Easy Craft Ideas for You and Your Family
Keep the kids busy this Christmas with easy craft ideas
If you're looking for easy craft ideas to keep the kids out of your hair while you wrap presents, decorate cookies, or grab a quick cup of hot cocoa, all you need to make your wish come true is a standard computer. It doesn't even have to be a good computer. All you need is MS Paint. But a few pieces of clip-art come in handy, too.
Getting Ready
This project works best for kids who have at least a little experience with computers, but it's also a great way to get older siblings to help out with their younger brothers and sisters. The little ones enjoy spending time with the "big kids," and the older ones like playing the teacher.
Regardless, before you turn your kids loose on this project there are a few basic skills they need:
--Basic paint skills (drawing a box, switching colors, creating text boxes, etc.). Most of the time, they'll be able to figure all this out on their own if you just give them ten minutes to fool around under your supervision.
--An understanding of how to save a project
--An understanding of how to undo mistakes
--An understanding of how to cut, copy, and paste
--The ability to import and insert pictures (optional)
What to Do
Get started on these easy craft ideas by telling the kids they're going to make Christmas cards for family and friends, but with a twist, they get to use the computer! Open up MS Paint and let the kids get busy drawing, creating backgrounds, and inserting pictures to create individualized Christmas cards. If you've taken a few minutes to teach the above skills, the kids should find this no trouble at all.
Remind them to save when they finish their cards. Now you have two options. You can either print off the cards and include them in your Christmas gifts, or you can save them as photographs and send them as ecards. It's very easy to do. Simply go into the Paint file and save it, but where it says "file type," change the type to jpeg.
Kids love to create, and the computer lets them do it quickly, easily, and with a minimum of effort, cost, and preparation. These easy craft ideas are the perfect way to involve kids in the Christmas preparations without giving you another headache.