Christmas Cards 2014

 

 

I love the idea that we make our own cards. The boys aren't always as keen as I am. :)

This year we went for something more arty looking. 

Long time ago, we made our own Eric Carle style paper. To see what I mean, you can read this post. There was still lots left over over in the craft cupboard and it came in very handy for the idea I had.

    So to make these, we used our own handmade paper. We cut out the background scene and the trees. We then used a punch (Little One loved doing this) to make the decorations and the snow. We had a small production line going on the dining room table, with each of us doing a different "job". 

I love how they turned out. 

Till next time, enjoy this wonderful season. 

O is for Octopus

My alphabet posts are in no particular order. I'm going to do the letters that Little One has already covered at school. You can find letter "a" here.

A long while back we did some activities O is for Ostrich and not wanting to be boring, I decided this time around to focus on an Octopus. 

First off we did this awesome paint activity, which Little One loved. He was completely oblivious to the final idea I had in mind and simply enjoyed the process of it. I often remind myself that it's really the process and not the product that's most important. Us mommy bloggers tend to want a nice final product to photograph for our blog and we can forget that it's about these little people and the p.r.o.c.e.s.s. :)

To do this activity, I took acrylic paint, mixed it with some water so that it was runny, and gave him some syringes. As you can see from the picture, the activity was a hit. I then took some white paper and, with his permission, rubbed it over his paint creations. The result was some pretty paper to make an octopus from. 

 

I would love to tell you that he enjoyed cutting out the tentacles and sticking on the suckers... but he was not at all interested. So the final craft here was all my doing. I cannot lie. :)

He does like having the picture up in his room though, so I'm glad about that.

The next craft was this cute sock octopus - a Soctopus! I first saw this idea on Pinterest and I love sock softies. I've made a few before (a bunny, a cat, a caterpillar/butterfly and a snowman). You can see them here, if you like.

Follow the wonderful and easy directions for the octopus at The Gold Jellybean. (I just didn't do that last part, where Shaleah added pipe cleaners to the tentacles).

Till next time, have fun!

Squeezy Art {A repost}

I have never done a repost of an old post on Love and Lollipops before, but after 2 and a half years of blogging, I know that there are some oldies, but goodies, in my archives. So for those of you who happen to remember this post - firstly, thank you for still reading (!) -  and secondly, I hope you won't mind the repeat. With a short spring break coming up here in South Africa, this struck me as a super way to spend a rainy afternoon - spring may be here, but it's still raining  :).

This art activity has been one of Big One's favourites for a long time.

To do this activity, you need some squeezy bottles filled with different paint colours. I found these bottles at my local plastic shop and filled them with acrylic paint, using a vaccine syringe. It is a bit time-consuming, but well worth the effort.

 

Once done, all that is required is some squeezing , folding and fun! First squeeze and then squeeze some more. Use as many colours as you please. Fold your page in half and then carefully open your page to reveal a colour surprise!  My son enjoys this process so much, that getting him to stop is usually the only problem.

We are always left with a great number of these interesting paint surprises, so I decided to use them to make some greeting cards. To create these, I cut them into small squares and arranged them onto pre-cut coloured cardstock. I really like the end result.

Have fun :)

PS. Shared at the Weekly Kid's Co-op.

Make a Lego poster

Recently we swopped the boy's rooms around and it was the perfect opportunity to repaint and freshen up a bit. I wanted some funky "new" art for both children's rooms and so was on the look-out for some inspiration. Big One is already 10 years old, so I'm mindful of the fact that the art work needs to be approved by him. I was thrilled when he liked my idea to make him a lego figurine poster, using stickers from a book he had in his collection.  As soon as I mentioned it, I was pestered :)...he thought it was a terrific idea. 

When I started though, I realised that I had set myself a rather challenging task. Aligning all those little characters just right, so that this would be worthy of a prominent spot on his wall, would prove to be quite a task. It all worked out in the end (thankfully). So what you see below is the process in action.

mmm...yip, that unfortunately is how my dining room table looks most of the time. I wasn't sure if I was going to share this picture, 'cause I love that you all think I am super tidy and organised and do all my craft projects in a my nifty craft room (sigh, I wish), but no. Instead it's a very disorganised dining room table with unfinished projects, to-do projects, ideas, books , homework...you have the picture :). Oh yes, that's Big One at the end of the table choosing his favourite stickers.

Big One wanted all of these stickers on his poster, so I had a bit of convincing to do and had to encourage him to be rather selective.

It was tricky figuring out exactly what the lay-out would be and how to get all the stickers in a straight line and correctly spaced. I ended doing a bit of measuring and then used a straight piece of cardboard to line up all the stickers. Can you see it in the photograph above?

I tried to get as many stickers on the poster for Big One's sake. I must say, I would have chosen all the vintage, more traditional figurines...he on the other hand wanted the superheroes and baddies. He compromised on a few - sweet boy that he is :).

And up on the wall. He's happy, so I'm happy.

The book that we got all the stickers from is called the Ultimate Sticker Collection: LEGO Minifigure. It is a great little book with more than 1000 reusable stickers. 

Till next time. 

PS. Linking to 

Weekend Wrap Up Party @ tatertots and jello

 For the Kids Friday @ Sun Scholars
Show and Tell @ be different act normal 

Runny Paint Possibilities

Oh the fun you can have with runny paint...

or... put the paint at the top edge of the paper and watch it go...

  or...

  or add a marble and a tray....

Little brother wants to see too...

or what about painting with a magnet stick and a metal ball... (I had to go outside for these - the lighting in the kitchen was deteriorating quickly)

Big One looks rather serious in these pics, but he was concentrating on the task at hand and definitely enjoying the process. 

 

We used acrylic paint for these activities and when it was a little thick, we added some water.

Have fun!

PS. Sharing at 
Show and Tell @ ABC and 123

Making cards using children's art

When Mother's Day comes along, I'm always racking my brain for a great gift for the Grannies in our lives. I like making something for them - or letting the children make something. So I was grateful when a friend of mine reminded me of this lovely idea. 

 

I don't know about you, but I love having some blank cards (bought or made, although I prefer home made) in my writing box. They are nice to have for birthdays, thank you's or any other reason - actually who needs a reason - I love giving and receiving a card! It's great to have something pretty to grab and use when you need it. I knew that both the Grannies would love this... 

So here's how to make some:

• If you can, buy some pre-cut cards and envelopes - much easier than cutting and folding your own.  
• Scan your child's art work into your computor OR 
• If you don't have a scanner or the art work is too big for your scanner, photograph the art and download it. 
• Use a photo editing program to touch it up or crop it if necessary - I use Picasa - it's free and easy to use. 
• Cut it out and glue it on. 
• A nice touch is to write the Artist's name at the back of the card and their age when they created it.   

 

Some beautiful, personal cards for Granny, or any special lady in your life.  

Now I definitely need to make some for myself :). If I do, I'll share them too. 

Happy crafting! 

PS. Sharing this at  
Weekend Wrap Up Party @ Tatertots and Jello

Bottle Top Art, Pinterest Boards, and a Winner!

Getting tired of all these bottle top posts :)? I hope not, because I just can't help myself. When I see bottle tops...I see possibilities!

Here in South Africa we have many schools with very limited resources and every time I pick up a bottle top, I see all the potential that this little throw away plastic top has :). So to better collect and organise ideas, I have created Bottle Top Teaching and Bottle Top Fun Pinterest Boards. The first board will focus on using bottle tops to teach and the second board will be anything creative one can get up to with a bottle top. I hope you will drop me a line if you have been doing some bottle top activities. I will be right over to check it out :).

So this sweet bit of art (see above) was really easy to make.
All you need is :

bottle tops

two chubby little hands (yes, chubby ones required)

gloopy glue (you know...gloopy white runny glue)

pretty paper sprinkle/confetti

I wish I had a picture of those two chubby hands squee-eezing the glue into the bottle tops, but we did this fun activity at night and the photos came out rather yucky. I can assure you though, that Little One loved this. After all the squeezing, came the sprinkling of the paper confetti. When he was done, I arranged the tops nicely onto a page and stuck them down to make some super easy wall art. Easy and fun!

One last thing before I go...
I have a winner for the makedo giveaway. 

Congratulations Lizanne from Clay Jar People! 

I'll be in touch shortly to get your postal details.

Thanks also to all of you who took part and left such kind comments. I'll definitely be having some more giveaways, so stay tuned.

Till next time, be good...

Georgia :)

Fingerprint Fun

                                                                                  

 I remember seeing an Ed Emberley Fingerprint Drawing Book a number of years ago and it immediately piqued my interest. I looked high and low for these locally, but couldn't find any in stores or at the library. So I was very excited to find out that Ed has a terrific website and that I could easily order his books (at great prices too) online.

In the spirit of our Doctor Doctor fun and checking out the human skeleton, I was tickled to find a cute fingerprint tutorial of  
Mr. Boney Parts on the website.

Big One's version...

Using the super Melissa and Doug Ink Pad, Big one and I spent some time creating fingerprint art. I won't tell you who made what, but I will say this -  my creations are definitely "cute", whereas Big One's are "cool".

 

Could you tell who made who?..I'm sure you could :)
 

Car Painting

Little One had fun one afternoon painting with some of his cars. 

The paint can be tricky to clean off the wheels, so if your little guy wants to paint with his favourite car, you may need to prepare him for multicoloured tyres after the art. :)

Have fun!

(PS. This is not an original idea and I like to give credit where it is due, but unfortunately I cannot recall where I saw this for the first time. If it's your idea - please let me know.)

Speckled Hearts

 

These were our Valentine's gifts for the awesome grandparents we are so blessed to have in our lives.

We took an A4 sheet of red paper and Big One wrote an "I love you because..." note on it. We then wrapped this around a nice slab of chocolate and decorated with speckled hearts (I don't know what else to call these :)). 

I think everyday...any day...is a good day for an "I love you" note...don't you?

To make our speckled paper, I gave Little One a toothbrush and some watercolour paints. He found the toothbrush spraying rather tricky, so this was a good fine motor workout for those little fingers! 

I found the origami heart pattern in an amazing book, Origami for children, by Mari Ono and Roshin Ono. I also found a similar pattern here, if you would like to make some of your own.

PS. I'm linking this to Tot Tuesdays @ My Delicious Ambiguity.

Painting fun

When Summer arrives in Cape Town it brings along the wind, which can blow rather ferociously at times. It also brings welcome relief from the heat! We are lucky enough to have a small enclosed back garden, which is mostly sheltered from the wind and this means that we can have some beautiful Summer times in our backyard in the evenings. 

In December we had one of those almost windless evenings and I decided to let Little One paint outside. I gave him acrylic paint and sponges (saved from the inside of tablet containers) and attached them to pegs. This is a great way to let a younger child paint, who doesn't yet have adequate control over a brush. Little One decided to use the paint brush anyway :). He also decided to paint with the sand that I used to hold the plastic container down!

Afterwards, he wanted his nappy off...running around the garden naked is just one of his favourite things to do! What fun! I LOVE these pictures :)

Wherever you are and whatever the weather, I hope you are having some holiday fun.