Candy Cane Crafts

Ok, so we are a little under a week away until Christmas. Up this week we have a Christmas favourite, the candy cane! We have some fun candy cane crafts for you but first a little history on this yummy sweet treat.

The candy cane first originated in Cologne, Germany when a choirmaster at a cathedral wanted all the children there to be quiet during a Christmas Eve ceremony. He asked a local candy maker to create a treat for these children to help them stay quiet and he came up with the candy cane. Candy canes are typically white with red stripes and have a peppermint flavour but now you’ll see all sorts of flavours and colourings. The first candy canes were made by hand and eventually a Chicago based company patented the candy cane shape in the early 1920’s and machines started making them.

We’re not making candy canes this week in a cooking sense; we are making them in a craft sense.

Check out the two fun and easy Christmas candy cane crafts that we tried out...

Twine Wrapped Candy Canes

These are super easy.

All you need is a candy cane or two (depends on how many of these decorations you want to make) some twine, hot glue, and ribbon.

Start by gluing the bottom of the candy cane and start wrapping with twine. Periodically put some glue on the candy cane as you wrap it. Eventually you’ll have a fully twine wrapped candy cane.

Add a twine or ribbon bow to the top along with a twine hoop for hanging.

Paper Candy Canes

This is another fun and simple craft.

For this one you’ll need markers, paper, a ruler, scissors, and tape.

First thing you’ll need to do is cut the paper into a square.

Then draw lines around two edges in varying widths and colours. Most we did were four to five lines or you can do three to six. We used a ruler as we wanted straighter lines.

Next turn the paper over and starting on the corner with no lines, start to roll the paper.

Once it’s all rolled up, tape the last corner down. You’ll have a candy stick now.

To turn it onto a candy cane, while flattening as you go, curl over one end with your finger or a fatter marker and manipulate it to a hook end.

Trim the end of the curled end.

Hang them up or display them through your house for the holidays!

Sand Castle - Sand Crafts for All Ages

Happy first day of August! This week our shade is called “Sand Castle” and it’s a bronzy metallic one.

We of course are going to go with this sand castle theme and we are going to share with you how to create some sand castles in the comfort of your own home.

Take a look at some of the cool ideas that we found and revamped a bit...

1. The first idea we saw was really simple and so easy to create. All you need is a simple picture of a sand castle (you can find a colouring sheet online or you can draw a simple sand castle). Grab some dry sand and then put glue along the outline of the sand castle. Cover the glue with sand. Gently remove the excess sand.  If there are some other little objects on the sheet you can colour them or attach 3D pieces to it.

2. Another idea we saw was making a sand castle scene with sand paper. For this you would get a good sized piece of cardstock. Light blue might be good for the sky. Then you would cut out a sand castle from some light coloured sand paper. You can freehand the sand castle or find a design to trace online. The sand castle would be in a few pieces once cut out.

Now find some slightly darker sand paper and cut out a design that looks like sand on the beach for the bottom level of the paper.

Attach your sand castle decorated as you like. It’s ok if it’s sticking off your paper.

Now add whatever else you’d like (you can create these with punches, foam bits, or whatever else might be able to find and create with). Add whatever details you’d like as well. This one had a bucket, sea shells, shovel, sun but you can choose what you want. Also, you can decorate the background too by drawing on some clouds, birds, and some waves for the ocean.

3. This next one is simple for the young ones to make. Grab some tan paper. Cut out a bunch of shapes (rectangles, squares, and triangles are best to make more of) you can get the younger kids to safely try cutting out some shapes too.

Prepare on your own or with the help of your youngster a larger piece of tan cardstock (big enough for your shapes to fit on) and cover the top half with blue tissue paper. Lay out the sand castle and then glue it all down and display.

4. If you’re looking for a little bit more adventurous you can give this one a try. It’s more for an adult to create. It would be a perfect display to have at a party or even a wedding!

You’ll want to find some boxes. Think different shapes and sizes to make it look like a tiered wedding cake. Connect them all with masking tape.

Then connect tin cans (you might want two pairs of matching ones and a smaller one for the top) to the corner of the tiers with tape and on top of them attach a upside down single cup of an egg carton.

Now grab some Mod Podge and sponge it all over the “sand castle” and cover with sand. After putting on one layer tip off the excess and let it dry and then add on another layer to cover any gaps. Let it dry completely.

To decorate the sand castle, you can go and collect shells from the beach or create your own beach dollars or shells. You can also add rocks, glass, and other classic beach adornments to it as well.

5. The last sandy craft we found was a messy one but fun for kids. Get some white construction paper and on two separate sheets draw two separate sand castles. They don’t have to be the same. Then cut them out.

Take these outside and cover them with white glue. Then cover with sand. Place it in the sun so it can dry up.

Connect the ends together with a stapler so that you have a sand castle “pen” that you can play in or just look at, up to you!

Links:

http://makingmamamagic.blogspot.com/2014/07/sandcastle-sand-art.html

https://www.shoregirlscreations.com/2009/07/sandcastle.html

https://iheartcraftythings.com/sand-paper-sand-castle-craft.html

http://www.michellepaigeblogs.com/2012/08/make-sand-castle-centerpiece.html

https://buggyandbuddy.com/sandcastle-craft/

DIY Paper Heart Wreath

Happy Groundhog Day. I guess we should’ve made a card with a cute little groundhog on it. Oh well. We are still in the Valentine mood and this week we’ve come up with a fairly easy and super cute decoration that you can spruce your house, bedroom, or classroom up with this Valentine season.

We are going to show you how to make a heart wreath. It’s a very simple craft to do. All you need is some cardboard (or a paper plate), cardstock, patterned paper (optional), glue, something heart shaped to trace (you can use a cutting device if you have one, like a Silhouette), and some string or ribbon.

If you have some sturdy cardboard, you can cut out a ring for the wreath base. Ours is a 12 inch circle on the outside and the inside circle is about 9 inches. You can also use a paper plate as your base if you have one of the more flimsy paper plates. Using the really thick ones won’t allow you to flatten it down so that you can stick the hearts on. We tried! If you want to get even more Valentiney, you can cut a heart out of cardboard as your base and you will have a heart shaped heart wreath.

Next up we cut out a variety of different coloured hearts in a variety of sizes. We used Nicole’s Silhouette and a punch, but you can also find some different sized hearts to trace yourself and then cut out. Cookie cutters are always easy and good to cut out. You can also find templates online as well.

Another thing you can do, is cut hearts out of patterned paper. We are going with a red, white, and pink theme and have found patterned paper to match with that but you can do really whatever colours you want.

The amount of hearts all depends on the size of the wreath, but also on how full you want it to look. We just picked out a bunch of paper and cut a bunch of hearts until we used some of all the paper we chose. It’s better to have too many hearts than to have not enough and then have to cut more.

Start laying out the hearts on the wreath as you cut them that will also give you a better idea of how many you need to cut. Also, it might be a good idea once you’ve laid the hearts out as you want to take a picture so you can refer back to it while you glue.

We are going to use a couple of gluing methods. Some we are going to glue down with our glue tape; they will be more of the base hearts and as we build up on that base, we’ll glue some down with the glue tape and also use a glue gun to make some of the hearts 3D.

After you’ve got all the hearts just where you want them, attach some string, fishing wire, or ribbon to the top so that you can hang your wreath up for all to see and enjoy.

Take a look for some more inspiration:

http://happyhourprojects.com/heart-wreath/

https://typicallysimple.com/scrapbook-paper-heart-wreath/

https://www.theresourcefulmama.com/paper-plate-valentines-day-heart-wreath/

Origami Hearts

With less than a month before Valentine’s Day, we are going to start our Valentine themed posts. We’ve got some cute crafts and some yummy recipes to try out for you so we hope you enjoy them!

This week we are going to try something a little different. We are going to make heart shaped origami creations that you can hand out to your friends, family, and sweetie or you can just use them as little decorations.

Nicole is the origami pro so she is going to do all of the folding.

You will need a square piece of origami paper or thinner paper. Cardstock is a bit too thick so you probably don't want to use it for this type of project. We’ve picked a piece of origami paper that you can buy in a pack from the craft store; it is a 5 7/8 inch square but it doesn’t matter what size you use as long as it’s square. Use a smaller piece if you want to make a smaller heart or larger to make a larger one.

1. Take your piece of origami paper and fold in half and unfold, so you have a centre line.

2. Fold the top two corners down to the centre line. Flip over.
     Your paper now looks like a triangle on top of a rectangle.

3. Fold the bottom of the paper, up to meet the bottom of the triangle portion. Flip over.

4. Fold both sides in to the centre line. Unfold.

5. This part is a bit tricky to explain. Fold the two sides in again, however, the triangle portion on the top needs to be folded 'inside-out'. Do this by opening the top corner and folding in the bottom portion first, then folding the top in. Some of the folds on the top will be opposite from the original fold, but on the same line.

6. Flip over. Fold the top point down to meet the bottom edge. Flip over again.

7. Open the flaps at the top, and flatten the sides in.

8. Fold the inner corners down to make to points at the top. Fold the points down a bit to create flat tops.

9. Flip over.

10. Lift up the bottom of the heart to find a little pocket.

Now you have a cute origami heart! You can leave it as it, or write a little message and put it inside the little pocket  to give to someone special, or you can even use it as a little Valentine card and write a “to and from” note on the front.