Milk Bottle Santa

This is a craft from 2010 that I never posted - A milk bottle Santa. He's very easy to make - we used paper, googly eyes, batting for the beard, pom pom for the nose and cotton wool for the hat.

Can you imagine a whole line-up of these Santas, perhaps leading up the path way? Simply fill with sand before you start dressing him, so that he doesn't fall over too easily.

Happy Christmas crafting!

Linking this to:
For the Kids Friday @ Sun Scholars
Kids Get Crafty @ Red Ted Art's Blog 

Christmas Shoot

I always try to do a Christmassy shoot of sorts with my boys and my goal this year was to take some happy, peaceful Christmas pics of them both.

Would you ever guess that behind the scenes there was some throwing up and a little bit of blood? Seriously.

Little One managed to gag on a piece of fluff from the Santa hat pom pom - the throwing up part. And, Big one scratched open an old sore (after being pushed off the bed by his little brother!) - the bloody part.

aah yes...the joys of photographing two energetic boys on a bed...with white linen!

Nevertheless...I got these :).

Do you take some special Christmassy photos? Do share. 

Till next time.

Christmas Tree Biscuits

A few weeks back Little One brought home a Christmas Tree biscuit from school, similar to this one. I knew we had to try these at home too.

I used a very sharp knife to cut the biscuits (store bought Tennis Biscuits), but they broke very easily. I tell you this, because little people can find this upsetting. A small tip, when they do break, tell your little one that it's a puzzle and you will fix it (or they can) on the plate. Once the icing is poured over, the biscuit is far stronger. My little guy's teacher mentioned that they also spoke about division, halving, triangles and squares...so a nice little maths lesson can be had too :).

Once you have laid out your tree on a plate, the decorating starts...the best part. Oops, I forgot, the eating is the best part :). I'm not a Tennis Biscuit fan, but I even polished off a few of these. Yummy!

Thank you Tracey for the inspiration!

Sharing this at:

Teacher Gift {Little Yellow Bus}

School's Out! 

We have six wonderful weeks of Summer holidays ahead of us!

The rest of this month's posts are sure to be dedicated to Christmas, so I thought I must slip this one in quickly, before it's forgotten.

Little One started play school in July this year and he has been blessed with two amazing teachers. For end of year gifts, I bought some big Cadbury slabs and wrapped and decorated them to create these American style yellow school buses. Cute hey?

 

Inspiration from here (Katherine Marie).

Christmas Crafts coming up...stay posted :). 

PS. Shared at:
For the Kids Friday @ Sun Scholars
Show and Tell @ ABC and 123 

Christmas {Bits and Bobs}

   

Oh dear me, it's the seventh and this is my first post of the month. The computer has been calling and if I could, I would create and write and share everyday. I absolutely love this (unpaid) job. But, I don't know what it's like where you are in the world, but over here it's not only the festive season...it's also the end of our school year. It's a busy busy time. I have lots to share though, so I'll get cracking!

First up, if you haven't yet visited the Portable North Pole and organized a personal message from Santa to your little ones, do hurry. You will not be disappointed, I promise. You have to share some details, like your child's name and age and answer some questions to make the video message more personal, but it's really worth it. This particular Santa is the best I've seen and his voice is wonderful! I would love to meet him :).

Since we are on the Santa subject - Do you believe in Santa?  Amanda over at NotJustCute shares a lovely post about her view and how she will share Santa's generous spirit with her boys. A nice read - do pop over.

Another nice find are these printable Christmas jokes over at Nurturestore. Big One loves telling jokes, so I printed these out and put them on the fridge. These would also be fun to add to homemade crackers, an advent calender or simply to be told at the Christmas table.

One of my favourite blogs, simple as that, shares a wonderful post of Christmas inspiration, including a Holiday photo checklist (great idea), free Christmas tags and word art (just beautiful), and a printable Christmas memory match game (mmm, I have some ideas for this one).

For lots more Christmas inspiration, pop on over to my Christmas Fun page on Pinterest. I have pinned lots of fantastic ideas...so many I want to do...how many days till Christmas?

And last, but not least, the top image is of a much-loved Santa book for little ones. Santa's Suit is all about Santa who decides that his red suit is, well, unsuitable. But after trying out many different colours, Mrs Santa suggests that his red suit is the most suitable. I'm really not surprised that it was Mrs. Santa's suggestion ;). This rhyming book has the most delightful illustrations, teaches colours and has touch-and-feel elements on every page. I can recommend it!

Have you found any amazing Christmassy articles, ideas or freebies? I'd love to know. 

Till next time...

{Truth in the Tinsel} Advent Calender

Last year I had great fun creating a magnetic matchbox advent calender (shoo, that's a mouthful) and it also become one of my readers all time favourite posts - thank you. But this year I have decided to not even take it out and rather join another "advent-ture" (to quote Amanda). I have my copy of  Truth in the Tinsel and I'm all set to go.

I've taken the picture clues (provided in the book), printed them out and created these discs. (I used my much-loved circle punches to make them). I've attached the discs onto a kitchen cupboard so that the children can view the clues at any time. I think it will be a nice visual reminder as we progress through the month, especially as I don't foresee us making a craft every day.

To read more about it all, pop on over to the official website and to see what others are getting up to you can visit the official Facebook page. I will hopefully be sharing some of our crafts here during the coming month.

Please let me know if you are joining in and posting about it. I would love to pop over and see what you are up to :).

Truth in the Tinsel

I am so excited to share this awesome e-book just released by Amanda at impress your kids. I love the idea of celebrating Advent, the four weeks (Sundays) leading up to Christmas. This year I really want to impress the true meaning of Christmas on my children, as I feel it is so easily lost in the commercialism and busyness of the season. Celebrating Advent provides a special opportunity to stop and focus on the importance of this time of year. 

In this book you have a daily plan...a Bible reading, a craft activity and a few extra ideas...all prepared for you to simply put into action. The whole idea is very much up my alley , but yes, I realize that many of my readers may not be as crafty as me :). What I can say, is that all the activities are so easy to duplicate and one really doesn't have to do a craft everyday...in fact, that would pretty much be impossible in my book.

I have a copy and I'm all set to start on December the first. Hop on over to the Truth in the Tinsel (the website) to read more and to buy it at the wonderful price of only $4.99 (That's less that R40 for my South African readers).

Till next time...

Baby and Kiddies Market

Thought I would let my local readers know about this fun market coming up this Saturday.  For those of you out in the Southern Suburbs, maybe you want to brave it and come on over to the Northern Suburbs for a day :). I'll definitely be there for quite some time, as one of the exhibitors at the market happens to be my Mom. I'm going to be helping her out a bit, so if you happen to read this blog and see me...please say hi!

I'll be sharing more about my Mom's fantastic product soon - magnetic and non-magnetic alphabet and numeral sets. She manufactures it herself and Big One was her inspiration...more info and photos soon, I promise.

Till Saturday...

Bottle Top Babies

"...First comes love,
then comes marriage,
then comes the baby in a baby carriage."

Remember this little song from the playground? It's all I could think about when creating this little baby.

I must admit that I'm a bit obsessed with bottle tops at the moment. Why? Well, that I'll share with you shortly, but in the mean time, I couldn't resist making these.

Just in case you were wondering, the pacifier was made from a punched circle and the inner seal of a big juice box (I hope you know what I'm referring to). The carriage was  made from a bigger lid, which I cut in half.

All ideas are inspired from somewhere I believe and my inspiration for these were the cutest, funniest little baby cupcakes I've ever seen at baby gaga and a paper plate craft at Miss Renee's Kindergarten Pad.

More baby fun to follow. Stay posted.

PS. Sharing this at:
Show and Tell @ ABC and 123
For the Kids Friday @ Sun Scholars 
Too Cute Tuesday @ Funky Polkadot Giraffe 
Take-A-Look Tuesday @ Sugar Bee Crafts 

Baby Baby {Eye-Spy Bottle}

In the past few months I have attended three baby showers...one of those babies has arrived and two are still to come. Baby Showers mean baby gifts and I love the idea of taking something new; something recycled (I love that word, don't you? - it sounds so much better than "old"); and something home-made. One of my favourite home-made gift ideas is an Eye-Spy Bottle.

I first saw this idea over at Silly Eagle Books and really loved it. I have made quite a few of these and I think I enjoy playing with it as much as the children do. For the baby it's a great noisy toy; it's stimulating and interesting; and it rolls nicely when you are giving baby tummy time. For the toddler it becomes a nice eye-spy toy, with an educational bonus - depending on what you put into your bottle, you can practice things like colours and counting. For the slightly older child, you can add an eye-spy spy photo card /or hand drawn card and ask them to search for the specific items in the bottle. For a grown-up - you can make one as a bit of a stress-release toy. I had one on my desk for awhile and couldn't resist shaking the bottle gently and moving the rice and small objects around - something about it is very relaxing :).

With babies on my mind, I decided that we need to have some Baby Fun and I'll be sharing our fun in the next few posts. I also created a special board Baby Showers and Gifts on Pinterest to collect my favourite ideas. 

 

I have another lovely friend who lives across the seas and who is also expecting a baby very soon...she happens to also be having some Baby Fun posts at the moment. Do pop over and visit.

PS. To see a photo card version, pop over to Pink and Green Mama to see her awesome rainbow eye-spy bottle.