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Gather up some green leaves and use a roller or press to create natural stamp art. Follow these steps to stamp on canvas, or use the same technique to print lovely leafy cards.&nbsp;

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Gather the materials to make your DIY banner. 

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Start by collecting some of your favorite leaves. Look around your house or campsite to find some different shaped leaves. Remember not to pick them off of trees, only off the ground!

Don't pick the ones that are completely dried out as they will crumble as you try to paint them.

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Cut out several canvas squares, large enough to fit your leaves. You can also try different shapes, such as triangles or a flag shape like we did.

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You may want to cover your work surface for the next few steps. Squeeze some paint into your paint cups or paper plate. Using the spouncer, cover a leaf with an even layer of paint.

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Press the leaf, paint side down, onto the canvas. 

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Lay another piece of scrap canvas over the leaf and use the paint roller to roll over the leaf and transfer the paint. The extra layer of canvas helps to keep the leaf flat and in place as you roll over it.

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Carefully lift the canvas and the leaf. You should have a cool leaf imprint on the flag! If the imprint looks faint, you can experiment with adding a thicker layer of paint or pressing down harder with the roller. Getting the perfect imprint will take a couple tries.Repeat steps 4–6 until you finish all the flags for your banner.

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Once your paint is dry, use glue or tape to attach your flags onto a piece of ribbon. Now you can hang your leaf stamping art anywhere you and enjoy your nature-themed decoration! 

paint

canvas (or cloth)

Scissors

ribbon

hot glue/hot glue gun (or fabric glue)

paint roller

paint cup (or paper plate)

spouncer

Leaf Stamping

launcher

motion

physics

rocket

Fourth of July

party game

outdoor game

game

craft

easy craft

3 material crafts

3, 2, 1, launch! Try making these super simple paper cup launchers for a backyard rocket launch competition that’s out of this world.

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Place two rubber bands lengthwise across the cup, making a cross shape over the opening.

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Add a third rubber band around the cup, to secure the two rubber bands in place. This will be the "rocket."

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Get ready to launch! Place a second cup upside down on a flat surface. Put the "rocket" over the base cup. Holding the lip of the rocket cup, pull down and release! Watch your "rocket" go flying!

cups (2)

rubber bands (3+)

Rubber Band Powered Cup Launcher

clay project

arts & crafts

household craft

Add a fun and colorful pop of color to your walls with your own hanging air dry clay mobile!

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Roll out your clay and shape it with a cutter of your choice.

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(Optional) Add additional clay to decorate your shape!

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You can mix two colors together to get a marbled effect!

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Use a pointed clay tool to poke a hole in the clay.

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Repeat until you have enough pieces for your mobile, then let your clay pieces dry completely.

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Tie a long length of yarn to your dowel in two places to create a hanger.

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Tie your clay pieces to one another using yarn.

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Rainbow Air-Dry Clay

Shape Cutter Set

Neutral Yarn Set

Clay Tools Set

Wood Dowel

Needle (optional)

Air-Dry Clay Mobile

reused craft materials

quick craft

summer

bugs

painting

luminary

Catching fireflies is a summer tradition, but you can have "fireflies" in a jar any time of the year with this easy craft. 

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A jar or any glass container will work for this craft along with glow in the dark paint found at a craft store. 

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Squeeze dots of glow in the dark paint onto the sides and bottom of your jar. You could also dab it on with a Q tip. 

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You can decorate one jar to use for a nightlight or several jars to use for an outdoor decoration. I think these look beautiful lining a sidewalk for a party!

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The "fireflies" will recharge themselves in the light and glow each night for Summer fun all year long. 

jar (1)

glow in the dark paint

Firefly Jars

musical instrument

music

My children love to make shakers. We have made them with all kinds of materials and for all kinds of themes. As we begin to celebrate the arrival of summer a watermelon maraca seemed only appropriate. 

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We had these paper coffee cups on hand already, but they were a bit tall so I cut them down. 

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My two-year-old added a few scoops of dried beans and rice. We only made one maraca on this day, but in the past have made several with different kinds of dried goods. It's fun to hear the different sounds they make.

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Once he settled on the amount to fill the cup with we placed the other cup on top and sealed it with a half sheet of pink duct tape.

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He added green duct tape to the sides and was starting to figure out just what we were making--a watermelon!

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All that was left was a few seeds that my little guy drew on with a black sharpie.

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Time to shake away!! Of course, when big sis got home we made another one.

paper cups

Dried Beans or Peas, or Rice

duct tape sheets

permanent marker

Summer Break

Summer Fun Watermelon Maracas

My kids discovered sand paper and were intrigued. We had to find a use for it and a sand castle was perfect!

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We started out this craft with school glue, but quickly discovered tacky glue was a must for sand paper art.

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The kids cut one layer of their castle  at a time from sand paper. They cut layer by layer. They glued each section to a heavy sheet of paper and loved watching it all come together.

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Once they had a castle it was time to add the sun! We had some markers out for any fun details they thought of.

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This was a two-year-old idea and I thought it was great! He decided our blue glue would make the perfect water. You could also use marker for this, but the glue was fun to squeeze.....everywhere!

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This little guy couldn't have been more proud of his work.

sand paper

scissors

tacky glue

markers

heavy paper

colored glue

Sandpaper Sand Castle

Make a clock while spending the day on your favorite beach?  We couldn't think of a better place to make our sun clock!

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While spending the day at our favorite beach, Maddie and I found a stick poking up out of the sand, and we thought it would make a wonderful clock arm.

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So we did some beach combing, and found another stick. When the hour was straight up, we poked our new stick into the ground at the end of our clock arm.

Panda Crate

Sprout: Koala Crate

Labs: Kiwi Crate

World: Atlas Crate

Studio: Doodle Crate

Labs: Tinker Crate

Studio: Maker Crate

Labs: Eureka Crate

55 cool summer crafts projects for kids

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