Shame on me....

I'm the worst poster ever. I've totally forgot about this in the past 5 weeks or so but I promise from tomorrow on I shall blog on a weekly time-scale. I have loads I want to be doing like wooden letters covered in wool (made some for my girls but thought I'd make them for James's niece and nephews too)

I ordered some buttons off the internet, they are due on Thursday and I have no plans as of yet for them but I'm sure Emma will have some.

I'm on the look out for a sewing machine as I want to start sewing stuff (obviously) like a quilt or something i can give the girls when they are older and if they liked they could continue it.

I think, however, I have kept the best make and do news until last. Emma will be 3 in June and she asked for a party, a FANCY DRESS party. I am so excited about this. I bought a load of monster themed plates and cups and that sort of paraphernalia for half price on-line but I'm gonna make it a general fancy dress theme.  I'm excited about the decorations and invitations which are all being hand made by Emma and I. The greatest part of this party, I think will be her PINATA. I looked up on-line how to make it. 10 steps.easy peasy!!!  fingers crossed anyway.

Since I've just promised, I will post my progress as I go along.

Rach x

Spring into Easter

I wanted to do Easter Craft with Emma but couldn't decide what to do. We already made cookies and chocolate eggs but I wanted her to get messy and creative. I decided we'd make a decoration for her Granny. She got so excited when I told her what we would be doing. This is what we made:

It's a paper plate (I need help for my addiction I think) wreath. Glue sticks are now Emma's favourite thing so instead of painting we did collage. I did all the tearing and she did the sticking. 

I cut out the middle of the plate for her and used a rabbit cookie cutter to trace the rabbit shapes and also cut them out for her. She stuck two white pom poms onto the rabbits to make tails. I found some foam Easter lettering in the local Tesco so we stuck them onto the top. Here are some of the finished pictures.

We also made a paper bag to put it in. 4 A4 sheets taped and stapled together with another sheet to make the handles.

Here's Emma showing off her work, happy out!!

Happy Easter Everyone

Ladybugs

I have recovered from my peg drama but have decided to play it safe and return to my beloved paper plates. I love ALL things ladybugs and Emma thinks they are "cute crawlies" so I decided we'd make some. Emma doesn't believe in things being painted traditionally i.e. ladybugs are red with black spots, no no Emma's one has purple spots.

I have to say, Emma is getting much better at her painting skills, I only have to do a touch up for her these days. We have yet to master cutting. Even with child friendly scissors she just doesn't get it. Telpis!!

So onto the ladybug. You will need:

• 2 large paper plates
• Paint
• Black foam
• Googly eyes 
• Coloured paper
• Glue stick
• Stapler

Paint your plates, one black the other red. Allow to dry. Cut our 8 or 10 spots from the coloured paper and glue onto the red plate. Cut the plate in half. arrange on the black plate, over lapping at one end to form a "V" shape from the black plate. Secure with a staple. Cut a semi-circle out of the foam and stick on the googly eyes. Staple onto the overlapping plates. End product. Ladybugs.

Here is the finished product:

Crafting Block with a happy ending.

I know we have been a bit quite lately. This is due to my mental block. I couldn't think of ANYTHING to make. I goggle imaged, I went to a local play-school, I even went in search of crafting books in the local library. End result = NOTHING. Major sad face. So as I hummed and hawed everyday about what to make, Emma developed an interest in dinosaurs." DING" Light bulb moment.  I remembered seeing a craft on-line using wooden pegs and a dinosaur template. Out came the laptop and the search began. It took me a while but I eventually found it (on page 34 of god knows how many ) on Google Images.

Emma got so excited when I told her what we would be making, so much so that when we went to buy the pegs (a drama in its self) she told the shop keeper all about our crafting project. Bless the innocent of a 2 year old!!

So my peg drama. Deep Breath-here it goes:

I live in a small town. In the country side of Somerset. It's 40 minutes to the "city" so finding arts and crafts supplies is tough. In the town  I live in we have a massive Tesco, they sell everything....everything that is except wooden frickin' pegs. They sell gammy plastic ones in gammy colours though. Grr! Came home defeated and a little p'd off that I'd have to tell Emma we weren't making pegasaurus's until I discovered that 20 minute drive from us was an Asda, surely Asda wouldn't fail me like Tesco had. WRONG!! Asda sell pegs, white plastic ones that could be painted I guess but they came in a frickin' peg basket. I was not paying £3.80 for a peg basket when I already have one. So yet again. I left the stupid store defeated. I gave up for the day. Roll on the next day and I was walking to the Post Office when I noticed a little hardware store right on the High Street. HELLO, where were you yesterday, you cheeky little blink and you miss it store. Anyway in I went and low and behold, WOODEN PEGS!!! Hallelujah. 48 wooden pegs for £1.25. Whoo. Score!!

Peg rant over.

Back to Dinosaurs. I decided to attempt to draw my own template. Now I'm not the best drawer so, after many failed attempts I took one of the internet. Cheating but meh!! This is how we made them.

• Take one dinosaur template and put it on card (we used cereal box card)
• Cut out the template and glue onto card.
• Paint the dino any colour you like (Emma chose red, I opted for purple)
• Take 6 wooden pegs and paint in same colour.
• Allow to dry. 
• Place pegs evenly apart once dry.
• Add googly eye.

• Enjoy your pegasaurus's.  

Toilet Roll Bunny

Toilet Roll Bunny

Jelly Fish

Paper Plate Fish

Froggy

Chickens

. Here are some of the things we've made so far

Valentines Day

I told my husband that we would not be the type of parents who send our girls Valentines Cards (nothing against those who do but it's not my thing). Since Valentines Day is fast approaching, it is the perfect time to get crafty. I asked Emma if she wanted to make her daddy a card and was quickly told NO but she would paint a red heart for him. Then the idea came to me- a Love Heart Garland made with Salt Dough Hearts

I had never made salt dough anything before Christmas and I searched for the easiest, child friendly recipe. I found one, thanks to the ever so crafty Kirstie Allsopp. This is how I made it :

How To Make Salt Dough Decorations 

By Kirstie Allsopp

• Salt
• Water
• Flour
• Olive oil
• A rolling pin
• Pastry cutters in various shapes
• Some paint - you can use anything from acrylics to metallic sprays and glitter glue
• A pinny - it's a messy business, especially when the kids get involved

Skill: Easy

Budget: Minimal; hardly anything for the salt dough itself. Pastry cutters cost under a pound each and you can use pretty much any type of paint you like.

Time: A couple of hours.

Step One: Make the Dough
The recipe for salt dough is half, half, whole. Half a cup of salt and half a cup of water to a whole cup of flour. Put the salt and flour into a bowl, then add the water slowly to the dry mix. After about ten minutes of kneading, it should form a soft, pliant ball.
If it's slightly too sticky, add more flour and if it's slightly too dry, add more water. If the dough still doesn't form a ball that you can mould into shapes, don't worry - the ingredients are so cheap, you can just throw it away and start again!

Step Two: Cut the Dough Into Shapes
Once you've got your ball, roll it out and cut it into shapes using pastry cutters. If it starts to dry out while you're moulding shapes, use a little bit of olive oil to moisturise the dough. If you're making hanging ornaments, don't forget to make a little hole for hanging.

Step Three: Harden the Shapes in the Microwave
Once the shapes are ready, they need two or three minutes in the microwave to harden them up. Put them onto a layer of greaseproof paper, on a plate.
If you don't have a microwave, you can leave them to air-dry for a day or two, or you can put them into a very low oven until they're hard. You might need to cover them with foil if they start to go brown before they're done!

Step Four: Paint the Decorations
Once the shapes are out of the oven, give them a while to cool down before starting to decorate them.
You can paint salt dough with pretty much any paint, from acrylics to metallic sprays. There’s even glitter glue, which I love! Finish by coating with a clear varnish if you'd like to use the decorations next year.

Step Five: Appreciate the Result 
Salt dough is such a simple and cheap way of sculpting whatever takes your fancy - if you don’t mind a bit of mess, everyone should give it a go.

So all that I have to do now is make heart shapes decorations and hang them from a string. 

Happy Valentines Day xx

Paper Plates, Paints & Glitter

My little girl is 2. Her favourite thing to do is paint. Last week, I did some surfing on the web for kiddies craft using the above things (paint, plates and glitter) and my search came up with....FISH. She got so excited when I told her what we'd be making. She ran straight to the Arts & Crafts box to see what we would need to buy, I confess I had to buy paper plates. Onto the shopping list went paper plates ans the all important googly eyes!!.

Today was a cold, misty day so I decided it was time to make something. Yup that's right. We were gonna make fish. She hasn't mastered the use of scissors yet, even children's ones so I did the cutting.

This is what you'll need:

Paper Plates

Scissors

Paint/Crayons

Sticky Tape

Googly Eyes

String

This is how we made them:

Step 1: Cut a triangle out of one side (this will be the tail)

Step 2: Paint/ decorate your fish....don't forget the tail.

Step 3: Allow to dry

Step 4: Once dry, tape the tail onto the fish. Hang string from top and hang from height.

Hey presto, colourful fish to hang. If you wanted to get creative you could make 4 or 5 fish and hang them from a wire hanger to make a fishy mobile. (pictures to follow)