I agree with the writer. It does take prolonged hours of practice to hone a particular talent to perfection. But amazingly, the beauty of easy homemade crafts is that all and sundry can learn to do it in a jiffy. Believe me, it is that simple. Easy homemade crafts are perhaps the best constructive ways to occupy yourself instead of whiling away your time in vain. They also make for warm, personalized gifts, which can make people feel special and wanted. Here are some fun homemade crafts for kids and adults, as well as easy crafts to make for gifts. So, check out the following easy handicrafts and see gleams of admiration appear in the eyes of friends and family as you slowly emerge as the art and craft queen/king. You can always engage children with interesting and fun homemade craft ideas for kids. In order to keep them away from trouble and unscrupulous activities, fill up your child's time with these super easy kids' crafts to keep an empty head from becoming a devil's workshop. 1. Get a construction paper (12"x 18") in a solid color and help your kid to fold it into half - lengthwise - in order to get a rectangle. 2. Now using a ruler, draw a 2-inch wide margin along the border of the paper. Now cut equal strips on the paper at 90 degrees with the folded spine. Do not cut through the border. 3. Make colorful designs and motifs with sequins or paints as per your wish on the border. 4. After the decoration has dried, unfold the paper and staple the two top and bottom edges together so that the entire thing looks like a round cylinder. 5. Make a separate strip of paper and staple it to the cylinder to make a handle. Use this lantern to cover bulbs to make them look like colorful, decorative lampshades. You can add tassels on the lower rim of the lantern to make it more festive. A really easy paper craft for your kid to make. Here's an easy albeit a little time-consuming kids' art, that will also help your kids to learn the names of all the states of his country, in a fun yet permanent way. 1. First, provide your kid with multicolored lentils, pulses, and rice grains in separate small bowls. 2. Then ask him to draw a large outline of the map of your country, replete with each internal state boundary. 3. Now help your kid to stick same colored grains onto the space of a single state with a good quality adhesive. You can use a single different-colored grain to mark the position of the state capital. Also, black-colored beluga lentils can be used to outline the border of the country as well as those of the states to make them more well-defined and prominent. 4. Use a different color of grains for each state and you shall have the names of all states and their capitals at your child's fingertips in no time. You can also ask you child to stick grains on only those states that he has visited. An easy-to-make craft that is very academically useful as well! *The image is only a photographic representation of the product, given solely to aid the understanding of readers. The finished product will look slightly different than this. This craft is the easiest thing to make and it will be able to lure your young one to take a bath without much ado! You need the simplest of things for this creation. You need to have a brightly-colored and patterned organza pouch (a muslin one would also do), a colorful ribbon, and an assortment of dry herbs. Now, these herbs should be of the variety that have soothing effects on people. Check the list below to find out which ones fit your bill. The greatness of a craft consists firstly in how it brings comradeship to men. - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Need I say more as to why you should hand-make your gifts for your loved ones? Here are some stuff that you can opt for instead of clichéd, commercialized presents. 1. For this, you can choose an old, empty alcohol bottle that is transparent and long-necked. Make sure it is clean and dry and then use translucent glass paints to externally color the bottle with any shade you like. 2. Let it dry overnight. 3. Choose either a photograph, or a picture of something that has great meaning for the one you are making the gift, like may be a guitar for a guitarist friend or a printed quote from a magazine for someone who collects quotations. 4. Tear out the edges so that the image has somewhat serrated and uneven borders. Do not cut it. Otherwise, that ragged, abstract look will be lost. 5. Stick the image on the surface of the bottle. 6. Use clay threads to make designs on the bottle and then make indentations and grooves on them to get that three-dimensional look. You can even use beads or sequins on the clay when still soft, small mirrors to cover up the entire broad surface of the bottle, or make small patchy sequined designs on the outer layer and then fill the bottle with white-colored pebbles. Allow it to dry completely. Then color the clay with silver, golden, or copper fabric paint. 7. When the paint dries up, you can make anything out of the bottle, like a lampshade holder, a candelabrum, or even an incense sticks holder. You can even use it for a vase or a photograph stand by sticking a split twig or thin bamboo stick on the cork of the bottle. Here's an idea that is not only easy but very tasty as well. Yes, you can gift this to a friend on any occasion or just like that and see her smacking away her lips to glory. 1. Take a simple air-tight glass jar. Now layer the ingredients in the jar just as shown in the image. 2. Take a decorative piece of paper and write: "Mix all the ingredients in the bottle. Then add 3 beaten eggs, ⅔ a cup of vegetable oil, and a dash of vanilla extract. Blend all the ingredients well to make a uniform mixture. Now bake for 35 minutes at 350°C in a well-greased pan". Place this instruction card on top of the walnut layer. 3.Now place the lid on the bottle. Cover it with a decorative piece of cloth and tie it up with some twisted jute strings or even ribbon swirls, if you like. Your friendship brownie mix is ready to be gifted away. Instead of spending money on decorative party accessories, here are a few things you can do on your own and yet stand out. It doesn't really get simpler than this. 1. Just choose a flat woven basket for yourself. See to it that it has a wide base and the rims are not more than 2 inches in height. 2. Now, place about 2 empty containers, such as old jam bottles, beakers, or even glasses, on it. You can accommodate up to six glasses as well, depending on the size of your basket. 3. Next, take 2 different types of flowers and foliage in bundles, one type for each container. This obviously means that you can choose more than two types of flowers if you have more than two glasses in the basket. 4. Now, slowly place each kind of foliage in the separate glasses and do not commingle them with the other type as they look nicer in clusters. However, make sure that they form a canopy covering the base and the bottles below. Spread the clusters out a little bit. If you notice that the containers can still be seen from the sides, given their height, arrange some ornamental ferns and dry hay on the inner edge of the basket, just above the rim. Voila! Your collage of variant flowers is ready and believe me they make for beautiful centerpieces. This makes for not only an ornate serving trough but also lessens the load of washing up after a party! Here's how you go about making this bowl. Make sure you start making it at least 24 hours in advance. Choose two freeze-proof glass bowls, one a little smaller in diameter than the other and which when placed inside the bigger one, leaves about a space of at least one inch between the two walls and rims of the bowls. 1. Place a big flower, like a sunflower, at the base of the big bowl and then place the smaller bowl on it in a manner that the flower gets sandwiched between the two bases. You can also place a few other herbs, dry fruits, or even smaller, more colorful flowers around the larger flower. 2. After you have put the smaller bowl in place, just fill the gap with chilled water. See to it that the water level makes it only halfway between the two bowls and now let this arrangement stand in the freezer overnight. 3. In the morning, push vibrantly-colored flowers, nuts, herbs, fern, and even shrimp into the top empty area between the two bowls and fill it with more cold water, just enough to cover your embellishments. 4. Return it to the freezer. 5. Just before the party, take it out of the chiller and fill the small bowl with some tepid water to loosen the small bowl on top and similarly, slowly remove the bowl at the bottom as well. 6. Keep the molded bowl in the freezer again, before you use it. These ice bowls make for excellent fruit salad serving dishes! Take care and do not serve salty dishes in them as salt melts ice faster. So, there you have it. Seven nice and easy homemade crafts that will not only fill up your time constructively but will also help you to spend some quality time with your children. Enjoy!