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DIY Summer camp

Craft Stick Bracelets Craft

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

When I was in junior high school, the thing everyone was making and wearing was toothbrush bracelets. I didn’t think to buy some cheap toothbrushes to do those as well with my kids, but I wish I had. Maybe in the future. But, we did make craft stick bracelets like I mention as a craft during in our DIY Summer Camp series.

Craft Stick Bracelets - bracelet on wrist

Craft Stick Bracelets Craft

This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.

You can find more fun crafts to do with your kids in our Backyard Summer Camp: Craft Theme. Have some fun at home with your kids this summer as we all try to find a new normal.

What you need:

  • a pot of water – boiling
  • jumbo craft sticks
  • drinking glasses
  • washi tape, markers, other crafts supplies

How to make Craft Stick Bracelets

You need a pot, large enough for your craft sticks to fit in it.

Make use you have use more crafts sticks than you want to use for bracelets, you may have some break later on.

You need to boil your sticks for 30 minutes. And then, you are going to let them sit in the hot water for another 15 minutes.

craft stick bracelets

Leave the sticks in the water as you do this next part, only taking them out one at a time. Use tongs to remove them from the hot water.

The craft sticks are not hot, I easily handled them with my bare hands. I bend them in a circle, molding them inside of a drinking glass.

craft stick bracelets

This is where having extras comes in handy, I had one snap as I bent it. And after they dried I noticed one of the end had split a little bit.

These are going to take awhile to dry. Now, I read a number of different posts from Pinterest on how to make these and they all said they would be dry overnight. Ours were not. I was mad, and all I could think was, “I spent an hour doing this for nothing?!”.

craft stick bracelets

I left them in the glasses even after thinking that because I was mad. BUT it didn’t occur to me until later that we have high humidity here. It can take things later to dry. By the afternoon they were hard. Time not wasted after all.

So, if they do not dry overnight, give them more time. Do not get cranky like me.

Decorate Your Craft Stick Bracelets

Now, you and your kids get to decorate them, this is the fun part.

Markers will run along the grain of the wood. Just, you know, a heads up.

The ways you can decorate these are endless. You can take another jumbo craft stick, trace it on cardstock and then use mod podge to “glue” it on, and then add another coat to keep it on and to give it some shine. You could also do this some thing with a photo. I think that could be very special and fun for some best friends to do together.

Use can use washi tape to decorate them as well, whether you use a long piece over the front of your bracelet or wrap different tapes of tape around it.

Each craft stick bracelet is going to be unique and speical.

Craft Stick Bracelets

Craft Stick Bracelets

Active Time: 1 hour
Additional Time: 12 hours
Total Time: 13 hours
Difficulty: Easy

A fun way to make unique bracelets with your kids.

Materials

  • a pot of water - boiling
  • jumbo craft sticks
  • washi tape, markers, other crafts supplies

Tools

  • drinking glasses
  • large pot

Instructions

  1. You need a pot, large enough for your craft sticks to fit in it.
  2. Make use you have use more crafts sticks than you want to use for bracelets, you may have some break later on.
  3. You need to boil your sticks for 30 minutes. And then, you are going to let them sit in the hot water for another 15 minutes.
  4. Leave the sticks in the water as you do this next part, only taking them out one at a time. Use tongs to remove them from the hot water.
  5. The craft sticks are not hot, I easily handled them with my bare hands. I bend them in a circle, molding them inside of a drinking glass.
  6. These are going to need to dry for at the very least, 12 hours. Mine took longer due to out humidity.
  7. Remove from the glasses, and decorate.
© Ashley Mullen
Category: DIY

Recommended Products for this Craft:

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Filed Under: DIY, Kids Activities, Summer Camp Tagged With: Backyard Summer Camp, crafts for kids, DIY Summer camp

How to Make a Summer Camp at Home for Your Kids (without hassle or stress)

by Brenda Priddy Leave a Comment

Whether you’re worried about the safety of summer camps, they are closed in your area, or just too expensive, for many families summer camp is off the table this year.

How to Make a Summer Camp at Home for Your Kids

This post is written by Brenda Priddy of STEAMsational, a STEAM and science site for teachers and parents looking for hands-on STEM activity ideas.

However, you can still create magical summer memories with your kids with an at-home summer camp!

Making your own at home summer camp is surprisingly easy!

Follow along with the steps in this guide to plan out a summer camp at home for your kids. And be sure to check out the list of complete at-home summer camp themes below.

How to Make a Summer Camp at Home for Your Kids (without hassle or stress)

This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.

You don’t have to be a creative genius to make a summer camp experience for your kids at home.

And if you’re a little braver, you can open your backyard to some of your kids’ friends or the neighbors on your block for a safer camp experience.

Follow along with these simple steps and you’ll have a camp outline in no time. Your kids will always remember the time you took to make the summer special for them!

How to Make a Summer Camp at Home for Your Kids

Brainstorm ideas with your kids

Sit down with your kids to get some ideas of what your summer camp should look like. What kind of themes would they be interested in? Art camp, science camp, pirate camp, STEAM camp, math camp, space camp, and even Pokemon camp could be fun themes.

What types of activities do they want to do? If your kids were going to a camp that’s now canceled, ask them what parts of summer camp they were most looking forward to.

You may be able to create parts of that summer camp for them at home!

Backyard Summer Camp: Bundle

$100.00 $80.00
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Create a schedule for your summer camp

A schedule doesn’t have to be set in stone for every summer camp you do for your kids, and this might feel restricting to some kids.

However, you want to create some schedule for your summer schedule to help keep things organized. This will ensure that you don’t run out of activities for your kids to do or plan too many activities for them.

The best way to create a schedule is to plan a theme or activity and block those into your schedule. You can make themes for each week to help structure your schedule, or choose a new theme for each day.

Use screens and tools for the things you can’t teach yourself

I’m not an artist, and teaching my kids art is something that my knowledge can only help so much.

Why not use other tools to help out if you want your kids to learn art or music while at camp?

Many online camp options can help show your kids how to cook, do art, or even how to draw!

You can use these to help supplement your summer camp so you can take a break from being a camp counselor for awhile!

How to Make a Summer Camp at Home for Your Kids

Gather your supplies

You’ve planned out your schedule and found resources to help teach your kids the things you want them to learn while at summer camp, now it’s time to start gathering supplies!

Make a list of all the craft supplies, and materials for activities, you’ll need.

You can head to the store to gather these each week or make one big trip. Make sure that you don’t wait until the last minute to start gathering supplies!

No one wants to make a midnight trip to Walmart because they forget to get glue sticks for tomorrow’s art project.

Summer camps are such an important part of the summer for kids! They give your kids a chance to play and explore while getting a break from schoolwork.

If you are trying to plan your own summer camp, keep this guide handy to help you get started!

Ready-to-Go Backyard Summer Camp Themes

If you don’t have the time to plan activities yourself, you can save time by trying some of these pre-planned camp themes:

STEAM Summer Camp

Colors Summer Camp (for preschoolers and toddlers)

Animal Summer Camp

Craft Summer Camp

Spy Summer Camp

How to Make a Summer Camp at Home for Your Kids

Resources for your summer camp

Filed Under: Kids Activities, Summer Camp Tagged With: Backyard Summer Camp, DIY Summer camp

Backyard Summer Camp: Crafts Theme

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

My kids love to craft! I love to craft too, which is why I just bought a Cricut, but back to kids crafts. These are all crafts that you can do inside or outside. You never no when you might get a few days or a week of rain and a crafts theme in the house are perfect for this time.

Backyard Summer Camp_ crafts theme

Backyard Summer Camp: Crafts

This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.

I don’t believe that we should have our kids scheduled for every minute of everyday. My kids don’t expect me to entertain them. I’m pretty sure that the only time they tell me that they are bored and expect me to entertain them is why I am doing something very exciting, like cleaning a toilet. Yes, apparently that is my kids idea of a fun time.

Crafts for Your Backyard Camp

Tye Dye – Have you done tye dying with you kids yet? I didn’t realize under the fall past that we hadn’t. I don’t care for the look of tye dye, nor the staining mess. But my kids enjoyed it.

View this post on Instagram

I don't know what you do on Sunday mornings but apparently here we tye dye. The girls are dying some curtains for their bedroom. Adding flair to a boring white (rental) bedroom. . . . #homeschoollife #artandcraftforkids #creativeplay #creativity #handsonlearning #homedecor

A post shared by Ashley (@forgetfulmomma) on Nov 24, 2019 at 6:43am PST

Decorate a Tote Bag – For my daughter’s 10th birthday I went a different way for the activity at her party. I gave the kids canvas tote bags and fabric markers. That’s it, they made their own tote bag for whatever they wanted to use it for. They are great for hauling library books.

Craft Stick Bracelet – I have big plans to do this with my kids this summer, I even bought the craft sticks to do it. Edited to add: We did it! The perfect rainy day craft.

Craft Stick Bracelets on wrist

Puffy Paint – Did you know, you can make your own paint with flour? We have been making this for a long time!

Sidewalk Chalk Paint – I haven’t made this for quite some time, but we have been lacking chalk drawing/writing surfaces lately.

Salt Painting – This is a fun, but simple craft you can do inside or out.

“Draw” a picture with your glue, a flower maybe? Sprinkle salt over the wet glue, covering it completely. Once dry tip the cardstock to remove excess salt. Use your watercolors to gently touch the salt. Watch the color magically spread.

Yarn Wrapping Letters – Make this super simple craft decoration with your kids. They can do the first letter of their name to hang on their wall. I would recommend cutting the cardboard for young kids so no one gets hurts.

Tape an end of yarn to the back of your letter and wind it around the letter, or even shape, until you have covered it completely, or as much as your child likes. You can use different types and colors of yarn to make your letter as unique as you.

  • Backyard Summer Camp: Bundle
    Sale Product on sale
    $100.00 $80.00
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  • Backyard Summer Camp: Crafts
    Backyard Summer Camp: Crafts
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  • Backyard Summer Camp: Superhero Theme
    Backyard Summer Camp: Superhero Theme
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Filed Under: Kids Activities, Summer Camp Tagged With: Backyard Summer Camp, DIY Summer camp

Backyard Summer Camp: Superhero Theme

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

I have a house full of superhero loving people. I even enjoy the movies. They love dressing up in costume and playing superhero. This superhero theme was inspired by and for them. We love being active, my kids never stop moving!

Backyard Summer Camp_ superhero theme

Backyard Summer Camp: Superhero Theme

This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.

I don’t believe that we should have our kids scheduled for every minute of everyday. My kids don’t expect me to entertain them. I’m pretty sure that the only time they tell me that they are bored and expect me to entertain them is why I am doing something very exciting, like cleaning a toilet. Yes, apparently that is my kids idea of a fun time.

Superhero Activities

Design Your Superhero Cape – Grab some paper and have your kids create plan for your kids to plan out their own cape. You can make a simple cape for an old t-shirt, Pinterest has a lot of how-tos. You can also buy pre-made capes to decorate yourself.

Fitness Competition – Set up a little healthy competition in your backyard. You don’t have to do metals or ribbons but can if you want, and it adds a little more fun and challenge. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Set up relay races.

How can jump the farthest.

Plastic bow and arrow set to shoot like Hawk-Eye.

Balancing act. Do you have some where they can practice balancing? How long can the stand on one foot before needing to put their other one down?

“Aquaman” Water Density – Call it Aquaman if you want, but we simply called it water density.

Temperature and Water Density

Sticky Spider Web – Painters tape is sticky, but won’t ruin walls or paint. You could set it up outside between trees, or playground equipment, or inside in a hallway. You are going to make a spiderweb of tape. You want to make sure that little bodies (your kids) can move through it, but you don’t have to make it too easy.

You could also have them create them for their siblings, or other friends if you are including any friends in your background summer camp.

“Hulk” Slime – The only thing that is going to make this slime recipe Hulk like, would be to use green food coloring. Other than that, it’s just the best slime recipe we have ever used, and we have tried a lot.

Have fun. You can mix and match activities from all the themes. Do one theme a day instead of one a week. Make this summer a one your kids will always remember, for the fun, not for the hard times that the world is going through right now.

  • Backyard Summer Camp: Bundle
    Sale Product on sale
    $100.00 $80.00
    Add to cart
  • Backyard Summer Camp: Superhero Theme
    Backyard Summer Camp: Superhero Theme
    $10.00
    Add to cart
  • DIY Summer Camp - camping printables
    Backyard Summer Camp: Camping!
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Filed Under: Kids Activities, Summer Camp Tagged With: Backyard Summer Camp, DIY Summer camp

Backyard Summer Camp: Water Theme

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

Water is the best part of summer! Jumping through the sprinkler, swimming in the pool, water balloon fights, and everything water related for cooling down. This DIY summer camp is water theme would be great during a hot, summer week. Make sure you check out all of our DIY Backyard Summer Camp ideas!

Backyard Summer Camp_ water theme

This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.

I don’t entertain my kids, inside or outside. But the best source for entertainment when they are outside is water. Whether it is a bucket of water, a kiddie pool, or a swimming pool. These kids love water, and love to get wet.

We spent so much time at the beach this summer and my kids were happiest when it was low tide and there were small pools of water trapped by sandbars. A bucket and shovel for each of them and they were happy for the afternoon.

Activities for A Water Themed Backyard Summer Camp:

Water Balloon Toss – Water balloons are kind of like eggs. They break when handled roughly, and trying to catch them is hard.

Leaky Cup Relay Race – Poke a hole or two into a plastic cup. Full with water and race back and forth to fill a larger cup. Whoever fills the larger cup first wins. The more holes you poke into your cup the harder, and longer it takes. And the more wet the player gets.

Sponge Toss – Soak some sponges in water, and then have a friend, but wet game of toss. Toss the sponge around, back and forth. the first few people are going to get soaked… maybe soak the sponge again in a bucket of water. Add some Dawn for bubbly fun.

Backyard Summer Camp: Animal Themed

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Slip and Slide – You can make you own slip and slide, or you can go buy one, which is where I land because I don’t want make something else to be honest.

Kiddie Pool Fishing – Tie a piece of string to a stick, a paper clip on the other end of the string. Toss some fun little things into a kiddie pool and go fishing. No one fall in!

Backyard Summer Camp: Crafts

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Sprinkler Red Light, Green Light – Turn the sprinkler on a hot day, and play a friendly, wet game of Red Light, Green Light.

Water Gun Target Practice – You can buy little dixie cups, and squirt guns at a dollar store. Build a tower of cups, and shoot at them with your squirt gun.

Backyard Summer Camp: Water Theme

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Similar posts you may be interested in:

How to Make a Summer Camp at Home for Your Kids (without hassle or stress)

Backyard Summer Camp: Gardening Theme

Self Inflating Balloon Experiment

Filed Under: Kids Activities, Summer Camp Tagged With: Backyard Summer Camp, DIY Summer camp

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I'm Ashley, a Canadian secular homeschool mom of 3, living in Nova Scotia.

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You can usually find us at the library surrounded by books.
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