Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Make Your Own Plate for Kids

My children and I like to do crafts throughout the year.  It is something that we all enjoy doing together.  But as most parents know, crafts can get very messy, take up a lot of space in the house while in progress, and be time consuming.  So, I am always excited when I find a project that creates less of a mess, is age-appropriate, and still lets my children express themselves and do their own work.  Over the past few  years, I have ordered plate kits several times from amazon.com.  The company that actually produces the plate is called Creations by You, but the price on Amazon is the best that I have found (and then you pay a few extra dollars shipping when you send the order in).  My girls are making these plates for their grandmothers for various occasions, but all at approximately the same age (between 5 1/2 and 6 1/2), establishing a little, fun tradition of sorts.  It was Selah's (#2) turn recently to design plates and she did a great job on each of them.  I like that the company sends a new pack of nice, bright markers with each kit and plenty of papers so that the child has enough "mess-up" papers to finally get to the finished product that they desire.  You just have to remember to leave a space all the way around the inside of the circle ("1/4" inch, I think) blank so that nothing gets cut off.  I usually draw an extra circle inside first with pencil so that the kids can visually see the line not to cross and then I erase it when they are finished with the picture.  The picture and message of your choosing is put  on a melamine plate and is a nice item to give as a gift to a family member, teacher, or even for the child's own use at home.

Here is a link to this product on Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Creations-You-Plateworks-Design-Plate/dp/B00000JGR3/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308097179&sr=8-1

(No one is paying me to do a review of this product; it's just something I really like and has been fun for my kids)

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