Floral garlands!

This year the British Summer hasn’t really gotten started, so to brighten up our days my daughter decided to make some lovely floral garlands for everyone! These garlands are super pretty and super simple! They use minimum materials so are really cheap to make too!

To make your garland you will need – coloured paper, straws, scissors and thread/wool.

Begin by cutting out some flower shapes from different coloured paper. My daughter finds it easier to draw her flower shapes first.

Next cut some straws into small pieces. My daughter used different coloured straws to add some colour to her garland!

Make a small hole in the centre of each flower and thread them and the straws onto your thread / wool. My daughter chose a pattern of flower, straw, flower, straw, but you can choose to place them however you like. Other shapes look really effective on the garland too!

Keep threading and leave a small gap at the end to tie your garland together!

My daughter loves making these pretty, bright garlands and they look super cute!

 

We hope you like our floral garlands! A simple craft for the kids to have a go at which will bring a little sunshine!

We hope you are all having a wonderful Wednesday!

Hand print fishes!

Now that the school holidays are well under way we have been doing lots of art and crafts, including the ever faithful hand printing! Hand printing always goes down well and is pretty versatile. We decided to make some hand print fish pictures the other day as a nod to the summer!

You will need – paper, paint, crepe paper, card and glue.

Begin by painting your hand in whichever colour you like. My kids chose to do multi coloured stripes like a rainbow!

Print down onto your paper.

Leave your prints to dry, then turn them into fish by adding a mouth and eyes.

Then cut out your fish and stick them down onto some card. We also added green crepe paper seaweed and blue bubbles!

The kids loved their finished hand print pictures! You could also add glitter and other sea creatures! A fab, simple art activity for the summer holidays!

We hope you all have a very crafty, fun filled week!

 

The Happiness tag!

I was overjoyed the other day to find out that Anna from Life Bellissima had nominated me for The Happiness Tag! Anna has one of my most favourite blogs and I love reading her posts! (I completely love her posts about her beautiful chickens as we used to keep chickens ourselves and I still miss our girls so much)! She also has amazing recipes and her photos are wonderful. You really feel like you are there sharing those moments with Anna and her family! I feel incredibly blessed to have met Anna through our blogs. Please pop over and say hi. You won’t be disappointed! Thank you Anna, I hope you know how much your nomination means to me!

The Rules:

-Five things that make you happy

-Five songs that make you happy

-Five bloggers that make you happy

 

Five things that make me happy – 

1 – My family! I feel so blessed to have such a beautiful, wonderful family. We love spending time together and making memories.

2 – My friends! I have a group of friends who are amazing. They have been through so much with me and are always there with advice, laughter, conversation (and wine)! I am very grateful to have met these beautiful people!

3 – Music! Music is like my therapy! I am pretty much constantly listening to music. I know if I am having a bad day, I can pop on some certain songs and I feel so much happier. I love that different songs can bring back memories that were stored deep at the back of your mind, and can instantly transport you back to that time.

4 – Wales! This beautiful country that I live in makes me happy. I used to live in a very busy city until my mum and dad decided that enough was enough, and packed us all up to move to the country when I was 18. Needless to say at first I hated the peace and quiet. I really didn’t like it! It was so different to where I grew up and I missed the hustle and bustle badly. However, Wales quickly won me over and I would never go back to city life now. I embrace the peace and quiet wholeheartedly and feel very blessed to live in such a beautiful country. The beach is on our doorstep and the views are amazing!

5 – Creating with kids! Whether it’s creating at home with my son and daughter, or at work (as a nursery nurse), I am in my element to be helping kids to express their creativity and unleash their imaginations. Nothing brings me more pleasure than seeing pride on kids faces when they have made something that means so much to them! The whole reason for starting my blog was to share my ideas and hope that it brings inspiration to at least one person!

Five songs that make me happy – (this is hugely hard for me, I have so many songs which I love)!

1 – Kiss Me by Sixpence none the richer

2 – Kissing you by Des’ree

3 – C’est la vie by Stereophonics

4 = Valerie (the Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson version)

5 – Californication by Red Hot Chilli Peppers

Five bloggers that make me happy – 

1 – Lynne from Lynnes recipe trails

2 – Cobs from The Cobweborium Emporium

3 – Natascha from Nataschas Palace

4 – Sadie from Sadies Nest

5 – Ruthie from Ruthies Crafting Corner

All of these blogs bring me lots of happiness. They are a joy to read! (It was so hard getting it down to just five blogs)!

Once again, thank you Anna!

 

 

Water Balloon printing!

This type of printing is one of my kids utter favourites and we have spent many hours experimenting with different colours to create some fantastic art work! Balloon printing gives such unique and individual results each time and is sure to be a big hit! (Adult supervision is required otherwise you may have quite a bit of water on your hands – and not in the balloon)!!!

To balloon print you will need – water balloons, paper and paints.

1 – Begin by filling your water balloons and setting out your different coloured paints. (I use disposable take away food trays which I wash and re-use for paint activities).

2 – Gently dip your balloon into your paint and print gently onto your paper. (Gently does it)!

3 – Build up your pattern or create a picture using the circle prints.

We had lots of fun using the balloons to create different pictures and different patterns! This is a perfect activity for kids who love printing in a slightly different way to the usual! It is also a lovely sensory activity as the balloons do feel fab for little hands.

We made lots of different pictures and patterns with the balloons! A simple, different way to create some lovely artwork!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have (finally) started to master the piping bag (and couldn’t be happier)!

I will let you into a little secret….. I have been trying for what feels like forever to master the art of piping icing! I have wanted to be able to recreate those pretty little peaks and roses for so long and have tried and failed endless times.

I was speaking to one of my friends at work about yet another disastrous attempt when she told me about a fail- proof recipe for buttercream which she uses for her piped icing. She wrote it down for me and off I went (not feeling too hopeful to be fair)!

Buttercream recipe – 225g sieved icing sugar, 85g butter, 1-2 tbs milk and a few drops of vanilla essence.

1 – Mix all the ingredients into a large bowl until smooth. Make sure that it is thoroughly mixed to ensure it will go through the nozzle of the piping bag. I also added  a little cocoa powder to give a chocolate flavour to the icing!

2-Use different nozzles to create different effects. Make sure you wait until your cakes are completely cool or the icing will just melt! (I’ve done this too)!

I was so shocked that it worked! I was jumping around my kitchen in sheer happiness that I had finally managed to use the piping bag without it being a huge mess! I cannot wait to try out more using different nozzles! They went down an absolute treat and the kids had a go using the bag too! A fun filled baking session!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Our very first make under doll!

I am so excited to share mine and my daughters latest project with you! It is something that my daughter has wanted to do for a long long time but I have been putting it off as I wasn’t sure how it would go and I really didn’t want her to be disappointed!

A few months ago I came across an article on my facebook feed about a lady called Sonia Singh who gives old, unwanted Bratz dolls a new lease of life by giving them a make-under and calling them Tree Change dolls. I was so impressed! I am not a huge fan of Bratz dolls – my daughter has them but I have never understood why they needed such copious amounts of make up – not the best message to be sending out to our children! I much preferred Sonia’s more natural looking dolls! As I was browsing through her website I found some DIY tutorial videos where she encourages parents to give it a go themselves. I showed my daughter and she instantly fell in love with the changed dolls (and then instantly asked if we could make under one of her dolls together)….. I can honestly say I was not sure at all! Don’t get me wrong I love creating and crafting but I doubted if I could make my daughters doll look anywhere near as lovely as Sonia’s creations!

After endless nagging pleading from my daughter I eventually gave in and we started work on the make under! She chose a doll that had been given to her by a friend which was in desperate need of a little love!

 

As you can see the doll looks wonderful – complete with what looks like extra felt tip eye make up!

We started by using nail varnish remover and cotton pads to remove all of the make up from the face. Try not to scour the face as it can scratch it, instead firmly rub! The glitter lipstick was pretty tough to get off and needed quite a bit of time.

Once all of the make up was removed from the face we started painting her new face with acrylic paints. We looked at lots of Sonia’s creations online for inspiration and then took the plunge! (I must admit I was pretty scared I was going to mess it up – I was in charge of the lovely dolls eyes – eeek)! My daughter painted the lips and we both painted her eyebrows. I had to mix up a little skin coloured paint to paint over a biro mark and I was really pleased with how it covered the pen mark up. We also added freckles!

Once she was finished my daughter was ecstatic and I was pretty pleased myself! I don’t think she turned out too bad considering it was our very first attempt. My daughter has already picked out more dolls to make under!

The doll (renamed Daisy!) has not left my daughters side since being finished and is even heading to a sleepover with her tonight at my sisters house!

We really hope you like our make under doll! I would definitely recommend giving it a go yourself. It was a lot of fun and not nearly as difficult as I thought it was going to be!

Happy Friday guys!

Fathers Day cards – (bath puff required)!

Fathers Day is tomorrow here in the UK and my kids love nothing more than making cards for their Dad to let him know how much they love him. I wanted to share with you how they have made these brilliant cards with some paint and an old bath puff! (Yep you read that right! Bath puffs are brilliant for printing with, simple to use and give amazing pattern results)!

To make your Fathers day card you will need – paint, an old bath puff, card and glue.

1 – Begin by squirting some different coloured paints onto a plate. (We used a paper plate but any old plate is fine).

2 – Use your bath puff to push down into the paint and print onto your paper.

3 – Once you are happy with your print, leave to dry. Once dry, you can cut out whichever shape you like. We used tie shapes for our cards! Mount onto card and ta – dah! My kids decided to add stickers to their cards too for some extra sparkle!

 

This is a lovely, simple way to print and make some slightly different Fathers Day cards! We really hope you like them.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Simple chocolate chip cookies!

I love cooking and baking with my kids! As a child my Gran would often bake with us and I have learnt many recipes from watching and helping Gran in the kitchen. What she probably didn’t realise at the time is that those endless cooking experiences have turned into some of my most favourite childhood memories.

I often look after my two year old nephew whilst my sister works and I am delighted that he seems to enjoy baking as much as I did when I was little. We decided to make some simple chocolate chip cookies the other day!

Chocolate chip cookie recipe – 110g butter, 175g plain flour, 165g chocolate chips, 55g sugar, 2 tablespoons of water, and few drops of vanilla extract.

1- Begin by preheating the oven to 160c.

2 – Add butter and sugar to a large bowl and mix well. Next add the vanilla and water, then stir in the chocolate chips and flour. Mix until you have a dough. (We tend to knead to form our dough – we do love messy hands)!

3 – Roll out your biscuit dough then use cutters to cut out your cookies. My nephew chose to make circle shaped and gingerbread men shaped cookies!

 

4 – Once you have cut out your cookie shapes lay them onto a baking tray covered with grease proof paper.

 

5 – Bake for approx 20 minutes or until golden brown! We like to sprinkle some caster sugar over them once cooked.

They tasted so good and certainly got a big thumbs up from my nephew!

 

Yummy, simple chocolate chip cookies to bake as a delicious treat! Enjoy!

 

 

Fork printing!

As a lot of my regular followers will know, me and my little ones love experimenting with different ways to paint. Don’t get me wrong paintbrushes are fantastic but we also love using other items! Fork printing is a super way to paint and kids love experimenting with different ways to use the prints in their art work.

To fork print you will need – paint, paper and forks (that’s it)!

Begin by dipping the back of your fork into the coloured paint of your choice and pressing down onto your paper ( you may need to roll it slightly to get the full fork print). My daughter decided to make a sunflower picture so she used a yellow then dipped the tips in brown paint to form the sunflower seeds. She also used a paintbrush to paint her leaves.

We did quite a few fork print pictures so we ended up with quite a collection! Here are a few of the kids pictures –

We really enjoy printing with forks. My son used to get a little frustrated with this as it can take a little practice to roll the fork, but now he loves it! My kids love mixing the fork prints with brush painting to make their art. We hope you like our pictures!

Happy Thursday!