Summer Fun Series: Easy Turtle Craft for Kids

Hi there! I’m here today to share with you a super easy kid’s craft. Turtle bookmarks!

This post is part of the Summer Fun Series hosted by Nap-Time Creations. Check out the other summer fun ideas being shared today below:

Summer Fun #6 Make a treat, bookmark, wand holster or stacking dolls. Learn kids photography tips all on Nap-Time Creations

Photography Fun for Kids – Sugar Bee Crafts

Milk Dud Cake Mix Bars – Kleinworth and Co

Turtle Bookmarks – Lulu and Celeste

Wand Holster – Rae Gun Ramblings

DIY Stacking Dolls – Nap-Time Creations
Head over to Nap-Time Creations/Summer Fun to see all the posts in the series.

I decided I wanted to come up with a fairly simple craft. One that would be fairly easy for a child to put together with minimal supplies and minimal adult intervention.

turtle03

Supplies needed to make one turtle bookmark:

  • cardstock
  • glue
  • markers, crayons or pencil crayons
  • ribbon

Finished size is approximately 5.25″ long by 3″ tall. I would make it a little smaller if using for regular adult sized books.

turtle supplies

Instructions:

(Doesn’t really need much instruction but here goes)

Depending on the age of your child, you can either cut the shapes for them ahead of time or let them do they’re own thing. For my 6-year-old, Silly Bean, I had cut the semi-circle out in advance just to give her an idea of what the craft was, otherwise she could have done it herself. She cut the rest of the pieces herself. For my soon-to-be 3-year-old, Miss V, I cut out all the pieces for her. The semi circle is about 5″ wide by 2.5″ tall.

Then they coloured their pieces and glued them to create a turtle. (Or in Silly Bean’s case, glued the pieces and then coloured it).

Poke a hole near the top and thread a piece of ribbon through. Silly Bean decided she wanted hers to be a paper toy turtle so she didn’t want the ribbon.

turtle01

turtle02
The only ocean related title I could find to take a shot of the bookmark in action.

 

It was a simple activity. Kept Miss V busy for only about 10-15 minutes and I had to help her out with the ribbon and some glueing when the pieces wouldn’t stay on. But she was super proud of her turtle when she was done.
Silly Bean kept at it for an extra 20 minutes or so creating all the extra animals.

So now Silly Bean has created a whale, crab, seal and turtle from paper. I think I’ll suggest a jellyfish for her next creature!

Kids Craft Turtle Bookmarks

Pressed Flower Artwork for Children

summer fun 5
Pressed Flower Artwork by Lulu and Celeste
Beach Wreath by Just Us Four
Mini Sail Boats by Made to be Momma
Park and Beach Bin by The Joi Project


Hi everyone! Thanks for stopping by during the Summer Fun Series being hosted by Emily from Nap-time Creations. Originally for this series I wanted to do a post about an outdoor activity that my daughter really loves to do but we’ve had so much rain the past month that I thought an indoor activity would be more appropriate.


Silly Bean is 4 and pretty much did the whole thing herself. It was her first time using Mod Podge so I explained how to work with it, but otherwise she did it all on her own.



Materials:
Mini canvases (the one we used were 4″ square size)
Mod Podge
Paint brush or foam brush
Parchment paper
Flowers and other little trinkets
A stack of books (or other heavy objects)

supplies for pressed flower activity



    1. This is really a two part activity. On a nice day, while you’re outside enjoying yourself, pick a few pretty flowers. grasses, leaves, whatever small, thin nature objects your child finds interesting!

    2. Place the flowers and grasses between two pieces of parchment paper. Press the flowers slightly open so the petals are all showing.

    3. Slide the parchment paper between the pages of a book and place another stack of books on top. Leave the flowers for a couple weeks to dry.

    dried flowers
    The dried flowers waiting to become art!

    4. On a perfect rainy day when your kid needs something to do, pull out the canvases, Mod Podge, and brushes.

    5. Cover the canvas with a thin layer of Mod Podge, then place the flowers and other trinkets on top however you like. For the resin flowers we found they stayed on best by painting a bit of Mod Podge to the back of the resin flower first before putting on the canvas.


    6. Cover the flowers with another thin layer of Mod Podge. Let dry completely and then do a second coat.

    applying mod podge

    7. Once dry you have a pretty little artwork. Lean it on a shelf, frame it, or attach a hook to the back and enjoy!

    pressed flower artwork


    Thank you for stopping by!

    •••••

    You can check out all the fun from last weeks post here.summer fun 4

    S’Mores Trail Mix by The Benson Street on Nap-Time Creations Easy No-Bake Peach Cheesecake on Loves Bakes Good Cakes Simple 4th of July Decor by Christina, Plain and Simple

    •••••

    Ula writes for luluandceleste.blogspot.ca

    Kids Craft: Found Nature art

    I don’t have any pictures of the whole process because I wasn’t thinking ahead of time. Oh well. 

    Activity: Found art nature collage

    Materials:

    • Found objects
    • paper
    • Glue
    • Optional: Crayons (or pencil crayons, etc)
    Here is the finished project: 
     
    Silly Bean’s found art nature collage. 

    The Process:

    On one of the nice afternoons we had last week, Silly Bean, Baby V and I went out looking around for different nature objects lying around the yard.

    Well, Silly Bean looked, I raked the leaves and Baby V fell asleep in the baby carrier.
     
    Once Silly found everything she wanted (yes the pompom survived the winter outside only to be used in Silly’s collage), we went back inside. I did suggest she make a picture of trees and flowers since she didn’t know what she was supposed to do with the items but normally I don’t tell her what to draw.
     
    Once she glued everything down she drew a rain cloud, a sun, some flowers and a butterfly.

    And voilà! A nature collage!

    So easy and she had fun. And it occupied her for awhile (an hour outside while she looked around and played, and half an hour gluing and drawing).

    Silly Bean’s rating: ****/4

    Would we try this again?

    Yes, cheap and easy! Can easily do as a Fall or Summer collage as well. (Winter maybe not, I don’t think gluing snow will work very well. :p)

    Lulu&Celeste signature

    Egg carton flowers

    Kid’s Craft: Egg Carton Flowers

    **This post was originally published in March 2013 and updated April 17, 2016**

    I don’t know about you, but I’m always trying to find crafts that my kiddos can do on their own or at least with minimal help from me. And cheap! I’m all for recycled crafts partly because the supplies are free!

    I first did these egg carton flowers with my oldest shortly after she turned 3.  This is a fun and fairly easy craft for toddlers and preschoolers to do.

    It’s not really a craft that needs much explanation but I decided to put together this post anyway to keep it as a reminder for a last minute craft idea.

    Egg Carton flowers

    CRAFT: EGG CARTON FLOWERS

    Supplies:

    • Cardboard egg cartons
    • pipecleaners
    • paint and paintbrushes
    • scissors

    Step 1: Cut the cups from egg cartons

    Depending on the age of your child and their scissor skills you may need to cut the cups out yourself. We cut up two cartons but you can do as many or as few as you like! 

    Step 2: Paint the cups!

    We used some watercolour paints that we had on hand and only painted the inside as they were starting to get a little soggy.

    Next time I would probably use a thicker paint, like tempera. We used watercolours because those were the only ones we had on hand that were in bright spring-like colours as the tempera we had at the time are only in primary colours.

    Egg carton flowers
    Egg carton flowers in the process of being painted

    Step 3: Assemble into flowers

    Since we had to wait for them to dry completely this became a two day project.
    If you like, cut the cups into flower-like shapes creating petals. Poke holes in the center of each flower and thread the pipe cleaners through. Bend one end of the pipe cleaners to prevent them from slipping back through the holes.
    You can twist the “stems” together a bit so the bouquet stays put or wrap another pipecleaner around the stems to hold the bouquet together.
     Egg Carton flowers completed
    Finished flowers! Assembled into vases.

    Place flowers in a vase and voilà! Pretty decorations ready for Easter (or Spring or in my daughter’s case her room) or even give them as a Mother’s Day gift!

    Verdict: ***/4

    I was way more hands-on for this project than I would normally have liked. Normally I prefer to be as hands off as possible when it comes to art and crafts activities with kids (I like seeing what they come up with on their own rather than them simply copying what I make), but she had asked me to paint with her so I painted some too. Also she only just turned three and the holes I made for the pipe cleaners were too small for her to thread by herself. And I had to do all the cutting (she can use scissors, but if I had left her to it, the flowers would have been a mound of tiny pieces of painted carton, lol). BUT I think this is definitely something we will do again, just maybe when she’s a bit older (like next year).

    I did paint some of the flowers, but I think if I had left her to do it alone she would have lost interest as she wanted me to craft with her. She loved the end result though, and was proud to show daddy when he came home, and her grammie when she came by. She also kept telling me to smell the flowers. The vases are now on a shelf in her room. (Her daddy was actually doubtful about how they would turn out after he  saw the painted cups the first day, the next day, once assembled into bouquets he thought they were pretty nice!)

    Cost: $0

    The vase on the left was left behind by the previous owners of our house (which we bought last June). The ‘vase’ on the right was one of the ‘vases’ I used for the table centerpieces at our wedding in 2011. (Painted jars, this one was a salsa jar, I only kept a few of them, the rest got recycled). The pipe cleaners I purchased back in highschool (like 20 years ago!)… (I hang onto to things for a while. I have a hard time getting rid of things that might be useful someday, lol.) The paint we used was a Christmas gift for Silly Bean from one of her aunties, and of course the egg cartons were saved from the recycling bin!

    Mini tutorial on making egg carton flowers with preschoolers

    P.S. Want some more kid’s craft ideas? Check out these ideas for more craft fun: Pressed Flower Artwork, Found Nature Art, or Balloon String Art.

    Lulu&Celeste signature