Tag Archives: craft

Apr2

Yarn Dolls

Posted on April 2, 2014 by TodayWeDid

I remembered making yarn dolls when I was a child, and I wanted to try it with the girls.

Wrapping the yarn around the cardboard.

First I cut some sturdy cardboard up into two rectangles to use to wrap the yarn around to make the body of the doll. I started each child off by winding the yarn around a few times, and then they continued to wind it until it was as thick as they wanted it to be. Once that was done, I helped them remove the hank of yarn from the cardboard. From this yarn we would make the head, body and legs of the doll.

Tying yarn around the body to form the head.

The body with hair, head, body and legs.

L cut a few pieces of yarn off the ball to use to tie around the hank of yarn to differentiate the hair from the head, and the head from the body and the body from the legs. L tied her knots, but A had difficulty, and asked me to help her do this part. Once the yarn was tied around the body at the top of the legs, we split the yarn beneath this into two roughly equal parts, forming the legs. A small section at the base was also tied off to form feet.

Arms ready to be added to the body.

To make the arms, the kids wrapped some more yarn around their cardboard, but this time, around the shorter sides of the rectangle. This hank of yarn was also not as thick as that of the body. Once we had removed this yarn from the cardboard, a small section on each end was tied off to form the hands.

We carefully threaded the arms through the body of the doll, and secured the arms in place using another piece of yarn wrapped around the doll’s chest in a criss-cross under the arms and around the back. We snipped off all the loose threads from our knots, and then the dolls were done. L left her doll just as it was, but A added some tiny googly eyes to her doll, but not other facial features.

Mar31

Pom Pom Bunnies and Chicks

Posted on March 31, 2014 by TodayWeDid

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When we went into Riot Art & Craft last week they had a large display of Easter crafts, including some little craft kits. Each of the kids picked out a pom pom critter kit to make at home. L chose mini chicks and bunnies, and A chose some chicks.

There were some instructions on the back of the pack, but it would have been possible to complete the pom pom critters from the picture alone, given what was in each kit. We had to cut up some of the pipe cleaners to the right length, but otherwise everything was ready to go.

Adding the chick’s bunny ears headband.

L got started on hers straight away, getting the beak and little puffy cheeks onto her chicks. A asked that I help her with the glue, and making the pipe cleaners into the right shapes. Once I’d placed the glue, she put the pieces together carefully.

One of L’s mini bunnies experienced a small accident which left its face elongated, so L started calling it the ele-bunny. I think she just damaged the pom pom, making it a weird shape.

L’s mini bunnies and mini chicks.

It was a fun way to pass an hour or so, and once the pom pom critters dried, the kids had great fun playing with them. A even took her chicks to bed with her and cuddled them to sleep.

Mar31

Bunny Ears

Posted on March 31, 2014 by TodayWeDid

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A as a cute little bunny.

After the bunny cake was all eaten last week, I was left with the felt and foam ears. We decided to put them to good use making some bunny ear headbands for the kids to wear.

White felt ears.

We had to make another set of ears for the second headband. L glued the pink foam onto the white felt to make the ears, and then we left them to dry.

Bunny ears ready for gluing.

I cut some strips of cardboard and stapled them together to the right size for the kids’ heads. Then the kids glued their ears onto the cardboard band. They placed the base of the ears behind the cardboard at the front of the headband so that the pink foam sections were lined up against the cardboard.

Sticking the ears to the headband.

Once the headbands were completely dry, the kids placed them on their heads and hopped all around the house just like rabbits.

L being a mischievous little bunny.

Mar30

Bottle Doll

Posted on March 30, 2014 by TodayWeDid

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A is crazy for dolls of all sizes and shapes. She does a lot of pretend play with them, in particular she likes to give them baths…. which are not always so pretend. She carries them around, takes them on outings, and to bed. A asked if we could make some dolls for craft, so we gave it a go. I remembered using a soft drink bottle to make a doll when I was a child, so we started with making a bottle doll.

The doll’s head.

We had an empty mineral water bottle that we washed out, and removed the label from. I cut out an oval of pink foam for the doll’s face, and A glued it to the top of the bottle. A decorated her doll’s face, giving her googly eyes, and using a marker to make a mouth and a nose.

I twisted two pink pipe cleaners today to make one long one, and I helped A to wrap this around the bottle to make some arms.

Then A got down to the very serious business of dressing her doll. She decided her doll should be wearing a shirt and a skirt. She chose to make the skirt from red tissue paper and blue honeycomb mesh, and the shirt from gold honeycomb mesh and pink crepe paper. I helped her to poke the doll’s arms through the mesh and crepe paper of her shirt. I held the shirt and skirt shut at the back while A taped them together. She is getting much better at removing tape from the dispenser without sticking it to itself now.

Adding hair.

Once she was dressed, it was time to “make her pretty” according to A. She didn’t like the bald look her doll was sporting, so she added some curly doll’s hair to the top of the bottle and around her face.

Placing her necklace.

A also used some stick-on gems to giver her doll a necklace, some earrings and a little watch. She found a thin pink ribbon in the craft box and asked me to make her a bow to place in the doll’s hair too.

Adding the final touches.

As a final decoration, A placed a small blue feather as a pendant on the doll’s necklace.

A made a bed for her new bottle doll beside her own bed that evening, so she would be comfy and warm, and ready to play first thing in the morning.

Mar28

Monster Masks

Posted on March 28, 2014 by TodayWeDid

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Gluing down some tissue paper.

The kids created their own monster masks using paper plates as a base. I cut some eye holes, and then they got started decorating their masks. We started by placing tissue paper over the plate to create the monster’s skin. Once we’d glued the tissue paper down, A chose to leave her tissue paper loose around the edge as a bit of a frill. L chose to push the edges of her tissue paper around to the back of the plate and glue it down.

Gluing the edges down.

The kids used some crepe paper to add fur, felt and foam for horns, mouth and ears. L added a silver tail to her mask too. And then it was glitter glue and more glitter glue. A used lots of glitter glue to create some pretty sparkly teeth that haven taken a couple of days to dry in our damp weather.

Adding a glitter glue nose.

I added a large pop-stick to the back of the plate to help support the mask, and then another large pop-stick at the bottom of the mask for the kids to hold it.

A adding purple fur.

Glitter glue teeth.

When I took photos of the kids using their masks, they growled and roared for me. They also ran out wearing their masks to scare Big L when he got home from work.

L modelling her monster mask.

A modelling her monster mask.

Mar27

Monster Horns

Posted on March 27, 2014 by TodayWeDid

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My little monster!

Using some green paper and green cardboard we made some monster horns to wear. I cut the green paper into strips, stapling two together and then placing it around the each child’s head to get the right size for the headband.

Monster horns.

The monster headband.

I cut out some horn shapes from the green cardboard, and then we stapled two horns to each headband. Then the kids used glitter confetti glue to decorate their monster horns. They became very sparkly, and A described her horns as monster tiaras (currently she would like to be a princess when she grows up).

A spreading glitter glue.

L adding glitter glue carefully.

My big monster!

Mar16

Foam Monsters

Posted on March 16, 2014 by TodayWeDid

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Foam sheets are easy and fun to make craft with. They are easy to cut to your desired shape, and they glue together well. We used some foam to make monsters. I cut out the base shapes and let the kids decorate them as they pleased.

A’s monster and flower.

Adding rhinestones.

A used plenty of glitter glue to stick on some legs and arms, and lots of rhinestones. She also gave her monster two large eyes and one tiny eye. After A made her monster, she also asked me to cut out a flower for her to decorate using rhinestones and glitter glue.

L’s monsters.

L made up a monster similar to A’s, using different coloured foam. She gave her monster a tail and some feet, and glitter glue for eyebrows and mouth. She cut up some scraps of foam into tiny pieces and spread them onto some craft glue to form a spiky looking beard and spiky hair for her monster. L made a second monster of her own design, cutting the orange foam into a ghost-like shape, and adding eyes, rhinestones and glitter glue for its features. I liked these monsters so much that L gave them to me to put up on my bedroom door.

Adding legs to her monster.

Decorated flower head.

Jan29

Plaster Hand-Prints

Posted on January 29, 2014 by TodayWeDid

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I like the idea of having little mementos of our children’s childhoods. They each have a box of things that we can show them when they are older, such as the hospital tags from when they were born, favourite baby toys, newborn clothing, and as they get older, certificates, special drawings and some school things. Having hand and foot prints of our children have been a nice addition to their boxes, as we can look back at how small they were. I wanted something that we could display (aside from photographs), and making hand prints in plaster was the perfect solution.

I bought a box of plaster-of-paris, and mixed it according to the directions on the pack. We used some small plastic plates as our moulds, into which I poured the plaster mixture to fill the plate about three-quarters full.

Plaster-of-paris.

I’d made it a little runnier than necessary, so we waited for it to thicken a little before each of the kids placed their hand, palm down, into one of the plates. I used Baby T’s foot instead of his hand, as I thought he would probably just scrunch his fingers up in the plaster, and we wouldn’t get much of an impression. L and A held their hands in the plaster for about a minute before carefully lifting them out, leaving behind their hand print. I held Baby T’s foot in the plaster while he sat in the high chair, he was not overly impressed by this. It was very easy to wash the plaster off their skin once the impressions were made.

Impression in the wet plaster.

We left the plaster to dry for several hours before checking them. They seemed fairly dry, but I left them overnight to dry completely before removing them from the plates. They slipped out of the plates very easily.

Impressions in the dried plaster.

Once dry, I painted each impression with silver acrylic paint, and then the surrounds with gold acrylic paint. I did a couple of coats to make the metallic colour brighter. I left them to dry overnight, and then I added their name and the date in black acrylic to each one. I’m still deciding whether to add some spray gloss to them. I think it might be a good idea to help protect them, but I have to go and find where the gloss was stashed after our last project to use it.

Painted foot print.

Jan22

Starry Stars

Posted on January 22, 2014 by TodayWeDid

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The kids really like stars. I think their two favourite shapes at the moment are stars and love hearts. L, in particular, is going through a stage of drawing love hearts and stars on everything. So a simple post-dinner activity was placing star stickers onto a cardboard star.

I drew the stars on a sheet of cardboard and cut them out, then I let the kids loose with two star shapes each, and several sheets of star stickers. A placed random stars all over hers, while L used the stars to make patterns, and even a face on one cardboard star. She also layered some of the stickers to make some stars with lots of points.

A placing star stickers.

One of L’s multi-stickered stars.

Once they were finished placing stickers, we taped some thick pink paper strips to the top of the stars to hang them by.

You may also like Sticker Names and Sticker Counting.

Jan16

Animal Magnets

Posted on January 16, 2014 by TodayWeDid

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Lots of spare animal cards.

Last year Woolworths wowed all the kids with their Aussie Animal Cards to collect. And then came the baby wildlife Aussie Animal Cards just before Christmas. L and A got to collecting them, and filling up their albums, but they were left with lots of spares. When the promotion finished, we didn’t quite have the full set. Our friends were very generous in giving us their spares to try to complete our sets, and now I think we are only short one card. However, there is a huge stack of spares left, and most people we know already have a full set, and still have spares. The kids like looking through all the spares, but I thought they might be able to be put them to a better use.

I received a new laminator for Christmas, and I was keen to try it out. L picked out five of the Aussie Animal Cards, and I placed them into an A4 laminating pouch and laminated them. I cut around each card, making sure there were no pointy corners. We glued some magnets to the back of each one. We tried some of the magnets at the top of the card, and some in the centre, both worked well.