#library crafts

Today we took some concrete mix, water, some gems, seashells, and beads to make stepping stones. They came out great, and overall these stepping stones made for a really simple and unique crafting idea. 

Our recipe included a basic concrete mix (dry) purchased from a hardware store that we mixed with water in plastic buckets. We put on some masks, and kept stirring the mix until it could be poured into small aluminum pans. Once poured into pans, we allowed the concrete to sit for about before putting any decorative items on top. 

This extra sitting time allows the concrete to become more stiff, so when you put gems or beads on it, those small pieces won't sink in the muck. 

And without further ado, some pictures:

As you can see we had all age groups come out. It's a really fun craft to do, and it's surprisingly simple to do if you have extra stones, buttons, and gems lying about. But note these garden stones are largely for decoration. Anything more permanent would require broken tile. 

Other tips and suggestions: 

-Really make sure the concrete sits for an hour, or you have some method to remove access water from the concrete. (Dabbing with paper towels worked just fine.) After the surface of the concrete begins to stiffen, then apply the decorative items. 

-Press hard when applying gems, stones, beads, etc, into the mix. The more concrete they have holding them in, the more they will survive outside weather/wear and tear. 

-Let these stones dry for (at least) two days. Then, you can peel them out of the metal pans quite easily. Enjoy!

We are opening up the Youth Service craft room for your disposal (anything within legal means, kids), for one last day: January 4, at 11-2PM. Open Crafts is a series of events we do every year over the holiday break. It gives kids who are at home a space to be creative over the holiday break. Please head over for our very last day. We have seen a huge turnout so far! Here are some pictures of one group we had:

And yes those are minions. Be jealous.

A few of our staff spent some time today over lunch to assemble some WWI-era paper dolls and paper models, printed from newspapers in our digital library. Some of these were quite complicated, but we prevailed!

For those who want to play along at home, here are links to some of the paper dolls and paper models in our collections.

This page is called "Womanizers / feminized / in / the / music biz." ($5.00)

Limited edition.

We celebrated Valentine's Day a little bit early at storytime this week! We and the kiddos learned all about what's included in Valentine's Day, and were reminded to hug the people we love, including... Miss Kristine! She was nearly toppled over when everyone ran to give her hugs. :) This week, we read: