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 – 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.

My Latest Art – Stood In Heels

Upcycle – Vintage Inspired Crackle Butterfly Box

I’ve had this plain wooden Ivory box with drawer fitment for a while now and wasn’t to sure what to do with it. I brought it at a rummage sale for pennies and at the time thought it was fine left the way it was.

However, as the weeks have turned to months, this box has done nothing useful. Its sadly just been moved around my bedroom, longing to fit in. With this I decided that in order to make real use of the box i’ll have to put my own personal stamp on it!

Being a girl who just loves jewellery and consequently owns a lot of it, I decided to upcycle my wooden box into a vintage style jewellery box.

Here’s what I used to transform the ivory wooden box..

FolkArt Acrylic Paint (940 Coffee Bean)
Mod Podge Shimmer- Gold
Wooden Cut Out Butterfly
4mm White Crystals (flat backed)
Crackle Paint White
Square Piece Of Mirror
PVA Glue (mixed with water)

Tools
Paint brushes
Glue Brushes
Sponge Paint Applicator
Hairdryer (or heat tool)

Firstly I had to give my box a wipe to remove any dust or dirt.

Next I removed the drawer and with a sponge applicator I applied my coffee bean paint to the entire box (drawer included). I allowed them both to dry before adding a second coat.

Once the box and its drawer had dried I added a thin layer of mod podge gold shimmer adding a thicker application to the edges of my box.

I allowed a 30 minute drying time before starting on my next step…

Now… I mixed 2 parts PVA glue to 1 part water (the idea is to create a runny but tacky glue mixture).

I then applied a thin amount to the lid of my box and applied direct heat with my hairdryer. I made sure not to completely dry the mixture as I needed it to remain slightly tacky to the touch.

I then took my crackle paint in white and scooped out some mixture onto a plate. With a sponge I applied the paint over the entire lid (directly over the tacky glue mixture) making sure not to go over the same area more than once as this will ease the crackling effect.

I then did the same with both the glue mixture and the crackle paint on all other areas of my box excluding the front section that surrounds my drawer. The drawer itself also received the same treatment.

Once all areas of crackle were applied and fully dry I again applied my gold mod podge shimmer to the entire box, including the section that remained brown and not crackled.

As I allowed the box to air dry for a further 30 minutes or so, I started work on my butterfly.

To decorate my wooden butterfly for the lid of my box I used a sponge applicator to cover it in coffee bean paint on both sides. This received two coats of paint in total.

Once dry I applied mod podge gold shimmer to the entire butterfly again on both sides.

Once the butterfly was dried I applied another coat of gold shimmer to just one side of the butterfly. It was during this application that I also applied the 4mm white crystals and then placed to one-side till later.

Next I took a piece of square mirror big enough to fit neatly in the centre of the inner section of my lid, and stuck it down with super glue.

The last step was to take my crystal butterfly and again using superglue apply it to the lid of my box at a slight angle like so…

Done!

I love the crackle effect on the box. By adding the gold mod podge shimmer the box has both subtle and vibrant gold tones. However, my favourite part has to be the crystal butterfly. Its hard to capture both the sparkle from the crystals and the shimmer from the gold on a photo! The effect looks much more spectacular in life.

I’ve really enjoyed turning my plain old ivory box into my own little vintage masterpiece. Why not upcycle things around your home? I’d love some inspirational ideas for the future, so feel free to share any in the comment section of this post.

Kids Easter Crafts – Egg Puppets

Me and the children have had a great deal of fun making fab little egg puppets.

You may be thinking ‘What is this crazy lady talking about, who makes puppets out of eggs?’

These are actually made from Polystyrene eggs so there won’t be any messy accidents involved (well, if you don’t include the gloppy mod podge and paint mixture, that is)!

The puppets are great to make with kids. There are endless possibilities when creating these. With the magic of their imagination these puppets can be created in a variety of designs! This is a real great alternative to traditional Easter crafts and one we’ve enjoyed immensely.

To make these you will need…

Polystyrene eggs, 1 per puppet Make as many as you desire. (PoundLand 12pk)
Pink acrylic paint
White acrylic paint
Black paint
Deco Art pens or markers (black & red)
Glitter
Mod podge
Sticky eyes (Baker Ross ltd)
White bow embellishment
Glue dot
Sticks (i’ve used some long white lolly sticks, which are ideal as they don’t have sharp points)

Any other items you want to jazz up your puppets (beads for earrings, bows as hair accessories etc)

I’m going to simply demonstrate how to create a rather basic egg puppet. You can jazz these up how you wish, change the colour of the hair and skin with different paints etc.

First I took one of my sticks and pieced the centre bottom of the egg (the flattest end).

Then I painted the egg in pink paint. I mixed around 4 parts white to 2 parts pink to create the desired shade for my puppets skin tone. The stick also makes the process much easier and less messy which is why I’d advise inserting your sticks into your eggs as a first step. Give egg two thin coats being careful to avoid drips.

Once dry (within 20 minutes) I was then ready to apply my puppets hair. For this I mixed some mod podge gloss, some dark blue course glitter and black paint. (I roughly used 3 parts glue to 6 parts paint) this is to ensure the mixture remained black and didn’t turn grey.

I them painted the mixture onto my egg to create the hair of my puppet. The added glue makes the mixture dry really glossy and the glitter not only gives it subtle hints of sparkle but a good course texture too.

I left to dry for a least an hour before using a red deco art paint pen to add my puppets mouth.

The nose was added with a black deco pen which I also used to outline the lips.

One of the final details was the eyes in which I used sticky eyes that I got from baker Ross (excellent as they have so many designs to add character to your puppets).

I left it for a while to ensure the paint was properly set before giving my entire egg puppet a coat of mod podge. Sometimes traces of paint end up on your brush once mod podge is applied, however this isn’t a problem so don’t worry about it.

Lastly, add a glue dot to the head where the hair parts and securing a white bow embellishment in place.

And that’s it! You can make allsorts of great egg puppets. These include people, animals, princesses and kings… Make plain old simple ones like that above or fancy ones like some of these below…

MR Duck:

Made with yellow paint, sponge, sticky eyes and feathers

MR Alien (Glow in the dark egg puppet)

Made simply using Green & black paint, glow in the dark paint, Yellow Deco pen, sticky eyes and a piece of fur.

Then all that’s left to do is have fun playing with your egg puppets. We have a great little puppet studio, the perfect place to put on a show.

Harley gets Mickey in on the action

And finally here’s a super quick round up off some other great Easter Crafts for kids I’ve found online…

Right at the top we have the ever fabulous Naturestore with her fab Easter Potato Printing

One of my all time favourite blogs for fun kids activity and crafts, ‘Mummy Mummy Mum‘ shows us how to make funky, dingy little hats for our eggs.

Over on the Blog ‘Me and My Shadow‘ you can find out how to create the most simplistic, yet super cute bunny cards.

Domestic Goddess demonstrates how to put together a cute fluffy bunny wreath…

While Mama Owl shares some great ideas from tissue paper eggs to the most delicious looking Easter cake.

Cute Easter Egg Magnets

These are super cute and easy to make. We made our egg shapes out of plaster and then stuck a magnet on the back of each. Its the perfect activity to do with kids both big and small.

To make these you will need some moulds, plaster, magnets, mod podge, paint and decorations.

To decorate our eggs we painted them and then used some pretty flat gems that are actually meant as nail decorations. These were actually perfect for the task at hand. Oh and let’s not forget the mod podge! All our magnets received a generous coating of mod podge gloss.

So, Let your kids creative juices flow and get creative. Its a great fun activity for easter that produces sweet little keepsakes for your fridge.

These also make great gift ideas for granny or the cute alternative to chocolate making your dentist a happy bunny this Easter.

A Postcard From Santa

My Daughter Alice-Sara Is one creative little lady. At age 9 she loves to engage herself in arts and crafts, So, is always on the lookout for any creative competitions.

When we discovered the latest competition from TravelSupermarket.com Alice just couldn’t contain her excitement as she sat down to jog down a couple of ideas for her creation.

Once she had decided what she wanted to do she raided the craft cupboard for her desired materials and got to work.

However, This was no easy task! Her masterpiece needed to be created over the space of a couple of days due to all the different materials she chose to use. These both requiring a mixture of acrylic paints and gloopy glue as well as added addition of Decopatch meant there was many drying periods to the timetable.

This was a collage of various materials that together formed a great picture of Santa enjoying his well earned Holidays in sunny Hawaii.

When asked about her design she gave some unsuspecting information such as Santas enjoying his holiday with his new girlfriend who just happens to be a mermaid lol.

I’m really proud of her creation as I always am. My creative daughter never fails to make a statement, has a wonderful imagination and is a dab hand with a paint brush.

I’ve uploaded a video of Alice working on her creation. The video explains her idea and she talks us through some of the stages of her creation.

She used many different materials to create a 3D effect made up of numerous textures. some being tissue paper, Self adhesive foam, embellishments, cotton pads, card and glitter. She also layered tissue paper with both Decopatch glossy glue and Metallic Turquoise acrylic paint that she mixed with ultra fine blue glitter.This was appiled using a sponging technique to give added texture to her dark blue tissue paper sea.

I love how she made Santa almost completely from Self adhesive foam. She very cleverly created his famous white beard with a cotton pad, gave him wiggly eyes and added flower embellishments to create a traditional Hawaiian necklace.

Her imagination was on top form as she also created a funky surf board with glittered patterned card to replace his traditional sleigh. Hand drawn Dolphins were cut from foam to create his Reindeer replacements. She then added some brightly coloured string to help the dolphins pull santa along the coastline.

Other great ideas included the addition of real yellow sand to great her Hawaiian Beachfront and cotton pad clouds that she slightly pulled apart and glued upon her Metallic blue painted sky that again she added a few dashes of glitter too.

Her Mermaid who is Santa’s special friend (seriously the video explains) was again hand drew onto card, cut out and stuck to some Self adhesive foam rocks… Of course she glittered her tale to give it that girly touch.

So there you have it… Our entry into the Postcard from Santa competition hosted by TravelSupermarket.com

As the rules state I must nominate 5 others to take part even though they only have a day to create… Sorry (busy week)

I nominate Mummybird
Tiredmummyoftwo
Mummyvswork
This mummy loves
Kneesupmotherbrown

Check out TravelSupermarket for some fabulous holiday days if you fancy a break like Santas.

How Too Make Spooky Tableware Window Display

Today is Halloween and I’m in a hurry to post some awesome last minute crafts, myself and the kids have been creating early this morning.

This spooky tableware (Champagne style glasses) are great for this project. I saw these plain yellow plastic glasses being sold in a charity shop yesterday. I brought all 3 for £1.

I wanted to make a window display but you can use these spooky glasses at your Halloween party and you still have time as they only take minutes to make.

You will need…

Any plastic glasses (Champagne style look fantastic)
Super sticky gem stones
Porcelain pens (black & red) or any waterproof paint.

That’s it all done… Display on a glass plate with some spooky sequins for added effect.