Common crafts for kids to make for fathers day

Really young children just don’t understand the concept of giving on particular holidays. Buying dad a tie or a coffee mug just doesn’t mean much to them. Young kids love to make things, though, so here are some common crafts that kids make for Father’s Day that you could try.

Dough Handprints – Using ordinary flour dough, which you can make at home your child can press their hand print into the soft substance. Put a name and a year on it, and then bake for several hours. Now you have a great gift for dad for Father’s Day that symbolized that particular year in his child’s life.

Print and Color Cards – Definitely the easiest craft for kids to make is a card. You can just use construction paper folded in half to create your card, or you can print out pictures from your computer, glue them onto the card and color. A nice Father’s Day gift that kids can be proud of.

Picture Frames – Using picture frames from discount or dollar stores, kids can use various paints and glitter glue to make it unique and special. Messages like “Happy Father’s Day” or “#1 Dad” will always make the frame a treasured gift.

Hand-print T-Shirts – Using a plain t-shirt, all the kids in the family pick a color of fabric paint and put their hand-print on the shirt. Mom or older siblings can write special Father’s Day messages on the shirt, as well as put the kids’ names under the prints.

Colorful Coupons – What could dad need more than an hour of quiet? What would he enjoy more than breakfast in bed? What would he like more than a clean car? Well, he can get all that and more with homemade Father’s Day coupons! You can print them off your computer and have the young children color them. Just remember – don’t make a coupon that the kids couldn’t actually do!

Original Neckties – Why go buy dad a tie with a silly design on it? Just let your kids make one for him! With puffy fabric paints, kids can have a ball making dad his new neckwear.

Crafts for dad are easily found in books and on the internet. If you’d like to find crafts that kids make for Father’s Day, those are good places to start looking.

An introduction to quilting

"The art of quilting integrated the European and African cultures in America during the slave period. The African folk-tradition was considered inferior, and the European superior. In spite of this gap, quilting brought about the unity of these two traditions and cultures.

It brought the values of both the African and European American women together in a way no folk art tradition did before. Both of them deeply rely on the traditions of storytelling and folklore. Uniting women to sew and pass the traditions to new generations are the common characteristics of both traditions.

Not only did both African and European Americans make quilts to provide warm blankets for their families, but also to show their creativity and gain status, record family history, and to represent various themes and beliefs. Women considered it to be the best way to spend time together and display their skills.

Despite the fact that quilting is a process with individual interpretations, it is also a cultural process that came into being from the exchange and merging of both African and European traditions. The emergence of American quilting was one of the products of this process. The quilting styles of both traditions are highly symbolic. Both of them deeply rely on the traditions of storytelling and folklore. Uniting women to sew and pass the traditions to new generations are the common characteristics of both traditions."

I make no apology for quoting these extracts, if you like, from my e-Book - The Essential Guide to Quilting. The book is basically about learning how to quilt, but firstly I felt that it was important to have a look at the history of quilting - like a lot of you reading this, I had no idea about how important this craft was to our history, indeed for much of the world.

I go into more detail on the History in the e-Book, so, as I said in my Autobiography, when I started Quilting several years ago, there was not that much good information about how to start thus I took a break from quilting to write the e-Book - The Essential Guide to Quilting - to put my readers on the right road without the hit & miss ride that I had, when I might have given up at times.

Most important to start out is to learn the main quilting terms, here are just a few:

1. Applique - Appliques are pieces of fabric applied to other pieces of fabric, using fusible webbing or stitching. The stitching can be done by hand or with a machine. Buttonhole, satin or blind stitches are the usual methods used.

2. Basting - Spray basting, thread basting and pin basting are common methods of basting. This process involves holding the quilt top, batting (the middle layer between quilts - usually cotton, wool or polyester) and backing together to finally sew it all together.

3. Bearding - the process of pulling the batting fibers through the tops and bottoms of the quilt, through the holes created during sewing, to produce a whiskered effect.

4. Cheater's Panel/Cloth - They are pieces of fabric printed with quilt block designs. They are made to resemble a pieced or appliqued quilt top.

Here I have selected some of the less obvious terms in quilting with a quick description to draw attention to the need to learn them in order to get the most out of this fascinating craft. There are lots of terms to learn - believe me when I say I am not trying to put you off, merely to help you on your way.

(Article by Rose visit at aquiltingbee. com)

Learn all about stained glass in a class

In the past few years I have made it a goal each year to try at least three new things during the course of that year. So when January rolls around I sit down and consider what skills or hobbies I'd like to gain in the next year and then I make plans to learn those very things. This past year I decided that I finally wanted to learn how to make stained glass pieces of my very own.

I've always been intrigued by stained glass and I think it is one of the most beautiful kinds of art that exist. I love seeing stained glass pieces hanging in windows or used as candleholders. So I was very excited when I remembered my long lost desire to learn stained glass and I began the search for the best possible way to learn stained glass making.

There are many ways to learn any new skill or hobby that is of interest to you. In fact, I was a bit overwhelmed in choosing how I would undergo the task of learning about stained glass. The first move I made was to do a little research of my options. I went to the library and found quite a few helpful resources on doing stained glass at your own home on your own time. However, for me, this wasn't the best plan. I know that I would start with great intentions and then let the busyness of life overwhelm my best intentions with the project.

I ended up signing up for a class that would teach me how to do stained glass once a week at the local college. I went this route because I know myself and my tendency to do better when I have the outside accountability that a class and other classmates provides for me. So I began attending this class and was so thankful for the choice I made. I was thankful because I learned more than I expected to about stained glass work in a short amount of time. It seemed like it was only a few weeks before I was working on a stained glass piece of my own that I could have and cherish in my home.

So my encouragement is to anyone that desires to learn about stained glass. I'd suggest that you find a class to enroll in at a local college or an art shop. Getting involved with other artists will inspire you and hold you accountable on weeks when you don't really have time to work on your pieces. If you enjoy your stained glass class half as much as I do than you'll love it.