Tag Archives: rainy day

Jan10

DIY Guinea pig hide

Posted on January 10, 2021 by thestick81

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

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

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

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

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

Dec18

3 Easy Mini Christmas Tree Decorations

Posted on December 18, 2013 by thestick81

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My crafty mum friend at All Tizzied Up has been very busy putting together some Christmas Craft projects with the family. Thought we’d share for inspiration.

They created 3 different trees from styrofoam cone shapes using buttons, ribbon, felt, and every crafters favourite tool – a hot glue gun!

The felt tree was created by layering leaf shape felt pieces working from the bottom up, then decorating with plastic jewels.

This one is simply a case of measuring out same lengths or ribbon, fixing with hot glue, then twisting, gluing again. Glue 2 of these together to create a flower type shape and attach to the cone. Again, finishing with some jewels to look like ornaments.

The button one is covered in aluminium foil, before attaching buttons all over with hot glue.

So if you are wondering what to do this weekend before Christmas, maybe get out the craft supplies and get crafty with the kids. Would make a great addition and talking point for your Christmas table on Wednesday!

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.

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.

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.

Sep29

Halloween Craft For Kids, Finger Print Gift Tags

Posted on September 29, 2013 by thestick81

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Halloween Craft For Kids, Finger Print Gift Tags

I love finger print critters, and had never actually made them with my kids. So this seemed like the perfect opportunity. A bit of parent help is needed for the finishing touches, but there is plenty of steps the little kids can help with along the way. You can click on the pictures for more detailed instructions, but it is all pretty straight forward as you can see.

Cut up some coloured card. We used wiggly scissors.

Ms4 put holes in each piece of card

Getting into it.

Ms4 making some finger prints.

Finger printed cards

Adding the details,

Adding the eyes – because everything is better with googly eyes!

Mr3 adding some eyes #finemotorskills

Ms4 bundling up the lollies ready for string and tag.

Fastened with string and tag added

Halloween treats bags

Ready to give out.

All we used was some card, white paint, googly eyes (and some sequins) silver paint pen, ribbon, clear cellophane, and lollies to fill.

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

Mar2

Tie Die Eggs – Easter Craft, Egg Decorating

Posted on March 2, 2013 by thestick81

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Tie Die Eggs – Easter Craft, Egg Decorating

In Australia, Easter in my experience at least, is all about chocolate eggs. The only time I decorated an egg was in grade 3, for a decorating competition. But apparently in other parts of the world its just what you do at Easter time. A friend showed me this idea and I just had to give it a go! I rushed out to the local Op shops that afternoon and fumbled through a rack of ties trying to find any that were 100% silk (they must be 100% silk, polyester will not work). One shop charged $1 each and the other wanted up to $5 each, I told them they were dreaming and talked them down to $2.

$20 worth of Op shop pure silk ties

You can do this with boiled eggs, but I wanted to be able to keep them for future years or at least future craft projects. So rather than using whole eggs, we blew the eggs. That was a challenge in its self, but once I got the hang of it, I cleared out a dozen eggs and away we went. Cut the stitching at the back of the tie so you can open it up, remove any lining and cut a piece big enough to cover your egg. Making sure the dark side (what was once the outside of the tie) is against the egg. Secure with a twist tie or as I did, rubber bands as tight as possible without breaking the egg. You want as much surface contact as you can get. I then removed the excess fabric to make putting on the second layer easier.

All wrapped up tight in the first layer (print facing egg)

Then wrap a layer of plain fabric (I used some flannel and calico I had in the scrap fabric bag) and secure again with another band. Fill a saucepan with water and half a cup of vinegar (I didn’t measure, but would have used more than half a cup of white vinegar) and bring to the boil. Different directions state different cooking times, from 5 minutes to 20, I went with closer to 20 minutes. Then the exciting part!

Love the colours and patterns in this one.

Remove from the water and allow to cool. Remove fabric and discover what you have created! Don’t forget to blow out the water that may have ended up inside again if you used hollow eggs. Out of the 11 we made, 3 didn’t work at all. I can’t say for sure, but I think they were ‘fake 100% silk’ ties those ones!

Easter egg decorating

So, looks like we are having scrambled eggs and omelettes for dinner tonight.

I used a small drill piece to try to make a hole in the eggs, a sharp needles works better though.

Miss 4 having a go and blowing eggs, she did pretty will for such little lungs!

$20 worth of Op shop pure silk ties

Make sure it says 100% silk, polyester will not work.

This one actually says 100% silk, but I have reasons to believe it was all a lie! It turned out to be one of the ones that didn’t work.

Cut out the liner and stitching to create a piece of silk big enough to wrap around an egg

DD attempting the wrapping

Ms 4 attempts to fasten the silk around the egg.

I cut away the extra fabric to make putting the second layer on easier.

All wrapped up tight in the first layer (print facing egg)

Miss 4 attempting the second layer, and failing, but at least she tried.

In the pot ready to boil

Weighed down the eggs with a glass bowls, because of course hollow eggs want to float!

Remove from the water and allow to cool.

Remove the bands and see what you end up with! This one didn’t turn out as well as some of the others,

Easter egg decorating

Love the colours and patterns in this one.

More lovely results.

Soem of the finished eggs.

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!

Feb10

Valentine Craft for Toddlers

Posted on February 10, 2013 by thestick81

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Super quick and easy to set up, minimal mess and cute results. Bend a cardboard tube, toilet roll for example, and fix the top with some tape to keep its shape. If you have some heart shape cookie cutters, they will work too. We also made 2 potato stamps. Some coloured paper, paint and let them at it.

Paint

Heart shaped toilet roll, held in shape with tape.

potato stamp

Mr 2 stamping with potato

Ms 4 stamping with toilet roll

Different colours

Patterns

Sone of the finished cards

Finished products,

Finished off with a sharpie

The potato stamps worked out much better, as neither of the younger 2 had the dexterity required to get the roll to print properly. You could finish them off and write messages on with a sharpie as I did in the last image, or you could just use them as decorations rather than cards.

Feb8

Back to School – Book covering, (without the swearing)

Posted on February 8, 2013 by thestick81

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Back to School – Book covering, (without the swearing)

This really doesn’t require a tutorial, its more of a brag than anything. There is a certain amount of nostalgia attached to covering school books. The smell of that fresh new paper, shiny new pencils, no dog ears, all your books neat in a row. Then to personalise them with pretty covers and name labels. Yes, I looooved coving my books at school – says anyone that doesn’t have school age children. That was me too, until my eldest son started 1st grade. BUT THE TRUTH! The truth is, contact is the DEVIL! Thats right folks, he walks among us, in the shape of a cylindrical role of pretty coloured sticky plastic. What was once a lovely memory of my own child hood, now just about brings tears to my eyes. I do not remember it ever being to difficult! The bubbles, THE F’N bubbles, creases, more bubbles, AHHHHHH. OMG. So, after 3 years of torturing myself, my partner, and my walls (things were thrown) I finally got out early enough in the back to school season to get my hands on clear plastic sleeves. There is a God! He was hiding at Office Works the whole time. A few rolls of gift wrap from the $2 shop and we are set!

The boys had 20, yes, 20 writing books EACH this year. The sleeves come in packs of 5, for around $3 a pack. 3 – 5 meter rolls of wrapping paper, $2 each at the Reject Shop. Scissors and tape.

Wrap the cover of the book just as you would with contact, but secure with sticky tape on the insides. It took just under an hour to cover all of one child’s books.

Slide the covers over the top, and you’re done. (please excuse the revolting nails that badly needed refilling).

No swearing, no bubbles, no torn covers, no bubbles, no books thrown, no tantrums or tears and more importantly, no bubbles. Just lovely, shiny clean covered books, ready for the new school year.

What you need

The actual covers we purchased

Wrapping with paper

Covering with paper

Fixing with cello tape

Covered with paper

The small covers came with their own sticky bit on the back, meaning they are adjustable for different thicknesses of exercise books! Brilliant!

The finished products! NO BUBBLES!

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

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.