Over the weekend we tried out a Weekend Box, it’s a clever little box which fits neatly through your letter box and contains four activities: Something to Cook Something to Make Something to Explore and Something Green Each activity is designed to build sensory exploration skills within little ones aged 3-8 as well as help teach them about different life skills in a fun and engaging way. Our box contained 4 instruction cards to make potato boats, DIY 3D glasses, Sand Art Explorers and a Lolly Stick Bird Feeder as well as 4 paper packets with the equipment needed. I’m…
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A while ago I pinned a pretty picture of wool hearts. I wanted to try them with my son but the metal heart (made from floral wire) was too fiddly for him to hold and wrap at the same time. Instead we tried using some chunky heart-shaped cookie cutters which were much easier for him to hold. Toddler-friendly Valentine craft – wrapped wool hearts I covered the outside of the cookie cutter in double-sided sticky tape, then he had fun wrapping each one with red wool. When he had finished I tied a knot in the wool at the top…
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Before I bombard you with Valentine crafts (and there’s a lot!) I wanted to share one last Chinese New Year craft. 2014 is the Chinese New Year of the Horse and although Chinese New Year is celebrated on Friday January 31st, celebrations will take place on Sunday 2nd February across venues including Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, Shaftesbury Avenue and of course Chinatown itself. I’m not sure I’m ready to take the children to the celebrations just yet so instead we’ve been having fun at home. We’ve already tried our hand at Chinese New Year lanterns and our latest activity involved paint. Like…
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We’ve been thinking about Chinese New Year lately. 2014 is all about the Chinese New Year of the Horse but animal crafts don’t seem to be our speciality, so far. Instead we opted for some simple Chinese New Year tea light holders. We collected some old (clean!) glass jars from the recycling bin, a bottle of PVA glue, paint brush and red tissue paper which I cut into small squares. I had to google why red is associated with Chinese New Year, apparently the colour red, which corresponds with fire, symbolizes good fortune and joy. Then my son got to…
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We took our tree and Christmas decorations down yesterday. It took hours but I’m quite pleased our house has now returned to normal. My son is very sad though as he adored turning off the big light “to see how pretty the tree looks”. He really ‘got’ Christmas this year and enjoyed every minute. Three Kings craft to celebrate Epiphany To cheer him up I thought we would make one last Christmas craft. January 6th is celebrated as the Epiphany, or the day the three Wise Men (or Kings) visited the infant Jesus. Our Three Kings or Epiphany craft, is…
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2013 was a busy year for our family. We sold our lovely house and bought an even lovelier house in a much nicer part of London. The 3 year started his new nursery and has learned so many new things it’s difficult to keep up with him. He performed in his first Christmas play, sang on his first Christmas album and had a pretty good time. The 2 year old started nursery for the first time and has become a lot more confident around other people, she eats better too 🙂 I attended 3 blogging conferences but didn’t feel like…
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I hope you’ve all had a lovely Christmas. Not that our winter holiday is over but I have let out a small sigh of relief that presents have been opened and enjoyed and several big meals have been cooked and eaten. My two little people have not let Christmas get in their way and have been wanting to be crafty regardless of their piles of presents. We’ve had playdough, practising our writing, colouring and stamping as well as outdoor family activities including a couple of walks, a trip to the park with their scooters and taking my son’s model boat…
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I had big ambitions for making lots of handmade gifts this year. Time seems to have run out on me though and although I made a couple of hand stencilled gifts, I have made far fewer than I would have liked. We’re giving lots of gift cards this year so I have come up with a great way of making them a little more interesting to open. By placing them in lovely hand decorated boxes! I enjoy decopatch and have been spending my evenings covering stars and hearts for our Christmas tree. It’s nice and simple which ticks all my…
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Have you ever crafted with a light bulb before? I was set a challenge from LightBulbs-Direct to redecorate an old and plain light bulb into an exciting new Christmas ‘light bulble’ bauble! Easy. I turned to Pinterest and found tons of inspiration, so much in fact it took me a while to decide exactly what to make. Lightbulbs are always burning out in our house so there was actually a couple by the back door waiting to go out with the recycling. I chose the largest one I could and gave it a light spray with a white acrylic primer to…
