Posts in category: Crafts

I love autumn.  And judging by the posts filling up my timelines on various social media channels, I’m not the only one!  There are a lot of people out there who are very happy that autumn has arrived, bringing with it cosy clothing, pumpkin spice everything and of course the beautiful changing colours of the leaves on the trees.

So when I realised the theme for this month’s bostik bloggers craft activity was ‘autumn’ I was thrilled!

I decided to get creative with Nerys and so we did some painting/printing with pipe cleaners to make this wonderfully colourful autumn tree.

If you’d like to have a go yourself, here’s what you’ll need:

• Paint – red, green and yellow
• A sheet of paper
• Paintbrush
• Pipe cleaners

The first thing you need to do is paint your tree trunk and a few branches.

I drew the tree outline first with pencil, rather than letting Nerys paint a tree freehand.  And we made some brown paint by mixing the red, green and yellow paints together.

Once the tree was painted it was time to have some fun with the pipe cleaners!

I twisted the pipe cleaners in the middle to make a little loop, and then wrapped the ends around each other to make a handle of sorts to hold on to.

Then we dipped the pipe cleaner loops in the paint and then used them to print leaves on to the tree.

We did green first, then red, orange and yellow.

This is a really simple craft activity, but one that is so much fun and that sparks creativity with using things other than paintbrushes for mark making.  Nerys really enjoyed herself with this, and we both really love the end result!

I was sent a box of craft materials to create this post, but all words, opinions and creations are my own.

If you have a little one heading off to school for the first time in September, or moving up to a new class and feeling nervous about it, then this craft is for you.

It’s a little felt heart, with a button on the front, to pop in their pocket.

The idea is that when they feel nervous or sad at school they can hold on to the heart and know that you’re thinking of them.

When I was little I had worry dolls, and even now I have a worry stone that I carry in my coat pocket.  I find having something to hold in my hand, to fiddle and ‘worry’ is really quite comforting.

So that’s why I put the little button on this heart, to act as a sort of worry stone.  

To be rubbed and twisted and fiddled with to help reduce anxiety.  I think this would be a really lovely way to bring some comfort to a nervous child as they head off to school in September.

If you would like to make one yourself, here’s what you’ll need:

• Felt
• Scissors
• Needle
• Thread
• A button

The first thing you need to do is cut out your felt.

You want 2 hearts the same size, and one a little smaller.

I had a heart shaped cookie cutter that I used as a template for mine, but you can go freehand or find a template online to print out and use.

Next you need to sew the button on to the smaller heart.

Make sure that the button is sewn on really securely, because that is the part of the heart that is meant to be fiddled with and ‘worried’.

Next, sew the smaller heart on to one of the bigger hearts.

I just did a simple running stitch on mine, with pink embroidery thread to give a bit of contrast with the purple felt.

The last step is to sew the 2 bigger hearts together.

Again, I just used a simple running stitch to do this, but if you’re a bit more adventurous then a blanket stitch would work really well for this stage too.

When you have sewn almost all the way round the heart stop and pop some stuffing inside.

I used some felt scraps in mine, which worked well.  If you have some dried lavender then pop some of that in too, to add a little relaxing scent to the heart.

Once it’s full, finish sewing the heart up.

And there you have it.

A cute little heart to pop in your child’s pocket when they head off to school.

Something to give them a little comfort if they’re feeling sad during the day, and to fiddle with and ‘worry’ if they’re feeling anxious.

Why not make one for yourself too, to help you feel a bit better about your baby being at big school!

I was sent a box of craft materials to create this post, but all words, opinions and creations are my own.

Nerys has been doing half days at school for a few months now, in what her school calls the Rising 3’s class.  It’s been amazing for her, and has really helped both of us adjust to the idea of her going into the nursery class in September.

She has gained a huge amount of confidence since starting, and she’s also learnt a fair bit too.

Her numbers are really coming on, and her knowledge of things like shapes and colours has come on in leaps and bounds too.

I want to keep the momentum going over the summer so I think we’ll be doing lots of craft activities that are built around practising her colours and numbers, and maybe some to help her start to learn letters too.

This simple and fun craft using coloured creepy crawly stickers is a great way to help little ones learn their colours.

If you fancy giving this fun craft a go, here’s what you’ll need:

• Foam creepy crawly stickers in different colours
• Scraps of paper, beads, felt, feathers etc in the colours of the rainbow
• A piece of white paper or card
• Glue

First of all you need to gather all your bits and pieces together.

To make the most of this craft as a learning activity work with your child to put all the red materials together in a pile, then all the orange pieces, then the yellow and so on.  You can start by handing them a red ladybird sticker and then asking them to pick out all the other pieces that are the same colour.

Once all the coloured pieces are organised it’s time to get making!

Spread some glue over the piece of white paper or card, and then start sticking down the various red items you have in a line across the top.

Then do a line of orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.

And there you have it, your bright and colourful rainbow, complete with creepy crawlies!

Nerys and I had so much fun working on this creepy crawlies craft.

And I love how it was so simple to put together, but it helped her with learning colours, learning the order of the colours in a rainbow and with her fine motor skills too.  Nerys enjoyed it so much she asked to make another one as soon as we’d finished this one, so it’s bound to be a hit with any little ones who enjoy cutting and sticking activities!

I was sent a box of craft materials to create this post, but all words, opinions and creations are my own.

Every month we wait eagerly to see what will arrive at our door for us to craft with as part of my role as a Bostik Blogger.

This month, the theme was ‘Space’ and we were sent some bits and pieces to get creative with.  After having a think, I decided it would be fun to make a UFO.

We had some paper plates left over from our bird craft the other month, and we’ve read a couple of stories recently about aliens and so I thought this would be fun for both Rhys and Nerys.

Here’s what you need:

• 2 paper plates
• a polystyrene ball
• a pipe cleaner
• paint
• thread
• stickers or stick on jewels
• glue

The first thing you need to do is cut the polystyrene ball in half and paint one of the halves green.

Then paint the paper plates with silver paint.  If you don’t have silver paint you can pretty much use whatever colour you like, it’s your UFO after all!  You could also cover the plate in tissue paper if you’d rather.

Next draw or paint some features onto the green ball, to make it look like a little alien’s face.  If you wanted you could stick googly eyes on instead of drawing them on.

Then cut 2 short bits of pipe cleaner and roll the ends up a little to make them look like antennae.  Then poke them into the top of the alien’s head!

Make a little hole in the middle of one of the plates.  Cut a length of thread and tie a little knot in one end.  Thread it through the hole you made in the plate, so that the knot will be on the inside when you glue the two plates together.

Glue the plates together to make the UFO, then glue the little alien head on top, just off centre.  With the head being off centre, you’ll need to counter balance the UFO so it hangs level.  I just used a couple of bits of blu tack for this, sticking them on the underside of the UFO.

Decorate the UFO with stickers or stick on jewels or little bits of coloured paper if that’s all you have.

Hang up your UFO!

What do you think?

Would you be happy to get a visit from this little green man?!

Everywhere we look at the moment there are flowers blooming.

Daisies and buttercups are everywhere.  And pretty soon the wildflower displays will be brightening up the whole of Swansea.

So it’s only fitting that this month’s craft theme for us Bostik Bloggers is ‘Flowers’.

After taking a look at the crafty goodies we were sent, Nerys and I decided to make a fun and simple flower photo frame.

Here’s what we used:

• A5 piece of green foam
• Paper flowers, in different colours and sizes
• Scissors
• Glue

The first thing I did was cut a rectangular hole in the middle of the foam, just a bit smaller than the photo we wanted to frame.

Then we got to work gluing the flowers down.  We stuck all the green ones down first because I wanted them to add some texture and depth to the frame, but to not be the main focus.

Once we’d used all the green flowers we started adding all the bright and colourful ones.

I went for the approach of filling in gaps with these flowers, whereas Nerys chose to stick hers in the middle of some of the green ones.  I love how we both put our own stamp on this little craft!

Once all the glue had dried we stuck our photo to the back and we were done!

I really love how this turned out, and how simple it was to make.

We had some pre-cut flowers in our craft kit, but you can easily make them yourself by using a flower punch and whatever coloured or patterned paper you have at home.

When it came to putting the photo ‘in’ our frame, we just stuck it to the back with some tape.  But you could use photo corners if you’d rather.

Then you can stick it up at home with blu tack, or stick some little magnets on the back and pop it on your fridge!

I was sent a box of craft materials to create this post, but all words, opinions and creations are my own.