Materials for Tissue Paper Flower Bracelets

• Tissue paper in a variety of colors
• Single hole punch (This is my FAVORITE! It can cut through multiple sheets of paper easily.)
• Scissors
• Pipe cleaner
• Optional: Beads (We used wooden beads similar to these, but any kind with a hole large enough for a pipe cleaner to fit through would work.)

​Directions for Making Tissue Paper Flower Bracelets
1. Stack some small sheets of tissue paper together. The order you place the tissue paper in will determine how you flower looks. It’s fun to experiment with different patterns of colors! The more sheets of paper you use, the fuller your finished flower will be. 
2. Hold the entire stack together and cut out a small circle. Our circles had approximately a 2-inch diameter.
3. Punch two holes in the center of your circles.
4. Take a pipe cleaner and put one end through each punched circle. Try to do it evenly so both sides of the pipe cleaner are equal lengths after being put through the circles.
5. Twist the pipe cleaner ends together right below the tissue paper circles to hold it in place.
6. Now it’s time to make your tissue paper flower. Gently separate the top layer of tissue paper and pull it up and crumple it a bit. Do this with each following layer.
7. Once you separate each layer, you can play around with the finished flower until you like how it looks.
8. You can leave the bracelet as is or add beads to the pipe cleaners for more details. We used colorful wooden beads and threaded them onto each side. 
9. Leave a bit of extra room at the end of each pipe cleaner and twist the ends together to secure your bracelet. Snip off the ends.
Wear your colorful bracelet or give it to someone special!

Homemade Air Dry Modelling Clay RecipeMy girls love sculpting with plasticine and clay and I have wanted to try making a homemade, air dry clay for ages now. This Air Dry White Clay Recipe is quick and easy to make – in fact, tweens or teens could pretty much manage it on their own. It is suitable for all sorts of different projects – you could try making clay pendants like we did or use this idea as a simple jumping off point for your own creative fun.


Homemade Air Dry White Clay RecipeYou will need:

• Baking Soda/ Bi-Carb Soda
• Corn Starch/ Cornflour
• Water

To make:
1. Mix 1/2 a cup of baking soda/bi-carb and 1/4 cup of corn starch/cornflour in a small pan. Add 1/3 of a cup of water.
2. Heat on the stove until boiling. The mixture wills soon form a mashed potato/play dough texture. When this happens, it is done.
3. Knead the dough until it is cool. The more you knead it, the softer the final dough will be.
After creating with the clay, store any remaining clay in an airtight container for later use.

To make the pendants:
1. Roll out the dough to about 1/3 of an inch thick. Use your cookie cutter to cut out circles from the dough that are about 3-4cm/1 -1 1/2 inches across (we used the top from a Popsicle mould).

2. Use the end of a drinking straw to poke a hole in one side of each circle so it can be attached as a pendant.
3. Use small letter stamps or a cuticle stick to stamp words and shapes into each pendant. We included fun words like “fun” “joy” “love” and so on.

5. The next day, make a mixture of black paint, water, and dish soap with one part of each. Dab this over the pendants to fill the inside of the stamped letters. The runnier paint is easier to get inside the prints. Dab excess paint away with a paper towel and let dry.
6. Paint the top of the pendants with your chosen colour. When you paint over the letters, make sure there is just a tiny bit of paint on the brush. Drag the brush lightly over the letters, rather than pointing the brush down so that the coloured paint does not cover the black paint. Let dry.
7. Seal with acrylic sealer and let dry (it usually takes a couple of hours).
​8. Thread a piece of string or yarn through each pendant and tie with a square knot. Tie the ends of the strings together, and your necklaces are complete!