Summer Sunflowers to Print and Paint!

This beautiful Sunflower was grown and then photographed by my sister in Hampshire...

 Using some very clever software, I converted the flower photo into a sketch and put together the "Summer Sunflowers" you see below...



and then I painted it with my watercolours

Because the sketch is already shaded, it was very easy to paint - I used two colours of yellow for the petals and two shades of brown for the centres. A few small dots of white and picture painted...

Have a go at painting it with your group - here is the sketch for you to download and print...Click here for Summer Sunflowers 

Be creative - have fun!

A Flower Pin Cushion to Make!

These Pin-Cushions are not only easy to make but very practical to use as they sit well on your work table and can hold a lot of pins and needles!

You Will Need...

Cotton / Polycotton fabric scraps

Thread and needle (sewing machine if possible)

Toy / Cushion Polyester Fibre Filling
Embroidery thread and a long needle
2 Buttons


How To Make...
Cut two circles from your fabric approx. 18cm diameter (can be same fabric or two different designs)

Place the 2 circles together, with right sides facing.

Stitch around the outer edge leaving a gap of about 5cm. This is better done on a sewing machine as will be stronger, but can be done by hand if necessary.

Turn the circles right side out and stuff with your filling - pack it well to make a firm cushion.

Stitch the gap closed, by hand.

Thread a long needle with all six strands of your embroidery thread and make a knot at the end.

Push the needle through the middle of your cushion and then loop it over the side and back into to centre, pulling it tight to form the "petals" of the pin cushion. Keep doing this to form 6 "petals"

Finish off with a few double stitches in the centre to hold the thread firmly in place, but do not cut the thread yet!

Using the same thread, stitch on two buttons, one on either side. This will cover up all your stitches and your knot!

Hope you enjoy making your pin cushion!

May Calendar 2011 - May Marigolds!

Here is your May Calendar - ready to print and colour-in, with your group.

Click here to download 

Orange and yellow flowers for May - I thought we would have a change from Red, White and Blue!

A Colourful Quiz!

Have just spent an hour, having fun, making up a quiz...!

All the answers are a colour!

You can download and print it - Click here.

Have fun putting in the colours with your groups... I wonder how many will remember all the 7 colours of the Rainbow?

Have given you a sheet of answers just in case...

Easter Bunny - Paper Plate Craft!

Easter Bunny - made by Thomas

More Easter craft! This will keep the younger ones busy, but also a novel way to dress up a gift of an Easter Egg to give to a child...

You will need...

2 paper plates

Paints or other colouring pens or crayons

Card for the Easter Bunny

Glue

Glitter, stars etc (Optional)

Small Easter Eggs (Optional)

How to Make it...

Print the Easter Bunny - Click here for template

 
Trace Bunny onto card.

Cut out the Bunny.

Cut one plate in half.

Paint the Inside surface of the whole plate and the Underneath surface of the half plate. 

Thomas painted the whole rim, but you can paint just the top half of the whole plate, as the bottom half will be covered up.

Paint the Bunny.

Let the paint dry.

Apply glue and glitter/stars if desired. (Thomas insisted he wanted the Christmas glitter on his plate!)

Apply glue around the bottom half of the rim of the whole plate.

Attach the half plate and peg together.

Leave to dry.

Pop the Easter Bunny in his pocket and a few small Easter Eggs will fit in too!

Enjoy the Easter break with your family and friends...!

A Fridge Magnet using Mod Podge!

Have just got my first jar of Mod Podge!

Decided to start small and after watching the experts on YouTube I gave it a go!

I used a playing card as the mount and then Mod Podged on a print of the gorgeous little Victorian girl.

A few more coats of Mod Podge and a bit of lace, buttons and two shiny pink beads and there it is - on my fridge!



April Calendar - The Royal Wedding!

April is a special month, as we celebrate the marriage

of Prince William to Kate Middleton, on 29th April 2011.

If you would like to download the calendar template, so you can print it out for your group to paint or colour-in, then Click Here. 

For extra "bling" try sticking acrylic beads onto the crown -for "crown jewels"!

TUESDAY 29.03.011 Here are some of the April calendars we did at our Day Centre today...

We had a lot of fun this morning with our April Crown Calendars! 

It seems that most of our members are involved in some sort of celebrations on the Big Day - including of course, watching on TV, our amazing British Pageantry at its best, as the Royal Wedding takes place in London...

Face-Cloth Easter Bunny!

Sue made these Easter Bunnies for us today, at our Day Centre and immediately had orders for 8 more!!

So we decided, that this was a good way to make funds for buying craft supplies - for future crafting projects...

To make the Easter Bunny you will need...

A Face-cloth

Ribbon

Eyes

Double-sided sticky pads

A small Easter Egg

To make... 

Fold the face-cloth in half forming a triangle. 

Roll the face-cloth from the points towards the long edge. 

Then fold this in half and place the Easter Egg in the centre of the fold. 

Tie the ribbon around the "neck" of the bunny. 

Tie another bow higher up, to create the bunny "face" and the "ears" above. 

Using the double sided sticky pads, attach the eyes.

A lovely Easter Gift - for any age group! 

See another Easter posting with new ideas!

Our Easter Ladder is Up!

 We had such fun putting this up this morning!

We ended up with so many eggs and bunnies to put on the ladder, made during the week by our members at the Day Centre, plus the fluffy chicks, silk flowers (someone asked if they were double daffodils?? Could be...) and little chocolate eggs - thus the ladder has rather disappeared, but it is there, I promise! 

(Scroll down to last two previous Posts to see the "ladder" if you haven't been following this project so far)

Because we attached the card eggs and bunnies to flat wooden spatulas (lolly sticks) they were easy to tuck into, or stick onto, the ladder, using double-sided adhesive pads.

The four large card/foil eggs and the yellow flowers were attached to the wall with Blu Tack, separate to the ladder.

I have continued down with close-ups so you can see the details of the Easter decorations - made with such enthusiasm and with great results!

Easter Ladder - Work in Progress

After lots of cutting, sticking and painting (the lolly sticks!) we are ready to assemble the Easter Ladder! 

Tomorrow (Friday) it will be put together and displayed at our Day Centre...

Have no idea what it will look like, but we will soon find out!

Starting the Easter Ladder!

This week at the Day Centre we are going to make

an Easter Ladder...   

To make the ladder I nicked one of my husband's runner bean canes and he cut it in half for me - each piece is about 1m long. Using a hot glue gun we stuck on the rungs, using large-size, flat, wooden spatulas or lolly sticks as they are known!

So this week during our craft sessions we will be making up some Easter Eggs - cut from card or foam and decorated - which will go on the ladder. 

Also have 24 little fluffy yellow chicks to add to the ladder as well! So do pop back later in the week and see how we get on - have no definite idea of what it will look like - will just develop as we go along...!

Look at our Day Centre Greeting Cards!

        

           

We had a lovely morning making up greetings cards at our Day Centre. 

We were fortunate enough to have had donations of blank cards, envelopes and embellishments, which gave us lots of choice... 

We also cut bits off  "used" cards and with a bit of glue or a sticky pad a new card was made! 

Most of the members of our group are over 80 (and over 90) but all joined in with great enthusiasm and produced some lovely cards! 

So please enjoy sharing them with us all... 

March Calendar 2011 - A Mosaic Flower!

2011 Calendar

March

with Printable Template

March coming up...so do print out your March calendar template, all ready to paint or colour-in!

Mosaics are such a delight and have very satisfying results - choose your colours and get going - easy for elderly hands and fun for everyone!


You Will Need
Printed copies (I used A4 White Cartridge 140gsm)

of the March Calendar -  Click here for the Template

 
Paints or any other colouring-in medium.

My Simple Version of a Beetle Drive...for All Ages and Abilities!

I have made our own version of the age-old game, so that everyone, young or whatever ability, can join in..........as to play, all they have to do, is shake the dice!

This is how it works...on each table of 4 to 5 players, place a dice in a shaker (we just use a plastic cup)

One of the players has sheet of A4 copy paper divided into 4 "boxes" by drawing a line across the middle of the page across and down. He will be the Beetle Drawer - A helper can do this if necessary. This will be for four games - so more games, will need more paper!

The dice is thrown in turn by the players (clockwise) and when a 6 is thrown the "body" is drawn. Legs (2 for each leg) and tail (1) can be added, but only when a 5 is thrown and the head added, can the eyes (3 each) and feelers (4 each) be drawn.

Click on the the link to the

 Beetle Drawing Number Codes 

with details of Beetle Parts / Numbers - put a copy on each table. 

When the beetle drawing is complete the table calls out **BEETLE** and the table is awarded a Red Ladybird.

When everyone has had enough (or it is dinner time!) the table with the most Red Ladybirds, gets stickers all round (we use Smiley Faces!)

Have fun...!

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.