Craft: T-shirt Scarves

Archive for the ‘Crafts’ Category

Crafts – Jester Hat

2012
06.08

Tags: girl scout crafts, girl scout video, Girl Scouts, gs crafts
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It’s Friday and time for a craft! And who doesn’t need a Jester Hat! Jester Hats are fun! Add bells and everyone is smiling! This is a great project for a Medieval Theme Camporee. If all the parts are cut out, the hat goes together really quick.

Skill Level: Daisies – Ambassadors (they need a jingling jester hat too!)

Supplies: Fun foam, stapler, bells, hole punch/ribbon, hot glue (adult help with this one!)

Directions:

Step 1:

Cut a rectangle out of the fun foam. It should be about 2 – 3″ wide and the length of the fun foam. I used big sheets of fun foam (I think they were 18″). You may need 2 bands to go around the heads. This is where you need two people. Have the second person, wrap the band around the girl’s head. Take it off and staple the two parts together. You will want to overlap a little on this one. You could also hot glue the overlapping bands together.

Step 2:

Cut out triangles of fun foam. Get a variety pack of the fun foam (big size – 18″) and cut some triangles! Let the girl creating her hat by picking the colors – maybe she wants just one color or one of everything! Each hat will be unique! Using hot glue, add the triangles to the inside of the band.

Step 3:

Add bells. You can add the bells two ways. Using a single hole punch, punch a hole at the top of the triangle. With a small piece of ribbon, thread the ribbon through the bell and the hole, tie off. We found that this had some problems. If the girls punch too close to the edge, the weight of the bell tore the hole open. Also punching through fun foam is not easy! If you don’t want to use ribbon, you could hot glue the bells to the top of the triangle. However, this wasn’t the best option either – the bells came off sometimes. Sorry I don’t have a perfect answer!

And that is your very own jester hat! Now you are ready to visit a Renaissance Festival in style (and not have to pay $20 for a jester hat!)!

Yours in Scouting!

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Crafts: Paracord Bracelet

2012
05.08

Tags: bracelet, girl scout crafts, Girl Scouts, GS, gs crafts, paracord bracelet
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Last weekend, my troop taught me something new. They taught me a craft! One of the girls had discovered a bracelet made with paracord and taught it to the troop. (Great use of her leadership skills!)

Now I’ll attempt to share it with you! There are many different techniques to creating paracord bracelets. You can search YouTube for different knots, etc. This is the one we were taught this weekend.

Skill Level: Juniors – Ambassadors (adult supervision with fire)

Supplies: Paracord (6 feet of 2 colors or 12 feet of one color), plastic buckles, fire starter or lighter, wax paper, scissors

Directions:

Step 1: Cut cord the length of your arm span (about 6 feet). This is great if you’re at camp and don’t have a tape measure! Do this for both colors.

Melt two ends of cord together. This must be done with adult supervision! It takes two people to do this step. (Do this step over a piece of wax paper.) One person holds the two ends of the cord while the other person lights the lighter. The ends are brought into the flame and “pushed” together. The ends should be melted together to “create” one long cord. You can blow on the end to help cool the ends. When the cords have cooled, test the strength of the joint by pulling. If the joint comes apart, remelt. (You may want to do this step outside – there are some strong odors from the cords.)

Step 2: Take the loose ends of the cords and fed them through one side of the buckle. When you get the ends feed through to the buckle, you will have a loop, feed your loose ends through the buckle and pull taut.

Put the two halves of the buckle together (this insures that you don’t twist the cords). Now feed the loose ends of the cord through the other end of the buckle – one end will come from the “bottom” and feed up, the other end will come from the “top” and feed down. (Hopefully the photo helps describe this better than I can!)

Step 3: Unbuckle the buckle. Measure the length of your cord to fit your wrist. You will be measuring the actual cord (not including the buckle). This is usually anywhere from 6 to 9 inches. If you are camping you can wrap the cord around your wrist and rebuckle – adjust to fit.

Step 4: Starting with the loose ends – one will be in front and the other cord will be at the back (there will be two cords in the middle – these are your base that all the cords will tie around!).

A. Using the cord from the back – make a “4 or P” with the cord (in this case, mine was the white cord).

B. Then take the cord from the front (black in the above photo for me) and feed it behind your base cords and through the loop of the “4 or P”. Pull taut.

C. Continue using the cord you started with (for me, it was white) until you get to the other end with the buckle.

Notes: Another tip – the color that shows up in the “middle” is the color you use to create the “4/P”. If you pull your knots tight, your bracelet will be very stiff. If you make the knots a little looser, you will be able to see your base cords and it won’t be as stiff – individual preferences!

Step 5: To finish off the ends, cut the cord to about 1″ in length. Do this step over the wax paper again. With adult supervision, heat the ends until it is melted and roll it to attach the end to the bracelet. Repeat with other cord. (Warning melted cords are very hot, do not use your fingers to “push” the cord onto the bracelet.)

These make up super fast (faster than I can write about it!) and are super cute. You can make up any combination of colors to make everyone happy!

Enjoy! Happy crafting!

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Craft: Flower Pen

2012
03.16

Tags: girl scout crafts, Girl Scouts, GS, gs crafts
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At our December Service Unit meeting we had a craft exchange. Everyone brought in a completed craft with directions on how to do the craft. We did a drawing for the opportunity to select their new craft! Most crafts were “wrapped” in a gift bag, but a couple were just set on the table. It was a fun way to exchange ideas without having to search the Internet.

Flower Pen from Craft Exchange

One of the crafts I got that night was a flower pen. They can be as unique as the girls that make them! I found a couple of places on the Internet for directions also: The Frugal Girls.com, Floral Showers, and Bees with Honey. All are about the same basic directions, but a few twists. I like having a few different ideas to look at and then create my creation!

Skill level: Daisy – Ambassador

Supplies: Pens (the ones with the smooth barrel and plastic top), floral tape, flowers (usually mums, but I have seen flowers that cascade also work well), scissors, hot glue (optional)

Directions:

Attach flower

Step 1: Take the cap off the pen – discard. Take the end cap off the pen (the opposite end from the point of the pen). Cut stem of flower down so that there is about 1″ of the stem left. You will need wire cutters for this step (do this prior to the meeting for the little ones for safety issues!). Take a bit of hot glue and put onto the stem, insert the stem into the pen. (Other directions have you leaving the end cap on and just attaching the flower to the pen with the floral tape. I like the idea of the flower coming out of the pen!)

Add leaves for variety!

Step 2: Beginning at bottom, start wrapping floral tape around the pen. You’ll need to stretch it a little as you go so that it will stick to itself. When you get to the top of the pen, cut the tape and you are finished! The leader that made my pen added leaves from the flower to the pen for added variety! Gives it a “real” flower effect!

Your flower pen is complete! These would make great Mother’s Day presents or presents for the teacher.

I found a video that used duct tape on the pen. This gives the pen itself a unique look (especially with so many varieties of duct tape out there!).

Do you have a favorite method for creating flower pens?

Yours in Scouting!

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Craft: Thinking Day Craft Ideas

2012
02.17

Tags: Girl Scouts, GS, thinking day crafts, world thinking day, world thinking day crafts
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If you have a booth at a Thinking Day event, you’ll want to share a SWAP, food and maybe even a craft from your country. DLTK’s website has some awesome ideas for food and crafts from a lot of different countries. If you need ideas, check it out.

The craft I’m going to focus on today is one I learned as a child! The craft is Ojo de Dios or God’s Eyes. I didn’t know the background of the craft until recently. In Mexico, the center of the Ojo de Dios is started when the child is born. Each year on the child’s birthday, the father adds to it until the child is 5 years old. At this time, the Ojo de Dios is complete.

Skill Level: Brownies - Ambassadors

Supplies: Yarn, Popsicle sticks (or wooden dowels or sticks from the yard), scissors, glue

Directions:

Glue the sticks together in the shape of a cross – we used hot glue to speed the process along. (Wish we had know this trick when I was growing up – I had the hardest time keeping the sticks straight!)
For the younger ones, you may want to number the sticks from 1 – 4 (the numbers will be covered up as they wrap the yarn).
Wrap the yarn around number 1 once, number 2 once, number 3 once, and number 4 once. This is one complete layer. Continue wrapping until you want to change colors (or use variegated yarn for multiple colors).
Continue wrapping until you are happy with the finished project. You can end at the very end of the sticks, or leave a little bit of the stick showing.

Variation: For older girls, you can flip the sticks over to create a positive and negative spaces in your God’s Eyes.

What craft will you showcase for your Thinking Day event?

Yours in Scouting!

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Craft: T-shirt Scarves

2012
01.20

Tags: girl scout crafts, girl scout winter activities, Girl Scouts, GS, gs crafts, GSUSA
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I’m always looking for quick, easy crafts that someone will actually use (as opposed to getting through in a corner & forgotten!). If the craft recycles something even better! The challenge becomes when the girls get older – they don’t want to make something they may throw away when they get home. They want a challenge (but not too much of a challenge). They want to be able to chat while they work on the project. I found this craft on a DIY site called College Fashion. I think it is an awesome use of materials you already have (stacks of t-shirts) and something funky to wear! The other great thing about this project is that you will have TWO scarves when you are done! This craft does not take much time to do. It would be a great craft to do during a winter camping trip. They would have something to wear when Spring rolls in!

Skill Level: Juniors to Ambassadors (however, we had a Daisy also working on it – she got tired cutting after a while thought!)

Supplies: Old t-shirt, marker, scissors (use fabric scissors to help make it easier for the girls), ruler/yardstick (optional)

Time: 30 – 45 minutes

Directions:

Step 1: With the shirt turn inside out (front of shirt up), measure approximately 10 inches down from shirt collar. Make a mark.

Step 2: At the sleeve, measure up 1 inch and make a mark on the seam.

Step 3: Connect the dots! This is were you can let your perfectionism go! The line does not need to be a perfect line! Craft Cat is showing me where the line is! (And pointing out that it is not straight!)

Step 4: Next, cut off the sleeves of the t-shirt. These will not be used so you can throw them away or create another recycle project (let me know what you create!). Craft Cat is reminding me not to cut her tail!

Step 5: Once the sleeves are out of the way, cut along the line you made in Step 3. Cut through both layers of fabric (you’ll need good fabric scissors for this part of the step). Do not throw away the bottom part of the t-shirt – it will be used to make the second scarf!

Step 6: Next make a mark at the bottom of the collar. Measure 1 inch from the collar at the shoulder seam and make are mark on both sides of the shirt.

Step 7: Connect the dots again! (Takes the girls back to kindergarten!) Again this line does not need to be a perfect arch/circle. Gravity will take care of any imperfections!

Step 8: Cut on the line you drew in step 7. Again, cut through both layers of fabric. (Craft Cat has gotten bored with me and left the process!) This part can be thrown away or used for another project!

Step 9: Now the fun begins (and the chatting!). In the middle of your fabric, start cutting from the bottom. Stop when you get to within 1/2″ – 3/4″ of an inch from the neck opening. Try to have the girls shoot for 3/4″ of an inch – if they accidently cut through or too close, their scarf is history!

Step 10: From your first cut, measure 2 cm and cut toward neck opening (stopping within 3/4″ of the opening. Repeat on the other side and keep repeating until everything is fringed. When I got to this point with the girls, the ruler went out the window! They just made fringe. Some was narrower, some were wider. It was unique as the girls!