March 31: Easter garland

We started this year's Easter with a garland made out of foam shapes. The children traced around cookie cutters and then cut out the flowers, bunnies and eggs. This was quite challenging for the below 5 group! They then decorated the shapes and strung them on some yarn. As always, we thought they did a great job!

and this was our "grown-up" version :) 

Summer Craft Classes at VCIS in Pasig

Now the summer holidays have started, we are offering craft classes in Pasig (near Valle Verde Country Club. We are offering the following classes: 

AGE 3 AND ABOVE : this class is for children who don't have a long attention span yet and will work more on the children’s fine motor skills. The crafts will be completed in an one hour so that the children can have a sense of accomplishment every time they come to class. We’ll start with Easter decorations and move on to other fun projects including a gift for Mothers Day!

AGE 6 AND ABOVE: For the older kids who have a longer attention span, the crafts will be completed over more than one session. The children will be designing their own projects using all sorts of materials and skills. Among others, we will be using fabrics, paint, felt, foam and natural materials to make bags, pencil cases and homework notebook covers for the new school year. We’ll be practicing basic sewing in making pillow cases, decorative wall art as well as fashion accessories and in May we’ll be making a truly beautiful Mothers Day gift! The older/craftier kids will also learn how to use a sewing machine for some of the projects.

And as a bonus, if there is any particular craft your child has been nagging to make, they can bring it and if feasible, we’ll do it with them!

VCIS SUMMER CLASS SCHEDULE

Tuesday and Wednesday starting April 5 up to May 18 ( no classes Holy Week) 12 sessions

3 yrs old and up  3.30 - 4.30pm            

P4,880 for VCIS students  

P5,400 for non VCIS students

P500 per session for walk-in kids

6 yrs old and up  1.30 - 3.00pm            

P5,400 for VCIS students  

P6,500 for non VCIS students

P600 per session for walk-in kids

THE SMALL PRINT:

If you have a vacation planned during the course, please let us know as we can try to adjust the number  (and therefore also the cost) of sessions your child will attend. We also accept walk-in children who come on a per session basis. 

Classes are 1hr and 1.5hrs long, but we extend whenever necessary as we feel it is important that the children actually finish their projects. Some children are naturally faster workers and others more deliberate thoughtful planners, and we try and accommodate both as much as possible!

LOCATION

Victory Christian International School

Robinson's Circle (nr Valle Verde Country Club)

Pasig  (plenty of parking available!)

CONTACT:  Karen 0917-5283269   or   ILoveCrafts.manila@gmail.com

The chicken or the egg tutorial

Last year we made this chicken and egg hanger for easter. we printed a tutorial in this months MADS magazine and here it is for all the non-MADS members out there!

Materials

1. Craft foam in assorted colors.  We used yellow for the body as well as red and green and a small scrap of orange for the beak. You’ll need 1 bond paper sized sheet for the body and smaller pieces for the other colors.  You can get packs of assorted craft foam at some National Bookstores and most branches of Office Warehouse.

2.  PVA glue ( Elmer’s or any other white glue)

3.  String or yarn and a large needle

4. 2 drinking straws in matching colors

Instructions

1. Down load and print this pattern. You need to size it to fit on a letter sized bond paper.

2. Cut out the chicken body, beak, comb and wattle as well as 6 eggs out of an appropriate color foam. 

Cut out the egg shape from the chicken stomach. Using scrap foam, cut out small strips, triangles, hearts etc to decorate the eggs with. Use a hole puncher to punch out small circles. 

3. Glue the wattle, comb and beak on to the chicken head. Using a black permanent marker draw on an eye. Decorate the eggs with the small scraps of foam. (photo 3) the chick, cut out half an egg shape in green. Trim the top edge to look like grass. Cut a circle in yellow for the chick’s head and a small triangle in orange for the beak. Glue the chick onto the egg, then the grass and then the beak. Draw 2 eyes with a black permanent marker.

4. Once everything is dry thread the needle with a long piece of string. Cut the straws into approx 1-2”  (2.5-5cm) pieces.

5. Starting at the top of the first egg, push the needle through the foam from back to front leaving a small tail. Loop the string around the edge of the egg and make a knot at the back to anchor the string. Next thread a piece of straw on to the string to use as spacer between the eggs. Thread the next egg by passing the needle through the foam from front to back at the bottom and back to front at the top of the egg. This way all the big “stitches”, will be at the back of the foam and not covering all the pretty decorations on the front of the egg. 

Continue alternating eggs and straws until you have 5 eggs on the string.  The 6th egg will be laced into the hole cut out from the chicken’s tummy. Attach this egg the same way, tying off the string at the back. 

Add a piece of string to the top edge of the chicken as per photo, so you can hang the mobile up. 

Variations: you can make this mobile out of cardboard and have the children paint it first. You can also use sequins and beads to decorate the eggs, and for the brave parents, go ahead and use glitter! The children will love it!

Happy Easter!

March 17, 2011: collage and stamping sunsets

We explored sunsets using tissue paper to make a collage and stamping fish or bunny silhouettes. Of course, some kids choose fish AND bunnies even though one or the other animal was totally out of there elements i.e. fish in a field and bunnies hopping on the sea!

Manila craft blogs

we are constantly looking out for like minded individuals based in Manila, with whom we can share our woes in sourcing good craft materials. Unexpectedly, we stumbled across Of Pinks and Fairy Tales written by a crafty mom who has posted some really great tutorials, all possible with materials sourced here locally in Manila. We particularly love this pearl bow brooch beaded bow brooch and may do it in the future with some of our older kids.

March 10, 2011: printing necklaces/ties on T-shirts

We saw this really original idea for a stamped T-shirt at My Own Road and thought it would be great would be great for our craft class. Thank-you Jen for the great idea!

Needless to say the boys weren't too enthusiastic about necklaces so we kindly let them stamp neckties instead and this is what they came up with!

Crochet in Manila: Babette blanket

If you love knitting or crochet, you'll have a hard time finding yarn in Manila. Basically there are only 2 types available: a very thin cotton yarn and a bulky, but not very pleasant acrylic. Both are quite OK for general crafts but for clothing or home accessories I have always wanted something different. There is now a small store on the top floor of Glorietta 5 which carries some other imported yarns, but it is only a tiny collection. I've never really crocheted much before but when I saw the Babette blanket ( pattern) the Interweave website, I really wanted to make it. I ordered some yarn in europe and supplemented them with the local Monaco and Canon cotton yarns which I then used double on a 3.5mm crochet needle. This actually works quite well and produces quite a decent hand feel. Here is a photo of the work in process (for over a year now!). I am posting it as a reminder to myself to actually get around to finishing it sometime in 2011!

Feb 10: Valentine's day

Woops!  We missed posting this craft so it's a bit out of order now! This year we made transparent heart pictures using acetate sheets. Check out the highly original black castle. I think we have to revist this for Halloween too!

!

Feb 24: straw charger wall art

We've all seen these straw chargers which are mainly used to serve pancit locally. We thought they would make cute wall art using a stenciling technique. The children cut out the stencils using the same technique as paper snowflakes. As you can see from the photos a few already have a good eye for symmetry!