Craft for Kids: Popsicle Pen Holder

It’s Saturday!  Have a #SigeSabado #SigeSaMantsa day with your bulilits with this fun craft idea.

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Got a pack of popsicle sticks in your kid’s craft box? Whip them out with some paint, glue, paper, and stickers for hours of fun.  Doll house, toy plane, trinket box, picture frame… you’ll never run out of things to do with popsicle sticks!  Make something useful and turn them into a pen holder just like we did.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • 1 pack of popsicle sticks
  • paper
  • paint
  • glue
  • stickers

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The first thing you need to do is measure the size of the penholder you want to make and count the number of sticks you’ll need.  Instead of gluing the sticks side by side, we cut a strip of paper and glued the sticks on it.  The kids glued 24 sticks so when we folded it into a rectangular prism, it had 6 sticks on each side. 4 more popsicle sticks were glued diagonally to reinforce the paper.  You can use any scrap paper for this since this will be hidden inside the pen holder.  To make sure that the sticks are glued well together, we clipped them with pegs until the glue was dry.

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Once the glue is completely dry, decorate the sticks.  The kids decorated the entire length of sticks using colored pens, watercolour, stickers, and sequins.

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While waiting for the paint to dry, make the bottom part of the holder using left over popsicle sticks.  Again, we used paper and left an extra inch around the perimeter so we can glue it to the inside part of the pen holder.  With the paint all dry and the bottom ready, we assembled their penholders using glue and pegs to hold them together until the glue dried up.

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Mama’s work desk is so much prettier (and more organized!) with these two pen holders. <3

Creating a penholder is just one of the dozen things you can do with just a single pack of popsicle sticks. It doesn’t cost much either. You can get a pack of 100 for just under 50 pesos.  Care to share your craft ideas using these versatile sticks?  We’d love to hear about them so please do share away in the comment section below.

Click here for more #SigeSabado craft ideas

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Our #SigeSabado #SigeSaMantsa Weekends

Since the kids started going to school two years ago, we haven’t been able to do arts and crafts activities as often as we used to do.  Whenever we do have free time, we try to squeeze in a craft or two.

(Click here for arts and crafts activities )

Those “free times” are far and few in between though. So just imagine the look in my little ones’ eyes when this big box was delivered to our home last summer!

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The Sige Sabado box contains materials for eight activities that engage kids in fun learning experiences.  Some are really messy to do but they’re so much fun you wouldn’t the mess at all.  Here are three of the activities we’ve already done.

Raise a Mongo Plant

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Make a Popsicle Pen Holder

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Create an Animal Balloon Papier-Mache

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Not every Saturday can be a #SigeSaMantsa day for us but the kids never tire of asking if we could do one of the activities in the box.  At the rate we’re able to do the activities, our craft box has us covered until the year’s end.  After we finish all the eight activities, I could just get more arts and crafts ideas from Breeze Philippines website.

Do you have any #SigeSaMantsa actvities you love to do at home?  Do share some fun ideas with us. 🙂

What Can You Do With A Paper Bag?

Do you have a Sophia the First or any other Disney princess fan in the house? Here’s a simple craft you can do at home to make princess play time more fun. AND, wait for it, it costs less than 30 pesos!

This craft was not one of our spur of the moment crafts.  The little girl had this planned since yesterday when she saw the “gems” in a fabric shop in the local market.  I was buying some extra clasps for her skirt when she asked if she could get some of the purple sew-on gems. She said that she absolutely needed them to make her crown and her necklace.  She asked for two big oval gems and six small diamond ones.  The gems and a meter-long of lace cost just 29 pesos in all.

When we got home, I had chores to do and wasn’t able to help her gather materials for her crafts.  What she did instead was “design” her Sophia the first crown and necklace.  The collage below shows her sketch of the accessories and dress and her finished crown and necklace.

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Today, we were able to make all the stuff she needed for her Sophia the First play day.  I used one brown paper bag to make her crown.  The bottom part of the crown consists of three strips cut from the bag.  Jade colored it yellow and glued on the gems.  The other big gem was attached to the purple lace with tape.  When the glue was all dry, she put on her old purple dress (it was actually two sizes too small already) and got ready for her Royal play date with her brother Jakei. 🙂

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Care to share how you’ve used simple items at home to make your kids’ playtime more fun?

Trumpets Playshop 2014: A Summer’s Tale

Kids dressed up as animals, a wonderful story about being God’s stewards of creation, catchy music…just the elements you need for a truly entertaining theater showcase.  Watch our li’l Jade and other playshoppers in their performance of A Summer’s Tale, an adaptation of Grandpa’s Garden and It’s a Giant World.   It’ll be fun to watch, just please bear with the poor vid quality. We were just using a point-and-shoot cam. 🙂

My Little Caterpillar at the Trumpets Playshop 2014 Showcase

And just like that another summer is over!   It has been almost three weeks since my li’l girl’s theatre class ended and I’m still catching up with summer house cleaning.  Spending three days in a week as my little girl’s PA during her classes at the Trumpets Playshop was extremely tiring but knowing that she loved every minute she spent there is exceedingly gratifying.

Through Children’s Theater, kids age 4 – 6 years old learn to appreciate their God-given talents and to use them properly.  They are taught the basic elements of music, dance, and drama through fun and creative ways.  Kids are also inspired to always give their best to God.

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“I learned how to be on stage. I also learned how to sing and dance.” – Jade              Thank you Teacher Joann and Teacher Joan for being patient with our li’l girl and for making her summer fun and meaningful! Thank you Teacher Audie for founding Trumpets Playshop!

 

Trumpets Playshop 2014 started on April 7 and ended with the Showcase on May 17.   That’s sixteen 1.5-hr sessions and a 1-hr technical rehearsal culminating in a showcase at the RCBC Theatre.  We shelled a total of P8,200 (excluding transpo and food expenses) for the workshop fee (P5,800), the costume (P1,200), the recital fee (P900), and the yearbook (P400).  That’s really no small amount for us but my husband allotted funds for it because he knows how our little Jade enjoys performing.  Besides, the joy of seeing your child happily performing on the “big” stage IS PRICELESS!

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Here are some of the pics from their showcase this year, A Summer’s Tale:

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Are we going to enrol her again in Trumpets Playshop next summer? Yes! Never mind the thrice a week commute under the heat of the summer sun or the huge dent in our budget;   Our little thespian loves to perform and we love watching her have fun on stage.  🙂 Watch the videos here.

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Proud Nanay , Forever PA 🙂