All posts tagged: Crafts

Easy Paper Flower Craft

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Our season tree project got derailed when Bird Girl took such a shine to April’s incarnation – the rainbow tree – that any attempt to redecorate it was met with howls of protest. The rainbow tree now has pride of place in Bird Girl’s bedroom, and for a while I contemplated calling time on the tree-decorating over the summer months, while more exciting and demanding projects, like our vegetable patch, kept us busy. But when a twiggy branchlet got dislodged from our beautiful old silver birch tree, it seemed a shame for it to go to waste, so the seasonal tree project has been revived. Summer means flowers, so what better way to re-start than with some rather fetching pink paper ones? These were so easy to make – all we needed were a couple of sheets of tissue paper in two shades of pink, a pair of scissors, a glass to draw round and some pipe-cleaners. Here’s how we made them (this is a really great craft to let small children try,  although an adult will need to do / …

Paper Rainbow Craft

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We’re a bit late to the party with our April season tree, since it’s now May.  April usually means April showers, but we decided we needed something more cheerful (not to mention easier to make!), and settled on rainbows. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves, but a quick how-to follows the pictures anyway. If anyone has any bright ideas for our May decorations feel free to share! Take seven sheets of coloured paper and arrange them in rainbow order. Cut into strips of equal width (ours were about 2cm) Trim the strips so that each is around 2cm shorter than the next. Staple the ends. Cover the staples with cotton wool (or white paper) clouds. Hang as a garland, mobile or branch decoration.    

Spring sheep decorations

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“The thing about doing crafts with small children”, said my sister, “is that it seems like a fun idea, but it almost always ends up being really annoying.” She has a point.  It can be incredibly frustrating, to the point that sometimes the effort, mess and irritation seem to outweigh the potential for enjoyment and prevent you even getting started. But she had got me thinking. What makes for a good arts and crafts session with the under-fives, and how do you mitigate against the inevitable irritations? We certainly haven’t cracked it yet, but I have found a few tricks to make it go more smoothly. Keep it short and quick. Small child = short attention span. If they show signs of getting bored, stop. Pick something they can make from start to finish in less than 15 minutes. They lose interest if they don’t see results. Get everything ready before you suggest the activity.  They want to get started RIGHT NOW and won’t want to sit quietly in front of a tempting pot of glue …

Valentine Decorations

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February seems to have come round quickly, and it’s time to re-decorate our seasonal tree.  If it’s February, then it has to be Valentine-themed, which, as everyone knows, means hearts. But before embarking on our tree, I made a paper heart garland.  There are plenty of tutorials online for how to do this, so I won’t bore you with a step-by-step guide.  (If you want to try one yourself, click over to my valentine Pinterest board, where you’ll find links to several different online tutorials.) I used origami paper, cut into strips, and finished off with fabric washi tape to hide the staples, then threaded the hearts onto bakers’ twine (left over from Christmas wrapping!). And so to the tree… At Christmas we had jumped enthusiastically onto the salt-dough bandwagon to make tree decorations. But I found the whole salt-dough thing a bit disappointing. It’s not a great colour, it always takes longer to bake than you think it should, and it’s very difficult to get a flat, even, smooth finish.  You feel like you spend half the time …

Autumn Leaf Wreath

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Friday was one of those beautiful autumn days where it’s sunny and still warm enough to be outside in t-shirts.  Bird Girl and I made the most of the fabulous weather to spend some time in the park after pre-school before we had to go and collect Chief Stick Collector from school.  Our local playground is surrounded by huge mature oak, plane, sycamore and horse chestnut trees. The horse chestnuts, who seem to get their leaves first in spring are all looking a bit tired, brown and droopy already; whereas the oaks, who are late with their leaves, are still wearing their summer foliage proudly.  But the plane trees are offering some spectacular autumn foliage, and the grass in the playground was carpeted in a blanket of reds, oranges, and yellows from the fallen leaves. After some time on the play equipment, we decided to collect some leaves, but one quickly led to another, to another, and soon we had armfuls of foliage. But what to do with them all? During some after-school quiet time, …