When life feels too much like a routine and the daily patterns seem stuck in ruts that offer little to no freedom, it may be time to check out craft work. For many, enjoying a craft means developing an item at a comfortable pace without a prescribed timetable. Working a craft allows buried creativity to come out and be explored. Crafting enables talents to become a part of you as common items transform. At first, the pursuit of a craft may feel awkward.

If children can be included, become equal to their seeking methods to accomplish. Younger children approach a challenge with less inhibition and less demand for perfection from someone older. Include this mindset in yourself. Although a project may require certain steps for accomplishment, sometimes a detour eases the pressure of completion while presenting possible alternatives. Predictability and surprise gives crafting balance. For an adult the rhythmic pattern of motion provides a smooth sensation to counter the day’s challenges.

For a child these same movements allow developing coordination and give a sense of accomplishment. The activities involved with crafting can vary, which keeps the progress fresh. While pursuing a project may have a sense of routine, amazingly the work of individual pieces does not create exact duplication. Be open to the variance. As crafting develops, experience the actions involved. Some crafts require more attention, but in every craft pursuit creativity is the basis. The resulting item may not have the caliber to exhibit in a museum, but its uniqueness reflects the special input you give.

It's the time of the year when you can make shamrocks for some of your projects. They are very easy and they will look great. Your children will love to make these and they won't take long to create.

Foam shamrocks are a great project that you can have your kids create. St. Patrick's Day is getting pretty close, so you want to sit down with your kids and make these. You will need 3 green foam hearts, a green chenille stem, green button, pom poms, or sequins, scissors, white craft glue and scraps of craft foam. First you can have your kids glue the hearts together, for the smaller kids you can use scrap foam and glue the hearts to it. Cut a 2-3 inch chenille stem and glue it to the bottom of the shamrock. You can then glue a button, sequin or pom pom in the center of the shamrock.

Then the next project is a pom pom shamrock, and it's easy to make and it's fun. You will need 3 large green pom poms, a scrap of green felt, scissors, glue, and a 6" piece of gold ribbon. First you need to glue three of the pom poms together to form a shamrock. Make a stem from the green felt and glue it to the back of your shamrock. Make a bow out of the gold ribbon and glue it to the front of the shamrock. You can also glue a magnet on the back of your shamrock so you can put it on your refrigerator.

Crafting as a family is becoming a household activity once again. There are many new things that you can do and create as a unit. When creating crafts as a family it builds a bond between family members. It helps for families to remain united and depend on one another. When you are creating anything as a family, it makes each member of that family responsible for something that concerns the rest of the unit.

Also, crafting as a family breaks down walls that can usually build up from other parts of everyday life. It helps the family to communicate and find new ways to communicate with one another. By utilizing the time together for more than a project for crafts, the family grows an even stronger bond to one another.

When crafting as a family it doesn’t matter how many members are a part of the family. All that matters is that everyone takes part in the activity and remain committed to completing the craft together. Spending quality time with your family members can be a difficult thing to accomplish when it seems that everyone has their own agenda going on. Once everyone commits themselves to the craft it becomes a part of their agenda and they will feel good about being a part of the project. Find time to craft with your family. Think of it as more that an activity. You never know how it will have an impact on your family as a unit.

When people think of crafting today, they think of some project that a person does in their leisure time. If it were not for centuries of craft, society would not have the items of necessity today.

The crafts society uses today were kept alive because they were useful to the colonists. Learning a craft and passing it on to future generations is a way of creatively teaching about the necessity of ancestors to create. Knitting helped keep the family warm in winter with sweaters, mittens, and caps. Woodworking allowed the family to have the necessary items to make a house into a home, such as wooden chests in which to store linens and out of season clothing, protecting them from rodents and moths. By crafting tables, they created a surface on which to work at a less backbreaking level. Most handmade crafts are more durable and last longer than the factory assembly line pieces; they are unique and sometimes one of a kind, items to be cherished and passed down from generation to generation. When we teach crafting to children, we help them with their physical development: manual dexterity and hand-eye coordination, as well as patience, creativity, and pride in one's efforts. Crafting brings people together in a social environment such as quilting bees. Mothers and grandmothers have a chance to pass their favorite craft on to the next generation, as a way of expressing and preserving traditional culture, sharing beliefs and identity through crafting.

Crafting is important and contributes to families' quality of life because they can make the things they otherwise could not afford. When a child makes something for a family member, it is often kept for years because of the sentimental value and because it means more than a purchased gift.

Time flies and so do the holidays. Easter is just around the corner, a little over a month away. It is not too soon to start Easter craft projects. One of the traditional activities enjoyed by kids and adults alike is dying eggs for the Easter baskets. PAAS Easter Egg Kits are not the only game in town. There is, however, a wide variety of kits complete with instructions.

As the saying “there is more than one way to skin a cat” implies, there are a number of artful ways to embellish Easter eggs. You and your family can get crafty and have fun with the art of egg dying in several different ways.
Color crepe paper eggs are fun and turn out very pretty. You will need separate bowls or cups for each color. Fill with hot water and soak the crepe paper. Allow eggs to soak in the solution until you achieve the desired intensity of color. Use a slotted spoon to remove the eggs and let dry.

When the eggs are completely dry, pour a small amount of cooking oil on a soft cloth and polish them. Another neat idea is to use colored sand. The effect is very pretty and textured. Apply spray-on glue to the eggs and then roll in the sand. You can layer colors simply by allowing each application to dry thoroughly before rolling in another color. Visit the internet for an endless variety of Easter crafts, complete with colorful illustrations and instructions.