January Crafts to Make
In most places in the U.S., January brings shortened days, limited sunlight and colder weather to our lives. This year, beat the wintertime blues and celebrate the season instead with easy and fun January crafts. Though the major holidays may be over, January is full of fun, quirky things to celebrate. January is the national Bath Safety, Braille Literacy, Hobby, Hot Tea, Oatmeal and Soup Month. Welcome and embrace time spent indoors with a variety of January craft activities to make this dull time of year a bit more fun and playful.
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Bath Safety Crafts
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Using craft time to recognize bath safety can be fun for children and adults alike. For an all-ages craft project, decorate your bathtub with slip-free, adhesive rubber matting. Instead of placing the entire mat down into the tub, cut flower, seashell, sailboat and other shapes out of the mat, peel the backing and arrange in the bottom of the bathtub for a safe, inexpensive and playful bath addition.
Braille Literacy Crafts
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Help kids acknowledge and celebrate Braille literacy with D.I.Y. Braille book crafts. Provide children with a printout of the Braille alphabet, construction paper, glue and small beans or beads. Have the kids write a sentence or two on each page, then help the children glue the beans onto the paper, following the Braille alphabet patterns, to tell their story through the Braille language. Glue, staple or sew the finished pages together to make a bound book.
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Hobby-Based Crafts
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Celebrate National Hobby Month with hobby-based or inspired craft projects. Sew or knit scarves, mittens and other winter ware for friends and family or design a family quilt. If you or your family enjoys a particular hobby, try crafting accessories or memorabilia that either contribute to or commemorate hobby-related activities. Make your own golf club covers, for example, or create a scrapbook that memorializes your child's fantastic soccer season.
Tea Crafts
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Making your own herbal tea blends is fun and easy to do. Purchase a few airtight glass or tin containers to store loose tea in, and fill them with a variety of dried tea leaves, herbs and spices such as lavender, dandelion leaves, thyme, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon zest and cardamom. Decorate the canisters to list the contents or to give as gifts.
Oatmeal Crafts
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Dried, rolled oats make an unusual medium for artwork activities. Help children sprinkle uncooked oatmeal onto a layer of glue to give a textured effect to drawings and paintings. Or, mix 1 cup oatmeal with 1/2 cup flour and a few tablespoons of water to make a thick, pasty dough. Use the dough as sculpting clay and air dry sculptures to harden.
Soup Crafts
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Celebrate National Soup Month with a variety of soup craft projects. Older crafters may enjoy creating homemade soup seasonings by combining dried herbs and spices in small, decorated salt shakers. Another idea for an adult craft project is to create votive candle holders out of old soup cans with a pair of tin snippers and spray paint. For a fun, kid-friendly project, have children make a "telephone" system with two soup cans and a long piece of string or yarn.
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