Crafting by not a very crafty mum - Easter cards

Oh yeah...people will probably get Little E Easter gifts.

I thought I was home free until his birthday, but then we were given an Easter egg. A simple thank you would probably suffice, but I felt inspired and thought I'd make some Easter card that were also thank you notes.

I had a hunt round Pinterest. Some great ideas as always and this time I didn't need to make a stack of cards, so could do something more "bespoke". In the end, a couple of ideas caught my interest and I combined them into one card idea.

I love puns!

Someone had posted a picture of a similar idea with the circle and bunny ears. It looked like a professionally printed one where you could upload your own photo. The comment below said how hard it was to take a picture of your child wearing a costume, so drawing it in afterwards was a good idea.

I then saw a separate card with the pun. Couldn't resist!

Really easy and I've already made a few more. I probably only need about 6 for close family, so it will be easy for me to make that many.

How to:

I used

Yellow card (I used A5)

Print out from our computer of Little E

Sellotape

Felt tip pens

1) Fold card in half

2) Cut a shape out in the front. I went for a plain old circle, as I could just draw around a glass. Maybe an Easter egg shape might work well? I centred it up as best I could. Try to leave room at the top for the ears! I realised just in time my mistake and redrew my circle lower.

3) Cut out. I used scissors, so my edge is not very neat. I'm too lazy to care, but others might want to use a craft knife.

4) Print out a photo and stick it into the window. Try to pick a photo where the face is the main subject. You need the head to be cut off slightly off at the top, so the ears look like they are coming out the top.

5) Draw your bunny ears and a message of your choice! I used Little E's crayola pens and a pink fluorescent marker. All seemed to come out fine! I drew the ears in pencil first as a guide. Good thing I did, as I had to rub out one of the ears and try again!

And then...variations on a theme...

Messy play without the mess! - finger paints in a ziploc bag

Isn't it great when something works out well? I'd see this idea of putting paint in sealable bags, so your child could "paint" without getting messy.

Sounded like such a good idea, but Little E doesn't do much sitting a the moment and there never seemed a good time to try it out. He gets a bit fed up sitting in his chair, even if he has something to play with.

I then saw the idea of sticking it to a window, which I thought he might prefer as he would be standing. I thought we didn't have an appropriate window, until little E squeezed down the side of our armchair to the French doors. Oh yeah! Forgot those were there!

So I got:

A ziploc bag for 80p (thank you Pen to Paper)

Finger paints (given to me by a friend)

A piece of white paper

Tape for the window (brown masking tape was what we had lying around)

I folded the paper inside the bag. Squeezed some blobs of paint onto it, then sealed the bag and stuck it on the window.

Little E was definitely interested. He had a good squidge of the paint. The nice thing was, he could walk away and then come back to it, unlike being stuck in the high chair. 

Clever Aunty L showed him how if you mixed the paints they made different colours. I always love it when other people come to see Little E. They always bring new games and ideas to help me stimulate him.

I left it up until the evening and then took it down. I carefully slid the piece of paper out and left it somwhere safe to dry up. I washed the ziploc bag out. Most of the paint came out, but it won't be as shiny as it once was!

This is now hanging on the fridge :)

Crafting by not a very crafty mum - Valentine's craft?

I've just come across Asia Citro. She has beautiful craft and sensory play ideas for children.

However, most the photos she seems to take involve nothing more than a towel protecting her white carpet from two paint splattered children.

Not in my house!

I believe strongly in messy play, but Little E can do that in nursery where they have wipe down floor, walls and ceiling!

Also, the few times I have made a big effort to get paint, etc, out, it's only interested Little E for a very short amount of time and then there is a big clear up session. It has been pretty exhausting for little gain.

However, I still want to do some of these types of activities, because I enjoy them even if Little E is not that bothered. I also want to have lots of ideas for each day I am alone with Little E. He is so much more fun now that he is a toddler, but sometimes a whole afternoon of trying to keep him entertained seems to loom in front of me. I wish I could explain it, but it actually makes me feel a bit scared. It probably stems from when he was tiny. He would be fussy and difficult in the afternoon and I'd feel overwhelmed with how alone and bored I felt. It wasn't unusual for Big E to come home and for me to simply hand Little E over, as I just couldn't bear it anymore.

This too shall pass...and it did. Big E most often comes home to a happy (if tired) mum and Little E.

I can't always be out and about, so having lots of craft ideas up my sleeve keeps me sane.

Asia Citro posted a blog with a link to all her "Valentine" ideas. Lots of cute heart activities. I came across one that sounded do-able with my limited skills, wouldn't wreck the house and would be fast to put together.

http://www.funathomewithkids.com/2014/01/easy-babytoddler-valentines-day-art.html

I get the feeling her kids are a little more artistic than my little guy, but we still made this:

My shopping list and how to:

Cereal box - cut up into two "frames" and then shapes cut out of the middle.

Sticky backed plastic - I always wondered what this stuff was! I think Asia calls it "contact paper". It's that plastic wrap stuff you used to cover your text books with. Cut out the desired amount. Stick to cereal boxes and done...you now have a sticky surface poking through your shape.

Stuff to decorate with - I got some glitter and feathers from Pen to Paper. I threw in some cotton wool balls I had lying around. Asia has a blog about sensory play with cotton wool, so I thought it would be a good idea.

I laid it all out in the sitting room with an old table cover on the floor. The only thing likely to get messy was the glitter, but  hoped I could just shake the cover out when we were done.

Little E came down from his nap and look very interested, but I think mainly in the bowls! At 16 months he loves pouring things and he immediately poured the glitter out of the bowl. Fortunately, some of it hit the sticky bits!

He then moved on to the feathers. Little E has been pretty fascinated by feathers in the park, so I thought he would enjoy them. He watched as I threw them in the air and then had a go himself. Essentially, our piece of art was made by accident by whatever happened to hit the heart on its way down.

However, he did enjoy sticking the cotton wool to the sticky backed plastic. At first he just enjoyed touching the wool. He stuck it to the plastic by accident and kept holding it up to me, as if to say, "Mum! It's sticky!" He seemed a little freaked out, but then began taking them off and sticking them back down again.

I don't think Little E played with this stuff for more than about 20 minutes. He wandered off, so I got the dust pan, brush and broom out. I didn't want him walking glitter everywhere. The nice thing was he then joined in with the tidying. He was giggling as he swept up. I sort of hoped that tidying up would be part of the fun.

I have kept the feathers out since. He has had some great fun throwing them around. I also tried showing him how some of the feathers were the same colours as the bowls and trying to make it I to a game, but I think he is still too young.

I was really pleased with this activity. It was easy, tidy and looks very effective hung up in our window. If you wanted even less mess, just don't use glitter. I think it will be a great craft idea to return to when he is older and even inspired me with some card ideas.

Crafting by not a very crafty mum - toddler bean bags

I saw this idea ages ago and only just got to try it out.

Little E loves throwing things. It's a bit of a problem when it happens to be a wooden block aimed at my face. He really doesn't know it will hurt! At least...I like to assume he doesn't.

So, we're always trying to help him learn about how to throw things nicely and turn it into games. A common phrase in our house at the moment is a panicked, "Only at my hands!" We hope he'll learn he is trying to throw it for someone to catch and not to break noses!

We were tidying some laundry away and Little E started throwing a cushion into the laundry basket. He was roaring with laughter, so I finally had the motivation to make him some bean bags.

This was a no-sew project I pinned ages ago. Someone had pointed out that baby socks filled with beans were the perfect size bean bags for a child.

So...I took some socks I had kept in reserve, filled them with dried chickpeas and tied a knot.

Five minutes later, voila!

Little E was suitably entertained!

The bean bags in all their glory!

Good to have these little things in reserve when mum and Big E are tired and need 5 minutes peace!