The Christmas crafting is continuing at speed here and if you thought last week's washi tape Christmas cards were a bit too taxing then this is definitely the craft for you - washi tape Christmas gift tags. All you need are plain gift tags (any will do, but I happened to have a box of these lovely vintage style ones from East of India) and some festive washi tape. As an added extra you could also use any Christmas themed rubber stamps that you may have too. You can obviously decorate the tags however you want with the washi tape, but I decided to keep it relatively simple with a ... read more
Dragon Jelly – Claire Freedman and Sue Hendra
I had been intending to get a review of Dragon Jelly up before Halloween, but life got in the way somewhat - as it has a habit of doing - and actually looking back at it, although some people associate monsters and general grossness it's also the sort of thing that appeals to children all year round. Dragon Jelly follows on wonderfully from Claire Freedman and Sue Hendra's last book Spider Sandwiches which Little Miss C and I reviewed last year. This time round Max is having a Monster party where he and his friends are playing all sorts of horrible games and eating some pretty hideous food. ... read more
Easy Washi Tape Christmas Cards
It may not be the trendy thing to say, but I love Christmas and I particularly love all the build up excitement. I see nothing wrong with starting off all the Christmas crafts and activities as soon as Halloween is out of the way and that's certainly what we're doing here this year. I'm trying to come up with activities that the children can get involved in which are not only fun, but also have an educational value. If they also produce something that can be used as a Christmas decoration or gift then even better. To kick off all my festive crafting I came up with a washi tape Christmas ... read more
Washi Tape decorated Vintage Maps Storage
My mum is about to move house, and as she's downsizing she's spent the last few months having a huge clear out of all the stuff that the family has accumulated over the years. It's fair to say that I think none of us had any idea just how much stuff there was in her house, garages and outbuildings. As part of this my sister and I have been helping where we can by taking a few things off her hands, especially things that we have fond childhood memories of. I've always been a huge fan of maps, vintage ones in particular (and that passion was reawakened by the relevant vintage Ladybird ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: Shapes
This post has now moved over to Penny Reads - the new home of Ladybird Tuesday. You can read all about Shapes here. ... read more
Review: Little Princess Hama Bead Gift Box
Well the Halloween Hama beading may be over for another year, but the Hama love is not waning! CraftMerrily recently sent us a couple of Hama Bead gift boxes to review and the first of these has proved to be such a favourite with Little Miss C that I have to admit that we're yet to properly tackle the second one. The Little Princess Hama Bead gift box comes with one princess shaped peg board, 3000 beads, and instruction sheet and a piece of the required ironing paper that you use when fixing your designs. Being a typical four year old girl (and one that happens to be a huge Frozen ... read more
Halloween Hama Beads
You can read all about my Halloween Hama Bead Creations over on Penny Blogs. ... read more
Understanding what loyalty really is
Today is the last day of Little Miss C's first half a term at school proper. As she'd been at our local infant school for her pre-school year I'd always assumed that it would be quite an easy transition into reception, and in many ways it has, but at the same time I'd also underestimated somewhat how different it also all is due to that extra year of age. LMC is now four, and will turn 5 later in the school year and that seems to be an age when children are so much more aware of the other children they're at school with and the concept of friends. There are children in her class that she ... read more
Autumn Inspired Venetian Mask
I've blogged many times now about how much I love my WI group here in St Albans. I look forward to our monthly meetings and really enjoy having that couple of hours to concentrate on something completely different - and often to try my hand at something new in the process. This last month - slightly inspired by Halloween - we had a short talk on Venetian Masks and then had a go at making our own ones. I went to Venice with my family years ago and still remember vividly the masks hung up outside so many of the shops we came across in the streets of the city. They were gorgeous and the ... read more
Halloween Crafts – paper plate spider’s web
I saw a picture of this make on Pinterest (my favourite place online right now - please pop over and follow me if you don't already) when doing some insect crafts with the kids earlier in the year and knew that it had to be on my Halloween list of things to make. The yarn in my Bostik Bloggers box from Craft Merrily was the perfect prompt. Paper plate spider's webs are not only easy to make with young children, but they also look really effective and are great for children's fine motor skills too. All you need is: Paper plates Scissors Yarn / wool Large tapestry needle (blunt ... read more