• How to make your own bird feeder
    Crafts for kids - garden crafts - Toilet roll crafts

    How to make your own bird feeder

    June 15, 2018 - By 

    This month we’re taking part in the 30 Days Wild challenge. My children are pretty wild and outdoorsy so this seemed like a great challenge for them. This week we had the added bonus of taking part in a family litter pick to mark Blue Peter’s 60th birthday. Be Plastic Clever 60 or #BPC60 is the brain child of Kids Against Plastic who are running a competition to find the best litter pick photos. CBBC presenter Naomi Wilkinson came along to my daughter’s school to talk to them about the impact on the environment and our health caused by continued use of single use plastic. My daughter…

  • How to make a simple cable reel blackboard
    crafts - garden crafts - Nature crafts - Painted rocks - upcycling

    How to make a simple cable reel blackboard

    June 28, 2017 - By 

    A few weeks ago I shared a recent upcycle of a wooden cable reel. We turned it into a fairy house for the children to play with. We actually picked up two cable reels so today I’m going to show you what we did with the other. Cable reels are great and there are so many ways to upcycle them. My children love to use chalk to draw on the patio and walls so I made them a cable reel blackboard – perfect for mark making outside. We used: Rustoleum Chalkboard Paint (Old School Green) Wooden cable reel Smooth pebbles…

  • How to build a bug hotel - the gingerbread house blog
    crafts - garden crafts - Toilet roll crafts - upcycling

    How to build a bug hotel {Part 2}

    June 3, 2017 - By 

    A few weeks ago I mentioned how we started work building our own bug hotel. The kids love learning about all the different animals they see in the garden so we thought a bug hotel would be fun. What we used to build a Bug Hotel bricks flower pot corrugated cardboard bamboo sticks cardboard tubes How to build a bug hotel A bug hotel can be as simple of complicated as you want. Our garden is quite small but we found a quiet corner we thought would be perfect. We roughly measured where we wanted the bug hotel to go. It…

  • How to make a cable reel fairy house
    crafts - Fairy garden crafts - garden crafts - Pinty Plus Ambassador - upcycling

    How to make a cable reel fairy house

    May 23, 2017 - By 

    A while ago now we spotted a couple of wooden cable reels and knew they would be fun to upcycle into a fairy toadstool house for the children to play with. My 5 year old loves her fairy play and I thought this would be a great little upcycling project, as well as making something for her to play with during the summer months. As a Pinty Plus ambassador I used some of the Pinty Plus Basic range which has a range of brilliant bright colours. I also got to try out the the new spray gun which makes spray…

  • crafts - garden crafts - Nature crafts

    How to build a bug hotel using a pallet {Part 1}

    May 11, 2017 - By 

    Now the weather is warmer we have been thinking about our little garden. Our cat died recently and overnight we noticed more birds appearing in our garden. The children really wanted to encourage them and learn more about them. Our garden is small but child-friendly and we want the children to enjoy being outside, especially at this time of year. As well as making lots of handmade bird feeders we started to plan a bug hotel. We have been wanting to build one ever since we saw an amazing bug hotel at Hughenden Manor, a local National Trust properly. Here’s…

  • BloomBox Club logo
    competition - garden crafts - homestyle - subscription box

    Win a Plant Craft Box from BloomBox Club

    April 28, 2017 - By 

    I love monthly subscription boxes. They are a great way to try new products, activities, food or make-up. There seems to be a subscription service for just about anything and I was so excited to try out a gardening one from BloomBox Club. BloomBox Club choose beautiful, easy care plants and package them up to deliver right to your door every quarter. Voted one of the UK’s top 20 horticulturalists Mr Plant Geek is the in-house horticultural advisor, recommending plant selections, ironing out plant care and making sure that BloomBox are bringing you all that is new and interesting in the plant world. All the information…

  • Customising our children's playhouse with a blackboard
    crafts - garden crafts - tutorial - upcycling

    Customising our children’s playhouse {Ikea hack Mala easel}

    August 9, 2016 - By 

    We’ve had an Ikea Mala easel for a few years and it’s in constant use. You may have seen one before, with a blackboard on one side, a whiteboard on the other. It also has a roll of paper which can be pulled up and over the whiteboard for more drawing possibilities. It’s a good design (as you would expect from Ikea) and folds flat when not in use. It has been brilliant for encouraging the children to get creative and we’ve used it whilst both children have been learning their letters and numbers, as well as for general creativity.…

  • 7 mud kitchen essentials
    crafts - garden crafts - Kids crafts

    7 mud kitchen essentials

    July 14, 2016 - By 

    Our outdoor kitchen has been a big success. Our garden isn’t huge but the children love to be outside so we’ve given them several areas where they can play, explore nature and grow things. I think I enjoyed putting the mud kitchen together just as much as my children enjoy spending time with it. Today I’m sharing some of the mud kitchen essential items which we use the most. 7 mud kitchen essentials 1 A mud kitchen can be as simple or complicated as you like. Before we built our mud kitchen from old pallets the children were happy to…

  • Hank from Finding Dory wind sock craft
    garden crafts - Kids crafts - Recycled crafts - tutorial

    Hank from Finding Dory wind sock craft

    July 10, 2016 - By 

    We’re so excited about the release of Finding Dory this month. It feels like we’ve been waiting for this film for a long time. We’ve been watching Finding Nemo to get in the mood and thinking of ways we can incorporate the new film in our crafting. Everyone’s favourite forgetful blue tang is back at last for ‘Finding Dory’, which sees her go off on a new adventure to search for the family she forgot about. Waking up one morning, she sees a picture in her head – and comes to a shocking realisation. She remembered something! It seems impossible,…