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Organising kids craft supplies
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Homemade miniature beach
Tuesday, June 02, 2015
Before half term, Hollie had to make a miniature beach for her homework. To begin with I struggled with ideas for little items to use but once I had looked on Pinterest for inspiration, the ideas came flowing. Here is what we came up with.
We started out with a thick square cardboard box which we cut down to make a tray. We added some card to the bottom to make the sand and the sea and then got to work making the items for the beach.
We thought it would be good to make a beach hut but this one is a little too big but it was the best size cardboard box we could find but it doesn't matter. We covered it in basic printer paper and then added a roof and a door.
For the items on the beach, we only bought the cocktail umbrellas and the shells. We made some little beach mats, pinwheels and spades and then used two little toothpaste caps for the buckets.
We didn't want to go too mad with it as it was for Hollie, who's 7, to do (although obviously I helped her) and for her homework but she had great fun gluing, sticking, colouring and tacking everything down.
In the end it came together well but I think they send out the homework to test the parents as the homework before was to make the football world cup!
What do you think? Do you prefer creative homework or subject based like maths or English? I would love to hear.
Easter gifts for the girls
Thursday, April 02, 2015
As Easter is upon us I thought I would share what I have bought the girls for Easter.
For Amelia, we got her some touchy feely books from Sainsbury's. We managed to get them when they had their double up event so we were able to use £5 of points and double it up to get the 4 books and didn't cost us anything.
Amelia has been loving the threading lace and blocks, reels etc. when we go to softplay group, so I bought this seahorse set from the Early Learning Centre and I think she will love to thread the laces and all the characters.
Rather than get her an Easter egg, i picked up these Lindt little chicks from Homesense and they were on offer too!
Lastly I bought both girls a new placemat from Dunelm which has lots of woodland animals on it.
For Hollie for Easter, I wasn't sure whether to get her just an egg but that didn't happen and bought a few things I spotted on my travels!
I came across these Charlie and Lola books in the 99p shop and couldn't resist them as I know she will like them and I am trying to get her to read more, which has been hard.
Hollie kept mentioning how she wanted one of these wooden giraffes from Wilkinsons and so I thought I would pick one up for Easter as well as some little eggs as she wants to do some cupcakes and put them on the top.
Lastly I saw this pack of paper placemats in Staples which you can colour in and thought even if she doesn't use them as placemats, she would have fun colouring them in.
I think they will love their little gifts and might keep them busy for a little bit!
Are you buying gifts for your children or ones you know or just getting an egg? I would love to know how you feel about gift giving at Easter.
How to use Kam pliers and toy strap tutorial
Thursday, July 03, 2014
Recently I have been making things using the Kam pliers and I thought I would show you how they are used in case anyone would like to know.
I bought the Kam pliers from Ebay in a set with the accessories that you need to work the pliers and pack of snap poppers in 2 sizes in 10 colours. I got them via auction for £8.99. You can find the Kam pliers and poppers separately on Ebay and you can also find lots of different sets. There are some nice sets with everything you need including ribbon.
These are the tools that you get with the pliers.
I got 4 sizes of the black caps for the front of the snap poppers and 2 sizes of the metal bolt and rubber cap. You need to make sure you are using the correct size black cap with the correct popper and also the correct size metal bolt and rubber cap with the correct size back popper.
The snap poppers come with a front part and 2 different back parts, You need to use a different back part to snap them together.
I did found it difficult to understand how to use the Kam pliers as they didn't come with instructions, I learnt as I was going along and from on the Internet. In the set is a small screwdriver and you need this for the 2 screws that you need to alter in the picture.
To make the toy strap you need have a length of ribbon, in this case I had a 12 inch piece of ribbon. Fold over the ends approx 1/2 inch and then pierce the top part of the popper in the ribbon and place the back of popper on the back. Use the pliers to squeeze them together.
Make sure you use enough pressure so that the spike is squashed enough so the other side of the snap popper will snap on it properly. It did take a few goes to realise how much I needed to squeeze it.
Once you have done this popper you can add one further along the ribbon to make the loop. Make sure you use the opposite back side of the popper and make sure the fronts of the poppers are facing the same way.
When you have finished the poppers, I added a little bit of glue to the end of the ribbon to stop them fraying but could use a lighter to seal the ends too.
The toy strap is easy to make but the pliers did take me a while to work out what size is for which popper etc. and I did go though a few poppers before I worked out what I was doing wrong.
Here are some of the projects I have made using the Kam Pliers.
Pacifier Clip Holder.
Sophie the giraffe strap.
Altering bibs with snap poppers.
Linked up to: Glued to my crafts, Artsy Fartsy Mama, Live Laugh Rowe, The Shabby Nest, A Bowful of Lemons.
Altering bibs with the snap poppers
Thursday, June 26, 2014
For a long time now, Amelia has had reflux and brings up a lot of milk after her feeds and also with teething, she dribbles a lot too.
Luckily, the reflux doesn't seem to give her any problems but obviously the teething givers her some trouble.
The problem I have is that the bibs that I saved from Hollie and even some of the bibs Amelia got new, were too big around the neck and wouldn't catch the sick or dribble (nice!).
So I did think about buying new bibs but I just couldn't justify buying news bibs and trying to find ones that were smaller, if that was even possible. So I decided to add a snap popper using the Kam pliers to each of the bibs to make them smaller. All I did was measure where the snap popper needed to be when the bib was on and then added one.
Such a simple thing has helped me solve a problem that was annoying me and helps me if the bibs stretch a bit in the future.
Have a lovely day. See you soon.
Linked up to: A Bowlful of Lemons, Glued to my crafts, Artsy Fartsy Mama, Live Laugh Rowe,
Sophie the Giraffe Strap
Thursday, June 19, 2014
While researching the KAM pliers on Ebay, I came across straps for Sophie the Giraffe teether toy. I thought this would be great to try to make with the the pliers as I had bought as Sophie the giraffe recently and it isn't cheap and so a strap to keep it secure would be a good idea.
I also came across a tutorial on how to make them on Leanne's blog. She gives you all the measurements and where to put the snap poppers.
The tools that I used were:
- The KAM pliers and parts.
- Snap poppers.
- Scissors.
- Ribbon e.g. grosgrain.
You will need some ribbon that measures 56 cm/ 22 inches in length and turn the ends over 1 cm and add a snap popper. I did make mine slightly longer so that it would hang longer. As long as you keep the outside measurements the same it will work if you would like it longer or shorter. You then need to measure 22 cm/ 8 1/2 inches and add another popper. This is the larger end which you attach to Sophie the Giraffe. From the other end you need to measure 14 cm/ 5 1/2 inches and add another popper. This end is where you tie it to the stroller. Make sure you keep all the poppers facing the same way too. Also you can add a bit of glue like I mentioned in this post to the ends before turning over to stop them fraying.
This what the strap will look like when it is made. It will have a large loop on one end and a smaller loop on the other.
When it comes to attaching the giraffe to the strap, it is quite simple.
You place the strap under the giraffes neck.
Then fold the strap over the neck.
Wrap the strap behind and under the legs.
and up over to attach the snap poppers together.
You just simply attach the other end to the stroller and it's secure.
I think the straps could be very handy. What do you think?
I'm having great fun with the KAM pliers and still have a few more things to make with them.
See you soon.
Pacifier Clip Holder
Friday, June 13, 2014
When looking online recently for dummy or pacifier holders, I came across a lot of varieties on Ebay as well as elsewhere. They were all so nice and pretty with characters like Minnie mouse and beads and letter beads to spell the babies name but I just wanted plain simple holders.
All these pacifier holders were made from simple ribbon and if you have seen my ribbon organisation, I have plenty of ribbon! I thought I would see how much it would cost to buy the tools. I managed to buy one of the Kam pliers for about £10 and it came with the screwdriver etc and press snaps in 2 sizes. I will be explaining more about the Kam pliers in another post soon. I also picked up some of the clips to attach to pushchair or clothes etc.
To make the pacifier holder, you need the following:
-Kam pliers and the accessories to fit the size of press snaps you are using.
-Screwdriver that came with the kit to change the accessories.
-Clips.
Scissors.
Liquid glue or lighter.
Liquid glue or lighter.
-Hole piercer ( I used Tim Holtz craft pick).
-Ribbon of your choice.
You need to decide how long you want the holder to be and add a couple of centimetres to allow you to fold over the ribbon before adding the press snaps, approx 7cms to create loop to attach pacifier and the same if you want the other end to be able to attach to a stroller as well as use the clip.
On one side make sure you add the clip on before add the second press snap as it won't go on afterwards. I made that mistake a few times!
On the other end you need to just add to press snaps to create the loop to hold the dummy. Also after I had finished making the holder, I added some liquid glue ( I used Ranger Glossy Accents from my craft stash but you could use others) to the end of the ribbons to stop them from fraying. You could do this before you put it together and also could heat set the ends with a lighter too.
These are some of the pacifier clip holder I have made as well. I could make so many with all the coloured ribbon I have!
I have a few more projects to use the Kam pliers for and will post them in the next few weeks.
Have a lovely weekend and see you soon!
Linked up to Diana Rambles, A Bowlful of Lemons, The Shabby Nest, Chic on a Shoestring, Live Love Rowe, The 36th Avenue, Artsy Farsty Mama, Glued to my Crafts.
Hollie's version of the London Eye.
Monday, March 25, 2013
Hollie is in the first year of school and has been getting regular homework. It usually is to draw something but this week it was to make something found in London as London has been the topic they have been studying.
Hollie decided to make the London Eye, so we had to get our thinking caps on for ways to make it.
We had lots of cardboard so that wasn't a problem, but the actual pods that people go in was tricky.
While going around the shops we spotted all the Easter items and came up with the plastic Easter eggs to be the pods. We also picked up some pipe cleaners for the spokes of the wheel.
Hollie had great fun painting the wheel and she decided the wheel needed to be red and the spokes needed to be purple.
We had to tape the eggs together as they kept popping open.
We had great fun making this and her teachers loved it.
See you soon.
Felt Food Part 2
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
In the first felt food post, I showed you the the pasta, spaghetti, eggs and bacon that I had made for my daughters kitchen, well today I am back with the second part and I have some felt tea bags, donuts and biscuits to show you.
For the tea bags, I just created a rectangle and cut off the corners to make a tag shape, sewed them and filled them with stuffing and then created the string with bakers twine and a little square of felt at the top. Most of the tea bags have stuffing in but a few haven't and they still look good.
To store the tea bags, I grabbed a small tin that was in a set of three from Ikea which are the same as these. The tin was the perfect size and will keep them all together.
Next, I made some felt donuts. To make these I used a cd to draw around and created a pattern for the top and sewed on some beads to the pink and white ones. They were then simply sewn and stuffed.
Last, I have made some little biscuits which look like party rings. These are similar to the donuts but just created wavy strips to put on top instead of sprinkles.
They were fairly easy to make and were well received.
Hollie has really enjoyed using the tea bags in her little cups and using the cakes on her little play cake stand.
Have you made anything or considering making anything from felt? Leave me a comment and let me know.
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