Tag Archives: diy

Nov28

Easy DIY Christmas Table Centrepiece

Posted on November 28, 2013 by thestick81

These were so quick and easy to make and I could not be happier with the results.

I picked up this wool a while back with nothing particular in mind, I just loved the colours. The styrofoam tree shapes are available just about anywhere at this time of year. These came from a $2 shop. However, there’s no reason you couldn’t just make a cone shape from cardboard and achieve similar results.

I tied a tight knot in one end to stop fraying, then pushed through the wool and down into the middle of the cone. Then gently began wrapping the knit around the top of the cone, before fastening again a few rows down so that it doesn’t spin off. Continue down the full length of the cone until you reach the bottom. Cut with enough room left over to tie another knot, then secure with a 3rd pin. Done!

What you need

Close up of the pre knitted wool

Pin fastening to the top, and again at the side

Fasten at the bottom

Wool Christmas Trees

Christmas Table Centrepiece.

Nov18

DIY Marble Effect Baubles, Family Christmas Craft

Posted on November 18, 2013 by thestick81

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DIY Marble Effect Baubles, Family Christmas Craft

Everyone was making all sorts of cool glass baubles last Christmas, but by the time I tried to source the actual baubles to do anything with, they were sold our or $6 each – errr, nah. But I found some in Spotlight in August this year and grabbed them so I didn’t miss out again!

I got the 2 different sizes available at spotlight, but for this project we just used the smaller ones. The process really is so simple it barely requires explanation. The beads are just plastic pony beads, you can find them in either the craft section or the ‘girls’ toy section of most variety stores. The ones that turned out the best were about 2/3 transparent beads and 1/3 solid colours. We did one with just transparent beads, but it ended up all kind of mixing together and turning brown, which was disappointing. If you don’t have a well ventilated kitchen, it would be a good idea to do these outside on the bbq, but the beads surprisingly don’t let off much fumes compared to other melting plastics I have played with. I had the oven set to just over 220c. You will need to keep checking on them every 5 – 10 minutes and turning as desired to create the marble effect. We used a silicone muffin and chocolate tray to position them after each turn and plastic tongs to handle them with. I ended up adding some extra beads to a few half way through the process, and just used a tea towel to hold them while they were hot.

Glass baubles

Ms4 filling up her ‘rainbow’ bauble

Ready for the oven

Blue green and yellow combo

In the oven

The finished products

Green and Red – Christmas colours

Marbles baubles

Tie die baubles

Christmas tree decorations

DIY Christmas decorations

DIY baubles

As they cooled down out of the oven, they did make a popping sound, which I thought was the glass breaking – but it was just the plastic separating from the glass inside a few of them. There you have it, marbled Christmas baubles.

Nov16

DIY Heart Shaped Christmas Wreath

Posted on November 16, 2013 by thestick81

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I actually started today out with the intention of making some bell tree ornaments, but the bells I had were too big. I then attempted another type of wreath and it was a big fat fail too. So after a few hours of feeling sorry for myself, I decided to make a different kind of wreath using the same principle as the bauble tree I made last year.

Run your cursor over or click each image for step by step instructions.

Draw or trace out the outline of the shape . I used silver card, but you could use any colour card. Something that has a little bit of flexibility, but is strong enough to support the weight of the baubles.

I used hot glue to stick each bauble down. You could use PVA or craft glue, but hot glue dries really fast, which is very helpful when you are dealing with things that roll!

I removed the strings and holders off each bauble, and glued them so that each top was touching the line, as a gauge.

Once the outside was complete, I did the same with a row of smaller balls on the inside.

Once the glue had completely dried, carefully cut around the outside and inside of the shape, as close as you can to the baubles, but still leaving just enough card to hook any tinsel on if desired.

The glue is quite flexible, so you can weave the tinsel in and around each bauble easily, it will just hold in place when the baubles sit back into position.

Poke some tinsel between the 2 rows to fill any gaps.

I hung a start ornament from the bottom just for some extra bling and dimension.

Bauble wreath

Heart shaped christmas wreath.

Nov16

Pine Cone Christmas Tree Decorations

Posted on November 16, 2013 by thestick81

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Yep, it’s that time of year again kids. I can deny it all I like, but that doesn’t help at all. I am disgustingly unprepared this year, but don’t really have the time to care, I am sure I will pull it all together in time. I do however, have time to think about some Christmas projects, YAY! So this very simple Idea should have probably taken a single afternoon, but things have been so hectic around here lately it took several afternoons over a week. It didn’t really turn out as well as I had imagined, but they are still pretty cute, and we have plenty of left over cones to make something else out of when inspiration hits me.

The shaggy wool (I’m sure it has a real name) was $2 a ball. There was wayyyy more than we needed in each colour. I just used cheap spray paint, Mr 8 did the first few coats then I went back and got the bits he missed. I tried sticking on some plastic ‘diamonds’ for extra sparkle, but you can’t really see them. We all had a go at wrapping the wool into the cone, then I gave them a hair cut to tidy them up. Simple as that!

: Mr8 Spray painting the pine cones

: gluing on some bling with hot glue

: Ms4 wrapping around the wool

: Before the hair cut / tidy up

: Finished pine cone trees.

: Christmas Tree Craft

Oct2

DIY Wind Chime, Candelabra/Sun Catcher.

Posted on October 2, 2013 by thestick81

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I dragged the kids to the $2 shop to stock up on some supplies for other projects, and came across these cute little glass bottles. I had to have them. And I had to use them right now! So much for Halloween craft this week! lol.

I didn’t have a small enough pre made wreath wring to use as the frame, so I just used some gardening wire and platted it loosely along with a piece of twine. I like the rough look it gave and thought it fit well with the theme. The little glass balls were another score from the junk shop, they are actually part of a floating candle set, but I had bigger ideas. I love those old glass buoys as decorations so I figured these could be made into mini ones. I slightly filled the little jars with some crushed crystal beads I bought off eBay years ago, just to add some colour, then tied them all up. Originally I was going to position each one, stepping them down as I went, but as they were all different heights and widths, it just didn’t give a worthwhile effect. So I just tied them randomly, but so they would still hit each other to make a noise in the wind. The candle holder in the middle was a last minute decision, I just thought it was missing something, and that finished it off perfectly. To be honest, I wouldn’t leave the candle lit unattended, as those strings are flammable, maybe a battery operated tea-light would be a better idea.

What you need

Plated wire and twine

Some stone chips for colour, then secure with twine

Securing the glass balls.

Tying up the glass balls

Space out the items evenly

In the dark

With candle lit

The finished product

Anyway, I am pretty happy with it. I think I will do it again, after I collect some larger bottles to hold more candles. Create something a little different again, and probably use wire to hang them next time.

The finished product

If you would like to see more craft and DIY projects like this one, please follow my blog and Pinterest.

Sep22

Halloween Toddler Craft, DIY Treat Boxes

Posted on September 22, 2013 by thestick81

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Halloween Toddler Craft, DIY Treat Boxes

I know many Australians still have not accepted Halloween, ‘it’s a silly American tradition’, even though it is not American, but anyway, they really should, because it is heaps of harmless fun and the kids love it. Our new neighbourhood really gets into it, I think I enjoy it more than Christmas!

But of course, it’s not just about the dressing up and lollies, halloween craft is lots of fun too. Maybe it’s because I am new to it, but it seems so much more fun than Easter and Christmas craft. Today I just did a simple project with the little kids as the older 2 were not home. I had another idea in my head, but have decided to keep that for later in the school holidays. I am hoping to get quite a few Halloween themed projects in over the next 2 weeks while the kids are off.

I cut out some Halloween shapes in the potatoes while Ms4 gathered the paint and plastic plates. The boxes were just from the grocery store, but they are available at many places, $2 shops etc. We had to allow each side to dry before doing the other side, as you need to apply pressure for best results, rather than trying to stamp the assembled boxes. Once both sides were dry we applied another coat of glitter paint, and some embellishments, again, one side at a time. The weather was nice today so the whole project only took a couple of hours even while waiting for things to dry.

Cut in your shape with a sharp knife, around 5mm deep.

then cut in from the sides until you hit the cut out,

Paint, boxes (or what ever you want really) potatoes.

Ms4 stamping away.

Ms4 adds some glitter paint.

Allow first side to dry.

Everything is better with googly eyes!

Add extra detail with a marker if desired.

I am pretty happy with the results. Would have liked some different coloured boxes for variety, and was disappointed we are out of black paint for the bats, but over all, not bad for an afternoons work.

Jul27

Autumn Theme Mobile, Using Oven Bake Clay

Posted on July 27, 2013 by thestick81

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Autumn Theme Mobile, Using Oven Bake Clay

I have had this idea in my head for a while, but wasn’t sure what medium to use. This product is really fun and easy to work with, however, it sets more like a hard rubber than a ceramic clay, so it did not achieve the wind chime noise I had in mind. Oh well, its still pretty!

Nature theme mobile / sun catcher.

Sculpey Oven Bake Clay. It is quite firm out of the packet, but softens up quickly with some kneading.

Ms 4 Rolling out the clay.

Cut just like a cookie or play dough

Reshape to make leaf like

Press in between the backs of 2 leaves

Leaf print

Ready for the oven, bake at 130c for approximately 15 minutes

After baking

Ms4 threading the fishing line and adding some beads.

Some things we collected on our bush walk

Drilling some extra holes in the piece of bark.

Autumn mobile,

Nature theme mobile / sun catcher.

Autumn and bush influenced mobile.

Jul27

Kids in the Kitchen, Home Made Fish and Chips.

Posted on July 27, 2013 by thestick81

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Kids in the Kitchen, Home Made Fish and Chips.

My kids love fish and chips. But gone are the days you could feed the family from the local fish and chip shop for under $20. So we always make our own now. I am sure its not just me, but I hate crumbing things, fingers getting all caked up with goo. So, outsourcing it is! Even my 4 year old can do the whole process herself. So while it may not be the healthiest meal (we deep fry the fish) it could certainly be a lot worse, and their sense of achievement and the skill building is totally worth the mess!

Mr9 is cooking some pinking fillets here. He just cut them into small even sized pieces, so they should all take roughly the same time to cook through. Flour each piece so it is dry, then dip in an egg/milk mixture before rolling in the crumbs. You could also get the kids to make bread crumbs if you have a food processor. We don’t, so we are just using store crumbs.

Mr9 is actually mature and coordinated enough to use the deep fry, but I am particularly paranoid about hot oil, so I took over that part of the process.

Pink ling fillets cut to size.

Drying in plain flour,

Dipping in milk and egg mixture

Coating with breadcrumbs

Ready to cook

Keep them separate so they don’t stick together while cooking

Frying

Drain on paper towel.

Home made fish and chips.

And yes, we used frozen chips, shhh, don’t tell anyone.

Jul27

Upcycled CDs. Sun Catcher.

Posted on July 27, 2013 by thestick81

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We were having a clean out of old computer stuff and were about to throw away a pile of old discs, but I decided those shinny little things must be good for something else? So after a bit of thinking, I came up with yet another sun catcher idea. Anyone would think I like sparkly things? It took me ages to work out what to cover, a sphere didn’t seem practical as the CD pieces are flat obviously, so after some uhmming and arrring, I decided wooden cubes were the best solution. The lovely man at the local hardware was kind enough to give me some 3″ x 3″ off cuts for free. The rest of the instructions are on the pictures. I just used clear drying craft glue to attach the CD chips to the wood and the grout is standard bathroom tile grout mixed according to instructions, available from any hardware (we had some left over from the laundry renovation).

Recycled DVD / CD Sun catcher

Gather your old CDs, DVDs the more different colours the better.

Cut ’em up! Tin snips, side cutters, or seceteurs as I have.

Munched up CDs!

Drill hooks into each corner of the wood, placing a fishing swivel between, so they can spin freely in the wind.

Some white paint to enhance the colour of the glass tiles

Stick on the pieces covering as much area as you can.

Make some grout, following instructions on pack.

Dollop on the grout

Smooth over with a spatula (instructions for tiles suggest a squeegee)

Remove as much excess as you can, then allow to set for an hour or more (weather conditions will vary this time)

Use a dry or every so slightly damp sponge, remove more of the excess once it has set to a powdery consistency.

Let set over night. Then wash off any excess dust.

Finished product.

Sun Catcher. CD / DVD

Recycled DVD / CD Sun catcher

Upcycled CDs.

Sun catcher / Disco Cube!

Hang on display

Sun Catcher. CD / DVD

Jun9

Owl Family Craft Project

Posted on June 9, 2013 by thestick81

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To be honest, craft is the last thing I was in the mood for this weekend. After some tragic news on Saturday morning, the tone of what was planned to be a fun 3 day weekend, soon turned into a very sombre one indeed. All I really wanted to do was hug my pillow and cry. But my children don’t really understand grief, so after 24 hours of my moping around, they were climbing the walls. I was inspired by this project from an activity I saw at school a few weeks ago, of individual owls as they related to the letter O (letter of the week). I thought a little owl family with the kids prints would look very cute.

The concept is quite simple like most of my projects, and as you can see in the photos below, so I wont go into too much detail. I let the kids choose from my scrapbooking paper a pattern they liked, but you could just as easily use plain colours. The background is just 2 school scrap books centre pages sticky taped together, then washed with blue water colour as demonstrated by Mr 8. Once dry, I ironed the paper to make it flat again. I drew the owl body and Mr 8 and I cut them out. The eyes were traced from a circular cookie cutter and cut out. The black dots made with a hole punch. I just drew one foot, then used it as a stencil for the rest of the feet, so they are all similar.

The kids then chose their wing colour. I placed the body on the background and had the children do their hand prints one at a time, starting in the middle. This way I didn’t have to worry too much about working out the spacing. Once they were all done, I sketched in a branch and Mr 8 painted it in. Then it was just a case of glueing eyes, pupils, beaks and feet. We added some leaves cut out from green paper to the branch and there you have it. A little owl family hand print keepsake.

Mr 8 painting the sky.

The sky backdrop.

Use one foot as a stencil for the rest of the feet.

Choosing the paper.

Glue owl body.

Paint hands.

Mr 8 placing the first print.

Mr 2’s hand prints

Mr 8 painting the branch

Glueing on the feet

Cutting out the leaves

Adding the leaves.

Girly owl.

Baby owl and big brother owl

Girl and Boy owl.

Owl hand print family.

Owl family wall hanging.

Close up.

From a distance.

Materials:

Paper, Scissors, hole punch, water colour, coloured card and paper, glue stick, craft paint.

If you have got this far, thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed the post and it inspires you to do something just as fun and rewarding with your young family. But if I can just ask one small thing of you, next time the opportunity arises, please donate to childhood cancer research in your country. Currently only 5% of research funds go towards childhood cancer research, so please pinpoint your donations to this very important cause. This beast needs to be stopped.

Apr21

DIY Sun catcher/Wind chime.

Posted on April 21, 2013 by thestick81

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This project was inspired by another bloggers post, which I can’t find again on Pinterest, so will have to edit it back in later when I can find it. Anyway, I ended up doing something completely different to hers, because I couldn’t get my hands on the right kind of cups. The original mobile was created with plastic (recycling number 6) disposable drinking cups. I hunted high and low however, the only ones of them here were solid colours, so I had to settle for these shot glasses. The shot glasses are a lot thicker though, so the entire method required adjusting. As you can see in the gallery images, melting these at a low heat basically make little plastic globs that would only be good for playing jacks with. Eventually I worked out that by turning the heat up enough, I could get them to melt flat. However, they did emit a nasty smell at this temp, so I took the project out to the BBQ.

Adding the next colour

After melting the first cups, I added another cup, so there was enough plastic to cover the base of each muffin hole. I was not too worried about thickness, some ended up with 3 cups, I broke a few cups up to splash some other colour around. The BBQ was set to 220C with the lid down. After cooling, this is what you get;

The finished disks

They actually set really hard and when clicked together sound like glass rather than plastic. Makes them perfect for a wind chime. Just like with my previous sun catcher, I drilled holes in the sides of each piece using a normal drill bit. None of them broke this time, which was an extra win. Then we threaded some fishing line through, held each end together and threaded random shiny and transparent beads along the 2 lines. Admittedly I do have a ridiculously huge stash of beads and stones accumulated from over the years, but you can pick up cheap beads at $2 shops that will still make the project inexpensive if you were starting from scratch. The first line was 11cm, then I continued along making each one 1cm longer, there is 17 in total. My darling partner tied them on to the pre made metal loop (from spotlight – and much to his disappointment, he is not a crafty person). Once they were all tied on, I just slid them around until they were spaced evenly. And done!

Close up

** Please note, breathing in the fumes from melting plastic is probably not a very good idea. So if you do try this at home, try to use the BBQ or make sure the room is well ventilated, and preferably don’t be near the oven while its all happening. It not like burning tyres or anything, but it sure doesn’t smell like something you should be breathing in!

Ready to melt

Fail

Thats more like it.

Adding the next colour

Use the BBQ, so you don’t fill the has with toxic burnt plastic smell.

The finished disks

Ms 4 helping bead the strings

Beading the strings ready to hang

Finished product

Wind chime

Sun catcher

DIY sun catcher

Close up

Wind Chime

In bright light

Sun catcher

Mar13

Home Made Chalk with an Easter Twist.

Posted on March 13, 2013 by thestick81

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I have been going to try out this home made chalk method for a while. When I picked up some new silicone moulds from Aldi last week, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to try them both out!

Ingredients and utensils.

Ideally disposable plastic cups would be the best thing to mix the plaster in, but I didn’t have any, so we just used some plastic cups we are not very attached to (IE, not Tupperware, lol). You can buy plaster of paris from any large hardware or craft shop for around $10 for a 3kg (which is heeeaaaaps, 1kg is more than enough for this project). Silicone or rubber ice cube trays, food colouring and something to stir with. Again, paddle pop sticks would have been better, but these skewers will do the trick.

: Mix the water and the colour, then add the plaster powder

: Stir thoroughly, don’t let the mix get too thick so you can still pour it into moulds.

: Ms 4 mixing in the plaster

Mix the food colouring in the water first, then add the plaster. Stir rapidly until its fully mixed, then poor into the moulds. The plaster will set in roughly half an hour, some water may rise to the top, you can just dab this away with some paper towel or tip the moulds after this time for it to run away. Then allow to fully cure in the moulds over night. We also experimented with some glitter in the chalk, for something a bit different. It actually worked quite well, although its really hard to capture the results with the camera.

Pour into the moulds

Moulds ready to set.

One of the glitter chalks.

Then simply turn out of the moulds and get drawing!

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Mar10

Decorated Eggs, Easter Egg Dying and Decorating.

Posted on March 10, 2013 by thestick81

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Decorated Eggs, Easter Egg Dying and Decorating.

While we did the Tie Dying, I also started experimenting with a few other methods of colouring eggs using a home made dye using ingredients that almost everyone has already in their kitchen. These were some of the results;

These are obviously pretty straight forward. Dyed in a food colouring/vinegar/warm water mixture. Then a scrap booking embelishment stuck on. Would have preferred embellishments without the clear plastic behind them, but the craft shop didn’t have any like that and you can’t really tell from a distance anyway.

I love how these turned out. Just use leaves from the garden, lay over the eggs then cover with a stocking or pantyhose. I actually used some stocking I had on hand and didn’t even need to ruin them in the process. Dip dye for a few minutes and you’re done.

Crepe paper results

We actually discovered this dying method accidentally. After we had finished the Tie Dying from a previous post, we placed the eggs on this pre shredded crepe paper. Some of the eggs still had a bit of water in them from the boiling process, so when that ran out and wet the paper, the colour transferred onto the eggs! So I took it a step further, wet a hand full and covered them in it. The results are pretty cool I think!

The dying solution we used was 3 parts hot tap water to one part vinegar, with as much food colouring as you wanted, we only used about a teaspoon per large cup.

Some of the other patterns we created can be seen below.

Boiling in water, food colouring and vinegar (later discovered boiling is not actually necessary)

Some foam stickers to create patterns where the dye cant reach.

Trying to keep the eggs afloat to only colour one side – not very successful!

The leaf wrapped around egg within stocking prior to dipping in the dye solution

Leaf patterns

covering in crepe paper.

Wet crepe paper

Crepe paper results

Cant have a craft project without glitter? Yes, actually you can and you should

Egg decorating

Samples of some of the eggs we created

Egg Craft

Eggsperimenting with dying EGGS!

Mar3

Easter Craft, Cute Little Chicks.

Posted on March 3, 2013 by thestick81

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Another very wet weekend has resulted in craft overload in this house. Today we made some little chickens. We will call them Easter Chicks, but they could really just be birds and would still be just as cute! All we used was some small styrofoam balls, paint, google eyes a pack of feathers and a few different glues and double sided tape. Oh, and some of those pre stuck felt shapes. First we put the balls on a skewer to hold them up to paint. The paint, like everything at the moment, took forever to dry, even under the ceiling fan. Then we added the eyes and beaks. It was a bit of trial and error with the glue, as some glue dissolves the styrofoam. But we got there eventually, with some scrap booking glue.

Glue on eyes.

For the beak, we just cut off petals from a foam flower sticker (which you will see further on). We used several different methods to make the wings. For thicker wings I folded over a feather from the centre, and secured both sides together with some double sided tape. This worked well, but was a lot of fiddling around and you could see the tape through some, which I was not happy with. Others I just cut away one side of the feather, to make it more a wing shape. Then for the crazy birds I just stick the feathers straight in the side, to make them look like they were running. Way cute! Twisted some pipe cleaners to make legs and we were done.

Ms 4 wanted to make a nest for them, so I grabbed some sugar cane mulch and let her build one outside, she then sprinkled a few flowers around which I thought was a great idea, so told her to get more.

The coloured eggs are from another project we did this weekend, I will post more on them tomorrow. They finished it off nicely though I think.

Mr 8 making the stand ready to paint

First step, painting.

All the painted balls

Ms 4 putting glue on for the eyes.

Ms 4 positioning the eyes

Glue on eyes.

Let the eyes dry.

The feather sections as used on each bird, (wing wing tail)

double sided tape method

once folded

tape wing stuck to chick

Make some legs from pipe cleaners.

Bird on a stick

Hey there chubby legs

Mummy Hen

Running Chick!

Easter Chicks

The nest

Pink Chick

Little hatchling

Peek-a-boo

Easter Chickens

Easter Chicken craft

Mr 2 and Ms 4 playing with the chicken family.

Mar2

Bubble Painting Easter Garland, Toddler Craft Activity

Posted on March 2, 2013 by thestick81

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Bubble Painting Easter Garland, Toddler Craft Activity

Bubble painting is nothing new for toddlers and preschoolers, but we have never done it at home and I thought it would create a cute finish for some paper eggs.

Most people will have all this stuff lying around the house, so its a cheap activity too. Dish washing liquid, food colouring, drinking straws, paper (in this case egg shapes) a bowl and a splash of water. I just Google Image searched ‘easter eggs’ and found some egg shapes, copied into Word, adjusted the size and printed. Could have drawn them myself, but I was being lazy. The bigger 2 kids helped cut some out and I cut out the rest. The mixture is equal parts water, food colouring and detergent, you can use more water, but the less you use the more vibrant colours are achieved. Then the fun begins!

Yellow bubbles.

Simply blow the bubbles so they rise well above the sides of the bowl then place the paper flat on top. You may need to tip your bowl slightly to keep the straw submerged. Be sure to place the paper as quickly as possible. The bubbles will actually last quite a while if untouched, but the colour drops to the bottom quickly, so the longer you wait the less colour will transfer to the paper.

Samples of our creations.

Once dried (on a dry day they would only take a few minutes to dry, but due to never ending rain in Sunny Queensland, they took a lot longer) we attempted to punch holes in the top to string them up with, but due to the moisture in the air, the paper just can’t get crisp enough to punch as such, so we stuck small sections of straw to the back with sticky tape. This actually worked out really well, as it meant they face forwards rather than side ways all the time. We used some more coloured straws (cut into 3rds) to space the eggs out then alternated sizes along the way.

And there you have it. Its hard to take a photo of, but its really pretty. Currently hanging in the hallway. If the sun ever comes out again, I will take a photo of it in natural light to bring out the colours better.

What you need.

Mr 9 cutting out some eggs.

Yellow bubbles.

Blue bubble mixture

Miss 4 making red bubbles

Mr 8 getting his bubble painting on.

Mr 2 doesn’t quite have the fine motor skills required to keep the paper out of the liquid, so I let him play with a paint brush and the mixture to keep him happy.

Samples of our creations.

Each one is painted on both sides so you can use the garland in a walk way.

Attach straw to one side of eggs

Ready to thread on the string.

Ms 4 threading the straw spacers

Ms 4 threading the eggs on.

Easter Garland

Easter Craft

Easter Eggs

Bubble painting

Easter Toddler and Preschool activity

Easter Egg Craft

Feb9

Wind Chime / Sun Catcher

Posted on February 9, 2013 by thestick81

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Continuing on from the Christmas decorations we made a few weeks back, using the same principal we put together this wind chime or out door decoration. I’ll spare too much description, as its all talked about in the previous post (linked above), and its pretty straight forward anyway.

So this time we just made all stars, the kids chose their colour schemes and I wasn’t too worried about a colour theme as such. More colour the better. Once cooled, again we drilled small holes into a corner of each one, then threaded some fishing line to hang from a branch. I used a tiny dot of hot glue to keep the fishing line in position. And that’s it! Easy peasy.

Fill the metal cookie cutters

Ready for the oven

Drilling the holes for string

Ready to hang from the branch

The finished product

Starts in the trees

Trying to catch some sun on a cloudy day

This is about the 4th time we have made sun catcher type things, and every.single.time there is no sun when I go to take photos of it. I will hopefully update this when the some decides to come out again.

Feb4

Valentine Craft – Hanging hearts Wall/door Decoration

Posted on February 4, 2013 by thestick81

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Valentine Craft – Hanging hearts Wall/door Decoration

I saw something similar to this on Pinterest, thought we would give it a go. I just used some scrap booking paper we had already, picked out 10 different pink patterns. Using the paper cutter, cut strips approximately 1 inch wide. Then folded them in half, ready to be rolled, as demonstrated by Ms 4 below. The kids did them around a round pencil, but you can also curl them with a blade like you do curling/gift ribbon. The blade was much quicker, but I was not letting the kids do that.

Once both sides are curled towards the middle, fix the to sides together in the centre of the heart with a staple. I didn’t worry to much about a uniform size. Variety is the spice of life and all that.

You could use a coat hanger, pice of dowel, or even just a long stick for the hanging frame. We used some mettle light extension rods we had in the shed, kept them thinking they would come in handy some day and looky here, perfect size for a door way! I decided on 5 strings of 10 hearts, because lets be honest, the novelty was already wearing off making them after the first 10.

Then came the tricky part, threading them onto the fishing line. I temporarily hung the rod from a fan so I could manoeuvre around it easier. Then threaded through the centre of the heart and tied a knot around where it is stapled together, so the line was centre. THEN, using a needle, threaded the remaining line through the centre at the bottom of the heart, to keep the heart upright. Thankfully putting fishing line through a needle is very easy! The threading process probably took 10 minutes for each strand. To finish off, I hung some sparkly gift ribbon between each row. And there you have it!

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Stapler, fishing line, paper and paper cutter (or scissors)

Cut strips 1 inch wide.

The cut strips.

Roll the paper strips around a pencil

Finish rolling at the centre then repeat on other side.

Staple the together in the middle.

Threading the hearts onto the fishing line.

Top View

Side View

Bottom View

Purple back drop.

Bed back drop

Against black curtains

Back light

Hearts in the door way.

Purple wall background

Different exposure.

Behind bed, off white wall

Feb2

Beaded Mobile/Chandelier/Wind chime Family project.

Posted on February 2, 2013 by thestick81

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Beaded Mobile/Chandelier/Wind chime Family project.

Sorry if the beads are getting old. I really made this up as I went along. I wanted to use the rings I had bought to make Christmas Wreaths but never got around to. I thought this was something we could all do together and the results are pretty cute, although would do it differently next time.

We threaded some plastic jewels with beading wire, to make the ends. Then created patterns with different coloured beads, around 20cm long.

Finish off the ends by wrapping the wire into a loop around some needle nose pliers. The loop needs to be big enough to not let the beads slide off, and to allow you to thread more string on in the next step.

Then I just tied them around the ring, suspended it with some gift ribbon and suspended a glass sun catcher in the middle. All pretty straight forward. Ms 4 wants to hang it from her light, but as she has a light fan combo, there is nothing to hang it from.

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What you need

Twisting off the end of the wires

Threading patterns

Ms 4 threading

The other end of the wire

Wire ends

Twist around a pencil to make a spiral

spirals

Attache to mobile frame

finished product

sun catcher

Chandelier

Jan22

Memory Wire Bracelets, School holiday and Toddler Activity

Posted on January 22, 2013 by thestick81

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Memory Wire Bracelets, School holiday and Toddler Activity

Beading is hardly new as a way to entertain the kids and improve fine motor skills, but I have never let them try it with memory wire before. For those who don’t know what that is, Memory wire is tempered wire that “remembers” its shape and retains its coiled form. You can pick it up really cheap on ebay and then just cut to desired length as required. Due to the fact its wire rather than thread, it also makes it much easier for the little ones to get the beads on.

Once cut to length, just turn the end over with some needle nose pliers into a loop big enough that it wont allow your chosen beads to slip over, or in the case of really big beads, as I have done above, making sure no sharp ends will dig into their little arms.

The kids just made single loops today. Mr 7 experimented with patterns and Miss 4 went random.

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Memory wire cut to length

Mr 7 threading some beads.

Ms 4 threading onto the wire

Mr 7s own design

Ms 4 modelling some bracelets.

Dec14

Classic Christmas Cooking – Window Biscuit Decorations

Posted on December 14, 2012 by thestick81

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Classic Christmas Cooking – Window Biscuit Decorations

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.