Fabulous Christmas Wreath

Our task for Wednesday was to make a Christmas Wreath for our front door.  I was inspired by this post.

Matilda and Kelvin made one each and now I have a red wreath hanging on my front door (to welcome guests) and a green wreath hanging on my back door (to welcome robbers - noone uses our back door except us!).

I love the way they waiver in the wind.

I can highly recommended making one and my kids loved the stapling and glueing.

Kids in the Kitchen for Easter

I saw this post the other day and knowing the forecast for today was intermitent rain decided to stock up on supplies.

We had friends join us and we got cooking which involved spreading some jam...

...and squishing marshmallows...

...and decorating with melted chocolate and copious amounts of 100's & 1000's...

...and then the all important testing!

I can highly recommend these yummy and easy Easter Wagon Wheels for cooking with your kiddos (and I think the kids would recommend it too!).

Perhaps if your kids are over 5 they may look more like easter eggs than ours do!!

We might give these another go next year - they would make a great alternative to chocolate eggs for extended family and friends and teachers and anyone else you may include on your easter list!!

Wishing you all a Happy Easter and I hope you get to enjoy some time with your families and friends.

Pre-school Paper Making!

Last week our usual Mum's Group catch-up day was looking a but wet to go to a playground so we decided to have lunch at our place and make some paper!

Kelvin using the paper-making deckle in a tub of paper pulp.

Paper making is not a spontaneous activity to do with kids - you need to rip up and soak the scrap paper overnight.

Drying the paper on the windows - we'd run out of other options!!
It worked really well for a nice smooth writing surface.

And it's also a bit messy!  But that's all part of the appeal I think.  We made the paper with used white office paper and we added some glittery rainbow sparkles for that little extra pizzazz.  And we also tried embossing some of the sheets using alphabet stamps!

Drying more sheets of paper.

And at one stage there were 10 kids under five years joining in the making!!  But it was worth it - we ended up with lovely textured paper to draw on or just play with! And I had all the papermaking gear from decades ago when I made the paper for my own wedding invitations, plus Sarah bought her gear too.

And about half of our paper production - enough for a little book perhaps?

Last Minute Advent Calendar

So I've done it again. I seriously need to remember that November DOES NOT have 31 days in it! And I shouldn't leave my advent calendar making until the late night of November 30.

I think I've managed to make a pretty cool calendar this year - thanks to some inspiration from the Kids Craft Weekly newsletter.

First I dragged out all my freebie Christmas paper from years of subscribing to Better Homes & Gardens magazines. I cut them into 6" squares and made origami cups using an online tutorial. They're very easy to make once you get into the swing of things. And then I wrote on the numbers and used a hole punch and some curling ribbon to make handles.

The I grabbed some pegs off the clothes line and hang these up along one of the steel beams in our living area. I was debating hanging them on the Christmas tree but that would be too easy!!

And the kids seemed pretty happy with it when they woke up this morning (although Kelvin thought they were boats, but that's OK)!

Mister Maker Inspiration

I'm not sure about your kids but mine adore Mister Maker on ABC Kids. And the last few episodes I've seen he's been using "sticky backed plastic" (aka Contact) to make stuff!

So I have been trying to organise my fabric scraps using and found a method which makes sense to me - over here! And as a result there were lots of useless offcuts in a pile on the table, some sticky-backed plastic in the spare room and a pre-schooler to entertain. As they say, the plan came together!!

You put the Contact sticky-side up and stick fabric, paper, cellophane, glitter, stars, etc onto the paper in a random fashion.

Then you cover it over with a second piece of Contact for a stained glass effect.

I think these might be a great basis for our handmade Christmas cards this year - either stitched onto cardstock or maybe stick inside a card frame.

I think Matilda enjoyed herself (and I did as well because I've achieved a lot of scrap management) - WIN WIN!!

Advent Day 11 - Making Christmas Cards

Matilda is going through a very prolific period with her painting. I thought it would be good to use some of these in my Christmas cards this year (as I'm not sure what else to do with them).

So, last night I cut out 50+ Christmas trees from some of Matilda's artwork - ready for some serious gluing today!

Matilda loved it - gluing away to her hearts content. It felt a little bit like I was exploiting her (child labour) but she was loving it so much, who was I to deny her the pleasure!!

I even offered at one stage to do the stars whilst she did the trees but she'd have none of it.

She finished about half of them before Playschool started this morning and I finished the rest (with a bit of 3-year old adhocery).

I like them and hope that my friends will too! Another task off my Christmas to-do list.

Birthday Presents FOUND!

You've got to hand it to the curious Matilda - she found her birthday tutu yesterday (in my sewing room whilst I was pulling weeds in the garden and Trev was on the phone). I'd made them using the fabulous tutorial here (and the tulle is much, much nicer to work with than the nylon netting I've used before)!
I was really disappointed but she was ecstatic!


She also found the tutu I'd made for her Cabbage Patch Doll so they were both wearing these around the house for most of the afternoon.

Needless to say, they have been put away again (in a much better hiding place this time) until Saturday when she will have to unwrap them and pretend to be surprised!

How to Wrap a Tutu?

Matilda is going to a friend's 3rd Birthday Party tomorrow and I decided to partially make the gift for her friend - inspired by this tutorial! Here's the result...


I'm not really sure about it but I think a 3 year old would love it!


I made it with nylon netting rather than tulle since there was a bigger colour range (and it was half the price of tulle), but then the knot with netting was too bulky so I had to resort to using some white ribbon in my stash.


We're also putting in some hair accesories so a bit of a girlie girl present - hope you like it Carys! Now I just have to work out how to wrap a tutu!!

Advent Calendar

Our Mum's Group have been inspired to do some Christmas craft so have been surfing around looking for ideas suitable for 2 1/2 year olds! Came across an idea for creating your own advent calendar out of old toilet rolls and paper - suitable for 4 year olds (at http://www.dltk-holidays.com/xmas/advent_calendar.htm). I made one on Thursday night when both the kids were tucked up in bed. There is NO WAY I would I attempt this with a 4 year old - it took me more than 2 hours to do and I'm eight times the recommended minimum age for this craft!

Anyway, Matilda should enjoy the eating (each half-tube contains either a marshmallow or a snake) but next year I might just buy one from the supermarket!

And yesterday our toddlers had a lovely time with glue, glitter and other assorted bits and bobs making mess whilst the Mum's all made an array of decorations out of pipe cleaners, toilet rolls and sticky stars!

I love Matilda's star picture (photographed with my toilet roll angel and pipe cleaner Christmas tree!!).