Craft Activities for Kids

A Matchbox Holder The accompanying sketch shows an easily made matchbox holder. The wooden base consists of an odd piece of thin material left over from some other job. It should be be about 7 by 3 inches. When the edges have been nicely trimmed up and smoothed, the metal tray is added. The larger sketch shows how the sides …

A Capital Puzzle Take two thin pieces of wood, of the size shown by the square. With your fretwork saw, cut out, from one of them, the X-shaped pattern, and glue the piece surrounding the X to the untouched square. Then, get four tiny ball-bearing the X to the untouched square. Then, get four tiny ball-bearing balls from the nearest …

A Boat Driven by Air If you are one of those boys who like to experiment with things, here is something that will assume you. Get a lightly built model rowing boat and put a small length of metal tubing through the stern end, so that it projects under water. Then blow up an air ballon and close the neck …

A Cinder Sifter This is an article which will save a good deal of money in the fuel bill. The easiest way to make it is to get a stout wooden box, with an opening a triffle larger than the sieve which is used in the kitchen to knock out the bottom and cut off the lower part of the …

Fun in the Aquarium Place two aquaria side by side, as shown in the diagram, and stock one of them plentifully with tadpoles. Then procure a length of glass tubing of stout bore and bend it to form a sort of bridge, as the one depicted in the picture. The tubing can be bent by heating it in a Bunsen …

A Splendid Catch If you have a fret-saw, cut out the letters forming the word last, adhering as much as possible to the shapes of the letters shown in the diagram. Use thin wood for the purpose. Then, set out the letters as we have given them and ask your friends to change the last into first. They can employ …

Such a Commotion If you would like to play a trick on a friend, send him one of these contrivances in an envelope. It consists of a stout card, folded into three. To the card is fixed a U-shaped piece of wire, held firmly in position by means of a gummed label. At each end of the wire is an …

A Useful Gadget This gadget has dozens of uses. It will be invaluable if you do leather work and have to prick a number of spaces all equidistant, say when thonging. It will come in handy when you have to rule a number of lines with equal spaces between them. And, it would be easy to suggest a score of …

Marking Out Tennis Football and Other Pitches It is a very tedious job to mark out tennis courts and football pitches if you do not posses an expensive machine for the purpose and you employ the ordinary hand method. The white lines can be made easily and well, however, if you construct a board like that shown in the illustration. …

A Saucepan Holder for Campers Don’t burn your fingers any more when lifting a can of boiling liquid from the camp fire. Cut a fork of the shape shown in the illustration from a bush or tree. Note the notch indicated by the arrow. When you want to lift a can from the fire and pour out its contents, slip …