A childhood ambition fulfilled

One of my memories of childhood is my mum collecting the seeds from melons and washing and drying them. She would keep the dried seeds in a pot and when we asked why she told us she wanted to make a melon seed necklace. I don’t know if she ever did make that necklace, maybe when she reads this she will be inspired to start collecting them again… or maybe not.

Anyway I always wanted to make a melon seed necklace and found myself instinctively scooping out the seeds from a melon and washing and drying them the other day. On a whim I dyed half red and half blue and there they sat in two yogurt pots on my worktop for a few weeks.

Then my daughter announced on the Wednesday of half term that she would like a Jubilee Party, just me, her and her brother.  Alright then.

So we bought some cheese and pineapple (but forgot the cocktail sticks), made a trifle and iced some buns. We also played Hunt the Flag, (which P was very good at hiding) and made……. melon seeds bracelets! Not quite necklaces but they did take a lot longer than I thought.

Incase you are wondering how this beautiful bracelet was made here are the instructions:

1. Take a piece of strong, but thin thread (I used all 6 strands of embroidery cotton) cut it a bit longer than distance around the intended recipients wrist.

2. Tie a big knot at one end and thread a needle to the other. The needle needs to be sharp and thin enough to go through the centre of a melon seed.

3. Push the needle through the centre of a melon seed and down the thread.

4. When you have enough seeds on your thread tie up the ends. I did some kind of slip knot thing so that we could adjust the tightness of the bracelet.

Easy! Although, not really suitable for very small children as the needle needs to be quite sharp. It can be adapted by making holes in the melon seeds before giving them to small children to thread on a string, but I split a lot of seeds that way. 

I am not sure if melon seed necklaces do, or can,get more complicated I have googled them but not found anything that inspiring.

And so here is a picture to sum up my half-term. My 4 year old carefully icing a bun, wearing the crown he made at the museums make and take that he was adamant he didn’t want to go to.  In the end he was very pleased that we did go. He put the crown on yesterday,” I do look good in this don’t I ?”

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Getting back on trac (tor)

Sorry for the bad pun in the title. I think however, it is appropriate as the week’s rubbish craft is brilliant, back to the old standard of  stuck together rubbish!  The whole thing was decided upon, designed and done by my four year old (well most of it).

After watching Mister Maker he decided he wanted to make a tractor. We rummaged around in the junk box(es) until he found the bits he needed. Using 2 cardboard tubs, 6 lids and part of a cereal box he made this.

 

First the tubs were painted green and left to dry.

 The next day the wheels were stuck on with double sided tape. I then mixed some pva glue with yellow paint for him to paint the wheels. This bit didn’t work very well!

After it was dry we attached the trailer to the tractor and added stickers for decoration.

Brilliant eh?

I have also been working on this, would like to know if you can work out what it is meant to be. Even my usually perceptive children took several guesses on this one. Good Luck!

 

Ups and Downs

Since the start of term the usual piles of organised mess in my lounge have been transformed into this…

Everything from the playroom/dining room except the pinball machine has been neatly piled into any available space. My husband has spent his last few evenings and all of this morning laying a new floor in the emptied room.

With a little help from a helpful four year the floor is nearly done, and things can move back in soon…. Only for the lounge to be filled up again with the contents of my kitchen cupboards, ready for a new kitchen.  Oh well will be worth it in the end. 

Enough moaning. This week’s post is more about what happened when I gave my four year old a choice between making something or playing a game one afternoon.  As you can guess, he choose both- and this is the result.

A very unique Snakes and Ladders game. The placing of the squares and snakes and ladders were left entirely up to my son, which lead to a very interesting numbering system. There are also some squares that take you up two ladders if you land on them.  It’s playable though. Hope it gives someone a crafty idea to amuse their little one.

I wish I’d thought of this.

Here is a picture of the rocket car that we have been making this week. The kit was a Christmas present from my mum to my son and we have spent all week after school making it. Thank you mum!

What was particularly impressive was that the main components were cardboard cones and tubes. The cones and tubes looked like they were surplus/ waste from another industry (maybe used to hold wool on looms or something like that).  My daughter made a puppet from a similar kit, but that has disappeared into the Aladdin’s cave that is her bedroom.

Recycled craft kits for children, brilliant idea. Wish I’d thought of it……

What to do?

Happy New Year, as this is my first post of 2012. It seems that having lots of time and nothing to do has made me  very disorganised. Weekly blogs are definitely a thing of the past. Not only have I run out of ideas, I have also had a bit of a clear out and thrown many many many things in the …… bin.

However, I have found time to help help my son make an Octonaut GUP-A , following  instructions in his CBeebies magazine. It was very simply done.

In case you can’t tell the body is torn up tissue paper stuck onto a plastic bottle, using slightly watered down pva glue. It took about 12 hours to dry.

 The other bits were cut out from his magazine and sellotaped on.  Quite pleased with how it turned out. It also helps nicely illustrate one of my favourite words, translucent,  which my daughter has as one of her spelling words thisweek.

I was considering covering other bottles in tissue paper and turning them into a rocket mobile for when we finally decorate my son’s bedroom (though this won’t be very soon). He seemed quite interested in space just before Christmas. However, when we were talking about it he decided he wanted a Lego bedroom.  My initial dismay has turned into inspired excitement as I think I have just the thing to make a large, fake lego bricks….. watch this space……..

A Very Rubbish Craft

Hello,  here are some pictures of our latest rubbish crafting session. My aim at the moment is to clear the pile of plastic packaging I have in the corner (and other places) of my kitchen. I reluctantly let small amounts of it go into school with my youngest, but the pile seems to be increasing, not decreasing.

With this in mind I let my two children choose two of the biggest boxes, gave them a pile of stickers, wrapping paper and glue and left them to it.

Messy chaos followed.

This was the result:

A very useful box for putting stuff in.

I have also found a use for the many plastic bags I have been collecting. I have turned several bags into plarn and tried knitting with them but found it difficult, we have made suncatchers out if the strips but they got condensation trapped behind them and went yucky. Finally, at a traditional craft fair we went to at the weekend, I discovered weaving sticks. I bought a set and when I got home had a go at weaving with the balls of plarn. It was very easy, and I think a whole heap of potential makes could follow. (That’s a very non commital sentence). Concidentally when I went to Hobbycraft  on Monday they still had signs up advertising their weaving stick course from the weekend. Just when I think I’ve discovered something new everyone already knows about it.

Anyway, this is what I created. Does this count as upcycling?

All comments welcome!

What do you give a 92 year old on her birthday?

It was my gran-in-law’s 92nd birthday last week, which created a bit of a dilemma- what on earth does a 92 year old want for her birthday? I imagine at that age you don’t want generic stuff anymore.  However, her birthday falls in half-term so I decided that we would spend some time making her something.

I decided we would go for simple and easy.

The children collected some leaves from the garden, whilst I found the air-drying clay, flexible cutting boards, blunt knives and rolling pins.

We then rolled out some clay, and laid the leaves on the top, flattened them down into the clay and then lifted the leaves off. The leaves left imprints in the clay.

Using the blunt knives the children cut out around the leaves, I made a hole in the top of the slab of clay and we left them to dry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the time the leaves were dry enough to paint, 3 days later the children had lost interest so I painted them.

Quite pleased with these. Not too sure what she’ll do with them though, they are quite fragile, I didn’t really think it through.

 

I also made her a crocheted cushion as she had given me her old crochet hooks earlier in the year. I think she liked it, she kept it in her lap for most of the afternoon (might just have been too far to put it on the floor).

So thats what we gave a 92 year old on her birthday, and some biscuits. What are we going to give her next year?

This is the end!

Well hello again, maybe for the last time, as it is my last week as craft lady at playgroup.

Continuing the mimibeast theme this week’s craft was Bees.

I took 2 graze tubs (any clear plastic containers will do) and stuck yellow paper into the bottom and put some bottle tops inside.

I then taped the 2 tubs together with black insulation tape (‘borrowed’ from husband’s rugby bag).

Added 2 wings and 2 eyes.

The finished product is not only very cute but also rattles just like a bee (?)

Pretty cute, even if  I do say so myself.

Also this week my children have been making bracelets and necklaces for their teachers. We made some beads out of fimo a few weeks ago and they threaded them and some plastic pony beads onto strings this week.

Here is my son’s ‘matching’ set for his key worker at pre-school.

And so now there are just 2 weeks of term left  and 6 weeks of holiday before both my children are at the same school and I have 5 mornings of free time a week. The question everyone asks is ‘ What are you going to do?’ and the answer is all those things I should have been doing for the last 6 and a half years. Not too sure what they are yet, but I’m sure something will turn up to keep me busy.

Watch this space……

Fathers’ Day Craft

 

Take a muller light yogurt pot and a nutella lid and glue together.

Wrap in tinfoil.

Make 2 thin ‘sausages’ out of tin foil and tape in place to look like handles.

Tie some ribbon around middle.

And this is what you get:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perfect trophies for Fathers’ (or Father’s ???) Day. Would love to know what you think.

My husband and daughter have also been rubbish crafting this week, making a dinosaur for her to take into school.

 

                                        Amazing what you can do with a load of old junk.