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!

create, easter, google+ hangouts, kids

Paper plate flower crafts – fascinator

We are loving Paper plate flower crafts and experimented to make a paper plate flower fascinator! Experimenting with paper plate crafts have really inspired us this week, from cookie gift boxes to Paper plate flower crafts fascinators, if you’d like to know how to make this, read on!

This fascinator is made from just one paper plate… the flower in the centre, is made from the centre of the plate, and the two flowers with petals, are made from the two halves of the outer circle of the plate. If you would like to see more paper plate flower crafts, click the youtube image below to watch our Google+ hangout hosted by the wonderful Maggy at RedTedArt.com who made some simple paper plate nests for her pom pom chicks and the most beautiful woven paper plates too. Also present were Rebecca from herecomethegirls, with her paper plate daffodils, Emma with her mylittle3andme spiders and bird feeders, Cerys at RainyDayMum, and Anthea at ZingZingTree.

For full instructions on how to make a paper plate cookie gift box, click here, includes a very simple ‘how to’…

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

create, google+ hangouts, kids

Button Crafts – Cupcake Gift Tags

Button Crafts – eek and I’m in my element!

So with Mother’s Day looming, I thought we’d make some pretty button crafts gift tags for Grandma and Granny’s parcels as we won’t be with them on the day.

It’s a life-cycle thing too, as we have LOADS of buttons in our button box which belonged to my Grandma – we LOVE buttons in our house, and have spent hours picking through the buttons in the tin, each one having a special childhood memory for me, and now for my own children too!

Combining two of my favourite things, Button Crafts, and Cakes, I took some rather fetching paper cake cases and cut them down to fit some parcel swing tags I had lurking in the gift wrapping box. These would make great Birthday cards too – I just loved the idea of making the gift wrap special too… 🙂

Instructions:

1) Cut the cake case down to size. You should be able to get four out of one cake case.

2) Position all of the buttons where you want them onto the swing ticket.

3) Ideally take a photo for reference, we did this, so that we could remove them all, and glue them all back on in place – it’s a great way of getting the buttons exactly where you want them! Button crafts can be quite fiddly, so this is a great ‘cheat’!

4) Glue the paper case into position, I put mine over the top of the buttons, to give a more 3D effect.

If you’d like to see more button crafts, check out our Christmas Rudolph Greetings Cards, and watch the Google+ hangout hosted by Maggy 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, google+ hangouts, kids

Rainbow paper bunting with a sewing machine

We love a nice bit of rainbow bunting in our house…. oh, and a sewing machine. One that works anyway….(frowns in the direction of redtedart)

So I had this idea to make some colourful paper bunting with some left over paper triangles (don’t ask, I can’t bear to throw ANY scrap of paper away – even if it IS destined for the recycling!) And rainbow bunting sprung to mind… Avoiding the typical rotation of the triangles, we went with sewing down the MIDDLE of the triangle – and there you have it!

This is perfect for 17th March – St Patrick’s Day in our neck of the woods – if you fancy a #StPaddys party – would be a great decoration!

If you’d like to see some more fabulous #rainbow crafts, and #Stpaddys crafts – check out the #getyourcrafton challenge here.

Also, Maggy, Anthea, Liz, Kelly and I were in a google + hangout recently discussing various rainbow crafts, and you can watch us in all our glory by clicking here.

If you like any of these images, and would like to keep them to remind yourselves to make some later, do PinIt 🙂

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

crafts, create, FREE printables, gardening, gardening with kids, google+ hangouts

Fairy tale crafts reward chart

Who would have thought we would be making a fairy tale craft tonight – Fridays are usually our ‘film night’ after a full-on week at school.

HOWEVER, I was taken to one side by my son’s teacher on Thursday to discuss his behaviour – and we between us to set a reward system in place… sigh, just when I thought we were getting somewhere!

So, the plan is, a thumbs up from the teacher = one reward point. And so the Jack and the Beanstalk fairytale craft reward chart was invented. And he is really engaged with it so far – we found an old wooden shelf I’d been hoarding since our kitchen cupboard makeovers (11yo wanted me to write that if you don’t have a piece of board, a sheet of paper or card will do), and found a wiggly stick on the way home from school – and got busy!.

To get started, cut out your leaves – If you use the FREE printable here – gently stick the sheet to another blank A4 sheet with a low tack magic tape, and cut around the leaves. This gives you a printed leaf, and a plain white leaf. Place the plain white leaves in position on the board, and using them as stencils, put a little paint on a scrunched up piece of kitchen paper, and dab around the edge of the paper leaf to reveal a leaf shape.

Glue the branch of the fairy tale craft beanstalk onto your board (oh yes, I DID use a glue gun), and pop the green leaves somewhere safe. We used a CD sleeve, which we glued to the top of the board to make a pocket to hold the leaves. And rewarded the boy with his first ‘thumbs up’ leaf at the foot of the beanstalk – here’s to a completed beanstalk for Jack to climb up by the end of the week… Also on the blog today – how to make the Snow White Mirror.

If you’d like to see the finished fairy tale craft article, click the youtube link here, I got together with Missie Lizzie who talked magic beans, Anthea with her elves’ shoes, Kelly talked Rapunzel, and Maggy at Red Ted Art (talking three little pigs) who hosted a Fairy Tale Craft google+ hangout.

Oh, and I’m on twitter and Instagram is my new favourite thing, I also blog at incredibusy.com, and Erm, and funnily enough on Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x Like it? Pin it!

baking, cooking with kids, crafts, food, google+ hangouts

Plum Pie recipe perfect for Valentine’s Day

So we have frozen plums and frozen pastry in our freezer = The Perfect Plum Pie recipe for Valentine’s Day!

We’ve been practicing for Valentine’s Day at our house this week… and reminiscing on last year’s Valentine’s Day cake, where we used a small heart-shaped cookie cutter, and some ready-roll-out icing to decorate Daddy’s cake – we came up with the perfect idea, ready-roll-out pastry, and a heart-shaped plum pie of course!

How to:

Using the frozen plums from late summer’s picking frenzy, we warmed them from frozen in a saucepan with a tablespoon of sugar, when the plums start to thaw, strain the juice into a cup (to use later as a sauce if you like), and pour the sugary plum mixture into the plum pie dish (we have a heart-shaped cake tin, perfect for many occasions!) Meanwhile lay the pastry over the plums, and crimp the edges, cut off excess with a sharp knife, and use that excess for your little hearts. to:

Brush the pastry with a beaten egg, and add the little hearts in whatever pattern you like, the egg will help them stick to the pie, don’t forget to brush the hearts with the egg glaze too, and for extra sweetness you can sprinkle some course sugar over your plum pie. Bake for about half an hour, or in our case, until the plum pie crust starts burning!

If a Plum Pie recipe is not your thing, try our Cake in a Mug, click through to Ali’s other blog aGreenerLifeforus.com

For more Valentine’s Day inspiration, try my easy to make hand in heart cards, and FREE Printable jigsaw puzzle piece crafts Valentine’s greetings cards and check out our Google+ hangout hosted by Red Ted Art, featuring Kelly from domesticgoddesque.com with her glitter heart cake toppers Lizzie with her missielizzie-meandmyshadow.blogspot.co.uk rustic twig heart wreaths and her silver birch bark candle – amazing… Plus Anthea’s needle felt hearts and Maggy’s collection of Valentines Day craft ideas.

Oh, and I’m on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x Like it? Pin it!

baking, crafts, google+ hangouts, kids

Valentine’s Day Hand Hearts

Ah, this one is SO easy to do, once you start, you won’t be able to stop, and you’ll have a whole room full of them stapled together as Valentine’s Day bunting!

Simply fold a sheet of paper in half, and draw around your child’s (or your own) hand positioning the thumb and forefinger slightly over the folded edge of the paper – (see the red paper image here) As you are drawing the area which will become the ‘heart’ slightly curve the tip of the thumb up, so that you can see the shape of half a heart appearing… cut around the fingers, and unfold to create this lovely shape of hands holding a heart, and repeat! If you have access to a sewing machine, you could join them together to create bunting, a stapler would work just as well, or simply write your message on the hands, and pop into an envelope! #SWALK (that’s sealed with a loving kiss if you aren’t familiar with that acronym!)

Granny has had several of these hearts over the years, dated, so we can see their little hands growing in size every year…. so sweet!

For the recipe for the Cake in a Mug seen here, click through to Ali’s other blog aGreenerLifeforus.com

For more Valentine’s Day inspiration, try my FREE Printable jigsaw puzzle piece crafts Valentine’s greetings cards and check out our Google+ hangout hosted by Red Ted Art, featuring Kelly from domesticgoddesque.com with her glitter heart cake toppers Lizzie with her missielizzie-meandmyshadow.blogspot.co.uk rustic twig heart wreaths and her silver birch bark candle – amazing… Plus Anthea’s needle felt hearts and Maggy’s collection of Valentines Day craft ideas.

Oh, and I’m on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x Like it? Pin it!

crafts, create, google+ hangouts

Easy Teacher’s gifts for kids to make

The boys wanted to MAKE something for their teachers this Christmas, and LOVED these wallets my sister had made for them for their birthdays earlier in the year, so we’ve been saving our wide 1 Litre Tetra Pak cartons, and got busy!

All you need is a sharp pair of scissors and you’re ready to go… Make sure the carton is totally clean. Fold the carton flat so that it has gussets down both sides (see photo).
Cut the bottom off the carton. And at the top too, and cut the three centimetre deep panels into both the sides, cutting the ‘front’ into a curved flap-shape.

Fold the pack in half again, width-ways, up to the point you have cut down 3cm for the sides, and fold the back and front flap-shape over so that it starts to look like a wallet.

Open again slightly, and the panel (back) that you have not cut into a curve then tucks into the front section.

Add some velcro and your upcycled purse is ready to go. If you’d like to WATCH me make one of these, check out the Netmums Craft video here where I was joined by Maggy, Lizzie, Kelly and Anthea. “Bloggers get Crafty – Teacher gift ideas”

Oh, by the way, I’m also on twitter/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, funnily enough on Google+, Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over say hello x LIKE IT? Pin it!

Ali also writes over on AGreenerLifeforus.com

crafts, create, google+ hangouts

Advent Calendar FREE printable

Even at aged 11 and 9 the boys are LOVING this homemade advent calendar – so easy to make, all you need is some clothes pegs, a colour printer, and some colourful paper bags and you’re away! For a FREE printable sheet of the peg numbers, see below….

ADVENT-TEMPLATE-KIDSCHAOS — CLICK HERE for your FREE downloadable

I’ve simply filled each bag with something different for each day: from chocolate coins, lego characters, gingerbread men, and paper airplane kits (saved the more interesting bits for the weekend dates). And bonus, it works as an incentive too… They can only open the calendar after school, and only if they’ve got to school on time that day too… four days in and all going well! click here to download FREE>

I recently met up with a party of British bloggers at ‘do’ organised by Susanna and Jen from Britmums, and was lucky enough to come away with a few chocolate goodies which found there way into the bags too… they LOVED the chocolate popping candy cracker chocs, such fun!

For more advent calendar ideas, check out the round up over on redtedart.com and for a bit of fun, watch us in a google+ hangout where we showcase LOADS of ideas on your screen here.
Oh, by the way, I’m also on twitter/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, funnily enough on Google+, Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over say hello x LIKE IT? Pin it!