Arts Exhibition (Ideas for Classroom display)

Hi there,

The summer break has started and I visited this awesome Arts exhibition at a nearby school. I am always looking for inspiration so this exhibition seemed a good idea and YES!!!! It was a really good show with tremendous possibilities and ideas which I can apply later on.

I will show you some of the displays and I hope that you get inspirations from them too.

This one is kind of cute with bottle caps used as fish body. We can use it in primary classes.

I love the hut and nest here. It's a close up of a bulletin board. 

This one is my favorite.  They made falling rain by stripes of tissue papee. Although I would've pasted some more clouds but still this is an applicable idea if you are planning to make a wall art.

This piece is really easy. You can ask your students to collect sea shells during the summer and make different sea creatures by printing the outlines.

See how they have made umbrellas using straw. This glazed paper is a shiny paper available locally.

This is a bulletin board displaying My Self items. They have added MY FAMILY, MY SCHOOL, MY HOBBY and other things to complete it. 

These are some of the ideas you can use to make your classrooms attractive.  I know being a teacher we are always thinking about ways to beautify our classrooms whether its holiday season or not. 

Please feel free to post queries and comments. 

Have a crafty summer,

                                          NAZ

Themed Bulletin Boards Part2

Hi,
A couple of months back I posted about Themed bulletin boards.  It's time to checkmon the part2  i.e other themedboards which I have put up on my boards.

The first one I am going to share is "The EARTH DAY BULLETIN BOARD". I got a chance to work on the board for the month of April so I chose Earth Day since it is celebrated on April 22nd.

So the materials I used are nothing fancy just a Fomic Sheet for Earth, A pair of googly eyes to give it a cartoon effect. Since it attracts children's attention.  The rest is just Card Sheet. My idea was to emphasize on the 3Rs principle.  So I cut out the headings REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE. The other letters are colored print outs. I got the pictures printed as I was running short of time but if you have time you can print the outlines and then color them by yourself.

 

So these are some of the pictures I took while making the board.  Notice that I had use a caption under the Earth.  JOIN HANDS TO SAVE THE EARTH. You can use a quote or another eye catching phrase.  The butterfly and the flowets wete last minute add ons because it seemed a bit empty to me so I added these.

This board was a huge success in my school.  I hope you also get similar results.  Do post if you are planning to make an EARTH DAY themed bulletin board or if you have tried one. I am always open to new ideas since brainstorming helps.

There are some other bulletin boards which you might want to see. This one was for the Sports Week. I have used Red,Green and Blue for background because these ate our house colors.

 
Please feel free to comment.  I would love to know what do you think of the boards or I am sure you must have some ideas you want to share.
cheers,

NAZ

Cornflour Dough (No Cooking)

Hey there,
 Today I am going to tell you, how to make cornflour dough. It is a non-cook dough and it is the easiest dough as far as I know. You can make anything out of it. It dries quickly and stay good for a long time. Some people complain about mold growth in the cornflour dough but if you add lemon juice in it, it will prevent from mold growth.

Okay so things you are going to need are :

1. Cornflour 6 tablespoons
2. German Glue or White Glue 4 Tablespoons
3. Petroleum Jelly/ Glycerin 1 tablespoon
4. Lemon Few drops

Alright the process is simple.  Take a plate or tray in which you can knead the dough. Make sure it is dry. Take cornflour and German glue in the specified quantity. Add lemon juice. (No seeds of course). You can either add petroleum jelly or glycerin.  Both works fine. Remember you are kneading the dough with the glue not with petroleum jelly. Petroleum jelly only keeps it soft but the right texture of the dough depends on the proper kneading and right quantity of glue and cornflour. Keep kneading until the dough is non-sticky and is expanding without cracking.  

Tips:

• Moist your hands with petroleum jelly before starting kneading. 
• Keep the dough packed in a cling film and air tight container.
• You can use disposable gloves if you want. 

In this way you can make a colorless dough. Now to add colors you will need :

Oil based colors. 

You can either buy a whole set or just buy the basic primary colors and then add them up to make other colors. 

Here I have taken lemon yellow color and a small portion of the colorless dough. Then knead it and let the color mix properly.  Don't forget to apply petroleum jelly on your hands before mixing.

You can mix different colors to make colored doughs.

Tadaah!!! You are done. Now how to make these and other interesting stuff from dough stay tuned to my blog. Dont forget to leave a comment.

  Cheers, NAZ

Craft a Hand Bag by your own self!!!

Hey there,

Today I am going to share my favorite craft. This is HANDBAG by simply nothing. Yes! you can make your own clutches and wallets by following this tutorial.

REQUIRED:

1. Chart Paper/ Colored Paper.
2. Hard Board or you can use a cereal box.
3. Wrapping Paper or Fabric.
4. Glue
5. Scissors.
6. Button/Magnetic Tape.

PROCEDURE:

1. Decide the size of your purse.
2. Cut your cereal box according to it. Cut 2 sides of it. This will be your purse base.
3. For the inside, Cut chart paper of the same size as your box cut out. I have chosen Red to be my inside color since my outer color was on red base. Paste the paper on both pieces of the box.
4. To make the base of the purse. Cut out a piece of box. Remember it's length should be equal to your purse's length and width should be as wide as you want. See Picture NO.3. I have pasted red on one side of my hard board/cereal box cuttings. And Black on the base piece. 
5. As you can see the sides of my bags are showing 2 colors; black and red. This I did to give it a Jazzy look. You can either use only one color or you can add more colors. Just contrast it with your outer color or pattern. Once you have decided which color you are using. Make fan folds as you can see in the picture below.
6. Stick these on both edges. 
7. Now stick the base to both parts of your bag.
8. Finally cover it with the outer fabric as you can see in NO.4. Make sure to keep its length a bit more than actual for folding purpose.
9. Secure all your glued ends and let them dry. Your purse should look like NO.8 from above.
10. If you have any leather straps you can add for handles.
11. If you want you can add button to make a clasped hand bag.

All done. You can make your own clutches, hand bags by simple variations and your creativity.

I hope you enjoy reading this. Feel free to leave a comment.

Naz

Themed Bulletin Boards

Hi,
As I was telling in my earlier post that I have switched my job so in this school we are very keen on themed bulletin boards. I personally like this idea. Bulletin boards should be according to a theme. They are the best way to convey a message to your students weather its about the upcoming Exams or some quote we want them to remember...a bulletin board is the best canvas for  a teacher.

I have made several bulletin boards but this one is my favorite. It is made for January 2015 so that's why I chose the theme to be NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS.

The theme tree is "RESOLUTION TREE". I have cut leaves from different wrapping papers. The idea was to give the tree a colorful look. I debated a long time to make the trunk "black" or "brown" but, in the end I went with brown anyway. For the background I have used crepe paper. It's Sea-Green or Turquoise in color.  I have taken another wrapping sheet to make the borders. It was kind of festive with fireworks and candles on it.
For the resolutions I have taken print outs on colored pages and then to give them some definition, stuck them to Black card sheet.
On Right side, I have pinned a definition of Resolution and some tips to achieve your resolutions.
I hope you like my Resolution theme. Feel free to share your own ideas with me.
Till than Happy Crafting :))

A Year has passed!

Hi there,
          I missed blogging. I know this is probably not the best starters but, seriously I did. I was very busy in my new job and that almost made me forget about this blog :( So I am sorry for not being active but, now I will update it regularly :)

Till than Happy Crafting :)

P.S A belated Happy New Year (2015).

Crafty Woven Heart

Hi there,

   Today we are going to make a paper woven heart. For this you might need to try paper weaving on a paper first. Since it will help you get a better result.

You can check out this link for simple instructions and step by step photos :
http://www.firstpalette.com/Craft_themes/Colors/Paper_Weaving/Paper_Weaving.html

Materials :

Colored paper. (2 contrasting colors)
Scissors/Paper cutter.
Ruler for measuring.
Glue.

Instructions :

Take 2 sheets of paper similar in size. For starters take small size like 7-10 cm.

Cut one edge in a cursive manner as to make a "door like" shape. 

From the other end make slits in the paper of equal length and width.

I have used 1.5 cm gap each.

Cut Stripes in both sheets of paper similarly. You can mark the lines with the help of pen first if you are not sure about the equal size of the strips.

 Place first sheet of paper vertically and the other one horizontally on top of it. You can see it resembles a heart shape.Now the weaving part.Take 1st strip and weave it through the other 1st strip in alternate manner.

Similarly weave all the strips. Add glue to the ends to keep the strips in there proper place.

If you have extra stripes sticking out from your heart you can cut these.

Tadah ! You get a nice woven paper heart.

 Bonus Tips :

• You can also try the same method with fabric stripes for making a pillow embellishment.
• You can also try it as a hanging heart, if you are making a mobile.
• You can also use double sheets of paper instead of single one and this will form as a basket.
• You can also use the similar pattern to make a greeting card.

Heart shaped hangings for mobile.

Heart shaped Basket

Heart shaped greeting card

I hope you enjoyed. Do write to me. Your comments will help me add those projects which you might like more.
Take care,
Naz