Art Resources

Inspire your child’s creativity and imagination, and get crafty with our cute and easy art resources!

 

Free Printable Resources for National Pyjama Day

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National Pyjama Day is fast approaching! We’ve put together some free printable resources for your fundraising efforts, whether you’re baking cupcakes at home or asking for donations at the office. Make sure to tag us in your pictures for a chance to feature on our social media or website!

 

Donation Jar Label

We have 2 options for your donation jar available for download. Simply print this out, write down your goal and stick it on a jar of your choice – we like to put ours around a recycled coffee jar. This is a great way to collect gold coin donations on an office reception desk or a teachers desk.

Download Donation Jar Label – Simple.

 

 

Download Donation Jar Label – Party.

 

 

Cupcake Toppers

If you’re planning on baking some cupcakes for your pyjama party, make sure to use our super cute cupcake toppers! There are 12 cupcake toppers per sheet featuring 9 different Pyjama Day themed designs. Simply print them out and wrap them around a toothpick for an easy way to increase the cute factor of your cupcakes!

Download Cupcake Toppers.

 

 

Raffle Tickets

Holding a raffle is another great way to raise some extra money for your National Pyjama Day fundraising effort.  This tactic is especially useful for businesses – you could donate a voucher for your service or create a hamper of goodies, and tickets could be sold to clients and customers or offered internally to your team. There are so many ways to fundraise! Make sure you pop the extra details of your raffle on the tickets, including the prize you are offering and your personal campaign page.

Note: You will need to print these double sided, flip on long edge. We used fit to paper as the scale – double check your scale to ensure none of the ticket is outside the printable margins. There are 5 tickets per page.
When distributing tickets, cut off the pink stubs with the ticket holder’s details and keep. Give the white part of the ticket to the ticker holder for their reference.

Download Raffle Tickets.

 

 

Photo Booth Props

This is such an easy way to add an element of silly fun to your National Pyjama Day event! Print out these photo booth props and tape them onto skewers or paddlepop sticks, and share some silly snaps with your friends!

Download Photo Booth Props.

 

 

 

If you or someone you know would be a fun and positive influence on a child in care, please consider volunteering for The Pyjama Foundation’s Love of Learning Program.

Together with their mentor, a child in foster care can learn valuable life-skills, confidence and self belief.

Thinking of You Week 2020

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Thinking of You Week is a special week of reminding someone you care with a card. This day was designed to create a wave of love caring and happiness. Receiving a card with a sweet handwritten message, especially when it comes out of the blue, is so special. Being thought of is worth celebrating.

Thinking of You Week takes place from 14th till the 21st of June 2020. Of course, you can send a card to that special person anytime in the year!

You can either purchase cards, make your own, or use some of our handy printable cards. We created these specifically for this occasion and we hope you love them. These FREE cards all include a special quote, one of which is sure to fit how you feel towards the recipient.

The start of 2020 has been a challenge, and while sharing caring cards on birthdays is lovely, a thoughtful card shared unexpectedly just feels different.

Download Card Set 1

Download Card Set 2Download Card Set 3

To use these cards, simply cut along the horizontal line to separate the cards. The next step is to fold across the vertical line to form your very own ‘Thinking of You’ cards.

Anzac Day Craft Activities for Remembrance

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We have compiled a list of Anzac Craft Activities for you to introduce into your home this Anzac Day. Each family celebrates this differently, but there are traditions that seem to stand the test of time. Remembering those who fought to bravely for the freedom of our country is important. It is a hard topic to broach, but there are some easy ways to introduce this day to young kids. Keep reading for craft and recipe ideas to use this Anzac Day!

DIY Recycled Plastic Bottle Poppy Craft – This clever craft is created from recycled plastic bottles, and creates such a beautiful ornament style decoration. The kids will have an absolute ball making these pretty poppies.

Anzac Day Paper Plate Poppies – This is a great activity for younger kids, and it requires barely any supplies. Cut your paper plate into a poppy shape and assist your child to use red paint and colour it in. Black paper glued into the centre finishes the activity. You’ll be left with a great big poppy which would look great on a front door!

Donna Hay’s Anzac Biscuits – Who doesn’t love an Anzac Biccy? These traditional war-time biscuits are one of the most festive flavours of the year, and such an Aussie staple.

Australian Flag Cut and Paste Activity – This free printable will help young kids to learn the identifying features of the Australian flag, and older kids can learn the names of each feature and what they represent. This is quite a simple activity but a good addition to other Anzac traditions.

Remembrance Day Red Poppy Craft – You may not have had as many opportunities to purchase a Poppy Pin this year due to COVID-19 restrictions, or perhaps a DIY is more your style, either way this is the perfect craft!

 

Other Activities

We have been regularly updating our COVID-19 Response Page with loads of resources you can use to stay in touch with little ones in your life that you might not be able to see right now. Our COVID-19 Resources can be great for school aged pen-pals or even just keeping your kids busy while isolating. We hope you love them as much as we do!

A Guide to Letter Writing

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Written communication is an important skill for children to learn, and writing letters, notes and cards is a great way for kids to practice these skills.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we think letter writing is a fantastic way for Pyjama Angels to stay in touch with their Pyjama Children. All of these activities can be done separately or together via FaceTime, as most of them just require some paper and a pencil.

We have created some examples of fun letter writing activities below that are sure to spark creativity and playfulness in your child.

 

Scrapbook Card Making

Scrapbooking is such a fun activity that can be tailored to kids of all ages. All you need is scraps of different colourful papers. Cutting up junk mail or old magazines can be useful for extra supplies, as well as any other odd crafting pieces you might have lying around the house, like glitter, pompoms, or stickers. We used double sided tape to stick our scraps together, but you can use regular tape folded over or a good old glue stick. Just rearrange your scraps until they look pretty, stick them down, write a nice message, and you’re done! A thoughtfully hand-made card is sure to delight whoever receives it.

Click here to download How to Make a Scrapbook Card

 

 

 

Formal Letter Writing

This easy-to-use format introduces children to a more structured way of writing letters. The name of the writer, date and location are at the beginning of the document, and we start the letter with dear… friend, neighbour, stranger, it’s up to you! For the body of the letter, encourage children to fill up the space. Think about who we are communicating with and what we might like to write, including questions about them and things about ourselves as well. Finish the letter with ‘sincerely’, and perhaps a signature. P.S. stands for postscript, in case there is anything that needs to be added in after the letter.

Click here to download our Formal Letter Writing Template

 

 

Hidden Origami Note

This is such a sweet way to send little love notes. Simply write your message on a square of paper, then follow the instructions to fold it in to an origami heart. Nobody will know what’s hidden inside unless they unfold the heart! These are great to pass around to family members, and can also be easily mailed to any far away friends.

Click here to view our instructional video How to Make an Origami Heart Note

 

 

Secret Writing Code

This activity involves a good old fashioned cipher. Use the code we have created as your own secret language, and write out messages that only you can understand! You can also use this inspiration to create your own cipher for your very own secret language.

Click here to download the secret code

Click here to download the secret message

 

 

 

FUN & EASY CHRISTMAS CRAFTS FOR KIDS

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Christmas is coming up quickly! So to get in the spirit, we have found six fun and easy crafts kids will love this festive season. Best of all, most of the materials are things you may already have at home; making these activities accessible while staying reasonably affordable.

Playdough Christmas Trees

Kids will love letting their creative side show while molding and decorating their own trees. This easy-to-make playdough be stored for up to 6 months to be used over and over again; what a win!

Pom-Pom Pine Cones

Create cute and quirky mini-tree ornaments with this simple but effective craft. Use green, red and white pom-poms to achieve a fun, festive look that all will marvel at!

No-Sew Sock Snowman

Bring a little snowman friend to life with this adorable craft! With no sewing required, this craft is a fun way to make use of any odd socks lying around and add a touch of festivity.

Rudolf The Fingerprint Reindeer

Inspired by everyone’s favourite reindeer, this craft is bound to bring out every child’s creative side. For a fun challenge, try to name all the reindeer that pull Santa’s sleigh.

Origami Santa Hats

These instructions make origami easy enough for everyone to enjoy. You can hang the hats as individual ornaments, attach them the front of a greeting card or even join them together to create a garland!

Christmas Colouring In

Colouring in is always popular amongst young creatives and with a variety of options available to download they can keep colouring well into the New Year!

 

We hope you enjoy testing out some of these fun crafts this festive season. Do you know what you are going to play this December? Perhaps try some of these fun resource free activities! From all of us at The Pyjama Foundation, we wish you a very happy and safe Christmas.

Letting creative flare thrive! Arts & crafts for every age

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Nurturing your special little ones’ creative spirit is especially important. We’ve found some super fun craft ideas that you can do on your next weekly visit to spark imagination and creative play. Don’t worry, we’ve made sure these ideas use things you probably have lying around at home. This means no special tools are required.

We feel these super fun craft sessions are a great way to spend quality time together where the little ones can explore their creative passions.

Rock painting (Ages 3-7)

This arts and craft activity means you and your little one might have to explore the great outdoors for a while. The kiddies can let their imagination run wild and create ANY type of rock pet. Create anything from lions to lady bugs to even fish!

Microwave puffy paint (Ages 4-9)

Microwave puffy paint is a fantastic way to combine art and science! Watch the artwork puff up and grow in a matter of seconds.

Fire breathing dragon craft (Ages 4-7)

Bring a fire breathing dragon to life with this adorable little craft! This simple project only needs some old toilet paper role, tissue paper, poms poms, and most importantly, googly eyes.

Bubble painting (Ages 5-9)

There’s something so magical about making bubbles. This is the perfect outdoor arts and craft activity that the kids will love when you come over for your visit.

Water colour salt painting (Ages 5-14)

This one is sure to be a hit with the younger creative geniuses. Panting with the salt is like magic – it creates intriguing and interesting textures and patterns.

Paper plate sewing craft (Ages 7-12)

These cute little insect sewing projects are a great way to begin teaching children how to sew. The best part of this project is that the craft is adaptable for kids of all ages so everyone can get involved in this one.

Origami faces (Ages 9-16)

Get really crafty with this cool and quirky project! The creative little ones can try and make an origami version of all their favourite people, book characters or super heroes.

Origami corner bookmarks craft (Ages 9-17)

Here at The Pyjama Foundation, we absolutely love our books and love reading them even more. This clever and cute little DIY craft activity means you can always pick up exactly where you left off and never lose your place.

Stomp rocket (Ages 12-17)

This rocket uses the power of compressed to launch high into the sky – future engineers, take note: this is called pneumatics. After you’ve launched your rocket, just blow into the tubes to inflate the bottle once again and have another turn. So much fun!

 

For more activities to try out with your kids, check out our science and healthy food activity posts. Don’t forget to tell us all about it!