Danielle's Place of Crafts and Activities

Teaching Children Through Crafts and Activities

Welcome to Danielle's Place where you will find thousands of free crafts for kids designed to make learning fun.
Many of the crafts and activities are Bible-based and are great for use in Sunday school, preschool, home school, and on special occasions.

Danielle and Friends Designs

(Crafts Designed and Made by Children)

Keep Cool Headbands

This headband keeps you cool for hours. Just soak it squishy headbands in water for a minute and you're ready to go!

What you'll need: Material that doesn’t fray, California Crystals, (These were developed for fresh flower arrangements. The crystals retain a lot of water for a long time keeping the headband moist for days. You should be able to find these at a floral shop.) You will also need a sewing machine.

What to do:

1. Cut material into a long and wide strip, at least 3” x 45”).

2. Fold the material long-ways and sew the open side (B) and one end (A). Use small stitches.

3. Find the center of the band by folding it in half. Make a line across the width of the band about 7” from the middle of the band on each side. Sew line (C) all the way across the width.

4. Fill the band with one teaspoon of crystals (Don't use too much because the crystals expand a lot.) from the open end of the band.

5. Sew line (D) closed making sure the crystals are inside the middle of the band.

6. Then sew the end closed.

Rock Pets

What you need: rock, fur material, scissors, glue gun, goodly eyes,and pink or red fun foam.

What to do:

1.Cut fur into small pieces [1-2"] then cut out ears and tail.

2. Use glue gun to glue fur to rock. Cover the rock completely. Then glue ears and tail to rock.

3. Last, cut out the nose from fun foam and glue the eyes and nose to the rock, and you've made your pet.

Origami Claw

What you will need: Notebook paper or typing paper.

What to do:

1. Fold left corner of paper down to meet the right side of paper.		5. Fold in the right side of the triangle from the righ, top corner and about 1 1/2" from bottom corner.
2.Fold the top right corner of the paper to meet the bottom right corner of the paper.		6. Fold the trianagle over again and then again to form the claw shape.
3.Fold the left side of paper in to make a square.		7. Tuck the remaining corner down into the triangle you just folded.
4.Fold the left, bottom corner up to meet the right, top corner to make a triangle.		6. Stick a finger in the hole on the side of the claw as shown in the picture to place the claw on your finger.

Sock Doll Clothes

What you will need: Socks, thread, hot melt glue gun, lace and other decorative items such as buttons and flowers, and scissors. (We bought a lot of socks from our local Salvation Army for a very cheap price. You can find lace and other decorative items there also.)

To make a hat:

Cut off the toe part of the sock and roll up the end to fit on your dolls head. Have your mom glue or sew the rolled up part to the sock so it doesn't come unrolled. You can also glue or sew lace or other decorative items to the hat such as a pompom to the top. You can even make a matching scarf with the left over part of the sock.

To make a shirt or dress:

Cut the top part of the sock. The sock band will be the neck of the dress or shirt. Just under the band cut tiny holes on the sides of the sock for the armholes. You only need to make a small snip because socks are very stretchy and the hole will stretch a lot. If your hole is too small you can always cut a little more. Place the shirt or dress on your doll and roll down the collar. You may want to glue or sew the collar down. You can also add a flower or something else, but don't add something all the way around the collar because the collar has to be stretchy to fit over your dolls head. To make the dress wider at the bottom, stretch out the bottom of the dress. You can also glue on lace with a hot melt glue gun while someone is stretching the bottom of the dress.

To make pants:

Cut the top part off of your sock. The top band of the sock is the waistband for the pants. Put the cut sock on your doll so that the top band of the sock is on the dolls waist. Pinch in the sock between the legs, bringing the back and front of the sock together. Make a mark with a marker where the back and front come together. This is where you should cut for the legs. Take the sock off and flatten out the sock. Make a slit from the bottom of the cut sock up to the mark you made. Turn the sock inside out and sew the inside seam of your pants. When you are done turn the sock back to the right side and put them on your doll. Roll up the bottom of the pants if they are too long.

To make a jumper:

You will need a long sock for this outfit. Cut the whole top part of your sock off. It should be longer than your doll is from neck to ankles. Cut two armholes just below the top band of the sock and place the cut sock on your doll. Pinch in the sock between the legs, bringing the back and front of the sock together. Make a mark with a marker where the back and front come together. This is where you should cut for the legs. Take the sock off and flatten out the sock. Make a slit from the bottom of the cut sock up to the mark you made. Turn the sock inside out and sew the inside seam of your pants. When you are done turn the sock back to the right side and put them on your doll. Roll up the bottom of the pants if they are too long and roll down the collar.

To make underwear:

Just cut the toe part off the sock and cut two holes for the legs.

To make a skirt:

Cut the top part off the sock. The band part of the sock is the waistband of the skirt. To make the skirt wider at the bottom, stretch out the bottom of the skirt. You can also glue on lace with a hot melt glue gun while someone is stretching the bottom of the skirt.

We would love to see your sock clothes designs. E-mail us a picture and we will put them up on this page.

Also see How to Make No-sew Sock Dolls and No-Sew Sock Animals web page for more example of sock clothes.

Natural Perfume

Find some pretty smelling flowers such as roses and larkspur. Put them in a mortar and grind them with a pestle until it fills like mud; or use a blender. Place in a microwavable container, add hot water, and heat for 20 seconds on high. Strain into a bowl. Spread out a coffee filter on the bottom of a strainer and pour the perfume into the strainer over the coffee filter. Pull out the coffee filter with the juices trapped inside and squeeze it so the juice runs out into the bowl. Add 2 drops of vanilla extract and 1 drop of orange extract. Store in a pretty container.

Easter Chick

What you will need: Two yellow pompom balls one smaller than the other, orange pipe cleaner, shell from a pistachio nut, glue, googly eyes or white paper and marker, and two feathers.

What to do:

Glue the two pompom balls together, paint or use an orange marker to make the pistachio nut orange. Glue the pistachio nut to the head. Glue googly eyes to the head or draw eyes, cut them out and glue them to the head. Shape the pipe cleaners into leg shapes and glue to the body. Glue feathers on for wings.

Butterfinger Caterpillar Gift

Butterfinger Caterpillar gift You can use this yummy craft as a gift for special occasions such as birthdays, Valentines Day, or just to make someone feel special.

What you will need: A Butterfingers candy bar or other candy bar, pompom ball, pipe cleaners, wiggly eyes, construction paper, scissors, and glue or tape.

What to do: Cut out circles from construction paper and glue them down both sides of your candy bar. Glue a pompom ball to the top of one end of the candy bar for the head. Glue on the wiggly eyes and short pieces of pipe cleaners for the antenna.

Build a Fairy House

I just read a great book called Fairy Houses by Tracy Kane! It's a story about a little girl who builds a fairy house. It tells how she attracted some fairies and a lot of other animals. At the end of the book it tells you all about how you can build a fairy house and attract some fairies too. It says to try to find a place that is hidden and away from people. You should only use natural things to build your house. Fairies do not like to disturb anything that is growing so you shouldn't use anything that is still growing like flowers, ferns, and leaves. My mom helped me build these houses in our garden. I hope the fairies like them. We had a lot of fun building them and so will you. And just maybe you will see a fairy or at least some animals visiting your home.

You can find out more about this book and see more pictures of fairy houses by going to www.fairyhouses.com

Pony Express Sock Horse

What you will need: One old sock, gift wrap tube, stuffing, two buttons for the eyes or a permanent marker, felt for the ears, yarn for the mane, scissors, glue, tape, and thread.

What to do:

First if there is a hole in the toe of the sock, cut it off or fix the hole. Sew the toe part closed. And then stuff the sock with stuffing, and then draw or sew on the eyes and nose. Cut the yarn into pieces and glue the pieces onto the horse's head. Cut ears from felt and glue them onto the head. Then get your tube and stick the head on it. Use tape to keep it on.

If you would like to use your pony as a messenger get a tissue box and cut a hole in it. Then two hole on each side and put string through the holes to tie it on the pony. Make up messages to deliver to your friends and family. Deliver messages for other people.

Note: Gift wrap tubes are often not very strong. To make the tube stronger wrap several layers of newspaper around the tube. Lay the newspaper out flat and lay the tube so that one corner of the newspaper is in the center of the tube. Roll the newspaper around the tube from that corner to the opposite corner. When you are finished rolling you will have points at the ends of the tube. Stuff the points into the ends of the tube, and secure the corner of newpaper that is in the middle of the tube with masking tape.

Paper Alligator Tail

What you will need: Paper, scissors, tape and a green crayon.

What to do:

Cut out a long triangle shape from the paper. Then cut out smaller triangles for the scales. Then color the scales and the tail green. Tape the scales onto the side of the tail. Tape the tail onto your pants. And then you can pretend and play with it. You can be an alligator or a crocodile.