PET Bottle Plant Hangers

Materials needed
Old PET bottle
Scissors
Cord or Jute thread (this biodegrades and the planters are heavy so a plastic cord does work better)
Soil
Propagatable plants

The trickiest part of this project is making the hole in the bottom of the PET bottle to thread a rope/string through.  You will need to use a good sturdy cord and attach something inside (or make a big knot) so that the string doesn't pull all the way through.  Find the right implement, we used sharp, pointy scissors and slowly dug our way in right in the center of the bottle.  We made a few small holes on one side of the bottle (which would become the bottom of the planter) for drainage.  Pull the string through and knot it well so that it comes out the bottom.  Tie the other side of this string onto the neck of the bottle where the lid is.  You will need to measure the string to have the bottle hang at the right distance, make it a bit longer for knotting, etc.

Now cut a slice along the side of the bottle.  Don't  make it too wide or the bottle will bend with the weight of the soil and the plant.  Once you have cut away a piece to make the planter opening, fill the bottle up well with soil and put in a plant type that will easily propagate.  You can also grow something like lettuce or herbs.

loo roll matryoshkas

mustard matryoshkas, a photo by dalbhat on Flickr.

I had saved up quite a few toilet paper rolls thinking to do some sort of project but to be honest, i can never think of anything very interesting to use them for.

Using the matryoshka doll i keep in our little children's lending library i talked a little bit about these dolls and we played with them a bit. Then, I had the kids look at the designs and how the dolls are painted.

Next, I gave them each a loo roll to design a doll for themselves. The results were beautiful!

Valentine weaves

Saturday Sessions @ Shikshamitra
Originally uploaded by dalbhat

This was a spontaneous craft I thought of while I was actually on the way to school with a big bag of fabric, felt and ribbon that was donated from a shop that gave us all the ends of their ribbon rolls and a bargain price.

The theme was Love and Friendship. After singing some songs, we made these crafts. While making the crafts we melted down slabs of chocolate and molded them into Valentine candies too. We talked about why our best friends are so important to us.

I asked all of the kids to look at their clothing to see how a weave looks. I wore Indian handloom khadi just for this purpose, so they could see it better. We talked about how people say that our lives are like woven tapestries with all of our friends and experiences being different colours, textures and patterns that make us the person who we are.

Cut out base hearts in all sizes. Some of the kids wanted to do really large ones in teams, with their best friends. Others wanted to try their own with a smaller heart. One boy made quite a tiny heart!

Fold fabric in half and show how to make a perfect heart by cutting out half the pattern. The felt heart works well as the base. Open the heart out.

Now cut line slits into the base heart and begin weaving in any long pieces of ribbon, lace, fabric, string. The kids could not get the over-under-over-under-over pattern at first so they had to retry. The big mistake is that they'd follow the under-over-under pattern from the strand before, but they needed to do over-under-over this time. Each one has to be done opposite of the one before it. They got it! Then, they instinctively neatened the new strip, pushing it close to its neighbor, before beginning the next weave.

They decided to glue the edges down where the weaving ended to keep things in place. I was thinking of sewing things down but we ran out of time. Everyone LOVED their final pieces. The bigger pieces required true teamwork and cooperation. Everyone stayed with it and finished their piece so they could hang it up on our welcome board.

T-shirt pillow

t-shirt pillow
Originally uploaded by dalbhat

My daughter wore this shirt for a long time and when she finally grew out of it, it was hard to part with it. We thought of cutting off the front and sewing it onto another new shirt and then we came up with this t-shirt pillow idea.

Stuff the arms and sew it, then fill the body and stitch around the neck. Now you have a very fluffy t-shirt with arms for hugging!

Recycled Tetra Pack Xmas Stockings

I was looking for an alternative to stitching stockings with a big group of kids as Santa had confirmed that he would be visiting Mustard Seeds Library this year.  The age variations in the group would make sewing a bit difficult.

I came up with this idea, which is a great way to recycle tetra packs.  

First, clean out and dry tetra packs, then cut them so that the front stays as tall as possible and the back is a nice little box size for holding a few holiday goodies in *see photo below.

Now cut a stocking shape that will nicely cover the front of the tetra pack and make enough of these on paper to hand out to all the kids in your group.

I made a line and the top and emphasized the heel and toe.  Ask children to write their names along the top cuff of the stocking so Santa knows which stocking belongs to who.

Kids can now get arty and decorate their paper stocking with sketch pens, glitter, and color...

Lastly, these get glued onto the front of the tetra pack.  A staple at the top is a good idea to be sure to hold them together.

Have the children set these out and explain the stocking tradition if they don't know it.

Next week when they come back they will be surprised to see that their stockings are full because Santa has paid a visit.

*This shows how the paper stocking is attached to the tetra pack.
Keep one side of the tetra pack tall when you cut to support the stocking

Felt Christmas Trees

kid crafts
Originally uploaded by dalbhat

Once again felt saves the day! This is a wonderful project for beginner level stitchers during the holiday season. It uses a simple run stitch and the blanket stitch and kids can manage to finish it in one or two sessions.

You need to prepare:
Needles
Thread
Felt trees x 2
Felt star
Brown cotton in strips for trunk
Thin ribbon for hanging
Sequins, bobbles and buttons, etc.
Scissors
Glue
Stuffing of your choice

Before class, I prepared two pieces of green felt cut from a triangle (use an old cereal box folded in half to make one) pattern for each student
Next, I cut small yellow circles and turned them into stars by cutting little slits into them...it worked.
Each child also received a ribbon and a long piece of brown fabric which is folded in half to attach as the trunk of the tree.  The kit was complete.

Each child sews their star into place first and then it's time to decorate.
I put small sequins and buttons, etc. into dishes so that the kids could all browse through the goods and share while sewing decorations onto the front of their trees. I suggested that children put a smidge of glue down first to make it easier to hold things in place while they stitched them on securely.

Next we folded the trunk and stitched that onto the front with the running stitch - careful to make sure it is in the center. Once in place we blanket stitched around the tree with the two layers together at last. Leave a small bit at the bottom to stuff with poly-fill or old cloth scraps.  This is when an assistant could come in handy to help with knots and needles that fall off...

Some of the children decided to stitch the two sides of the trunk and stuff that too, although that wasn't the original plan. A nice innovation.

They all wrote their names and we decided to send them to our penpals in Germany as gifts!

The girls in our afterschool class made wreaths too.

FLOPPY DISC CANVASES

recycling floppy disks
Originally uploaded by dalbhat

If you have a big bag of floppy disks sitting around from computer-yesteryear, let them free!

We used acrylic paints on them, and heavily coated our little canvases with bright designs. Children naturally seemed to tend toward the abstract. This particular one, with the flower, is the signature flower of one of my very special students!

Before class we had a great discussion on why people put art on walls and in homes and museums and the final gist of the discussion was to inspire us to smile and to think!

These can be used as coasters or group them together like tiles and do a whole wall of mini-canvases.