crafts – Page 8 – KidsChaos.com

Father’s Day pencil end keyring

Chaos writes:

Oh how I struggle to throw anything away, particularly, if it’s small and sweet like these tiny pencil stubs I’ve been squirreling away for some time! What to do WITH them? 10yo came up with this bright idea…A key ring for Father’s Day in the shape of D for DADDY.

You DO have to use a saw, so be careful and ‘get an adult to help’ – but seriously, this craft is SO photogenic, we couldn’t help but take LOADS of pictures!

The beauty of embedding the pencil ends into the Fimo (which we then baked for ten minutes) is that you can push them down to level-off the pencil ends so that you don’t have to panic too much if the sawn-off stubs are not the same height. We also used a hot-glue gun to make sure the key ring stands the test of time in Daddy’s pocket. As Maggy suggested, this would also work as a coaster, so we’ll keep sawing! Something for his birthday in August 🙂

This craft featured on a youtube google+ hangout hosted by Maggy Woodley at Red Ted Art and also featured Lizzie from Me and My Shadow, Anthea, Kelly, and Crystal (links to follow) click the picture to watch us!

Are you on Google+ Follow me here, and say hello, and I’ll add you back to my circles.

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

Ali also writes over on AGreenerLifeforus.com

cooking, cooking with kids, crafts, education, Uncategorized

Happy Easter – and melty chocolate…

Chaos writes:

I had recently been singing the praises of Rococo Chocolate on twitter, as earlier this month I had wolfed down a couple of delicious ‘grown-up’ birthday bars (all to myself)….
As a designer by trade, I’ve always loved the packaging, with the repeat patterns of the old chocolate moulds – There’s just something so appealing about the classic blue prints.

You can imagine my delight when the chaps at Achica invited RedTedArt and I to spend the morning with them at Rococo’s Motcomb Street, Belgravia store.

We were welcomed by Julie Rosenberg, the events manager for Rococo, with delicious hot chocolate, and were given a really informative ‘lesson’ on how cocoa is grown, and becomes the chocolate we were then to try.

Julie led us down to the kitchen (which we had spied through the glass window in the floor!) and our Chocolate School continued, with egg decorating, and the fun bit of gluing the two halves of our eggs together!

It’s such a great idea for a birthday or hen party….have a chat with Julie for more info…there’s a Half Term Children’s Chocolate Bar Workshop coming up which looks great!

So, we even got to take home the eggs we had decorated (yes, mine IS supposed to be an owl!)

Joining in the fun too were the very creative TorieJayne, Lizzie Me and My Shadow, and Jen from love chic living, glamorous glutton and lish concepts, and hannah in the house too.

A big thanks to Julie from Rococo for making it such a super morning, and to Achica for inviting us along and making it such a memorable morning!

crafts, create, google+ hangouts, kids

Pine Cone Crafts – Hedgehog

Chaos writes:

Looking for something different to make with the air-drying clay we bought AGES ago from my namesake the poet Graham Clifford at Canonbury Arts, when I was working in Islington. And at the same time, pondering, what do we do with the pile of pine cones we have beside the fireplace? So we figured, this adorable hedgehog!

So easy to make this little fella, one large ball of clay, formed into an upturned face, four smaller balls, flattened for feet, claws indented with the ends of a pair of scissors, two petal shaped ears, and a little bobbly nose… I find that having a little cup of water to soften the clay whilst you are working, really helps… we used felt-tipped pens for the colour detail when the clay had dried. The feet, I’ll admit, keep falling off, so we glue-gunned them on.

We are going to try some more over the Easter break with some Fimo instead of the clay, as it’s it’s more malleable for the kids, will let you know how we get on!
THEN Maggy at Red Ted Art invited a few of us creative types to ‘hang out’ on Google+ to share our pine cone expertise…! I must admit we did have a FEW technical problems, from falling cameras to lost internet connections! You can see the edited version here, and yes, I do pop up at both ends of the video with my superman cape flapping behind me….please do take a look at the following links from the other creatives for shed loads of pine cone inspiration. Lizzie at Me and my Shadow produced a most fabulous photo holder, which is what we are going to make with the ‘spare’ pine cones we have. Aly at Plus 2 point 4 had some printing with pine cones. Anthea at Zing Zing Tree made a very adaptable felt animal creation.
The Frog & The Fairy made some adorable small world play trees. Jen Mum at the Madhouse made a gorgeous owl. Kelly (and her small person) Domestic Goddesque shows us how to make a beautiful door hanging, and of course, our lovely host, author Red Ted Art shares some pine cone babies from her book.
Oh, Maggy’s book is launched 28 March 13, so don’t forget to order your copy now!

Are you on Google+ Follow me here, and say hello, and I’ll add you back to my circles.

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

crafts, education, gardening, gardening with kids, kids

Gardening with kids – watching the seeds grow

Chaos writes:

So, you may have read my previous post about the lovely @soggywelly sending us some random seeds and beans? Well… look how they are shooting up!
my Mother used to make these newspaper planters (and, having shot the video of lovely Maggy Red Ted Art demonstrating how to make them).

Really simple to do with the kids, and to involve them with planting the seeds and beans. We also made some cute little labels – thank you Life at the Zoo for the inspiration!

And along with the toilet roll tubes, these can be popped straight into the earth in the garden – although, it’s so cold here at the moment, I think we’ll keep them on the window sill for a little longer!

We’ve popped these on the sitting room window sill, it’s only little greenhouse, and keep a little plastic milk bottle beside the seeds, with a few holes punched into the lid so that we don’t forget to water them… something 8yo feels proud to ‘be in charge of’ – and excited every day at their growth rate!

To see how our garden grows, follow our Gardening With Kids posts here.

And find out how to use your toilet roll tubes to make bird seed feeders too.

Are you on Google+ Follow me here, and say hello, and I’ll add you back to my circles.

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

crafts, create

Egg Dude – quick Easter craft

Chaos writes: Eek, last minute request from small child, “Mummy – quick, I need to make an Egg character for school” – so, all his own thoughts, and creation, including the bottle-lid cap on backwards, and the techdeck skateboard! He’s even pretty handy with the glue gun too – and ran around to our lovely neighbour to borrow a Turkey Baster (video with said neighbour demonstrating!) to blow his egg in style!

Obviously, you could paint or decoupage your egg, however, he was “in a rush Mummy” – love him.

click here to see other bottle lid crafts.

Are you on Google+ Follow me here, and say hello, and I’ll add you back to my circles.

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

crafts, gardening, gardening with kids, key stage 2

Let’s Get Planting

Chaos writes:

It’s that time of year again! March is here at last, the sun is shining, and I cycled to the Post Office to pick up a parcel, which could not be delivered as the sender had not put enough stamps on the envelope! Mustn’t grumble, as it was a parcel from the lovely Sue at @SoggyWelly (a new friend – through the gorgeous Georgie @TheFlowerFarmer, go follow them both!) with some seeds she wouldn’t be using (oh, how I love twitter).

Love how she addressed me on the envelope, ‘Veg Lady’ – that had them giggling at the Post Office!

We’ve got some delicious compost from our compost bin! We wanted to wait three months for the compost to “develop” and we still had our old ‘bee-hive’ bin which had been a birthday pressie from WigglyWigglers SOME time ago (wow, I hear you say, your family really know how to treat you on your special days!). The kids are really excited about getting stuck in! Wellies at the ready….

This new compost bin, and therefore the compost…. though, woah, it’s GOOD!

It’s a *HotBin* and can achieve hot composting between 40-60 °C, which means it’s producing a rich compost faster.

It has a little thermometer on the top, which satisfyingly tells you how HOT your compost is!
As hotter temperatures can be achieved we can recycle more types of household waste including food waste, grass cuttings, shredded paper etc. So great for land-fill-avoidance. And fascinating for the kids too!

The website is brilliant, with informative PDFs and videos. We have had great support from their team, for example they sent us a new filter through the post, and emailed a link to a simple ‘how to’ video…. Fantastic Customer Support!

We’ve got rocket, tomatoes, salad leaves, and more – I’ll be back tomorrow with news on our planting, will let you know how we get on! 🙂

Click here for a delicious recipe with Rocket and click here if you’d like to read our quick and easy Pizza recipe.

To see how our garden grows, follow our Gardening With Kids posts here.

crafts, google+ hangouts, kids, monster

Monster Craft Ideas to make from your Kids’ Art

Chaos writes:

What do you do with all of your children’s art, how can you preserve them as keepsakes?

My 10 yo is always drawing little mono monsters and aliens, so was delighted to be able to preserve his latest creation…. In the form of a 3D towelling monster alien!

We took the drawing, folded it in half, traced over it, onto a large piece of broadsheet newspaper.

Cutting around the shape, we then pinned our newspaper template onto the doubled-over towel, and cut and sewed around the edges. Leaving a corner un-stitched for stuffing the Towel Monster.

We turned the monster, inside out, and used ripped up shreds of plastic carrier bags we had in the cupboard (saving them from landfill!) – He is safely the favourite ‘plush toy’ at bedtime now, and has been on a round trip of the UK to visit various grandparents already! Don’t forget your toothbrush!

click image above to view the kidschaos.com hangout hosted by redtedart.com

AND then we had a google hangout hosted by Maggy at RedTedArt who talked about ideas for making Easter decorations to hang from her Easter Tree (as featured in her new book!).

We were also joined by Anthea Barton Zing Zing Tree with her Glass Paint jars, Adele Crozier’s Playful Learners Artwork Bunting, Missie Lizzie’s Bubblewrap keepsake (wow!), Aly Hodge at PLUS 2.4.I who embroidered her children’s drawings, Anna Ranson from The Imagination Tree’ Eric Carle Initial Art, The Fairy and the Frog’s Father’s Day Card, Stephanie Stanesby, and Helen Newberry.

Ali at writes at aGreenerLifeforus.com

cooking, crafts, create, google+ hangouts, key stage 2, kids, monster

Bottle Lid Monster

Chaos writes:

8yo wanted to personalise his book bag so that he can spot it, at a glance, amongst all of the identical school book bags, piled high on the playground floor. So we made the most of the oven being warm from a baked potato supper, and positioned some plastic bottle lids on some foil on a baking tray.

Five minutes later, and as the ‘monster’ started to melt, we added some Hama (or Perler) Beads for a bit of colour, and they melted in beautifully. Bringing it out of the oven to cool (warning, it does get super-hot) we positioned the googly eyes (don’t do that too quickly as the eyes will start to melt too!) I pierced a hole with some scissors, and we added a key ring and out Bottle Lid Monster is complete and ready to adorn said book bag with pride!
We also thoroughly enjoyed a Google + hangout with this one too, featuring Maggy’s redtedart‘s bottle lid stamps, and ladybugs. Adele from Playful Learners bottle top Easter art, Anthea at Zingzingtree‘s bottle top flowers and people. Also Cerys’s beautiful bottle top owl, and a first – our anonymous blogger with Spanish Marbles, plus Kath’s KnittyMummy’s beer bottle photo badges.

For more Monster ideas, click here and for other bottle lid ideas click here. And for a fab Despicable Me Perler Bead classic click here.

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

crafts, key stage 2

Can you walk through a hole in a sheet of A4 paper?

Chaos writes:

You’ll know that we are quite fond of creativity and art in our house?
We came across this little gem in a book we picked up in a charity shop this week….How to walk through a sheet of A4 paper? You can do it, however tall you are!

Look at the illustration, notice the dotted lines.

Click here to download and print your own template (saves you getting the ruler out!)

Use a pair of scissors to cut along the lines, and carefully open the big zig-zag hole you’ve just created, and step through it!

And now the ‘science’ – by making the back and forth cuts in the A4 paper, you are increasing the length of the edges of the paper – Ultimately, you could cut a hole in a piece of paper big enough for the whole class to go through! 🙂

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

Ali also writes over on AGreenerLifeforus.com

crafts, create, key stage 2, kids

Children’s Art School

Chaos writes:

We belatedly wanted to tell you about the fabulous new Children’s Art School which opened just in time for Half Term. 8yo went along for the two day course, and absolutely LOVED it! (aimed at 7-12 year olds, this was just perfect for him)

The theme was ‘Objects in Motion’ – They played drawing games, looking at how colour can create and show motion, they made mobiles, and over the second day worked on them further.

As the youngest of two very creative children, it was nice for him to be the focus of the artistic attention, and he is so incredibly proud of the work he produced.

The venue by all accounts, inspired the children beyond the realms of their usual classrooms, and Katriona, the course leader was both encouraging and fun to work with.

There are more of these holiday courses planned for the Christmas break… perfect!

To find out more, visit www.childrensartschool.org
And follow them on twitter too @ChildrensArtSch