Kids Crafts – What We Made For National Recycling Week

With it being national recycling week we were set a challenge, to make something for this little cutie…

… Using recycled materials.

The Canimals (currently showing on CiTV) are all about turning something ordinary into something extra-ordinary and we (meaning myself and the toddler) took this into account while doing a little brainstorming. Well, eventually the toddler decided on making a play zone for his canimal with an empty cardboard box.

Harley loves playing with his car mat and this is where the idea came from. The only materials required were that of the cardboard box that we opened out and some child friendly poster paints… Oh and our canimal of course!

Having painted on a bendy white road under the instructions of my three year old, he then got to work turning our canimal play zone into a brightly coloured adventure zone.

Given it was a warm evening the activity was done in the garden where Harley had loads of room to express his creative flair.

He had great fun painting on a river, grass bank and loads of pretty colourful flowers.

The whether was nice so his masterpiece took little time to dry. This was great news as it meant his cute little canimal could enjoy their purpose built play zone in no time at all.

Kids Crafts – A Crown To Get You Noticed

Ok, so Alice’s school will be awarded a very large check of money today! Why? Because her school have taken first place in this years spelling bee table… In our language, it simply means that her school boasts some of the best spellers in the country.

To help to share the schools success the local paper will run a piece accompanied by some images of some of the pupils. In order to get selected as one of the chosen pupils to be photographed, children including my daughter, were asked to make a crown, the type that would get them noticed. Well, my daughter being the girl who never shies away from a camera, got on the job right away.

Armed with a box of bits and bobs, she got to work. Given we had to be somewhere yesterday evening meant she didn’t actually have all that long to design and create her “large” noticeable hat! But in all fairness this little lady is pretty capable of doing some fantastically creative projects in a tiny space of time.

So… Here it is! Her flower, butterfly, and of course… Bumble bee crown.

She used all sorts of materials to create her crown, from tissue paper to sequins, glitter to foam, card and decorative tape. A mountain of flowers that were so delicately sprinkled with glitter, then laid lightly around the crown. She even made a bumble bee eye mask to match her large hat! Alice may now have walked the walk to school with a head full of bumble bees but she did so in style.

She is a real inspiration my amazing Alice-Sara! Even if her oversized bumble bee crown doesn’t get her in the local rag, it gets her in my top spot list, as she always does, time and time again!

Well, thanks for checking out the crown of bumble bees! We hope Alice-Sara has inspired your little ones to get creative with buzzing bumble bees.

Great Kids Crafts For Fathers Day

Homemade cards are more personal than that of the shop brought kind! That’s why my little ones have been busy making Father’s Day cards ready for daddy’s special day.

For the younger ones a template is a great idea and Baker Ross have provided us with these fantastic template cards that just require kids to draw in the missing parts and then fill them with colour.

Kids love drawing faces (well my toddler does) its one of the first things most learn to draw. On these cards your child can draw in any type of facial expression they desire! They can even match the features (hair, eye colour etc) to that of their own daddy. Whether it be grumpy or smiley, the end results are just brilliant. You can even turn the card over to design the back of dads head… How cool is that!

Harley age 3 had so much fun working on these that we went through the entire pack in just one day. Ok, Alice also had a go and if truth be told… So did I!

Here’s the results….

Whats more you can even add other art materials to give your cards a certain edge. Kids can use goggly eyes or how about adding glitter to dads tie, or string for his hair? The possibilities are endless!

Card templates are available from Baker Ross Ltd (8 pack £1.99)

#silentsunday

Kids Crafts – Painting A BirdHouse

We love a delivery from Baker Ross! Our last delivery was one packed with fantastic products all of which the children really enjoyed getting creative with.

Crafting, is a great way to amuse the kids during the school half term. We have so far had no boredom set in, despite the rainy weather we have experienced here in london these past few days! Why? Because the children have been busy painting and decorating their very own birdhouse.

The suppliers (all provided from Baker Ross Ltd) were as follows…
Box of cardboard readymade Bird Houses, selection of 8 Grotto acrylic paints (designed specifically for children), PVA glue and some fantastic and EZ Stones (that I’ll explain a little more about later within this post).

The toddler age 3 and my daughter Alice Sara 10, Had a fabulous time painting their birdhouses.These cute little houses come ready-made and all that is required is your child’s colourful imagination and some child friendly grotto paint. Grotto acrylic paints are specifically designed to be used by children, they come in 8 colour shades, are supplied in their own carry case, and are all water based and 100% safe to use.

Alice Sara used the paints to decorate her birdhouse in a Multi coloured stripy fashion. She then used sponge stamps to decorate various areas of her birdhouse. Harley also went for a Multi coloured design and enjoyed mixing and swirling his paints all over his house… And mine!

The children gave their birdhouses an hours drying time before applying PVA glue to the roof and then covering the glue in crystal EZ stones. These colourful vibrant crushed natural stones add a Three-dimensional effect, giving it that something. a great alternative to glitter. textured, sparkling effects. 6 assorted colours, 150g per colour.

This is the very first time myself and the children have come across EZ stones but already we love them! They really help to make a craft project that little bit different. The natural stones have been finely crushed making them easy to work with. They are available in an array of fantastic colours and can be added to almost any surface whether its a painting on standard paper or a huge playhouse made of cardboard boxes and toilet roll tubes. I’ll be honest! These stones can leave a little mess around the table/floor but that’s easily sorted with a clean dust pan and brush (you can then sweep them back into their original containers and seal).

Now, back to the project at hand! Once the glue was completely dried and the stones firmly stuck in place, the kids painted a few layers of Mod Podge as to give it a seal and protect the kids lovely art work.

So… Here are the finished birdhouses!

I love these cute colourful birdhouses and think the kids did a fantastic job. I know that if I were a bird I’d definitely fancy popping in for a quick bite to eat! Wouldn’t you?

If you think your little ones would love to get creative in this way, then just pop over to the Baker Ross ltd online store where all of the listed materials can be easily found. The great news is that Baker Ross Ltd don’t charge the earth for these materials and whats more they can even be brought in bulk which saves you even more money (fantastic for schools and community groups ect).

Well, thanks for reading! We (myself and the children) hope this project has inspired you to get crafty.

Tutorial – Decopatch Friendship Heart Pendants

Over Easter I shared with you all some crafts inspired by Polystyrene eggs. While shopping in the town centre when enjoying a recent holiday to Butlins in Bognor Regis, I popped into the ‘Works’ Where I uncovered these cute little polystyrene hearts.

Having recently used polystyrene miniature eggs to create Egg pendants with the children, it gave me an idea for a crafty project for these hearts.

The idea… Heart Friendship Pendants!

If you fancy a go at these yourself, they are relatively easy to make just a little fiddly if anything. Its the perfect craft to do with bigger kids. Alice who is 10 had lots of fun making hers.

Here’s what you’ll need to make two pendants like ours…

2 designs of decopatch paper (your choice of design and colours)

Decopatch Glue

Mod Podge Shimmer (gold)

Glue/Decopatch Brush

Tiger Wire/Craft Wire

fishing Wire

Tiny Gold Beads

Glass beads

Glass crystals (colours to complement Decopatch paper)

5 x 4mm flat backed crystals (colours to complement decopatch paper) I used white and blue.

Jewellery Findings (couple of crimping beads and crimp covers, 2x pendent attachment, jump hoops, 2x clasps & catches)

Tools…

Crimping tool
Brushes
Scissors
Nail (to pierce a hole through hearts)

Here’s how to put it all together to make your heart pendents

1) Use a sharp nail to pierce 2 small holes opposite one another, right at the top of your hearts in the centre, like so…

2) Cut papers into small manageable pieces. Decopatch your hearts using your paper pieces and decopatch glue. This is done by simply adding glue directly to the heart and over the top of the paper. Cover one side of pendants, allow to dry for 30-40 minutes before doing the other sides.

When it comes to covering the sections of the hearts where the two holes are located, do this using the nail to locate the holes and piercing the paper.

3) Once these are dry use a clean brush to apply a thin layer of Mod Podge gold shimmer. Apply to one side of the hearts, leave it to dry for 30 minutes before adding the shimmer to the opposite sides and again leaving to dry.

4) while the pendants are still wet, secure your 3 4mm flat back crystals in a row down the centre of one side of one of your pendants and the remaining crystals onto your remaining heart pendant in the same way. Now leave to dry.

5) Now take your two tiny gold beads and insert into the two holes with the holes facing up.

6) next take your pendant attachments and fit them to the hearts via the holes on the gold beads.

7) Next, take some fishing wire (enough to make desired necklace length) and thread it through each of your pendants hoops

8) Now thread on your glass beads and crystals like so. Five on each side looks nice. Do the same for your second necklace in a different style.

9) Make a knot on both ends of the wire while you prepare your findings.

10) Finally connect your crimps and covers, jump loops and catches. Sit back and admire your work.

We made 2 heart necklaces as Alice-Sara wanted to make these for herself and best friend as friendship necklaces.

The thing I love most about this project is the endless possibilities it brings. You can make a different heart for each day of the week just by changing the paper style or beads and crystals on your necklace.

What’s more, with the magic of Decopatch glue and Mod Podge your polystyrene heart is now stronger and much more solid, but still super light to wear.

Why not try it yourself, experimenting with different papers and beads as you go.

Hope I’ve inspired you to get creative with Decopatch papers… Enjoy.

Kids Crafts – Painting Pebbles

We, meaning myself and the kids, collected lots of pebbles while on our recent trip to the seaside. Once we got them home we decided we would paint them for the garden.

Our pebbles would be used to brighten up flowerpots and flower beds. Here’s what we used…

Various Pebbles (collected from the beach)
Acrylic paints (various colours)
Mod Podge
Googly Eyes
Glitter glue

You can paint your pebbles anyhow you like the possibilities are endless. This is a great little craft project that you can do with the kids. My very own toddler loved it.

The activity held my creative little three year olds attention for over an hour. He painted in various colours before adding different coloured googly eyes and painting on red smiles.

His little stones were painted and glittered… Messy but fun.

Once the toddlers pebbles were dry I added a layer of Mod Podge to give them a shine as well as a protective layer.

Yourself, along with the kids, can let the imagination run wild painting & creating allsorts of designs and patterns from funny faces to dinosaurs, dots to hearts.

We also made some pebble bugs using paint and googly eyes. For our bees and lady birds we used some foam pieces to form the wings. For our spider we used some garden wire for the legs. These are currently busy drying on the window pane, but I’ll be sure to post another little update once they are dry and ready to display.

As for Harley’s wacky face pebbles, we plan to place them around the flower beds in our garden today (given it remains bright and sunny that is).

Hope we have inspired you to have fun with paints.

Remember… Painting on paper is fun but painting on pebbles is awesome!

Kids Spring Crafts – Tissue Paper Flower Bouquets

Here’s a very easy craft project to do with the kids this weekend.

Given its been kinda wet outside these past few days spring doesn’t really feel like its in the air. So, why not bring spring indoors with this cute spring bouquet made with tissue paper flowers.

These are easy to do yet an enjoyable activity for children both big and small.

Bouquets can be decorated anyway your child desires whether it be simply dotty flower wrapping or crystals and bows.

To make these with your children, here’s what you are going to need to make it happen.

3x Sheets Of Tissue Paper (3 different colours)
Mod Podge (or PVA/water mix)
Ribbon
3x Strong Glue Dots
3x Tiny Faux Pearls (for smaller flowers)
3x Big Faux Pearls (for larger flowers)
Decorations (examples… Embellishments, beads, glitter..)
1x Elastic Band
1x Sheet Of Green Tissue Paper (optional – if leaf shoots are desired)

Here’s what to do…

First take two sheets of tissue paper in 2 of your 3 colours and rip them into strips (you want around 6 strips, 3 in each of the 2 colours).

Now one at a time roll your paper strips ( ensure that 3 of the strips are rolled more tightly than the other 3). Now pinch 1/4 of the way down and twist to form a bud and stem.

Fiddle with the paper buds to form the flowers shape. At this point you can slightly open the buds and fluff them out a little on the not so tightly rolled flowers. For the 3 tighter flowers be sure to twist and pinch a little firmer to keep them closed like rose buds. Remember, for this tutorial we are making 3 rose buds and 3 open roses.

Now, cut of some of the stems away to make the flower smaller. At this point no glue is required as the twisted paper will hold itself.

Once you have done this step for all your tissue paper strips bunch them together and secure with an elastic band.

Now bring forward your remaining sheet of tissue paper, fold in half and half again and lay down at an angle like that of the image below.

Place the bunched flowers at a tilted angle so that the buds are directly beneath the top right corner like so.

Wrap your flowers in the paper forming a cone like shape, squeezing the bottom tightly and securing around the middle with pretty ribbon.

Push the 3 small faux pearls into the 3 rose buds.

For the larger open roses, add an extra strong glue dot to the bottoms of the 3 large pearls and again push into the centre of the flower.

Now add a very thin layer of Mod Podge or PVA/Water mix (though this will require many more hours to dry).

If using mod podge leave to dry for around 40 minutes (more or less dependent on the conditions your working in.) If using PVA/Water mix this could take anything from 6-24 hours to dry.

Use your decorations to glam up your bouquet. We just added a sequinned pink heart to our flowers wrapping for a pretty finishing touch. If using gems and glitter apply another coat of glue mix or mod podge to ensure all decorations are set. We just added our heart so nothing more was required.

You can let the kids go crazy making these. They could really mix up the colour combinations or even roll one colour tissue paper inside of another to give that pretty two tone effect.

Experiment with the wrapping of your flowers, maybe wrapping them in pretty cellophane or felt. Another pretty idea which can be done for winter as opposed to spring, is to add white ultra fine glitter dust around the edging of each flower for an iced, snow effect.

If like us you want some green in with your roses, then why not add some shoots of grass to your bouquet which are easy enough to achieve and requires nothing more than a sheet of green tissue paper.

Here’s how its done.

1… Simply roll the green tissue paper tightly
2… Pinch and twist a 1/4 of the way down
3… Twist tightly the remaining paper making a stem and cut in half (discard of bottom half)
4… Tie off at the end and then snip the flat end (top) to resemble grass.
5… Fit into your bouquet where desired.

Don’t they look lovely?

Hope you’re now feeling inspired and the kids are too.

Kids Easter Crafts – Pom-Pom Eggs

Just a quick one to share a cute little Easter craft the children have been engaging in.

What you’ll need..

Various Size Pom-Poms
Egg Template (or make your own from card)
Card
Tacky Glue
Hole Punch
Thick & Thin Ribbon
Scissors
Pencil
Eraser/Rubber

The children loved this activity. Both Alice who is 10 and the toddler of 3 enjoyed the craft equally. Yes, it can get a little messy, especially when your a toddler, but nothing a little soapy water cannot fix.

Its simple, take a pencil and some card and draw around your egg template. Do this for how ever many egg decorations you want to make. Now cut this out and then rub away any visible pencil marks with an eraser (you may have to create the egg shapes for smaller children as I did for the toddler).

Next step is to use a hole punch to make a hole at the top of each egg.

Now take some really sloppy tacky white glue and begin to work section by section. Spread glue and then layer Pom-Poms on top side by side.

Push the Pom-Poms as close together as you can, filling any gaps with smaller Pom-Poms. Once completely covered, leave to dry.

Once the egg has dried, tread through your thick ribbon and tie into a knot ready for hanging.

You can turn the egg over on the reverse side and decorate in the same way so both sides are completely covered. Completely optional, it may depend on how patient the children are being and their overall level of engagement by this stage.

If your not doing both sides then now is the time to place your thin ribbon around the centre of your egg, finishing off with a pretty bow.

These can also be decorated with other materials such as sequins and gems, felt or paint… Let their imaginations run wild.

All thats left to do is to hang and proudly display… These look great hung from natural tree brunches that have been placed in a soiled pot. They even look great hanging at the window so passers by can admire. I have a bus stop outside my window so the children’s decorations have been admired by many (even the bus drivers lol).

Kids crafts – Easy Easter Felt Art

This is really easy and great fun for pre-schoolers.

The idea is for you to create the felt shapes and then for your toddler to use them to create and decorate an Easter egg.

What’s great about this craft idea is that your child will require nothing other than that of the felt to create his egg. There is no sticking, cutting or mess to be made by your child! Once they have designed their egg, they can simply remove the felt pieces and do it all again! The kit can then be stored away and played with again at a later date.

All you will need to create this kit for your pre-schooler is that of the following….

An egg template (or make one with card)
A pencil
Various coloured felt
Scissors and craft knife
A3 coloured card
A4 card any colour
A4 foam sheet
A5 self Adhesive foam sheet
Glue dots
Mounting tape

Here’s what to do (Note – This is so easy you could do it in as little as ten minutes.)

Firstly use an egg template like mine below and with a pencil transfer the shape onto some felt. Do this by drawing around the shape. Once you have finished, cut out the felt egg shape with a craft knife and leave to one side for later.

Next use different pieces of contrasting coloured felt to cut out various shapes in various sizes. You could cut out felt strips, hearts, triangles, squares, circles, zig zags and much more besides.

Once you have cut out all your shapes your felt art is almost ready to play with.

First though, take the A4 card line it with glue dots making sure all the corners are also covered and lay your foam of the same size on top.

Now your card and foam are attached, again with glue dots attach the green felt sandwiching the foam in the middle.

Now cut the sandwiched piece of board in half and trim down excess if needed (my felt slightly overlapped the card base).

Once you have two halves , put one half to one side and cut the other in half again. Place the two halves to one side.

Now Bring back your bigger halve and stick it to your thick self adhesive foam making sure you stick it down on the card side (not felt).

Trim down any excess if needed. By placing my egg in the centre of the felt, it allowed me to see how much I wanted to cut off. My felt base finally resembled the base of a standard birthday card.

I then brought forward my large coloured card, folded it in half like a birthday card and stuck my felt board onto one side of the centres fold with double sided mounting tape .

I now had the two smaller halves I cut earlier on left. I got rid of one ( this isn’t needed) and stuck the other halve long ways up on the opposite side of my cards centre fold with mounting tape.

Lastly, bring forward your felt egg that you prepared as one of your first steps and use mounting tape to stick it to the centre of the large green felt board.

The card should now be able to close like a book with the felt being on the inner side.

How to use…

The felt board on one half of the card would be the place for your toddler to get creative and decorate his/her egg. The felt stripe alongside it (opposite halve) would line the pieces of felt that are not currently in use.

Now that you’ve completed the felt kit, simply give it to your child and watch as they get creative, letting their imaginations run wild.

The best bit for me is the lack of mess involved! Felt sticks to felt really well without being hard for little ones to remove it! Its heaven not having to mop up after him, he can easily pack this away himself once his finished playing with it. Harley honestly thinks that felt is magical, especially considering his so used to using gloppy glue.

When your felt game isn’t in use, close it like a book, keeping the felt and all its pieces inside and store in a plastic zip bag, tin or ice cream container ready to play with again on another day.

Here’s some ideas for your kits…

Make additional cards for different occasions like Christmas and Chinese New Year.

Use the cards to help your child’s recognition of the various seasons, events and celebrations.

Use the felt game to help your child grasp the various different shapes and colours contained within the kit.

Create new cards together as your child grows and develops new interests.

Add new shapes when existing shapes begin to age, or just add new shapes every now and then to keep the game fun and exciting.

This is a lovely craft idea that is in a sense very educational too. Felt play will benefit your child’s development both physically (fine motor skills) and academically (shape, colour recognition, creative art).

So why not have a go? I’m sure your little ones will be mighty impressed!