Kids Craft: Paste Batik Christmas Flag

The younger child wanted a "Christmassy" flag to hang up as decoration near the wreath outside on our front porch. So, we made a paste batik flag, pretty much the same procedure as we've done many times before.

The elements he chose were pine tree, snowman, mitten, and bird. I drew the composition using flour paste under his watchful eye and approval. He wanted to do it, but was not confident of his drawing skills and said he'd be too upset to start all over if he made a mistake because the project takes a long time to complete.

He let the paste dry near the vent overnight. Next day, he was ready to add in the colors, his favorite part of the project. Once all the colors were painted in, he let it dry again overnight by the heating vent.

Then, picked and removed the dry paste.

Then, I heat set it by ironing on the reverse side, and then washed and dried it; then ironed it out flat. Then, added the finishing touched with 3D paint and let it dry overnight again.

Finally, I sewed the edges. The plan was to insert a dowel and hang it right, but, didn't have a dowel handy. So, we made do with ribbon and yarn.

Kids Craft: Paste Batik Place Mat

The 9 year old wanted to give a handmade present for one of her friends. Since her little brother was making a paste batik flag anyway, and we had enough flour paste ready to go, she settled on a paste batik place mat for her friend. Rather than an arbitrary design, she wanted to personalize it with her friend's name.

Same procedure for paste batik as always, using unbleached muslin. Once the paste letters were dry, she added the colors using acrylic paints.

When paint was completely dry, she removed the dried paste to reveal the masked areas the whites of the fabric. Then, ironed the reverse side to heat set. Then, washed and dried it. Then, ironed it out flat again. And, with a little bit of help from me in pinning the edges, the 9 year old sewed the place mat.

Easy-to-Do Eco-friendly Party Favors

The newly minted 6 year old wanted to get together with his friends and have a special group play-date to celebrate his birthday.

Right from picking the venue from the 3 choices we gave him to checking the RSVPs; from listing possible things to make for the party favors to actually making them, the kid was fully involved. I like it that he can make up his mind quickly and stick with it. I wasn't that sure about anything when I was six.

Hand-made things are much-valued in our house. The 8 year old doesn't feel happy to wrap up a birthday present for her friends unless she has at least one small hand-made thing that she has put some thought into and the time and effort to make it. The 6 year old has been the same way since that first set of Holiday Cards he made for his friends when he was not yet 3.

Making the party favors was the highlight for the kid during the previous weekend. He wanted to include 6 items in the goody bag as he is six. Much like five items when he turned five  and 4 items when he turned four. He did agree that he will break this trend when he turns 7 and come up with something new.

Being partial to eco-friendly re-usable things, it wasn't hard to assemble the items for the party favors. Especially when the kids were keen on doing most of the work.


1. Rainbow I Spy Jar: Much like the I-Spy Jar he made for himself when he was little. Assembly-line precision is his game. I re-purposed a few used  plastic drink bottles from the reycling bin.

From choosing the food colors to use, to mixing the color in the rice to make the filling for the jar; from selecting things to put in the I Spy jar, to laying out containers with the chosen items for assembly; from scooping and pouring the colored rice through the cone-funnel  in rainbow order, to tucking in a few extras in each jar so there's the surprise element, the kid was completely in-charge of this item, and loving it.

I simply printed out labels to go with the jars with a short list of items to spy and attached it to the jar. So, it wasn't much work for me at all.

2. Six Stories CD: After the usual bedtime reading, most nights he also listens to music or stories-on-tape in bed. So, he wanted to make a CD of stories for his friends.

Initially, he wanted to make up his own stories and have me record it. But, knowing how wild and long and convoluted his original stories can get, I steered him towards just reading his current favorite books.

But that proved difficult as he has a zillion favorites, most of which were non-fiction. So, to make things easier, I suggested that he choose six fiction picture books, short and fun and rhyming.

That proved just as hard as well. So, I offered to choose 3 from our bookshelf for him, while he could choose 3 from the current batch of picture books we had checked out from the library.

This worked out well. We finally had six fun stories he read aloud which I recorded and burned a CD.

I made the CD labels. The kid helped make the CD "cases". We had a bunch of Marble Papers from various times that we do it at home. Shaving Cream Marbling is one of the staple favorites at home: after the first few beautiful prints, the kids love the sensory experience of just playing with the shaving foam and making a mess, which is fine.


3. Polka Dot Sidewalk Chalk: Both the kids love sidewalk chalk and they love drawing either on the easel blackboard or the sidewalk. They are always on the lookout for fun chalks. When we came across these polka dot ones at Michael's it was settled. These were the chalks his friends would love to have.

4. Wood Stamps: If there is one thing that I can't easily walk away from, it is wood stamps. I love the variety, I love their versatility, I love the potential they present... and looks like some of this has rubbed off on the 6 year old.

Rather than just some random design, the kid zoomed in on the alphabet set of stamps.

When he was still working on his writing skills but had so much to write down, he found the alphabet stamps at home very handy. Simply pick out the letters that made the sound he wanted, and stamp it on the paper. Lo and behold! He has written.

I still treasure the "i luv mumu" card he made for me at 4 - his first card with those words - stamped on.

I did pick out some design stamps for the siblings of his friends who were joining us for the party, I couldn't resist.


5. Seed Paper: We called it "Friendship Paper: Plant it and watch it bloom!" On and off we make hand-made paper at home.  Add a little seeds to it and we have seed paper, ready to plant. It looks like we default to seed paper for both kids' birthday as it is in Spring and 'tis the season to plant.

The kid helped tear up the unwanted papers and soak them in water to make the pulp. Then, scooped some pulp into my mesh frame to make the paper. We let it dry by the vent. Then, cut the seed paper into heart shapes and attach a label and it is good to go.


6: Friendship Book: At first, the kid wanted to write a book. But, I talked him out of it as his books tend to be too elaborate. Then, we talked about how fun it would be to make your own book! So, we decided to make a sort of acrostic poem-ish activity book that his friends get to fill out and customize as they like.

Along with the alphabet stamp, this would be a fun activity for the recipients, hoped the kid. I printed the pages and used a paper-fastener to hold the pages together. For some reason, the kid prefers brads to stapler... and I think it might have something to do with the ease of adding more pages to his existing book...


7. Fabric Goody Bag: Last but not the least, he wanted a reusable fabric bag for holding all these lovely goodies. I sewed them quickly. His sister helped add the cinching ties.

The kid wanted to personalize each bag. So he stamped a rainbow fish. Used his alphabet stamps with fabric ink and stamped the names for each of his guests. And the sibling's name if they had any.

Plus, knowing how much both my kids love to label their things, I printed a few custom-design name labels for the friends and tucked it into their goody bags. The 8 year old girl loved making the flags using the printed label, chopsticks, and some Scotch™ tape, to go in each bag.

All in all, a fun day with friends, with parents catching up and getting to know each other better while the kids filled the space with their collective energy and warmth.

Kids Craft: Mini Heart Felt Pillows

The 5 yo will sew if he is in the mood: if some sewing activity is suggested to him and he feels he has nothing else to interest him at the moment, and if the project is quick and simple, that catches his fancy, he will do it.

He came home excited one evening and squealed, "Mama, you are going to love this! This is going to make you so happy! I made this for you in school today!" And he handed me this sweet little felt heart with beads sewn on it.

In my customary way, I was all smiles and asked him to tell me all about it. "I got some thread, then used the needle threader to thread the needle, then tied a knot at the end, and sewed the beads on this heart, because I love you, Mama!"

Since his sister has graduated to using my sewing machine and doesn't want to do much hand-sewing unless it is a cute softie, or for something incidental to her bigger project, I asked if Og wanted to sew a few heart pillows. More as a fine motor exercise than any fancy finished product. And he did.

Cut out two felt pieces in heart shape for each "pillow". Save scrap felt and other fabric pieces for stuffing the pillow. Simply let the kids sew along the edges and stuff before completing the final stretch of sewing. Optionally, add a cotton ball soaked in essential oil to make it a tiny fragrant heart felt pillow.  We used lavender in one and geranium in the other. So, they can be sachets of some sort.

Hand-made Holidays

The 8 yo doesn't do much art work these days. But, every once in a while, in a fit of crafting frenzy, she'll make a handful of items and then cool the jets, whiling away the time being bossy with her brother or nagging one of us to play Monster with her...

Anyway, the holiday season probably spurred her into action: she made a few items and wrapped them up and stowed them away under the tree well before Dec 24th.

Squeeze 'Ems with a candy cane Kiss for All of us

Appliqued pillow case and place mat for Papa, cut and sewn all by herself. (Mama just made sure the bobbin is on right and the needle is threaded correctly; and hovered around in case her precious sewing machine runs into issues with the new user.)

Coaster for Mama, plus a finger-knitted scarf with fabric flower embellishment.

Random Hand-made Things

While the 8-year old hasn't really cared much for the run-of-the-mill pom-pom and paper plate kind of crafts so far, she still cares to create and craft with her own hands as and when inspiration hits.

Of late, inspiration hasn't hit much in the traditional way... or rather, it probably hits at all the wrong times when she'd much rather be riding her bike or reading a book... plus she is a lazy crafter, like her Mama. Stars have to align and universes brought to order before all the teeming ideas in the head ever materialize into a tangible outcome.

Though not much for drawing or painting these days except a rare doodle or two, every once in a while there is something that she puts under my nose with a, "Here, Mama, for you." I can't bring myself to toss these into the recycling pile. Like this picture of her zapatos, for instance.

She seems to love paper crafts of all kinds. At least for now. That can change anytime. She still loves Origami-- the sole paper-crane-maker at home. Stamping and card-making is a favorite activity as well-- especially after binge-watching youtube videos of 25 Days of Christmas Cards. We have a ton of cards we don't quite know who to send to as they are all one-of-a-kind sort-of-experimental ones... maybe we have to set up her own Etsy store or something.

And fabric crafts is another favorite. Making her trademark purses for her friends' birthdays has become a must these days. From choosing the wool felt for the purse and matching yarn for the strap to the decorative beads to sew the purse together she puts in some thought and heart into making them.

Making footwear--She found two good scraps of wood, traced her foot shape on each, and got Papa to cut it for her and staple the fabric on to make a pair of unique wooden footwear. Not terribly comfortable to take a leisurely stroll in, but more for a clunky meditative ambling...

Designing clothes-- of course, the Fashion Design Sketch Portfolio Kit that her aunt gave last year was a great hit with the kiddo even if Mama was squirming and frowning at the models. The (Fashion Angels™) Kit comes with stencils for clothes and accessories, plus a sketchbook full of outrageously unrealistic models to draw on.

Of course, the stencils can be quite limiting, and perhaps best used as a guideline for lines and flow and fall of fabrics when designing...

But, she had a lot of fun adding her own whimsical touches to it, completely oblivious to the disproportionate figures.

My favorite is this design she calls "Fancy Blues"-- love the little details of the accessories in the hair, the blue around the eyes, and the fact that since no single stencil has that exact long dress she improvised by shifting the short skirt stencil down a little each time to add the frilly layers at the bottom of the dress... plus the little pattern on the fabric to indicate fish-scale-like shimmer... Wish I could sew her designs!

And, it is interesting that she chose strong pencil lines for the face coloring and freckles. As she clarified, the yellow hair is a wig.

Sewing: for now, she is just getting her feet wet on my sewing machine. Pillowcases are a breeze of course. So, for practise, being the ever-tough instructor that I am, I gave her a piece of fabric with "Og" written with a marker and asked her to sew on the marked lines. She did it fine enough for her first attempt, turning the fabric as she went, stopping and adjusting as needed. It just takes practise...

And then we had to step it up a bit: she designed a skirt for Enid and sewed it using the machine for the most part, except for the waistband which, being so small, can get tricky, and therefore best done by hand.

Kids Art: Paste Batik Tide Pool Flag

Tide pool was a favorite subject last year, especially with the kids. This year, we revisited it over summer, just briefly, going a bit more in-depth, which resulted in a hand-made book with Og.

Inspired by this, Ana wanted to do something tide pool related. And, at the same time, she was itching to do a paste batik project. And that's how this Paste Batik Tide Pool Flag project was born.

I helped with the flour paste - to check for right consistency, and showed her how to do the blanket stitch, That's about it. She worked at her own pace, over 3 weekends, doing as much as she wanted to, asking for my supervision or assistance on and off.

But for the sea weed which got away from her a bit, the rest turned out all right. The blanket stitch needed a more practised hand, I'm sure, but that was just for the principle of the thing. Raw edges aren't going to unravel the fabric in this project.


Paste batik technique is the same as always:

1. Start with unbleached muslin fabric, cut into required size. We went with an approximate 8" square.
2. Figure out what to draw: Ana chose 6 tide pool staples - crab, sea star, sea anemone, sea urchin, sea weed and mussels. 
3. Draw the creatures, one per square piece of pre-cut fabric.
4. Make the flour paste and fill it in a ketchup/mustard dispenser. 
5. Apply the paste on the drawing, figuring out what parts will be masked. Allow to dry completely.
6. Paint with bright, bold colors. We use acrylic paints. Allow to dry completely.
7. Remove the dried paste, chipping it off the fabric carefully.
8. Wash the fabric. Allow to dry completely.
9. Iron out the wrinkles.
10. Finish the raw edges if preferred.
11. Finger-knitting being the rage with the 8 yo again this summer, the string to hang the flags from was finger-knitted with blue yarn.
12. Attach the flags to the yarn rope. It's ready to brighten any space!

Kids Craft: Stitched Xmas Cards and Pine Tree Cards

We seem to love making cards for some reason. Well, usually it starts out as a fun little drawing or coloring or painting or paper crafting or fabric project and gets turned into a card, among other things.

Stitched cards are my favorite, as are fabric cards I used to make a few years ago and sort of outgrew as the novelty wore off. They can be hand-embroidered, or hand-sewn with applique-like running stitches; or, my favorite is to machine sew fabric on to paper as in this project.

Items used: Card stock (various colors), felt and other fabric scraps (various colors), cookie cutters, scissors, sewing machine

I let Ana cut the shapes paper first to use as template, much like we did for the Felt Hanging Decorations; then pin this paper template to the felt fabric and cut out the shapes; then I take over and sew the felt shape onto card stock paper using sewing machine as Ana is not yet ready to use my sewing machine.

Pine trees are a favorite especially since everywhere we turn we see a bunch of these sturdy evergreens in our area, standing tall and inspiring dreams. To celebrate them, we made a few cards with the generic triangular pine tree shape. We used some original art work paper that we made, and some scrap-booking paper, and of course, some out of fabric.

Kids Craft: Tie-Dye using natural dyes

Inspired by all the natural dyes she has been using for tie-dyeing at school, Ana was itching to do more over the weekend.

I used black bean water in school for the beautiful light purple, Mama.
Oh, and I am working with Marigold for the yellow dye...

What else can I use at home, Mama?
she asked, adding,
I really want to do my own tie-dye project now.

Hmmm... what else... I thought sipping my sweetened hibiscus tea. The lovely rich burgundy red hibiscus tea. Made with dried hibiscus flowers that I buy in bulk from a Mexican market.

The unassuming yet gorgeous Hibiscus flowers which were all over the garden when I was growing up. The flowers mostly used as a hair cleanser. Shikakai and Hibiscus flowers/leaves were all I had for my hair wash when I was very young. No fancy bottled shampoos - they came into my life during my teens.

Dried Hibiscus Flowers
+ Hot Water
+ Rubber Bands
+ 12" Square Muslin Cloth
= One Cool Lunch Napkin

Not the rich burgundy napkin as the tea naturally but a pleasant dusty rose. Soaked for about 20 minutes - the limit of Ana's patience that day. Hung on the clothesline for about 15 minutes under the blazing sun till mostly dry. Raw edges sewed up in 5 minutes.

I've done quite a bit of tie-dyeing on and off (Who hasn't, really? At least from my generation...), but not with natural dyes. We hope to be exploring more natural dyes as we go along...