I have a really fun giveaway for all my crafty readers today. Remember Spirograph? Well it’s back! Kids of all ages can draw cool, geometric creations in bright colour. The new 21st century Spirograph now comes with eye-popping 3D technology, so kids can watch the drawings jump out from the page in an amazing display. Sets are available from £4.99 to £24.99. I have a great giveaway where five readers of the gingerbread house have the chance to win a Spirograph Optical 3D Studio Set, worth £24.99. With it’s geometric and swirling patterns, Spirograph has helped kids big and small to…
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I’m really looking forward to December 1st as for me, that’s when Christmas really starts. The Christmas shopping is done, food ordered and planned which means we can look forward to the children’s Christmas concerts, making some lovely decorations and visiting Father Christmas in his grotto. Every year we celebrate Advent with Advent calendars and a book Advent. This year I have introduced an Advent Box Crate to open on December 1st. It’s packed full of goodies for us all to enjoy in the run up to Christmas Day. Most importantly it contains our Elf on the Shelf who will…
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I’ve wanted to try making a mug cake for a while. I adore cake but when there’s cake in the cake tin, well I just have to eat it until it’s all gone. I thought it would be fun to make a gingerbread mug cake as the portion would be so much more manageable. Ingredients needed to make a gingerbread mug cake: 5 tablespoons plain flour ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 1 teaspoon of festive spices (to include ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla) 1 tablespoon granulated sugar 3 tablespoons brown muscovado sugar 4 tablespoons milk 2 tablespoons vegetable oil…
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It’s not Christmas without watching The Snowman or its sequel, The Snowman and The Snowdog. We watched it over the weekend and I know it will be on Channel 4 again this Christmas. Originally published in 1978, The Snowman, created and illustrated by Raymond Briggs has become one of the world’s most popular children’s books. Available in 15 languages it has sold in excess of 8.5 million copies worldwide with over 3 million of these sales in the UK published under Puffin editions. Adapted for screen by producer John Coates, the Oscar-nominated animation launched on Channel 4 in its inaugural…
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My Pinterest feed is bulging at the seams with Christmas ideas and inspiration so I thought it would be fun to produce a round up of some fun gingerbread house ideas for kids. Once again I’ve teamed up with the Kids Blogger Network to bring you an amazing giveaway. Don’t forget to read to the bottom of this post for your chance to win one of FOUR $500 cash prizes. Forget baking a gingerbread house from scratch this Christmas! Here are 15 gingerbread house ideas for kids and none of them involve baking. Cardboard seems to be a popular building…
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I love looking back over the photos I’ve taken. There has been a lot of sewing, baking and crafting with the children this week, in between a blur of PTA meetings and wrapping presents for my daughter’s 3rd birthday. I made bite-sized gingerbread house biscuits one day as a special sweet treat. There has been the discovery of new sewing patters and decorations for the Christmas tree. We also attempted this lovely and delicious gingerbread tree. In non-gingerbread related news, we had a fun trip to the Science Museum to escape the torrential rain on Saturday and I finished the…
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I’m not going to apologise for another gingerbread-related craft 🙂 With only 5 weeks to go until Christmas we are enjoying our festive crafting. Today I wanted to share the sweet gingerbread men paper garland we made. Equipment needed to make a gingerbread men paper garland: Gingerbread men paper shapes brown acrylic paint and brush glue sticks stickers, pompoms and shiny things to decorate bakers twine How to make a gingerbread men paper garland: First paint your paper gingerbread men brown. You could cut out your shapes on brown paper or card to miss out this step. Set up an…
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I’ve gone all minimalist for November. This month my daughter turns 3 and we’re having a Frozen-themed birthday party to go with her Frozen-themed presents. It’s probably no surprise that some of the colours have crept into our living room and on my mantle. We have ice blue candles standing proud in my great-grandfather’s brass candlesticks. I’ve recycled our Halloween munchkins but spray painted them white to give a fresh new look. The bus blind has been moved to a different room and been replaced by my lovely Orla Kiely stem print vase, a favourite house-shaped tea light holder and…
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My children love to craft as much as I do and we were recently sent a really fun new toy from the world of AmiGami! Each pack includes one animal and everything you need to create your own AmiGami figure. We tried out the Giraffe and it included the Plastic AmiGami Giraffe, 30 AmiGami paper parts, 55 re-useable stickers, 1 curling tool and 6 Pins and Caps. First of all we punched the perforated paper parts from the sheet. Then we pinned them to the Giraffe and held them in place with the plastic pins and caps. Finally we curled…