Craft

Or 'cwaft' as some in the house might say!

He thinks, plans and designs in his head and then sits down to build a 3D model.  The 'camera' he built by himself, the 'frog' he got me to help wi the sticky tape but the rest is his own handy work.  I love that he feeds the frog by popping the end of the tube off and putting drawn food inside; simple, but clever.

The camera has interchangeable lenses too, a toilet roll as a prime lens and a paper towel roll as a zoom lens!

I know it is just stuff stuck together but I find it amazing that a 3 year old can take a three dimensional idea from conception to construction in this way.

This set of shelves for Blue's room has been in progress for so long that I am starting to fear he will outgrow it before we get in done.  A shame we don't get our craft done as quickly as Blue does!

Letters to Santa

I have been a bit slack in Blogging our Advent activities, but we have been doing various things.  We wrote letters to Santa via Australia Post.  We printed off the letter template to colour in and then I posted* them off.

Possum was a little worried when I couldn't read hers, but thankfully Santa is a little more magical than I am and I am sure he will manage well enough.

And now we await a reply!

*I really wanted to keep these, but thought it might raise too many questions :(

{seventeen} kids craft

I have some fabric crayons and a couple of extra screen printed panels from The Red Thread also bought at Sew it Together.  I had been saving them but thought they might make a fun activity for the children and this seemed like the most age appropriate craft option for them.

I will buy a couple of small frames and put them in their rooms.  They are both very excited to have made something for themselves with the 'special' fabric.

I love the different stages they are up to.  Possum likes to colour in all the spaces because she has not finished her craft if there is room for more.  Blue likes to do it all by himself and you get in trouble for trying to help at all.  I hope these will be a good reminder of these baby years for us all as they grow.

{five} colour

I get sick of sharpening them, but the children both love colouring in.  We have had plenty of wet days these holidays so the pencils have been busy.

Possum is waiting for a few nice Spring days so she can swap the pencils for the finger paints.

{three} kids craft

A few pipe cleaners and a couple of fluffy pom poms.  Glue on some eyes and we had a quick craft effort to combat the rain (lots of rain!) over the weekend.

One of these critters even survived the night tucked up in bed with Possum.  I am not sure how it ended up looking much the same come morning because I have slept with her, and it isn't easy.  She is a wriggler and likes to keep at least four points of contact with you as she moves about.

Easy Bunny Puppet

Keeping the Easter craft simple this year.  Cut out a bunny shape, draw eyes, whiskers and a nose and stick a paddlepop stick on the back to act as a handle.  Possum coloured hers in too for added fun.

You could use coloured match sticks for the whiskers, google type eyes (or buttons) and some cotton wool to make fluffy ears too.

Finger Paint, the Good and the Bad.

Good:

Still Good:

 

BAD!

No surprise here why finger painting happens in the afternoon before bath time!



In chalk related news, I love how much detail is starting to make it's way into Possum's drawing.  The other day she drew one with hair the whole way around it's head and said that it was the bad one.  In Possum's mind you can pick the bad guy by how much hair he has.  I wonder if that is why she told her Dad it was time to shave yesterday?

Christmas Clothes and Kids Swap

Awhile ago I posted about what Possum received in the Kids Craft Swap.  Yesterday's post contained Blue's swap package and he now has some fun 'special mail' too.

A wooden car he is playing with as I type.  Some iron on transfers which I need to buy some new tees for and some frog stickers.  I am excited about trying out the transfers, I have never used them before! 

Thanks Marie :)

Yesterday I blogged the Santa Photo.  This is the dress I made that Possum is wearing.

It is the Make it Perfect Pinny #1 which is the same pattern I used the year before.  I love that it lets me use a variety of fabrics.  Once again I modified it by adding buttons to the straps instead of leaving them as ties.

I didn't make Blue new shorts as last years still fit him.  I feel a tad guilty so might make him a new pair in time for Christmas Day.



Pasta Necklace

I think it was on the Buttons by Lou Lou blog that I saw this idea recently.

Pasta dyed in food colouring with rubbing alcohol added to help *fix the colour.

Dried on paper towel overnight, which just happens to be the same amount of time it took me to wash the last of the stained food colour off my hands.

They have been made into necklaces, sorted into colour groups and rattled  together to make 'music'.

I think there is plenty of fun left to have with these :)

*The one Blue took an experimental nibble on and drooled over did lose a bit of colour. 

Do NOT trust them with good clothes.

Toilet Roll People

These guys are a little bit cute :)  I tried drawing faces, but I have no skill in that department so I photocopied* these faces from my favourite fabric pattern covers and laminated them for extra durability.

We then used coloured paper to cover the toilet rolls for the 'body'.  The sky is the limit to what you could do here but with my two little ones being so small we kept it simple.  I think ribbon, wool, fabric and glitter pens would all be fun to try out one day.

A couple of slits in the top of each roll provided something to slip each head into and we now have a family of little people.

When these toilet rolls get ratty, it is a great excuse to craft some more :)

*Photocopying is probably against copyright, but I am hoping my toilet roll people don't offend the designers in question :)

Lacing Cards

Handmade Lacing Cards made from a children's book that didn't make it.

Plain coloured paper glued on the back, laminated and punched with my leather punch.

A shoe lace makes these perfect for small hands on a wet or windy day.

Dye Day

Last Thursday was Dye Day and we had a lot of fun with friends, food dye and wool.

Thanks to Em for hosting and taking the above photos, one of which I shamelessly snitched straight from her blog :)  It was wonderful to catch up with friends and create something with the children too.

Possum's wool above ready for me to knit into something and efforts from some of the others drying below.

It is wonderful to see all the different shades and colours produced all from food dye.

If you would like to have a go at dying your own wool using food dye, Suse has a great tutorial.

Modelling Dough

The smalls and I made modelling dough for some outside craft in the sunshine fun. I discovered (or rediscovered) that I have very little talent for such things but luckily the small people did not seem to notice and they had fun regardless.

As per my lack of talent, you may be surprised to find that the above photo is Possum proudly holding a blue bird in a nest*

1 cup salt

1.5 cups of flour

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons oil

food colouring

Recipe from the Play School Play Ideas book by Ruth Craft I picked up in a local op-shop.

This should keep awhile sealed in the fridge, and should set hard when it dries out, I hope so or these two Christmas ornaments might be a bit sad by December...

*Have you stopped laughing at me yet? 

My (Possum's) Creative Space

With one week (Eeeek!) to go until settlement my creative efforts are limited to packing tape and boxes.

Possum has been busy so this creative space belongs to her.

A $2 book from a $2 type shop and she has had hours of fun. 

The coloured circles up the top of each page hide water based paint so with paint brush in hand and small pot of water, Possum is getting in touch with her arty side.  I still have a couple of these books up my sleeve for toddler entertainment while we move :)

~~~

I did get this bag finished and felted, just to keep it a little bit about me ;)

For more creative spaces visit Kirsty.

Finger Puppet FUN!

Hope your weekend is full of Finger Puppet fun!

I bought 10 of these various little guys at the Wool Expo with the proceeds from my Tea Cosy. 

They are just too cute I think, and much too fiddly for me to knit given the teeny tiny size of them.

The others were camera shy...

My Creative Space ~ Kids Craft

We took advantage of a warm spot of Autumn weather to duck outside and make Goop, or 'Gooey Gooey Stuff' as the small girl excitedly called it.  The idea came from a copy of Australian Women's Weekly kid craft book I found in an op-shop and we will be doing this again when it is warm enough.

It was very messy but easy to clean up outside.  The girl had to pour it on her legs and feet, and then in her hair all the while excitedly chattering about what she was doing.  There are some other great ideas in that book which I will be sure to try out too.

It got much messier than these photos suggest but I got my camera out of the danger zone before the fun really started.

GOOP

2 packs cornflour

2 cups water

food colouring

Large container

Outside craft for old clothes.  Goop hoses down for easy cleanup.

Click over to the Home of Creative Spaces.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day snuck up on us this year.  We don't normally do much so that is ok.

I did manage to do some Valentine related crafting with Possum who had fun sticking coloured paper onto card for me to cut into heart shapes.  I stuck them on a branch which is in my little vase and I have handmade flowers, kind of.

I borrowed the idea from Kids Craft Weekly.

Recycling

I took last year's Christmas cards and chopped off the front.

A hole punch and some string turned them into a little Christmas booklet.

Possum loves to look at each colourful page pointing out various features from each.

I may even let her colour and draw on the backs of each page for even more fun.

Advent #4 ~ Cards

I think I am paper crafted out for awhile.

Kids Craft Weekly Christmas card swap made and posted off.

Possum had lots of fun sticking the paper onto the fronts, I added a fabric Christmas tree sewn onto the inside.  We both enjoyed receiving our first return swap card this morning!

And better late than never, thank you cards for all the well wishes received when Baby Bug was born just over 4 months ago.  The sewing machine was put to good use here too, as was the hot glue gun and button collection.

Cute aren't they?

I got the inspiration from here

Next task is Christmas cards, but I am not making them. 

Maybe next year...

The start of Christmas crafting

The small girl and I put in a lovely and crafty afternoon making Christmas cards.

We signed up for the Kids Craft Weekly card swap which means we have to make, and send out 10 cards, and then receive 10 handmade Christmas cards back. What a great way to start the festive season.

Our cards are simple, with Possum at nearly 2 years old simple is always good when it comes to craft. We mixed some green paint and glitter with some PVA glue and used this to stick red and green coloured fancy paper onto some cut up lunch bags. When everthing is dry we will stick these onto some blank card fronts.

We had lots of fun as evidenced by the cheeky and happy grin in the quick snap I got to capture our efforts :)