Yes! Baking and decorating cookies with your kids qualifies as a craft. It’s fun, it’s creative – it’s the perfect thing to do with your kids on a long winter afternoon.

Of course, TV commercials, especially around the winter holidays, try to get you to buy pre-made cookie dough and to just bake it. This may be easy, but where’s the fun in that? Making cookies from scratch is actually very easy. Chocolate chip cookies are always a hit, and in a way they are the easiest because you just mix the dough and drop it by the spoonfuls – no need to refrigerate and roll out the dough.

But homemade sugar cookies are exquisite, easy and fun to decorate. Here is the recipe that I like to use:

Sugar Cookies Recipe

Ingredients for 10 large cookies (double the recipe if you want more):

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. In a large bowl sift together the flour, salt and baking powder.
2. Cream butter and sugar, using a whisker or an electric mixer, until fluffy.
3. Beat in the egg.
4. Stir in the vanilla.
5. Mix thoroughly to create dough. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
7. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness (we like our cookies thick).
8. Cut out shapes using cookie cutters.
9. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake until edges begin to brown, about 15 minutes.
10. Cool and decorate, if you wish (trust me, your kids will wish).

Icing:

1/3 cup softened butter
1 pound confectioner’s sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix icing ingredients together until smooth. Separate into different bowls and add a drop of food coloring to each bowl. Spread on cookies with a butter knife, and sprinkle with candy sprinkles or with colored sugar.

Photo by omniNate

I started doing handprint projects with my kids when they were about 9 months old. I now have a collection of hand prints in different sizes – a fun reminder of how they grow up each year.

Needless to say, most kids LOVE doing hand prints – they give them permission to be messy! Although I have to say that over the years I have come across several children who didn’t like to get messy and didn’t like the way the wet paint felt on their skin. Just try and see how your child reacts.

Instructions are hardly necessary for this project… simply paint the kids’ hands with washable paint, using a paintbrush. If they’re old enough they can paint their own hand. Then have them press their palm against white or off-white construction paper to create the print. They can decorate the print while still wet with glitter, or they can wait for it to dry and then decorate it with stickers, or glue beads, buttons and feathers to the print.

With little kids, it’s really fun to create footprints, by the way. Those little feet look just adorable on paper.

The only drawback to this activity: small kids tend to smear paint all over themselves before you have a chance to wipe the paint off their hands. So dress them accordingly (or undress them before doing this project), limit this activity to the kitchen or to the backyard, always use washable paint, and get ready for some messy fun!

Photo by woodleywonderworks

Kids love making homemade photo frames because, unlike some other crafts, they are practical: you can actually use them, display them, and they make great gifts for the grandparents.

CD Box Picture Frames

The easiest way to make DIY picture frames is to use empty CD boxes. Do you have those lying around the house too? If you don’t, they’re very cheap to buy at computer stores.

Basically, you just need to open the CD box and take out the paper inserts and the molded plastic piece into which the CD fits.

Cut your photo to just a bit smaller than the box. Attach the photo to the clear plastic with sticky tape, facing to the outside, and attach a piece of cardboard behind it as backing to protect the photo.

Decorate the outside of the box with whatever you want to! As always, let your kids decide how they want to go about this project. You can use pieces of ribbon, colorful fabric, seashells, buttons, colorful paper, or a combination. You can even decorate with stickers or with stamps if you want a quick, non-messy project.

When your frame is finished, open the box out to stand it up.

Craft Sticks Picture Frame

Another easy way to create homemade picture frames is to use craft sticks (see photo above). Select a photo or a piece of homemade art, trim it so that it fits into a frame made out of four craft sticks, glue it to a piece of cardboard, then glue the craft sticks together to make the frame, and glue them to the photo. Decorate as you wish.

Photo by naan

I was recently browsing through the card aisles at a local drugstore, and I couldn’t help but thinking that as much as store-bought cards can be pretty, they are never quite as thoughtful as homemade cards.

You have to admit that buying a store-bought Valentine’s Day card is the easy way out, especially if you don’t add a hand-written personal message. Sure, writing a personal message can be hard, but it is so much more meaningful!

When it comes to kids, while they often can’t put thoughts to paper as effectively or as eloquently as adults can, making a homemade Valentine’s Day card is a wonderful way for them to express their creativity and their love for the recipient.

A homemade Valentine’s Day card can be elaborate, or it can be quite simple. One of my favorite cards is a three-layer heart-shaped card. Simply cut out three heart shapes in different sizes from three different types of paper (red construction paper, gift-wrap paper and colorful tissue paper in shades of red and pink work well) and glue them to each other, the large heart at the bottom and the smallest on top. Attach a small envelope with your Valentine’s Day message inside using a red ribbon, then fold to create a card.

Your Valentine’s Day card doesn’t have to be heart-shaped though! Little boys will probably enjoy different shapes and colors, such as simple geometric shapes or even simple car shapes glued to each other. Dinosaurs are always a hit with boys – use this simple template to trace and cut a dinosaur shape.

As always when crafting with kids, let them take the lead and try not to insist on some “ideal” result for the project. Focus on the process rather than on the results, and have fun!

Photo by Cláudia Assad

February 14, 2010 will mark the start of the Year of the Tiger on the Chinese Lunar Calendar.

Chinese New Year is a major Chinese holiday and is typically celebrated with large family gatherings, gift giving, eating of symbolic foods and the display of decorations, all meant to bring good luck for the New Year and to celebrate the arrival of spring.

During Chinese New Year children receive a red envelope containing money as a gift from older family members. Red is considered a lucky color by the Chinese. It is also believed that the red envelope has positive energy that protects people from evil, and that it will bring luck to the giver and to the recipient.

One of my favorite Chinese New Year crafts is making a homemade red envelope and decorating it with Chinese good luck symbols.

Instructions are simple:

Print out this envelope template from Crafty Templates onto red paper. Enlarge the image prior to printing to get a bigger envelope. Alternatively, you can trace and copy this template onto thick red paper such as construction paper. Cut it out.

Fold the left, right and bottom flaps and tape together with a clear tape, or glue together. Leave the upper flap open. Later, you will tuck this flap inside to close the envelope.

Use a thin paintbrush dipped in gold paint, or a gold pen, to draw a good-luck Chinese character on the front of the envelope.

After the paint has dried, place a bill inside the envelope and seal it.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Photo by Silly Jilly

Snow is magical, especially for kids. While grownups often think about snow in terms of the many inconveniences it causes us, kids look at snow and see something beautiful, pure and inviting – something that often means snow days and fun play and hot chocolate when you go inside. Magic!

Snowflakes are magical too. They come in many different shapes and sizes and are often symmetrical. This symmetry of the snowflake crystal has inspired one of the simplest yet most enjoyable winter crafts: creating paper snowflakes.

Creating paper snowflakes with your kids is simple. Even young children can do it with almost no help, which is a big bonus, because the less help they need from you, the more they are going to enjoy the craft.

6 Simple Steps for Making Paper Snowflakes

1. Cut a circle out of plain white paper. Printer paper is fine.

2. Fold the circle in half.

3. Fold in half again.

4. Fold one more time, creating a cone shape, and press down well to make the cone as flat as possible.

5. Cut shapes on the sides and on the top, leaving the bottom side of the cone intact. We simply cut small triangles on all sides, spacing them out evenly, but you can cut far more elaborate shapes to get many different interesting patterns.

6. Carefully unfold the paper to reveal your paper snowflake masterpiece! This is the most exciting part of this craft.

The snowflake in the photo was made by my 8-year-old with absolutely no help from me. Younger children might need a bit more help, but as you can see, this is the type of craft that both kids and parents love – kids because they can work independently and create many different surprising shapes; and adults because it’s a mess-free craft.

Winter is absolutely the best time for doing crafts with your kids.

Dreary weather, nothing much to do outside, long gloomy afternoons… even if you’re super busy (and hey, we all are!) try to do a weekly craft with your kids. It shouldn’t take longer than an hour, and will provide you with a wonderful bonding experience.

One of my favorite winter crafts is making a cereal box snowman. It’s a great way to use empty cereal boxes, and there’s a lot of room for creativity and imagination. Preparation is simple: fill the box with dry beans to give it weight and keep it stable; seal it with tape; wrap the box with white gift wrap; then use colorful construction paper, markers and your imagination to turn the box into a snowman!

This project is especially fun if you have a few empty cereal boxes, so that each kid gets to make their own snowman.

I would hate to give too many instructions on how to do this craft, because I truly believe that it’s all about creativity and imagination, but a few hints include:

♦ To make the carrot nose, cut a triangle from an orange-colored construction paper and glue it to the front of the box.

♦ To make a scarf, glue a long strip of construction paper to the bottom of the box, wrapping it. use scissors to fringe the ends. Or tie an old scarf around the bottom of the box!

♦ You can use either construction paper pieces or markers for the eyes.

Whatever you do, remember: the end result is not as important as the process. Happy crafting!

Photo by Carissa GoodNCrazy

I love doing crafts with my kids, especially in the winter. Cooped up inside the house, those long afternoons need to be filled with SOMETHING, and so help me God, that “something” is NOT going to be television.

It’s not that I don’t allow my kids to ever watch TV. On the contrary, they watch TV almost every day, but we limit their “screen time,” which includes television, video games and computer, to no more than two hours each day. The rest of the time, I expect them to play freely, using their ridiculously large collection of toys and their imagination. But I also love creating and crafting with my kids and make it a point to create something together at least once a week.

Here are a few tried and true tips for successful crafting with kids.

1. Relax! Crafting with kids does not need to be stressful or elaborate. On the contrary – you’ll find that with just a few basic supplies in the house you can create all kinds of fun stuff. Most kids don’t have high expectations when it comes to doing crafts – they simply enjoy the process. Adjust your own expectations accordingly.

2. Don’t be a perfectionist. Before you even start, you must promise me to let go of your perfectionism. If you’re like me, you are a perfectionist and you like the things you create to look nice. But when crafting with kids, things tend to get messy and disorderly and, well, not perfect. If you try to make things “perfect,” your project would turn from family fun into a nightmare!

3. Don’t mind the mess. This is always a good idea when spending time with kids, and it’s especially true when it comes to doing crafts with kids. Let’s face it – kids don’t share our standards of cleanliness and orderliness. There’s no use fighting it – expect them to respect a few basic rules (such as not setting the house on fire or drawing with permanent markers on the walls), but other than that, accept that when you have kids in your life, things are going to get messy.

4. The end result is not as important as the process. This is a big one. Us adults tend to place a lot of emphasis on the final product, but when you craft with your kids, the focus should definitely be on spending time together and having fun. The end result is not nearly as important as quality time spent together.

5. “Crafting” can mean many things. When you look for crafting projects, don’t limit yourself to things that can be done with scissors and glue. Baking, for example, is certainly a craft, and so is cooking. I love baking with my kids – it’s such a great project for a long weekend afternoon.

6. Allow your kids to pick the craft. Letting them be in charge will make this so much more fun for them. If you worry that they might pick a project that’s too hard or requires a special trip to the craft supplies store, give them a couple of options based on what you’re willing to do and let them decide between those options.

7. Let your kids work as independently as possible. Unless each of you makes their own creation, your job is essentially to supervise, not to create. You should be there and help when they need help, but try to avoid taking over and doing things for your kids that they can do by themselves.

Crafting with kids provides you with a wonderful opportunity to spend quality time together. There are many different projects you can do together. We are excited to announce that starting this week, this blog will feature a weekly craft project. We’re looking forward to inspiring and to being inspired!

Photo by terren

Crafting with kids can take on so many forms and can depend entirely on the kids temperament, interest and, occasionally, gender.

How many times have you been amazed at how your little girl could quietly sit there placing beads on pipe cleaners? Turn around and hand that to your little boy and they may very likely take the place of boulders in the back of the dump truck or, even better, make excellent sounds as they get flung against the kitchen floor.

Crafting with every child is a different experience, but often there truly is a disparity between crafts for boys compared to girls.

Boys Craft Ideas:

Finger painting: Combine the desire to get dirty with color and texture and you’ve got a great crafting combination.

Glue blobs: What would be more fun than squeezing globs of glue onto wax paper? One the blobs are dried, he can decorate them with markers and remove them from the wax paper so he has a collection of thingamamblobs!

Explore the outdoors: Most of us don’t think of digging in the dirt or going on a hike before starting a project, but what a great way to get them excited and use a little energy before starting a  craft project (chances are you may be able to get a few extra minutes of craft time if the energy is out of their system). Gather leaves, sticks and rocks and then use them to create unique pictures or imaginary settings for toys. Glue leaves to paper or create stick houses!

Building with boxes: One of the most creative items we have around the house are boxes. Boxes can be used for anything! Gather boxes in a variety of sizes and shapes. Then have your little boy decorate them with markers and start building. They can be glued together to create buildings, cars, roads, spaceships or kept individually for an entire city!

Create collages: Hand your little guy a stack of old magazines (old car magazines, National Geographic or toy catalogs are great for kids) and a pair of child proof scissors and let them go to town. Some stages love destroying, so the act of using scissors is appealing to them, but also provides a purpose. Have them create a collage with the pictures they’ve cut out.

Rock and roll: There’s nothing like a noise maker to get a boy excited. Why not allow him to make his own and identify the levels of sound? Empty coffee cans and gather an assortment of objects (buttons, coins, magnets, rocks) to place inside. He can then place into the cans and guess which will be louder or quieter. He can test objects together and try variations they make allowing him to use listening skills to observe and compare the noises.