outside of the flower bouquet.

Step 18

For the stems on the sides and top of the bouquet, add leaves.

Step 19

Now you have completed the flower bouquet! Next we add in the hearts!

Step 20

Cut out the painted hearts you made in the beginning (make sure they are fully dry first).

Step 21

Using your fingers bend the hearts in half, enough where they look like butterfly wings.

Step 22

Once they are all bent, start applying them to the painting. Using glue dots, apply one dot to the back of each heart.

Note: If you are using a hot glue gun for this step, let an adult assist you.

Step 23

Start placing them in groupings throughout your painting. I try to mix up the colors so not all of one color is grouped together.

Step 24

You have completed the project! You can write on it and give it as a card or you can attach a ribbon so you can hang it on a wall. Happy Painting!

About the Author 

Rachel is the artist and founder of Pink Puddle Studio LLC. Her mural work has been televised on CNBC’s Cash Pad. Her work has been featured in HGTV Magazine, Phoenix New Times, Phoenix Home & Garden, Arizona Highways Magazine and College Times.

Connect with Rachel on instagram @pinkpuddlestudio and www.pinkpuddlestudio.com