Life at the Bay

It's not easy being a kid today; facing chunks of homework and a seemingly never-ending quest for achievement, it appears to be harder being a kid than a CEO of a large corporate company. It's even harder for creative children; to discover and nurture their talent with different social pressures and numerous inconsistent daily requirements. How do we create the next generation of innovative artists? Through all our art teachers across the globe! Listed below are 3 key qualities every art teacher should have. Cultivating these principles assists our aspiring Picassos, aka your students, in finding their role in the creative world and how to play it. Curiosity Curiosity builds a desire for a greater understanding and learning more. Besides innovating your student's creative talent by gaining more intel, curiosity develops awareness and attention to detail for their craft. It is of utmost importance to motivate them to consistently ask questions and to dig deeper. ...

Creating papier mache’ vases is something we plan at Sugar Bay for rainy day Arts and Crafts classes. Our campers love this craft because it is so simple to create, and the only difficulty you will be faced with, is waiting for the paper strips to dry before adding another layer and decorating. How to create a Papier Mache’ Vase: You will need: 1 Balloon White-drying glue poured into a bowl 1 Toilet paper tube Newspaper White tissue paper Paintbrush Acrylic paint in a variety of colours Embellishments (Beads, sequins, ribbon, etc.) Instructions: Blow up the balloon. Blow up your balloon and securely knot it at the end. Be careful not to over inflate the balloon. Tear the newspaper and tissue into strips and squares. Instead of cutting up the newspaper and tissue paper, it is better to tear it so that it may easily cover the curves of the balloon and will stick easily. Stick on the newspaper and tissue paper pieces. Using the white-drying glue, stick the torn...

  We love recycling at Sugar Bay, and if there’s one thing we keep collecting over the years, its empty baby food glass jars. These cute, little glass jars gave us the perfect opportunity to turn them into recycled gel candles.   Here’s how we recycle these jars to create Gel candles: You will need: Candle Gel Baby Food Glass Jar Zinc wicks 2 Pencils Glue Thermometer Essential oil for fragrance Liquid color dye Embeds (Anything non-flammable, such as glitter, sand, sea shells, pebbles, etc. Method: Place a little bit of glue in the center of the bottom of the glass jar. Stick the wick in it and let the glue set. Cut the gel into small pieces so it melts faster and more evenly. Melt it in a stainless steel pot over a medium heat at 100 Degrees Celsius. Remember to keep the temperature constant, since overheated gel loses its clarity. The gel should melt and become smooth, like syrup. Add color dye to the melted gel, little by little, until you get...

There’s nothing more our campers love at Sugar Bay than creating crafts during Arts and Crafts classes. Especially, when we decide to get lit and create wax glitter candles.   Light up the room and add sparkle to any occasion with these wax glitter candles: You will need: Candle-making wax Wax crayon in desired colour Large candle wicks Fragrance oil Spatula Baking Mold in desired shape Heat-resistant container Double boiler Thermometer 2 Pencils Method: Step 1: Measure the wax - Measure out how much wax you would need to fill your container by filling up the container. Always use two measures. That’s how much of wax you will need to melt. Step 2: Grate your wax crayon - After selecting the colour which you would like the candle to be, begin grating the crayon and add to the wax measure. Step 3: Melt the wax - Pour the wax into your double boiler and allow to melt for 10 to 15 minutes, whilst stirring frequently. Step 4: Add fragrance oils...

  A simple task that gets your creative juices flowing definitely has to be chalk drawing. Our campers love this activity at Sugar Bay. It’s such a quick and easy way to keep them occupied should any of our programs run a little off-schedule, and, in the process, allows us to discover some remarkable talents.    Here’s some ideas on how to prepare for and run this class: The Art of Chalk Drawing   You will need: · Previously prepared artwork (Sourced from the internet and printed out) · Clean floor surface that isn’t too rough or too smooth · Chalk (in every colour) · Tape Measure Instructions: Step 1: Selecting an image You will need to provide your campers with a wide variety of previously prepared artwork that is inspirational and easy to duplicate. You can divide the artwork into three categories of difficulty: beginners, intermediate and expert, to accommodate the different age groups.   Step 2: Analyzing the image Once your...

At Sugar Bay, our campers love it when we get food involved in our Arts and Crafts classes. One of our popular Arts & Crafts activities with food has to be biscuit decorating.    After getting our campers to bake their own biscuits, we get them to decorate them with royal icing. Their creativity really comes out to play when they indulge in this activity.  Here are 3 very important techniques we taught our campers to use when icing biscuits: Technique 1 - Line Icing:   Tip: Ensure that your line icing is the same texture of toothpaste – slightly thick and gooey.   Line icing is basically an outline around a shape. People would use this technique if they are going to fill the inside of the outline with flood icing. You need to make sure that you create an outline that does not have any gaps. If there are any gaps, the flood icing will flow through and your biscuit will not look very attractive. A piping bag with a narrow cut is the best i...

These beautiful elastic bracelets are always catching our eyes, however, on close inspection, may seem rather difficult to make.    Surprisingly, they are really simple to create and a pretty cool version of the usual string friendship bracelets we make at camp. Create a loom band bracelet in 5 simple steps:   You will need: C-Clip (Which usually comes with a loom band kit) 20 – 30 bands in your choice of colour(s) Step 1: Pick your colour sequence. We noted that most of our campers love creating rainbow-themed loom bands.    Step 2: Twist one band into a figure "8" and fold it over so it forms a circle. Slide this circle inside the C-clip. This is the beginning of your bracelet. We'll call this band #1.    Step 3:    Pinch one band between your fingers. Slide this band (#2) halfway through the circle you made in Step 2. Pull the ends up and hold them together.    Step 4:    Pi...

  Life at Sugar Bay is just as the name describes it, sweet and sunshine filled all by the sea. We love creating camp crafts and tasty treats as part of our Arts & Crafts program run almost daily at camp.    One of our favourite DIY camp tasty treats has to be Sherbet Straws. They’re so simple to create and will give you a quick pop of sweetness whenever you’re feeling a little down.    Here’s how to create: Sugar Bay Sherbet Straws You will need: Ingredients: Candle, Matches or Lighter Plastic straws Sheet of paper Tablespoon Small round empty jar Citric acid (for sour sherbet) Icing sugar (for sweet sherbet) Super C candy Method: Step 1: Seal one end of your straw   Light up your candle using matches under adult supervision. Place a sheet of paper on a hard surface to avoid making a mess and make cleaning up easy. Heat up the tablespoon by placing it over the candle. Use the heated spoon to seal one end of the stra...

  Here at Sugar Bay, we love soaking up the sun and live for sunshine-filled days when we can head down to the beach and catch some waves or cool down by splashing through our waterslides.    Most of all, we love the sunshine because they light up our beautiful sun catchers!    One of our favourite crafts to make during Arts & Crafts classes are sun catchers, which is why we decided to show you how we do it, camp style.  DIY Sun Catchers   You will need: Transparent plastic sheet Black Liquid Lead Paint (All colours) Paint Brushes Method: 1. Pick an image you want to duplicate    Depending on the theme at camp, we have a variety of simple pictures printed out which campers get to choose from and decide which one they would like to turn into a sun catcher. You can search the internet for pictures or make copies from colouring books. These images need to be easy to trace....

Camp crafts are one of the most popular activities offered at holiday camps. These activities allow kids to explore their creative sides and get practically involved.    Children love the idea of creating crafts by themselves and the cherry on top is being able to keep them as a memoir, or being able to eat what they have made.    The fun and excitement of these camp activities can also be enjoyed at home.    Here are 5 camp crafts that you can enjoy with the kids at home: 1. Friendship bracelets   Friendship bracelets are an integral part of camp as they allow children to bond by exchanging friendship bracelets with one another. Grab a few pieces of string from the hardware store and get your kids braiding friendship bracelets for one another. If they cannot braid, just get them some beads and let the beading and braiding of friendship bracelets begin.    2. Bird feeders    Most summer camps place a great ...