• DIY shopkins soap
    Handmade gifts - Kids crafts - tutorial - upcycling

    DIY Shopkins soap dispenser

    June 28, 2015 - By 

    I have a sweet kids craft to share today. Both my children love Shopkins, the cute little characters from the supermarket. They are so excited about the launch of Season 3 Shopkins next month, I am too since I found there was a gingerbread house character. Inevitably my children have ended up with a few duplicates which they’ve let me craft with. So far we’ve made a Shopkins necklace, key ring and brooch. Since my daughter was toilet trained a few weeks ago I have been trying to come up with ways to encourage her to wash her hands. I…

  • ways to upcycle Shopkins - the gingerbread house
    kawaii - Kids crafts - tutorial - upcycling

    How to upcycle Shopkins

    May 30, 2015 - By 

    Have you heard of Shopkins? They are cute, collectable characters from your favourite shops and my 5 year old is obsessed with them. Every Friday he loves to go to our local toy shop and buy a Shopkins basket with his pocket money and add a couple more Shopkins to his collection. They are quite sweet little toys, all different products you would expect to find at the supermarket, and you can collect the different categories and buy playsets for them. They are very kawaii with their happy little faces and remind me of the cute characters I have stitched…

  • Top tips for creating a Summer fairy garden - the gingerbread house
    Baker Ross Blogger Network - Fairy garden crafts - garden crafts - Kids crafts - Summer - tutorial - upcycling

    Top tips for creating a Summer fairy garden

    May 22, 2015 - By 

    What is a fairy garden? It’s a miniature garden for fairies to live in. My 3 year loves Tinkerbell and after we had watched Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue we were inspired to make our own together. Since then we’ve made a couple, both temporary houses indoor and a few permanent fairy houses outside. Creating a fairy garden is a great activity that all the family can do together and is a great way to spend time enjoying the sunshine. The best thing is that they can be added to over time so why not start a fairy garden…

  • How to make Scrabble tile badges - the gingerbread house
    Crafts for adults - Handmade gifts - tutorial - upcycling - vintage

    Scrabble tile badges

    May 21, 2015 - By 

    Did you know it’s Scrabble Week? This May over 6,500 new playable Scrabble words join the Collins Official Scrabble Wordlist. To celebrate the biggest update in 4 years, Collins are hosting Scrabble Week which runs from May 21-28 2015. I love playing Scrabble and crafting with my vintage Scrabble tiles. I felt I should make something special to mark Scrabble Week so I made some fun Scrabble tile badges. My two favourite things (after my family of course) is sewing and drinking tea so I made simple badges using my Scrabble tile stash. I used: Vintage Scrabble tiles 2mm cork…

  • how to build a mud kitchen - the gingerbread house
    Crafts for adults - Kids crafts - playing - Recycled crafts - tutorial - upcycling

    How to build a mud kitchen

    May 16, 2015 - By 

    A few weeks ago we made our children an outdoor kitchen or mud kitchen. It is quite a basic construction from some unwanted wood but that’s what I love about a mud kitchen – it can be as simple or elaborate as you want. My children love to spend time outdoors and it wasn’t hard to give them some more space, with some spare utensils, to have fun and learn outside. We’ve wanted to make a mud kitchen for our children since we moved house 2 years ago. We managed to stockpile an old pallet and a few scaffolding boards…

  • recycled milk bottle watering can craft for kids - the gingerbread house
    Baker Ross Blogger Network - garden crafts - Kids crafts - Recycled crafts - Spring - tutorial - upcycling

    Recycled milk bottle watering cans for kids

    May 12, 2015 - By 

    We’re all really enjoying spending time out in the garden. Although we’ve been in our house for 2 years now progress on our garden has been slow. Our first priority was the children’s play house, giving them an area for their sand pit and water table, and planting some vegetables in our upcycled pallet planter. Over the weekend we had some fun making simple watering cans for the children to use. Recycled milk bottle watering cans for kids This was really simple but fun. I found a couple of empty milk bottles from the recycling box. I used my Dremel…

  • mad hatters tea cups by the gingerbread house
    Easter - Kids crafts - tutorial - upcycling

    Pinned it made it – Mad hatter’s tea cups

    May 3, 2015 - By 

    What do you do with left over plastic eggs and some buttons? Make some tea cups suitable for A Mad Tea-Party of course. I wish I could claim this project my own but I saw a couple of Pinterest, like this one and knew my children would love it. This is a great project for using up left over plastic egg shells from Easter. Equipment needed to make the Mad hatter’s tea cups Plastic egg shells Selection of large plastic buttons Hot glue gun How to make Mad hatter’s tea cups This was a quick and easy craft. I chose…

  • Kids crafts - Recycled crafts - tutorial - upcycling

    Easy matchbox treasure box

    April 25, 2015 - By 

    Today we ‘re taking part in a fun 60 Day Junk Play Challege hosted by best toys 4 toddlers. The challenge is running throughout March and April so pop over for some really fun play ideas which turn everyday junk items to toys and play ideas. We love play and upcycling and the only hard part was choosing which material to play with. We chose matchboxes. Easy matchbox treasure box We took some empty cardboard matchboxes and covered them in pretty papers and old magazines to cover up the advertising and strike strip. We also cut a strip to fit…

  • kid friendly fairy garden made with a milk bottle from the gingerbread house
    Fairy garden crafts - Kids crafts - Recycled crafts - tutorial - upcycling

    Recycled milk bottle fairy garden

    April 18, 2015 - By 

    You can tell my son has gone back to school after the Easter holidays as my daughter and I have been spending a lot of time crafting together. Yesterday afternoon we looked through our recycling to see what we could use to make a fairy garden. I’ve seen some amazing fairy garden ideas on Pinterest (check out my outdoor play board for some ideas) but let’s be honest, I don’t think many of them are made by or for children! Today we’ve made a really simple fairy garden, child-friendly, achievable and I’d love to know if it inspires you! Equipment…