Six Kids Crafts You'll Love!

Any loving parent enjoys seeing the fruits of their child's creative endeavors. From painting, to collages, to sculpture, we all want to see kids perceive as many art forms and creative outlets as they can. If you sometimes feel overwhelmed with the number of artwork your kid produces (and sometimes feel guilty when you worry whether it'll go with your existing decor scheme), we've rounded up six fun arts and crafts projects that you and your children can do together and that you'll not only want to display proudly in any room, it'll have guests asking where you got the new art!

Six Kids Crafts You'll Love!

Six Kids Crafts You'll Love!

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Six Kids Crafts You'll Love!

Six Kids Crafts You'll Love!

Origami
Why stick to only two-diMensional art? Origami, that old Japanese art of folding paper, is a fun, educational and relatively mess-free operation for both grown-ups and kids of many ages. Tons of books on the field are ready for purchase, as well as ready straight through your public library, and don't forget about online sources (we like Origami resource town and Origami Fun). So what can you do with these origami masterpieces once they've been created? Clear off a tabletop, mantle or windowsill and originate a fun and colorful arrangeMent. Add string and hang a bunch of origami pieces from the ceiling for an impromptu movable and art installation. Even promote recycling with your kids by using old paper for the project!

Silhouettes
A most original and darling craft, this is a fun way to show off all the members of your house without just using photos. We love how customizable this idea is: there are any dissimilar methods of creating the silhouettes (like cutting out photos or tracing shadows) but you can also use all sorts of dissimilar materials (fabric, cardboard, construction paper, wrapping paper, old magazines) to feature any pattern, color or texture you want! Check out this ApartMent Therapy post for a good how-to. Framing your silhouettes in vinTAGe frames makes for the excellent wall mixture in a house room, entryway, stAircase and more.

Nature print paper
In what is possibly the easiest craft to do, just purchase a box of this neat Nature Print Paper and Watch while the magic of the sun helps originate beautiful nature-inspired art! Go out in your backyard, or plan a trip to a park or beach to secure "art Supplies" with your child (just remember to only secure from areas that aren't environMentally sensitive!). Leaves, feathers, rocks, stones, whatever can come to be a part of this art composition. Once completed, these prints would look practically pro matted, framed and hung on a wall in a composition. Do this a few times a year and have a rotating gallery as the seasons change!

Abstract canvas art
Do you remember that chapter of Jon and Kate Plus 8 where she took the kids to an arts study town to originate large-scale abstract canvas art pieces? Kate was able to pick out colors of acrylic paint that went with her home's color scheme, and the kids were given a whole manner of instruments of which to use the paint with, from brushes, to tin foil, to sponges, to tissue paper and more. Only your imagination is your limit- let the kids go crazy and you'll have abstract art in your home's colors that would rival those of a modern art museum! Tip: the larger the canvas, the more like a real piece of art it will feel! Though the canvases will be your largest investment, keep your eye out for sales, and start collecting the painting implements now! Or look for similar organizations that run programs like the one in the chapter and have them clean up the mess! Along with local art stores, there are places online to find deals on art Supplies (we like Utrecht Art Supplies).

Fabric embellishment hoops
As the kids get older, they may grow out of their old tee-shirts, pajamas and other Clothes. While most will whether go to thrift stores or younger siblings, there may be a few that are too damaged or too beloved to part with. Rather than take up a space in a drawer, grab a bunch of embellishment hoops from your local craft store in a number of sizes, and originate fun and colorful fabric circles! Great for highlighting color and pattern, these fabric circles could be hung in a kid's room, but they're hip sufficient to originate a illustrated and "pop art" statement. Let the kids get in on the decisions of what articles of Clothing to choose, what graphics/designs to frame and how to arrange them on the wall!

Graphic prints
All the rage for modern decor lovers, why spend tons of money on them when you and your kids can produce them for fun? Creating stamps is a time-honored kids craft project, and there's no presume why this art form can't be transformed into a hip task that you'll love to see on your walls. There are tons of dissimilar and easy ways to make your own stamps (we love the sophisticated ideas in this Apartment Therapy post and the superior potato stamp idea on ehow.com). Let kids pick the colors and placements for art that's fun, and feel free to recommend a few compositional changes for art that will look like a pro print by a illustrated designer.

Six Kids Crafts You'll Love!

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Weird Fiction: What Is It?

Weird Fiction had its heyday in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. While it is linked to horror, it oftentimes incorporates fantastical themes that are decidedly face the boundaries of what most people would understand as horror. It can sometimes horrify, but the stories are typically crafted to elicit a sense of wonder in the reader and, quite often, it has some of the themes of science fiction and Gothic fiction woven into it.

Weird Fiction: What Is It?

Weird Fiction: What Is It?

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Weird Fiction: What Is It?

Weird Fiction: What Is It?

The Big Names

Hp Lovecraft is the most familiar author of Weird Fiction. Lovecraft's stories are noteworthy for the author's eloquent language and for the fact that, unlike many nightmare stories, his tales practically never had a moral angle to them. In most cases, his proTAGonists were being pursued by or deliberately seeking out something that was far beyond their ability-or any human's ability-to fully comprehend, and that provided the nightmare eleMent of the story. While horror, as a genre, is normally about eliciting feelings of terror, Weird Fiction seeks to cause a sense of wonder in the reader, oftentimes mixed with a good deal of dread.

While Lovecraft and his sinister Necronomicon-a fictional grimoire that appeared again and again in his stories-are household names, the world of Weird Fiction is rich with talented and imaginative authors. Some of the names that helped to define this genre include:
Algernon Blackwood Robert W. Chambers Lord Dunsany William Hope Hodgson Arthur Machen Walter de la Mare Mr James Clark Ashton Smith

Despite the fact that Weird Fiction is mostly linked with the late 1800s and early 1900s, there are still some writers working in this genre today. Some of the most familiar nightmare movies and novels in the world were heavily influenced by these authors. For example, the Chambers book "The King in Yellow" contains four stories that town on a fictional play that drives anything who sees or reads it mad. This plot device has been used in a amount of flourishing nightmare films, with the play being supplanted by a cursed book or movie that drives people mad.

Exploring Weird Fiction

A great deal of Weird Fiction appeared in the form of short stories. Lovecraft was a frequent contributor to Weird Tales magazine, and there are some reprints of those issues available. The originals can fetch a very high price. Short story collections from these authors, and many more, are still widely available. Many of these stories are in the public domain, which means they can be downloaded legally, at no charge, from numerous separate sites.

Weird Fiction: What Is It?

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"White With Haste" (Footsteps of H.P. Lovecraft)-A Dedicated Poem

"White With Haste" (Footsteps of H.P. Lovecraft)-A Dedicated Poem

Dead leaves of days gone by--now fly:

"White With Haste" (Footsteps of H.P. Lovecraft)-A Dedicated Poem

"White With Haste" (Footsteps of H.P. Lovecraft)-A Dedicated Poem

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"White With Haste" (Footsteps of H.P. Lovecraft)-A Dedicated Poem

"White With Haste" (Footsteps of H.P. Lovecraft)-A Dedicated Poem

White with haste, ghouls fly high;
Amongst old aisles, where footsteps once fell

Now tombs and tales and lurking madMen hail:
Here is where H.P. Lovecraft once walked,

And talked--and wrote gloomy tales...!
It is he, who howls now like a ghoul,

In the nights--white with haste; he
Who no longer can see the light!

His wings now are wings of dread,

His breathe is naught, cold with death!...

At twilight in the hoary haunted woods,

You can hear a whisper now and then
Some gleaming teeth that could be his:

Piercing eyes, waxed with death...!

Dead leaves of days gone by--still fly,

Ruffled with footsteps that once fell,
Here is where madness was dispelled...

Where Lovecraft walked and talked:

To his second self!...

#969 12/15/05

ComMentary: H.P. Lovecraft wrote basically on the old legends of the world, it was his stepping stone I do believe; the world that once was of course, was no more, so he said in his many stories, and somehow this old world was lost into, or putout of the corporeal realm, punished you could say for violating its laws of nature, using black magic, teaching heavenly things to mortals. And so his luring shadows have lived on up unto today; his "Cthulhu Mythology," defined a new creation of nightmare you could say, one that is/was not as raw as perhaps Steven King's is today, one much great written I do believe, than any new writes of this genre in our day. Thus, I leave him with this poem in his twilight, and his creepy universe.

"White With Haste" (Footsteps of H.P. Lovecraft)-A Dedicated Poem

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