Hole lot of fun

One of my prize possessions is my hole punches. I developed a love for them before I had kids and own some books called Punch Art by Debra Clark which caused me to become a hole punch addict! The possibilities with all those shapes are endless and can be very pretty. My kids know I love my punches and not to touch without my okay to do so. This morning they were out and I told the kids they could help themselves... anyone would have thought it was Christmas in our house with the squeals they let out! They're now at the age where they can use them (I think), supervised of course, and they understand they are 'special' and need to be taken care of. They are actually STILL sitting there punching out shapes and gluing while I am posting this (it's kept them busy for the last 1.5 hours). I know you're not all hole punch hoarders, but kids love having shapes to stick and create pictures with, and its great for their imagination.

My stash

Daddy's craft too you know

The other day I left the husband with Miss3 to go do my thing at the craft shop. I left some craft supplies out and said "keep her busy with this... NOT the TV thanks!". When I came home Miss3 was very excited to show me her creation and I was suprised daddy did so well (not that he isn't clever, I can only wish to be as brainy as he). Paddle pop sticks, cupcake wrappers, glue, glitter and daddy thought to use the yogurt tub as a flower pot (just used a knife to make slots to hold the flowers) and tada... everlasting flowers :)

He did try to convince me Miss3 drew the dog... but it's his art work LOL

Girls Card Pack

My latest request was for a pack of cards specifically for girls... so here it is.

Baby Girl

Ice cream

Butterfly (my least favourite, and may be replaced very soon!)

Crown

Mermaid

Dancer

Cupcake

Castle

Unicorn

Fairy

Felt flower headband

A few weeks back I saw some lovely headbands on this girl loves to talk and thought I'd love to make some. I finally got around to it this week. On inspection of my craft supplies though I had an abundance of felt and black elastic (left over from garter belts I made for a hen's night party), and always have a stash of buttons so had to alter my headbands a little for my supplies. I was still pleased with the results and they were simple to make, giving Miss3 a selection to play with now :)

Cut a strip of felt 5cm x 21cm. I used scalloped edge scissors to give my flower edges a rounded look, but straight edge scissors work fine and give a different look. Try cutting zig zags too!

Cut about 2/3 of the way into your felt strip to make a fringe. Then roll it up keeping the straight edge tight and coiled.

Secure the base of your flower with a few stitches running right through the middle of the base under the flower. This will stop it from unravelling when attaching it to the elastic.

Turn your flower over and find the centre, press your thumb into it to spread the petals out

Bring needle up through the centre of the base to secure a button as the centre of your flower.

Now you have a pretty flower to attach to elastic

Measure elastic around your head (or child's head) and secure the ends by stitching together.

Attach your flower by stitching the base of the flower to the elastic

All done :)

Here are some we have made the last couple of days... Im going to use all the elastic I have on me at the moment before I stop this craft I think!

and here is Miss3 being a very uncooperative model for me

We have a pet... again...

Like most children, mine looove animals and are forever asking me if they can have a dog or cat. The answer is always 'no' or variations of it 'maybe when you're older', 'when we have a bigger house', 'then we cant go on holidays' etc. Last year my aunt came to visit and wanted to buy them a puppy so I allowed a fighting fish instead. We started out with a red one who died and was replced by a blue one, who died and was replaced with I dont even know what colour... more the point was that we went through 6 fish before I FINALLY said enough!! Turns out fighting fish dont like Miss3 feeding them cupcakes, peas, and cornflakes as well as Mr6 making whirlpools for them. It's been 6months since we last killed a fish (is there a pet killers anonymous??) and I decided to allow a pet in the house again with rules in place

1. we will not feed it anything but fish foood
2. we will not hold or pat it
3. we will not create swimming conditions for it
4. we will not tap the bowl to make it swim faster

Lets see how long this one lasts...

our new pet NEPTUNE... also known as "Nep-Cube" if you are Miss3 and think thats the correct name for the sea king

Cricut Cards

Some cards I made this week using the Cricut (I am obsessed with it), which I will own one day! Stay tuned as I plan on making card packs this coming week.

Balancing Butterflies

Miss3 & Mr6 are both little rockets that constantly keep me on my toes so I try to plan art/craft activities for them on a regular basis to keep them busy (and me sane!). This morning I woke feeling ill and crappy but in typical sunday fashion, they had woke hours earlier and were ready for craft time long before I greeted them good morning. In a panic for lack of planning last night, I jumped on the net and found this great, no mess, project for making balancing butterflies. There is a template and instructions provided by Childhood Magic and the kids found it amazing and have played with them for most of the day. Basically you print the template, colour it, cut it out, and place 5c coins under the top tip of each wing. This changes the centre of gravity so your butterfly can then 'balance' by the tip of its body.

colouring the template

we chose the smaller templates for smaller people!

Glue 5cent pieces to the wings (I used hobby glue) and wait a few minutes while it dries... we discussed why butterflies wings are so colourful while we waited.

test out their balancing abilities :) Ends of pens, corners of tables, chopsticks, (I was a little gross and tested it on my tongue!)... hours of fun seeing what you can blanace them on :)