For my son’s seventh birthday party I wanted to make party favors that didn’t cost very much, were mostly hand made, and that weren’t stupid cheap plastic games that would break immediately. I made pirate booty bags out of some pirate fabric I already had, put some chocolate coins in each one, some fake dollar bills, a few plastic play rings, and one surprise bath bomb which the kids could use in their next bath and after watching the ball fizz for a couple of minutes in the bath a prize would drop out of the center of it.

Because the trinkets you use will be immediately immersed in water you need to choose water proof ones. Plastic bugs or rings (shown in this tutorial) are all good choices. They also need to be small. For all the kids I put a pirate button in the bath bomb, but for the birthday boy I hid a tiny corked bottle with a message inside it for him. He loved it!

This project is not difficult, but it has one tricky aspect to it which is that baking soda and citric acid combined will foam and fizz when in contact with too much moisture, which is what you want it to do in your bath. To get it to form balls you have to get it just wet enough, without setting off the chemical reaction that makes it expand. There is no exact science to knowing when the mixture is ready to form balls. Humidity levels in homes differ. It might take me fifteen sprays of witch hazel to get mine right, but that might not be true in your house. I highly recommend having a second person do the witch hazel spraying while you whisk it in simultaneously so that the moisture has no chance to set off a reaction. [might be a good way for the kids to help out -ed]

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To make this fun and easy marbleized paper you will need: 1/2 tsp alum (helps paint adhere to the paper), 2 cups liquid starch, liquid acrylic paints, a long wooden skewer, 9 X 13 pan and white copy paper cut to fit the inside your pan. You can change up the size of the pan; just keep the proportions of starch and alum the same. The starch should be 1 to 2 inches deep in your pan.

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I have had such a ball this month with the children’s crafts, but am now gearing up to Alt crafts month which I also looking forward to - so send in your submissions.

I wanted to also let you know about my posts last week for design*sponge where I was a guest for a week. Some of these post will be perfect for alt craft month but there are also some posts on my home and crafting with kids - so check them out.

Some last kiddies crafts that readers have sent in…

Patricia sent this in - egg carton turned into a heart

Alix sent this in - just thought I’d tell you about the car my son and I made. it isn’t a tutorial, more a description of the process and how we made the choices.

Mimi sent in this link to a fishing game tutorial

Amy sent in this - Hi there! I just wanted to share this simple craft my son Finn and I made recently…It was great to start the year off this way. It is a “helping bank”. I know it is not super artsy or amazing, but I know that this is children’s month and I thought you might want to see it. It was fun to make and the lesson was great.

At artstream, we use a lot of recycled objects as well as bonafide art materials to create with. Here is an easy reuse of the freebie foam core which most frame shops throw away. Go ask for some at your local shop. They will be happy to see you!

To make these mask/faces we sorted the bits into a few bins of small, medium and large shapes. For the actual “head” we had the children draw on a larger piece and we cut out that shape for them with adult size scissors. They glued on the features and used wooden skewers and toothpicks for hair. The foamcore board accepts the skewers easily on the edges as it comes with premade hole like formations. Paint, markers, or inks could be used to add color, as well as beads, ribbons and yarns added to the “hair”. Everything was glued on with a white glue although if you were in a hurry to finish, an adult could use hot glue. More photos of this process right here at flickr.

Neck warmer by lady harvatine The pattern is from Knitty. I used some sort of Merino, I’m sorry I don’t know what, but it was very soft and squishy.

hoppelpoppelsocks by craftoholic Hoppelpoppel - something useful made from leftovers - from craftaholics - Pattern: Basic top down 2×2 rib Needles: US 2 Yarn: mostly Lana Grossa Meilenweit leftovers

handspun pinwheel blanket by lulubeans pattern: free one from genia planck, via the good folks at knitlist.

camera mittens by impulsive arts (with pattern)

Kids craft weekly has donated 5 copies of her book Everyday Craft , its packed with creative ideas - the projects use household items as the foundation for fun and achievable kid’s craft projects.

Everyday Craft more info here.

to win one of five copies of this great book simply leave a reply in the comments - (make sure that you write your current email address when you post your comment) answer the following questions.

Share your favourite ‘everyday’ item for crafting?
And nominate your favourite kid’s craft project?

forgot to add - comments will close at the end of the month - cheers

I was so excited to have found this great post over at Creature Comforts! EZ has a posted a tutorial, complete with downloadable PDFs and illustrated directions, for creating a personalized candy bar wrapper for the one you love! You could easily print a secret message on the inside of the wrapper, for your Valentines eyes only! Think of it as your very own golden ticket! ;)

As part of our month of crafts for children, we will be posting links to cool ideas and inspiration as well as tutorials and articles. We are still taking tutorial and article ideas for the month so please email your ideas and stories to me at whipup[at]gmail.com.

Wendi wrote in with this great letter about how she helps her 5 year old to sew - they are currently making a quilt.

Hello lovely Whip Up people! I’ve been enjoying this month’s theme of crafting with kids and I thought I’d send you a link to the post I just wrote about sewing with my daughter. She’s five and she’s been sewing with a machine since she turned four. In my post I talk about the things I do that “help” her sew (like drawing the stitching line for her to follow) and how I rigged her machine to slow it down a bit.

This is an almost no-sew tutu project that is perfect for any kid who can tie a single knot (usually 5 years and up). This is perfect as a girl birthday party craft.

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Sophie wrote in with this letter for children’s craft month:

Something fun i did with my cousin’s kids was make a jar of hugs and kisses for their mum’s birthday. We bought some clay (that stuff you bake) in pink and red and made crosses (kisses) and circles (hugs). Then we baked them and let them cool. For the jar we picked a random one and covered the lid with pink material. Then I made a mixture of red paint and glue and helped them paint the word “MUM”. When everything was cool and dry we put the kisses and hugs the jar and finished it off with a piece of ribbon. Mum was thrilled. I did it with a 5 and 3 year old but I helped a lot.

Juliette from Chickpea studios sent in a link to this tutorial for pinwheels

Paul O’Mahony of the Siopaeile.com has recently launched the Irish Arts Blog . The blog is written by a select group of artisans from all over Ireland, who responded to Paul’s free group blog offer for Irish Artists launched last summer.

Larissa has been working her knitting book Knitalong for a while now. | March 15, 2008 | Knitalong Book Release Party | at Abundant Yarn & Dyeworks | in Portland, Oregon (Sellwood neighborhood) | late afternoon/early evening, time TBA.

Heather has some new pattern downloads available - paper globes just in time for valentines and

A new feature on Vintage Indie called What You Make of It . Kind of a twist on DIY with vintage components.

check out illusion knitting on instructables

new shopping site called Shopflick, which is launching next month - Shopflick is “eBay meets YouTube.” Sellers list their products via video; shoppers watch; and buyers click on our video player’s buy button and buy. It’s also a way of giving folks everywhere the Renegade or Felt Club (indie crafts fairs) experience via the web by meeting the creators and hearing them talk about their work.

Handmade Nation: Documenting the rise of DIY Art, Craft & Design. | Documentary Release: 2009 | Book Release: November 2008, Princeton Architectural Press | more info and updates here

Whip Up is now taking article and tutorial submissions.

We are looking for tutorials and submissions that fit within our feel - read our Manifesto for more information.

We are looking for thematic articles and tutorials to fit within the months themes - see monthly themes below - but also timely articles outside of these themes will be considered such as exhibition and pattern reviews, craft memes, fun, frivolous and extreme ideas, etc that cannot wait and do not fit within the theme.

Submissions now being accepted for January, February and March 2008

- January: Children’s crafts
- February: Alternative crafting
- March: Ephemeral art and craft

To learn more about how to submit an article read the submission guidelines here

I was making bugs for my mom. I know she likes ladybugs a lot, even though we live in a place where they invade your house by the hundreds! I really know what a ladybug looks like from seeing so many. I cut felt out free hand, and tried to make it look right. Then I sewed it all together. I like making stuffies a lot. I give them to my mom, and friends. I like designing them, because I don’t have to follow any directions! My mom helped me draw the pattern from the original, and wrote out the directions for making it.

Materials: felt – small amounts of red, black, white | ☺embroidery floss – black | size 26 tapestry needle recommended (The rounded point is better for younger needle workers and still pierces the felt just fine. It is also easier to thread than standard embroidery needle. | fiber fill or cotton balls to stuff with | scissors

Directions: Draw the pattern onto paper, or enlarge on a photocopier until you have it the size you want - make sure to make it a big bigger to allow for cutting and sewing.

Cut 2 of the head pattern from black felt. | Cut 2 of the eye pattern from white felt. | Cut 6 of the spot pattern from black felt. | Cut 1 of the body pattern from red felt. | Cut 1 of the body pattern from black felt.

HEAD: Stitch the eye pieces nto one of the head pieces, using black floss. Then stitch the head together – top to bottom using over cast stitch. Leave an opening for the stuffing. Stuff and close the rest of the way.

BODY: On the red body (top) piece, First use a running stitch and black embroidery floss to create a line along the dotted line on pattern. Then stitch the 6 black spots. Use the picture as a guide, or put them where you want! Stitch the top (red) to the bottom (black) leave an opening to stuff. Then close.

PUTTING HEAD ONTO BODY: Put the head into position at one end of the body and stitch using black embroidery floss.

HINT: Don’t worry about your stitches being perfect – it’s part of the charm!

About the maker: Becca is ten years old and in fifth grade. She likes to do crafts, embroider and to draw.

Secret Message Soap: A bribery idea. Trying to get your kids to wash their hands more? In this project we put a dollar bill in a lip balm container then embedded it in a bar of soap. Once the soap is all used up you get the dollar that has been safely stashed in the lip balm pot. This is also a fun idea for putting secret messages into soap.

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Playdough Soap - All you do is add cornstarch to regular melt & pour base and it turns into a malleable soap you can sculpt and play with! Let your kids sculpt their soap into any shape then let it air dry and they can use it in the bath.

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Whiptips craft advice column for readers to ask questions or offer advice by leaving comments. Whiptips archive here. Ask your whiptips questions at the ‘tips and tricks’ section of the forum - right here.

I have a question about sewing clothing. My sewing skills are ok, I can follow a pattern pretty well, but I would really like some resources to help me alter patterns or even draft my own! I would be great if you could ask the readers if they have any recommendations. Thanks for all the great work! [you might like to check out BurdaStyle - ed]

Airplane in the Clouds Soap a simple project of embedding toys in soap. A fun soap to get kids to wash up more so they can get a prize.

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As part of our month of crafts for children, we will be posting links to cool ideas and inspiration as well as tutorials and articles. We are still taking tutorial and article ideas for the month so please email your ideas and stories to me at whipup[at]gmail.com.

As cozy as spring documented her process of making paper with her kids, great instructions, and what a fabulous summers day kids activity.

This was my daughter’s idea. She wanted a kit for Christmas. I order the smallest kit and it was smaller than I expected, but I think also quite necessary. The screens included, along with the other tools, make for an easy project.

JC Handmade is sharing the sewing pattern/tutorial that she created for her Kidlet Wall Pocket Tidy Totes. The tutorial is a pdf download (3MB) and includes 41 full color photos to make the process as simple as pie.

Indigo Knits: The Quintessential Guide to Denim Yarn from the Founders of Artwork by Jane Gottelier (Author), Patrick Gottelier (Photographer), published by Potter Craft (November 13, 2007).

I was quite impressed with this book for a number of reasons. But before I go into the reasons I want to explain my love for knitting and fibre books. I don’t just use them as a practical pattern book, I love to gaze upon the pictures too, I love to sigh over the fibres and patterns and colours. So when a book has beautiful images I am instantly attracted. Then of course I check out how good the patterns actually are - looking is one thing, making quite another.

This book has some lovely scenic photography of Cornwall, my mothers family came from Cornwall so it was quite lovely to look upon the area, and images of the various fisherman/guernsey/cable sweaters, both pullover, and cardigan are just gorgeous. My mother was a cable expert and would have loved the challenge they presented. For me though, I prefer my challenges in other areas - but I did like the simple tunic style pullovers in soft faded comfort, and the simply delightful crochet cotton skirt, which my daughter is angling for me to make for her.

The patterns in the book are either knitted or crocheted and all from denim/cotton, but another aspect of the book which I was intrigued by was the use of bleach on the denim fibre to highlight the cables -I rather the liked the end result. There is a Jackson Pollock inspired design where bleach turns part of the pattern into brown. And a “Painterly Stripe Sweater” which features the same effect where certain stripes with the aid of bleach change colour, it is quite interesting.

I don’t generally like to knit with cotton - its a strange bias I have, but I enjoy so much the feel of pure wool in my hands that knitting with cotton seems like a waste of time to me. And I am not sure that I could justify spending all the time knitting complex cables in a child’s garment - unless of course there were multiple children to pass it on down the line. However after checking my stash it appears as if I may have enough knitting cotton in white and mauve to knit the “Pirate-stripe guernsey” for my daughter.

About the reviewer: Janette lives in Australia and is spending her retirement doing the things she loves. Gardening, playing with yarn and making things for her grandchildren.

The following tutorial was written by 6-year-old Marian Grace. Marian has kept an art blog for the last year, and is currently focusing it on her crafty preparations for a bone marrow transplant she is having in late March. As she explains here, she is using the time while she waits to raise money for crafts for hospitalized children, since her own artwork is such an important part of her life. She will first earn money, by selling her snowglobe kits, to buy new craft supplies for her own long in-patient stay (necessary to ensure that they are germ-free, as her problematic immune system is being dismantled), then donating the rest of her money to Caitlin’s Smiles, a local organization that donates thousands of bags of craft supplies a month to kids in hospitals.

The following tutorial is written by Marian with added clarifying details in brackets written by her mother.

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As part of our month of children’s crafts, crafty beats sent in a link to a matching memory game she made from plastic bottle tops for her kids to play with. This would be a great game for the kids to help make - cutting out or drawing pictures or words to glue into the bottle tops.