What you need:

• Acrylic paint
• Paintbrushes, and a way to clean them (paper towels, a cup of water, etc.)
• EVA Foam clay
• Recycled flat plastic sheet (thicker than plastic wrap but thinner than an acrylic sheet; you can
  use part of some packaging.)

• Watercolor paper/cardstock
• 2 toothpicks
• Chalk pastel or eyeshadow
• High-gloss varnish
• Water
• A dust mask
• Scissors or craft knife
• 1000 grit sandpaper

Base Pond

1. Draw a stencil from two different round bases to make a bubble-shaped ‘W’. I used makeup packaging and a bottle cap on a sticky note. Mark where you want to place the lily pads and cattails. Don’t forget to look at your reference!
    

2. Cut the stencil out and tape it to a piece of thick plastic that can be cut with scissors or a craft knife, I used some old packaging. This will be your ‘water’.
    

3. Trace the stencil onto the plastic with a blue marker (this will make it easier to hide the stencil lines later because it’s the same color as the pond water!)
    

4. Put on a dust safe mask and use a fine grit sandpaper and water to give the plastic a frosty finish so that powder pigment will adhere to it. (The water will keep the sanded plastic from being airborne.) I used 1000 grit sandpaper for a smooth finish.
    

5. Use either eyeshadow or chalk pastels in a light shade of blue to color the pond water. (You can also use glitter or makeup highlighter to make it sparkly!)
    

6. Add layers of high gloss varnish to the sanded side of the plastic to give it a watery smooth texture. (I recommend at least 6 layers, make sure each layer dries first before adding the next!)
    

7. Take the W shaped stencil you made earlier and cut out a piece of watercolor paper, color it pastel blue. This is the base of the pond.
    

8. Add foam clay ‘spacing bumpers’ to the paper base. (around 1cm tall) Evenly space them so that it can hold up the plastic level. Let the clay dry.
    

9. Make a thin clay ribbon and wrap it around the edges of the pond, making sure to seal the clay around the top and bottom so that there are no holes. Make sure the clay doesn’t overlap on top of the plastic ‘water’. You can use real water to smooth out the clay.
    

10. Tape the pond stencil to the underside of something see-through. (I used a CD jewel case) This will make it easy to sculpt the pebbles.
     

11. Roll tiny clay balls and flatten them, put them on the see-through material over the stencil’s edge to make the pond border. Make sure the pebbles touch so they will dry into one piece. Let it dry. Keep the border on the clear surface so it can be painted easily.
     

12. Paint the pebbles in various colors. I used 6 desaturated pastel colors including blue, purple, coral, yellow, and a warm and cool gray.
     

13. Once dry, carefully remove the pebble ‘W’ from the surface you sculpted and painted it on. Carefully place it on top of the plastic pond water and line it up properly. Glue the pebbles onto the edge of the pond ‘water’.
     

14. Sculpt a rounded border of clay around the pond. Make sure to sculpt the clay into the crevices around the pebbles on the outside of the pond. This will be the grass!
     

15. Add texture to the clay grass with a toothbrush, rough paintbrush, or other tools like a pencil.
     

16. Paint the clay green, and when dry, add a lighter shade of green on top to give it depth. Be careful to not get paint on the pebbles! If you do, there’s no worry, you can repaint the pebbles afterward. The base of your pond is done! Now on to the plants.

Plants

1. Make 7 foam clay balls of various sizes. flatten and cut one ‘pizza slice’ out of each of them. Let dry and paint them two different shades of green. These will be your lily pads!
    

2. Paint the front and back of a small section of watercolor paper green. cut the paper into many pointy strips. Once cut out, paint the sides of them and once dry, lightly bend them into curved shapes. Cut the bottoms so they are all mostly the same height. These are your cattail leaf reeds!
    

3. Cut two toothpicks in half. Sculpt 4 ‘hot dog’ shapes with foam clay and put them on the pointed sides of the toothpicks, making sure the points are visible on the top. Paint the toothpicks green and the clay parts brown, and you have cattail reeds!
    

4. Make 2 foam balls and put them on a surface you can move around, put 2 cattail reeds into the middle of each clay lump and surround those with your green paper leaves. Reinforce with superglue and let dry. Paint the clay base green. The cat-tails are done!
    

5. Refer to your stencil where you marked where you want the lily pads and cattails to be, and glue them onto the pond surface accordingly.
    

6. Your W Pond is complete!

 
This pond is perfect for a Webkinz figure diorama! Do you have a great idea for a craft, recipe or party game? We’d love to hear them!

What you do:

• In a container, mix all the ingredients together. Add the cherries and cherry juice last. Divide up the drink between two glasses.

I love the way the cherries sink to the bottom and make this drink look like a delicious sunset!

Do you have a great idea for a craft, recipe or party game? We’d love to hear them!

What you do:

1. Tape the bristol board that’s folded in half on top of the bristol board rectangular prism – this forms the back, seat and base of the couch, respectively.
2. Paint an arc of red paint around the outside of the half circle. Paint an orange arc underneath it, then yellow, then green, then blue and then violet.
3. When the arc is dry, tape it to the back of the couch.
4. Put a thin layer of craft glue all over the couch.
5. Stick cotton balls all over the couch’s back and seat.
6. When everything’s dry, show your Pegasus their lovely new couch!

Make this couch extra special with the addition of sparkles!

Do you have a great idea for a craft, recipe or party game? We’d love to hear them!

What you do:

1. To make royal icing combine all ingredients in a medium bowl with whisk until sugar is dissolved and mixture is light and fluffy.
2. Start by laying a base row of sugar cubes around your circle template, leaving space for the entrance.
3. Using your royal icing sugar as “glue” add layers of cubes, one row at a time, decreasing the circumference as you build upwards staggering  the cubes the way a builder lays bricks.
4. Allow the igloo to dry completely.

Display your Sugar Igloo on a window ledge or on the table for everyone to enjoy it!

Do you have a great idea for a craft, recipe or party game? We’d love to hear them!

It’s chilly outside, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a nice frosty drink! Check out this recipe from our archive.

What you do:

1. Place ice cubes into the glass.
2. Add cold water to cover the ice cubes.
3. Add two drops of blue food coloring.
4. Stir with spoon and place straw into the glass.

Add all ingredients to a blender and make this cool and refreshing beverage a slushy!

Do you have a great idea for a craft, recipe or party game? We’d love to hear them!

What You Need:

• Melting bead plate that will fit 17 x 25 design
• 18 blue melting beads
• 14 pink melting beads
• 12 white melting beads
• 3 red melting beads
• 18 orange melting beads
• 19 purple melting beads
• 18 brown melting beads
• 19 black melting beads
• 169 yellow melting beads
• An adult helper for ironing
• Sheet of wax paper
• Cork trivet

What You Do:

• Follow the pattern below with melting beads
• Place a sheet of wax paper over the pattern and have an adult iron the first side
• Flip onto a trivet and remove the plate
• Place another sheet of wax paper over the other side and iron it
• Allow to cool completely before removing the wax paper

You can also use this as a pattern for cross stitch or crochet!

Do you have a great idea for a craft, recipe or party game? We’d love to hear them!

What you do:

For the Pot:

1. Trace the opening of the cup onto brown construction paper.
2. Cut out the circle and cut a slit in the center.
3. Put rumpled paper towel in the cup for support (or you can use dirt instead, if you prefer).
4. If not using dirt, cover the top of the paper towel with brown construction paper.

For the Plant:

1. Using green construction paper, draw the following shapes:
   • 2 hands with 3 leaves each
   • 1 skirt with at least 6 leaves
   • 2 elbow leaves
   • 1 neck leaf
2. Cut out leaf shapes.
3. Twist these pipe cleaners together to form the body:
   • 2 for the main stem
   • 2 for each arm (4 total), plus 1 for shoulders/upper arms
   • 2 for the head, twisted into oval
4. Tape or glue the leaves to the body.
5. Slide the plant stem through the slit in the soil and stand the plant up in the cup.

What cool poses can you think of for your plant?

Do you have a great idea for a craft, recipe or party game? We’d love to hear them!

What you do:

1. Roll cookie dough out and cut cookies with a pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter.
2. Bake according to package directions and let cool completely.
3. Decorate the cookies any way you like using the orange-colored frosting, candy eyes & decorating icing gel pens.

Not only fun to decorate, but a blast to eat too!

Do you have a great idea for a craft, recipe or party game? We’d love to hear them!

What you do:

1. Take a piece of green wire and fold it in half.
2. Take three or four different sized buttons and thread them on the wire; the smallest button goes on first, upside down, then the middle button, and then the large, bottom button goes last.
3. Twist the wire together to make a firm stem.
4. Put out your button flowers in a vase for people to see!

This is a great way to use up old buttons that are lying around the house!

Do you have a great idea for a craft, recipe or party game? We’d love to hear them!

What you do:

1. Print your favorite picture of a monarch butterfly from the internet on the cardstock paper. Make sure the size is almost as big as the 8 ½ x 11 piece of cardstock.
2. Cut out your butterfly and trace the butterfly’s outline onto the shoebox lid.
3. Cover all sides of the shoebox lid and the area around the tracing of the butterfly with moss.
4. Glue your butterfly’s body to the shoe box.

Your pet will wake every morning feeling more beautiful with this bed!

Do you have a great idea for a craft, recipe or party game? We’d love to hear them!