Tiny Easels

I love this so much.

I remember seeing this craft a while back, and loving it, and then not doing anything with it and forgetting all about it, but then - and I don't even know why - it popped into my head the other day. 

A quick Google turned up this amazing Instructable, but since I can't always watch videos at work, and since I like to take photos as I do stuff so that I remember how I did it, and since why the heck not, I decided to take photos of the process and post it on here.

What You Need

• 6 clothespins (the kind you pinch open, not clothes pegs)
• 1 small dowel - a toothpick will work in a pinch
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks

That's it. So easy.

What To Do

1. Plug in your hot glue gun to preheat. The rest of this goes pretty fast. Now, take apart 2 of your clothespins. This is easily doable by twisting the top part away from the bottom part. 
2. Take one of the half-pins and apply glue to the edge that was the bottom inside when it was a whole pin (see photo). Glue to the bottom inside of one of the whole pins. Repeat twice more, since you need three of these. I made sure to make all 3 of mine facing the same direction, but I really don't think it makes much of a difference. You should now have three identical pins with glued-on legs, one complete and untouched pin, and a small dowel.
   
3. Thread the dowel through the top holes of three clothes pins. I turned the middle one upside down here, so they were all facing in the same general direction. NOTE: This looks much nicer when it's done if your front legs (the outside two) have the extended side of the pins on the table, and the unglued side on top.
   
4. Gently pinch the two outside pins so they are touching the center pin, while angling them outward like a capital letter A.
    
5. Dab hot glue at the base of the whole clothespins, and lay your last (whole) pin on the glue, thus attaching it to the easel. This is the stand where you can rest your artwork.
6. Stand up the tripod by allowing the center pin to fall back, as a third foot. You can see the dowel sticking out both ends of the top of your easel. You can either break of the unneeded pieces, or mark the spot with a pencil and cut it off. (My dowel was thin enough to use a pair of scissors to cut it.)
   
7. If desired, dab hot glue onto the dowel where it meets the pins, to keep the whole thing in one piece. I also added a dot of hot glue to the bottom of each leg, to add traction, so it stands up without slipping. Paint or decorate as you please.
8. Add artwork/post-it notes, or photos to your easel, and enjoy.

  

How It Went

I actually have this project on the calendar for next month, but I wanted to make sure I had the steps all set to go ahead of time - this was a test to make sure it wasn't frustratingly difficult, and it was perfect! I'm really looking forward to this one. I hope I get a nice crowd. The plan is to make tiny easels, and then paint "Mini Masterpieces" to go on top of them. (Maybe I'll even bring in my Bob Ross Funko to take photos with the tiny paintings! How cute would that be?)

Having said that, I have my sample on my desk, and even though it's only been there for a day, I've already gotten several compliments on it, from people of all ages. I wouldn't do this with the younger crowd, because hot glue, but it would make a nice adult craft, too. 

Emoji Corner Bookmarks

Emojis are, and probably will be for a while, quite popular. The emoji bookmarks that I bought are flying off my desk, and when we made valentine cards, probably half of them had emoji faces on them. As such, I decided to pull out an old standby - the corner bookmark - for Art Club this week, and make emoji bookmarks!

What You Need

Colored paper, mostly yellow
Scrap paper to cut out eyes, mouths, etc.
Glue Sticks
Colored pencils, markers, etc. to decorate with

How To Do It

1. Make sure all your paper is square. You can start with square origami paper, or cut it down to size. Be sure to save the scraps for future projects.










2. Fold your big square into four smaller squares.












3. Remove one of the smaller squares, so you have 3 left.













4. Holding the paper like a V, cut from the right corner of the bottom square, to the top corner of the right square. Repeat on the left. It will look like a kitty cat.










5. Fold one of the flaps over onto the full square. Cover the top side with glue. Make sure you don't have any glue on the bottom of the flap!











6. Fold the second flap over on top of the flap with the glue. This will make a little pocket.










7. Keeping the opening of the pocket at the top, decorate your bookmark. I found that cutting out eyes and other features from paper and gluing them on worked better than markers or crayons, but it's up to you. Note: You probably don't want to use anything 3D like googly eyes or sequins, because then your book won't close flat.









8. To use, slip a few pages into the pocket of your bookmark and save your page.

Variations

Mmmm! March!

I've made these to look like monster faces, Harry Potter characters, big arrows that say "I stopped reading here!", etc. It's a very easy, flexible craft, and can be as detailed or basic as you desire.

Kirigami Paper Flowers

I am all about the paper crafts lately. This easy paper flower is a hit with my teens, and since you can quickly learn how to make them, I just so happen to have about 10 of them on my desk right now - not that I'm complaining. So cheerful!

The photo at the left here is actually two flowers stacked on top of each other. Doesn't it look lovely that way?

This craft isn't origami, because it's not just folding, and I don't know if it's technically kirigami (folding and cutting paper), because you're also using tape, but it's still fun. We can call it kirigami, anyway.

You Need:

Paper - any kind, but probably not something too thick, like card stock.
Scissors
Tape

Here's How:

Start with a square of paper. If your paper isn't square, you can make it square by folding the short side of a rectangle onto the long side, and trimming off the excess.










Fold your paper in half on the diagonal, then in half again, and then again.

 

With your favorite pair of scissors, cut off the corner (the right angle) and round out the shape. This will be your petal shape.


The next cut you want to make will be in an arc shape, as I drew here. Make sure you start at the open end of the paper (not the corner where all the folds meet), and cut toward *but not all the way to* the other corner.

Unfold your paper, and behold its beauty.

Put a bubble of tape in the center of your flower. Then, take the center paper flap on one of the petals, and fold it toward the middle of the flower, securing it to the tape.

Repeat on the other three petals. You are done!

Variations:

You can use any type of paper at all. You can paint/color/decorate blank paper to really customize them, or use recycled books, origami paper - anything! They also look very nice when you stack them on top of each other, as in my original photo (at the top). GORGEOUS, I tell you!

Book Necklaces

I didn't realize it was backwards. Whoops.

Our next foray into wearable art is the book necklace. I made a sample over a month ago, and I very often get comments when I wear it (usually, "where did you get that?"). It isn't hard to make one of your own, but there are several steps involved.  Here's how:

You Will Need:
* One sheet of plain, white paper (printer paper works)
* Card stock or thin cardboard (NOTE: I used white card stock for this project this time, because I had several sheets on hand, but I have done this before with a cereal box; because we are covering the book, it doesn't matter if there is a pattern on the cardboard or not.)
* Colored or patterned paper, for the book cover
* Scissors, tape, glue, ruler
* Necklace string
* Clasps (optional)
* Thumbtack or needle, to make a hole for the string

Not pictured: string, because I forgot it until after I took the photo.

Step One: Folding
- Fold the white paper in half from top to bottom, and cut along the fold.
- Take one of the half-sheets and fold it in half, and in half again, and again, and again.  You want 32 small rectangles.

Step Two: Cutting
- Cut out the rectangles; you will need 12 for this project. You can recycle the others, or use them for bookmarks.

Step Three: More Folding and Stapling
- Group the paper into 4 groups of 3 rectangles each.
- Fold each group in half, and staple along the crease. You should have 4 small paper books.

In progress.

Step Four: Taping
- Tape two of the stapled bundles together at the spines; repeat with the other two.
- Tape all four of the little books into one big book.

Step Five: Card Stock
- Set the pages aside and measure out a cover for your book out of card stock.  I found that it worked best if it measured 2.75" x 1.5". When we did this project at the library, I had all the covers pre-cut, so we didn't have to fuss with rulers and pencils and such.
(Why? It needs to be slightly taller than your pages are tall, and a long enough to cover both front and back of the little book, plus room for a spine. Because our little book is roughly 1.25" tall by 1" wide, this seemed to fit well.)

I know you're all jealous of my Woody the Owl ruler, but I'm not selling it.

Step Six: Making a Spine
- Before adding patterned paper, I folded my little book cover around the pages, pressing down to make a nice square spine. This step is optional, but I find that it makes it easier to put together in the end.

Sometimes it helps to see it, not just read it.

Step Seven: Adding Patterned Paper
- Cut a piece of patterned paper that's slightly bigger than your book cover.  I found it easiest to lie my card stock on the wrong side of the patterned paper, then drawing a rectangle around it, making sure to leave 1/4" or so of room for glue.
- Glue the card stock to the blank side of the paper, and then cut off the corners.

Step Eight: More Tape
- Tape down the patterned paper on all four sides, then re-crease the card stock to make it into a book shape again.

- Make a bubble of tape and apply it to the inside of the book cover, on the spine. Press the pages into the tape and hold tightly. You now have an adorable little book!

It's so cute!!

Step Nine: Making a Necklace
- Take a needle or a thumbtack and make a hole toward the top of the spine of your book. Wiggle it around until it's big enough to thread some string through. (Alternately, you can use a jump ring, but I didn't have any of those on hand.)
- Thread a string through the book spine, and cut it to the appropriate length.  Either you can tie your string ends and slip the necklace over your head, or you can add a clasp.

Enjoy!
Miss Kat's Notes:
- Yes, this is held together with mostly tape, but I've had mine for over a month and it hasn't fallen apart yet. I assume you could glue it, but I haven't had the need.
- If you are using cardboard with a pattern on it that you don't want to see, be sure to glue that side of the cardboard to the paper, thus hiding the Trix Rabbit.
- You could get really fancy and print out or draw a tiny copy of your favorite book cover and use that to cover the card stock. I found that I enjoy having a generic book, rather than a specific one, but it's up to you.

Dragon Crafts

 
It's the height of Summer Reading, and this year we're doing a Games theme ("Come Inside and Play!")

This week's theme is Dungeons and Dragons! And as such, we have celebrated Harry Potter, watched The Sorcerer's Stone, and done THREE dragon crafts - one for kids, one for teens, and one for little guys at storytime. I know you're super excited to hear about all three, so I've put them all in this one post.
  

Little Kids

For dragon-themed storytime, we read Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin, If I Had a Dragon by Tom and Amanda Ellery, and When A Dragon Moves In by Jodi Moore. (Note: Dragons Love Tacos is much longer than I usually do for storytime, but it went really well!)We did the dragon hokey-pokey, sang "Pop Goes the Dragon,"and made what I was calling "dragon blowers," for lack of a better name.

You need:

• Green cardstock
• Paper streamers (red, orange, yellow)
• crayons, markers, etc.
• Stapler

You can use toilet paper tubes for these, but then you'd have to paint them all green, so I just made tubes out of green cardstock (cut in half and stapled at the back). We glued strips of paper streamers (the kind you use for parties - it's about $0.99 for a huge roll) to the inside. Draw eyes on the end that doesn't have fire coming out, and a couple nostrils, and you're all set! If you blow through the end with the eyes, the paper flames will flow out and look like he's breathing fire! SO COOL! A note: These are much easier to decorate *before* you staple the paper rolls together.

To be totally honest, I wasn't super thrilled with the way this craft turned out, but the kids loved it, and that was the important part.

Kids

Cut, decorate, staple - done!

His name is Norbert.

With elementary school age kids, we made dragons out of paper plates. I found this on the Pink Stripey Socks blog - you can download the template there for free.  I printed out the template on neon green cardstock (it's easier to see on a white paper plate), and cut out five copies - one for each of my four craft tables, and one extra in case it was needed. The kids were supposed to trace the pattern, cut it out, and then decorate. It mostly worked, but I neglected to realize exactly how hard it is for little guys to trace things, and I did a fair amount of helping - not that I mind, as long as I have a free hand. (They were pretty good at the cutting part, and excellent at the decorating).

Once you cut and color your dragon (we used markers and crayons), you staple him together and he's ready to be played with. That easy!

My dragon is rainbow tie-dye, because I made him and I enjoy cheerful things.

Teens

IT'S SO COOL!

The teen craft this week was dragon keychains. If you haven't made beaded keychains before, there are lots of tutorials online, and lots of patterns once you've got the basics, and while it looks somewhat complicated, it's really not that hard once you get the hang of it. I found this amazing beaded dragon keychain on DeviantArt, and cobbled together a pattern based on it.

You need:

• string/jewelry cord
• beads (pony beads work perfectly)
• Keychains/fasteners 
• Tape (optional, but helpful)

The first thing you do tape your keychain to the table, so you have a nice, stable working area. Next, cut a super long segment of string - like, 4 feet long. Better too long and cut off the ends, than too short and have to try to tie more on. Knot the middle of the string tightly to the keychain.

Let's take a look at our pattern.
The knot at the center of the circle (the keychain) is really one long string, but the two halves are colored blue and orange on the pattern, so you can see the difference between the two strings.

Our first line (going top-down) has our orange string going through two beads - go ahead and do that. The blue string also goes through the same two beads, but in the opposite direction. When you do this, you'll have two beads on your string, with the ends hanging down on each side (kinda like a bolo tie - see below). 

String beads on both strings.

Start your second line the exact same way: string three beads on the "orange" string, then string the same three on the "blue," going the opposite direction. Continue as per the pattern.

The tricky part here (which I simplified from the photo I saw on Deviant Art) is the wings. I only used one string for each wing, doubling back on itself at both the outer tip of the wing, and the bead closest to the dragon's body. I hope the pattern makes sense to you. 

The teens needed a little help getting started, and a little help with the wings, but they had a great time, and wanted to know when we could meet again and do different characters (I'd printed out some examples, like a butterfly and a Pikachu).

Finished dragon.

Overall

Dungeons & Dragons Week went well! The kids had fun, I had fun, a good time was had by all. I will definitely do the beaded keychains again, and the other ones were cute (but I don't like to repeat too often).