crafts, gardening

What I wore to Britmums Live 2014

What I wore to Britmums Live 2014

Yes… I know, you know what I wore to #Britmumslive 2014. So many people asked – and I told sooo many people! A couple of rather lovely frocks from the wonderful Palava.co – Honestly, Bryony at Palava.co (previously Poppy England and Bryonyandco) has some beautiful dresses for women size 8 to size 16 and for little girls, from 6months, to 10years! (we ask the question again… why did I have two boys?!!) Maggy from Red Ted Art and I loved wearing the dresses – we are both a #PoppyFrockLover 🙂 I warn you… there will now be a LOT of Britmumslive photos…! #MakeitBritish

The parcels arrived, and the tweets started (look at that packaging with the giraffe!)

And then we got DRESSED – and following the tiara theme, the lovely Georgie at Common Farm Flowers down in Somerset popped a beautiful floral tiara in the post arriving safely and in time to adorn the quiff…

If you would like your own Palava.co frock at 15% OFF, use the code BOATSANDFLOATS15 before the 12th July 2014… And failing that, for a chance to win a limited edition 2014 Boats Print reversible washbag, follow Poppy England on twitter and tweet I’m in it to win it with @poppyengland #poppyfrocklover.

Loved my three fabulous rings from another #PoppyFrockLover TreasuredBouquets – they just HAPPENED to coordinate perfectly! 🙂 For more thoughts on Britmums Live click here.

Follow Ali on twitter as @incredibusymum and twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos for more posts like this one… Erm, and funnily enough on Google+, Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x Like it? Pin it! and come say hello at instagram.com/incredibusy too x

Ali also writes for Britmums here: GreenRoundUps and over on AGreenerLifeforus.com

competitions, crafts, kids

Get Your Craft On – Zoo Crafts

Every month we run a craft challenge on a theme – June is #ZooCrafts in honour of the first #WorldGiraffeDay on June 21st.

Share your Zoo Crafts photos on Instagram, or over on Twitter, using the hashtag #GetYourCraftOn, add your link to the linky below, and we’ll pick the best ones to feature here on the host blog the following month. (and on our Pinterest board too)

The photos you share do not have to be of the finished article – let’s see your work in progress as well as your completed masterpieces! Anything related to the #ZooCrafts or #GiraffeCrafts topic. Just tag them with #GetYourCraftOn and follow and tag us too if you’d like to! Our team’s five Instagram accounts are: @incredibusy (that’s me!), @redtedart @domesticgoddesq @bluebearwood &@missielizzie.

Enter your blog post or Instagram link below for a chance to WIN prizes from UK retailer 1twokids who are giving away a Hugger Child’s backpack and from Sophie la Girafe cosmetics, some organic skincare! Make sure you are following them on Instagram too…instagram.com/slg_cosmetics

This month’s winners are no.18 House of Alphonse for the The Papercut Llamas, and no.20 Niki at www.playlearneveryday.com for her Cute Clay Giraffes – well done you two and thank you to EVERYONE who took part…

To join in the next #getyourcrafton click here for ‘stationery’ over on Red Ted Art – have fun!

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So what’s #GetYourCraftOn?

It’s a monthly craft challenge organised by five bloggers – zingzingtree, Red Ted Art, Me And My Shadow, Kids Chaos and Domestic Goddesque.

World Giraffe Day celebrates the conservation and awareness of all nine subspecies of giraffe on 21 June 2014. Ali also blogs over on aGreenerLifeforus.com and is a new lover of Instagram too… pop over and say hello!

crafts, key stage 2, kids, monster

Juice carton crafts – lamp

So more brilliant Juice carton crafts today from the 11yo – who wanted to make a lamp…

Not any old lamp though, it had to be a blue narwhal of course, complete with pointy horn.
The milk carton is in itself waterproof, so will be coming camping with us this year apparently!

If you and your kids would like to have a go at this you will need:

1) Juice carton, or milk carton, empty (!) and rinsed.
2) Acrylic paint
3) Googly eyes
4) Scalpel (and a steady hand)
5) Battery powered tea light

So 11yo got busy cutting the holes for the eyes. And cutting the shape of the mouth, with a fold back to make the tongue. The *Narwhal’s (a whale!) ‘tusk’ was created by twisting a piece of paper into a cone shape and sticking into the hole left by the juice carton lid.

If you enjoyed this craft, you may also like our juice carton birdhouse here.

The narwhal, or narwhale, is a medium-sized toothed whale and possesses a large “tusk” from a protruding canine tooth. It lives year-round in the Arctic waters around Greenland, Canada, and Russia and according to 11yo, is blue.

BiB2014craftsVote Ali also blogs over on aGreenerLifeforus.com and is a new lover of Instagram too… pop over and say hello! And if you liked this Craft on Kids Chaos, you’ll be pleased to know that we’ve been shortlisted in the Britmums Brilliance in Blogging Awards – whoohey!

book reviews, crafts, education, key stage 2, kids

Button Crafts: Paperclip bookmark

We do love our Button Crafts at KidsChaos, and as 9yo is obsessed with a new book by Steve Cole – Secret Agent Mummy, and is currently using an old key as a bookmark… Don’t ask, he likes keys ok?!

So we made him this lovely giant paperclip to use as a bookmark, he’ll be so pleased to see it with his favourite book! It will make the book seem even MORE special!

They are made in the same way as the flowers here, and we added a bit of green felt for the leaves – nice eh?!

We are going to buy a LOAD of these giant paperclips and make some of these paperclip bookmarks for the school fair, I think they would be very popular! Button craft paperclip book mark
Ali also blogs over on aGreenerLifeforus.com and is a new lover of Instagram too… pop over and say hello! And if you liked this Craft – do vote for Kids Chaos, as we’ve been shortlisted in the Britmums Brilliance in Blogging Awards – whoohey!

crafts, create, gardening with kids, kids

Juice Carton Crafts – Birdhouse

We made a Birdhouse from a Juice Carton! We do have a lot of Tetra Pak Milk Cartons and Juice Cartons in our house. I drink soya milk, and we often buy orange juice as a special breakfast treat for the kids, and to try to reach our FIVE A DAY, or is it SEVEN a day these days?! You may have seen the video on Instagram, so now here’s the ‘how to’….

Ok…..so guess what we are making this afternoon….? Watch this little video for a clue!

Anyway, we don’t throw the juice cartons away…These naturally weather proof cartons stack up on the kitchen shelf waiting patiently to be made into something via the kids’ love of junk modelling, and had a big old milk carton crafting session this weekend with Red Ted Art and family – 11yo made a Blue Narwhal night light (more on that later) 9yo made a vase, and some seedling boxes (again, more on them later) and we all had a hand in making this Juice Carton Birdhouse!

We started by cutting off the pouring spout, and using it as a circular template on the front of the juice box, to make the hole for the birds to enter the juice carton birdhouse box.

Then started wrapping string around the juice box, adding a blob of glue occasionally. We wound the string all the way to the top of the box.

Using a section from a plastic milk carton, we covered the pouring spout hole. And glued pieces of broken twigs to the ‘roof’ of the juice carton to make an organic natural looking roof for the Birdhouse. Carefully cutting the string around the bird’s doorway, and gluing back the string inside to make a smooth entrance, and adding a lolly stick below finishes the juice carton Birdhouse off quite nicely! All we need now is one of Red Ted Art‘s juice carton bird feeders and we’re away!

This is a really fun recycling craft to do with the kids at the weekend, and my sister has started collecting the Tetra pak’s and will be making these at Forest School next week too!

If you like this post, check out 11yo’s little blue narwhal lamp which he made from another milk carton here! Ali also blogs over on aGreenerLifeforus.com and is a new lover of Instagram too… pop over and say hello! And if you liked this Craft – you’ll be pleased to hear that we’ve been shortlisted in the Britmums Brilliance in Blogging Awards – whoohey!

crafts, google+ hangouts

Button crafts – flowers

Inspired by the button cupcakes we created for swing tags for Mother’s Day, we found some thin wire and got busy with this button flower craft.

The wire needs to be quite a narrow gauge to make it ‘bendable’ for smaller fingers – and choose buttons within a sympathetic colour spectrum to make the flowers quite beautiful!

For this button flower craft, I found that the best way to do this is to arrange the buttons in the size order you’d like, ie, larger buttons at the back and then feed them onto the wire.

IMPORTANT – make sure you thread the wire through the buttons across the diagonal if there are four holes in the button, this way the buttons sit flat on top of each other – I cut a petal shape from some off-cuts of green felt to make the petals.

If you’d like to see more button crafts, check out our button raindrops and giant paper pom pom clouds, our Button Cupcakes and Christmas Rudolph Greetings Cards, and watch the Google+ hangout hosted byMaggy at RedTedArt where myself, Anthea and Maggy shared our favourite button crafts.

Ali also blogs over on aGreenerLifeforus.com and is a new lover of Instagram too… pop over and say hello!

crafts, create, google+ hangouts

Button crafts – Giant pom pom clouds

Pom pom clouds and button raindrops – we made these to hang from my son’s bedroom ceiling… coughs… they look nicer hanging against my bedroom wall though don’t you think?!

The giant pom poms are really straightforward to make, easier with tissue paper if I’m honest (we used crepe paper for these giant pom poms as we’d run out of white tissue paper) however, aesthetically they look great in the textured crepe paper.

The button raindrops are really effective, choose a variety of shades of blue, and string and knot them onto some blue yarn to hang from the giant paper pom pom clouds – lovely!

If you’d like to see more button crafts, check out our Button Flowers, our Button Cupcakes and Christmas Rudolph Greetings Cards, and watch the Google+ hangout hosted byMaggy at RedTedArt where myself, Anthea and Maggy shared our favourite button crafts. (Check out Anthea’s cookies – you won’t believe them!!!)

Ali also blogs over on aGreenerLifeforus.com and is a new lover of Instagram too… pop over and say hello!

crafts, create, easter, food, kids, monster

Marbled eggs – dinosaur eggs

Marbled eggs – quick fun craft for Easter or as great dinosaur eggs for a dinosaur party!

This blog post has now moved – CLICK HERE thank you for stopping by!

baking, cooking with kids, crafts, easter

Paper plate crafts – cookie box

How about this paper plate box? Paper plate crafts don’t have to be just ‘making faces’ or using them for wheels…

They also have very practical uses, and this paper plate box works on so many levels! We have used the paper plate to create a little cookie box, which is the perfect size for holding our Bunny Biscuits, and will make a great Easter Gift for Granny and Grandma.

I had planned to make these paper plate boxes for our next School cake bake sale, as we have a little tradition at our school – the kids get sent home with a paper plate, which has a sticker reading “Fill me up with treats & cakes, bought or baked, whatever it takes”.

And my lovely friend Nellie (smallbumbigadventure.wordpress.com) sent me a ‘how to’ that she had found on Pinterest, so we tried it out, and photographed a ‘how to’ of our own to pop on the school facebook group page so that the kids can have a go at making them too! It has inspired 9yo and he’s been experimenting with all sorts of different ways to fold the paper plate, so that the front section is lower than the back, and it has to be said, when you ARE deciding which is going to be the front of the box, be sure to have the side flap folding towards the back for neatness…!

For full instructions on how to make the Bunny Cookies, click here, includes a fuss-free recipe for Royal Icing too…

Ali also blogs over on aGreenerLifeforus.com and is a new lover of Instagram too… pop over and say hello!

crafts, easter, FREE printables, kids

Denim pocket purse FREE leaping rabbit printable

Leaping rabbits and hares have a real Spring feel about them don’t they? I’ve been doodling them forever, so I thought I’d put them to good use, and couldn’t get the Chas and Dave song out of my head, (and I fancied a denim pocket purse craft) – Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit – exactly what you do when you are on the telephone? Yep – Soooo, I thought, iPhone wallet?

Looking around the house, I came across some old denim jeans in the bag destined for the charity shop, and as we love to upcycle in our house, cut the back pockets off! My quest for a denim pocket purse craft was realised!
Yes? Well I liked it, and so did the kids so I’ve made these for their iPods, using little self-adhesive velcro dots as closings on the inside of the denim pockets, and we’re looking for a use for the little coin denim pocket – ideas welcome? Full instructions below…

Instructions:

Carefully cut the back pockets out of the denim jeans, so that you retain both layers of fabric, thus creating your OWN denim pocket.
Find (and iron) some contrasting fabric to applique onto the denim pocket purse for the rabbit shapes. (I used some fabric I had acquired from ReUsefulUK and my neighbour RedTedArt‘s hubbies old work shirt.
Print off the FREE printable rabbits template, to the scale you require for the three leaping rabbits to fit comfortably on the back pocket (the scale here is for a man’s jeans, so you may find you need to print at 90% for smaller pockets).
I used Spraymount glue to lightly adhere the rabbit sheet to the BACK of the contrasting fabric, (so that when you remove the paper from the reverse of the rabbits, the rabbits will be facing the right way… your choice!)
Peel the paper template from the back of the rabbits. And position on the denim pockets. I used a PVA glue to stick the rabbits onto the denim pocket purse, and gave them a light coat over the top too…
Add your velcro dots to the inside of the pocket to make a secure closure.

These would make FANTASTIC little denim pocket purse bags for mini-eggs for a quick Easter gift too!

For other Spring and Easter ideas click here for our Daffodil cookies

Ali also blogs over on aGreenerLifeforus.com and is a new lover of Instagram too… pop over and say hello! And I’l adding this to Lizzie’s #MagpieMonday as I love to salvage, upcycle and re-use stuff!