Crafts for the Masses Part 1 -- Tote Bags

For the past year, I have been a Creative Activities Coordinator for my local MOPs (Mothers of Preschoolers (see http://www.mops.org/ for more info) group.  Last year we had approximately 100 women in our group.  It was a challenge to plan and prepare crafts for the women that would be within budget (less than $3.00 per craft), take less than an hour to complete, easy for non-crafters, as well as interesting and useful.  The projects we did were: laminated chore charts, tote bags, glass tile pendant necklaces, foam fortune cookie sharing game, and ribbon memory boards.  Over the next few weeks, I will post the instructions and pictures of the crafts.  I'll post the tote bags first, simply because I have the pictures ready.

Tote Bags:

Supplies needed:

Blank canvas tote bags

Sharpies (r) markers

Stencils

Blank tote bags can be pricey at a craft store like Michael's, but we were able to find reasonable prices and quality online from ingreetings.com, located in S.F. 

We got Sharpies in a variety of colors from Costco, 12 pack for about $12.

We bought stencils from Michael's. 

The Sharpies did wick (bleed) a little on the edges of the stencil design, creating a sort of shadow effect.  Some people didn't care for that look and used paint instead.  I preferred the Sharpies.

Balloons in your Suitcase

A few things I have found to be handy when traveling with young kids:

1) Balloons- easy to pack (un-inflated of course) a few of these in your suitcase and blow them up and toss them around with your kids in the hotel room. They are cheap and easy entertainment and they won't break the furnishings.

2) Washable crayons and a notebook or blank paper- for in the car/plane or at a restaurant.

3) Mini-whiteboard and dry-erase markers- a variation of #2, but the novelty/variety helps keep the kids interested, and you'll spare the trees.  I recently found dry-erase crayons at Target.

4) Plastic cups- once at your destination, if you go out to eat and get plastic cups with your meal, save them. They can be useful for kids to play with in the tub or to rinse their hair when you are bathing them.

5) Ziploc bags- all sizes. Large ones are handy for wet swimsuits or otherwise soiled clothes.  In addition to using them to transport soiled clothes, you can also wash or soak them in the bags.  This is especially handy if the sink in your hotel room doesn't have a working stopper to allow you to soak/wash in the sink.  Smaller sized ziplocs are handy for snacks or unfinished food that you might want to save for later.

6) Small binder clips- you can use them to clip a napkin or paper towel  to your child's collar for an improvised bib.  You can also use them to close keep unfinished snack bags to save for later.  You can usually find a box of binder clips with an assortment of fun colors at any office supply store or a mass merchandiser like Target.