Homemade Christmas Cards (A Cheat's Guide)
This morning I decided that The Boy and I would get creative and make the Christmas cards that I'd been intending to make with him for the past month. With Christmas being only a week and a half away I decided that it was time to get a move on!
A while ago I bought two tubs of foam stickers from Hobbycraft. They were £4.99 each and contained glittery foam letters, Father Christmas heads, reindeers, Christmas trees, gingerbread figures, stockings etc. So using these, some white card, blue paper, snowflake sequins, gold stars and glue we set to work.
First I cut the white card to A5 size, folded it in half and then cut a piece of blue paper to the same size. Then I cut a wavy line down the centre of this to make two skylines for two cards. Sticking these to the top half of the card I had an instant Winter snowscene. The Boy then created his cards really quickly and easily using the foam shapes. We decided on Christmas trees and he peeled the backing off and stuck them down. A gold star on the top of each tree, some dots of glue and then snowflake shapes and the card was finished!
Following this The Boy decided he wanted to try and use the gingerbread figures, one of which is a mummy and one a daddy. He was very annoyed that there wasn't a baby figure so he dumped the idea of it being a daddy and decided it was mummy and baby! (Ha!)
In total we made eight cards, just for immediate family members and I think they look rather fab personally. And in total it took an hour with minimal mess (something I'm not adverse to) and maximum enjoyment.
If you've got a quick and easy craft activity with minimal effort and maximum glitz factor then please link up to the pretty linky thingy below and let's share our ideas!
TRU Review: Rainbow Scraper Fun
When I was a child I used to love those scratchy pictures. You know the ones, they were all the rage at the time: a black board and you scratch off the coating to reveal a copper or silver base making a pretty picture. They had a scraper in the shape of an old-style fountain pen with a metal nib. If you were a klutz like me, then you may have cut yourself on it.
However, twenty years later, they've been improved and are far more user-friendly, mainly because they've got a plastic scraper now which is far more safe. We received some Rainbow Scraper Fun sets to review from Toys R Us, and quite frankly while The Boy was busy with his Sing-a-ma-jigs, I got busy making a pretty picture!
What do you think so far? I haven't finished of course, the rest of the silver areas need scratching off.
The Reeves Rainbow Scraper Fun setscome with a practise board and a picture to uncover, along with the safe scraper (no accidents for me this time!). It really is as simple as it seems and does what it says on the packet. The colours are vibrant and pretty, although possibly a little random. For example the rainbow effect looks brilliant for the parrot but odd for the cloud. But then I'm 34 and not 6 or 7!
The kits are aimed at 4yrs+, and I'll be honest that I think this is too young. I can't honestly see a child younger than 6 years being able to manage to scrape the foil covering off. It requires quite precise movements, and even I (with my tender years) managed to veer off the track.
Generally a great buy for a little girl, especially at Christmas. It would definitely make a change from the chaos to sit down and enjoy this for an hour or two.
For more reviews by the Toys R Us Toyologists, click on the image below.
We were provided this free of charge to review. My opinion is, as always, honest.
The Next Picasso? A TRU Review
Being both a qualified nursery nurse and a primary school teacher, I've had training on the development of most areas of a child's ability from 3 months old to 11 years. One of the areas that I know is important to develop at this age is the fine motor skills as it is a precursor to the ability to write; the pincer grip, hand-eye co-ordination, control of small objects are all important skills to develop.
Therefore threading, lacing, painting, colouring, jigsaws, sticking are all really important activities for toddlers to experience to help develop these skills. A drawing table or art easel would be something that would allow these activities to happen easily. We've got one and The Boy loves it; it's his own little territory and he spends quite a lot of time there.
Combine the two things together and you get the Artisto Table and Easel by Keter which we were sent to review as part of the Toys R Us Toyologist scheme.
Do you notice what's different about it? Yep, an easel and table combined, but for two children!
What I liked:
- that using the perspex, two children can work collaboratively on a drawing or a game like noughts and crosses etc.
- there is an individual table for each child and they both have a pot and compartment for their drawing/sticking equipment
- it's easily cleanable
- bright and attractive colours
- very easy to put together, meaning five minutes after getting it out of the box, it was assembled
- encourages social interaction.
What I wasn't keen on:
- the space on each side is big enough to fit a landscape sheet of A4, portrait won't fit on it
- the perspex is quite high up and is an unnatural position to draw on from a seating position
- when the moving compartments swivel around, one can completely cover the other person's drawing table; I can see arguments happening
- the distance from the seat to the table is quite wide in comparison to other tables available
- it's big, very big! (width 65cm, length 122cm, height 96cm).
At £79.99 (RRP) this is a more expensive table, but does have a lot of functionality and is perfect for twins, near-aged children or playgroups.
This will soon be available to purchase at Toys R Us. Keep an eye on the Facebook page to find out when!
Due to its size (and the fact that we've already got a drawing table) I will be donating this to Ty Hafan Children's Hospice (my local children's cancer hospital).
More on Monday: Circles
Yesterday I posted this image to Silent Sunday:
… and confused a hell of a lot of people!
I had over 40 comments that ranged from:
"Am I still drunk?"
to
"Fab pic – slightly confused!! Would make more sense with a drink I think!x"
via
"I don’t get it, but I think I like it if that makes sense lol! x" (my personal favourite)
This rather intriguing photograph was taken on Cardiff Bay Barrage, South Wales and has been the source of much bemusement to visitors that saunter across to watch the yachts coming in and out, for a good few years now. In fact, it's missed by an awful lot of people because it's not actually explained or advertised anywhere on the Barrage!.Quite often, it is only when someone pays attention to why someone else is standing in that exact spot that it is noticeable.
As Honiebuk said in her comment:
"I had to look twice and realised that it’s a bit like the Channel 4 ads – you have to be in the ‘right’ spot to take this photo to see the effect. They must have been very specific where they painted and the angles, width etc."
That's exactly the point, wandering around the vicinity you could be excused for thinking that a Cardiff City Highways representative had been a bit slap happy with some yellow paint! There are yellow lines seemingly randomly painted on everything: tarmac, pavements, dock gates, railings, etc. It is only when you stand a specific yellow cross out of the four painted on the ground that it all lines up to see the above image. There's no reason why, it's art!
This clever optical illusion was painted by 'Felice Varini and uses the Barrage structures and paint to create a collage that results in circles. The art highlights the many parts that are needed to make up the operational structure of the Barrage.' (www.visitcardiff.com)
For images of it out of alignment see here.
Oh and well done to the only person who knew what it was: SAHMLovingIt! Sorry I planted your comment into moderation for a few hours so I could leave everyone else guessing, hope you don't mind?
