Monday, April 30, 2012

Wooden Butterfly Wall Hanging

 This is a picture of how my butterflies turned out.
Be creative and make yours any way you'd like
I will tell you the way I made mine.

 You will need some wooden butterflies. I had three large and one small.
Mine had wires already on them for antenae. If you need to, use your own
wire to create antenae and glue or tape them on. Also, mine had holes
in the tops of the wings. To make holes, have an adult hammer or drill
small holes. You'll also need some different colors of acrylic paint,
some gell glitter, some thin ribbon, a black marker and a paint brush.

 Place some paper underneath before beginning so you
can keep your table clean. I painted my first butterfly yellow.

 I drew a light pencil circle in the center of the butterfly,
then I squeezed dots of glitter gel onto all four corners.
With my paintbrush I spread the glitter around the wings.

 I painted the small butterfly pink. When they were both dry
I glued the pink butterfly on top.

On the other two butterflies I drew a curved line to guide me,
since I wanted to paint them two different colors.

 Paint the bottom of one and the top of the other one color.
I used light green.

 Paint the rest another color. I painted mine blue.

 For an easy way to put different sizes of paint dots
on your butterflies to decorate them, find things around
your house like the eraser of a pencil, toothpicks,
a glue stick, a wooden spoon and the end of your paint brush.

 This is where your own creativity comes in. 
I used some big dots, some medium, some tiny,
and I painted some parts of the decorations with my brush.
I also drew on my butterflies with the black marker.

 I used the glitter for more decoration. I used it as the body of one
butterfly and the marker for the others.
Let the paint and glitter dry. I left mine overnight.

Cut two pieces of ribbon about 2 inches long. Tie this between
the three butterflies. Be sure to make knots. Cut another
piece of ribbon about 14 inches. Tie this from one end to the other.
 You can see the way I pinned mine to hang them up.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

HOW TO MAKE A FUN AND UNIQUE FRIENDSHIP BRACELET

I am going to show you how to make a fun friendship bracelet using a cardboard octagon and yarn.

 Start by using box cardboard. Cut a square that is about 3 ¼ X 3 ¼ inches in size. Cut each corner so that it makes an octagon. On each of the eight sides cut a slit about ½ inch. Poke a hole in the middle using something sharp. It would be smart to have an adult do all of the cutting for you.






 Cut seven pieces of yarn about one yard long. You can use seven different colors of yarn. For this one I used pink variegated yarn.







Hold the strings in your hand and make sure all the tops are even. Tie a knot about one inch away from the top.





Using a pencil poke the knot through the hole in the center of the octagon.




On the other side of the octagon separate the strings into seven of the slots. (You will be using the other slot when braiding the yarn.)




Notice me holding the yarn that is three strings away from the empty slot. You will begin braiding by using this string.








Take that string to cross over the other two, putting it into the empty slot. Continue doing this using the third string over, then placing that in the empty slot.








The braid will begin to appear underneath the octagon where the knot is. Do not pull on the braid.








Continue your braid until it is the length you want your bracelet to be. When I made my multi-colored one it was about twelve inches long, which wraps around my wrist twice. This cute pink one is about eighteen inches long, which wraps around my arm three times.








 



Pull each string out of the slots. 
Pull your braid out of the octagon. 
At the end of the braid, tie another knot.




  
 



Cut the remaining ends so 
that there is about one inch after the knot.






 Wrap your bracelet around your arm then tie or tuck the knots to secure them. You will have yourself a very cute bracelet!