crafts

crafts, create

KidsChaosToiletEggDudeChaos 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

Chaos writes:

Get Planting with KidsChaosIt’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!

http://thegoodlifebloggers.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/hotbin.jpgIt’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

Chaos writes:

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

portrait-towelmonsterkidschaos

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! TowelMonsterKidsChaos

KidsChaosRedTedArt-screen-grab3

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

Chaos writes:

BottleLidMonsterKidsChaos

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!
KidsChaosRedTedArt-screen-grab2We 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

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
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crafts, create, key stage 2, kids

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

baking, cooking, cooking with kids, crafts, kids

Chaos writes:

So, as these boys have got bigger, so the cakes have got simpler….

yet… THIS cake has so far been the most popular amongst 8yo’s peers…. “Wow! Your Mum Is AMAZing” apparently, so I will be attempting an alternative version of this next week for 10yo’s birthday sleepover – so, see, I do make an effort, and don’t always BUY the cool cakes that turn up in our house!

I thank the invention of Pinterest for the inspiration, such a great place to pull together visual triggers!

Any ideas of what we could do differently next time? Perhaps jelly babies instead of Smarties? what would we use to hold them all in, instead of #Fairtrade KitKats??? Answers on a postcard, (or below if you like!)

Other ideas for the top, not so colourful, but we DO like the odd Malteser in our house too, especially now they are Fairtrade!

Click here to read more about Laura Dockrill and Maltesers (the calming of the Angrosaurus that is ‘Darcy Burdock’) and for a chance to win a signed book!

Click here to read more about CAKE! And Fairtrade Coffee….

crafts, create, kids

Chaos writes:

Half term fun with Fimo – how simple is this! On the way back from the Canal Museum this week, we called into my all time fave shop (well, I was an art student, what do you expect….) And 9yo picked himself a couple of pressies (for being good all week….) – Three packets of Fimo, and some googly eyes!

The chap in the London Graphic Centre at Charing Cross was such a sweetheart too, he kindly offered to bubble-wrap 9yo’s plaster cast of the canal bridge plaque he’d made at the Canal Museum. #hero

We positioned the eyes, took a photo, removed the eyes, baked the characters in the oven, and with our trusty glue gun, stuck them back on, using our photo for position-reference! – Job done!

cooking, crafts, key stage 2, kids

Chaos writes:

What a lovely half term we’ve had – 9yo and I went to the Canal Museum over near Charing Cross. He’s in year 5 now, Key Stage 2, and studying Victorians… they could not have been more helpful and enthusiastic, John showed us how to make icecream, and Jay took us on a canal boat trip, which 9yo LOVED – so inspiring, he beamed the whole time we were there, and learned SUCH a lot – I cannot recommend this enough to you!

crafts, create, key stage 2, kids

Chaos writes:

So, a couple of years back, we decided to make some Papier–mâché hot air balloons… that’s how it started out, all good intentions. And I wrote about it then over on TheGoodlifebloggers.com.

that swinging meteorite

So 7yo being the possibly more crafty of the two (yep, the 5yo is crafty in other ways, say no more) got stuck right in….

paper mache glue1) We made the glue: mixed one cup of flour, and two cups of water, and a teaspoon of cinnamon (that way it smells nice too)  2) We ripped the newspaper into strips

2) We pulled each strip through the ‘glue’ and let it drip back into the bowl (AND all over the garden too, much to SAHD’s delight)

3) We layered and layered until the balloon (OH, I didn’t mention that bit did I? – blow up a balloon, and balance it on a bowl to stop it blowing or rolling away) was covered in paper mache.

Then we had to leave it to dry for a day (which is where 5yo lost interest, so I’d say stick with one layer if you’re not bothered about keeping the masterpiece for ever!) We learnt an important lesson here, on Day 2 when we went back to add another layer, 7yo’s balloon had shrivelled, but we layered on some more paper mache….

MISTAKE, with no balloon inside to hold it’s shape this happened… It collapsed.

Not to be out-witted by the wilted balloon, 7yo spun it round (phew, was waiting for a tantrum) and said he would make it into a meteorite – which is what he did!  Job done….

Thanks to Maggy at RedTedArt for continuing to encourage us to ‘get crafty!’

7yo with his ‘meteorite punch-bag’ hanging on the washing line