Scissors, Paper, Holepunch.

I thought I'd share this one, not because it's a work of art. Far from it, just because it's some inspiration for a bit of happy crafting.

The idea is to cut paper into strips, punch holes in the strips, and then glue them to another piece of paper. I'm pretty sure I first saw something like this on Mr Maker. We used patterned scissors/pinking shears. And seriously, with scissors, hole punching and glue, how can you go wrong!

As you can see Miss 3 thought the thing needed to be finished off with a pile of sequins. Later she also added some alfoil, just for extra sparkle. She was obviously very pleased with her work as it was the first thing she showed to Mr Crafty when he came home.

Salt and Ice Sculptures.

I have been wanting to do the ice and salt experiment for a while now with the kids, I was just waiting for the weather to warm up a bit. It's a perfect activity for a warm spring or summer day. Last week we had a lovely day, and I had remembered to freeze a nice big block of ice.

It was one of the nicest, simplest and most satisfying experiments I've done with the kids. All you need to do is freeze a big block of ice, make a few different colours with food colouring in water, and fill a small container with table salt. Take it all outside on a tray with a couple of spoons and let the kids play.

At first it was interesting watching all the colour mixing. That kept going for a while, watching the colours blend and the ice slowly melt away. By the time the colours had mixed into a dark green colour the tunnels were looking very interesting. We could scoop some of the used water from the tray and pour it back into the ice, until we had a couple of nice tunnels, and the kids finally had had enough.

 

Magnetic Tangrams

I've been wanting to make a magnetic shapes game, and we got another large magnetic in with the junk mail recently. So, inspired by Delia Creates, I had a go at making my own. Actually making 2 of my own, I thought that would be more fun and peaceful.

I decided to paint the pieces, as the last time I made the triangular dominoes using magnets and paper stuck on top, I found they really needed to be covered in plastic contact paper to stay nice. I was hoping to skip this step (which I found I really couldn't... more on that later).

I used stick glue to stick the pattern on, and then once I'd cut the pieces out, I removed the paper. I painted the magnets in white first and then in a colour.

Done. Or so I thought.

I printed out some simple shapes, only to realise that the original game expects the parallelogram piece (the only one that isn't symmetrical) to be turned over when necessary. That doesn't work so well with magnetic pieces, and the kids were not up to making a mirror image of the whole design. So I had two choices, either print out only the designs with the parallelogram in the right orientation, or make a mirror image parallelogram. I decided the second choice was FAR easier. There's a bucket load of designs out there, and it's so much easier to know anything you print can easily be attempted.

So back to the making, I made two more mirror image parallelograms (one for each of the two sets), painted them, and then seeing as the original pieces were starting to loose their paint already, I covered them all in contact (which makes them a bit easier to pick up and they feel a bit nicer to handle too.

Done. Again. This time for real.

And the kids love it. Miss 3 likes to have help to do it. Mr 5 is fine with a pattern, but I haven't tried him on the shadow outlines yet.

Now I'm dreaming of making a nice little magnetic folder for them to be stored in and travel in.

Homemade Puff Paint

We've been a little light on the sharable kinds of craft here recently. I've been very busy making things for a fundraiser market, and the kids have been doing little side projects with whatever I've been using. But today I was searching for something to do at playgroup craft next week, and stumbled across this one, which I just had to have a go at. It's no good for our playgroup as we don't have a microwave there, but perfect for a quiet afternoon at home.

We made our own home made puff paint, using SR flour, salt and food colouring, according to the recipe from One Crafty Mumma. We made it into a sludgy paste, and painted on ordinary paper. We then put the painting in the microwave on high for 20 to 30 seconds. Magic! Dry, puffy paintings. The thicker you apply the paint, the more puff.

It even was interesting enough that it enticed Mr 5 to do not one but two paintings.

Solar Powered Night Light Dioramas

These are a couple of the solar powered night lights I've made for a stall I'm hosting with a friend at a local school fundraising market.

Edited to add a few more:

Solar Fairy Night Light

I've been very busy recently with winter colds, children and making up some things for a craft stall for a fundraiser at our school. Mostly wings, but now I'm also working on some solar powered night lights. The one above was my first prototype and still needs some final touches, but perhaps you can get the general idea.