Showing posts with label crafts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crafts. Show all posts

Wednesday 24 April 2013

Super speedy craft, bottle top bug!

Well this morning we managed to squeeze in a super speedy craft, as well as wash the dishes and hang out the washing during babies quick nap! I like to try and do something with my 3 year old while he's having a sleep so this is what we did...


She has since been playing hide and seek with him in the garden - 15 minutes well spent! X



Monday 14 May 2012

TinyTigs – Monthly kids crafts to your door

This weekend my little girl received a lovely treat through the post – a craft pack from TinyTigs for us to test out and review. The parcel was personalised to my daughter which was a lovely touch and she was really excited to get some post just for her!

TinyTigs is a really great idea, started by Caroline, a mum of 2 girls, who loves crafting and understands that for some people it can be a tiny bit daunting! For a monthly fee TinyTigs  send you a craft pack every month which includes everything you need for a minimum of three projects (except the glue, but that's something most people have about the house anyway). She has tried to make the packs as accessible and un-daunting as possible and after trying them out I can confirm that they are not at all scary!

It is perfect for parents who enjoy arts and crafts with the kids but struggle come up with ideas of what to do next, or for time strapped mums like myself! I like to try and do one crafty thing with my daughter on my days off and I really try to maximise our time together, which is always hard when there's shopping and housework to be done! This just makes it all so easy, the packs contain instruction and all the craft bits you'll need, so there's no hunting about for things... just straight into the fun!

Here's what we discovered when we opened our parcel:



















Our surprise crafts to make were: a gold paper crown, tissue paper flowers in a wall vase, and some union jack flag bunting. Squiggle immediately picked up the crown pack and very excitedly wanted to make it straight away... I think it was the sparkly gems that did it!

It was very easy to pop the crown shapes out and the craft was nice and simple so she could get creative with all the decorations that had been given to her. I have to say also that it contained the best glitter I have ever seen, nice and chunky so it wasn't everywhere and was easy to tidy up! There was a second crown in the pack and we have plenty of decorations and glitter left, so we are going to make that one next week! I would say this was great fun for her age to do with mummy or daddy but it would also be enjoyable for an older child too, who could get creative by themselves.



There are some reasonable price packages and what I thought was great is the option to cancel at any time, there is more information on their website: www.tinytigs.co.uk

They also run a monthly TinyTigs kid's competition to inspire the little ones which sounds great fun and if you are quick new subscriptions gets a free PVC painting coat.


I'm really looking forward to us making the flowers together and I am saving the bunting for our jubilee decorations. I'll post the pictures when we make them! 

I love the fact that the May pack activities are really relevant to the month, it means we'll get lots of value out of the crafts after we make them. Squiggle with be wearing her crown and waving her bunting come jubilee weekend!

Stress free, happy crafting – hurrah!



You can also keep up to date with TinyTigs news on twitter @Tinytigs





Wednesday 9 May 2012

It's not going to stop raining so...

...lets do some sponge painting!

It's cheap, it's messy, and it's very fun (especially when you are 2!)
My little one really got stuck in doing this, so much so I've hidden the sponges for a few days so we don't have to do it every time it rains!

I got our sponges from Tesco, they were only about a pound and a pound well spent. We used some Galt poster paints for the colour and then drew round them in pastels afterwards.

Sorry I didn't get any photos of the printing in progress... messy hands!


























Tuesday 13 March 2012

Mother's Day bubble cards

I love it when the sun comes out and you can get out in the garden to do your painting. 
Sunday was glorious so we did just that!

We did some simple bubble paintings which I had an idea we could easily turn into bunches of flowers for our mother's day cards for granny and nana. I thought Squiggle would love this as she loves blowing bubbles and gurgling her drink through a straw. I was a bit worried she would slurp it by mistake so I tried food colouring instead of paint - worked a treat!


In our mix we had...
A squirt of washing up liquid
A splash of food colouring
Some water.




I'm sure everyone remembers doing this a school 
but just in case you missed out here is what we did:


We mixed it all together in a plastic cup and then using a straw blew great gurgly bubbles till the paint mixture started to bubble over the top of the cup. We then pressed some white paper on top (Squiggle was especially good at this bit). She really wanted to get creative with her straw and add some wiggly lines too!

Once dry I added some simple stalks on with a green pastel crayon and some leaves so the granny's could tell what they are!




All that's left for me to do before Sunday is trim and mount them on the card. Inside the card I'm going to stick a photo I took of my little artist blowing the paint bubbles with the caption "A Squiggle Creation, 18th March 2012". I think my granny and nana will find that quite amusing and will make the card into a nice little keepsake!

Saturday 25 February 2012

Book Marks: Tiddler the Story Telling Fish

Tiddler the Story Telling Fish
Julia Donaldson, Axel Scheffler


I had walked past this in book shops so many times. When Squiggle was really small I had a quick look at the board book and the writing was so tiny I was put off without even reading it. I hadn't considered it since until my sister brought her the larger version of the book when she visited the other week. And that was it. We have been completely Tiddler mad ever since! 


It is a really charming story, just about the right length for my 2 year old, and entertaining enough for both of us. It tells the story of an imaginative little fish who is always making up stories to excuse being late for school, until he finds himself in a real life scrape and lost at sea. He finds his stories have travelled across the sea and he's able to follow his story home. It's really captured Squiggle's imagination, she's been making up wonderfully silly stories ever since! 


The rhymes are a little more sophisticated than some of her other books which is great for her language. Trying to put my finger on why she loves it so much, I think it must be down to Tiddlers slightly mischievous personality, the appearance of all her favourite ocean creatures, and the fact he gets 'stuck'. She loves things getting stuck and having to escape or be rescued, it's so funny! Is this a running theme with all toddlers or just mine?!


Whatever the reason she has absolutely fallen hook line and sinker for this tale (check me and my punns out). Our book came with a CD and I'd really recommend this version, we've listened to it lots in the car and she's enjoyed swimming around pretending to be Tiddler when listening to the game. Heck, we've even made the fish tank with the characters supplied in the back and it has given her a ridiculous amount of fun. Now that's a book that really delivers it's moneys worth!









Wednesday 15 February 2012

Happy Valentines

Daddy's best ever valentines card, his words not mine
(worth breaking my no glitter rule for then!)