Crafting by not a very crafty mum - Quality Street wrappers

If you are anything like my family at Christmas, you're about to get through a lot of Quality Street (other sweets are available).

I got a large tin free with my shopping this November. We could have saved them for Christmas, but me and Big E couldn't resist them and have started tucking in.

As always, there is then a huge pile of colourful cellophane left over. I thought there must be something we could do with these.

So me and Little E made "stained glass" sun-catchers. They worked out so much better than I thought they would.

First step: eat chocolate! Collect wrappers

Second step: Get out your sticky backed plastic. The blog that inspired me to do this suggested decorating half a piece and then you fold the undecorated half over the top at the end. This worked well for us. Little E liked chopping up the wrappers best.

Third step: fold over the plastic to seal your creation in. I then used a biscuit cutter to draw around and cut out star shapes. I was sure they would fall apart or curl up, but they stuck togetherness brilliantly. I used a hole punch to make a hole and threaded some ribbon through. Little E said "wow" when I showed him the result.

Even on a dreary, rainy day, they look nice in the window. I've got all sorts of ideas now of what's we could make. Definitely think we need to make a few for the tree. Plus, we might just HAVE to buy more chocolates. Win.

Crafting by nota very crafty mum - keepsake

Little E is three today and I thought it might be time to share a keepsake I am hoping to make for him.

When Eric was born there were so many ideas for capturing his first year - baby books, hand prints, etc, but it made me a bit sad that it all seemed to stop after this.

Then I started seeing long term projects - grown ups being given lamps filled with everything their mums had emptied from their pockets for years, journals full of letters from every teacher they had ever  had, etc. I have friends who have made lovely shadow boxes filled with memories or personalised art.

This is sounded a bit complicated! I am not sure when I thought of it, but at some point before Little E was one, I decided to try and collect a birthday badge for every year of his life.

My collection so far! Every year I've tried to choose a badge with something Little E loves. It was hard when he was one, as we weren't sure what he really liked. He did seem to like the colour orange, so I went for an orange badge and that has turned out to be his favourite colour (along with green). Diggers for his second birthday and it is all about super-heroes now he is three! He doesn't really know who Spider-man is, but he knows super-heroes run around going zap and say "To the rescue!" He spends hours at nursery playing super-heroes with the other children.

My plan is to try and do this until he is 18 and then have them mounted for a wall hanging. Time will tell if I manage this. I don't want to hide them in a drawer until that time, so I pin them to this cardigan remnant and they live in his room. I hope he will at least enjoy them even if I don't manage to finish my project.

Hope this inspires some of your own ideas.

Cake decorating - Person of Interest

My life has changed. There are pens for cake! After years of rubbish icing, I won't ever look back!

I've been planning a Person of Interest cake for months for Big E. He loves Lego and I saw the computer programmer minifig at a craft fair. I couldn't help but think he looked like Finch from POI. We love POI, so I had my TV theme this year for Big E's birthday cake.

I looked out for Lego figurines that I thought might work on the cake. I got a police officer body and a dog that looks Like Bear from eBay. I completed what else I needed from https://minifigs.me

 I found out about cake pens from a lady at work who, unlike me, is amazing at decorating cakes. Seriously, why did no one tell me before? I got a red one from Hobby Craft.

Exciting times!

Crafting by not a very crafty mum - Ruby Wedding Anniversary card

Big E's parents just had their 40th wedding anniversary. It was another nice excuse for me to try something new.

I saw lots of lovely ideas, but I did like the idea of a family tree. I got my in-laws to put their finger prints on a piece of card months before the event, in the hope they would forget what I was up to. I thought I would make them a pair of love birds at the top of their tree with their children, partners and grandchild as the leaves. I found a lovely sentiment to write on the card: "From strong roots grow beautiful leaves".

You'd probably need a bigger card if you have a bigger family!

Crafting by not a very crafty mum - peacock first anniversary card

My sister got married last year. She and her now husband chose a peacock theme for their big day. I was honoured to be asked to make the button holes, which I wrote about last year.

I was sure I could make them a card for their paper anniversary. I saw some nice children's crafts using coffee filters to make peacocks, but I couldn't easily get hold of coffee filter papers and Little E is still not that keen on painting.

However, when he does feel inspired, I keep it in a drawer to use for a later project. One of these became this:

As if by luck, we were messing about with paint in the garden a few weeks earlier. Little E was having fun mixing paints together and it was lovely watching him discover how blue and yellow become green.

I realised the blues and greens might work for a peacock tail and so cut out a circle from his painting. I had some nice shiny blue card to make a peacock body. Stick it all together and add some detail with a gold pen and I was done.

I also used this painting to make thank you cards for Little E's birthday. I have to make his artwork stretch when it is so limited!

30 days wild - wild cards for Father's Day

30 Days Wild takes place in June. It is run by The Wildlife Trust and encourages people to perform "a random act of wildness" every day in June. This can be something as simple as taking a moment to have a cup of tea outside in your garden. They hope by reconnecting with nature we will feel happier and healthier.

With Fathers' Day coming up, I was inspired to do some "wild art" cards.

I really enjoyed making these. I wandered around our garden collecting petals, grasses, etc. I grouped them into colours. It was very relaxing noticing all the wonderful things that grow in my garden...no thanks to me! I remembered doing it as a child - collecting fallen blossom, rose petals, grasses. What a shame that grown up life seems too busy to have a few minutes to yourself just mucking about.

I had cards ready set up with sticky backed plastic to stick the petals to. I started one for my dad, so little E could see what the idea was.

Little E was very excited when he saw all the colours. Then, as I expected, poured all the bowls onto his card and smashed them down! "I'm done, mummy!" It was very funny and demonstrated my son's usual method of handling things!

I then put a layer of sticky backed plastic over the top to seal it.

Sadly, although I had experimented and thought they would survive, the petals really faded and the cards were looking a bit sorry for themselves on the actual day. If you do this, I suggest you make them as fresh as possible. Big E still thought it was a lovely idea. :)

30 Days of Wild

I have signed up to the 30 Days of Wild challenge for June.

http://action.wildlifetrusts.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1823&ea.campaign.id=48499

The idea is to do a " random act of wildness" every day. It can be something as simple as looking up your favourite wild animal online, walking barefoot in your garden, taking a picture of a butterfly...

I was inspired to do this by Little E. The other month we were walking back from a weekly music class we attend, when he stopped at his favourite hole. "Not again!" I thought. A torn up area of grass verge is nothing to get excited about. I wanted to get home, have lunch, do "useful" things...

...when I stopped. Why was I in a rush? This muddy patch has given us some lovely moments. Splashing in our wellies, when it froze rock hard and Little E could stand on it, throwing rocks into it...

Little E is outdoorsy and I always feel I ought to be trying harder to get him on some nature walks. It suddenly occurred to me how much there was to experience on our way home. We took our time - played with the puddle, he rolled in the grass verges and I noticed the range of grasses and flowers in them, met a cat, pretended to be a dog. There were ants, beetles, butterflies and birds to look at. When we got home, Little E got me to roll in the grass in our garden and watch the clouds in the sky. I haven't done this for years.

And I felt happy (and slightly nauseated from the rolling).

I've signed up to 30 days of wild, which is supposed to start in June, but I am already trying to be mindful of it. I stopped and breathed in some wisteria scent near my house, noticed the flowers and lichens on the walls as I walk around. I practice mindfulness and this fits in perfectly - I am completely absorbed in what I can see around me and what my son is doing.

People keep telling me, "Enjoy it while it lasts, they grow up so quickly", but time stands stills when I focus on Little E completely. I hope 30 days of wild will give me more ways to direct my attention on what we do together.

Why not go wild too. :)