Three Fun Crafts For Everyone

By: Lily N.

Hi my name is Lily, and I am 12 years old. Two of my siblings have SLC13A5 Deficiency, which means they have seizures and a harder time learning.

Since my siblings all have different ability levels, we can have a hard time finding crafts to do that we all enjoy. Luckily, there are crafts that I’ve learned that we can all have fun doing together.

Just a friendly safety reminder – when handling scissors and hot glue make sure to be cautious. They can hurt you if you use them incorrectly, so have an adult help you when handling them.

Now, here are my three fun crafts:

1. Tape Painting:

While we all love to paint, we all enjoy different styles and variations of painting. This is because of our different ages and abilities.

Maggie and I love to do real acrylic painting, while Colton loves finger painting and Tessa loves watercolors. Here is a fun, new style of painting that we all loved!

Materials:

• Washi Tape or Duct Tape
• Canvas – any size
• Paint
• Paintbrush
• Water Glass

Instructions:

Put washi tape or duct tape on a canvas in the desired shape. Colton put the tape in the shape of his name, and Maggie did flowers. They both turned out really cool. Then, you use any type of paint (we used watercolors) to paint the WHOLE canvas. In order for the shape to show up properly, you need to cover all the edges of the tape with the paint. Colton had so much fun, and unlike with some of the crafts that he does with me, he never got bored. His favorite part was dipping the paintbrush in the water, then on the paint, then on the canvas.

2. Bubble Canvas:

Maggie and I did this craft and we had a lot of fun! Tessa and Colton didn’t do the craft, but they sure loved playing with the bubbles!

Materials:

• Bubbles (if you don’t have regular bubbles, you can make bubbles out of dish soap, but you have to be careful because dish soap can kill plants and grass)
• Food dye
• Straws
• A canvas
• Acrylic paint (the acrylic paint should be the same color as the food dye… or at least a similar color)

Instructions:

Take the dish soap and separate it into different bowls. The number of bowls you use depends on how many different colors you want. We wanted two colors so we separated the bubbles into two different bowls. Add the food dye and acrylic paint into the bowls (you can always add more, so only add a little at first). Then stir until the liquid is even. Dip your straw into the liquid and blow through the straw directly above the canvas. It was hard at first, but we got the hang of it.

The thing I love about this project is that it is mostly bubble liquid (which is mainly soap) so if we messed up, we could just use a baby wipe to rub off the bubbles and try again. This is a messy craft, so I would do it outside.

3. Rainbow Plates:

Tessa and I did this one morning while Maggie was at a friend’s house, and we had so much fun! This craft is great for two people because you can each use half of a plate, and then you’re not wasting the other half.

Materials:

• One white paper plate
• Cotton balls
• Markers and crayons and dot art stampers
• Hot glue gun
• Hot glue stick(s)

Instructions:

Cut the white paper plate in half and then cut a semicircle out of the straight side. Your finished cut-out should look like an arch/rainbow. Then start coloring in the colors of the rainbow. Higher ability level kids can put the colors in order in straight, pretty lines or, like Tessa, you can scribble wherever you want. Once you finish coloring your rainbow, use hot glue to add the cotton balls on the ends of the arch. Then, your masterpiece is done! You can hang it up on the wall, use as room decor, or even give it to someone as a present! I loved making this craft with Tessa, and I can’t wait to do it with Maggie and Colton!

There you have it! Three easy crafts that I love doing with all my siblings. Thank you for reading this blog post! I had a lot of fun making it!

❤️ Lily