Jan10

DIY Guinea pig hide

Posted on January 10, 2021 by thestick81

We now have puppy pens for the boy and girl cages so the GPs have a huge grass run during the day. Creating shade is the new problem though. They love boxes on their side or with doors cut in them but any moisture and they are ruined. Pet shops sell tunnels like this made from soft pine, but at around $45 each and when you need several, I decided to have a crack at making our own. It was just as easy as I expected. For the next ones I will make them longer and not at tall. But definitely happy with the result so far.

We used branches collected from around the property, choosing the straightest ones we could find.

I then used a drop saw to cut them to roughly 40cm long. I then marked out lines on the workbench to use as guides for the drilled holes.

Then it was just a case of threading them onto some strong wire. Which the ever-so-helpful dogs wanted to join in on.

One all pieces were pushed down as tightly as possible I cut the wire and bent it into a small loop to stop them sliding off. Then just bend into shape. Easy as that.

Jan8

Upcycled pallet planters

Posted on January 8, 2019 by thestick81

Standard

As part of the never-ending garden makeovers going on around here, I wanted 2 large barrels. I needed something off the ground so that my darling chooks and dogs would not dig them up, and the plants in them would have some chance of becoming established. But then I saw how much barrels were and the idea went wayyyyyy down the list of priorities. I mean who is going to spend $200 to save some $3 petunias?

The blank canvas.

I happened to be at Bunnings just a few days after Christmas, and their pallet recycling pile was massive, presumably from all the extra Christmas stock. I grabbed a long pallet for another project then inspiration struck! I called Mr. SAHL and he was on board. What better reason to pull out all those power tools I buy him.

Unfortunately, heaps of the photos of the progress have gone missing, so what was going to be a step by step guide cannot be. But hopefully, this blog can be inspiration enough anyway. I was aiming for pots at least 70cm tall to deter the chooks. But you can make them any size you like really.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I was originally planning on painting them, but now I kind of like the rustic finish, even with the random chunks of blue. 🙂

And we have progress. The temporary fence is in place to keep the dogs and chooks out while the groundcover, lychee, and pomegranate trees get established. The middle section is where we will be building an aviary in a few months time. Stay tuned!

Jan7

A family that bees together, stays together.

Posted on January 7, 2019 by thestick81

Standard

A family that bees together, stays together.

Or something like that. 🤷🏽‍♀️

I have been wanting a beehive pretty much forever. Now that we live on a bit more land with a lot more flowers and fruit trees, even more so. But when do you have a spare $400 or so to splash out on a box full of insects? So, alas, it has been sitting on the Wishlist for some time. In a strange turn of events, a swarm of bees made house at Mr SAHL’s work this spring. A kindly man came and removed the swarm and a friendship was established. To cut a long story short, said bees will ‘bee’ coming to live with us in just a few weeks!

But with bees comes responsibeelity! I swear I’ll stop with the bee puns never. In preparation for our new little garden helpers, today we started to build their home expansion (they’ll be coming in a hive).

To save a few dollars, we purchased everything in kit form. It was ridiculously easy to assemble as Miss 9 and Mr 8 demonstrated.

The kids loved assembling the frames and inserting the eyelets with a hammer. The hand-eye coordination and fine motor exercises won’t harm them either ;). Tensioning the wires was left to the adults, but all in all, it was very simple.

They all wanted to help with painting the box, even the doggies, which my OCD struggled with, but hopefully, I can fix that on the final coat.

Overall it was a productive afternoon. It was so nice to not even have to ask the kids to help, they were actually interested and motivated. Let’s hope this motivation keeps up once the actual bees arrive!

May14

Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens.

Posted on May 14, 2018 by thestick81

Standard

I don’t know why, but I always seem to find myself at these gardens in autumn or winter. Annoying really as I would love to see them in full spring bloom. None the less, the gardens have a pretty impressive display of succulents, cacti and other odd specimens that are impressive all year round.

So if you are wanting to get out of the house for a few hours, pack up the picnic blanket and head down to the Mount Coot-tha Botanical gardens. Open 8am to 5pm daily, with an onsite cafe to grab a bite to eat if you don’t feel like packing your own lunch.

May13

Pockets.

Posted on May 13, 2018 by thestick81

Standard

The outcry surrounding women’s clothing and the lack of pockets is nothing new. It’s been a problem recognised by just about anyone that wants to carry like anything since forever. When I was younger I’d console myself with the idea that it was a money saving sacrifice. I can sew, pockets would be an absolute time-consuming bitch to add to clothing. Sounds reasonable? I’m all for a bargain and certainly couldn’t afford any designer labels to prove my theory. So, it was a justified sacrifice to affordable fashion I could live with. Then I had a baby boy.

Baby Levis Image Courtesy of Levi.com

Not being a fan of pastels and ‘soft’ baby fashion, he owned a pair of 000 jeans before he was even born. Yep, jeans with not one, not two, but FIVE functioning pockets. I guess newborns have a lot of things they need to carry, pacifiers, breath mints and all of their mother’s hopes of ever fitting back into their pre-pregnancy wardrobe or jumping on a trampoline again without their insides falling out. Big human clothes in miniature versions are super cute though, right? We can deal with the fact that our babies have more on-the-go storage options than us mothers for the sake of fashion? Lucky these milk-engorged breasts allow me to store my mobile phone AND a dummy in my cleavage. Sadly, when I whip the credit card out of those sweaty babies due to both arms being full of said pocketed up baby and other seemingly important stuff, the shopkeepers are less than impressed…

The lack of pockets sparks some pretty entertaining debate. My very favourite conspiracy theory is that handbag companies pay designers to leave us with nothing more than ‘fake’ pockets to force us to buy handbags. It’s a pretty solid theory when you think about it, and I do have a decent handbag collection, so it’s probably working for them. I doubt these designers have seen how excited we really get when we do find pockets, especially in a dress. Ohhh a dress with pockets. That is the stuff dreams are made of.

She’s just found a pocket on her dress and it’s made her day! Image courtesy of Kobomo

But do you know who else appreciates a good pockets? Dogs. Why else would my dogs new winter coat have pockets, functioning pockets?

That’s right, much to my pleasant surprise this winter I could purchase fully lined, semi-weatherproof, hooded with fake fur lining, dog coats for the grand total of $9. What a bargain. I mean the price alone was cause for celebration, but then I discovered not only that you could clip back the faux fur hoody, but it has a FUNCTIONING POCKET! That’s right, my dog no longer has to worry about where he will carry his emergency tampons, paracetamol, house keys or phone because he has an actual usable pocket on his back. Never mind that he has no opposable thumbs to get that shit out of his pocket nor the ability to reach his front leg around to that part of his back, but he can if he wants to! Yep, this is the world we are living in. Where dogs have pockets and women don’t. What the actual fucking fuck?

A fake pocket for aesthetic reasons I can appreciate, but a real pocket on a dog coat all for $9? Meanwhile women around the world are replacing phone screens every few months because they are constantly dropping everything they are forced to carry in their hands!

Even he thinks it’s ridiculous.

Feb24

DIY Party Favours

Posted on February 24, 2018 by thestick81

Standard

We only have parties every 3rd birthday in our house as organising parties for 4 kids every year would be a full-time job (plus I’d need a 3rd job to pay for them). So when we do have a party, I like to try to make it ‘next level’. This month my daughter will be having her 9th birthday party with 10 close friends at home. I thought rather than just the usual party bags filled with cheap lollies and plastic noisemakers, I’d try to make it a bit more grown up and special for them. Here is one of the ideas we came up with to include in the party favours. They worked out to $1 each and took about an hour for the 2 of us to put together.

You can purchase these packs studs in an assortment of colours and sizes from most Kmarts for just $2. With only 10 guests we just split a pack in half, but there is no reason you couldn’t break them down further if you were to have more guests.

Image from http://www.kmart.com.au/

The background ‘thank you’ note was created on PicMonkey which is a really fun and easy editing website that even the kids can navigate. I inserted the image into a Word document to make it easier to adjust the size and estimate how big they needed to be on an A4 page.

Once we decided on an appropriate size for our image, we simply printed and cut them out and stuck on the strips of card that came with the earrings, using a glue stick.

Then it was simply a case of transferring the earrings over to the new home pushing them through the pink layer of paper.

If you plan on doing this project buy one more pack than you need as unfortunately some of them did break as we were removing from the cards – but at $2 for 10 pairs it’s hardly worth complaining about nor making another trip to Kmart. 🙂

And there you have it. Thank you cards with a gift, all for $1 each plus a bit of ink and paper. Happy party planning. 🙂

Dec26

Rustic Clay Wind Chime

Posted on December 26, 2015 by thestick81

Standard

It has been entirely too long between entries. Life gets like that though I guess. I actually made this wind chime back in May, but have not had a chance to blog about it. Pretty sad when you can’t find a spare half hour in 7 months… but hopefully I will make up for that over the next 3 weeks while my schedule is not so hectic.

I am really happy with the way this project turned out, but it may not be something everyone can make at home, as you will need access to a kiln for the baking of the clay. I am lucky enough to have that access 🙂 The discs were made from potters clay, available from any good craft shop, about $30 for 10kg (it’s really heavy when wet!). I rolled some clay out to around 5mm thick, then cut the circles out using a metal egg ring. I then used a variety of leaves and flowers from around the garden, laid them over the clay and rolled over gently with a rolling pin, just enough to create the patterns as you can see.

Clay circles with leaf and flower prints.

Once baked and cooled, it was time for assembly. Mr 5 and Miss 6 were happy to help decorate the pieces of fishing line with some chunky transparent glass beads I had in my bead stash.

Threading the beads on fishing line before assembly

We then went on a hunt for the perfect stick, attached it to a chair and began assembly. I wanted the discs to taper down, so this was not something the kids could help with.

Assembling

Once I was happy with the positioning of each string, I tied them in a few more knots and decorated the top hanging twine. Cut off any loose ends and it’s done. As simple as that.

Each disc touches the next ever so slightly, making a lovely sound in the breeze, without being too noisy.

Wind chime

Beads in the sun – sun catcher wind chime

Clay and glass bead sun catcher

Dec8

Simple Christmas Card Ideas – Part 2

Posted on December 8, 2014 by thestick81

Standard

Christmas craft that doubles up as a math lesson! Hehe.

This activity really doesn’t require much explanation. All you need is some paddle pop sticks, sharp scissors or secateurs, some craft glue and card stock. Work out how tall you want your tree. If you want to make a pattern, decide on that now too. We just went random. Measure out on the sticks 1cm, then 2cm on the next one, 3cm and so on. Cut the sticks where you have marked them. Set them out on the table then add a generous amount of glue to your card, stick them down and you’re done!

We added a little green tree trunk to ours too, but that is optional. You could also add some other little squares of stick as decorations if you wanted.

: What you need.

: Work out the height of your tree for the card.

: Measure out each stick

: Cut the sticks

: Add a generous amount of glue to your card.

: Glue the pieces down.

: Allow to dry.

: Paddle pop Christmas Tree.

Paddle pop Christmas Tree.

Dec7

Simple Christmas Card Ideas, Part 1.

Posted on December 7, 2014 by thestick81

Standard

Here’s a simple card decoration idea that doubles up as a fine motor activity.

For all the card projects this year I am using plain black card stock. They were $2 for a pack of 12 at a $2 shop.

For this project you will need some coloured paper or thin cardboard, craft glue and any decorations you like (we kept it simple with an angel sequin)

Trace out a tree shape on the back of one of the pieces of paper.

Fold the other coloured paper in half to double it over then bring all 3 pieces together and cut along the outline so you end up with 3 identical shapes.

Using a pencil draw some lines across the back of one of the trees. Then tear carefully along the lines as demonstrated by Ms5

Cover the other colour tree completely with glue, then stick down every second piece of torn paper.

Allow to dry and secure to your card stock 🙂

Torn paper christmas tree.

Christmas paper

Trace out tree

hold pages together for cutting

identical trees

draw lines on back of one tree.

tear along lines

ripping paper

glue down.

Torn paper christmas tree.

Nov28

Christmas Craft For Kids – Cup Cake Christmas Trees.

Posted on November 28, 2014 by thestick81

Standard

Christmas Craft For Kids – Cup Cake Christmas Trees.

These are so easy to make and turned out super cute. Inspiration actually came form some fish scales I saw some students at school making.

All you need is some cup cake papers, cardboard (we used an old cereal box) glue stick (or paper glue) and scissors. We just used cup cake papers we had in the cupboard, the striped green is my favourite.

Draw and cut out a tree shape. For the first few, I drew lines as a guide for the rows so that Ms 5 didn’t just stick the papers all over the place. This created the layers or ‘tiers’. By the time she got to do her own at the end, she didn’t need lines anymore as she understood the process.

Just press down the flat part (the bottom) of the cup cake paper, not the corrugated part. Once the bottom line is covered, move up to the next row and repeat until you get to the top.

Ms5 decided to finish them off with a yellow paper sticking out the top like a star. Great idea!

What you need

Draw tree shape

Cut out tree

Cut papers in half then half again

Ready to stick

First row

second row

Almost done

Mr4 has a turn.

Ms5s white tree.

Rainbow tree

Now she has the hang of it.

Cupcake Tree

Toddler craft,

Christmas Craft

Easy Christmas decorations.

Cupcake Tree

Oct10

Freaking 4s, aka; walking talking contraception.

Posted on October 10, 2014 by thestick81

Standard

Freaking 4s, aka; walking talking contraception.

It has been a really long day… week, month actually. I feel like I have 99 problems and most of them are Mr 4.

I have always said 4 is the worst age, everyone talks about ‘terrible twos’, *coughbullshitcough*. 2 is a delightful rainbow filled walk in the park on the perfect spring day. It is just a cute, smiles and cuddles filled warm up run for 3 and then the ultimate evil that each child becomes, known as Freaking 4s.

Ironically this is also the 4th time I have been through this – saved the best ’til last too. So it’s not a case of a FTM shocked at this new unknown stage. I know there is another side – and on days like today, that and the cold bottle of wine waiting in the fridge are about the only thing that keep me going.

Everyone has a favourite and a least favourite stage and while I am yet to suffer as a parent of a teen, I will stand by 4 being THE worst age. (opinion subject to change in 5 years :p)

Newborns are hard work, all that crying and not knowing what is wrong, the lack of sleep, the post pregnancy hormone crash, but the hardest part is really adjusting your life and accepting that you will never sleep again. Once you get through that, they’re just divine. I’d honestly take 3 week old colicky triplets with poor latch over one 4 year old.

Then there is that awkward, not new born, but not mobile stage. Yeah, that has it’s down side, especially on your back. Like wrangling a hungry octopus out of water. Oh and introduction to solids, novelty wears off that after your first! But they sleep a bit more (with any luck) and they give lovely cuddles and the cutest toofless grins.

Toddlers, who doesn’t love a toddler? Baby proof your house and they’re just a walking babbling bundle of fun? Easy to entertain, no backchat, inquisitive, full of new milestone, every day brings a new surprise.

Aaand then we head to 2. You’ve still got the cute toddler thing, just with a side serve or attitude and cheek. They still have day naps if you’re lucky and toddler talk alone makes it worth it. “Quick mumma, da gwasspopper needs da ambwance to take him to da hopitable! The baby days diary gets a work out recording all that cute.

Three, helloooo big kid. Suddenly we have style, we have taste, we have empathy and compassion. We have worked out what we do and don’t want, even if that is chicken nuggets and not vegetables. We are ‘into’ things, we carry around little collections or things we find and sometimes leave them in our pockets for mummy to find – after she’s done the washing. Language is developing at a rapid rate, you can play games with them, teach them, you think you’ve just got this parenting thing mastered and your child will be the next president with all that new found independence and the way they are picking up everything you put down…

Until suddenly – 4. Oh emm geee. There is attitude, there is defiance, there is button pushing and testing beyond limits. There is too many times when you want to lock yourself in a room and cry. WHERE IS MY TIME OUT! The arguments, the back chat, the tantrums – hang on, didn’t we grow out of them 18 months ago? What the eff just happened to my perfect child? You start looking at them from different angles wondering if maybe there was a mix up at the hospital and would it be too late to get your money back?

But you deal, you hold back the tears, you keep calm, pick up your shattered parenting confidence and carry on. Because this is the year that really matters. This is the time to sort out your child before they go out into the big bad world to become part of the ‘system’. This is your last chance to make them the wonderful little human you want them to be. And thankfully, speaking from experience, it does get easier from here. For a few years at least 🙂

In the meantime, we have wine, we have the comfort of knowing we are not alone and that at the end of each day, they eventually go to sleep.

Sep30

A duck walked up to a lemonade stand…

Posted on September 30, 2014 by thestick81

Standard

and he said to the man, running the stand ‘hey, have you got any grapes?’

Not sure if it was inspired by this or too many episodes of The Simpsons, but Mr 9 wanted to start a lemonade stand. Only a few problems with this; we don’t have a supply of lemons, we don’t know how to make lemonade and we don’t have enough foot traffic outside our house to make it worth our while… But I didn’t want to quash his ambition altogether. So what can a small boy do to make some money? The answer was staring me down – literally. Breed fish.

I grew up with aquariums, my father also a fish hobbyist. There’s never been a time in my life that I have not had at least one tank (if not several) running. My kids already have many of the basic fish keeping skills having always had tanks around them too, so this seems like a good hobby to get them into. We are just sticking with live bearers at this stage, as they are the easiest as far as I am concerned. If they stay enthusiastic we can move on to more complicated fish later.

While it may not be a proper business for him as such, as I wont make him responsible for over head costs (food, electricity etc) the project offers lots more. Its about life, death, birth, cleaning and maintaining something, responsibility and science, with water testing, how temperature is relevant to breeding etc. So while they might only make a few dollars from it, the over all life experience will be much more beneficial, and they’ll have no idea they’re even learning. 🙂

Guppy ‘hatchery’ for the fat mummy fish

The main guppy tank.

Our first babies.

Mr 9s tank – plattys, mollies,

Mr10s Crimson Tides (cichlid family)

Ms 5s sword tails and Micky mouse platties.

Mr4 helping catch the heavily pregnant females

This is only the 3rd week of monitoring and taking extra special care of the fish to promote breeding and we already have over 30 babies. Now to keep them alive until they are fully grown!

Aug24

3 Easy DIY Fancy Dress Costumes.

Posted on August 24, 2014 by thestick81

Standard

It’s that time of year again mums and dads! The painful time when your kids want to dress up as something that you can’t possibly find at a costume shop. AKA Book Week! This year was made extra painful by the fact I only realised at lunch time the day before, that I TOO had to dress up for work! So I needed something we could whip up in one evening – these are the results.

I wanted Mr9 to go as Mr Bump, but apparently he is too old for that. So he wanted to be an MnM, even though that has nothing to do with book week…

I needed to be able to sit and write in my costume, so a cardboard front was not going to work. As poorly demonstrated in the photo, the body took its square shape while I held my hands up, which is all I needed for the parade part of the day. So it worked well. I simply worked out the length I wanted it, doubled it over then brought one corner across to make a right angle triangle. Cut away the excess and the hard part is done!

Then it was simply a case of drawing on the face and cutting a slit for the head hole. My ‘weights’ are old rope reals that we happened to have in the garage (for storing Christmas lights) and the hat was $2 from a junk shop.

Lay some card between the layers so the ink doesn’t run through to the back.

Draw some simple eyes

Finish with a mouth!

Cut a slit at the top for your head.

Mr Strong!

Little Miss Sunshine and the MnM are just variations of the same. Trace a circle (work out how big you can go for the size of the costume wearer) We made a compass with ribbon and 2 pens. Rather than painting, you could just use the correct colour card and maybe back it with some firmer cardboard, but we left this too last minute so had to paint. The yellow craft paint required a layer of white under it as it was too transparent alone to give you that very ‘bright’ yellow that LMS required.

We hand drew LMS facial features with pencil then went over them again with black marker. The hair was cut from felt, but if you didn’t have any felt you could just draw the lines on for her hair (that’s all she has in the books anyway). The plaits are 3 pieces of felt, hot glued to the back of the card.

Trace your circle

Add legs

We cut out before the final coat of paint.

Cutting out the shape

Final layer of yellow

Attaching the hair.

Finishing touches to the face.

Attach the hair.

Little Miss Sunshine costume.

The MnM is much the same, but we used some templates for the facial features from this blog. Which made life much easier. I cut away the eye lids however and traced them back on so they were a consistent red. Then it was just a case of fixing some straps to the back so they could be worn hands free. For this I simply attached some ribbon to the back with ample sticky tape. Leaving a piece of ribbon hanging out the bottom, which was then stuck over the top in the opposite direction to avoid the ribbon sliding out of the tape. The ribbons were still firmly secured at the end of the day.

Blow drying the paint to hurry up the drying process.

Cutting out the eyes

Tracing the eye lids onto the face

Attaching the straps.

MnM dress up costume.

I think given more time some white gloves for each of these costumes would have finished them off nicely. Other than that, not a bad outcome for a few hours work the night before. 🙂

Jul4

Egg Carton Daffodils – School Holidays Craft

Posted on July 4, 2014 by thestick81

Standard

School holidays! Woot! First cab off the rank, these simple little daffodils made from egg cartons.

All you need is an egg carton, paint, pipe cleaners or skewers, glue. I used split pins to attach the centres to the petals, but you could just glue them too. One carton makes 5 flowers.

Cut the centres first, as shown above. Then cut out 5 of the cups to make neat little flowers. Daffodils technically have more than 4 petals, but I just worked with 4 as the egg cups have a squarish shape and it was easier to cut that way.

Paint the middle sections inside and out. We used orange, but you could use any colour you like. Then paint the outers a lighter colour.

Once dry, I poked some holes through the centre of each piece and using pliers inserted a gold split pin (my fingers wouldn’t fit in there, so had to use pliers).

For the stems, pipe cleaners would have been easier, but I decided to use some skewers wrapped in green raffia. It gave them a more natural texture. I secured the raffia at each end with some sticky tape.

Then it was simply a case of attaching the stems to the flowers. I used hot glue for this.

Jun29

Wax and Water Colour Painting.

Posted on June 29, 2014 by thestick81

Standard

The motivation and creativity has been lacking majorly around here lately due to a heavy work load, but I set myself a challenge to blog at least once a month when I started this. So as June rapidly drawers to an end, here it is! Most people probably remember doing this at school, magic painting, hidden pictures, secret messages, all the same thing under different names.

All you need is some plain white candles, paper and water colour paints. We used the really cheap kids water pallet ones. Rather than just doing some random paintings or drawings, I figured we’d turn them into something at the end. So we printed out some sea animal colouring pages, stuck them to card and got decorating.

You really can’t see where you have been with the wax, but I encourage the kids to try to create patterns or shapes as best they could. Once they were finished with the candles, they went over each shape with some water colour paint. As you wash over the whole picture, the paint will not attach to the areas covered in wax, leaving you with an interesting effect.

Once dry, I cut out the shapes. Ms5 helped put holes in them with the punch and we strung them up on a mobile frame with some streamers to make an under water mobile.

In hind sight we should have painted both sides of the shapes, but Ms5 is more than happy with it. She’s trying to convince me to put a screw in the ceiling near the fish tank so we can hang it there. lol.

May25

DIY Hidden Object Game

Posted on May 25, 2014 by thestick81

Standard

I saw one of these in a game shop last Christmas, I thought it was very cool but not “I’m happy to spend $40 on this” cool. It just looked far too easy to make myself. Turns out I was right. You could make these in any shape or size, and fill them with just about anything. We had all these things in the house already, so it was fairly inexpensive.

There is several methods for colouring rice on the net, but I was looking for quick and simple. The blue and red we made with just food colouring and a dash of water, mixed well then laid flat to dry. The yellow we used vinegar in place of the water (some recipes asked for rubbing alcohol but we don’t have any of that). The yellow dried about 3 times faster than the other 2, so that is the way to go. Instead of placing the trays in the sun, I just put them in the oven at 50C with the door open. The red took about an hour to fully dry (it took the longest). I did stir it around occasionally to prevent any sticking and distribute the wetter rice.

While that way drying we hunted around the house for appropriate goodies to put inside. We came up with 20 items. The amount of items you want to use will depend on your container size. I think we could have easily used twice as many, but it was still a good ratio. The items varied in weight and texture.

It would have been easier to mix all the rice colours together prior to filling the container, but the kids enjoyed layering the different colours with a few objects between, then shaking to mix at the end.

The container we used was an old straw holder. You can buy them full of straws at the grocery store for around $4. It did have a hole in the top, but this actually came in handy as a place to insert a ribbon and attach the key to what is inside.

I took a photo of all 20 items, shrunk it, then printed and covered in clear contact. Attached to the ribbon on top. If you were to just use a clear water bottle or similar, you could just tie something to the neck of the bottle.

The key

Once everything was put in and we were happy with the level of rice, I taped it up nice and tight. And that’s it. Some of the lighter items are easy to find and often pop up to the top, but theres several things we have not managed to find again, like the smily badge and dinosaur!

The kids really enjoyed this project and were able to be involved every step of the way. It was a bit messy, but over all a success.

Mr 3 mixing in the food colouring.

Ms 5 spreading out the rice to dry

In the oven

Ms 5 filling the container.

The collection of objects.

Lid

Lid with ribbon inserted and tape over hole.

All taped up.

Some of the hidden items

I see and E!

A bottle of beads!

Lego!

The key

DIY Hidden objects game.

May5

The Craft Cupboard Overhaul

Posted on May 5, 2014 by thestick81

Standard

I’ll be honest, I rarely walk past a discount shop without picking up a little something for my craft stash. The only problem with this, is finding somewhere to keep it all. The side board I keep everything in was at breaking point, it had been for weeks actually. So it was time to dive in and sort everything out. It was a painful 3 hour job, but worth it!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

4 small bins worth of rubbish and a few hours later…

All tucked away neatly – what lies inside…

All the little things

Hoops, styrofoam shapes, foam frames

The evil glitter box. Have learnt the hard way to keep things in small bags.

Paint, sequins and all the little scrap booking type stuff.

Cutters, stensils and oven bake clay.

Card, tissue paper, crepe paper, left over easter things, paper lanterns.

Stamps, pompom makers and the hot glue gun.

That all fits nicely now, but it did mean my supplies have to start taking over another room.

Sewing kit, ribbon box, wool and twine box, tule, felt and glue stash.

Ohhh, looky, there is even some extra space! What ever will I fill it with? Mwahahaha!

Apr13

Easter Biscuits – Kids in the Kitchen.

Posted on April 13, 2014 by thestick81

Standard

Much to my children’s disappointment, I am not much of a sweet tooth. So I struggle to be inspired to make sweet treats. But I figured we should do some ‘cooking’ for Easter, and this seemed simple enough for my likings. 🙂

They kids had lots of fun making mess with the icing and creating patterns on the Arrowroot biscuits. I just bought ready made icing – because yes, I am that lazy. 🙂 Mini M&Ms and snakes for the stripes.

Apr13

DIY Bingo Craft Ideas

Posted on April 13, 2014 by thestick81

Standard

Bingo’s rich history can be traced all the way back to Italy, where a game known as Lotto D’Italia spread in the 1500s. In the late 1770s, the game spread to France, and later, in the 1800s, Germany picked up the format of the Lotto game and turned it into an educational tool, assisting students in learning spelling, history, and maths.

Years later, bingo became a hit in the United States, with hundreds of people regularly attending bingo halls in the 1960s. Today, bingo has become a multi-million industry. In the U.K. alone, the online bingo industry enjoys revenues of $557 million annually, prompting even British supermarket chain Iceland Bingo to launch Bingoiceland.com

Today’s bingo games are a far cry from the games held in Italy and Germany in the 1800s, but they can still be used as a tool to teach children.

If you still have old bingo sites lying around in your house, you can certainly use them to create great arts and crafts that you can use to teach your children different concepts. Here are some ways to make full use of those old bingo sets:

Glittered Wooden Bingo Chips

Image credit http://igottacreate.blogspot.com

This glitter project for bingo chips that can turn them into push pins for your children’s cork boards. The craft is fairly simple too: Collect all your used wooden bingo chips and apply clear nail polish to the edges. Roll the bingo chips onto the glitter and allow them to dry. Once the glitter and nail polish are no longer sticky to touch, finish the chips off with another coat of nail polish.

Bingo Dauber Easter Bunnies

Image credit http://kidsactivitiesblog.com

This Easter bunny art craft is an easy project that your kids can make. Give your kids a dauber each and give them a piece of paper to daub. Let them go crazy and daub wherever they like, but make sure they stop before the sheet of paper becomes too crowded. Next, grab some smaller markers and draw the ears, eyes, nose, mouth and limbs to your bunnies. You can use these Easter bunnies themed papers as a gift wrapper or as an Easter card.

Wooden Bingo Chip Charms

Image credit: April San Pedro

Create a one-of-a-kind charm with bingo chips. For this project, you will need bingo chips, eye hooks, alcohol ink, and jewellery charms. Pre-drill the wooden chips with a 1/32” drill bit. Apply alcohol ink to create a vintage look, then screw the eye hook on the pre-drilled hole. Add jewellery charms like a jade turtle, or a four-leaf clover.

Learning the Alphabet with Bingo Daubers

Incorporate lessons into playtime with this bingo dauber dot art from DLTK’s Crafts for Kids The site offers free printable bingo dauber projects. Print out these blank alphabets and let your child unleash their creativity using bingo daubers.

Apr6

Kids Craft, Easter Egg Sun Catcher / Stained Glass

Posted on April 6, 2014 by thestick81

Standard

Kids Craft, Easter Egg Sun Catcher / Stained Glass

Inspiration for this project came from Alpha Moms blog. I thought I’d adjust it into an Easter themed project, given it is already that time of year.

All you need is some of the whitish milk or juice cartons. We actually used a cordial bottle for the grass. The stickers on the milk bottle where quite hard to remove and left a sticky residue. I managed to remove this with some mineral turpentine.

Once you have your clean pieces of plastic, draw or as we did, trace your shapes using a black permanent marker (Sharpie etc). Then let the kids colour as desired. Once coloured, cut away the extra plastic and you’re done! They turned out even better than expected.