Aiming for accuracy: training eye-hand control

Card making kits - educational and fun to make

Crafting with children doesn't need to be wild and messy - some children love accuracy and will proudly showcase their new skill of colouring within the lines. And it doesn't need to stop there: This simple but pretty card helps training fine motor skills and hand-eye control.

My five year old proudly made this card very much on her own. I sandwiched the embossing folder for her, she rolled it through the BigShot. The raised surface structure makes for easy and tidy colouring with felt tips, glitter pens and glitter glue.

Bow making is a skill yet to be mastered, which is why I provided the tag with the twine already on. To attach it she draws a line of glue, using a fine nozzle glue bottle and a ruler, with some guidance for accuracy purposes. For a wider ribbon she could have simply peeled off a strip of double sided adhesive already on the card.

Help was also needed to straighten the twine before the glue dried. Afterwards she cut the ends off herself while I supervised the right position of the scissors - just so she wouldn't cut into the card. Similarly, after she peeled the number stickers off the sheet using tweezers, I needed to guide her arm for the accurate positioning on the card.

Decorative modern art, by the very young

Wall art: Colour action!

Making art with your children can start very early. Why not let your little one loose with small blobs of finger paint on a plate or in a bowl: Choosing a colour, then another, sensing the viscosity of the paint, and translating her excitement over this sensual activity into movement - it's a joy to watch!

To divide the colours for a neat result I used two ceramic sushi trays. Finger paint will look dull once it has dried, but you can keep the vibrant 'wet' look of the colours if you spray the artwork with a finish of clear laquer - or just wipe it with oil if you want to re-use the plate at a later time.

A queen for one day

The very proud crafter of this glittery cown has just turned five.

Making envelope liners

I thought that - just for a change - I'd share something marvellous that has been made by someone else... especially as it's such a good use for a pretty piece of paper you might have lying around not knowing what to do with it - too nice for the bin but the pattern too large for a card? Make an envelope liner within seconds - and it still looks great:

The House That Lars Built: Wallpaper envelope liners

Birthday flower garden

A no layers card with the musical score of "Happy Birthday to you" which is a background stamp by DRS designs.

If you look closely you will notice that I made a slight mistake here: the way I stamped it placed the score the wrong way up... I was so happy with the way it curves and fades out that I didn't notice until I had used the heat tool on the embossing powder and by then it was too late to wipe off the ink and try again.

However I don't really mind it that much - it's not the main feature of the card, just a bit of background decoration in one corner, and as such it still works on the card. But I'll probably write the word "TOP" above the stamp to prevent this happening again.

Challenges:
DRS designs Ch. #84 (no layers)

Get well baby boy

I embellished with a pearl string, a center pearl in the flower, and blue diamonds in the top corners.

For the inside I used the polka dot background stamp from DRS designs. 

Challenges:
DRS designs Ch. #81

Peach and white card with homemade flowers

The product I used sold at Joan's Gardens is the Art Institute Designer "Dries Clear" Adhesive for the doily which forms a fancy corner on this card. The flowers were made with a petal punch, then layered with a bit of green from my plastic flower bunch, and a sequin in the centre.

Challenges:
At Joan's Gardens Ch. July 18;

Congratulations in peach

I layered a Prima flower with a white fabric flower and placed a cuf link button in the center.
The leaf coming down from the bow is again taken from my bunch of plastic flowers. The fancy corner is  made with a doily, which I glittered. I edged two of its shapes with pearl rainbow glaze and placed a gem heart between them.

The product I used sold at Joan's Gardens is the Art Institute Designer "Dries Clear" Adhesive for all flat things.

Challenges:
At Joan's Gardens Ch. July 18;

Peach card with ornate 3D flower

I punched four fancy corners and also two sides of a piece of peach coloured matting. Then I used a die cut flower from Kanban and layered it with another flower and placed a glittered pearl in the middle. I recycled the stem and leaves from a bunch of plastic flowers. The heart at its base is a brad.

The product I used sold at Joan's Gardens is the Art Institute Designer "Dries Clear" Adhesive.

Challenges:
At Joan's Gardens Ch. July 18;

Umbrella flowers recycled

Here I recycled a broken umbrella skin for the background of ma card - its fabric was far too pretty to throw away! I embellished it with a length of black plastic mini pearl string, a button, and sequins.

Challenges: DRS Designs Ch. #78 (monochromatic); 

Green and blue ovals birthday card

Keeping with the theme of ovals, this is a more CAS version of the last card.

The product I used sold at Joan's Gardens is the Art Institute Designer "Dries Clear" Adhesive.

Challenges:
At Joan's Gardens Ch. July 11; 

Orange and pink ovals birthday card

The task was to make a card with at least two ovals - I decided to go for four in this card, and edged them with a pearl and glitter coating.

The embellishments and the sentiment are metallic foil confetti and a length of silver pearl string.

The product I used sold at Joan's Gardens is the Art Institute Designer "Dries Clear" Adhesive.

Challenges:
At Joan's Gardens Ch. July 11; 

Surfboard leaving card

Someone just jumped off his surfboard here... my attempt to make a funny "Leaving" card.
The surface of the sea is done as stripes, stamped in metallic ink with the background stamp from DRS designs.

Challenges: DRS designs Ch. #75;

Pop-up cake birthday

 For this card I used two ornamental punches, one on the corners of the card and the other one on the cake layers.

The candles and flames however were cut out by hand. I used two colours on the candles to make them appear three-dimensional.

On one of the corners I hadn't placed the card quite right into the punch and ended up with a slit punched into my card. In the end I decided to turn this mistake into a feature and decorate it with a piece of ribbon and sequins.

The product I used sold at Joan's Gardens is the Art Institute Designer "Dries Clear" Adhesive.

First father's day card

 I personalized this father's day card with a photo of the child, framed with some dash-dot pen work made with silver and gold metallic pens.

It's so difficult to get nice ribbon that is suitable for men's cards... this one (I think it's by MayArts) is timeless so I expect to use it quite often - and doesn't it fold just beautifully...!

The product I used sold at Joan's Gardens is the X-Press It High Tack Foam Mounting Tape.

Wine themed birthday card

A quick-to-make male birthday card using wine themed printed images. I happy with the fresh summery feel of the colours.

The background stamp with the "Happy Birthday" score is from DRS Design. I stamped and heat-embossed it in silver. It has been pointed out that it looks like it's a fading effect - no, it's not second generation stamping. I'm guessing that it might be due to a combination of my slightly dry ink pad, a bit more pressure on the stamp than normal, and an embossing powder that doesn't have the word "detail" in its name... in short, just a lucky coincidence!

The product I used sold at Joan's Gardens is the X-Press It High Tack Foam Mounting Tape.

Fishing father's day

I stamped the gold embossed poka dots with a background stamp from DRS Designs.

The sentiment is a free digi from Clare Curd. I embossed it with holographic powder to give it some sparkle without covering up the font.

The stickyback fishing themed embellishments are from my stash, I bought them years ago in Belgium. The seascape painting is a clipping from an old art magazine, it's a painting by Ferron that depicts the Bretagne.

Challenges:

Hello Kitty

Product I used sold at Joan's Gardens:
X-Press It High Tack Foam Mounting Tape (for the Hello Kitty figure).

Challenges: 
At Joan's Gardens Ch. (June 6-13);

Congratulations in pink and black

Product I used sold at Joan's Gardens:
Scor-Tape (great to invisibly attach especially a wide Organza ribbon). But for the silver beaded chain I used hot glue, of course.

Challenges: 
At Joan's Gardens Ch. (June 6-13);

This was the embossed background before I coloured it in.

Here you an see one of the buttons before I glued the little flower to the top.

Pink felt butterfly

Product I used sold at Joan's Gardens:
Art Institute Designer "Dries Clear" Adhesive (but for the silver beaded chain I had to use hot glue).

Challenges: 
At Joan's Gardens Ch. (June 6-13);