necklace

dear sue

Thanks so much for inviting me around to your place to make concrete pots.  It is was great to do craft at someone else’s house and lovely to catch up with you.  And in terms of the concrete, I am very inspired!  It didn’t make as much mess as I imagined.  Maybe the fact that you mixed it in a used flora margarine container rather than a concrete mixer helped?!!  Now I am anxiously waiting to hear how our candle holders and planters turn out!  How long will they take to dry? And will the tealight candles actually fit in the holes when the concrete dries? It’s so exciting.

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And also … thanks so much for the leather. When I got home I dug in to my wallpaper stash to make some beads.  And threaded them on.  And cut the leather the right length for a necklace.  And how great does it look?  I am very chuffed.  It’s EVEN BETTER than I imagined.

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I have enough leather to make four necklaces like this from the supplies you gave me, so please thank Mark for finding it.  He’s obviously got a thrifty eye!

OK, I had better go and get on with the jobs I was meant to do.  Less crafting, more cleaning …

Thanks again. See you at school!

Love Leanne

cardboard necklaces for crafty kids

Art4All. I become consumed with coordinating Fairfield Primary School’s art show from June to September each year. So you might see some related posts in the coming months.

Here’s the first.  It’s got a recycled shoe box in it (oh, and the pink string left over from my macrame the other week …).

We are currently looking into things to make and do in the kids ARTzone at Art4All this year.  And I get quite excited about crafty activities.  Another Mum, Trish, who is coordinating the kids activities on family day pinned a picture of cardboard bead necklaces on her ‘ideas for the ARTzone’ board on Pinterest.  I liked the look of this idea as well. So we did an after dinner test run at our house.

We had a great time making these cardboard bead necklaces, and I think this would be an excellent ARTzone activity. What I like about it is that:

1. The final product looks good
2. The cardboard beads are ‘child made’ and require minimal adult intervention
3. The necklace is constructed from every day things
4. This is an all ages activity
5. Kids can take 10 minutes or an hour to make each necklace, depending on what they draw and how much detail they put in

So … I used an old shoe box for the cardboard and used my large hole punch to cut the circles. Then I got out the sharpies and let the kids do their thing.

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I got them to choose 3 of the ‘cardboard beads’ that they had decorated that would look nice together.  And then threaded them on to some string. Older kids could do this for themselves but younger ones might need some help as the needle does poke through the cardboard some times at odd places.

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Tie some knots and … you have your very own wearable (and easily disposable) art in the form of a necklace!

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I think they could look even better with some different sized circles … But generally I conclude that it is a great idea.

The original version on Pinterest used black and white paint on brown cardboard.  That would be fun too!

And making these would be excellent for a kids craft party (and I can say this with confidence as we have hosted a few quite chaotic craft parties at our house already).

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