Create Awesome Crafts at Sleepaway Summer Camp

When your child goes to a sleepaway summer camp, it is good to know that one of the activities he or she will enjoy is being able to create awesome crafts. Not only are those crafts excellent mental and physical stimulation, but they result in items that will go home for the use of the campers or their families.

Ceramics

The number of things that can be created in a ceramics studio are endless. Just a sampling could include stoneware plates, bowls and mugs that could be a whole dinner setting for the camper's entire family or an item for a sibling or parent or grandparent who has a coming birthday or as a Christmas gift. These can be uniquely personalized with the name and figures with the appropriate choice of skin tone and hair color of the recipient and will become an appreciated keepsake.

Paper Mache

Children have fun making animals, monsters, a pinata and more from paper mache in the Crafts Studio. They learn how to make the mache itself, special paste by one of several different methods and then how to form the object, cover it with approximately four layers of paper mache, and dry it. A good tip is to perhaps use a two-liter soda bottle as a base to make dolphins, hippos, elephants, parrots and other animals. Other tips are to add a little cinnamon to the paste to take away the smell and to add a little less water if there is a lot of humidity.

Tie-dyed T-shirts

Girls like to make and wear awesome tie-dye shirts since each one is a unique creation in any color combination of fabric dye that you can imagine. Three techniques include Marble Tie With Spray-bottle Dye, Twisted Tie With Dunking Dye, and Knotted Tie With Squirt-bottle Dye. After dyeing the T-shirts according to instructions, they are wrung out, placed in sealable plastic bags overnight, and then completing the process and washing and drying the shirts the next day. Rubber gloves have to be worn to rinse the shirt in warm and then cool water, until the water runs clear. Using this permanent dye, one has to be careful not to get any on clothes. The shirt is hung up to dry or put in the dryer on the cool setting.

Making a Candle

The age-old hobby of creating a handmade candle in the crafts studio is lots of fun and gets the brain working on how to make it unique. Making candles of all shapes and sizes is easier than you may think. You need a heat source, a formal candle wax melting pot or

a "double boiler" set up, appropriate wax, a wick, a container or mold to hold the melted wax, and perhaps a color, fragrance or essential oil.

Wood Shop

Older children can use tools and drills to build major items in the Wood Shop, even such things as a table or a mini ping pong table or a chaise lounge chair.