Tag Archives: fine motor

Jan7

A family that bees together, stays together.

Posted on January 7, 2019 by thestick81

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!

Dec7

Simple Christmas Card Ideas, Part 1.

Posted on December 7, 2014 by thestick81

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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.

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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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…

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

Dec11

Easy Kids Craft – Hanging Christmas Decoration

Posted on December 11, 2013 by thestick81

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These are really simple to make and kids of all ages can help. Mr8 actually showed me how to make one, then we extended on the concept to create this hanging ornament.

It is really just 2 card board stars slotted into each other at right angles to create a ‘3D star’ as he calls them. But we made 4 different sized and hung them form some cotton. We covered each star with some paper from a themed wrapping pack, so they were not all exactly the same, but similar enough to ‘match’. The whole project took about 20 minutes for 3 of us and looks pretty cool! Further instructions available if you open or scroll over each picture.

Draw the star shapes on some card. We used cookie cutters to make it easier.

If using plain card, glue on some wrapping paper

Cut out and glue paper to the other side

Covering second side then cut out again.

Cut one star to the middle from one side, then the other star from the opposite side to the middle again.

Slot together and you have 3D stars

Hand on some string

3D Star Ornament.

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.

Sep30

School Holiday Fun – Rainbow Spaghetti!

Posted on September 30, 2013 by thestick81

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I actually made this for the little 2, thinking it would keep them entertained for an hour while I got some work done. Turns out the older kids loved it too. Can’t really blame them, it feels cool and looks so pretty! I just used one standard pack of pasta, if you were doing this at a birthday party, you might want to use 2 or 3 for lots of kids. Separate into equal groups of as many colours as you have, then cook each pile at a time, rinsing the saucepan between colours. You don’t need a lot of water, so it heats up quick. The whole process only took about 30 minutes for 5 colours. More details if you run your mouse over the images. Enjoy.

Water, food colouring, pasta.

Add colouring, then pasta, cook as normal or a little less for firmer pasta

You don’t have to add oil, but it makes it extra slimy fun.

Ms4 having a play

Resisting the urge to eat it.

Sensory play,

School holiday entertainment.

Aug20

Ten Tin Bowling! Recycled Cans – Toddler Activity.

Posted on August 20, 2013 by thestick81

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Ten Tin Bowling! Recycled Cans – Toddler Activity.

The hardest part of this project was collecting the cans! To make stacking easier, make sure all 10 cans are the same height. Obviously you don’t need to cover the cans with paper, but I think it made it a bit more fun. I just cut some scrap booking paper to size, fixed with tape, and they’re done.

Coloured paper cut to size

Secure with tape

Pretty cans.

Ready to bowl

Miss 4 setting up.

Mr2 having a go

Ms4 having a bowl.

Ten Tin Bowling

Recycled can

toddler activity

Gross motor skills

Easy toddler activity.

This activity develops hand eye coordination, cognitive and gross motor skills. Once you’ve had enough, the cans can just go into the recycling! The kids loved the noise they make as they smashed to the ground. Older kids could keep score and make a more competitive game out of it.

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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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

Feb12

Valentine Heart Activities for the Kids, with a side of FAIL!

Posted on February 12, 2013 by thestick81

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Valentine Heart Activities for the Kids, with a side of FAIL!

The concept here is very simple, so the results are totally worth it. Gather up any old crayons, or you could even buy new ones if you like, but with 4 kids in the house, we have plenty of old odd sets. Let the kids remove the paper (strengthening fine motor skills for the win!) and snap or cut into small enough pieces to fit in your desired mould. *make sure your mould is heat proof!

Heat the oven to around 120c, it really doesn’t need to be very hot. Place in the oven on another hard tray (like a pizza tray) because they will be super runny before they set again and you don’t want crayon spilt inside your oven – ask me how I know? If you do happen to spill a few drops, wipe it off with paper towel straight away, much easier to remove it while its still runny.

Once they are all fully melted, remove from the oven to cool. I put them in the fridge after a while, because I am impatient. Then just press them out of the moulds and you’re done.

And now for the fail. Originally I wanted to make crayon rings, for something a bit different on valentines day. So along with my heart tray, I ordered a ring tray. We were all set to go and excitedly looking forward to the results.

But alas, this tray must have been for the freezer only. I was sitting at my desk and thought ‘what is that smell’ walked to the oven to check and holey smokes! I opened the door quickly, at which point the lot burst into flames! So I threw some water on it in my panicked state. The results?

A house full of toxic smoke and a colourful mess to clean up! Oh dear. So please, learn from my mistake, make sure you check the temperature ratings!

Fill the moulds with small pieces of crayon

Mr 8. Cutting the crayons into smaller pieces.

Ready to go in the oven.

Quickly melting,

The melted down smaller than expected, so I topped them up with more.

The kids popped the cooled shapes out of the moulds

The finished products

Ms 4 with some samples

Making shapes

The original project

Ready to go in the oven.

5 minutes later

fail fail FAIL!

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

Jan25

Christmas Decorations, Easy Toddler Activity

Posted on January 25, 2013 by thestick81

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Christmas Decorations, Easy Toddler Activity

These really are too easy and turned out so well! I will be using this concept for some other projects as soon as more cookie cutters arrive.

We used a tupperware baking sheet under them, but I think any flexible non stick surface would do, (baking paper). Simply fill some metal or oven proof cookie cutters or moulds roughly 2 layers deep, and bake at around 180c. Keep an eye on them until they are all melted. The plastic beads we used did not emit any nasty smell and did not burn, even when I got impatient and turned the over up to 200c, however, make sure the area is well ventilated just to be on the safe side.

Try to pile the beads up in the middle slightly, but only leave them 1 high at the edges, to avoid any bits sticking to the sides higher than other areas (you can see where this happened on the small man) Once cooled, remove the cutter and there you have it. I ran cool water over them to cool them a bit faster and this didn’t damage the shiny finish at all.

The husband drilled some holes in the top for string, and there you have it.

We will make a stack of smaller Christmas coloured ones for the trees next year.

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Place the beads, trying to keep them at only 1 high around the edges

Green and red for the tree

Nice and flat and smooth edges

Once out of the oven,

Drilling the holes for string

Ms 4 showing off her man

You can see some sharp edges on this one where the beads were 2 high.

The finished 3d tree from jelly mould

In the sun

Catching the sun light

Pink baby

Nov4

Glitter Play Dough (Home made)

Posted on November 4, 2012 by thestick81

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After establishing my daughter has low muscle tone, it was suggested by her occupational therapist that we use play dough to warm up her hands before any writing or drawing activities. Obviously it also has many other benefits, like fine motor, creativity, blah blah, but anyway. After buying all the different brands and them still ending up dry and ‘ordinary’ after a week, I decided it was time I got off my little b-hind and made our own. Unfortunately I only had blue food colouring on hand (because the kids always want some in the bath, so we go through a lot :s ) . I chose this recipe, as it had a 5 star rating. The only problem is I don’t have nor have ever bought cream of tartar? So some googling suggested I could omit it for baking powder and vinegar, but the vinegar was going to mess with the liquid content and ohhh, it all seemed too hard. So, as I do, I figured I’d just do a splash of this and a bit of that. I used about 1 tablespoon of white vinegar and 2 tablespoons of baking soda.

What you need

I mixed all the dry ingredients with a whisk, then added the water and the rest of the wet ingredients. It was very wet.

All mixed together.

The recipe does not actually tell you how hot to cook it, so I just went with 4, which is just below half way on my cooktop. This worked well.

After just a few minutes it starts to thicken.

I continued working with the whisk to avoid lumps, but eventually it became too thick and was all getting stuck in the middle of the whisk.

I’d call that done.

Soon enough, this is what we had. I used my fingers to test (first time they came away all sticky, much like a skewer in cake) but then it was just about right. Surprisingly even though it was still over the heat, it was not very hot to touch.