3D Spring Flower Suncatchers

I have soooooo much love for the Spring season. Everything just seems to be bursting into life and so bright and colourful at the moment. It really is one of my favourite times of the year. We've been taking some time out from what we normally do over the last few weeks, after a difficult time we've had recently and we've been trying to take our mind off things by going out and enjoying the nicer weather. So I've been quite quiet and not posted much on here in the way of craft/play activities because we haven't really done much at all since Easter.

I've always seen it as really important for children to see beauty in what is around them and to appreciate nature. It's something I always try to instill in Tommy and I will aim to do the same with Isla. Life is usually ridiculously busy, with little time to stop and look at what is around where you live or work. Children are constantly surrounded by toys and technology and it's nice to get away from this now and again, to experience some quiet time, to appreciate the environment and reflect on how lucky we are to live where we live. I definitely want our children to value and appreciate everything, particularly the things in life that are 'free' rather than commodities. I want them to get as much (or perhaps more) out of a walk on the beach or in the woods as they would do if we were to take them to Alton Towers. If we 'sell' these things as exciting, they will see them as such.

With this in mind, I wanted to create something that was a reflection of everything that was going on in the environment around us, something that would draw attention to the changes that had been happening as we had entered the season of Spring. We decided on a walk to collect 'evidence' of Spring - buds, blooms, different colours, blossom, leaves, greenery, anything really that suggested growth or new life. We found a large bucket and took it on a local walk around the village, through the park and the woods to collect our materials. There were no rules as to what went in the bucket, as long as it wasn't picked or pulled off a plant/tree. It's been extremely windy here over the last few weeks, so it just wasn't necessary to resort to picking flowers. We did take a few petals or flowers off the plants in our own garden though.

I didn't imagine this walk would be quite the hit it turned out to be. I encouraged Tommy to find as many different colours as he possibly could because our aim was to create a beautiful, colourful piece of art, and it was a challenge he couldn't resist. I also encouraged him to try and find a range of different kinds of materials, from spiky ones to smooth ones, from large-flowered ones to small-flowered ones, from fern-like leaves to broad ones and this really motivated him. We talked about the different plant names as we came across them and I was surprised to learn how much Tommy knew already.

Once we had collected a variety of leaves, flowers, blossom and petals, we returned home and then looked for ideas as to what to do with them. On Pinterest, I stumbled upon the idea of producing a 3D suncatcher. It was the perfect idea for making a piece of art out of our natural materials so we set about making it immediately.

To make it, you need a small cardboard box, some sticky-backed plastic, a collection of natural materials and some paint (optional). The box needs to be quite strong if you intend to paint it like we did.

First of all, we cut an aperture out of each side of our suncatcher, leaving a centimetre border around the edges. We cut the top off the box and then painted it white to make it look a little more attractive. The next step was to stick the sticky-backed plastic, with the sticky side facing outwards, onto the inside of the box's sides. Then Tommy carefully placed his leaves and flowers onto the sticky-backed plastic. Some of the leaves/flowers stuck better than others. The best tip I can offer is that the smaller they are, the better they will stick to the plastic. Try to create interest by sticking a variety of plants onto each side. To finish the suncatcher off, you could then cover each side with a further piece of sticky-backed plastic, to sandwich in your flowers/plants and stop them from dropping off. We didn't bother with this step, as I felt it looked just right as it was.

I'm so pleased with how this project turned out. The suncatcher is just so beautiful - it captures the sunlight so wonderfully and looks as though every single tiny piece was carefully and perfectly-placed, even though in reality it was just whacked on! I love how very different it looks from each side.

 

 I know it won't last very long unfortunately, as the flowers will die quickly; I don't know if you could get around this by drying and pressing the flowers beforehand. But I shall enjoy having it on our windowsill in the meantime!

 

Minion Eggs

So, I got ridiculously into Easter this year. So much so that I went completely overboard when it came to buying Eastery paraphernalia for the house, Easter gifts for the children's Easter baskets, Easter eggs/chocolate (even though I was adamant the children would NOT be getting eggs from us this year) and Easter egg hunt-related things. At the last count, I think I bought a total of 60 plastic eggs and, looking back on this now in hindsight, this was a completely ridiculous overestimation of the number I needed, particularly considering the fact we weren't intending on hosting an Easter egg hunt with lots of children and our youngest child wasn't old enough to 'hunt' eggs or eat/enjoy the treasures inside. So, let me repeat - 60, yes that's 60 plastic eggs for a one-person treasure hunt. Major miscalculation. Big. Fat. Oops. Oh well. At least they're both cheap, re-usable and useful for a variety of purposes. I do love these little plastic eggs - they're so bright and colourful and I'll be sure to use them regularly in our play and learning.

We had a particularly wet bank holiday weekend (aren't they all?!) so I searched Pinterest for a craft activity we could do that wouldn't involve a trip to the shops to buy craft supplies and I stumbled upon this.

These are so quick and easy to make and a must for any Minion/Despicable Me fan. All you need to make them is black tape, googly eyes, yellow and blue plastic eggs and a sharpie/thin permanent marker.

Start by pushing together half a yellow egg with half a blue egg (it works best if the blue part is the smaller part). Then cut a stripe of tape in half lengthways and carefully wind it halfway up on the yellow part of the egg. Stick googly eyes onto the tape (we used self-adhesive eyes to make it easer). Then add detail (mouths, dungarees, hair, eyebrows etc.) with the sharpie. You could find pictures of various Minions to draw inspiration from or just create your own as we did.

Potato Masher Easter Egg Printing

I hope everyone's been enjoying the almost summer-like weather we've been having recently. We have definitely been making the most of it! Whilst it's been sunny and warm, we've snapped up the opportunity to do some outdoor crafting. One of the activities we did recently was printing Easter eggs using a potato masher. This was so easy, quick and, most important of all, FUN!

To make our prints, we used a potato masher (it's important to find the plastic variety, which we didn't find as easy as I had hoped!), some ready-mixed paint and some white card. I tend to make things as easy as possible for myself in terms of setting up/clearing away with craft activities - I find this is particularly important when you have a younger child like we do and they're likely to need feeding/cuddling/changing etc. half way through or just as you finish. With this in mind, I often use cheap paper plates as paint palettes (it saves on the washing up!). I squirted a small splash of different-coloured paint onto the paper plates and made sure the colours overlapped a little. I also taped the card down to a tablecover, so they wouldn't blow away mid activity (yes, this has happened to us before!).

Tommy then got to work, dipping the potato masher in the paint and pressing it onto the paper and lifting it off carefully. He really loved this activity, so much so I had to go and seek out some more
paper, so that he could continue!

The technique is really effective and would make lovely simple Easter cards. Alternatively, individual eggs could be cut out to make decorations.

Bird's Nest Craft

We've been well and truly throwing ourselves into Easter crafts recently. Tommy has really started to get into creative activities over the last few months, which, as a teacher, I really take pleasure in seeing. We tried this activity today. It was really simple and quick to make and the finished product is so cute!

To make it, you'll need: several pipe cleaners cut up into short sections; small strips of foam; small strands of wool; yellow card circles; googly eyes and orange card triangles; several feathers in various colours; a large semi-circle cut out of card.

To make our nest, we glued the strips of wool, pipe cleaners and foam onto the card semi-circle. Next, we added the yellow card circles to make chicks. To finish our chicks, we added eyes, beaks and some brightly-coloured feathers.

I told you it was cute! Why not give it a go this Easter? 

Playdough Easter Chicks

We haven't really done very much in the way of Spring/Easter crafting so far this year so I thought it was about time we started! I set up this playdough activity for Tommy to do after nursery and he spent ages doing it.

To make our Spring chicks, we used a variety of materials: one quantity of yellow playdough; an assortment of buttons; a range of googly eyes; orange pipe cleaners; different-coloured feathers and some beaks cut out of card.

I was impressed with the range of different chicks Tommy created during this activity. He really showed a lot of imagination.

Foam Craft - 'Olaf' from Frozen

We've been doing lots and lots of crafting recently, seeing as the weather's not been particularly great. I thought I'd share with you this activity, as it's so easy and cheap to do and it can also be enjoyed time and time again.

Tommy, like a lot of children his age, is COMPLETELY obsessed with the film 'Frozen' at the moment, so I decided to base this activity on it.

All you need is a pack of craft foam in different colours (I bought ours from 'The Range' for a few pounds), some water and a paintbrush. Yes, it really IS that easy. I cut out a template of Olaf from 'Frozen' and then Tommy could get to work! All you do is 'paint' the foam with water and then stick it to a window!

Because only water is required, there is scope to rearrange all the component parts as many times as you want and reuse them time and time again.

The possibilities of this activity are endless. You could make a Christmas tree, a nativity scene, whatever you wish. It's a great, no-mess, fun activity for children to do on a rainy day.