Kids love paint and glue! When schools are out for the summer, kids can get bored easily. Children these days are glued to the television or iPad all day long! These DIY crafts are a great way to bond with your little ones, and to bring out the artist in them! Try out these five easy and fun projects to keep your kids busy all summer long!
1. Life size pizza
Materials required:
• Glue gun
• Scissors
• Paintbrush
• Colored paper( Brown, Red, Green, Black) and cardboard
• Tooth brush
• Paint (Red, White, Black, Brown)
Directions:
• Cut a large triangular shape out of cardboard, so that it looks like a slice of pizza. Cover it with brown color paper. Roll the bottom of the triangle to make it look like the crust, and glue it in place.
• To make the pizza sauce, mix some oregano and paprika with dark red paint. Paint your cardboard triangle ‘pizza base’ with your ‘pizza sauce’.
• To make pepperoni, splatter white, black and brown paint on red paper using a toothbrush. When the paint dries, cut out big circles for your pepperoni.
• You can make other toppings like green peppers, black olives and mushrooms by using colored paper.
• Stick the toppings onto the pizza slice by using a glue gun, and leave it to dry.
2. Tie & Dye T-Shirts
Materials required:
• Bucket of hot water
• Fabric dye(1 color)
• Rubber gloves
• Plain white t-shirt
• Scissors
• String
Directions:
• Tie a long piece of the string on the bottom corner of the t-shirt tightly.
• Crumple the t-shirt and wrap the string tightly around the t-shirt as you crumple it. Tie a knot after you are done.
• Pour the dye in a bucket of hot water. After wearing your gloves, slowly dip the shirt into the dye for a minute.
• Take out the t-shirt and leave it to set for half an hour before cutting the string.
3. Stuffed Snake
Materials required:
• An old tie
• Two buttons
• Fabric Paint
• Red Colored Paper
• Glue gun
• Cotton
Directions:
• Use the glue gun to seal the small end of the tie. Leave it to dry for 2-3 hours.
• Stuff the other end of the necktie with cotton. You can use a stick or a pencil to stuff it all the way down to the end.
• Glue the bigger end shut and leave it to dry for another 2-3 hours.
• Glue the buttons onto the bigger end by using a glue gun. These are the eyes for the snake. Cut out a forked tongue and glue it to the tip of the bigger end to give it a complete look!
4. Pencil holder
Materials required:
• A set of crayons
• Glue gun
• An old can
Directions:
• Carefully glue the crayons together around the old can by using a glue gun.
• Leave it to dry overnight.
• You can use this as a pencil holder, or gift it to someone special!
5. Stick-Art!
Materials required:
• Ice cream sticks
• Pencil
• Glue gun
• Ruler
• Colored sharpies
• Small magnets
• Sandpaper
Directions:
• Draw a line 4 cm from the end of the ice cream stick and break it.
• Rub the broken end with sandpaper until it is smooth.
• Draw any design onto the stick by using a pencil, and then color it with the sharpies.
• By using a glue gun, attach the small magnets to the back of the sticks to make refrigerator magnets!
Using an 18-count egg carton Sabreena fashioned her own Mancala board and grabbed some glass gems from my craft cabinet. Within 1 hour of her big idea she and Shae were playing. Like I said I didn’t know how to play the game but apparently Shae did and they went through about 4 games before dinnertime. This is now a nightly ritual, one I don’t mind at all. I’m gonna bring all the quiet games into the living room so we can have nightly intellectual games instead of tv and video game time. Materials and Directions
Cut 2 sections of 2 cups to use as the “store” and cut out the dividers of those 2 pieces. Glue the store cups on the ends of the remaining carton, set aside to dry for several minutes. Seal up the holes in the “store” cups with paper or tape. 
The girls used colorful tissue paper and mod podge. This just made the game board a little more festive.
Your game is ready to play with marbles, rocks, seeds, beads or in our case glass gems.
Mancala is the word for this type of “sowing” game. There are many versions of it around the world from many cultures. 
Don’t roll too tight as it will be difficult to remove. Slide your rolled up fabric gently off your pencil and set aside to dry. Use an extra touch of glue if the end isn’t secure. If you find your pencil is getting too much glue, use another pencil.
Distribute the glue onto the styrofoam ball in sections. We did lines at first then just filled in spaces. Be sure to hold the jellybeans in place for a few moments so they get a good grip.
Once your ball is covered in jelly beans and set sprinkle the top of your flowerpot with “grass”. We used crumpled up, cut up scrap paper. Now it’s sitting on my shelf in the kitchen.
