I can’t believe we are 10 days away from the Summer holidays! This term is really rushing by. Top of my list of things which made my happy this is surviving the parents race at Sports Day! I hated Sports Day when I was at school but I’m pleased to say both my children loved theirs this year. I was so happy to be challenged to decorate a teepee by Hobbycraft and write a post for the Hobbycaft blog. We were sent a teepee and some craft supplies and the whole family had lots of fun decorating it. We experimented…
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We always seem to pack a lot into each week but the last week has been exceptionally busy. We hosted a family Christmas which was fun but tiring. Highlights included lots of lovely family time, great food, a trip to the local Lido for a Christmas Day walk, more fresh air in Black Park Country Park on Boxing Day and seeing a rather spectacular display of Christmas lights. Last week I found time to finish Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. It is the last instalment of The Hunger Games, following The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. I’d watched the first two…
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As part of my pre-Christmas clear out I sorted through the toy boxes and put aside some of the children’s old toys. As I was putting them into a bag for the charity shop I had an idea about recycling them into decorations. Both children have small trees in their bedrooms and I thought we could make some decorations for them. Equipment needed to make recycled toy decorations: Unwanted plastic toys Spray paint Screw eyes Pin vice How to make recycled toy decorations: Pick a selection of plastic toys. I would love to use toys the children play with but…
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I have a brilliant craft to share with you today, cookie cutter gift tags which is a great way to recycle Christmas cards. For some reason I packed away last years’ Christmas cards, fully intending to recycle them into gift tags. Today I finally found the time to make them. Equipment needed to make cookie cutter Christmas gift tags: Christmas cards Festive cookie cutters Pencil Scissors Hole punch Ribbon How to make cookie cutter Christmas gift tags: Pick a part of each card that you want to keep and position your chosen cookie cutter over it. Draw around your cookie…
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Today seems to be a great time to tell you about our felt gingerbread house. This is one of those projects that has been waiting to be finished for a while. I’m terrible at starting something and not finishing it! Felt Christmas Cookies and Gingerbread House I made it as much for myself as the children and we’ve all had fun getting it out and looking at it. Here’s our Felt Christmas Cookies and Gingerbread House I purchased the pattern from Jeanette Lim at umecrafts a while ago, she’s also the author of Big Little Felt Universe which is one…
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We survived Big Brother’s first term at Reception. This week we’ve had parties, lunches and just so much that I’m grateful for a 2 week holiday from all the running around. Let’s ignore the fact it’s Christmas and we have a household full of guests, at least I don’t have to go outside! Over the weekend I made a wreath for the Winter solstice. I like it’s simplicity compared to our Christmas decorations, just a ring of intertwined branches and a string of lights. I placed it in the dining room and put one of my new house-shaped tea light…
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My children take a real pleasure from books and I love that they are excited by our Book Advent. A Book Advent is a Christmas themed book-a-day during December, much better for you than chocolate! This year we’ve had a whopping 29 books, so nearly 1 for every day of December. We’ve taken out some from last year and passed them to our local charity shop. We’ve also picked up a few more along the way. This year we have stored our Advent books in a Children’s Cardboard Bedside Table Kit from The Cardboard Man. It comes as flatpack but…
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Earlier this month I made some no sew Christmas pudding decorations to sell at the school Christmas Fayre. They were quick and easy to make and look great on a Christmas tree so I thought I’d share a little tutorial with you. Equipment needed to make no sew Christmas pudding ornament: ping pong balls silicone glue brown wool green and white felt red sequins scissors How to make no sew Christmas pudding ornament: Wrap your ping pong ball completely with brown wool, make sure there are no gaps. When you’ve finished leave a small loop to hang your ornament and…
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This evening I’ve been playing around trying to pretty up some Christmas presents. I love wrapping my presents with simple brown paper but they are not always well received. I remember last year my father in law looking a little puzzled when I handed over our presents, he asked if we had run out of wrapping paper! This year I made sure to wrap his presents in the brightest Christmas paper I could find. I wanted to re-visit my idea of simple brown paper for some gifts but I thought I would embellish them to show I’d put some effort…
