crafts

Four 'Eggcellent' Easter Crafts & Activities

March 31, 2014 by TheBoyAndMe Leave a Comment

It’s official; Easter is just around the corner and the web is awash with brilliant children crafting and home-made game ideas for you to try over the holidays.

Here’s a round-up of favourites for you to try yourself:

Cardboard toilet roll bunnies

There are always fun ways to use an empty toilet roll tube, and cute toilet roll bunnies are a great way to craft and recycle at the same time. All you need is some pastel paints, PVA glue, a marker pen (for the face), some googly eyes (for fun stick-on eyes), and wooden lolly pop sticks (for the ears). [Read more…]

Easy Summer Craft Kits From Yellow Moon (Review)

August 26, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 2 Comments

We've recently been sent some products from Yellow Moon, the arts and crafts suppliers, to try out over the Summer holidays. With a week still left of the holidays, there's still plenty of time to get crafty with your children using these simple Summer craft kits; they range from ten minutes to hour long activities which are easy time-fillers and don't cost the Earth.

Carnival Glasses

In the foam glasses kit there are six different coloured foam glasses, it doesn't come with decorations supplied so it does mean having to find sequins, feathers, etc to decorate them with. However, this then means for greater personalisation depending upon the occasion. We decided to make carnival glasses, but they could easily be used for a clown party, etc. The best part about these glasses is that the arms fold out on a hinge, rather than bend like some cheaper plastic glasses. It means they stay on a lot more easily when worn!

At £3.60 for six glasses, these would be perfect as an activity at a birthday party, creating an instead party favour!

Ice-Cream Windmills

Paper windmills

This paper windmill kit comes with six windmill templates in two colours, six plastic sticks in two colours, six ice-cream fasteners in two designs, and six plastic stoppers or hinges. It's relatively easy to make and take approximately five-ten minutes to construct one, depending upon how much assistance is given. The Boy needed a little help to stop the windmill sections from pinging off the central spoke once attached, and to accentuate the curve a little more to allow the windmill to spin.

A well-priced kit at £2.99 with everything included to make six attractive ice-cream windmills.

Bunting T-Shirt

Bunting t-shirt

Using the Berol fabric crayons and the 3D fabric paints, we decided to create some bunting for the front of one of The Boy's old t-shirts. The crayons were a little tricky to use over the fabric and so I had to hold the fabric tight for The Boy but they were very easy to colour with, not stiff and gave a deep vibrant colour. The fabric paint pens were easy to control and dried leaving a three-dimensional appearance.

Berol fabric crayons are £3.99 and contain 12 colours, the Carioca Art 3D fabric paints cost £3.99 for six.

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I was sent the above products to review as part of the Yellow Moon Craft Bloggers Network. My opinion is honest and unbiased.

Tuesday 3rd April 2012 – 'Production Line' (94/366)

April 3, 2012 by TheBoyAndMe 5 Comments

Creating cards en masse starts out fun but can often end up with me feeling a tad stressed with the production line of 'stick it, write your name' being spread over a few days just to make sure he's taking care and enjoying it. We're almost finished. Please God, tell me we're almost finished?

Homemade Christmas Cards (A Cheat's Guide)

December 13, 2011 by TheBoyAndMe 19 Comments

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!

Review: Do Crafts

November 13, 2011 by TheBoyAndMe 1 Comment

In a previous life I used to be quite the arts and crafts fan; painting, drawing, pastels, applique, cross-stitch, making, baking, cooking up the next crafty idea. However, coinciding with the fact that I haven't slept since May 2009 is the fact that I have had no time to even remember how to draw a flower, let alone paint one.

I was recently sent some craft equipment from Do Crafts, including a Papermania Henbury Lane scrap-booking kit, a Creativity magazine, a pair of non-stick Art and Craft scissors and a Stick it permanent adhesive roller.

I've never tried scrap-booking before, but there is everything that you could need in this 1500-piece kit to make a start; including a large A3 square book, backing sheets, lettered stickers in a variety of designs and various cut-out embellishments with flowers, butterflies etc. There also card letters in four different prints which can be popped out and glued on giving a more 3D finish. It's a very comprehensive kit and ideal for scrap-booking fans.

The non-stick Art and Craft scissors are fabulous. Teflon-coated, sellotape doesn't stick to the stainless-steel precision blades, and they have soft-grip handles which is great for when you're cutting out a gazillion things! I couldn't get the Stick It permanent adhesive roller to work properly unfortunately. The theory is brilliant in that there is a roll of gummed paper and that it is rolled along the area to be stuck, leaving a line of permanent adhesive behind. In practise, the roller didn't roll and the glue had dried up.

I'm really looking forward to getting to grips with the Creativity magazine as there are so many different ideas in there. At only £2.95 per copy there are a wealth of projects inside it's glossy pages ranging from making Christmas wreaths to baubles and bunting. The latter I am definitely going to be giving a go! I particularly like the photo workshop for making your own photo Christmas cards, something I'm working on later today.