Cute and Creative Crafts for Kids

With so many adorable decorations and toys for kid's rooms on the market, it's tempting to go out and buy them all. Who can resist? Remember though, sometimes the cutest and most creative décor that you can find for your children are crafts that you make yourself — or with the help of your little ones.

The team at HGTV.ca have created three craft ideas that you can follow to make your own additions to your child's room. A soft and sweet sleepy-time mobile to hang above baby's bed. An adorable activity book that your child can use for playtime — and for learning. A giant growth chart so you and your kids can keep track of how big they are getting. Don't they all grow up so fast? Take a look at these ideas; you'll be surprised by how easy it is.

Sleepy-Time Mobile
Decorating your child's first bedroom is, perhaps, one of the most delightful preparations before bringing baby home. In the past, the baby decorating system rarely varied past "pink for girls and blue for boys". Thankfully, we've moved past that era and gender-neutral motifs, such as cuddly animals, have become more popular.

One of the focal points in an infant's room is the mobile. Placed above the bed, this softly swaying Sleepy-time Mobile will gently lull your baby into a deep sleep - full night not guaranteed. This cute play on counting sheep works for both boys and girls and can be handed down to future baa-mbinos.

Materials:
· 1 Embroidery hoop (wooden preferred)
· 1 roll of clear fishing line
· 1 bag of cotton balls
· 1 medium-sized sheet of white Bristol board or foam board
· 1 sheet of medium-heavy weight dark brown felt
· 2 metres of white ribbon
· 1 screw-in wall hook (white preferred)
· White crafter's glue
· White China marker or very dry and small piece of bar soap
· Scissors
· Heavy gauge needle
· Pencil

Directions:
1. Loosen screw on outer hoop and remove inner hoop. You can discard the outer hoop or save it for a future project.

2. With a pencil, sketch out the shape of the sheep's body and head only (ears, face and legs will be added later) on the Bristol or foam board. You may want to practice a few times on scrap paper. If you are not confident in your drawing skills, an oval shape will also do the trick.

3. Cut out the sheep shape and use it to trace seven more sheep on the board. Cut out the remaining sheep when finished tracing.

4. Take the brown felt and, using your China-maker or soap, draw a letter "U" about the size of your thumbnail. Then draw a line across the top of your "U", making the face of your ewe. Cut it out and use this face to trace seven more on the felt. Cut out and set aside.

5. Next, draw little ears on the felt — they should look like small sunflower seeds. You will need 16 ears in total. Cut them out carefully and put them with the faces.

6. Take the straight edge of the felt and cut narrow strips for the legs of your flock. You will need 32 legs. Each one should be about 1 ½ inches long, so cut the strips into smaller strips accordingly. You have the option to round off the edges of the legs with your scissors, or to leave the ends blunt — it's up to you. We chose to round the legs to give the appearance of feet and match the roundness of the ears.

7. Glue four legs to each sheep body. Then glue the faces on. The face should slightly stick out from the body. Then add two cute ears for each sheep — round end out, pointy end in.

8. Once the ears, face and feet are securely in place, take your sheep bodies, cotton balls and crafter's glue and begin gluing the cotton balls to the cut-outs. For fluffier sheep, work the cotton balls with your fingers to slightly separate the roll. This is where older children can help. Be sure to avoid covering the face and ears, but definitely cover the tops of the legs where they meet the board. After the first side seems mostly dry, flip the sheep over and cover the entire backside.

9. When your flock is dry, thread your needle with one metre of fishing line. Put the needle through the top of your sheep and pull the line though to double up. Adjust to desired length from your embroidery hoop and tie the ends around the hoop accordingly. Cut off excess. Repeat with all sheep at varying lengths.

10. When all eight sheep are in place, cut your ribbon in half. Find the centres of the two pieces and knot them together so it appears they are intersecting. Take the four loose ends and tie them around, or glue them to, the embroidery hoop at even intervals. Hold up from the centre knot to make certain the hoop is level. Adjust accordingly.

11. Apply cotton balls to the outside of the embroidery hoop with glue to hide the strings and ribbon.

12. Screw a wall hook into the ceiling above your baby's bed, hang up the mobile from the knotted centre, and you are ready for some sheep sleep!

The Little Tot Activity Book
First comes that gorgeous smile, then comes crawling and a first word - or maybe two! Once all that great stuff has arrived, it's official; your little baby has a world of things to accomplish. There's shoelaces to be tied, buttons to be buttoned, snaps to be snapped and zippers to be zipped.

Help your little one practice motor skills with this great homemade activity book. Featuring a fun fashion theme, this book will make sure he or she learns how to button, zip, tie and snap in, well, a snap.

Materials:
· 3 pieces of felt (or fabric of choice) 18 inches X 12 inches
· 4 snaps
· 4 buttons
· 1 zipper
· 1 pair of shoelaces
· Scraps of fabric, thick and thin
· Assortment of puffy paint
· Hole Punch
· Scissors
· Needle, thread
· Craft glue
Directions:

*Hint: Use iron-on patches to create letters and shapes, making it fast and easy to attach. Also, don't attach fabric with the same colour thread. Instead use another bright colour to add dimension and fun.

1. Stack the three pieces of fabric on top of one another, making sure they are aligned. Fold in half, and then iron the crease to make the fabric form the shape of a book, and to keep the shape.

2. Unfold the fabric and down the middle (where crease is), punch a hole at the top and bottom (about an inch away from the edge). Refold, forming the book shape again. Using one of the shoelaces, bind the book.

3. Now it's time to get creative! Using puffy paint, scraps of fabric, glitter and glue, or whatever else you think of, create the cover. Note: Keep in mind that while the book has eight pages, only four pages will show activities — this is because the other sides of the fabric are sewn together, to hide all the thread.

4. On the first page feature a jacket with snaps down the front. This will teach the child to use snap buttons. For a decorative touch use the hole punch or ribbon or glitter to frame the page.

5. Do not use the next two pages, skip to the third (which is the left side of the middle of the book). Using more fabric scraps, cut out the shape of a shirt, leaving extra room on one side for the buttonholes. Attach four buttons onto the opposite piece of fabric (loosely, as children have small hands). Glue or sew the shirt onto the piece of fabric. Add glitter or puffy paint for fun.

6. On the opposite page (the right side of the middle of the book) sew the zipper onto the fabric. Add special touches.

7. Again, the next two pages you will not be using, as they are the backsides of two 'feature pages.' On the last page, attach the shape of a shoe. Using a sheet of foam is best, as it is easy to punch holes through. Punch holes down the middle. Lace a shoelace through the holes and voila!

8. Once all finishing touches are added and the glue is dry, bind the pages together so that the backsides of the feature pages are never seen.

9. That's it, you've now got a fun activity book!

Growing-Up Giraffe
Watching your children grow up is a mixed blessing. While you love to watch them grow bigger and stronger, there are days when you yearn to have your little baby stay small and sweet forever. A wonderful way to share the joys of growing with the whole family is by marking the progress on a growth chart. Sometimes no more than a notch on the wall, a growth chart allows your child to see how much they grown in a week, a month, a year.

Growing-up giraffe is a fun-to-make, kid-friendly growth chart that looks wonderful hanging in your child's room. Kids can help by choosing colours, gluing on the feet, tail and eyes, and of course, standing proudly while you measure just how tall your little one has become.

Materials:
· Piece of Felt, 6' tall and 2' wide (we've used orange)
· A patterned piece of cotton material for cut-out of giraffe
· Brown Felt, one sheet
· Soft measuring tape (ours is yellow and 60")
· Wooden dowels (for top and bottom) and dowel caps
· Ribbon for tying on top
· Google eyes
· Craft glue
· Masking tape
· Pencil
· Scissors
· Optional: No Sew (iron-on product that can you can use instead of sewing with thread)

Directions:
1. Cut the felt that you are using for the background of your chart to the length and width that you require. Your width should fit the size of your wooden dowels, and length should be as long as the measuring tape you plan on using, plus an extra 4" to allow for looping around the wooden dowels at the top and bottom.

2. Attach a wooden dowel to both the top, and bottom of your piece of felt. Simply lay the dowel along the very top width, fold the felt over and loosely stitch by hand, or use craft glue to secure the dowel in place. Do the same for the bottom dowel.

3. Add the round dowel caps to either end of the top and bottom dowels. This secures the felt in place so that it will not slip off.

4. Lay out the material that you have chosen for your giraffe cut-out flat and using masking tape, mark off a rectangle the exact size of your background felt that is now attached to the dowels. This will prevent you from sketching a giraffe that is too big to fit on your growth chart.

5. Sketch your giraffe. This can be done using simply using a pencil and your imagination, or find a picture or drawing that you like and copy it, adding your own touches here and there. Don't worry about details like the tail or the feet, you'll add those on later.

6. Cut out your giraffe and centre it on your felt chart.

7. Stitch around the outside edge of your giraffe until secure on the felt. Or as an alternative to stitching, use No Sew, and iron the giraffe onto the felt.

8. Now you can use your imagination some more and glue on finishing touches such as the smile, eye, feet and tail. Your child might like to help out with this part.

9. Glue the soft measuring tape, inches rising, up the side of your growth chart.

10. Tie the ribbon to both ends of the top dowel, forming a loop that you can use to hang the chart up in your child's room. Use remaining ribbon to cut out markers that you can pin on the chart to show how much they have grown.