Traditional Paper Star

Traditional Paper Star

The boys just love a paper craft, and we can thank our lovely friend Maggy for that (she told me to say that…) – Maggy taught them how to make origami paper boats when they were very little, and now at 10, the youngest is forever making Ninja Stars, Jumping Frogs and Paper cranes – and now his latest, the Traditional Paper Star.

For this lovely origami traditional Paper Star you need 14-15 square origami sheets, of various colours (we tried to persuade him to make them in Christmas colours, however, he is ‘his own man’ and went with these colours!) It literally only takes minutes to learn how to make this!

Fold each piece of paper to the long triangular shape, follow the youtube instructions linked here… demonstrated by the lovely Maggy from RedTedArt… and insert one into another until you join the first with the last to create this star shape – how lovely, we’ll be hanging this creation on the Christmas Tree next weekend!

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

baking, cooking with kids, crafts

Snowman crafts sandwich – get your craft on

Every month we run a craft challenge on a theme – November is #Snowman #Crafts.

Our first contribution is our snowman sandwich – a quick post-school pick-me-up!
Using two circular cookie cutters, (one for the head, one for the body) we cut a snowman shape out of one slice of bread… Buttering the other slice with peanut butter (or jam, if you have a peanut allergy!)
Sprinkle over some icing sugar, and place the second slice of bread over the top, adding silver baubles for buttons, and raisins for the eyes – you’re away!

Share your Snowman 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 #SnowMan crafts or #Olaf (! if you’re Frozen fans) topic. Just tag them with #GetYourCraftOn and follow and tag us too so we know you’re taking part) Our team’s four Instagram accounts are: @incredibusy (that’s me!), @redtedart @bluebearwood &@missielizzie.

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So what’s #GetYourCraftOn?

It’s a monthly craft challenge organised by four bloggers – zingzingtree, Red Ted Art, Me And My Shadow, Kids Chaos (me!)

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

education, kids

Make the World Better with a Sweater

So Friday 13th December is #XmasJumperDay – my Mum wouldn’t approve of that hashtag, so it her honour, I’ll also refer to it as #ChristmasJumperDay and have taken a couple of photos to show you what it’s all about! #Selfie no.1…

It’s not too late to join in – I took these this morning before school, and you can ALMOST see me in the bauble reflection outside my friend Smudgetikka‘s house too…?

The idea is simple – get into the Christmas spirit by wearing your best Seasonal Jumper and donate a pound to Save the Children to help support the wonderful work that they do for children around the world.

Don’t forget to text TEAMTHINLYS to 70050 to donate just £1 to Save The Children. Go on, make a difference this Christmas.

For every blogger who writes a post about Christmas Jumper Day and includes a selfie of themselves in their jumper, Westfield London will be donating an extra £10 to Save the Children. All you need to do is tweet a link to your post to @westfieldlondon What are you waiting for bloggers?

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!

crafts, create, gardening

Create a leaf wreath with old books

Ever the recycle queen of green, I LOVED working with the kids on this one… and a great way to use up old unloved books.

This is very easy to make, the boys’ now have quite a short attention-span for crafting, yet really rose to the challenge – creating templates using REAL Autumn leaves of different shapes which we cut up, several pages at a time for speed, from the pages of this aged book – folding a crease down the centre of the “leaves” to create a more realistic 3Dimensional effect.

We had in preparation, wrapped some lovely string around a shop-bought wreath, however, we have previously used a cereal box to good effect.

9yo thought to add the pine cones – a bit of mixed medium eh?!

We glued the leaves on with our trusty glue gun, overlapping and building as we went along….

Our front door is quite sheltered, so it should be OK for Christmas – looks nice eh?

Equally, the ‘leaf wreath’ would look lovely on an interior door during the holiday period, and we’ll be taking this one down to Granny’s care home for the door to her room this year.

Want to see me talking about this project and other leaf crafts (including our hammered leaf printing and a bubble wrap leaf lamination inspired by Lizzie’s fabulous post)… Click the link and photo left, to watch via youtube…. Maggy Woodley from Red Ted Art hosted a fabulous “Leaf Craft Ideas’ on Google+.

Maggy talked us through some lovely ideas, including leaf bowls whilst wearing a rather attractive leaf crown! More links to follow from Anthea at zingzingtree, thefairyandthefrog, some cute leaf fairies from peaklepie, missielizzie’s decorating pumpkins with leaves and herecomethegirlsblog with their reward chart.

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