Drop-In and Get Crafty: Christmas

This year's Drop-In and Get Crafty: Christmas was a success all thanks to Santa! Santa visited the library during the same time the program was being held so I had a lot of Santa's little visitors come to craft time. We usually pair these two programs together so it becomes a big event.

It's also a great opportunity for me to reflect on the year here at the library and see all the faces that come throughout the year.

For this year's craft, we made a Santa ornament. I used die-cut pieces, googly eyes, and cotton balls to have them create a cute, homemade ornament to put on their tree.

Holiday coloring pages, stickers, and candy canes were put out as well.

Merry Christmas!

Drop-In and Get Crafty: It's Showtime at Your Library!

I always enjoy putting on this drop-in program to kick off summer reading. This year's theme was "It's Showtime at Your Library!" and after looking at different craft ideas, I knew I wanted to do this cute popcorn craft because it would go perfect with the theme.

Everyone cut out their popcorn buckets and glued their piece and their movie ticket onto their construction paper. The fun part was scrunching up yellow tissue paper to put a 3D effect to their popcorn.

This program is always a great chance to talk to patrons and inform them of upcoming programs.

We had some coloring pages to color and some nice Kids Bop background music.

Drop-In and Get Crafty: Valentine's Day

This was a fun drop-in with mostly regulars, but I did have a few newbies come in after inviting them in from the stacks. 

We had music, stickers, valentines, and they enjoyed making their valentine bear paper plate and decorating their matching valentine bear cards. A lot of the kids made their cards out to Mom, which was really sweet. 

Drop-In and Get Crafty: Christmas

Who wouldn't love a library day that involves meeting Santa and doing a craft? This past Saturday was our day! The kids were able to tell Santa what they want for Christmas and get a picture and then move on to make a Santa finger puppet. 

I wanted to make sure the kids could play with their craft since always appreciate that.  Even though this was a lot to prepare for, it really worked out well.

We had a pretty big turnout and it was another fun drop-in!

Happy Holidays!
 

Drop-In Get Crafty: Thanksgiving

For this year's Thanksgiving drop-in craft, we made turkey puppets. This was a perfect craft with minimal prep for such a big turnout. 

The kids loved being able to play with their puppets after they made them and enjoyed the added benefit of coloring pages and bookmarks. The older kids took their time adding more variety to their turkeys and they all turned out unique. 

I heard a lot of cute gobbling! 

 

Drop-In and Get Crafty: Father's Day

I haven't done a Drop-In Father's Day program in awhile and was feeling like it was long overdue. I had a great turnout and actually had to scramble to put more crafts together even after having 30 crafts ready, which is usually just fine for other drop-in craft programs. 

We colored Father's Day cards and made paper plate award ribbons for our "World's Best Dad" and these crafts were perfect for the program. When I had ran out of crafts with the next group, I had them start coloring their cards while I prepared more crafts. 

Everyone had such creative ideas on how to decorate their cards and crafts and it was a fun time seeing everyone. I really enjoyed this program!

Happy Father's Day!

Drop-In Get Crafty: Reading Takes You Everywhere

In celebration of our summer reading club kick-off, we had a drop-in craft. Our club's theme is Reading Takes You Everywhere so we made a hot air balloon craft. 

I needed to find a craft that was relatively easy, unique and fun, and wouldn't be hard to supply for a drop-in crowd. Despite having some concerns that the craft wouldn't be exciting for the kids, this hot air balloon craft fit the bill perfectly. The groups had fun coloring coffee filters and spraying them using water bottles to make the tie-dye/blending effect. Of course, the spraying of the water bottles was everyone's favorite part!

All the hot air balloons looked so pretty and individual that I wish I had a spot in the library to display them, but we have so many nice displays up for summer reading at the moment. 

Reading Takes You Everywhere!

Drop-In and Get Crafty: Mother's Day

This was a good drop-in craft program that was held a little earlier than previous years to accommodate Spanish families and their separate Mother's Day date. The turnout was pretty good, but I did notice that I might make it a little later next time.

For our crafts, we had a variety to choose from thanks to leftover crafts from previous programs. I had a flower pot craft that was new and a new card craft idea using tissue paper and construction paper with "Happy Mother's Day" printed inside. The extra crafts were Mother's Day crowns, frames, and magnets that were purchased from Oriental Trading.

Everyone had a fun time with their crafts and I was happy to see some older kids getting involved. Everyone's crafts turned out very unique and I love how they add their own touches to them.

Happy Mother's Day!

Drop-In and Get Crafty: Spring

In celebration of spring, I usually have a drop-in craft. We made bunnies. The drop-ins seem to always have a good turnout and I usually hold them on days when the kids are off of school or weekends. 

I had some leftover bunny crafts from storytime and offered those and some coloring pages to anyone who would like to stay and do some more crafting. 

I used cloud die-cuts cut in half for bunny paws and an egg template and bunny face template for the rest of bunny's body.

Everyone's bunny turned out cute and one-of-a-kind.

Happy Spring!

 

Drop-In and Get Crafty: Christmas

Christmas is almost here and it's time to get crafty! I think the Christmas drop-in is my favorite just because I get to see a bunch of familiar patron faces, play holiday music, and of course make a holiday craft. 

For this year's Christmas drop-in, we made a paper plate Santa Claus. The turnout was overwhelming because we had Santa himself visit the same time as the program, but this worked out beautifully because it paced the group perfectly from coming into our program room as opposed to past years where it would be very crowded at the beginning. 

I got my inspiration from this Santa craft, but just stuck with the cotton balls for the beard.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Drop-In and Get Crafty: Halloween

One of the best drop-in craft programs is centered around Halloween. There are so many good crafts to choose from, whether it be making ghosts, witches, Frankensteins, or jack-o-lanterns. 

For this year's Drop-In and Get Crafty: Halloween, we made an assortment of masks. Everyone could choose from making a cat, pumpkin, Frankenstein, or Day of the Dead mask. 

The masks were made using card stock and Popsicle sticks. I opted out of using elastic bands because I was trying to keep my cost low for a program that tends to have a larger turnout. We had a numerous amount of sticks so it was perfect. I used a hole puncher to make the eye cut-outs. 

Markers, colored pencils, and of course crayons were put out to decorate masks. I also put out some sequins they could glue on to their masks.  

I liked this craft idea because it gave attendees options to choose their mask and how to decorate it. I also needed a relatively easy prep craft and this was perfect. The craft also fits all ages because younger kids can decorate their masks simple and older kids can add as much detail as they want. I also liked how this craft can be their costume for Trick-or-Treating if they wanted it to be.

I had a great turn-out for this program and it was nice to see families crafting together.  

Happy Halloween!

Drop-In and Get Crafty: Reading by Design

Reading by Design is our Summer Reading Club theme adopted from the Illinois Library Association and I always like to do a drop-in craft on our theme.

A design craft can pretty much be anything, but I narrowed it down to a mosaic craft. Because the drop-in is always scheduled the same day as the summer reading kick-off and because I'm happy to announce that we had our local public schools involved, I was expecting a bigger crowd. I had a great turn-out and made enough crafts available for over 50 attendees. I like how there is a two-hour time range to space everyone out and give patrons the option of coming in at a time that would be more convenient for them. 

For the craft prep, I used older construction paper of all different colors that was previously used and taking up space in our office and cut square shapes out of them. I searched the Internet for possible mosaic print-outs and found a total of six for everyone to choose from that ranged from birds to flowers and to fish, which was the most popular one. 

This was an easier craft to prep for and was happy about it too because with a bigger group, I didn't want it to be too time consuming. It also allowed me to use supplies we already had that would probably end up getting thrown out.

The kids used their imaginations to make colorful construction paper mosaics that imitated stained glass. It gave them practice with cutting and gluing while the older kids worked on the more difficult print-outs. Some of the group felt like coloring and we had that as an option too.

What a nice way to kick-off summer reading!

Drop-In and Get Crafty: Mother's Day

The Drop-In and Get Crafty: Mother's Day program was held the day before Mother's Day. Even though it was close to the holiday and beautiful weather, I still had a nice patron turn-out. 

For the craft that would be for Mom, we made our own flower bouquets using flower die-cuts, straws, and duct-taped toilet paper rolls for vases. The kids enjoyed choosing from different colored flowers and using die-cut hand shapes for a variety. We added a card and some green strips of construction paper to make the bouquet look colorful and full. 

I did duct tape each toilet paper roll previously because it would be difficult for most of the smaller kids who attend this group, but they liked picking out their patterns. 

It was nice to see dads and other family members bring in their kids to surprise Mom, but we had quite a few moms who enjoyed working on the craft with their kids.

Happy Mother's Day!

Drop-In and Get Crafty: Easter

This year's Drop-In and Get Crafty: Easter was held on a no school day. I had a nice turnout and ended up continuing the program for an extra hour. Families came in rather sporadically, instead of the usual all rushing in when it starts, which made the room less crowded. 

For the craft, the group colored an Easter egg coloring page and cut and glued them onto a paper plate to make a colorful, holiday-themed wreath. There were sequins and bows to jazz it up. This was a great craft since this group loves to color! They enjoyed sparkling it up with sequins, and pastel yarn was available to use to hang up their wreath. 

It was neat to see how each child's wreath turned out different and some of the parents even took part. 

Drop-In and Get Crafty: St. Patrick's Day

I usually don't hold a drop-in craft program for St. Patrick's Day, but this year I did. I had a wonderful turnout and surprisingly, there are a lot of St. Patrick's Day crafts to choose from, especially if you count rainbow crafts.

I chose a  rainbow chain craft I seen pinned on Pinterest. You can find the direct link here. I liked this craft because I thought it would take a while for the kids to make and they could work on their fine motor skills and colors. It also makes a cute door hanger.

The craft worked so well, I ended up using it as one of my crafts for Toddler Art. Normally, I don't like to reuse crafts, especially so soon, but I figured that most of this group doesn't attend Toddler Art and there would be two new crafts anyway.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Drop-In and Get Crafty: Valentine's Day

This was my first drop-in craft program of the year and we celebrated Valentine's Day. I usually make sure I have about forty crafts handy for this program without knowing how many participants there will be and usually have a few leftover crafts. This time around, I had only about five crafts left.

This is a great family program because it is a way for families to come to the library and enjoy a free craft together and for me, it's fun and quite easy to prepare for unless the craft is homemade and has many pieces. It is also a perfect program for eager, young crafters who may not have it in them to sit and listen to a story. 

We had a fun time decorating Valentine's Day bags to use to hold our Valentines or to give to mom or dad as a present. I handed out some Minon Valentines and some chocolate heart candy while we listened to the Despicable Me Soundtrack. The kids had fun using a variety of stickers, foam hearts, and doilies to decorate their white bags. 

One of my regular program friends gave me such a touching Valentine after she was done decorating her bag. It was so sweet and made my day! It was cute to see her tell her mom what to write on the card. That's what it's all about! Thank you, Neve!

Happy Valentine's Day!