Winter play dough!

Keeping the kids busy during the school holidays is sometimes hard, especially in February when the weather is less than pleasant here in the UK! I decided to make some play dough yesterday to keep the kids entertained for a while. I thought it would be a cute idea to make it a winter themed play dough by using a little blue food colouring, to give it an icy cool look.

To make your play dough you will need – 2 cups plain flour, 1 cup cold water, 1 cup salt, 1 tbs oil and food colouring (we used blue but you can use whichever colour you like).

Start by mixing the flour and salt in a bowl.

Next add the water, oil and food colouring. (If you are using liquid colour you will just need a few drops, gel colours tend to need more though – we used a whole tube of gel colour and the colour was nowhere near as strong as I wanted)!

Mix together and then knead with your hands until it forms a ball. If the dough is too dry add a little water, if it is too wet add a little flour.

Now your play dough is ready to use! I gave the kids a little bowl with sequins, feathers, pom poms and beads in, as well as cutters and rolling pins. ( Just make sure that what you are giving your little ones are age appropriate to avoid any nasty accidents).

We then set up a little shop with a till and sandwich bags to use as the kids love playing bakery. They ‘bake’ me biscuits and cakes with the play dough and I am the customer! We do this quite a lot and I change the type of play dough we use. One of the kids favourite play dough is chocolate play dough. You can find the recipe we use here!

 

We had a lovely afternoon creating and playing with the play dough! A lovely activity for the kids which doesn’t cost the earth!

Hope you are all having a lovely week!

A (teeny) bit of sun!

So this morning was glorious! Beautiful blue skies and sunshine! I was ecstatic – we have had such a long period of constant rain, dark clouds and general greyness that just the sight of the sunshine made me so happy! Isn’t it amazing that just a bit of sunshine seems to wipe out the months of grey in an instant? Like medicine for the soul!

Currently the kids are on their half term holidays so I suggested a trip to the park, whilst the weather was so lovely and dry. They chose to ride their bikes (no problem – it gets us there so much faster than legs alone!) and off we went. We were merrily going along and not far from the park when it decided to start hailing…… Not just a few little hailstones, but full on hail coming down at the speed of mini jet planes! I just could not believe it…… We raced to the park and sheltered under the climbing frame (managing to squeeze ourselves in like sardines)! Even my daughter couldn’t understand what had happened to the weather – “Mum, I am getting so sick of this weather now. It was nice a minute ago!”

The aftermath!

My son found it hilarious though and decided it was his duty to try and squash every piece of hail on the floor – needless to say we were at the park quite a while………..

I hope you are all having a fantastic week wherever you are!

Winter tree pictures!

The weather has been pretty horrid here recently. Rain and very strong  winds are all we seem to be having at the moment! I find myself longing for the sunshine again….or snow. Anything apart from this continuous downpour!

One particularly rainy day last week my five year old son and my two year old nephew were getting a little bored so we brought out the craft box and decided to make some Winter tree pictures!

To make your own winter tree pictures you will need – coloured paper/card of your choice (we chose blue as my son wanted it to look like the sky), green paint, white paper, hole puncher, glue, pom poms and crayons.

Begin by making a stencil to be your tree shape. I used a triangle shape as it is very simple and looks pretty effective! Next dip the pom pom into the green paint and print the shape onto your coloured paper/card by pushing the pom pom up and down onto the paper. My son and nephew printed two trees onto their paper. If your little one is struggling with holding the pom pom you can pop a clothes peg onto it, which will act as a handle.

Whilst the paint is drying make your ‘snowflakes’ by punching out white paper circles using a hole puncher.

When your paint is dry glue on some of the paper circles to be your falling snowflakes.

Next tear some white paper into strips. This will be the snow on the ground. I like tearing the paper rather than cutting it as it looks a little more realistic with the bumps and curves instead of it being just a straight line!

Next draw on tree trunks with a crayon.

The boys had great fun making their winter tree pictures and they have certainly brightened up the place. I just wish we had some real snow now!

Paper plate windows!

One of my daughters favourite craft activities is making paper plate portholes. She usually makes one every summer and this year was no different!

Recently she decided she wanted to make something similar, but with a Winter theme rather than the Ocean. She chose to make a paper plate window with a Winter scene.

To make your paper plate window you will need – paper plate, paints, paintbrush, glue, coloured paper / card and coloured cellophane.

Begin by painting a scene onto your paper plate. My daughter chose to paint some Winter scenes, but you can choose whatever you like!

Once your paper plate is dry glue a strip of coloured paper or card across the top of your paper plate. This will be your ‘curtain rail’! Then cut some curtain shapes from coloured cellophane and glue to your strip of card. Make sure you leave a gap between the curtains so that you can still see some of the painted scene.

My daughter made a few of these pretty window plates. She was a little disappointed though at how quickly the cellophane creased up and said she would quite like to use material pieces next time she does this activity, ‘so that it looks more realistic’!

I think they are very pretty and make a nice seasonal change to the portholes. I do think my daughter will be doing a follow up of this activity though as she is very eager to see how it turns out using material pieces instead!