This week, we are appreciating Southwestern art in honor of one of our oldest tents, the Southwest Cotton Canvas Teepee! It’s a tent we’ve had in the Pacific Play Tents catalogue for a long time, and it’s high time we shined the spotlight on it. Nothing like an oldie but a goodie, right?
We are also including a great, time-consuming DIY for you and your kids. The seasons are changing, and so is the weather, which means it’s starting to cool down quite a bit and you might be spending less and less time outside. You are in need of an indoor craft! Luckily, we’ve got you more that covered. If you’re looking for them to get mentally stimulated from something other than a tablet or TV screen, then this blog is definitely for you. Yes, that’s right – that translates into some indoor play that is also much-needed quiet time. Ahhhh.
Southwestern Art
Southwestern art might look familiar to you, as it is the most distinctive and best-known of Native American art. They not only made crafts, but they made just about everything else that can be made with your hands, as well. There are five tribes from the Southwest: Apache, Hopi, Navajo, Pueblo, and Zuni. These tribes date back hundreds of years and are located in Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado (yes – the Southwest!).
This art is what inspired our Southwestern Teepee, so in order to fully appreciate it (and our DIY!), we thought we’d dazzle you with some interesting history on it. Here’s a little more on Southwestern art, according to indians.org:
Southwest Indians create many beautiful pieces of art. They make pottery, clothing and baskets that are still sold in stores and arts and craft shows. Because they are very spiritual tribes, most of their art contains symbols and signs of their beliefs, dreams, and visions. The pottery is for both everyday use and display. The clothing they make can be anything from an outfit, such as a dress with gorgeous flowers on it, to a elaborately decorated headdress, full of feathers. The Zuni and Hopi Southwest Indians carved dolls, called Kachina dolls, out of wood. The dolls were decorated with masks and costumes to represent the Kachina spirits. These dolls help children of the tribe learn tribal ceremonies.
Southwest Cotton Canvas Teepee
Let your little one’s imagination run wild with our Southwest Teepee! Made of durable 100% Cotton Canvas, this easy to set-up teepee can be used indoors as well as outdoors. The bright walls feature exciting Southwestern designs, and there is a mesh window for added air ventilation with a window flap that has radius-cut hook and loops for easy attachment when closing up the teepee (the window is also great for parents to peek in!).
The Southwest Teepee features a cotton canvas floor for extra comfort, and wooden poles for easy assembly and extra durability. Tie-back dual front doors and a mesh window add to the hours of fun. The teepee can also be stored in its very own carry bag for easy transport & storage.
Southwestern DIY Belt
For our DIY this week, we chose a Southwestern-inspired belt that your kids will love! Disclaimer: This belt looks easy, but is a deceiving time-sucker! If you’re looking to keep your child busy for a good chunk of time then you will both love this DIY, as it takes about an hour to complete.
Kids might have a tough time with the wrapping, so make sure to be nearby to help. Our models were quiet and full of concentration while making their belts during this shoot, so this DIY will keep their mind plenty stimulated. After all the hard work, the end result was an adorable belt that they loved and your kids are sure to love them, too! Plus, they will appreciate it more after all the time they spent on it.
What you need
- Different colored yarn
- NOTE: We used Southwestern colored yarn that matches the theme of our tent, but you can get as creative as you’d like here! Make sure to get many colors so they have lots to choose from, and that there will be variety and individuality between all their belts.
- Kid/youth sized belt
- NOTE: You can use one you already have at home, or you can order a relatively inexpensive one from Amazon right here for the sake of this DIY.
- Scissors
- Glue Gun
- Glue Sticks
How you make it
- Start near the belt buckle and put a strip of some hot glue down
- Put the end piece of one of the colors of yarn on top of the glue to secure the yarn to the belt
- Continue to wrap, slow and steady, around and around until you have a good chunk of color that you’re happy with.
- Secure the end of the first color with a strip of hot glue.
- Repeat steps 1-4 with another color
- Repeated the process as many times as you’d like so you can get a good array of different colors!
Make it fun!
This DIY can be a bit tedious and requires some meditative patience. Trust us, we understand it is children who are doing this work so we know that they might get distracted or get off track a little easy. That’s why we thought it might be fun to add in something a little fun to keep them interested in the job in case they’re having a little trouble. We’ve come up with a couple ideas to add in some friendly competition during craft time:
- Whenever you wrap a color 10 times, you get to pick a piece of candy!
- Who can make their belt the fastest? Don’t compromise on quality here!
- Divide the colors into different “teams” such as hues of blue, pink or yellow and go for some team games after they’re all done! Click here or here for previous blog posts we wrote all about team games!
Let us know!
Did you make these Southwestern DIY Belts, or do you have a canvas teepee at home? Let us know about all the fun you have with them in the comments below!