Packing tape transfers

from http://www.quietfish.com/notebook/?p=586

Materials:

• clear packing tape
• magazine or photo with image
• spoon
• scissors
  

Instructions:

• http://www.quietfish.com/notebook/wp-content/packingtapescan.jpg

Gingerbread man

This was created at our local Ontario Early Years Centre.

Materials:

• brown construction paper or craft foam (the one shown was made with craft foam)
• festive stickers, ribbons etc to be used for decorations (the one shown used festive foam stickers)
• glue
• markers, crayons, glitter etc for further decoration
• ribbon (if you wish to make a hanging decoration)
  

Instructions:

• have the gingerbread man shape cut out by an adult
• decorate with stickers etc
• affix ribbon (if yo uwish to make a hanging decoration)

Santa

This was created at our local Ontario Early Years Centre.

Materials:

• paper plate
• cotton balls
• red construction paper
• white glue
• stickers, markers, crayons, glitter etc for decorating
  

Instructions:

• cut out hat shapes (red hat and white trim)
• glue hat to paper plate
• create eyes, nose, cheeks with stickers or markers
• glue on cotton balls as beard and hat decoration

Six pointed snowflakes

Materials:

• An existing pattern (choose from the following PDF files*: Pattern One, Pattern Two, Pattern Three or the blank template should you wish to make your own design)
• use this legend to decipher the folding symbols
• material for making the snowflake (practise with regular printer paper, delicate snowflakes can be made out of tissue or tracing paper, more permanent snowflakes can be made from vilene (as recommended in this Kiddley.com post)
• should you wish, materials for decorating your snowflakes (eg. glitter and glue)

Instructions:

1. print out the desired pattern (PDF file*) and transfer the pattern to your desired material or print it out as a practise run (be sure to check the specifications of your printer before printing on unusual media -- using "out of spec" materials can cause permanent damage to your printing hardware) (These instructions use Pattern Two (PDF file*))
   
   
2. Cut along the vertical red dashed line as shown below:
   
   
   
3. Discard the small piece.
4. Turn the square face down as shown below:
   
   
   
   
5. Fold the paper in half, so that the cut edge meets the uncut edge (and the pattern is completely visible).
   
   
   
   
6. The paper should look like this after the fold:
   
   
   
   
7. Raising the lower right hand corner, make the "valley fold" by folding the paper at a 30 degree angle as indicated in the pattern. (The paper edge should line up with the "mountain fold" line.)
   
   
   
   
8. Once folded your paper should look like this:
   
   
   
   
9. Turn the paper face down to look like this:
   
   
   
   
10. Raising the lower right hand corner, again fold the paper at a 30 degree angle as indicated in the pattern. (The paper edge should line up with previous fold line.)
    
    
    
    
11. Once folded your paper should look like this:
    
    
    
    
12. Cut along the curved red dashed line.
    
    
    
    
13. The right hand side of your paper should now be rounded.
    
    
    
    
14. Fold the paper in half (blank side under the patterned side).
    
    
    
    
    
    
15. Cut out the pattern along the red dashed line.
    
    
    
    
16. The finished piece should look something like this:
    
    
    
    Note that one edge is longer than the other. This is what makes it a 6 pointed snowflake. If you are making your own design, remember to leave some of the folded edges in place -- if you cut these all away the paper will fall apart!
    
    
17. Begin to unfold the snowflake.
    
    
    
    
    
18. And again.
    
    
    
    
19. And again.
    
    
    
    
20. Voila! Your six pointed snowflake.
    
    
    
    
21. Decorate with glitter etc.

As you get proficient with the folding, you no longer need a pattern or a template, just an approximate square. The smaller the square, the thinner the paper you should use or it gets too difficult to fold accurately.

I've posted three patterns here.

These can be taped to windows, used as tree decorations, present decorations, etc, etc!

--

(*) When printing out PDF documents, be sure to set "Page Scaling" to "none" (you'll want the document to print at 100%). You may need to adjust the template on your paper depending on your printer's "offset" settings.

Six pointed snowflake patterns

Patterns:

• Pattern One (PDF file*)
  
  
  
• Pattern Two (PDF file*)
  
  
  
• Pattern Three (PDF file*)
  
• blank template (PDF file*) so that you can try making your own patterns
• use this legend to decipher the folding symbols

Instructions:

1. print out the desired pattern (PDF file*) and transfer the pattern to your desired material or print it out as a practise run (be sure to check the specifications of your printer before printing on unusual media -- using "out of spec" materials can cause permanent damage to your printing hardware)
2. See the following post for detailed instructions.

--

(*) When printing out PDF documents, be sure to set "Page Scaling" to "none" (you'll want the document to print at 100%). You may need to adjust the template on your paper depending on your printer's "offset" settings.

--

Other sources of snowflake patterns:

http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/dstredulinsky/patterns.html

Approximating a square

Materials:

• a rectangular piece of paper
• a hard working surface (eg. table top)
  

Instructions:

1. Take a rectangular piece of paper.
   
   
   
2. Fold the paper at right angles. In the example below, the left edge of the page aligns perfectly with the top edge of the page.
   
   
   
   
3. Lay the folded paper to look like the photo below.
   
   
   
   
4. Fold the left edge over, using the vertical edge of the folded triangle as a guide.
   
   
   
   
5. Align the bottom edge of the left flap with the bottom edge of the folded triangle.
   
   
   
   
6. To look like this:
   
   
   
   
7. Undo the folded left flap. Your sheet should look like this.
   
   
   
   
8. Cutting along the folded vertical edge will give you a good approximation of a square!

Paper bags

from http://www.quietfish.com/notebook/?p=578


Materials:

• scissors
• tape (or glue)
• paper (for funky product, use old greeting cards, old thick magazine covers, old calendars)
  

Instructions:

• http://www.quietfish.com/notebook/?p=578

Origami box

from http://www.kid-at-art.com/htdoc/lesson16.html via http://www.quietfish.com/notebook/?p=573

Materials:

• scissors
• pencil
• ruler
• glue
• T-square or triangle
• paper (to make it more fun use old greeting cards, old calendars, thick magazine covers etc)
  

Instructions:

• http://www.kid-at-art.com/htdoc/lesson16.html

Plate for Santa

This was created at our local Ontario Early Years Centre exclusively uses Christmas themed foam stickers.

Materials:

• small paper plate


• hole punch (for adult to use)


• ribbon


• things to decorate plate in theme of snacks for Santa Claus (such as foam Christmas stickers, markers, crayons, paint, cutouts, glue)

Instructions:

• deocrate plate to look like snacks for Santa Claus


• punch hole in paper plate near the "top"


• put ribbon through the hole and tie in a loop

Use the plate to hang as a tree or door decoration!

Homemade Snowglobe

Have a look at this great post:
http://kiddley.com/2006/12/01/make-your-own-snowglobe/

With notes about What Not To Do:
http://littleelephants.typepad.com/little_elephants/2006/10/arts_crafts_how.html

and about what worked:
http://littleelephants.typepad.com/little_elephants/2006/10/snow_globe_succ.html