As a mum of two pre-schoolers it’s fair to say we watch a lot of Peppa Pig. My children adore Peppa and Little Sis has all the Peppa Pig playsets, clothes, cutlery and story books she can get her hands on. Nick Jr. is one of their favourite channels and Little Sis gets quite upset when the adverts get in the way of watching her beloved episodes of Peppa! Luckily for her Nick Jr. is gearing up for a month of Peppa Pig celebrations. This July will mark 10 years since the nation’s favourite pig was first broadcast on Nick…
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Little Sis loves princesses and fairies. As the children are spending so much time out doors at the moment I thought we could make a magical door so the fairies could come and visit us. This is a great nature craft. I don’t know about you but we seem to pick up flat stones where ever we go. I love to re-use them rather than let them sit around in glass jars. We’ve already used some to make Gruffalo story stones and we have a few more crafty projects up our sleeves. Painted stone fairy door materials: smooth, flat stones…
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Petit Collage is a collection of 25 vintage modern handcrafted designs for children and families, from award-winning designer Lorena Siminovich. The fun, imaginative projects range from a paper toy dollhouse and personalised baby blocks to an adorable bunny clock and Petit Collage’s signature name plaque, growth chart and paper mobiles. Many can be made with the help of your children and there are ideas throughout to make them ‘kid fun’. The book also contains gorgeous photography, step by step instructions and additional tips for each project. Petit Collage will help parents create handmade items for kids that adults will also…
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I like nothing more than having a couple of sewing projects on the go. I’ve been working on Wild Olive’s Spring Stitching Club for a while and thought I’d write about my progress to spur me on to finish it. The Stitching Club in a Seasonal sewing club where you receive a weekly email with an embroidery pattern. Over the weeks the individual pieces are made into something bigger, such as a doll quilt or cushion cover. So far I’ve only completed the Summer Stitching Club but I have the Autumn and Winter patterns too which I will get round…
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A couple of weeks ago I saw a poster advertising the Creation Station, educational creative fun. As soon as I saw it I knew it would be perfect for my 4 year old. Since Little Sis has come along we’ve found it really hard to find an organised activity they can both do but with her attending nursery two mornings a week we now have a little more time. The idea of the activity is to stimulate your child’s senses through the medium of art, craft, music and movement. My son was a little shy to begin with but as…
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You may have noticed we’ve been a little obsessed with the Gruffalo lately. We recently spent a lovely time in the deep dark wood hunting for the Gruffalo and friends on a Gruffalo activity trail. My children also enjoyed a fun Gruffalo-themed bento box for their lunch. I thought I would keep the theme going with some Gruffalo Story Stones. Gruffalo Story Stone materials: Smooth stones Decopatch glue Colour images of the Gruffalo, Snake, Owl, Fox and Mouse How to make Gruffalo Story Stones: First I chose some smooth stones from our stash, every time we visit the beach we…
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Regular readers will know that I love to craft and upcycle. So it’s probably no surprise that I adore Reloved magazine. It’s a brilliant magazine for people who want a little creativity in their lives and upcycling is a great way to make beautiful, practical things for a fraction of the cost of buying them in the shops. The latest issue of Reloved magazine is a Summer Special with 29 fun new craft projects. As usual there are Midweek Makes, Fashion Fixes, Home Refurbs, 3 Ways With… and a Furniture Revamp. There’s a great mix of projects for upcycling furniture,…
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One of my favourite upcycled crafts has been transforming our old Ikea coffee table into a Lego Duplo table for the children. It’s probably the piece of furniture we’ve had the longest as I think we bought it 8 years ago when we first moved in together. It’s served us well. A couple of years ago it got its first transformation. It was given a coat or two of blackboard paint so the toddler could do his mark making on it. He quickly got bored of that idea (walls were much more appealing) so it was pretty un-used and even…
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This week we sent off a parcel to the Reading Residence as part of the 2014 Love Books Summer Exchange. We took part last year and had a lot of fun with it. Basically you send a book and related craft suitable for the age of your child and receive the same. My son eagerly awaits the Postman knocking on the door as he often receives packages with things to review. You can imagine his expression when he opened the door to a large cardboard box! It contained a copy of Herman’s Letter by Tom Percival, and everything needed to…
