by: Rachael Towle

If you haven't been to the craft store in a while, or even taken a quick visit through the craft section of your super center, then you may not have noticed the explosion of foam and the fun you can have with it. With the colors of the rainbow, and every color in-between, you can make anything from decorative frames and signs to landscapes of animals and flowers. The possibilities are endless.

The best way to get started is to browse through the section at the store where the foam crafts are located. You will find large sheets of foam, craft and projects buckets, and even large tubs of various themed foamies to help you create that perfect project with your child! You can even manage to purchase foamies that have sticky backs so you can do your projects without any glue, so these projects can be clean and easy to clean up.

Since Foamies come in all different shapes, colors and sizes, you will want to pick a theme before you make your foam craft purchase. Choose from holiday themes, animals, sports, projects that involve decorating frames or door hangers, or to simply make a landscape with various shapes or objects. If you are planning for one to three children doing the craft, you can easily spend less than $10, however if you plan on doing crafts for a group like scouts or play dates, you may want to look into getting a "Tub o' Foamies" that have sticky backs. These tubs usually have several different shapes and objects. The tub allows many to have lots of fun!

When beginning your project, be sure to keep in mind that layering your pieces to create objects like houses and flowers will add depth and interest into your project. The fun with foamies isn't just the color and design, but in how your art work becomes three-dimensional. If you don't have many foamies to work with, you can simply print out a picture of the sky, a lake, forest or desert on card stock. The foamies stick perfectly to paper products. You can use image search engines (ex. Google Images) to look for pictures to print by using the search word "landscapes."

My two year old loves playing with sticky foamies. Under supervision, he can sit and play with them for a least a half-hour. The sticky foamies also keep their stick and can be removed and stuck in different places without them becoming any less fun! Most stickies are for children 3 and older because they can be a choking hazard, so be sure to supervise your toddler if he or she is under the advisable age.

(c) Copyright 2005 by Rachael Towle (mailto:jedi@theparentstation.com), The Parent Station (http://www.theparentstation.com/). This article may be republished for web content as long as the author information, bylines, and active links are included.