Mar19

Pom Pom Easter Wreath

Posted on March 19, 2014 by thestick81

The girls at All Tizzies Up do love a pom pom or 700! Here is a simple easter wreath they put together using basic craft materials and a pile of pom poms!

Card and hand made pom poms

The pom pom maker.

Trace out wreath to desired size

Cut out.

Attach pom poms using hot glue, as close to gather as possible.

Continue until wreath is completely covered.

Attach some ribbon to the back for decoration and to hang wreath

Create a bunny face from pipe cleaners and felt.

Attach to the wreath again with hot glue.

Mar14

Make Your Own Easter Head Bands

Posted on March 14, 2014 by thestick81

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The girls at All Tizzied Up had a busy weekend doing Easter craft. Their first creations were these cute little hand made head bands.

Mum has taken step by step photos that do all the explaining themselves.

Felt, plain headband, ribbon, scissors and pipe cleaners.

Trace around your ear shape

Cut out

Do the same again with your ear centre.

Cover the head band with ribbon in your choice of colour.

Twist pipe cleaners

Once in position, glue the 2 sides of the ear together,

glueing ear.

Add the centre

And there you have some easy bunny ears

Some other Easter themed variations.

Easter Chicks

Preview

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Mar3

Make Your Own Bottle Top Stamps

Posted on March 3, 2014 by thestick81

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Here’s a super quick and easy activity to put together to keep your toddlers and preschoolers entertained. All you need is some bottle caps and foam stickers (available from most $2 shops and craft stores). If you don’t have a stamp pad, you can spread out a thin layer of paint on a plate or add a few drops of water to a water colour tray like we have.

Preview

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Mar2

Cardboard Roll Easter Chicks – Kids Easter Craft.

Posted on March 2, 2014 by thestick81

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Cardboard Roll Easter Chicks – Kids Easter Craft.

I’d like to say I came up with this all on my own, but that would be a lie. Ms5 and I made some owls inspired by this post from Kerrys Craft Blog. It was from this concept that I came up with these easter Chicks. I thought the fact you can hold eggs or treats in them was ideal for an easter craft project.

All you need is some coloured paper, cardboard rolls, tape and glue. You can make them just as cute without the feathers, goggly eyes and pipe cleaners, but if you have some of those handy, you could use them like we did too. The main difference between these and the owls is that the top and bottom folds are in opposite directions to each other, so the head comes to a peak in the middle rather than making two ears like the owls have. The rest of the instructions can be found by running your curser over or clicking on the photos below.

This is how you fold the ends in, but first, cover your roll with coloured paper.

If you are adding legs, secure them in before folding the bottom in, with tape or hot glue.

Attach the head feather to the inside of the top of the roll before folding it in.

Ms5 cutting out the paper circles using a 1″ punch.

Starting at the bottom, run some glue or double sided tape along and attach your first row of paper circles.

Work your way up in layers with the paper feathers then attach eyes and a beak. We made this beak from pipe cleaner, but paper looks good too.

Cut down some feathers to make little wings.

Attach the feather wings with hot glue or double sided tape

We also attached a tail to the back.

Cut a small sec on of pipe cleaner then twist it around let to make a foot shape.

Fill with eggs or just use as decorations.

Easter Chicks. Paper craft.

Mar2

Looming Up A Storm – Our Rainbow Loom Gallery

Posted on March 2, 2014 by thestick81

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If you have kids over the age of about 4 and you have not yet discovered Rainbow Loom, I highly recommend getting yourself… I mean THEM some. Even the boys in my house get into it. I won’t bother doing any tutorials because there is thousands out there already, check out youtube for videos on just about anything you can think of. We just make bracelets mainly, but you can make charms, pencil grips, animals, flowers, heaps of different things.

It will keep the kids entertained for hours. You can pick up small bags of bands from cheap shops, or bags of 600 bands from spotlight or ebay for around $5. Each bracelet requires 80 to 100 bands, so while 600 might sound like a lot, you’ll go through them quickly once you get addicted!

Here is a few of our creations.

Mar1

School Hair Clips and Hot Glue Burns.

Posted on March 1, 2014 by thestick81

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So Ms5 started big school this year and she has been wearing lovely hair bows every day thanks to the wonderful All Tizzied Up. But I figure at the rate we lose hair bands in general, she will soon be requiring more. So I thought I’d give making some a go.

I ordered a stack of plain clips from ebay, I think it was $5 for 100 or something equally ridiculously cheap. The ribbon was the only kind in the school colours that I could get my hands on at the local $2 shop. The various widths limited my design options, but I am pretty happy with the results for a first attempt.

I have been warned by the pro not to get addicted! I can see how easy that might be though! Beside the row of buttons one, they are all basically just loops or figure 8s of ribbon, glued on top of each other. The buttons nicely cover up the mess in the middle too! Might have to watch some tutorials on other kinds of bows when I get my hands on some more ribbon.

By the way, just in case anyone was not aware, hot glue burns like fire. Yep, true story, just ask my finger.

Feb28

Bugs and Bees and Butterflies! So Sweet!

Posted on February 28, 2014 by thestick81

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Bugs and Bees and Butterflies! So Sweet!

Check out these cute bugs the girls at All Tizzied Up put together on the weekend. Made from pipe cleaners, pom poms, wooden pegs, goggly eyes and tulle. So simple and so cute!

They have kindly taken step by step photos so you can be inspired too, to create your own colouring creepy crawlies.

Feb27

Soup Mix Scale Creatures, Sensory Craft

Posted on February 27, 2014 by thestick81

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I actually stole this idea from Mr3s current favourite show, Mister Maker. We used soup mix, but you could use lots of different things, dry lentils, rice, couscous, anything that is going to give you a unique texture and that is fun to run through your hands.

I just printed out some basic shapes from the internet. Keep them simple as you’re going to cover up any detail anyway. Smear the area with some craft glue and attach an goggly eye. Then let the kids sprinkle the mix over the rest of the glue area to completely cover it. Gently shake off any excess into the bin. These took about 24 hours to dry. Once fully dry, cut out. We created a simple background with some coloured paper and put them in $2 Ikea frames.

Feb26

Easy Sun Catcher, Kids Craft

Posted on February 26, 2014 by thestick81

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Everyone loves a sun catcher – well according to Pinterest they do! This is basically the same concept as the Valentine Hearts we did a few weeks back, but instead of random shapes, we used a punch to make stars and circles etc from the cellophane. Once laminated, we cut out smaller shapes and hung them from a branch with some beads.

Ms 5 cutting out the shapes with a punch

Sprinkle over the laminating sheet,

All spread out

Ready to go through machine.

Trace out some shapes with a marker then cut out.

Cut out

Hang on fishing line or string of your choice

we added some beads for extra colour

Sun catcher kids craft.

This is yet another almost impossible thing to photograph, it looks so much more bright and colourful in real life. I don’t know why I keep doing this to myself, or maybe I just need to do a photography coarse, or even read the instructions for my DSLR…

Feb3

Kids Valentine Craft, Love Heart Entrance – Bubble Painting.

Posted on February 3, 2014 by thestick81

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Kids Valentine Craft, Love Heart Entrance – Bubble Painting.

We have done a bubble painting project before for Easter, it is so easy and the results are always cool, so we have tried it again this time just using pink. We also used some pink paper as well as the white, where as last time we just used white paper.

Valentine Door Hanging,

Again I cheated and printed out some heart shapes, rather than drawing them all just so all the sizes were consistent. You could obviously trace around a cookie cutter too, but hey, did I mention I am lazy? I didn’t really measure out the ingredients for the bubble paint, it really was a squeeze of dishwashing liquid, splash of food colouring and a splash of tap water. Then let the kids blow bubbles in the mixture until the bubbles come up over the top of the bowl. Get them to quickly place the paper gently over the bubbles and the patterns will transfer to the paper. Instead of cutting each shape out first this time, we did the painting then cut them out after they were dry. Then it was just a case of attaching them to some gift ribbon with tape. I stuck them to the wall with blue tac.

Ms5 and Mr9 blowing bubbles in the solution

Bubble patterns, left to dry.

Cut out and attach to some string with tape.

Bubble painting

Valentine Craft

Hearts on a string.

If you wanted to make these hang in a door way, it would be a good idea to paint both sides of the paper, so they can spin and still look pretty on both sides.

Feb2

Kids Valentine Craft – Stained Glass Hearts

Posted on February 2, 2014 by thestick81

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Kids Valentine Craft – Stained Glass Hearts

I was determine to do some Valentine craft today with the kids before we ran out of time. I had an idea in my head of what I wanted to do, but we couldn’t find the type of paper I needed. While picking up some other bits and pieces from the grocery store, we found A4 laminate sheets on special and decided to grab some for the craft cupboard. I had a look around Pinterest for inspiration and then it finally came to me, lucky we grabbed those sheets!

The steps are pretty self explanatory I think, but you can see more instructions by clicking on or running your mouse over each photo below.

Ms 5 cutting the cellophane up into squares.

I drew a large heart on the back of some silver card then cut it out with scissors.

I then cut the centre out with a Box cutter.

Ms5 placed the pieces into the laminate sheet, using the middle of the heart under to give her a rough guide of the area she needs to cover.

Mr3 having a go, not quite understanding ‘don’t crumple them up!’.

Ms5 puts the close sheet into the laminator.

Mr9 prepared the heart boarder with double sided tape.

Double sided tape on the frame.

Mr9 cuts away the excess ‘glass’ from the frame after sticking it down.

The back.

Stained glass heart window.

The similar projects I have seen on Pinterest use clear book contact, which you could also use if you don’t have a laminating machine. The laminate sleeves give a much clearer finish though. I was worried at first that the cellophane might melt as it went through the heat, but it was fine.

Feb2

Ribbon Roses, Valentine Craft

Posted on February 2, 2014 by thestick81

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All Tizzied Up has taught her daughters how to make these ribbon flowers just as she did when she was a kid. Very cute and pretty easy once you get the hang of it.

All you need is some ribbon (thickness will determine how big the flower head ends up being), some felt if you would like to add leaves, styrofoam ball, wooden skewer and some pipe cleaners for the stem. Step by step photos and instructions can be found by running over or clicking on the picture gallery below.

Start by folding your length of ribbon at a right angle. These ones are made with lengths of ribbon around 50cm.

Continue to fold the ribbon over itself one side at a time

You should end up with something like this!

Grab the ends and pull one side only.

Until you end up with something like this!

Secure the rosette with some hot glue or a loose stitch.

Cut ball in half,

glue to felt, to create the back of the flower.

Cut out some leaves,

glue to underside of flower. Insert skewer.

Wrap skewer with pipe cleaner for colour and texture, or you could just use a green skewer.

Ribbon Rose,

Jan25

Valentine Craft, Love Heart Door Hanger Part 2

Posted on January 25, 2014 by thestick81

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Valentine Craft, Love Heart Door Hanger Part 2

This is another variation of our earlier Valentine Door Hanger , the main difference is rather than hanging the hearts from strings, we hot glued them to a flat ribbon. The finer details can be found in the previous post or by hovering over the images below.

Method and recipe for making the hearts can be found on the previous blog entry.

kneading the dough.

Bake for 2 – 3 hours at 120C

roll out to 7mm thickness and cut shapes.

Mr3 painting

Ms5 painting the hearts

Create a loop that will sit flat against the door.

Jan21

Valentine Craft, Love Heart Door Hanger.

Posted on January 21, 2014 by thestick81

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Valentine Craft, Love Heart Door Hanger.

We made 2 different variations of valentine door hangers, but both styles use the same materials. The hearts are made from salt dough, the same as those DIY Christmas ornaments you see all over Pinterest. There is plenty of recipes and methods available online. The bows are a basic bow that again you’d see on Pinterest. There is hundreds of bow tutorials all over the internet too, but I kind of made it up as I was going along.

We used the following recipe

1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup fine table salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2/3 cup chilled water

Mix all ingredients as you would biscuits, using some extra flour as necessary along the way to stop it sticking. Roll out 7mm thick, cut into shapes then bake at 120C for 2.5 to 3 hrs. Once cooled, we painted them with craft acrylic paint.

The top bow feature for this one was made by cutting 4 equal lengths of ribbon, putting a small line of hot glue in the centre of one at a time, folding each end into the middle to create a single bow shape. Then doing the same with the next ribbon, pilling them up as I went. You can see this in the photos. Finished off with a button.

Then it was just a case of threading the hearts, adding some extra ribbons and glueing all together at the back.

Mr 8 in the kitchen making salt dough (he did this all by himself, it is very easy)

kneading the dough.

roll out to 7mm thickness and cut shapes.

Bake for 2 – 3 hours at 120C

Ms5 painting the hearts

Mr3 painting

Create a loop that will sit flat against the door.

Small line of glue in the middle,

fold in each end onto the glue strip.

Finish off with a button

Jan18

Sew-less Softie. Easy Craft Project.

Posted on January 18, 2014 by thestick81

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This was one of those moments I love, when something just pops into your head and you think ‘yes, yes, yes I know what we’ll do!’ and it WORKS! Originally it was supposed to be an octopus (8 legs) but Mr3 is calling it a spider and I think it looks a bit like a jellyfish, so what ever floats ya boat I suppose!

Mr8 chose green fabric, but I really wish we had used something a bit more fun. The purple and white string livens it up a bit though. Just run over or click on each photo for the steps.

All you need; Large piece of fabric, stuffing, scissors, marker, rubber bands, cotton or wool, eyes (or you could draw them)

Trace out a large outside circle and a smaller inside circle. We used a hula hoop and large saucepan lid.

Cut out the large circle only

Using a ruller or similar, make 8 sets of 3 lines around the middle circle as shown.

If they cross over a little, just split the distance as seen in picture.

Cut out the triangles in between

then cut the strops, leaving you with 24 strips around the centre circle.

Place stuffing on the lined side and gather the fabric around

Work out where you want your eyes to go and mark,

Release the stuffing and insert eyes (you need to access the back of the fabric to fasten these type of eyes.

Stuff again and temporarily secure with a rubber band. Add any extra stuffing to achieve desired shape and feel.

Once you’re happy with the body, go over the rubber band with something more permanent.

Plait the legs, I secured with more rubber bands, but you could use matching string.

Then it is just a case of decorating to make it the creature you want. I threaded some large loops through the head.

Then cut them in half and tied to each other to secure.

I also hand stitched a mouth in, but if you are not handy with a needle and thread, you could just use a permanent market or glue a button etc on instead.

Octopus softie.

Jan17

Turn Recycled Cans into Cute Garden Ornament

Posted on January 17, 2014 by thestick81

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Turn Recycled Cans into Cute Garden Ornament

This little piggy went to market… And this little piggy just wants to play in the garden! How cute is this? Made from recycled cans and a tin bucket, some pink paint, wire and a few screws!

The assembly process was very similar to the Tin Can Men from a few days ago. You can see how they did it in the pictures below. I want one!

This clever school holiday project is bought to you by All Tizzied Up. If you are in Australia and in need of some bows, check out their page.

Jan14

Heart Garland, Valentines Craft Project

Posted on January 14, 2014 by thestick81

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Valentines day is not a huge thing here in Australia, like Halloween (we obviously don’t have Thanksgiving or 4th of July celbertons either) but it is one bandwagon I am willing to get on for the craft side of things at least. Also willing to accept all donations of fine jewellery and flowers, lol.

I originally wanted to make these 3D, but I couldn’t work out what to use as a frame for them that could be removed late (like a balloon), so I just went with flat ones.

The whole things was a bit of an experiment for me too, as I have never played with liquid starch before (took me 6 months to even find it). The white ones I just used straight starch, and the red ones I used a corn flour and starch mix, roughly 50/50, with a dash of food colouring. The ones with the corn starch turned out much firmer, but the white ones were still firm enough to work with. Once completely dry, I traced out heart shapes with a black marker using cookie cutters. Cut the shapes out with sharp scissors and threaded them up – ready to hang.

Corn starch, (corn flour) Liquid starch, food colouring, doily or lace.

Soak doily in solution and lay on a non stick surface

Place in the sun to dry

Demonstrating how firm the dried product is.

Trace out shapes on back side, cut out.

Thread, I used coloured cotton because I couldn’t find my fishing line

Doily hearts,

Valentine Garland

Heart Garland

Valentine craft

Valentine Garland

Jan13

Tin Can Garden Men! School Holiday Project

Posted on January 13, 2014 by thestick81

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Tin Can Garden Men! School Holiday Project

I must say I am quite jealous of all the projects the girls at All Tizzie Up are doing this holidays. I have been so swamped with work and other obligations I just haven’t had the time or energy to get any of the things I wanted to done. But that will change! In the meantime, I am very happy they are helping keep my blog active! Here is some cute little tin can men they made using recycled cans, wire, paint, beads and some bells.

Watch the slide show or click on the images for step by step instructions to make your own recycled can garden critters.

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Jan13

Toddler Craft, Bottle Cap Beetles

Posted on January 13, 2014 by thestick81

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Here’s a cute fine motor activity for the little ones using recycled objects from around the home. Made by All Tizzied Up over the school holidays.

Hover over or click on the images below for more details.

Bottle caps of your choice, craft glue, a round piece of card board or plastic, pipe cleaners and goggly eyes

Let the kids glue the caps all over the circle shape

Glueing bottle caps

Glue goggly eye into caps at the top.

attache pipe cleaner or paddle pop legs using PVA or hot glue

Attache ribbon to hang

Jan3

Rainbow Tutu Bag. With Step By Step Instructions.

Posted on January 3, 2014 by thestick81

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Rainbow Tutu Bag. With Step By Step Instructions.

How cute are these? And so simple to make if you can get your hands on a few cheap materials. All Tizzied Up and her girls put these together as little Christmas gift bags.

All you need is some tulle in your choice of colours, a cheap elastic headband and some small calico or reusable bags (available at most $2 shops) and some ribbon or other embellishments if you choose. Oh, and a hot glue gun, of course!

Cut the tulle into lengths long enough to reach the bottom of your bags when folded over. For these bags, that was 30cm. You can buy tulle in 15cm wide rolls, this makes the job a lot easier than cutting the strips from a large piece, it is quite fiddly to work with. Fold the now cut strip of tulle in half and push the folded part through the bottom row of the head band so it is poking through a little, then thread the 2 loose ends through the loop you have just created and pull tight. Repeat this process right around the head band. Stretch over the bag and hold in place with a few spots of hot glue.

For the embellishment on the above bag, several ribbons were secured with hot glue, then piled together and stuck down, finishing off with a fabric embellishment. You could use anything though, buttons, curly ribbons, or just leave it as a plain skirt. Here is another example that All Tizzied Up made for my DD as she is a huge Peppa fan.