I didn't want to go out and buy a whole lot of stuff for Easter themed crafts. In particular, as we weren't doing anything like having an Easter bonnet parade (my son did that at school) I didn't want to have to buy a hat that he's never going to wear. Instead, I had some paper bags, and plates, to use as the base, and I bought some little chicks and Easter themed confetti (£1 each at the 99p store) and we used items that we had already in the craft cupboard at home.
By Carla do a Bib and Splash Mat Set that’s currently in pride of place on my living room floor.
The 70x70cm splash mat is ideal for use when painting, colouring, cutting and other crafts, as well as for messy play or playdoh and even for snack times – or meal times when you’re weaning. It creates a fantastic easy to lift up and dust off, then wipe clean surface.
The bib is a long sleeved, flat fronted bib making it ideal for play time when you don’t want the clothes the get dirty – especially with paints or a chalk board – and it has a pelican bib that you can fold out to catch food during meals.
The splash mat and bib are made of plastic, but rather than being PVC they are something called PETA, which is apparently a chlorine-free vinyl that’s starting to be used in lots of products as a replacement for PVC. It’s not a perfect substance as it’s still a petrochemical product and not entirely tested, but it’s already better than PVC.
It’s nicely finished off with a binding to keep the edges reinforced, and the bib has a Velcro tab at the top to keep it in place.
There are two designs, the Nougat, which is zebra-like black and white stripes , and Playtime, which are simply gorgeous newborn-ish sized hand and foot prints in a variety of colours - pink, purple, blue and green – with yellow binding. I would say both are pretty unisex in appearance.
The Bib and Splash Mat Set come in a carry bag made of similar materials, but undecorated, and it’s a perfect storing place for when they’re not in use. My daughter also loves carrying them around in their ‘handbag’.
She loves the set and often asks to wear her ‘apron’. We were also really surprised by the price. We guestimated the price at £20 - £30, but Amazon are selling them at £12.99.
January 23rd is Chinese New Year, and 2012 is the year of the dragon. These fun craft projects for toddlers are just three of loads of fab indoor, and more importantly, simple ideas on Delicious for celebrating Chinese New Year with your little ones. (Click on the picture for more ideas and instructions.)
Early Learning Centre has a pretty fab selection of Easter Craft items to keep your little ones entertained this Easter.
While everything in the ELC Easter crafts range is listed as being suitable for an age range from 3 years old, I'm pretty sure that with supervision even younger children might enjoy some of these fabulously fun projects.
Of course, you're still going to need to have the time and patience to sit down and do the crafts, especially with younger children, but I do love having goodies on hand to keep them entertained without me having to wreck my brain trying to come up with ideas. For £14, you could actually have a project on hand twice a day for all of the Easter weekend! Especially useful if, heaven forbid, we end up with a rainy weekend.
Kits available are:
Delivery from ELC is pretty pricey at £4.50, but you can order it for in store pick up which is free.
Thanks to hillsbills at HUKD
Create amazing honeycomb paper effects, such as 3D paper decorations, beautiful garlands, cards and more with Paper Fantastic from Amazon at £12.76, a 25% discount.
My 90-year old great-grandmother still had paper decorations in her house every Christmas, a remnant of the nursery school she ran for 40-something years. These reminded me a lot of the ones in her house.
Says an Amazon reviewer, “I never would have thought it possible to make the kind of honeycomb paper that's used for Christmas bells and garlands, but this is a clever device that helps you do it.”
According to the same reviewer, “You have to read the instructions quite carefully, but the results are wonderful, and with a bit of practice you can make all kinds of fun decorations.”
These aren't really for children though, or at least require a good amount of adult supervision. A mum who made decorations with her daughter, says: “We... found the mechanism brilliant. An otherwise difficult activity to do well was made incredibly easy and the finished results were colourful and professional looking. A great product and I recommend it to everyone.”
It sounds like a good afternoon's entertainment to me!
There are so many uses for the Hello Kitty Easel, now £19.99 at Argos, down from £34.99
What are these uses? Well, apart from the obvious play advantage, there's also the writing things option, like to do lists for children, reminders can be written on, or short messages if you'll be missing each other on the way in or out. There's also the ability to learn and disguise it as play. I had a chalkboard later in my childhood, and used to “teach” the neighbourhood children maths at it.
Of course, it's primary purpose is play, and the easel comes with six white board markers, 12 crayons, 12 colouring sheets and a white board eraser.
I think it's great that it is dual medium – whiteboard and paper - as that does lengthen how long it will stay in use for, which is always an added bonus.
You can get this from Argos, and it's available for click and collect today or home delivery in two days
Thanks to shadow1 at HUKD
Or, about as close as you might be able to get to making your own porcelain! But this stuff is a lot hardier, as I found out when I dropped my son's precious ornament on our (not-carpeted) floor. Making this stuff is a lot harder than making salt dough, and I probably shouldn't have tried it as a novice 'crafty mum'. But it is also one of those crafts that, the more you do it, the better you'll get.
Just to fill you in a little bit, my son has a physical problem that makes it very hard for him to do anything with his fingers. He's always avoided doing things like colouring in or painting. It is something that can be easy to miss because you think, well my child's not artistic, or doesn't have an interest in art. But when they can't write either it becomes more of a concern. I'm not at all a crafty person, in fact I am pretty useless at it. But as part of my son's therapy, we have started to do crafts at home. So hopefully, you'll get to learn from my mistakes!
What I've discovered is that far from having no artistic interest, he absolutely loves it. The problem was that before, he just couldn't do it. Now he can and it makes a huge difference! In fact I'm beginning to wonder just where he gets his eye for design from as it is remarkably well co-ordinated and neither of his parents have an eye for colour.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about having a Crafty Christmas. In there I came across a site by Earthenwitch, and I loved the cornflour clay ornaments she made. I used her recipe but unfortunately she hadn't said how to put the dough together. No matter, I figured you just mixed it up right? No, not right. Not at all. The result was a horror of a bizarre compound that hardened almost straight away but turned into a liquid as soon as came into contact with the air. So what you got was a hard-as-wood bit underneath and gloopy stuff on top!Actually, as far as a science lesson goes, this was a pretty good one.
You can see that first attempt pictured on the right!
If you're going to have a go at making cornflour clay, I would recommend following this recipe here. One change I might try next time though is that Earthenwitch used essential oils in her recipe. This stuff has a rather unpleasant odour when it is cooking.
After our first attempt, I waited until the boy had gone to bed to try again. This isn't really the sort of dough that you can make with a small child. He had asked for a diamond so that's what I made him.
On Sunday he decided he wanted it to glitter like an icicle. So we got the PVA glue out, and the glitter. I was suprised at the colours he mixed together. A little bit of blues and purples in there along with the silver actually did make it look more like an icicle than just silver!
I have to say that this was one of the scarier crafts I've tried. I didn't quite get the same polished white porcelain effect that Earthenwitch did, but I think I had my oven set at too high a temperature. As suggested in the recipe, the rest of the mixture I made is stored in an air tight container so I think we'll have another go this weekend. He wants to make a Christmas star next!
Oh, this brings back memories. Other 70's kids might remember the craze for 
making friendship bracelets - and now you can pass the retro love onto the next generation with this fab kit for making friendship bracelets, reduced from £7.99 to £4.99 at Play.com now.
Included in the kit is everything you need for hours of friendship bracelet fun, plus a funky tin to keep your creative bits and pieces in one safe place.
There doesn't seem to be an age guide for this item but I must have been about 11 years old when I got obsessed with making friendship bracelets. The thing I love about this set is that it looks as though it comes with safety pins too - when I was a kid the cool thing to do was pin your work-in-progress to your jeans around about your knee so that the whole thing was secure while you worked away at it, so it's a cute touch that they've got the safety pins included for that purpose.
I think this would make a sweet gift for a little girl with a love of crafting, or if you remember making friendship bracelets when you were a kid as fondly as I do, why not indulge in a little you-time with a retro twist? I am tempted to click on 'buy' as I type this...
I promise I'm not being paid off by the Early Learning Centre; it's just that there's 
so much good stuff in their sale right now. These easy painters are an absolute bargain, and guaranteed to buy you at least long enough to put your feet up and have a cup of tea.
You get 5 of these fab paint pens for £4 and even with budding Picassos in the house, they seem to last for ages.
I love these paints; is it obvious? I first encountered them at a Mums and Toddlers group where the kids went wild at little art easels without much need for adult supervision. That's what's so great about them - it's practically impossible to make a huge mess with them. There's no gloopy paintbrushes to clean up, no little pot of water to knock flying over someone's priceless work of art, and no splats of paint on the floor or up the walls. They work like felt-tip pens but with paint inside, and of course it's completely washable, which is a bonus. Kids can let their creative streaks out, and Mums don't have to worry about the mess.
I don't know about your kids but mine are definitely suffering from cabin fever thanks to all these Arctic temperatures and endless rainy days, so these Easy Painters are just the thing to keep the little darlings amused while we count down the days till Spring.
Recent Comments