Zoe’s Pipe Cleaner and Pom Pom Craft

Posted on by

2

What do you do when no one wants to do the craft things you think they would like to do?

Get the experts in to help.

So of course I turned to Zoe.

And this is the tray of fun she put together:

Zoe's craft fun at Mudpies and Sunshine

Zoe didn’t have a specific idea in mind for her craft. She just knew what materials she felt like creating with. Pipe cleaner fun with Mudpies and SunshineAnd here are the results… Look what I made with Mudpies and SunshineI know the craft object is a little blurry but I included this photo because of the look of pure enjoyment in Zoe’s eyes.

Here are some clearer photos of what Miss Zoe created… Pipe cleaner creations with Mudpies and Sunshine

The shiny green pom pom creature on the left is a fish; the one with the orange pipe cleaner is a letter holder; the large one on the right is a nose phone and the small one Zoe is holding is a baby called “The Tot“.  Yes I know what you’re thinking and you are right. There is no way I could have ever prepared a craft for Zoe that would turn out this varied. Or maybe you weren’t, maybe you were thinking “Thank God she told me what they were ‘cos I never would have worked that out in a million years”.
Pipe cleaner and pom pom creations with Mudpies and SunshineAnyone else a little wistful for their childhood imagination?

Hmm, me too :)

So, what’s up next? Well Mother’s Day is looming here in Australia so I will be featuring some crafts and cards for Mums over the next two weeks. Us Mums love kid-made craft and I am no exception. We also do crafts for the girl’s grandmothers so they will just have to refrain from opening my Mother’s Day posts. I’d hate to spoil the surprise!

Thanks for dropping by!

About these ads

Outdoor Balancing Course

Posted on by

2

Doesn’t this look like fun? Scrap yard obstacle course with Mudpies and Sunshine

Mr Sunshine is building a chook house with unwanted wood from local building sites – meaning totally free :) The wood he had gathered was piled high under our patio until Zoe decided to drag some if it out onto the lawn and make her own obstacle course. Scrap yard obstacle course with Mudpies and Sunshine - best in pjs

The girls have brainstormed lots of different games and created rules like you wouldn’t believe. Lots of negotiation…and then lots of fun. Their favourite way to play is to create a complete loop and set a target number of laps to complete…whilst setting a maximum number of times you can fall off/touch the ground before you have start all over again.  Once they were out there in complete darkness until bedtime completing a gazillion laps for just one game. Serious balancing with Mudpies and Sunshine

Zoe is a big fan of “free-range” play on the obstacle course.  Scrap yard obstacle course with Mudpies and Sunshine -walk the plankAnd yes, they are in their pajamas! Outside first thing in the morning for some balancing course ACTION… Scrap yard obstacle course with Mudpies and Sunshine - arms helping balance

Zoe just loved being able to design her own course (which she did on another day – see…different pajamas!). Competence competence competence – something that girls (and boys) thrive on when they get the chance to feel it.Organising the course with Mudpies and Sunshine

 

Won’t it be sad when Mr Sunshine finishes the chook house and the balancing fun is gone? We may have to head out to the building sites again and see what we will find (in our pajamas).

Thanks for dropping by!

3 weeks in the life of…

Posted on by

7

…Mudpies and Sunshine & co!

Yes, folks. I’m baaaaaaack :)

I’ve been busy having a non-guilty break from blogging. My kids have crafted without a mad woman jumping around them with a camera and they have enjoyed that as much as I have.

Now that we have had a mini-break, we are once again ready to share fun things to do in the days and weeks ahead.

So what happened while we were off-line?

A top front tooth was lost… Lost my toof with Mudpies and Sunshine

An Easter egg hunt was conducted in a real forest next to a beautiful lake. We were so lucky to be there, loved it! Easter Egg Hunt with Mudpies and SunshineMany many eggs were found- so many eggs!  (this is what happens when Mr Sunshine goes shopping for Easter Bunny)

Thanks Easter Bunny with Mudpies and Sunshine

And a most exciting new chapter began for Ebony in the last weeks. Ebony is now a proud member of a local hockey club and has just played her first game. She had lots of fun however she has a tendency to go in hard and not show much fear.  This is what we call “the father gene” around here. I can see a difficult season for me on the sidelines coming up… but fun and great and wonderful all the same :) Hockey fever with Mudpies and SunshineAnd just because I love it I thought I would share this photo I took of my wonderful family while we were away at Easter time. Rest of the fam with Mudpies and SunshineI hope you all had a wonderful Easter and I look forward to seeing you back here soon.

The next post will be about a very frugal, very fun outdoor backyard activity that the girls are currently loving TO BITS.

Thanks for dropping by!

Easter Bouquet

Posted on by

3

Easter Egg Bouquet with Mudpies and SunshineI purchased some foam eggs and knew the girls would appreciate a laid back craft session in the lead up to Easter. This was essentially a free range collage session. The girls chose wool, confetti and fabric scraps as their decorating materials. Craft glue, glue stick glue and glue dots were the necessary tools.

Both girls started wrapping wool around an egg each whilst concentrating very hard. Wool just wants to slip right off the eggs so the wool had to be tied tight. We also used glue dots for the wool attached to the extremities of the egg.

Collage Easter Egg Craft with Mudpies and Sunshine - using wool

Decorating foam eggs with Mudpies and Sunshine

They were very happy, busy with their glue and their materials.

Fabric scraps with Mudpies and SunshineDecorating foam easter eggs with Mudpies and Sunshine

Collage Easter Egg Craft with Mudpies and Sunshine 031

With the confetti, Zoe just rubbed the glue stick all over the egg and rolled it in the confetti. Such a sticky and satisfying result!

Sticky Glue Fingers with Mudpies and Sunshine

Collage Confetti Easter Egg Craft with Mudpies and Sunshine

The eggs were appropriately placed in egg cups while the glue dried… Collage Eggs drying in egg cups with Mudpies and Sunshine

Then with a satisfying sharp prod with some bamboo skewers and a container or vase, you can instantly create a pretty Easter Bouquet.

Easter Egg Bouquet with Mudpies and Sunshine - the finished prodectHave fun!

Thanks for dropping by :)

Easter Bunny Card with Cardboard Tubes

Posted on by

2

Easter Bunny Card with Mudpies and Sunshine

We wanted to create some Easter cards for family using only cardboard tubes. Easter eggs seemed like a good idea but instead we wanted a bit more of a challenge…and after a bit of trial and error (on my part) our cute little Easter Bunny was born!

The credit for turning the two bottom circle prints into cute little rabbit paws goes to Ebony.

Step by step to create easter bunny card with Mudpies and Sunshine

I used only a small thumb length tube of acrylic paint for the stamping – with this type of craft a little bit of paint goes a long way.

Both of the girls enjoyed decorating the Easter Bunny and adding an Easter greeting. Ebony liked the “Hoppy Easter” pun, Zoe thought we should be using the traditional “Happy Easter”. Each to their own. For me not to use “Hoppy Easter” would be a waste of perfectly formed pun. But that’s just me ;)

Creating Easter Bunny Cards with Mudpies and Sunshine

Easter Bunny card collection with Mudpies and Sunshine

I’ll admit we have used a large amount of black pen. I think we may colour in some of the drawn Easter eggs to add a touch of colour to the front of the cards.

Are you getting into some Easter craft at the moment?

The girls have spent a whole weekend enjoying some Easter printables from Activity Village. Lots of easter crafts and printables on their fabulous website. Don’t forget to check out my Easter pinterest board – even more easter fun for kids.

Thanks so much for dropping by! And of course….Hoppy Easter!!

Hoppy Easter from Mudpies and Sunshine

100 Free Easter Printables

Posted on by

1

Wow – I found this amazing list of 100 free Easter printables over at Craftionary. It really is a comprehensive list with so many cute ideas that I guarantee that if you have never used a free printable before – things are about to change!

Here are just three of the huge list that caught my eye …

Easy to cut out table decorations from Skip to my Lou.

Childs-Easter-Table-Decor

Gorgeous little bunny bags from Mr Printables.

Party Favor Bunnies from Mr Printables

And a beautiful set of Easter table prints and cards for a lunch or brunch from The Pretty Blog.

EasterBrunchMain

EasterBrunchCard

There are so many to choose from – here is the link to the list of 100 printables again. Have fun with it!

{We have been a bit slow on the craft side of things lately. Both girls have been busy with school work, playing with new things they received on their recent birthdays and just plain decompressing. I 100% endorse giving your children space just to “be” so lately I haven’t been organising too much craft for them. 

Not overloading with things to do has been working as they have been getting along well and appreciating the space in their lives. School is tiring them both out at the moment!

However now that we are moving quickly towards Easter the girls will be happy to get into some Easter craft. To that end we have a cute Easter card post coming up on the weekend using materials you will most probably already have to hand. So please check back to see what we come up with!}

Thanks so much for dropping by!

Learning How to Knit

Posted on by

2

I’m a new knitter. I’ve started on and off over the years, each time having to start from scratch again and again. I know ladies who could knit for “Look at These Crafty People YOU Could Never Be Like Magazine” and I know ladies who couldn’t care less if they never “cast on” in their lives.  Me – well I am learning to keep my hands busy at night and gain that satisfaction you get when you have made something yourself. I have discovered that if my hands are busy at night with knitting, then they aren’t able to open the fridge or the pantry and place calories in the mouth. And I could do with a new scarf.

I am also learning so I can teach my lovely little girls how to knit as well.

Big news…this morning I taught Ebony how to cast on.  I was so elated that I was passing on a skill which has such a long and important history. Ebony was elated as well. I have a feeling though that she is expecting to get from casting on to a beautiful long scarf in a matter of minutes…well the reality will be another of one of those essential learning opportunities that we should be letting our kids experience on a regular basis.

So why knitting and why now?

Well Ebony received a lovely little knitting kit for her birthday so that helped with her motivation to start learning. I have been doing some embroidery and mentioned that I wanted to get back into knitting so it seemed to spring from there.

Knitting Kit with Mudpies and Sunshine 002

I spent some time looking on YouTube at casting on stitches until I finally found a video with an easy method to learn and copy. The video is presented by a young British woman and is a lovely quirky short video. I highly recommend it!

I hope to repost about Ebony’s knitting some time in the future and show a lovely young lady modelling a fine warm scarf.

I’d love to hear from you dear reader about your knitting experiences. To knit or not to knit? How do you answer that probing question?

Thanks so much for dropping by!

 

Wooden Peg People

Posted on by

2

Wooden Peg People with Mudpies and Sunshine

These lovely folk came about one afternoon when the girls were in the mood for a quiet sit down craft.  They started off with one each which quickly turned into five as they had more and more ideas.

Wooden Peg doll painting with Mudpies and Sunshine

Painting these lovely things requires the finest and smallest paint brushes, especially for any detailed bits and bobs.

Painting wooden peg people with Mudpies and Sunshine

The girls painted clowns, men, mermaids, a chef, a queen, a spy and themselves. Sorry to any peg person I couldn’t recognise or remember. Your value is not diminished if you don’t get a mention, it’s just that the girls aren’t here as I type this.

Painting Wooden Peg People with Mudpies and Sunshine (2)

The girls used small square glasses to rest their pegs on whilst waiting for them to dry. The glasses also made it easier to finish off painting each peg without having to smudge the wet parts of the peg that were already painted.

Painting Wooden Peg Dolls with mudpies and sunshine

This activity kept the girls engaged for much longer than I thought it would. They were creating people for themselves to play with so they spent alot of time thinking about who they wanted to play with and what they should look like. Lots of planning!

Now the wooden peg folk live in their rooms “resting” on the side of jars.  Zoe brings her people alive once she has gone into her room and the door is closed.

Ebony’s are hidden away somewhere secret. Away from little sister’s hands I should think. Doesn’t paint have such transformative powers?

If we didn’t have wooden pegs my next choice would have been plain popsticks or even toilet roll people. Both materials provide a blank canvas and a width to height ratio that easily transforms into bodies with heads, arms and legs.

A great indoor activity and perfect for a rainy day.

Thanks so much for dropping by!

Children’s Picture Gallery

Posted on by

4

Children's Picture Gallery

We bought simple IKEA picture frames and made a large picture gallery for the girl’s art. We love their art so why not create a wall display with it? We decided on the area of the wall we wanted to cover and then experimented with frame placement on the ground before creating the real thing on the wall.

We change the pictures every now and then – some are keepers and will never be changed :) The gallery is next to our kitchen which is part of our living space so everyone sees it when visiting.

The girls just love it. It is so bright and cheerful, it always makes me smile.

Do you display your children’s art? Is your fridge covered with your kids masterpieces too?

Beach Ball Birthday Party Invitation

Posted on by

9

Someone in our house is about to turn 10!!! Beach Ball Party Invitations wioth Mudpies and Sunshine Kids Parties

And that someone is having their birthday party at the local swimming pool where you can hire a giant inflatable thingy, have exclusive rights over the water slide and have your very own life guard.  Yes it’s Ebony’s birthday and she is incredibly excited.  And rightly so – turning double-figures is no ho-hum affair.

I had seen a few beach ball invitation ideas on pinterest and decided this was the perfect way to invite Ebony’s friends along to the pool party.

We both had a go at the writing. I was too excited to let Ebony do everything ;)

Writing on the beach ball party invites with Mudpies and Sunshine

Beach Ball Party Invitations wioth Mudpies and Sunshine Smiley Birthday girl

Ebony wanted to put the (deflated) beach balls into brown paper lunch bags which she decorated. The bags were the perfect size for our deflated balls.

Beach Ball Party Invitation Bags with Mudpies and Sunshine

Beach balls party invitations and invitation bags with Mudpies and SunshineWe can’t wait for the party. From a grown ups perspective, the best thing about an indoor pool party is no agonising over the weather forecast. Just sit back and watch the girls having fun.

Beach Ball Party Invitations wioth Mudpies and Sunshine Kids Parties

Happy Birthday if you happen to be reading this on your birthday :)

Thanks for dropping by!!