chinese new year, crafts, FREE printables, key stage 2, kids, life

Hand Coloured Chinese New Year printables

Hand Coloured Chinese Lanterns

My little blonde boys are both incredibly fascinated by the Orient, and at the beginning of every year are keen to go to Chinatown to celebrate Chinese New Year. We are lucky enough to be close to London’s Chinatown and a couple of years ago they bought some rather lovely window clings, graphic and colourful, but really too big for their bedroom windows in our Edwardian house.

So this year, we came up with a fun way of making their own, from a template I created here (and if you click here and here you can download and print these Chinese New Year printables yourself too).

You will need:

1) Print off the Chinese New Year printables template here and here
2) Packet of Sharpie Pens (*which you can get here in the UK and here in the US)
3) Pack of Clear CD wallets or any plastic stationery sleeves
4) Blu tack

Instructions:

1) once you’ve printed off the Chinese New Year printables template, blu tack the clear plastic cd wallet into position over the graphic and start tracing around the illustration with a black sharpie pen.

2) Then simply colour in with a selection of reds, yellow, oranges. Or if you fancy a change, try a range of greens and blues – that looks great too!

3) When you’ve finished, take the CD wallet and blu tack it to the window! voila!

To watch a video of how we did these Chinese New Year printables, pop over to Red Ted Art’s YouTube channel here where we have made a guest appearance (again!) showing you how to do this, you’ll notice that I got bored with the colouring in bit, and Maggy had to take over… as a Chinese inspired art project however, both of my boys LOVED doing these, and it kept them busy and quiet for AGES!
10 yo specifically asked for a sheep… as it IS year of the sheep!

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

*affiliate links for your convenience… 🙂

create, kids

Room Makeover for boys

A Room Makeover for 10 year old boys

Lucky Boy! He’s next on the list for a room makeover, and has very strong ideas himself of how that might look!

Room Makeover for boys

He’s always had the biggest room – and it’s been the shared ‘playroom’ for the two boys, however, with more and more homework and less time to play with ALL of their toys, we thought it would be a good time for a bit of a de-clutter.

He has a great cabin bed already, so we’re going to give that a lick of paint, and although we have watched a great video on youtube, with a ‘space up’ bed which opens up to store your clothes and books – I’m not sure we’re quite ready for that yet!

So we’re planning a room makeover for boys refresh with some fab brick patterned wallpaper, love the look of this white loft brick wall mural on one wall, and a chalkboard on another – using blackboard paint, and some fun cupboard handles to hold the chalk!

He really rather likes yellow too, so we’re on the hunt for an anglepoise lamp – and an Alarm Clock is a must – He struggles with the mornings!

He also has a sofa bed in his room, which we’re going to keep there, it’s ideal when unexpected guests arrive, and he bunks in with his brother – so we’ll add a few scatter cushions from new Finnish designer Nora instagram.com/projektityyny to tie it all together – His brother has plans for his own room too so watch this space!

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

crafts

Tissue Paper Plate Wreath

We do rather love a home made wreath in our house at Christmas, so much so that every year there is a battle as to whose is featured on the front door!

So our home made wreaths tend to find their way fixed to the various interior doors of the house, and just as well with this one, as it’s made from a paper plate, and some green tissue paper!

Our youngest designed this one himself, and was pretty easy to make, using three different shades of green tissue paper, ripped, scrunched and glued to the front of a paper plate, which had previously been cut into the shape of a wreath (or a polo mint, if you’re a 10yo boy!)

Have fun! If you enjoyed that wreath – check out this one made from old books!

crafts, create, father's day

Fimo Moustache jewellery

I’ve been using Fimo as a modelling clay for a very long time – back to my Art Student days when I was making rather scary necklaces, with big spiky teeth!

And the husband is bit of a moustache fan, so we decided to make him a Mustache badge from fimo, for a little stocking filler for Christmas.

You will need:

Fimo
Kitchen knife
Grease proof paper
Template

Position the template on the fimo, and cut around with the knife.

Place the fimo onto the greaseproof paper and bake in the over for 25 minutes at 120 degrees.

When cool, glue a jewellery brooch back attachment (or safety pin) to the back of the moustache to create a brooch…

click this link to download the template Moustache Jewellery KidsChaos

Another fab idea is to take the Moustache brooch, and pin it to the front of a folded card, and get your child to draw a face to go with it! I’ve attached another Happy Birthday template KidsChaos template to illustrate just what I mean!

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

crafts, create, key stage 2, kids

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!

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Hogwarts in the snow Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio Tour

As MASSIVE Harry Potter fans – the boys were soooo excited to hear that we were going to visit Hogwarts in the Snow Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio Tour for 12yo’s birthday treat…

The creative team have gone to town with the most fabulous snowfall covering the Warner Bros. Studio Tour, we were blown away with just how beautiful the Hogwarts castle model is covered in a blanket of snow.

It was our first visit to the studio tours, so we felt really honoured to see the castle’s festive makeover up close as well as the iconic Great Hall decorated for Christmas – the two long dining tables are dressed for this seasonal feast with turkeys, hams, fruit, vegetables (ENORMOUS bowls of peas!) and snow cakes.

So be quick, and treat someone special to a gift ticket this Christmas, the perfect present for the ultimate Harry Potter fan! Hogwarts in the Snow runs from Friday 14th November – Sunday 1st February 2015. Book online at www.wbstudiotour.co.uk

Incidentally, the shop is AMAZING – we spent ages in there, and it’s as beautifully merchandised as some of the sets themselves – We loved the vast array of clothing available and we treated 12yo to a really cool Gryffindor™ Hooded Sweatshirt.

And the grown-up bearded one bought a rather stylish Hufflepuff™ V-Neck School Cardigan – suits him!

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

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Cookie Cutter crafts – cookie on the side of a mug

We’ve made these before and never photographed them, eaten too quickly!
Super simple with the Holiday Season coming, and the kids (and grown-ups) love them!

Basically use a star shaped cookie cutter, and I used another piece of a letter ‘l’ from a alphabet cookie cutter set to cut the slot that fits over the edge of the mug, but you could use a knife to fashion the same effect…

Ingredients for the cookies and the royal icing here and if you enjoyed playing with cookie cutters, check out our snowman sandwich after-school snack here!

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

Melted Hama Beads and Perler Bead Craft

A quick one to share with you today – we made some cute Melted Hama Beads (or Perler Bead) Fish! I’ll let you guess which one I did… which one was Maggy redtedart’s and which one my 11yo son created!

You can use cookie cutters with your salt dough for this fun craft, however salt dough is so malleable that you could also simply shape the dough by hand.

Push your hama beads gently into the dough in your desired pattern, place the dough shape onto some grease proof paper, and onto a baking tray and pop into the oven on a very low temperature, and just keep an eye on it! As the perler beads start to melt, bring the tray out of the oven and allow to cool. fun eh?!

For salt dough recipes, check out http://www.redtedart.com/2013/12/02/easy-salt-dough-recipe-stars/

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.

[inlinkz_linkup id=463725 mode=1]

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!

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PC Protection: Keeping Your Kids Safe Online with Free Software

PC Protection: Keeping Your Kids Safe Online with Free Software

More than 20 million homes in Britain have internet access in 2014 – that’s more than 80% of all homes in the UK. Parents who are concerned about online safety should remember to implement safety precautions; available for free through internet service providers.

Safe fun online

The internet is of course an excellent learning resource as well as a great way for kids to amuse themselves and stay in touch with friends. There are however some online areas that aren’t suitable for kids, and unfortunately these websites can be stumbled upon by accident.

If you’re going to compare phone and broadband deals make sure to check that your provider offers good anti-virus software as part of your internet package. You can also talk to your Internet service provider (ISP) about parental control options that can allow you to block specific websites or even put a blanket ban across certain types of content.

The importance of virus protection

Your children probably know more about computers and the internet that you do but protection from online viruses seems to be one thing that doesn’t concern them too much. If the family computer has suddenly become filled with pop-up adverts or you’re being redirected to strange websites it usually means you have some form of PC infection. Viruses are very harmful to your computer and in many cases you won’t actually know that they’ve been downloaded; a virus can be implemented into you PC simply by clicking on a link. Hackers can easily take control of your computer, steal personal and financial details, and can even remotely shut down your computer via a virus.

Ask your PC provider

Make sure to ask your PC salesperson about the types of online protection available. Most computers today should have some form of protection already installed, which will save you money and there are also online companies out there that will provide this antivirus service for free.

Online mobile devices

Remember that children also have access to the internet through their mobile phone, and safety precautions should be be taken across any devices that can be used to get online.

Parental control software is available and this will filter out harmful websites and also allow you to choose which sites to block and allow. Your (ISP) should be able to provide all parental control software and anti-virus protection for free as part of your package.

Having good online protection

Putting protection in place is extremely important and you should consult with either your PC provider or your ISP to ensure you have access to this type of software. There’s no need to pay an arm and a leg for these facilities if you’ve already taken out or are going to take an online package through an ISP.

This is a commissioned post
Sources – pcadvisor.co.uk
Symantec.com
Cnet.com
“Young Girl using Laptop” by Picture Youth” licensed under CC BY 2.0

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