Join Our Teen Club!
Teens 13-19 are welcome to join our Teen Club at Hello Happiness Creativity Center! For 2024 we are offering MONTHLY kits that teens can come and pick up for free and take home (or anywhere!) to complete. No sign-up necessary! Each month will feature a different kit that will come with the supplies needed to complete the activity and an instruction sheet, if applicable. Some additional household supplies may be needed, such as glue, scissors, etc. and those will be clearly listed! The kits are totally free but will be limited and given out on a first-come, first-serve basis.
August 2024 - Mini Art Journaling
August Teen-Clubbers! Welcome to this month’s Teen Club Kit - mini art journaling! We found some backstock of the old versions of our mini art journals, which are still perfectly good and usable, so we thought we’d make some Teen Club Kits with them.
Each kit comes with a mini art journal, some miscellaneous paper ephemera, stickers, colored pencil stubbies, and a pen. This should be enough to get you started, but feel free to branch out and get creative with other mediums! You can collage, draw, paint, doodle, write, and more.
P.S. Pinterest is a great place to look for art journaling inspiration!
July 2024 - Paper Flower Bouquets
Hey teens, this month’s kit is Paper Flower Bouquets!💐The kit shows you how to make a cutie little paper flower bouquet that you can keep for yourself or make as a sweet gift for a loved one. This kit was inspired by a TikTok made by @chellerodriguez, and you can find her video here: https://www.tiktok.com/@chellerodrigueez/video/7314762408684227846?lang=en. We’ve filmed additional follow-along videos for each flower for extra ease and helpfulness!
Paper rose: https://youtu.be/E_cD-GrZvwA
Paper lavender: https://youtu.be/n9tOS4ttF7Q
Paper tulip: https://youtu.be/kNcdW9ToK68
If you’d like to recreate this kit and want to know what measurements to use, they are as follows: paper roses are 2x2in, paper tulips are 2x2in, paper lavender is about 3.75x1in, and the green stems are all 2x2in. The ‘wrapper’ for the bouquet is about 3x3in. You will need scissors to complete this kit, and a small amount of tape to make the lavender! We used double-sided tape, but regular should work just fine. 🌷🌹🪻💐
June 2024 - Two-Toned Heart Friendship Bracelets
It’s almost summer, and what better way to kick off the month of June than with a friendship bracelet making kit? June’s Teen Club Kit is ‘Two-Toned Heart Friendship Bracelets’, where you’ll learn how to make a relatively simple yet super cute friendship bracelet! Each kit contains enough thread to make two bracelets, so you can keep one for yourself and gift one to a friend or loved one.
Here’s a great video to get you started: https://youtu.be/VJnBhpqhbLA?si=yv9p53byWYJshHA1
Some helpful tips: keep it taut! We like to use a clipboard to hold onto the bracelet as we make it, and we move the bracelet up to keep it as tight and taut as possible. Tape also works, as shown in the video!
It doesn’t matter which color you start with– but if you want the hearts to be a specific color, the color you start with will be the inside heart color, and the other color will be the heart outline. For example, if you had a bracelet with white and red thread and you started with white, that would mean that the outline of the hearts are red and the inside of the hearts are white.
Each bracelet in the kit is already started with a loop at the top. Once you’ve knotted about 15 hearts (give or take a few) in length, you can braid the remaining floss at the end to make the other end. Then when you want to wear it, just knot the braided end around the loop!
Questions? Don’t be afraid to pop in and ask for help! Elena, who runs the Teen Club, would be happy to help if you’re struggling 😊
May 2024 - Tic-Tac-Toe On-The-Go
The Teen Club Kit for May is ‘Tic-Tac-Toe on the go’! These kits include a small muslin bag with ten small stones, a couple of paint colors, and an instruction sheet. Optional paint brushes are available for free in the Teen Club display at Hello Happiness, but not included in each kit.
Your approach to making this kit is very personalizable and entirely up to you! You can use the paints included in your kit to color the stones, or simply use a marker to mark ‘X’s and ‘O’s on them. If you’re feeling artistic, some designs we recommend are:
fruits (strawberries, blueberries, orange slices, kiwi slices, etc), faces/emojis, animals, crowns, flowers, ladybugs/bees/beetles, stars, stripes, swirls, and dots.
Remember that you can use markers and pens to add details after any paint dries! And don’t forget to draw the tic-tac-toe board on the outside of the bag before you put the rocks back in it.
More paint is available to purchase at affordable prices in our store. You can get used acrylic paints for as cheap as 20 cents and new 2oz acrylic paints for 75 cents each. You can also use air-dry clay as a replacement for stones, which you can get at Hello Happiness for 25 cents!
April 2024 - Beaded Lizard Keychains
Hey folks, welcome to April’s Teen Club Kit! This month we’re making beaded lizard keychains out of pony beads and plastic lacing. Each kit comes with pony beads, plastic lacing, and a split ring keychain. These lizard keychains are fun and relatively simple to make, and your friends will surely be asking you to show them how to make one. Once you learn how to make the beaded lizard, there are so many other fun beaded animals you can make!
Here’s a slower, follow-along video of Elena making a beaded lizard keychain:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koAIs8t5vnY&t=138s
And here’s a much quicker overview video that teaches you how to make the keychain:
https://youtu.be/PI5Gxihkyes?si=n2tYw5hcU_BgwAsG
There are tons of other great videos on YouTube that show you how to make different versions of the lizard and other beaded animals. Prepare to have your backpack covered in these beaded keychains because once you make one, you won’t want to stop!
March 2024 - Origami Stars
March’s Teen Club kit is origami stars! This kit is much more simple than last month’s kit, so if you had trouble with the fabric twine, we hope you enjoy making origami stars! This kit provides you with thin strips of paper and a link to an instructional youtube video. The best thing about origami stars is that you can make them with most types of paper and at any time and any place! All you’re really doing is making a knot with a strip of paper, folding the long tail along the edges, tucking the ends in, and then pinching the points to make it star-shaped!
Watch an instructional video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SG6e7blVS8
Wondering what to do with your origami stars? Try stringing them up and hanging them around your room! Make an ornament by filling a clear ornament ball with the paper starts. You could also write a little note on the strip of paper (like an affirmation, titles of books you want to read, movies or shows you want to watch, or anything that makes you happy) make each one into a star, and store them in a jar. Then when you want some happiness or an idea for something, take a star out and unwrap it!
February 2024 - Fabric Twine
We’re so excited to kick off Teen Club this year with a fabric twine kit. Fabric twine is similar to a rope, made from scraps of fabric, and can be used for many different decorative purposes! Wrap it around your bed frame, cut it up and make bracelets for you and your friends, hang it on your wall and clip photos to it, etc!
Making fabric twine requires a bit of finger strength and can be a little challenging at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s not bad at all! Here is a link to a short YouTube video that shows you how to make it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QiBZIcLkNo&t=1s
If you’re having trouble making it the way in the video, there is another version that you might find easier here: https://theseamanmom.com/how-to-make-fabric-twine/