crafts

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