Rainbow Loom

 Rainbow looms are all the newest fad, and even though they've been around a while now, I thought it would be fun to share with you my experience with one.  So last fast we went to the beach and a friend brought her rainbow loom to make some things for her Grandchildren.  She let me watch and even gave me the chance to figure out how it works, and why people/ kids find it so fun.  It was a fun learning experience.  Just to make on simple pattern, and to make one bracelet it took me about 30-45 minutes.  It wasn't super easy at first, I had to keep re-doing some of them, but like knitting you just undo what you messed up and try again.

directions on how to work it

list of patterns you can try

more directions/ tips

tips from the box

starting

getting close to the end

finished product

Home School Craft Time

 One of my favorite parts of home schooling my children is being able to do fun crafts outside when the weather is nice.  This was a fun one, hand painting ceramic train banks.

Kids Crafts: Melting Beads

My kids love doing crafts, but sometimes its really hard to come up with something new, fun, and find something last minute.  For example, my oldest son's best friend was moving out of state and for their last play date I wanted it to be special and something she would enjoy as much as he would.  So We ran to the Dollar Tree before she came.  I found a few different kid's crafts in a box type of craft.  So it had directions, was super easy with or without adult supervision, and were $1 per item.  So I wasn't breaking the bank.

One of the items we got were these box kits of Melting Beads.  It came with beads, the plastic shape, instructions, the wax paper needed for ironing/ melting the beads and the images for design on the cover of the box.  I almost threw the box away until I found out that there are no other images for the kids to follow on their designs.  DON'T THROW BOX AWAY!

Okay so at my Dollar Tree they only had 3 designs: fox, flower, heart, butterfly.  I know that beads are usually a girl thing, but I was sad that there weren't other boy-ish designs.  Oh well, the fox (I know its a cat, but you call it a fox and my boy didn't mind) worked well enough.
Here are the steps once your plastic template is filled.

Step 1: every spot is filled with a bead on template

Step 2: cover with wax paper cover provided in box

Step 3: Start to iron/ melt the beads

Step 4: you'll see the beads starting to melt on the top

Step 5: Finished with the tops of the beads look like this. Let cool before handing to kids because its HOT