How to make an Aircraft Carrier

 

Inspired by a picture in Little One's all time favourite book, I thought it couldn't be too hard to make an Aircraft Carrier and I knew Little One would love the idea! This little man is C.R.A.Z.Y about all forms of military transportation.

I grabbed a big cardboard box (and cut off the lid), a big juice box and some smaller boxes we've been collecting. Using the book mentioned (My Big Book of Cars, Ships and Planes) as a guideline, I cut out the top of the aircraft carrier, after marking the lines in pencil.

That little hand you see in the picture was just there to help my camera focus on my blank cardboard canvas. :) If I had a bigger piece of cardboard available, I would have cut the Carrier a bit longer in shape. 

Then we got to decorating the top of the Ship, using a black marker, some white masking  tape (painter's tape) and a yellow highlighter.

Jerry Palotta's, The Boat Alphabet Book, is another one of Little One's favourites and this inspired our tower buildings.

I used my glue gun to glue it all together. Only thing to be aware of before you glue it, is that the top piece of board must be balanced correctly on top of the juice box, as the tower buildings make it heavier on one side.

And there you have it. Have fun!

Christmas Crafting

 

In the past few months my private practice has taken up more of my time and I worked far into December. It meant not having so much Christmas crafting time, but we did manage to sneak in some fun before the big day. 

At the top - our Christmas cards. These were printed with acrylic paint onto white cardboard. We used a round pencil eraser to make the red dots; an edge of corrugated cardboard to print the stars; and, a spaceship sponge - a modern take on a starry theme. 

This was our version of gingerbread houses - tennis biscuit houses :). They were pretty easy to put together. You need tennis biscuits, lots of icing and some sweeties to decorate. Next year, maybe I'll have a go at making actual gingerbread.

Homemade Christmas gift tags made by Big One. Every gift had a personalised tag.

Homemade wrapping paper by Big One.

This year Little One made this awesome handprint tree at School - all the children made one and it served as a forest - the backdrop in their small Christmas production. I decided to turn it into a ten day countdown tree to Christmas. Each day we decorated the tree with a sparkly pom pom and on Christmas day we added a star to the top. 

And lastly...a Christmas Elf made from a Lipton Tea Box. We spent the afternoon creating with some friends - it's become a lovely Christmas tradition. The idea was to create gift boxes from the tea boxes and this was Big One's creation. 

I hope you enjoyed these. See you back here in 2013! 

a boy and a box

These aren't new photos.
In fact they are all the way from last year May. 

I don't know why I didn't post them. 

When you have a box, you have possibilities...

Never throw a good box away. At least not until it's had a good play.

Didn't you know? All boxes love to play :)

More great box links:

Parents.com
Tip Junkie 

apartment therapy 

Tinkerlab

makedo {A Giveaway}

I was so excited when I recently discovered a new product, called makedo. I immediately went and checked out the website and after seeing all the wonderful possibilities, I couldn't resist getting it for the boys. 

What is it? Essentially, as they so aptly put it, it is "a set of connectors for creating things from the stuff around you". 

I particularly like that they offer both free-play kits, as well as find-and-make kits. In the free-play kit, you have a set of connectors and using the recycled objects you have at your disposal, as well as your imagination, you can make anything you want to. The find-and-make kit is a project-based kit, in which you make a specific thing, for example, flowers. These kits tell you which recycled objects you need for the project and it gives you the required connectors and instructions - cool hey?

In the Easter holidays we had some friends over and I gave the kids some recycled items as well as our free-play kit. Here's what they came up with...can you spot the tiny toilet roll character?

According to the website, this product is suitable for ages 5 and over. I think this depends on the child's fine motor dexterity and finger strength. The children who made these items in the picture were aged 10 and 12.

I really knew I had made a smart purchase when shortly after getting our kit, Big One had to go dressed up to school for "Crazy Day". He created a mask from a box and using the connectors, he attached items to the box to make it interesting. I was so thrilled, because it was far easier and quicker than using glue - no drying time required!

And now for the best part, Annelize, our local agent for this super product, has very kindly given me a 33 piece free-play kit to give away to you! 

How do you enter? It's really easy. 

• For one entry, leave a comment and tell me what one of your favourite posts has been here at Love and Lollipops.
• For a second entry, tell a friend about this competition. 
• And, for a third entry, "like" my Love and Lollipops Facebook page. 
• You need to leave separate comments for each entry and please make sure that I have your contact (email) info.
• The competition closes on Sunday the 13th of May and is open world wide.

:)

Can't wait and want to buy some in the mean time? If you are local, you can contact Annelize via her Facebook page or send her an email at preta(at)mweb(dot)co(dot)za

Annelize will also be exhibiting at the next My Favourite Things market, being held in Paarl on the 12th of May. 

Good Luck! 

Little Red Barn

I really love a traditional, all American, big red barn! Even though we don't have red barns as part of our South African landscape, Little One easily recognizes this as part of a traditional farm setting and I have always wanted to add one to our box of animals. Charlotte's Web was also one of the first full-length movies that he ever watched and he has always loved it .

Store bought barns are hard to come by and when you do find nice, good quality ones,  they are usually really pricey. Aaah, but then I remembered my favourite I-can't-throw-away box...the Lipton tea box!! 

To make the barn, I glued the lid closed, cut out the entrance, and stuck a row of craft sticks to the front and back of the box. The main reason for adding the sticks to the back was to make it a bit stronger and it definitely did! The rest of the sticks were cut to size, glued on, and I then added a coat of red paint and the final white touches. Some of the Lipton labeling shows through on the sides - my cousin (who lives in the States and has been here on holiday) said that it adds to the authenticity, as a lot of barns have old advertising on them :). COOL!

Once the barn was done, I created the little farm scene, along the lines of the movie, hoping it would grab Little One's attention. Did you notice Templeton the Rat on the roof? Wondering where Charlotte is? In the barn of course ;).

Although Little One loves the barn itself, the sensory box wasn't a big hit with him. I have come to realize that my great ideas aren't always received with the enthusiasm I'm expecting. I've been thinking of creating a felt farm scene instead...I'll share it with you as soon as it's done.

To view some beautiful photos of traditional red barns, visit here.

PS. Linking this to It's Playtime (Pop on over and join the fun!)

Serviette Holder

If you are a South African reader and enjoy crafts, you may have noticed the Hooked On Crafts range at your local craft store. There is a wide range of fun kits available and they are all very reasonably priced - most kits are R20 or less.

For Mother's day, I decided that we would make the serviette holder and give it to one of the Grannies. I had spotted this kit awhile back and was drawn to the pretty picket fence and the nice embellishments. The packet comes with a lovely clear photograph on the front, so I was expecting it to be fairly straightforward. But, it was not to be so. I could just not figure out how to glue it all together to make an upright holder. Hee hee...I think visual spatial reasoning has never really been a strength of mine. Anyway, I was not to be deterred and came up with a plan to use a Lipton tea box - I always keep these boxes in recycling. I covered it with some wrapping paper and stuck the completed picket fences on to it. Voilà!

If you are an international reader and cannot get these kits, this craft could very easily be duplicated with craft sticks and other bits and pieces from a craft shop.

Picket fences - thicker and thinner craft sticks
Flowers - wooden cut-outs glued together
Butterfly - two pipe cleaners
Ladybird - pom poms, black stickers, pipe cleaner , googly eyes

All in all, I think that the kit is great value for money and would certainly keep the kids busy for awhile. I must mention that there is lots of gluing involved and I found the gluing to be quite tricky. I would recommend this craft for older kids (7 years plus) and adult assistance would probably still be required. What is fun, is that there are lots of different things to make, so a few children could each do a part of the project.

If you are interested in seeing the range and live in the Northern Suburbs (Cape Region), you should definitely contact Isabel. She's a lovely lady who sells the most wonderful selection of toys, including almost all of the Hooked On Crafts kits. You can chat to her at play2learn(at)mweb(dot)co(dot)za.

By the way, did you spot the rather strange cut up card in the top picture? That was Little One's Mother's Day card for his Granny :).

Till next time - Happy crafting!

PS. I'm linking this to Fun for Kids Friday

A Tea-ny Toy Box

A tea box makes for a very nice little storage box...

All that is required is a tea box, some paint, stickers, pens and some imagination. Oh yes, and some patience on Mommy's part!

Little One painted and decorated his box with stickers all on his own! (We did this project in May, so he was 21 months at the time.)

As you can tell, he painted a little more than just the tea box :).

Big One decided to create an alien; Little One, a frog!

Now to look for teeny toys and tiny treasures to fill the box...

PS. I'm linking this to: 
Show and Tell @ ABC and 123 and Tot Tuesdays at My Delicious Ambiguity

Matchbox Fridge Magnets

I love photos; I love fridge magnets and I love convenience. These are all three in one! I really like the idea of a matchbox on the fridge. I also like pretty, so these are my pretty, super convenient, photo matchbox fridge magnets. The bonus is that they are really easy to make too.

I had small photographs printed onto matte paper. I then cut them to fit my matchboxes. I used modge podge to paste them onto the boxes and then painted a layer of modge podge over the pictures to protect them. Once dry, I stuck a strip of magnetic with glue to the back of each matchbox. All done.

These would also make super Father/Grandfather's day gifts and are easy enough for the kids to make. Have fun!

PS. I have linked this to Show and Tell @ ABC and 123