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Keeping children entertained during lockdown has needed some creativity and thinking outside of the box. The lack of freedom to visit places has meant that so many of us have to stay at home the vast majority of the time. Home learning has been keeping us busy for a lot of the day, but it gets to a point when Isabella needs some time to play and relax. This has been when we've been bringing out the Aquabeads and letting her imagination run wild! If you're not familiar with what Aquabeads are then they are small little beads that can be put together on a tray to create a design, sprayed with water, left to dry and they stick together. No need for irons and such a fun activity for children fours years+ to enjoy. The possibilities for lockdown crafts using Aquabeads really are endless and below I've included a long list of ideas to hopefully inspire you to get creative too.
We used the brand new Aquabeads Star Bead Studio and Star Beads Refill Pack for most of these crafts because the little star shaped beads help make the creations sparkle, but you could use the original sphere beads too. The Star Bead Studio is also travel friendly, as it comes with a star bead case to neatly store the beads in and contains 1000+ star beads; plenty to let children get creative with. It does also come with a few template sheets to help make figures like a penguin, unicorn or rainbow. You can also get the Aquabeads Star Friends Pack, which includes over 600 star and solid beads in 21 colours, two template sheets and a set of instructions. This set is a refill set, so you do need to have a main set that includes the sprayer and tray to create your designs on.
We decided to make some summery fruit bunting using the star beads, which was surprisingly easy, lots of fun and allowed Isabella to problem solve as she worked out how to make each item of fruit. After a lot of thought Isabella decided she wanted to make bunting that had a strawberry, watermelon slice, pineapple and bunch of grapes in. There are plenty of templates available to show you how to create certain shapes, but we decided to go 'free' to make the fruit shapes. We found that getting the outline right together worked well and then Isabella could fill the inside in by herself. You can see below how we put together the strawberry, but the incredible thing with Aquabeads is that you can choose your colours, the size of your creation and layout giving you complete creative freedom.
The star beads really do add an extra sparkle and Isabella really liked using the more translucent beads to make the fruit. After you have made all of the fruit items you want to then it was just a case of spraying them with water, flipping the tray over and leaving them to dry. This doesn't take very long, but we left them overnight to make sure they were totally dry as we were going to be hanging them up.
To make the bunting all you have to do is glue the fruit shapes onto a piece of string. You could do this randomly or measure them, so that they are equal distances apart and glue them in place using a glue gun. Leave to set/cool completely and then your bunting is ready to hang up! It would add a happy summery vibe to your kitchen, play kitchen, wendy house or child's bedroom.
Another Aquabeads creation we've made during lockdown was a 'We Miss You' Rainbow Card to send to Isabella's cousins. It was a fun activity for Isabella to do and her cousins loved receiving a card with a detachable rainbow on, so that they could put it in their bedroom. It helped make them both feel less apart, which is always a good thing during this surreal time. Inside the Star Bead Studio there is a template for a rainbow, which is what Isabella used to create the rainbow for this card. I then used washi tape to stick the it onto a blank card, Isabella wrote 'We Miss You' (but it could say anything) on the front and a lovely message inside. It was such a thoughtful way to spread joy and feel more connected during lockdown.
If you're children are anything like mine then they are probably big fans of unicorns and Frozen; our house is slowly being taken over by these two things! But if it makes them happy, then I'm happy too. The Aquabeads Frozen II Character Set and Aquabeads Magical Unicorn Set are perfect for unicorn or Frozen fans and are complete sets, so your children can get making straight away. Aquabeads have quite a few collaborations with popular films, including Frozen, Trolls, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Toy Story 4, Disney Princesses etc.
A few other craft ideas using Aquabeads:
- Bunting
- Drink covers
- Coasters
- Cards
- Keyrings
- Bracelets
- Door signs
What would you create using Aquabeads?
Feel free to leave a comment - I love reading every single one :)
Helen x
My Daughter used to love aquabeads, I never thought to do anything like this with them how lovely is the bunting and the card x
ReplyDeleteWhat lovely creations from Aquabeads! The bunting looks ever so cute and the card is such a lovely and thoughtful idea!
ReplyDeleteThis is such a cool idea. My girls have loads and now I know what I'm going to get them to do tomorrow. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you can do so much with aquabeads, making the bunting is such a cute idea and you could put all sort on it as well.
ReplyDeleteA clever idea, the kids have had Aquabeads through the years but never though to do something like bunting, a great post.
ReplyDeleteWe love the Star Beads so much, we made bookmarks with ours - so much fun!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely craft and the bunting looks so pretty. I like the star shapes. My kids used to have hamma beads which were similar , these are prettier.
ReplyDeleteI remember doing this when I was a kid! I used to spend hours doing this after school, and it was a great way to get creative!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely idea, we loving doing pictures with aquabeads
ReplyDeleteThis looks great. what a fab way for the family to keep busy at a time like this
ReplyDeleteMy three have never been fans of aquabeads, but all these activities look like great fun, especially the bunting. Laura | Tales of a Natural Spoonie
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