You know that our family are huge fans of the author Julia Donaldson. My children have nearly all of her books, especially those illustrated with Axel Scheffler, but their favourite is easily The Gruffalo. We’ve had great fun exploring the themes of the book and wanted to share some great Gruffalo crafts with you today. Take a look at my list of 15 brilliant Gruffalo activities for kids: Ways to explore the story: Gruffalo Story Stones from the gingerbread house and Gruffalo Story Sack from the fairy and the frog, perfect for encouraging little story tellers. Or how about making…
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You may have noticed we’ve been a little obsessed with the Gruffalo lately. We recently spent a lovely time in the deep dark wood hunting for the Gruffalo and friends on a Gruffalo activity trail. My children also enjoyed a fun Gruffalo-themed bento box for their lunch. I thought I would keep the theme going with some Gruffalo Story Stones. Gruffalo Story Stone materials: Smooth stones Decopatch glue Colour images of the Gruffalo, Snake, Owl, Fox and Mouse How to make Gruffalo Story Stones: First I chose some smooth stones from our stash, every time we visit the beach we…
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One of my favourite upcycled crafts has been transforming our old Ikea coffee table into a Lego Duplo table for the children. It’s probably the piece of furniture we’ve had the longest as I think we bought it 8 years ago when we first moved in together. It’s served us well. A couple of years ago it got its first transformation. It was given a coat or two of blackboard paint so the toddler could do his mark making on it. He quickly got bored of that idea (walls were much more appealing) so it was pretty un-used and even…
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This week we sent off a parcel to the Reading Residence as part of the 2014 Love Books Summer Exchange. We took part last year and had a lot of fun with it. Basically you send a book and related craft suitable for the age of your child and receive the same. My son eagerly awaits the Postman knocking on the door as he often receives packages with things to review. You can imagine his expression when he opened the door to a large cardboard box! It contained a copy of Herman’s Letter by Tom Percival, and everything needed to…
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Yesterday I told you how much fun we had at the Gruffalo Activity Trail at Wendover Woods. After running about in the woods, building dens, climbing trees and hunting for the Gruffalo we had all built up quite an appetite. We took a picnic as we were out all day and I made a special Gruffalo Bento Box for the children. I had so much fun putting together the Gruffalo Bento Box that I thought I would share it with you today. How to make a Gruffalo Bento Box I knew I wanted to give the children Roasted Fox, Owl Ice…
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Have you crafted anything for Father’s Day? This year it falls upon June 15th and we’ve been busy making some little gifts. Recently we received a small package of craft materials as we’re members of the Bostik Craft Club. One of the products was a Blu Tack blu stick which my 4 year old immediately claimed as his own. We were also given coloured tissue paper and card. He’s been badgering me for a while about using it so today we did and made a cut out Father’s Day card. Materials you will need: paper template craft knife self-healing cutting mat…
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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…
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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…
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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…
