Tag Archives: craft

Dec14

Classic Christmas Cooking – Window Biscuit Decorations

Posted on December 14, 2012 by thestick81

I helped the kids in Mr 8s class make these at school, so thought we would give them a try at home. There is heaps of different recipes out there, so you can really make them any flavour you wants, but you want to choose a biscuit that doesn’t rise too much. We used a basic butter biscuit recipe.

125g butter, softened
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, at room temperature
2 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda.

I also added a sprinkle of cinnamon and all spice. I probably don’t need to tell you how to make biscuits. To be honest, they rose a little more than I would have liked, so might use a different recipe next time. The recipe also started with the usual ‘pre-heat oven’, but after mixing the ingredients you had to put the dough into the fridge for 45 minutes. What a waste of electricity having your oven running all that time?

Use any shapes you like, then a smaller shape inside. Pop a hard lolly (boiled lolly or jolly rancher etc) into the centre and bake on some baking paper at around 180 for only a few minutes. The lolly will melt in the time it takes to cook the biscuit. So simple.

If you live in an area of the world that is humid, these wont last long on the tree. So just eat them!

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: Ingredients

: Mr 7 rolling the dough

: Cutting out the shapes

: Place on baking paper and add lolly to centre.

: Poke a small hole in the edges if you’d like to be able to hang them on the tree.

: Bake

: Allow to cool

: The cookies

: On DDs stick tree

: Cookie ornaments

: The left over gingerbread men

: In the light

: Trying to catch the sun.

Dec12

Home Made Christmas Cards – Kids Craft

Posted on December 12, 2012 by thestick81

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Unlike most of our projects, where I get inspired by Pinterest or something else, I actually thought this up myself!

Really easy messy fun for all ages. Just take some coloured paper and draw some simple Christmas shapes. If drawing is not your thing, trace around some cookie cutters.

Cover inside the outline with a thick layer of craft glue. Smear around with a paintbrush or a finger tip if you don’t mind getting sticky.

Then sprinkle christmas theme sequins randomly over the glued area. Try to cover the outline as much as possible too.

When you can’t see much of the paper within the shape, give it a light shake. Then drizzle some more glue over the top to hold down any loose ones.

Allow to dry. We left them for 24 hours.

Once dry, Use some large sharp scissors, cut around the shape. If you can’t see the outline on the front, just follow the lines that went through the page as demonstrated above.

Once the shapes are cut out, we added some double sided mounting tape (commonly used for scrap booking) to give them a slightly more 3D effect on the card, but you could just use standard double sided tape or glue.

Position on the cards as you please, and there you have it. Sparkly Christmas cards. Mini ones of these would also make cute Gift Tags. Just line the other side with another piece of paper to write on and use a hole punch to make somewhere to secure with ribbon.

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: Cover with a thick layer of glue

: spread glue around

: Sprinkle heavily with sequins

: Covering with sequins

: Drizzle another thin layer of glue all over

: Allow to dry thoroughly.

: Once dry, cut out the shape

: Cutting out the shape

: The cut out shapes.

: Mounting tape.

: Finished product

: Finished cards,

: Hanging up.

Dec10

Christmas Cards, Kids Craft

Posted on December 10, 2012 by thestick81

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I couldn’t get my hand on any decent glitter paint pens to finish these, so this is just part one of the process.

To make these decorated cards, all you need is a hot glue gun, strips of wrapping paper, card and either some large buttons or as we used, some plastic jewels.

Cut strips of Christmas paper, approximately 3 – 4 cm wide and 30 – 40cm long. Fold back and forth to create a zig zag, approximately 1cm wide. As demonstrated by Mr 7 below.

Once folded the whole way to the end, glue both ends together. You can get the kids to do this with craft glue, but I chose to use the glue gun as it dries so much quicker.

Once the glue has dried, put a circle of hot glue onto the card where you want to place your decoration

Carefully turn the paper in at one side and out on the other, to create a flower type shape. Trying not to let it all go at the same time as you can see on the right above. The first one is the hardest!

Then cover the back of your jewel of button with hot glue and place in the centre. Repeat until you have as many decorations on each card as you like. You can experiment with different thicknesses of paper to create bigger and smaller ones.

Dec9

Teacher Christmas Gift ideas – part 2.

Posted on December 9, 2012 by thestick81

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This year, with changing schools and doing my Ed support certificate, I spent a fair bit of time hassling the ladies in the school office. They are all very lovely and didn’t mind, but I really wanted to say thank-you. Also, there is the little 2’s day care providers. They only go one day a week, but they are great staff, so I figure they deserve some token of our appreciation. I originally thought of making some sweets and wrapping them up to share around the office/centre, but after Mr7’s teacher claiming the doesn’t eat chocolate, I am damaged. So I decided to find something small, that you don’t feel obliged to keep, but you can use and most people like – a votive seemed just perfect. I shopped around all the cheap shops hoping to find something that was affordable without looking cheap and nasty, then went to Dusk and found 6 packs of Christmas themed votives for $16.95. Which was about what I had budgeted for.

I grabbed a packet of Ferrero chocolates to top them off. Then just stocked up with some Christmas ribbons and gift tags. Not really sure what was going to work. After some trial and error, this was the finished product.

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: The votives

: Adding the chocolate

: Wrapping in cellophane

: With beads, decided they were a bit too much though.

: Finished product

: Finished prodcut

: What we used (plus clear cellophane)

Dec3

Quick Kids Craft – Christmas Themed

Posted on December 3, 2012 by thestick81

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Mr 7 actually came up with this by himself. He was not home when we did the leaf pictures, but he used that idea for inspiration.

Some craft glue, a marker, coloured paper, leaves and flowers and a brush.

I drew the basic outline for him, while he and Ms 3 collected some fine leaves and flowers from the garden.

Spread the paint into the area you want to cover.

Then he painted the glue on.

and start sticking

The finished product.

Too easy! Next time we might frame them. Or cut out the shape and put it on some different coloured backing.

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: Some craft glue, a marker, coloured paper, leaves and flowers and a brush.

: Spread the paint into the area you want to cover.

: and start sticking

: Ms 3 and Mr 7 sticking on the flowers and leaves

: The finished product.

Dec2

Not your every day tree – Christmas Craft

Posted on December 2, 2012 by thestick81

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Not your every day tree – Christmas Craft

This idea actually came from a Woolworths Fresh Magazine idea, but I have also seen similar things on Pinterest and other blogs. I went slightly over the top compared to theirs – so unlike me.

We went for a walk around the local park lands and collected some sticks that I thought would be good for the job.

The branches

Then I gave them a light spray of white paint.

Spray painting the branches

Left in the sun to dry for a few hours, which resulted in this

The painted branches

The original idea I was looking at used a rusty bucket for the pot, but as I don’t have one of those laying around, I had to come up with something else. I found an empty plastic pot and decided we could work with that.

Covering the plastic pot with aluminium foil

I covered it in a layer of aluminium foil, before a layer of transparent cellophane just to give it a bit more shine.

Then a layer of cellophane to go with your colour theme

Once we were happy with the finish of that, we collected some rocks from the garden to fill the pot and hold the branches into position.

Filled the pot with rocks to secure the branches and to stop it tipping over.

Then it was time to decorate!

Decorating the tree

Outside, to try to catch the sparkle

With LEDs around the base

I am really struggling to get a good photo of this thing, just like the bauble tree, because the camera takes away all the sparkle. It really stands out in real life. I might have to read my camera manual.

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: The branches

: Spray painting the branches

: The painted branches

: Covering the plastic pot with aluminium foil

: Then a layer of cellophane to go with your colour theme

: The pot

: Filled the pot with rocks to secure the branches and to stop it tipping over.

: Decorating the tree

: Outside, to try to catch the sparkle

: The ‘Tree’

: With LEDs around the base

Nov30

Christmas Craft – DIY Bauble Tree

Posted on November 30, 2012 by thestick81

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I had been wanting to make one of these for years. And this year, we did! I purchased a large piece of card from the newsagent for $1.50 and cut out a half circle (i just used a piece of string to make a giants protractor). Secured with some tape and we are ready to roll

The little ones had the job of pulling off the strings and clamps, Mr 2 thought that way great fun.

I knew that hot glue gun would come in handy one day. This is the day. Mr 7 demonstrates.

Start at the bottom and work your way up. We did red purple alternations with every 5th ball gold. Trying not to put the same texture finish beside each other, but it becomes difficult to avoid

This is the back side where things don’t quite meet up. If I was to make another one, I would be more conscious of the size and make sure it fits the balls around perfectly – however, all is not lost as you can see next.

Once all the balls are stuck down start inserting the tinsel between the cracks. I actually ended up using 10 meters (30ft) of this thin tinsel. I didn’t imagine it would require that much. The tinsel hides any ‘mistakes’ very nicely.

And there you have it. It really needs a bigger star, but over all I am happy with the results.

You can buy similar things pre made at Kmart for $12, but where is the fun in that? All up the project cost around $16.

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Nov30

Easy Christmas Craft – Mini Christmas Trees

Posted on November 30, 2012 by thestick81

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Easy Christmas Craft – Mini Christmas Trees

Inspiration for this idea came from something I saw at Spotlight. They used buttons though, which looked good, but buying enough buttons for the project would have blown the budget. I can’t believe how expensive those things are?

Anyway, What you need.

styrofoam tree shapes, sewing pins, aluminium foil, sequins and sticky tape.

Spotlight also didn’t have any of the cone shape styrofoam in stock, so I bought that from Riot Art and Craft. They are available in different sizes, I just chose 3 small ones to avoid arguments.

Wrap the foil around the cone and secure with clear tape. I crumpled up a ball of foil before spreading it out on one, to create a more rippled affect. I actually prefer how that one turned out.

Once you have the foil secured and are happy with the finish, start placing the pins! Be careful when working at the top of the cone to point them down towards the bottom as you insert, so you don’t go straight through and poke yourself on the other side. The kids managed this fine, even Miss 3. We only had one ouchy, and that was actually me!

Thread sequins onto pin and insert.

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Nov19

Christmas Kids Craft, Flat Christmas Tree Decoration.

Posted on November 19, 2012 by thestick81

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Christmas Kids Craft, Flat Christmas Tree Decoration.

So our rainy weekend craft continued into Sunday afternoon. We started making Christmas decorations!

Materials; scrap card, and any shiny, sparkly or pretty things you have on hand! We had a pack of Christmas themed sequins from last year that came in handy

We just used a plastic cup to trace around, leaving a small section for the top of the bauble.

We all decorated 2 each. Some of the decorations had sticky stuff on the back, others required glue. The kids made sure they used 500 times more glue than they needed – as you’d expect.

Due to excess glue, we left them over night to dry. Yes, all that white stuff is glue.

Draw half the tree

Using a large piece of card board ($1.50 from a news agent), draw the silhouette of one side the tree, starting at the top of the page to get the most out of your $1.50

Fold over and cut out the tree to create a symmetrical shape.

Fold the card over and cut along the line, so both sides are identical.

Fold in half down the centre of the tree and cut along outline, to create a symmetrical tree. Or, if you’re not OCD about that kind of thing like me, just draw a tree and cut it out!

Loosely position everything to make sure it fits, then start sticking. We used double sided photo mounting tape so we didn’t have to wait even longer for glue to dry. The tinsel is stapled at each edge.

And there you have it!

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Nov19

Quick Toddler Craft – Tissue Paper Butterfly Mobile

Posted on November 19, 2012 by thestick81

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Quick Toddler Craft – Tissue Paper Butterfly Mobile

After 2 days of rain the daughter was really tearing her hair out – or was that mine? I had plenty of work to do, but figured I best take some time out to entertain her. Once again inspired by ABC Play School They were making paper butterflies to blow in the wind, so I thought we’d just extend on that idea.

What you’ll need for tissue paper butterflies

What you’ll need; tissue paper (crepe paper would probably work just as well) pipe cleaners, scissors, plastic ribbon and a coat hanger (not pictured)

Twist the paper in the middle

Cut squares or rectangles out of the paper and twist in the middle – as demonstrated by Miss 3.

Twist a pipe cleaner around the middle.

Twist a pipe cleaner around the middle. This is not entirely necessary, but I liked the addition of an extra colour and texture, as well as the antennae look it created.

Attach the string or ribbonAT

Attach your string or ribbon, keep attaching as many as you would like. We just did 3 on each string x 3 strings.

As a mobile

In the window

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And there you have it. Took less than 10 minutes to create and she thinks they are awesome.

Nov16

Easy Toddler Craft – Leaf Animals.

Posted on November 16, 2012 by thestick81

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Inspired by ABC Play School. Today we made leaf animal pictures. It was super easy with minimal mess.

Layla cuts some leaves off our pot plant

DD3 cuts some leaves from our garden.

What you need.

What you will need; Some coloured paper, leaves, marker pens, craft glue and scissors (craft eyes optional)

Draw some simple animals to add the leaves too, like this bird.

Draw the outline of some simple shapes on the paper using your makers.

Glue on the best shaped leaf for the job!

Start gluing on the leaves that best suit the picture.

We used the same leaf configuration each time to finish off this bird.

We used the tips of a China doll branch to create this picture.

Adding the finishing touches.

Adding some boggle eyes, because every kids loves those (ok, and maybe I do too)

One of my favourites

The finished products

The finished masterpieces, drying on a flat surface.

All dried and ready for display.

All dry and ready to display.

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Oct28

Snake Softie – a rainy Sunday activity.

Posted on October 28, 2012 by thestick81

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So my scrap material collection is looking quite impressive at the moment, I thought I’d give another softie a whirl. I was ready to make an owl or elephant, but DS talked me into a snake. That sounded easy enough to make with no pattern. We discussed how big he would like it and he picked out the colours (to match the colours in his room).

I free hand drew a template for the top ‘scales’ panel of the snake.

Then, with a bit of fiddling around, joined them together, flat edge to flat edge to make the top part of the snake – less the head;

Sewing along the flat side between each section (I only picked the wrong side once, lol)

Make the last panel only a half panel, so the head will eventually be facing forward. Once sewn, iron flat. Then lay on chosen fabric for underside of snake. Trace around the edge to make it the same size. I drew the underside of the head in at this point too.

For the top part of the head, I cut out and extra diomand shape, cut a slit into the centre of the head, and sewed the diamond in, to create a 3rd dimension. Don’t forget to add the eyes BEFORE you start stuffing. Hand stitch along the back of the neck (you can use this opportunity to tuck in and create a bend in the neck too if you like.

Really need to invest in a fabric pencil, to avoid those black lines! lol.

He’s a bit funny looking, but not too bad for a slap together job. DS thinks he is great, even with his crazy eyes.

Oct2

Halloween craft for the kiddies

Posted on October 2, 2012 by thestick81

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Another Pinterest inspired craft activity. Ours may not have turned out as well as theirs, but it was fun no less. Well, if you ignore the tonne of glitter that is brightening up the garden, house and every other surface within a 1 kilometre radius. I recommend you do this one outside!

Styrofoam balls, pipe cleaners, boogly googly eyes, pva or craft glue, black felt or card board, dress making pins to secure the wings.

Coat the balls with a thin even layer of glue using a paintbrush. Sprinkle a generous amount of glitter onto a disposable plate, roll ball until completely covered. Use a little more glue to secure eyes in desired position.

Samples of bats.

: Styrofoam balls, pipe cleaners, boogly googly eyes, pva or craft glue, black felt or card board, dress making pins to secure the wings.

: Every night sky needs a moon. We just made this with some recycled card board, glue and glitter.

: Coat the balls with a thin even layer of glue using a paintbrush. Sprinkle a generous amount of glitter onto a disposable plate, roll ball until completely covered. Use a little more glue to secure eyes in desired position.

: We just found this branch in the park near by. I would have liked to paint it black, but had no black paint on hand.

: Samples of bats.

: Gold bat

: Because 3 year old girls are not interested in making bats apparently.

Oct2

Sun Catchers – School holiday entertainment.

Posted on October 2, 2012 by thestick81

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Sun Catchers – School holiday entertainment.

I have a stupid amount of beads that I have collected over the last 20 years and the kids love playing with them. I picked up these ‘diamonds’ on ebay for just over $4 each including postage.

Sun catcher, miscellaneous beads and crystals, string or fishing line, scissors.

The kids couldn’t help themselves and had to smear their slimey little hands all over them as soon as we opened the mail. They are available in 9 different colours. I ordered these just for me and Layla, but now I have had to order another green and clear one for the boys.