Today We Made Collages!

 

   An hour and a half of tearing, cutting and glueing and these are six of the collages, our folk at the Day Centre made - just from magazines, newspapers, craft papers and a few cut-outs and mounted on an A4 black card 

After a hesitant start, the craft session took off with a great buzz of enthusiasm and with great results!

Have a look at our collages!

Easy Craft - Make a Card Door-Hanger!

Door-hangers are such a lot of fun to make!

You will Need:

Card - coloured or white

Fibre tip Pens

Stickers or other embellishments
Glue sticks
Acrylic paint, shapes and sponge (optional)

Here is the template for the Door-Hanger and the Come In! Stay Out! and My Room! prints.



Print out the template 

Trace the door-hanger onto card, or cut out a template and draw around it, onto the card.

If you want - cut out and stick on one side "Come In!" and on the other "Stay Out!" or stick on "My Room!"

The lettering can be coloured-in, either before or after it has been stuck onto the card door-hanger.

Finish off by adding stickers or any other embellishments.

Another version we made was using reverse stencilling.

Use White Tack to temporarily hold down the shapes and then sponge acrylic paint over and around the shape. Leave to dry and then remove the shape.

Stickers can then be used to finish it off. 

If the door knob or handle will not fit into the "hole" then just cut a slit across the left side, about half way down the "hole".

All these Door-Hangers were made by our group

 at the Day Centre for the Elderly.

Restore Self-Esteem to the Elderly With Craft

Working with elderly folk, as the voluntary craft lady at a Day Centre over the last year, has made me realize, more and more, that the folk I'm with, are capable of much more than they think.

When I push my craft trolley into the Lounge, I see a range of facial expressions. Some are delighted to see me. Mostly those who have had some months of my craft sessions.

Others look apprehensive and of course you do get the "I'd rather not do craft" faces...

No pressure, I leave those who are adamant - some come around to joining in, but others never do. Not everyone, amazingly enough, enjoys painting, gluing and the rest!!

The apprehensive ones, give me the most pleasure. When they grow to realize that nothing we do is too difficult and if they do have any physical impairments, lots of help is on hand.

Being part of the group is what counts. The pride I see in their faces, as they hold up their finished work - "I made it myself" sort of look.

I think, that as you age, and you no longer work, either at a job or as a meaningful part of a family, you miss having the challenge of achieving new goals.

So even making a felt butterfly, becomes important and restores the feelings of self esteem and confidence.

Play "Give and Take" with your Group!

We have a favourite , fun game which we play at the Day Centre called Give and Take...

You Will Need (for two groups of 4 players)

An old pack of playing cards (does not matter if incomplete) As you will be writing on these cards, with your marker pen, only use cards you won't need to use again!

A black marker pen

2 dice

Plastic cup - dice shaker

Counters or some form of "money" for players

Preparation

Remove 4 x Aces and 1 Black "2" and 1 Red "2"

On these 6 cards take your marker and write in large lettering across them -DO NOTHING

On all the remaining RED cards in the pack, write GIVE in large lettering.

On all the remaining BLACK cards in the pack, write TAKE in large lettering.

Make up two packs by taking half of each of the cards above and put 3 x DO NOTHING cards into each pack.

Shuffle each pack.

Rules of Play

Make up two tables of four players per table.

Place the pack of cards you have prepared in the centre of each table, face down.

Give each player 7 counters.

The game starts with the first player shaking the dice.

That player then takes a card from the top of the pack and looks at it.

She then either GIVE's to the player or TAKE's from the player on her right the number of counters according to her dice throw.

If she draws a DO NOTHING card she does not GIVE or TAKE counters

The dice is passed to the player on her left (clockwise) after she has completed her turn and the next player shakes the dice etc

When a player has no more counters she is out and the game continues with the remaining players.

The player may not have enough counters left, to pay, when asked. If so, she just hands over what she has and is out of the game.

The Winner is the one who gains all the counters.

We reward the winners with a sticker (Super Star etc) and the player with the most stickers at the end of the session is the Champion Taker!!

(I have called the player "she" but this game appeals to the men-folk as well!)