Zoe’s Pipe Cleaner and Pom Pom Craft

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!

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Easter Bunny Card with Cardboard Tubes

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

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!

Muffin Tray Motor Skills Practice

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.

Muffin Tray Motor Skills Practice with Mudpies and Sunshine

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.

Fine Motor Skills in a tin with Mudpies and Sunshine

 

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 :)

Fine Motor Skill Practice in a Muffin Tin with Mudpies and SunshineThis 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

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.
Easy Felt Heart Craft with Mudpies and Sunshine

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.

Easy Felt Heart Craft with Mudpies and Sunshine - what you need

Fun and much concentration using the stick-on gems.

Easy Felt Heart Craft with Mudpies and Sunshine 007

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.

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Flip the finished little heart and squeeze on some glue.

Easy Felt Heart Craft with Mudpies and Sunshine - gluing

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

Easy Felt Heart Craft with Mudpies and Sunshine - stick on the heartThen show off your work proudly! Then perhaps quickly wrap it before the 14th :)

Easy Felt Heart Craft with Mudpies and Sunshine - all finished

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!

Valentine Chocolate Box

Valentines Chocolate Surprise with Mudpies and Sunshine with wonderful helper

We have taken a break from games (memory and lucky dip) in our egg carton craft series and got right to the yummy part of Valentine’s Day with a Valentine Chocolate Box. This was all we needed to make our special … Continue reading 

Valentine’s Egg Carton Memory Game


Valentine Egg Carton Memory Game with Mudpies and Sunshine

Following on from yesterday’s post about our new Valentine’s Day Egg Carton craft series, we have our second activity ready to share. The first activity was painting two egg cartons in Valentines theme colours.

Today’s post is all about a game to play in your egg cartons. Believe me it is fun to play and easy to set up.

How to Play:

1. Gather together little objects that are small enough to fit into the egg cavities inside the egg carton. We used red and pink fabric hearts, buttons and pom poms.

2. One player places as many items as they wish in the cavities (up to 6 or 12 depending on the size of your egg carton). The other player has to look at and try to remember what the objects are and where they have been placed in the egg carton. (You may decide to have a time limit on how long the second player can look at the egg carton’s contents. We chose not to. We just all decided when we were ready. No one looked for more than a minute if that helps).

3. Once the second player has looked at the egg carton content long enough – the carton is closed and the contents can no longer be seen. The second player then, relying on their memory, places objects into the second carton to replicate what was in the first carton.

4. Once the second player is satisfied with their efforts the first player opens the first carton to reveal the original contents. Both players react accordingly ;)

5. To keep everyone in the family happy, the levels of difficulty should be age appropriate.

We all loved this game! To be honest I was quite nervous when Ebony asked me if she could set up a game for me. It really does test your brain power. The game also requires you to try out different tactics or strategies. How are you going to choose to remember items and their location?

Valentine Egg Carton Memory Game with Mudpies and Sunshine 002

Ebony was the first one to test her memory. The girl loves a challenge, bless her!

Valentine Egg Carton Memory Game with Mudpies and Sunshine 007

I was slightly jealous of her nerves of steel ;)

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My tip – start off small so as to encourage further and more difficult play.

Valentine Egg Carton Memory Game with Mudpies and Sunshine 020

1st game – good result! There is alot of anticipation as you open that original egg carton after you have been wrangling with your memory! Here is Ebony setting up my first memory game…

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I could literally feel my brain’s engine whirring and whining as I asked it to work hard for me :) And *phew*after a few LONG seconds of checking my efforts, Ebony closed the lids and gave me this beaming smile…

Valentine Egg Carton Memory Game with Mudpies and Sunshine 052

I didn’t embarrass myself and my generation!! Don’t worry I did later on. In fact we all found combinations that were just too tricky or too plentiful. We stuck to 8 eight items as a shot at 12 was a disaster (for me!). Up to 8 items was lots of fun and very doable.

For Zoe I started off small to give her a clear idea of what to do (I placed only two items in the carton for first game). She was happy with that. Then afterwards Zoe asked to increase the numbers until we ended up using 6 or 7 with her as per the photo below.

Zoe playing the Valentine Memory Game at Mudpies and Sunshine blog

To press home how much the girls enjoyed it they kept saying “I can’t wait to play this with Dad”. He was barely in the door a minute before he was sitting at the kitchen table trying to remember where fluffy pom poms and soft hearts were supposed to be placed in an egg carton. And he was silly enough to think he could ‘switch off’ once he left work!

Little tip: ensure there is alot of each item so that there are enough supplies for the second player.

Have fun with the game and don’t forget to come back tomorrow to check out our third egg carton activity.

Thanks so much for dropping by!

Contact Paper Heart Mosaic


Contact Paper Heart Mosaic with Mudpies and Sunshine - with tissue paper

We love contact paper. Well I love it because it makes craft time easy and accessible when I am rushed and/or need to keep kids busy! Mostly we do a random mosaic where the kids can let their imaginations run wild.

This time we wanted a heart theme so I folded a large piece of contact paper in half and then cut out a heart shape free hand. By cutting it in half I can guarentee that at worse the heart will be symmetrical!

Contact Paper Heart Mosaic with Mudpies and Sunshine

We had lots of tissue paper cut up from other craft – tissue paper has a lovely transparent quality which is perfect for window art.

Contact Paper Heart Mosaic with Mudpies and Sunshine - tissue paper

With a little school glue stick added to the back of the heart – I stuck the heart to a window and invited Zoe to come along and decorate to her heart’s content.

Contact Paper Heart Mosaic fun with Mudpies and Sunshine

Contact Paper Heart Mosaic with Mudpies and Sushine

Zoe wanted to leave some gaps so “just the light would shine through”.

Contact Paper Heart Mosaic with Mudpies and Sunshine - tissue paper (2)

So simple and very sweet.

Making a Contact Paper Heart Mosaic with Mudpies and Sunshine

This is a really quick craft to prepare and something kids enjoy creating. The bonus is that their artwork is being displayed as they are creating it :)

Contact Paper Heart Mosaic with Mudpies and Sunshine - with tissue paper

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Australia Day Craft Ideas

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Happy Australia Day everyone! We’re looking forward to a warm day crafting and relaxing before going to see the fireworks display this evening :)

Are you looking for craft activities to do with your kids today?

Then look no further than my pinterest board with over 40 Australia Day craft ideas to inspire you to get crafty.

All of the ideas below you can find on my pinterest board.

Today we will doing this simple map of Australia sticker dot activity :-

aboriginal_dot_art

We will be eating lamingtons:-

lamingtons

The girls will be getting busy with some Australian themed worksheets :-

Australia Day word search

I also love this boomerang collage idea :-

boomerang

We’re going to be using foam and foam stickers for the boomerang – easy and fun!

More foam is being used to make these koala masks right this minute! You can get the free printable here.

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Ebony is super keen to make a cork hat today so we will be attemping to make something that looks like this (what are the corks for? keeping the flies away from your face!) :-

cotton slouch hat aussie-500x500

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Thanks for dropping by :)

Message in a Basket

Message in a Basket with Mudpies and Sunshine

Do your kids just love secret messages? My girls have loved them before they could read or even write properly. A love heart can speak volumes. So can a picture of an ice cream. :)

These holidays we have made a couple of visits to a local charity shop and found some very cute little cane baskets. With handles. All three of the lady folk in this house love them.

So with a new basket in hand and Zoe conveniently tucked away in the mudpie corner, I wrote a quick note, placed it in the basket and hung it in the tree right next to where Zoe was playing. Message in a Basket with Mudpies and Sunshine (2)

Here’s what it said…

Message in a Basket Fun with Mudpies and Sunshine

We had lots of fun with the basket. The magic is in the anticipation!

The basket came inside too. When the girls were in their bedrooms I would write a note and hang it on the door knob on the inside of the room. The girls would gasp and rush for the door as soon as I closed it. Even if the note was mundane…

Little Messages in a Basket with Mudpies and Sunshine 003

…they still loved it. I loved it too :)

Little Messages in a Basket with Mudpies and Sunshine 001

They say ‘the best things in life are free’. Sometimes they cost 99 cents from the Salvos. ;)

Do you like finding gems in op shops and charity stores?

Do you think messages in baskets is a sensible way to communicate with children?

Please let me know in the comments below :)

Thanks so much for dropping by.