• How to dye pasta for kids to play with
    crafts - Kids crafts - screen-free activities - tutorial

    How to dye pasta

    May 28, 2014 - By 

    The past couple of days we’ve had a lot of rain so we’ve been trying lots of crafts to keep us busy. Today we thought we would show you how to dye some pasta shapes as we’ve been having lots of fun with dried pasta, it’s surprisingly quick and easy too. To dye your own pasta you will need: pasta shapes white wine vinegar food colouring cocktail sticks plastic bags tray How to dye pasta Measure 1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar into a small bowl. Add a generous amount of food colouring and mix with a cocktail stick. Place…

  • crafts - Kids crafts - Recycled crafts - tutorial

    Printing hearts with Styrofoam

    May 26, 2014 - By 

    I love the idea of making my own stamps. I’ve already tried a couple of things, such as shaping the rubber on the end of a pencil to make a bunting stamp. I also made stamps from craft foam and old bottle tops. This weeks’ effort involved recycling styrofoam sheets, we used the ones from ready-made pizzas, and printing hearts with styrofoam. Equipment needed to make hearts with Styrofoam: pointed end of a ballpoint pen lid wooden heart styrofoam sheet (we used one from a pizza box) red paint white paper I pressed quite heavily and made sure I went…

  • pine cone spiders
    crafts - handmade - Kids crafts - tutorial

    Pine cone spider

    May 22, 2014 - By 

    On Sunday we spent a lovely day exploring Kew Gardens. I love watching how curious my children are about the things they see and there was plenty to see and do at Kew. Having children has definitely made me more aware of the changing seasons and over the last couple of weeks we’ve enjoyed watching the garden spring to life. Whilst we were at Kew the children collected pocketfuls of pine cones. They’ve been sitting on our nature table but I thought we should make something with them and decided on pine cone spiders. This is a great craft as…

  • how to make a vintage board game display
    crafts - Crafts for adults - decorating - interiors - tutorial - upcycling - vintage

    How to make a vintage board game display

    May 11, 2014 - By 

    A couple of days ago I wrote about my collection of vintage board games, all picked up at local charity shops for a few pounds. The game tokens will go into my Etsy shop as soon as I have time to list them and this weekend I finally persuaded my husband to let me hang them on the wall. Last weekend was spent painting and decorating our bedroom and we just have a few final touches to make. We obviously got bitten by the bug as we also went out and bought the things needed to decorate my daughter’s room…

  • gingerbread playdough recipe
    crafts - gingerbread - handmade - Kids crafts - tutorial

    Gingerbread playdough recipe

    May 9, 2014 - By 

    It’s pretty obvious from the name of my blog that I love gingerbread. Mmmm, so many happy memories are associated with the very smell! My children adore playdough, it’s probably one of their top 3 favourite activities, so I thought I would make them some gingerbread playdough. We often make our own playdough as it’s cheap and lasts a long time. If you’re looking for ideas on how to play with playdough, take a look at our free printable gingerbread playdough mats. This is my tried and tested no-cook playdough recipe: 150g plain flour 100g salt 2 tsp. cream of…

  • how to make jolly jars
    Kids crafts - tutorial

    How to make a Jolly Jar

    May 8, 2014 - By 

    My son started nursery this academic year and we have been introduced to all kinds of new experiences. His nursery is attached to the local Primary School which means he is very much a part of school life. He wears the school uniform, takes a book bag to school and comes home with two books to read at home every week. He absolutely adores being part of the school community and I’m happy that he is happy. It has been a learning curve for me too. I do the school run, chat with the other mums at drop off and…

  • wooden spoon dragon craft for St George's Day
    crafts - Crafts for kids - Kids crafts - St George's Day crafts - tutorial

    Wooden spoon dragon for St George

    April 22, 2014 - By 

    We’re now back home after a lovely long weekend away spent with my mum. We’re all ready to face a new term the only downside is that I’ve come down with tonsillitis yet again, with conjunctivitis thrown in for good measure. As soon as we arrived home I realised our Easter decorations had been up for far too long so I was more than happy to take them down. The house is already looking a lot less cluttered. Did you know it’s St George’s Day tomorrow? It’s not an official national holiday just yet but, according to Wikipedia, St. George’s…

  • Dyeing eggs for Easter
    crafts - Easter - handmade - Kids crafts - Spring - STEM activity - tutorial

    Dyeing eggs for Easter

    April 16, 2014 - By 

    I know my children don’t have a clue about Easter but that hasn’t stopped us enjoying some Easter crafting. Yesterday we tried our hands at decorating and dyeing hard boiled eggs. This was actually quite quick so the children were able to follow the whole process. I thought I’d share it here as my two really enjoyed it. You will need: eggs Scotch Magic Tape scissors vinegar food colouring {STEM activity} Dyeing eggs for Easter First hard boil the eggs. I boiled them for 10 minutes then placed them in a sieve and ran cold water over them for a…

  • crafts - Easter - Kids crafts - Spring - tutorial

    How to make your own Easter eggs

    April 15, 2014 - By 

    I think it’s fair to say we’re enjoying our Easter holidays. The 4 year old was in desperate need of a break from his nursery routine (he attends for five afternoons a week) and we’ve been crafting, to the beach, seen family and friends and for the first time, made our own Easter eggs! Have you ever tried using a chocolate mould before? We found it surprisingly time consuming as each layer needs to be left to solidify before another one is added. “Daddy, me have more chocolate please!” It was great fun though and there was plenty of chocolate…