Mummy Bowling

We set up a spooky game of Mummy Bowling for Halloween. I covered three tins in coloured paper to use as skittles and let the kids draw spooky faces on them. We then covered a ball in toilet roll to make a mummies head for our bowling ball. Bandage would have been better but unfortunately I didn't have any left.

Ghoul Jelly

We added ghost Haribos to some green jelly to make a spooky treat 

Jack O Lantern

Meet our Jack O lantern all lit up :) Earlier we used parts of him to make star prints 

Spooky Twister

 The children cut out pumpkins, spiders, ghosts, and bats and taped them to the mat to spook up a game of twister. 

Pumpkin Star Prints

After carving our Jack O Lanterns face we carved two stars at the back.

We then used the star shapes left over as paint stamps. (make sure the back of the star is level)

I managed to get a quick picture before they got stamp happy and covered the sheet with that many stars they start to resemble a giant blob of mixed colours ;)

Witch trick or treat box

Lift the witches hat  to gobble up her gruesome  brains 

We decorated a muffin box with green paper for the witches face then glued a homemade witches hat to the lid. We then shredded some red paper and glued it to the inside of the muffin lid to look like brains.

We then filled our muffin box full of  yummy strawberry laces and chocolate eyeballs. :)

Halloween games

Toss the ring at the witch hat

This was a spur of the moment idea after finding some party hats hiding in the back of the cuboard. The kids stuffed  the hats with newspaper to make them sturdier and stuck them onto some card covered in blue paper.  We then cut out some cardboard rings to be tossed around the cone of the hats.

I may replace the hats later with some cheap fabric hats. They can be purchased at local supermarkets for 50p and with enough stuffing they should be sturdy enough to throw hoops at.

Mummy ball

Originally I wrapped up the ball to make a mummy bowling ball game but then realised the plastic bottles I planned on using for the skittles had made their way into the recycling bin. However the children were still happy and have been playing roll the ball with their mummy head. I will hunt around tomorrow to try find something we can use as skittles to make this mummy ball a bit more spooktacular

Ghost pops

My little girl made some spooky treats by wrapping some lollipops in white fabric :) 

Muffin Maths Game

A simple muffin game that can be used to practice counting, shapes, colours, and sums.  

This morning little man and I had a mini cooking session. We usually make cakes completely from scratch but I wanted something quick and not too messy to do with him so I bought some muffin mix. Afterwards I kept the box for their toy kitchen. I thought he would love pretending to make the muffins himself. I intended on getting some cardboard and making some muffins with him to put into the box. I thought he could colour them in and glue some sprinkles on them but whilst digging around in the crafts box for something to make sprinkles with I found some left over felt and ended up making this fab little game.

Firstly I cut out a muffin case using brown felt and made a muffin top with pale pink fabric.

I then made some sprinkles. I made a set of 5 in  6 different shapes.

The sprinkles can be used simply to decorate the muffin. A little activity to occupy them for a short while or they can be used to practise counting and to sort shapes and colours.

To use this as a educational game I made some cards which will show what is required to put onto the muffin. These range from simply asking to put a certain amount of a shape, or 2 shapes to working out simple sums. Here are some examples below.

I have used my muffin box to store the game (with a small container inside for the sprinkles.) and plan on buying some more felt to expand this game further by making more sprinkles with a larger amount and variety of shapes and also making  a few different colour muffins and cases.

Little man loved his new game, here he is making his muffins this morning :)

Autumn is here

Little man painting leaves 

We had a fab autumn themed after school arts and crafts session. I find the gap between coming home from school and making tea a great time to get the paints out and a great way to keep the kids occupied while I am cooking lunch. On our way home from school we collected lots of leaves to paint and print. 

I sat down with the children for 20 minutes and we talked about autumn and autumn colours while we mixed colours and made some lovely leaf prints.

It is really easy to get wrapped up in a busy lifestyle there are always a million things that need to be done and we forget to get involved with small activities like this. We tend to set the paints up and let the children get on with it but spending ten minutes getting involved in an activity each day is something we can all fit into our schedule and is more beneficial than we realise. Let the child lead the activity, don't give demands or ask too many questions. It is important to be attentive and give lots of praise. It makes children feel like your interested in what they are doing and builds their confidence and self esteem.

Macey found a pine cone in the crafts box and wanted to find out what print it would make. 

"Oh it looks like rain" 

my first attempt at making curtains :)

I needed some curtains for my bedroom but did't want plain boring ones that were pretty much the only style I could afford with a tight budget so I decided to have a go making some myself. I bought a double duvet for £9.99 and used the lining of my old pair. I didn't take photos or make a tutorial with it being my first attempt but I will quickly explain how I did it.

It was really pretty simple. I removed the back panel from the duvet cover and used the top for my curtains.
I cut the duvet in half and laid it down good side facing up. I then laid the lining on top wrong side up (so that the curtains are inside out). I then stitched down  both parallel sides.

Using the pillow case I made 12 tabs (6 for each curtain panel. by cutting strips 3" x 9" ironed a hem into both parallel sides. I then folded the strip in half and pressed them with the iron.

I then pinned the tabs evenly across the top of the curtain panel. The majority of the tab should be between the two pieces of material with just a little bit of the ends poking out the top. (so the crease where the material is folded is in the inside and the two lose ends are poking out slightly)  I then stitched the top together securing the tabs in place. Trim the bits of tab that is still poking so that they are in line with the hem of the fabric.

At this point the curtains are inside out so I pulled them the right way round. I did not join the bottom of the lining to the bottom of the curtain fabric. I placed a hem in both the lining and the curtain fabric separately. I quickly ran over them with the iron before hanging.

I made some tie backs with jute twine and some left over material to make fabric flowers. I used the same technique as I would when making tissue flowers. This was a bit of long shot I didn't expect them to turn out but it worked and they look fab.

I also made a hanging heart to match :)