DIY: Miniature Shoebox Float Workshop for Thanksgiving

This is a great idea for a Residential Living facility - such as Senior Living or a HOA or Clubhouse, it is also fun for a camp or Teen Center, or just a great Family Tradition to start NOW!! This is how to have a Miniature Float Workshop, and then of course you could have an actual Miniature Shoebox Float Parade!! You can judge floats, have a parade party or just leave on display at your home or facility. Have fun and enjoy!

You best instructions should come with a couple examples. If you can have someone or yourself make a couple floats to display during the workshop that would be best. Above is my personal float that I used in the instructions and on display. It is made out of a shoebox, cardboard, paper, double sided tape, tissue paper, glue and string. If you provide the shoe boxes and string, that is helpful too.

 

Anyway, I always show people how easy it is to find images or patters on the Internet or on your computer so that it makes designing your float that much easier. It is also a good idea to sketch it our first so you don't get confused or forget anything.

 

Floats can have ANYTHING on them - or you can make it fun and have theme to your parades, like most major parades do.

Here I had a display board with things like "Patterns", "Textures", and "Designs"...I found this pattern on the computer and just simply added colored tissue paper to make it really 3D and look much more like an actual float.

Here I show that I added a "skirt" to my float to cover up the shoe box. I had added felt to the top of my float to look like grass too. Kids and adults alike have fun getting really creative with their floats adding action figures, dolls, stuffed animals, or tiny cut out of themselves to floats.

Get creative and have fun!

DIY: Create Your Childs ART Folder

 DIY: How to organize your child's ART work for display.

Ever wonder what to do with or how to organize your child's art work that they bring home from school, camp or day care?? Do you hate throwing it away but are running out of room on the fridge?? Me too. I wondered for awhile what I was going to do with my little artist VAST amount of take home are work from pre-school. It was wild to see how her skills were evolving, but so were the piles of untidy art work in every corner of the house. So my solution - a folder of her art work. All I needed was a computer for printing labels of the year: i.e. "Emelia's School Work 2012", a three ring 2" inch binder and LOTS of sheet protectors.

This is the finished product, all the art work tucked into a tidy folder. Suitable for an end table or coffee table. It was a perfect way to preserve and chronicle her art work. It also made it easy to show off to relatives. Oh yeah, that brings me to another tip - if you are overwhelmed with art work at home. Art work makes a great gift!! I send at least two pieces in every letter to Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents! They love it and they will think it is extra special!