Bright Ideas for Dull Days

Paper-Mache: Jewelry
Cut a drinking straw into several pieces. Cover each piece with paper-mache, leaving the ends open. After the beads dry, decorate them string them on a piece of yarn. For smaller beads, roll up balls of paper-mache. Push them onto a knitting needle or a nail. When they dry, paint, then shellac them. Remove the knitting needles or nails and string the beads with a needle and thread. Use elastic thread if you want a bracelet that stretches to fit over your hand. You can make a bracelet over a tin can. First tape waxed paper or foil over the can. Then old the paper-mache around it. This can be as wide as you wish, but should be at least one-fourth-inch thick. After a day or two, carefully remove the bracelet from the can. Let it dry for another few days, then decorate it. And for a ring, put a blob of wet paper-mache over the jewel on an old dime-store ring and let it dry. Earrings can be made the same way, using old earrings or new earring backs (called fittings) which you can buy at a hobby shop.

ART BOX: 
A good idea is to have a boxful of basic materials, such as scissors, glue, pencils, pens, rulers, crayons, tape, staples, paper clips, rubber bands, stencils, glitter, sequins, buttons, various pasta shapes, watercolors, tempera paint, different size brushes, white paper, colored construction paper.