So, this is new to me: my kids celebrate the first 100 days of school. (We didn’t do this back in the day.) As a result, my first grader was required to bring in 100 items- anything, really- and display them for the class. The purpose is counting, I suppose. But I saw this as a crafter-tunity to use up some beads AND get my daughter making art!
Since I recently thinned out my beading stash (yes, I am a Craft Hoarder), I gave my kiddos the extras. I started her off by counting out beads in groups of 10 (except the last one- that one only got 9- but I’ll explain that in a minute), and stringing them onto cheap-o craft wire. I curled the ends into loops when she was done. She made 10 beaded wires altogether.
So then we laid out the wires on a big shoe box lid into a rough flower shape, and traced around it. Then little girl went to town with the acrylic paints, making a sky, stems and leaves, and of course a big “100.”
The next part I helped with. She laid the beaded wires back onto the painted flower shape. Then I cut pieces of wire about 2 inches long. I threaded them through those loops, and then poked 2 holes through the lid and fed the wires through that. I flipped the lid over and twisted the wires together to secure.
Yes, this is the same technique that tortures us on Christmas morning, trying to get the toys free from the packaging!
Just to make sure there are no pokey bits, I used some painter’s tape to cover up the wires on the back.
Now remember how I told you that there were really only 99 beads? That’s because she found a HUGE glass bead to wire into the center! One hundred beads in all!
I was ridiculously excited about this project- we used up extra beads from the stash, recycled a box lid, and little girl had so much fun both stringing the beads AND painting. I hope you’ll try it or something similar with your kiddos!
Have you done any “100 Days” crafting? Here are some more ideas from TipJunkie– and I’d love to hear your ideas, too!
- Spooky Spider Halloween Bookmark Craft - October 24, 2018
- Review and Demo of LDRS Hybrid Ink Pads - October 15, 2018
- Review and Demo of Nuvo Hybrid Inks - October 1, 2018
- Craft Studio Tour and Organization Ideas - September 20, 2018
- Wax Paper Resist Background Technique - March 20, 2018
- Comparison of Liquid Watercolor Markers/Pens - March 16, 2018
- SAI Japanese Traditional Watercolor Brush Markers- Review & Demo - February 23, 2018
- Rinea Metallic Foil Paper & Ghost Ink Review - February 21, 2018
- Jane Davenport debuts at Creativation 2018 & Watercolor Card - February 13, 2018
- Creativation 2018: New Product Showcase - January 20, 2018
What a great idea! Zoë had to do this, too. She made a dolphin using Prima Flowers that I had left over from my scrapbooking stash. To be honest, I’m pretty sure we ended up with 101 flowers. Don’t tell!
Oh, and I just dug my empty heart shaped candy box out of the trash after seeing BK using it as a paint palette. Brilliant!
This is one of the cutest things I’ve seen in a long time. I’m thinking I’d love one and one for a friend too. And the candy box paint pallette – Holy Moly!
LIKE!
This is awesome… trying to think of a way to incorporate it into my process…
What a great idea! I love this!