I've recently been looking into making more Chinese New Year crafts together as a way to celebrate the upcoming holiday. With my current infatuation with watercolor crafts, we recently made these watercolor painted paper fans together. Watercolor Painted Paper Fans This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support! Our Favorite Chinese New Year Books Prior to making the craft, we had already been reading books explaining the holiday. Here are some of our favorites! The Runaway Wok Bringing In the New Year My First Chinese New Year Lion Dancer: Ernie Wan's Chinese New Year Celebrating Chinese New Year Is it just me or are watercolor crafts like the best? The colors are always so vibrant and it's easy to make lovely, colorful art (and it doesn't require much clean up or prep too- score!) We've recently been going through some transitions over here when I gave birth to my second son. He's been such a gift to our family, but navigating transitions (even good ones) have never been my strong point. Luckily, painting and crafting make me feel happy... so I really enjoyed making these beautiful fans! Materials Needed: Ok, all you need for this craft are: Paper (We use drawing paper for the watercolors, but you can just use plain old computer paper too if you decide to go another route.) Other drawing tools (Markers, Crayons, these cool twistable crayons, Sharpies) Stapler Tape Let's Make Some Watercolor Painted Paper Fans You could go 3 routes when making these fans. Option 1: You could just draw/paint whatever comes to mind.... I made this design by drawing a bunch of dots randomly on the page with Sharpie marker and then connecting them with lines to make triangles. I find geometric shapes to be quite modern and aesthetically pleasing, don't you? Then, I just painted all the shapes in. Option 2: Plan a specific Design- Think in halves! Or, you could try to make a specific design on the fan. We'll be folding these fans in half, so imagine the paper divided in half and draw two different designs on each half. I also wanted to make a dragon fan for Chinese New year, so I drew this pattern out. (You can download it over here Chinese New Year Dragon Printable Fan ). When it's folded it makes a completed dragon fan. My son really liked this one, so he spent most of the time coloring it in... and then telling me that he didn't want to turn it into a fan. Oh well! Once you've finished your design, accordion fold it. Then, fold it in half. Staple yourself a handle and tape the two sides together. Spread your fan out and admire your completed design! Oh! Here's what the stripey design looked like folded. I went a bit crazy with painting and made several. Aren't they pretty? Option 3: Fold first, then paint! And... if you want to, you could also just fold up a bunch of these first and then paint them. That's another option too! (The stripey fan on the lower right corner was painted that way.) Another cute fan craft: Now if you liked making this paper fan craft, you should also check out my folding popsicle stick fans. They're a bit more work, but they also are a bit cooler because you can open and close them! Hope you have a fun time making these with your kiddos. Let's Keep in Contact! You can always find more fun ideas on my Pinterest, Facebook, or Instagram accounts! Happy making!

MAKE STRING HEART YARN CARDS

Tiny Sewists - Teaching kids to sew

This is the ultimate guide to sewing with piping. Learn how to sew with piping, and how to make it yourself. Sewing with piping is easy - if you know the right tips and tricks.

Today's lookup request is to find crochet heart pillow patterns. So let's see what I can find for you to crochet!

If your sewing and stitches aren't going smoothly, your sewing machine tension may be the problem. Here's how to determine where the problem lies, and how you can prevent thread nests as you sew.

An online archive of digitized knitting magazines lets you flip through pages looking for patterns and helpful articles, from 1800 to the present.

Learn machine smocking techniques you can do with your sewing machine in this expert guide from Lorna Knight.

Linen does wrinkle, but once you get past that, you can start assessing its many charms. In this article Susan Khalje sings the praises of linen and explains how to…

I love entrelac! I love that it can be manipulated to look like large rectangles with lots of drape or tiny rectangles that work like ribbing.

Join the Sew Much Moore Quilt Block Club Swap and connect with quilters worldwide in a creative, community-driven exchange

A pojagi (noun) is a wrapping cloth, but it also refers to a whole collection of sewing techniques by both hand and machine.

Proyectos para hacer con tus manos, fáciles, económicos y bien explicados, de todos modos si tienes alguan duda, no dudes en preguntármela....

Have you ever wondered what Vikings wore to help them survive long, cold winters? Their fabric-making technique, Nalbinding, pre-dates knitting, and creates dense and warm items which don't unravel the way knitted items do.

The ULTIMATE list of over 50 summer activities for kids! From water play and cool science experiments to reading lists and cute crafts, so many ideas!

Craft A Bunch Of This Classic Knitted Ribbed Hat For The Entire Family

The 6 best seam finishes for beautiful sewing inside and out. Neatly finishing seams make your sewing look professional and prevent fraying.

If you are looking for a fun camp craft idea for scouts or a summer craft for tweens, then this soda straw weaving bracelet is perfect! Read on to see how to do straw weaving. Your child will love making colorful yarn bracelets.

Nalbinding is a Scandinavian fabric-making technique which pre-dates knitting. Learn about nalbinding pattern directions, and how to make York and Oslo stitches.

Using a few simple supplies, you can create lovely Handmade Lavender Sachets as gifts. They're great for use in linen cupboards, drawers and closets.

Learn how to fix sewing machine tension so you don't feel the stress of not being able to get the sewing machine tension quite right. Easy checklist to get your machine sewing correctly.

Sew a beautifully fitting Shorts with this shorts pattern- with an elastic waist in the back and with a fitting waistband in the front with zippered opening

So the weather is starting to get cold and it’s time to bring out the hot packs in my house! I have several hot packs in various shapes and sizes for warming me up or soothing sore muscles over the winter. I also love to gift hot/cold packs. It is just something everyone can use! […]

Bonjour, mes amis! If you follow along on Instagram, you may know that I spent the last month in France with my husband and two kiddos. Michael and I both live the freelance life, so we realized that if we don’t take advantage of this freedom that we have, then what’s the point of all […]

It may seem a little intimidating but with a few simple tips, you can easily master this technique and learn how to sew perfect corners every time.

In today's culture of disposable fashion, the simple art of basic darning and mending has been all but forgotten.

Originally shared here in 2012, this is still one of my favorite knitted pieces ever. Knitted art by Caroline Gates via Cardiac Art. Knit Organ Patterns: This post contains affiliate links.

Learn how to sew a narrow hem (easy even on chiffon) using a ban roll tape. You will like this video sewing tutorial on how to sew a rolled hem on chiffon without a special rolled hem foot.

Learn how to make DIY Reusable Bowl Covers- They are a great beginner sewing project for you to make for your kitchen and have on hand!

How to do a ladder stitch (also know as an invisible stitch or hidden stitch) step by step video tutorial. This tutorial is perfect for beginners!

How to Sew Perfect Scallops. A photo tutorial to help you learn how to sew scalloped edges for the Highland Avenue House.

A quick and easy boxy pouch tutorial. By the end of this blog post, you will be able to sew your own box zipper pouch!

Bunching thread? Breaking needles? Skipping stitches? It happens to the best of us. We consulted Becky Hanson of Singer Sewing Company to keep your sewing experience positively seamless.

How to troubleshoot sewing machine tension! Loose, tangled stitches are a problem and there IS a solution. Use this thread tension checklist to fix it!

Want to learn to sew? There are so many different options for anyone who wants to Learn to Sew. I've made a of several Learn to Sew Tutorials and Classes.

Learn how to sew a handmade heating/cooling pad with fat quarters, beans, and your sewing machine.

Wrap dresses are such a classic style, but are also so huge this season. Learn how to make your own wrap dress with this simple sewing tutorial!

The origins of this art lesson came from a pin that I found on Pinterest connecting to the blog B Art Z - Elementary Art. I have been SO excited to blog about my new and improved cup weaving lesson! So last year I attempted to do cup weaving with my some of my students.. and while I loved the results.. the process was infuriating! For some reason I thought it was a great idea to weave with plastic cups - which made sharp jagged edges when cut by children. When that didn't go smoothly I thought myself sooooo clever to switch to styrofoam cups - which ended up making spokes (warp strips) that snapped off when pulled on to much. FINALLY I figured it out - PAPER CUPS!! These work PERFECTLY!! It is easy for the kids to cut the strips themselves AND they are surprisingly very durable. **Get them in bulk here! The first thing I had my kids do was write their name on the bottom of their cup with a sharpie. Then they placed their upside-down cup onto a template I created and made a tick mark on the rim of the cup everywhere where they saw a triangle poking out - this gave them evenly spaced points to cut from. When cutting out the spokes/warp strips, it is extremely important to remember to cut out an odd number of strips so that when you are weaving your AB pattern, the pattern alternates each consecutive time around. I found that with the 9oz cups my kids were using, 9 strips turned out to be the perfect number. Once the strips were cut, students double-knotted a piece of yarn to one of the strips, then began weaving! This particular class worked for 5 days straight on this (they really are a wonderful group).. and I had a few students who even completed 3 very well done cups in this amount of time (a couple even got pulled for our county art show)! :)

Buffets, puffs ... Beautiful! In clothes, in accessories, in the interior ...

Learn how to create a perfect mitered fold while sewing corners by using an easy double fold hem method. Stacy Grissom shows you how.

Pas de panique! Ce message ne sera pas un manuel scientifique pour créer un nouveau champignon transgénique. Quoique! Récemment, en trainant sur Pinterest (c'est un lieu de perdition où je peux passer des heures), j'ai découvert ces adorables petits...

Don't stress over the tension dials on your sewing machine. Find out when and how to set and adjust thread tension.

This easy-to-follow instructional video demonstrates how to install a zipper using a self-basing zipper.