Playpennies

There are 3 weeks to Valentines day, so if you've got any crafts to get done, now's the time to get to it. If, like me, all you can draw is a blank, then here are 15 ideas for crafts you can make. 

These may well be rainy day activities, but I think most of them can be done as snowy day activities too. Hope they relieve some of your snow day boredom!

Stuck for something to do today? How about some edible finger paint, and painting the snow? We painted snow last year, it was messy, cold and plenty of fun!

Here are ten easy, sweet and cute Valentines day crafts for kids. I must be getting old. I almost asked where this year was going if I'm already thinking about Valentines day! 'They' were right - the days do get shorter as you get older.

As the doom and gloom of January nears its peak, and we're surrounded by sales many of us can't afford to indulge in, let's take a moment to look at 50 things money can't buy. 

Maggie from Red Ted Art has put together a great resource of free printables, perfect if you find yourself  stuck for something to do with the kids this weekend!

What a fabulous idea! I always have loads of pencils and crayons lying at the bottom of whatever we keep them in.  I love the idea of using toilet rolls to keep them upright and together!

Loving this idea for a DIY train station! Perfect activity for a lazy afternoon, and I'm sure it'll lead to hours of train play.

I'm guessing I'm not the only parent out there who runs out of ideas of things to do with the kids, so this list of 100 winter activities for children should excite you as much as it does me, right?

I was scrolling though my Facebook news feed yesterday when I came across a picture that a friend had liked - it was: Home Made Guess Who - People You Actually Know!  Then I Googled it and discovered that lots of people have done this before!

Now, if you've read my posts about Guess Who deals then you'll know I'm a BIG fan of Guess Who; I used to play it with my cousin on Saturday afternoon's at her house - for some reason Bernard always stuck in my head; I can still picture his picture clear as day.

Now, lets' suppose you've had Guess Who in your household for a few years and it's novelty and entertainment factor has worn off - REVIVE it by replacing Bernard et al with photos of people you know and 'know'!

You could find and print off pictures of your child's favourite characters and celebrities, or you could use family and friends - really, your choices are pretty endless and I rather suspect that, with a set of family and friends images, a fair bit of hilarity could be had by the grown-ups after a dinner party with friends and a couple of bottles of wine!

If you don't have Guess Who already, keep an eye out for a set in charity shops or car boot sales (if you are mad enough to spend the very early hours of the weekends searching through things that other people don't want - you can tell I'm not a 'car boot girl' hey!)

Here are twenty ideas for celebrating the new year with children. I think it would be great to start the new year as a family and why not involve the little ones from the start, eh?

What are you doing for New Year's Eve? How about a drive in with the kids? I think this is a fab idea for a family craft day (make your own car?) and movie night!

Okay, these festive nail decorations are simply over the top but the rest of the page does have some really sweet ideas for Christmas nail decorations - although I'm pretty sure that between the cooking, cleaning and child care, I don't stand a chance of keeping my nails like that for too long!

Here's something fun to keep the kids busy while you're running around doing your Christmas preparations this weekend! And you can keep it for yours to come too. Enjoy making Salt Dough Ornaments.

Do you find the holidays fun? Challenging? Ready for the kids to be back at school by lunch time on the first day? Here are 100 suggestions for things to do instead of watching TV - perfect for dark and dreary, rainy days!

These easy Gingerbread Houses look so much simpler than the toothpick and icing sugar contraption I battled last year! And you can make a whole village. I may actually have to try that this year!

We're pretty low on Christmas decorations in our holiday accommodations for this year, so I thought we'd make some Christmas angels to decorate the place a little. At first I wanted an angel to top the tree, but as we made them and placed them on a wine bottle to dry, I thought they'd actually make a lovely table decoration on Christmas day too. Because of the shape of the 'dress' it can't go flat on a table, but could top wine bottles or Champaign flutes and could even act as place settings. Or you can cut the bottom straight and have them standing on a table. The possibilities are endless.

You will need:

• 2 sheets of paper
• adhesive - I used double sided tape
• decorations - glitter glue, glitter, stickers etc
• scissors

My little girl is three, so I did most of the preparation work for her - I cut one sheet of paper in half, and drew a circle in one half, cut it out and then cut out another circle inside it - one for the head and one for the halo. On the other half of the paper I folded it in half again then drew a wing and made wings for the angel.  My daughter then decorated it all (and I decorated one after it had been glued together!)

To make the angel roll the second paper into a cone. Holding it with one hand stick it down with the other. We used double sided glue dots as we've had such failures with glue recently!

Stick on the wings, head and halo, and that's that - a pretty Christmas angel.

Does your dolls house need some Christmas cheer? Well, here's a tutorial for a miniature Christmas tree - probably also useful for table decorations, cake toppers and other pursuits requiring a mini Christmas tree.

I've used the children's hand prints for so many gifts over the years.  Four years ago we gave the grandparents and great-grandmothers framed pictures of Edward's right hand and left foot (it just looked more balanced that way) - Edward LOVED covering himself in paint and the resulting pressies went down a storm!

If you like the idea of hand print pressies, but would like a festive twist to it, then take a look at this hand print christmas tree apron idea that I came across on a rather fab' blog earlier this morning - I really love it, I must confess, and may make one with Edward, to give to his dad this year...and perhaps one for me too.

• Click HERE to take a look at the hand print Christmas tree apron

You don't need much: just a plain white chef's apron, some fabric paint in green and yellow, along with some red for painting on a few baubles and, of course, some hands!