Crafty Fun -- Elmer's Products

As a member of BzzAgent, I recently was giving several products to try from Elmer's CraftBond and X-Acto.



Items I received for Elmer's CraftBond include:

• All-Purpose Glue Stick
• Permanent Tape Runner
• Clear Glue Pen
• Sticky spots

These items range in price from $2 to $9.  They are acid-free and archival safe.  Check out elmers.com/crafters for more information.

Items I received for X-Acto Designer Series include:

• Zig Zag Decorative Edge Scissors
• Scalloped Decorative Edge Scissors
• Corner Rounder Punch

These items range in price from $2 to $20.  There are many other cutting tools available and more information can be found xacto.com.

Now onto the project I worked on.  Now that I'm teaching pre-Kindergarten, I have lots of use for these tools.  I created a class book showing our students making banana muffins.  I used the tape runner and realized pretty quick you can't use it on construction paper.  However it worked great on laminated pieces and photos.  It saved so much time.  I normally use double sided tape, but the tape runner was a much more efficient use of time. I also liked using the corner rounder.  It made the project look really professional.  I wish I could show the actual pictures but with privacy of children's photos I just can't.

The format of the book was very simple.  I used repetitive text on each page.  Sam added flour, Josie added sugar, Anna stirred the batter, etc.  Then about each sentence I showed the child doing the action.  For a class of 15 I only have five pages (back to back).  I simply slide each page into a plastic in a binder.  When I read the "story" to the class each child beamed as their name was read.  Really fun to do!

I plan to use all these tools on future projects with the class and will be adding those zig zag scissors to our art center for the children to practice with.