Sunday, July 15, 2012

Camp Flags- Kids Craft

I've been M.I.A!  We have been busy having family fun this summer :)  For the 4th of July, we like to camp in Idaho by Lava Hot Springs with a great group of friends.  My Kadee gal isn't a camping girl, neither is my niece J (although we did get both to come spend some time with us in Lava) so all of the kiddo's that we have that camp with us are boys.  I like to do a camp craft for the kids and this year, I decided it would be fun to make flags for each of the 5 trailers that would be there.

Supplies:
*One white bandanna for each flag to be made
*One wooden dowel for each flag to be made
*Spray Tie-Dye set, I went with the camo one
*2 or 3 packages of feathers
*Wooden Beads
*Leather Cord, Jute, etc.
*Puffy Fabric Paint and Paint brushes

My sister and I instruct the kids and help them, but really try to let them do as much as they can on their own. First, use the spray tie-dye, this stuff is wonderful because it's easy and quick, no buckets, no dunking!  The instructions say to heat set it in your dryer but it was hot enough outside that they dried really quickly.

We had each child/family come up with a name for their trailer and used the puffy fabric paint to paint the names onto the flag.  This can take some time to dry depending on how heavy they put it on.


Next, we got the feathers, beads and leather and put them together to dangle off of each flag.  The kids also decorated the dowels with paint and pipe cleaners and then we stitched the flags to the dowel and let them dry overnight.


Hunter with ours.  He named our trailer "Party Central"... Go figure :)


Group shot:  Dalton's was "Elkaholics", Dal & Karson's was "Dirt Broke", Hunter's- "Party Central" Jax's was "Monster Jax Camp" and Dom made one for his grandparents trailer and named it "Camp Jose".



I have always struggled with boys crafts.  I'm big on rhinestones, ribbons, flowers etc.  But I really believe that the kids will remember our little craft time sessions forever.  They loved doing the flags and it would be really easy to alter the decorations and colors for little girls as well.  We will hang our camp flag proudly from now on!