• crafts - food review - Halloween crafts - handmade - Kids crafts - tutorial

    Spooky marshmallow treats

    We’re not big on celebrating Halloween but I can’t resist making some Halloween treats. I received a box of Ghostbusters Stay Puft Quality Marshmallows from my favourite sweetshop Cybercandy and thought I would turn them into spooky marshmallows. The marshmallows were tightly squeezed in the box, so I emptied them out and let them breathe and regain their shape. I then sorted out the best, evenly shaped ones (size-ist, I know) and got to work with my edible marker pen. What do you think of my spooky Halloween marshmallows? A great quick craft for kids big and small! Ghostbusters Stay…

  • crafts - Kids crafts - Lego - playing

    Painting with Legos

    I can write about our love of Lego ad infinitum. At the moment it seems all encompassing which is great because as a parent I believe it’s a great educational toy. We’ve had lots of fun with Lego. We make endless towers, houses, tunnels, bridges, and manage to use it alongside other toys such as cars and trains too. We’ve been trying to think outside the box and made Lego crayons, Lego biscuits and even painted using Legos.   We started off with some pots of paint and chose some different sized bricks and figures. Initially the toddler started off…

  • baking - Father's Day - handmade - Handmade gifts - Kids crafts - tutorial

    How to make Scrabble tile biscuits

    My piles of vintage board games have inspired me to make Scrabble tile biscuits! The children are too young for Scrabble but I thought we could make something special for Father’s Day. Today I’m showing you how to make Scrabble tile biscuits! How to make Scrabble tile biscuits   I followed the recipe for simple plain biscuits from the Biscuiteer Book of Iced Biscuits and cut them all the same size. They cooked quickly and had a lovely colour. I sampled the less-than-perfect ones which tasted pretty yummy. After they had cooled I prepared the royal icing, drawing a line…

  • crafts - handmade - Kids crafts - toddler - tutorial

    How to paint with corks

    I often blog about painting as the toddler absolutely loves getting messy. He knows where the craft cupboard is and will point and say ‘paint’ over and over again until I give in. We always start off by aiming to do a ‘proper’ piece of art with a theme, like handprints or painting with corks (his current favourite). It often descends into total chaos where he forgets about the piece of paper and just uses the tablecloth. We usually have plenty of corks lying around and I now have extended family giving me bags of them as they know how…

  • crafts - Easter - handmade - Kids crafts - Spring - tutorial

    Finger print Easter bunny and chicks

    You know how much we love getting messy with the paints so Easter seemed like a great opportunity to break out the paints for some more fun. I saw a great Easter card on Pinterest based on Ed Emberley’s fingerprint animals. I instantly bought a copy of one of his books (Ed Emberley’s Fingerprint Drawing Book) as I know we’ll have lots of fun with it. Big Brother is a bit young for it as the moment but I love it – lots of crafty inspiration for fingerprint animals, vehicles, seasons and holidays. The fingerprint Easter bunny and chicks were…

  • crafts - handmade - Kids crafts - Recycled crafts - tutorial - upcycling

    How to make a cork sail boat

    Edward is used to boats as we often travel by car ferry or catamaran to visit family on the Isle of Wight. Last week we managed a couple of trips by boat which Edward loved. He really enjoyed holding on to the side of the boat and looking over the side. He’s always loved water play and our weekly swim sessions so this was a great crafty project for us. Looking around the house we had limited supplies so I thought we would make a cork sail boat, reminiscent of the boat in which Julia sails to the island. Sadly…