Archive for the ‘Gettin’ our craft on’ Category
A crafty resurrection
Posted on: February 26, 2013
I am super proud of these busy garden scenes the girls and I just spent an hour making:
I love them because the girls did most of it on their own.
I love them because they look great!
I love them because, despite only having six hours sleep last night, I managed to be totally cool and let the girls take the original idea (a garden) and do what they wanted with it, instead of getting all uptight and perfectionist about it.
I love them because it was relaxing time spent with the girls when we weren’t rushing from place to place.
I love that Molly had a go at writing her name:
This is the first craft thing we have done in yonks, and it was a good reminder of how enjoyable it can be when I just go with it. With Tiernan at school now, it has been tricky trying to work out what to do with the girls in the small amounts if down time we do have, because I’ve been worried about Tiernan feeling like he’s missing out. It’s a bit silly, I know: he has done plenty of things the girls haven’t, over the years, simply because he is older. But still, it seems wise not to make days at home with Mum sound too exciting, especially while he’s having trouble settling.
Craft seems like a happy medium for now, until Tiernan is secure enough for us to do a few more special things without him.
Face painting fun
Posted on: January 22, 2013
The kids got some new face paints for Christmas and, given the stormy weather, this afternoon seemed a good time to give them a go.
Molly and Neave both requested butterflies, and through the magic of google, we soon found a nice one for me to copy. Simplicity was the key, as I’m really not the world’s best face painter.
Here’s how Molly’s turned out:
I was quite pleased with it, but after running to the mirror to check it out, Molly declared she hated it!! The lines were a bit chunkier than the one I was copying, and the colours not as bright. However, after a few minutes she looked again and decided it was acceptable. Phew! Looks like Mummy needs some practice.
Next came Neave, and as usual, she wanted exactly the same as Molly. I got as far as the pink and purple base before she changed her mind and wanted a cat. Oh.
I thought I made a pretty good save, actually. Neave was happy, too.
Tiernan kept changing his mind between wanting Spiderman, Batman or Ben 10, so we just looked at a few images and he settled on, well, I’m not really sure what it’s supposed to be:
Some kind of gruesome zombie/skeleton thing I guess. Anyway, he has been running around, jumping out of hiding places and scaring us all afternoon since his ‘transformation’, so he’s pretty thrilled with the results, too.
All in all, a nice way to spend a rainy afternoon.
Beeing crafty
Posted on: March 19, 2012
I haven’t done anything creative with the kids since… Christmas. I think it’s because I overdosed in the Christmas lead-up and afterwards the limited interest I have in crafty projects with the kids diminished completely. It’s not that I don’t like craft. I’m pretty crafty myself, when the mood takes me. But I’m also a control freak and don’t like relinquishing power to the messy ones. Because they are messy. They don’t care whether all of the paint ends up in one tub, or all of the tiny little googly eyes end up scattered all over the floor, or whether the things we end up making even remotely resemble the things we actually set out to make. They don’t care one little bit. I try not to, but I do. I really do.
Anyway, I’ve been feeling guilty about not having much time to sit and do things with the kids lately. Or, more to the point, that sometimes I do have time, but I choose to spend it checking Facebook or my email instead. So today we did craft. It was inspired by the craft that was offered at playgroup – they blew up balloons and stuck stuff to them to make animals. I thought, “Sure, we have balloons, we have crepe paper, we have googly eyes – we can make octopuses!”
But Tiernan had different ideas. He wanted to make a bee. And because Tiernan wanted to make a bee, Molly, who had been excitedly describing to me the octopus she was going to make, changed her mind mid-sentence and also declared she was making a bee. So they made bees. I didn’t really give them much guidance about how to make their balloons bee-like, I just helped them with the steps they wanted help with. Here is what they came up with:
Beeeeeeeeeeeeees!
Some pretty cute bees, I reckon. I love the cheeks most of all.
I learnt some lessons in this: craft can more fun when I’m not trying to control everything – since there was no plan to follow, I didn’t have to stress when the plan didn’t go to plan; I also learnt that these two are pretty good at using the tape and the glue (which is no thanks to me – they must have picked it up at preschool and daycare), so I should give them more credit, and more freedom to explore, in future.
Did we end up with permanent marker on the table? Yes. Does it really matter? No. The kids had fun, and for a change, I did too.
What we’ve been up to
Posted on: August 16, 2011
An early visit from Spring meant that we could indulge in some water play. As you can see, Neave ended up wearing most of the water!
Some puppet craft:
Some cake-decorating practice:
Some rowing:
I'm in the back and my sister Kate is in the front
And someone learnt how to do up his buttons on his own!
Crafty caterpillars
Posted on: March 21, 2011
Raining again today.
Started to make caterpillars with the kids. Got carried away with colour mixing and ended up with some truly hideous hues…
Heaps of paint leftover, so finger painting ensued.
Even more paint left over, so I had a go (with a brush, not fingers).
Really quite chuffed with the results!
Frogs and a pond
Posted on: February 18, 2011
We made these today:
The kids also painted a ‘pond’ as a backdrop to our water creatures mural. I handed the kids some paint brushes and plastic lids with green and blue paint in them, but it wasn’t long before we decided to ditch the middle man and squirt the paint directly onto the paper. Hands, feet, arms and knees were all used to spread the paint! It looks great, though!
Crafty
Posted on: February 13, 2011
So, in amongst the hecticness that was my birthday (!), I managed to get some motivation together, and the kids and I did not one, but two craft activities in two days!! Some kind of record, I believe. (The fact that Neave also decided to have three-hour morning naps for a few days may have had something to do with it…)
For some reason, a ‘water-creature’ theme seemed appropriate, so we have made fish:
And Jellyfish:
I’m thinking of making a mural with our creatures. I wonder what we should add next?
How to make a Super-hero cape
Posted on: February 2, 2011
You might find yourself listening to your son’s heart-felt laments that he doesn’t have a super-hero toy.
“Oh, I wish, I wish, I wish, I had a super-hero…” Sigh.
“What about Buzz Lightyear?”
“Well he doesn’t have a cape.”
If you feel sorry for him, you might decide to knock one up for him. Here’s how:
1. Cut a tea-towel in half.
2. Sew a hem on the cut edge, leaving room to feed a ribbon through later.
3. Threaten to give up the project when your son pulls the needle out of your hand for the fifteenth time.
4. Tie some ribbon to a skewer and feed it through the hem.
5. Proudly present the cape to your son. Try not to be too offended when he asks if it is a skirt.
6. Dress Buzz in his cape, and smile smugly to yourself as you watch your son play with him. For a whole five minutes.
7. When he loses interest, pick up the abandoned Buzz and pose him for photos yourself.
10. And repeat, for your daughter.
Monster craft!
Posted on: October 21, 2010
Tiernan is really into monsters at the moment. We are visited daily by our friendly monster neighbours. Sometimes they come for morning tea, and sometimes they come to chase us. Only occasionally do they make scary noises outside our windows, but that’s okay because we have installed ‘Monster stickers’ on Tiernan’s door, which keeps them out of his bedroom.
So the other day, while Molly and Neave slept, Tiernan and I made some mini-monsters of our own. I borrowed the idea of wrapping wool around a toilet roll from Kid’s Craft Weekly. Then I partially blew up some balloons to make monster heads, and wrapped more wool around to help keep them on, although plenty of sticky tape was also used! Tiernan was sick of wrapping by this stage, so I did his monster head for him. Next we stuck short bits of wool on top for messy monster hair, and decorated with bits and pieces – buttons for eyes, coloured toothpicks for stripes, felt triangles for a tail and other markings.
I think they look great! Once they were dry, Tiernan gave them names and played with them for quite a while afterwards. His monster’s name was Cauliflower, and he liked to eat smarties. I am kicking myself for not writing down the other monster name, because I’ve forgotten it and it was just adorable! Oh well, I’ll post it if I ever remember…
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