Zoe’s Pipe Cleaner and Pom Pom Craft

Posted on April 20, 2013 by MudpiesandSunshine.com

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 didn’t have a specific idea in mind for her craft. She just knew what materials she felt like creating with. And here are the results… I 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…

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”.
Anyone 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!

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Easter Bouquet

Posted on March 22, 2013 by MudpiesandSunshine.com

I 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.

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

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!

The eggs were appropriately placed in egg cups while the glue dried…

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

Have fun!

Thanks for dropping by

Easter Bunny Card with Cardboard Tubes

Posted on March 17, 2013 by MudpiesandSunshine.com

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.

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

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!!

100 Free Easter Printables

Posted on March 15, 2013 by MudpiesandSunshine.com

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.

Gorgeous little bunny bags from Mr Printables.

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

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 March 12, 2013 by MudpiesandSunshine.com

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.

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 March 7, 2013 by MudpiesandSunshine.com

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

Beach Ball Birthday Party Invitation

Posted on March 2, 2013 by MudpiesandSunshine.com

Someone in our house is about to turn 10!!!

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

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.

We 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.

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

Thanks for dropping by!!

Foam Koala Masks

Posted on February 26, 2013 by MudpiesandSunshine.com

We made some foam koala masks on Australia Day which we mentioned in that post but didn’t elaborate on. They are good fun to make anytime and very handy in a dress up box so I thought a full post was called for!

Firstly I found the koala mask tutorial on the Woman’s Day website here and printed off their free koala mask template. The tutorial originated from TheHappyHome, a beautiful blog with lots of gorgeous craft. The Woman’s Day tutorial uses felt but we wanted to do ours quickly so we chose foam instead.

Once the template was cut out, I traced around it onto the foam. I used black foam for the nose (the pic above is a little misleading – please refer to the pic below which shows the black foam!).

Once the foam shapes were cut out, it was time for the girls to get busy creating fluffy white ears for our cute koalas.

We used cotton balls pulled into pieces and white pom poms for the ear fur.

With both girls finished I hole punched the edges of the ears and tied on matching ribbons. Ribbon allows for easy adjusting and is soft and barely noticeable when tied securely.

Just for the sake of aesthetics I tied the knots in the ribbon on the back side of the mask.

Allow for plenty of ribbon which makes tying so much easier and less likely to get hair pulled and caught up in it.

Both girls were so pleased with their masks. We have seen alot of koalas about lately…

Have fun!

Thanks for dropping by

Muffin Tray Motor Skills Practice

Posted on February 20, 2013 by MudpiesandSunshine.com

Curious about your kid’s fine motor skills? Me too. I wanted to see how the girl’s fine motor skills would manage with some of the more interesting utensils we own. I also wanted an activity that looked appealing and fun – not like a test – so I reached for my trusty 6 hole muffin tin.

Tongs, tea strainer and tweezers seemed like obvious choices, however if I really wanted to annoy Zoe I would have added chopsticks – but since this is supposed to be fun I restrained myself.

So this activity couldn’t be simpler to explain – using any utensil the aim is to move the contents of each muffin round into an empty round. So much to learn with this activity. It looks so simple, which is the best part – it is easy to set up. But the girls really had to use muscles with the tea strainer and hold the tongs and the tweezers with a high level of care to grab and dispense their objects.

Zoe had to sit on the couch which added to the level of difficulty. I should point out that underneath the coloured match sticks are a small handful of coloured rice grains. Zoe was up to the challenge and started moving the grains with the tweezers…then she decided to get more efficient she would employ the tea strainer. Problem solving skills also in play here

This activity can be adapted to suit any age and ability which is why we will do this again and again. Next time the chop sticks will be coming out of the drawer!

A mini muffin tray could also add to the fun – good for individual items for toddlers or smaller more difficult items for the bigger kids.

If you do use this idea I would love to hear about it.

Thanks so much for dropping by. Have fun!

Easy Felt Heart

Posted on February 13, 2013 by MudpiesandSunshine.com

Need a last minute Valentine’s gift? Keep reading!

Zoe raided my felt stash and asked if we could make something for Valentine’s Day using felt. So combining two pink colours and some lovely stick on gems we came up with this sweet little craft.

If you are looking for a craft with a quick set up time and limited supervision (as I was) this is the Valentine’s craft for you. We already had some embroidery hoops on hand but you could use a photo frame or even make your own frame (pinterest pinterest pinterest) if you have more time. Or you could glue or stitch the felt heart onto a bag, scarf, beanie or stick it onto a strong piece of card.

Fun and much concentration using the stick-on gems.

It is a real test of the fine motor skills removing the small piece of sticky backing paper from the stickers and then placing the sticker right where you want it.

Flip the finished little heart and squeeze on some glue.

Brush on the glue and position the heart onto the felt.

Then show off your work proudly! Then perhaps quickly wrap it before the 14th

Quick, sweet and worthy of the most beloved valentine.

P.S. This is a craft best done with a nude child who isn’t interested in putting on a skerrick of clothing for the camera

Thanks for dropping by!

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Mudpies & Sunshine

Category Archives: Inside

Zoe’s Pipe Cleaner and Pom Pom Craft

Easter Bouquet

Easter Bunny Card with Cardboard Tubes

100 Free Easter Printables

Learning How to Knit

Wooden Peg People

Beach Ball Birthday Party Invitation

Foam Koala Masks

Muffin Tray Motor Skills Practice

Easy Felt Heart

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