Pepper Scraps » XX Creative

A Craft A Day: Must Have Crafting Supplies

Pepper Ferguson — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 15:00:00 +0000

I was recently talking to a friend about her wanting to do more crafts with her daughter but she really didn’t want to buy lots of supplies. I can understand this as we are always on such a tight budget. This week we will be taking a break from our usual link of crafts and talk about supplies for you and your kids.

I thought this is perfect timing to talk about what you should have stocked up. As school children are about to rush through the doors to a new school year you are already purchasing school supplies. Or if you only have little children then this is still the best time to buy your supplies. Stores are trying to entice moms to do their school supply shopping at their location and are offering amazing prices on certain items.

Basic Preschool Craft Supplies:

white glue
markers
stickers
pipe cleaners
craft foam
craft felt
construction paper
pom poms
popsicle sticks
tape
googly eyes
scissors
crayons
paint & paint brushes
basket to organize everything

You know what’s the best thing about this list? You can find all these items at the dollar stores! That means with a $15 investment you have a great start to your crafting supplies.

Of course you may find you need more items than this, but this is a good start. Keep your eyes open when you see a clearance section at a store or use your imagination when you walk through the dollar store. Look through the ads right now as Back to School is in full force.

Or check out the clearance sections a week or two after Back to School to get even better deals. Right now I’ve found Crayola crayons and markers on sale for 99 cents and pencil boxes for 59 cents (great for organizing). Find your local store’s website and check out their ads online! It’s quick easy and you can find some great deals.

Next week we will be back to our regularly scheduled a Craft a Day post.

How to Find and Add Photos to your Posts

Pepper Ferguson — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Photos can make or break your post. Humans are a very visual. Two of the first things that will draw your visitors to your post is your title (headline) and your photos.

How do you make your image draw a visitor in? By making sure you use a high quality and relevent photo. But where do you get these photos and how do you place them correctly.

Use your own photos!

Get your camera out and learn a few good tricks about photography. Find a book or ebook, take a class, or follow a beginner photography blog. But make sure that you only choose high quality photos.

Creative Commons Licensed Photos

By quacktaculous

Creative Commons licenses are several copyright licenses that allow the distribution of copyrighted works – Wikipedia

If you want to learn more about Creative Common Licenses Lynda from Daily Window gives the best description and instruction I have read!

The best collection of creative commons photography can be found on Flickr’s Creative Commons.

One of the most important things to be aware of with creative commons is that you need to make sure and give credit for the photo. This is very important and if you do not do this you are stealing the original photographers artwork.

Find Royalty Free Photos

found here

Some photographers and designers are happy to share their work and offer it royalty free with no credit necessary. The only warning with these sites is that you want to make sure that the site you are using is legitimate! Make sure and read their terms of service.

One of my favorite sites that is free to find photos is stock.xchg. This site is easy to use, has great images, and the fine print is easy to find and understand. (The ones you can use with out linking back state: Standard restrictions apply.)

Word of Warning

Word of warning do not use google images as a source for your photos. It may seem an easy option to find photos through Google Images, but very few of the images are free for you to download and use even with credit.

Also never ever hotlink an image from another domain. Flickr does give you the code to insert the image so this is allowed. But any other site you are not allowed to take the URL of the image and paste it into your post. Or just copy the image and paste it in the image straight into your post. This is called a hotlink and you are stealing bandwidth from someone else.

5 Tips to Perfect Photo Placement:

Know the size of your post area on your blog (400px, 600px, etc)
Place your first photo in the same place on all posts (top center, aligned to the left or aligned to the right)
Don’t use small images (try to make your top photo always the same size)*
Don’t ever re-size your image larger! (You can make it smaller though)
Do not let any photos hang over the edge of your post area

*How to Resize your Image

How to change the size of your image with a little html so that your photo fits. Remember don’t ever re-size your image larger always make it smaller or else you will lose the quality of your photo!

Your image is placed in your post with a small html tag (if you are using WordPress click the HTML tab to see this tag). Here is an example:

To make your image fit inside your post area and not hang over you have to know the size of your post area (mine is around 450px). Change the width of the photo to be smaller than your posting area and take out the height all together. If you do not take out the height your image will get a warped look to it. Here is what your example would look like after being changed:

Conclusion

I hope this helped you learn more about photos and your posts. Photos are a really important part of blogging. Make sure you get comfortable with using photos and using your tools to find them!

Where is your favorite place to get photos for your posts?

A Craft a Day: G is for Garden

Pepper Ferguson — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 15:21:42 +0000

This week is all about dinosaurs and I found way too many fun ideas!! My list was overflowing with great crafts!

If you are new to A Craft a Day

A Craft a Day gives you five activities that you can enjoy with your kids, one for each day of the week. Most of these activities work well for preschoolers, but you may be able to adapt them for your toddler. If you want to learn more about the basics of A Craft A Day you can find them at a Craft a Day: Coming Back Soon. I will post the crafts on Saturdays so you can use the weekend to get any supplies that you may need. We are making our way through the alphabet this year so if you missed a you can find it here.

Are you Supermom?

Now I’m not supermom and I don’t expect you to be either. We don’t always get to each activity, sometimes life is just too busy. Hopefully you may try one or two of these activities with me and my kids! You don’t have to do every single one. You don’t have to be doing preschool with your child. I just hope to give you a resource for some great fun with your kids!

The Crafts:

Growing a Garden Healthy Snack - You probably don’t know but I love bunnies, we actually have a pet rabbit who lives upstairs with us. When I saw this snack I instantly grabbed up the link to use for this weeks snack.

Terrific Terrariums – I got everything we needed, which took a bit because I wanted to find the perfect container. I finally bought one at Ikea and settled with glass since I couldn’t find anything clear plastic. As you can see this project ended up as a big FAIL for me.

DIY Veggie Garden Sensory Box - I loved this idea as soon as I saw it. Zarek is a very touchy feely child, I can tell by the fact he loves smearing anything and everything on walls and tables. I thought he would love this project and he really did!

Bean Sprout Science – Another example of not being supermom, we didn’t get a chance to do this activity, but we may try it another day.
Foam Caterpillar – These were tons of fun, I only have pictures of the after product since our neighbor girl came over to do this craft with us and I’m very respectful of photographing others children. But let’s say it was tons of fun, but way to quick!

Supplies: Bunny Crackers, Grapes, Cheese, Chocolate Chips, Flower Cookie Cutter (or you can freehand it), wide clear container, pebbles, activated carbon (pet store), soil, stones, moss, small plants, cookie sheet or small flat container, paper towels, beans, tub, black beans, printable garden tags, egg carton, pipe cleaners, paint, paint brushes, garden toys, practice foam golf balls, craft foam, skewer, permanent marker, wire

Be Featured

If you do any of these crafts and happen to take a picture or write a blog post about it please make sure and share your link in the comments. Also don’t forget to link the original crafter! I may feature you and your blog on the following weeks post!

A Craft a Day: F is for Fish

Pepper Ferguson — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 15:21:15 +0000

This is the week that got interrupted with illness but we really did have fun doing these crafts. Besides doing the crafts the boys got to go fishing a few time this week. Once down by the river where my husband grew up and once at a stocked fish pond that I went to when I was little.

If you are new to A Craft a Day

Are you Supermom?

The Crafts:

School of Fish - These turned out pretty cool even though my apricots weren’t shaped perfect like theirs. Plus I lost the photos of us making them!
Good Luck Goldfish - I was a little skeptical about this working, but it worked so well I’m going to have to do more plastic wrap and Elmer’s Glue crafts!

Sun Catcher Aquarium - This was basically like the fish, but then we decorated the aquarium after it dried with fish and sea shell stickers.
Foam Fishing Set – This was a huge hit with Zane as he is just learning to fish with his daddy and is now obsessed. With this set he can now fish whenever he wants!

Supplies: dried apricots, cream cheese, pretzels, chocolate chips, tissue paper, Elmer’s Glue, plastic wrap, goldfish template, scissors, construction paper, fish and shell stickers, dowel, yarn, strong magnet, craft foam, paperclips, glue dots, google eyes

Be Featured

A Craft a Day: If I had girls

Pepper Ferguson — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 14:18:49 +0000

As I had mentioned last week we are taking a short break from the craft a day letter series and just sharing some great crafts that I have come across.

This weeks theme is going to be girly girl crafts. If you have been following along on Pepper Scraps for a while you know I have two wonderful little boys. Most of the time my crafts are gender neutral. But sometimes I come across some amazing crafts that are just too girly for my boys. Today I will be sharing you some of these finds.

If you are new to A Craft a Day

Are you Supermom?

The Crafts:

Fairy Garden - The other day I asked if he thought Zane was patient enough to do a “Gnome” garden he laughed at me. I still may make this just for me. You can also find fairies and many other things you can make for your gardens.
Dress Up Felt Board - I know girls are a little better at detailed work so they may be able to help you make these. They can at least help you design outfits to make.
Foam or Felt Food – I’m actually thinking about making these for Zarek, he loves playing with fake food. I loved this idea for “making” cookies (If you use foam you shouldn’t have to sew). More food ideas. And you may need a pretend stove for this activity too!
Weave a Jump Rope - What a fun way to start teaching your little girl hand weaving.
DIY Mobile - I loved these and may try them with the boys, but the detailed ones would be hard to get Zane to make. I love the butterflies!

Be Featured

A Craft a Day: Summer Fun

Pepper Ferguson — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 14:06:26 +0000

After a week of being sick and sick children we took a couple weeks off of our letter lessons. I hope your summer is going great and that you are having tons fun with your kiddos!

This week I will be just sharing with you 5 great crafts that are just filled with summer!

If you are new to A Craft a Day

Are you Supermom?

The Crafts:

Butterfly Bites - Butterflies made from doritos and chicken bites!
Water Sponge Toys (video) - A fun way to get cool this summer?
Recycled Bubble Wrap Travel Game - Are you going on a trip this summer? Here is a fun activity to keep your kids busy in the car.
Scavenger Hunt - How about making a camping scavenger hunt?
Make a Mini Marshmallow Popper - These just looked like tons of fun!

Be Featured

How to Find Great Coloring Pages

Pepper Ferguson — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 14:00:00 +0000

Today a friend asked how I got the pictures of the dinosaurs for the Color Science project. I actually print out a coloring sheet for each boy for each lesson day, so I find 8 coloring sheets for each week on the letter of the week. I have gotten really good at finding coloring sheets for them. Here are some of my tricks.

I have a few bookmarks for sites for coloring, but when I’m looking for a specific subject I use Google Images.

Search Terms

The terms that I use to search include:

preschool _____ coloring sheet
preschool _____ coloring pages
______ coloring sheet
______ coloring pages

I also do letter tracing pages for Zane, these are the searches I use to find those:

(LETTER) tracing worksheet
(LETTER)(SUBJECT) tracing worksheet
tracing letter (LETTER) preschool worksheet
tracing letter (SUBJECT) preschool worksheet

You will get lots of options, plus Google will give you more search terms to try also.

Refine Your Search

You can refine your search by clicking black and white images and also clicking line drawings in the sidebar. This is great if you get a lot of photos and art in your results and want to get straight to the coloring pages.

Find the Best Page

You will have to open up a few to make sure that they are a high quality printable image.

To do this right click on the image you like and select “open in new tab”.

You will have to close the window that pops up in front of the new tab and look at the page offering the coloring sheet.

Print

Most of the sites offering a coloring sheet will have a print button available or have the page in a pdf that you can download and open.

Now you have unlimited coloring pages for your kids!

A Craft a Day: C is for Colors

Pepper Ferguson — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 14:52:04 +0000

Welcome to a Craft a Day. Is this your first time joining us? This week is proof that I’m not supermom, life got in the way and we had to cut our lessons short. This happens sometimes, so don’t beat yourself up if you planned on joining us and didn’t get to. Just dive right back in and enjoy your kids!

If you are new to A Craft a Day

Are you Supermom?

The Crafts:

Coloring Toast – Both of my boys loved this project. Be careful they don’t jab the toast with the brush, good way to teach them to be gentle. We actually made grilled cheese with our bread.

Painting with Tissue Paper – I was going to combine this with a picture of Joseph so Zane could make his coat of many colors.
Color Science – You can teach your kids about colors and have them learn a little about cause and effect.
Color Rice – Zane loved making the rainbow rice! We worked on learning how to mix colors to make new colors. We will be using this rice for another project in the coming weeks.

Paper Color Wheels – This is also a great project to start helping your preschooler with scissor skills (and it won’t have to be perfectly accurate.

Supplies: bread, milk, food color, ice tray (optional), tissue paper, spray bottle, cardstock, shallow bowl, rice, food color,rubbing alcohol, sandwich bags, kid safe scissors, old newspapers, paper plate, glue

Be Featured

A Craft a Day: B is for Bugs

Pepper Ferguson — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 23:28:28 +0000

Welcome to a Craft a Day. We are making our way through the alphabet this year so if you missed a you can find it here.

If you are new to A Craft a Day

I will post the crafts on Saturdays so you can use the weekend to get any supplies that you may need.

Are you Supermom?

Now I’m not supermom and I don’t expect you to be either. We don’t always get to each activity, sometimes life is just too busy.

Hopefully you may try one or two of these activities with me and my kids! You don’t have to do every single one. You don’t have to be doing preschool with your child.

I just hope to give you a resource for some great fun with your kids!

The Crafts:

Letter of the week bee – After posting this link I realized I forgot to have Zane put wings on his B, oops. We didn’t paint the letter and I used craft felt for the stripes.
Butterfly Bounty – This is an awesome snack to have your little one help you make. Zane loved making these and Zarek loved eating them!

Book Worms – Or maybe centipedes? This was a little harder for Zane, but with help he did great.

Bug Jars – This is lots of fun for all ages, but also reminded how much I hat bugs. Zane also hates to touch bugs too. LOL
Rock bugs – While playing out in the garden finding bugs, pocket a few rocks that will work for bug creating. This is a great way to get through some extra craft supplies also.

Supplies: Craft Paper, Craft Felt, Pipe Cleaner, Glue, Glitter Glue or Paint, Googly Eyes, Snack Mix, Snack Bags, Clothes Pin, Yarn, Craft Stick, Permanent Marker, Jar, Rocks, Misc Craft Supplies