children parties and sponge painting

On Sunday, we have Elliot's 4th birthday Robot Party.  I love lo-fi craft and I love having a party for my boys.  It's a toss up who's more into the party - them or me.  Well obviously they are because they are thinking about all the presents, but I love it as well.  Well, I love the planning that is,  a few weeks out I'm all about the party and doing the invites. Come closer to the time, I get myself all worked up and stressed.  And I hate the cake. I have too much pride to actually outsource the making of it, so I stress and stress about it. Having said that I know I only have a couple of years when I can get away with lo-fi birthday parties before the boys become all 'OH MUUUUM!!!' on me, so I'm making the most of it.
One of my favourite lo fi crafty things for a kids party is sponge painting.
Last year Elliot had a dinosaur party and earlier this year Oliver had lego star wars party and I pulled out a bit of sponge painting for both of them ... and would you believe I have managed to squeeze out a bit of sponge work for the Robot party on Sunday.
My piece de resistance is the AT AT walker from Star Wars that we did for Oliver's party bags this year using cut up sponges.  I then revisited the sponges for a tshirt for a friend of Oliver's who was moving to New York.  I love this I think it is so cute.

For Elliot last year, we sponge painted both the invites and the bags for his dinosaur party based on an idea from this book.

So for the Robot party, I have sponge painted rectangles onto tshirts and the children can then draw robots using the painted on shapes.  I'll see how it goes and you might see pictures of this - if it is successful!
I'd really like to work out how to do freezer paper stenciling one day as it looks much neater. But for now I'm all about the sponge.

FINISHED! Bird Wings

Finally!  I have finished the bird wings I started a few weeks ago using this tutorial.  For some reason there was quite a bit of unpicking happening and so as the 'lucky' recipient is flapping their wings, no doubt a whole lot of cottons are going to come flying out.

Ben thinks the way it sits on the top part of the back and then ties at the front is a choking hazard and he is probably right, so for the Christmas wings I have lined up to make when I regain some enthusiasm for the project, I change the top to add a collar (with velcro probably - or maybe press studs if I'm really motivated) rather than the ties.

What I thought was a brilliant invention (the buttons at the bottom to thread elastic or ribbon through for the fingers/hand is probably not as great as I thought it was and I will probably add a cuff like attachment.

All in all, they took way more time than I expected but despite being particularly handmade, 

they are pretty cute.

mothers day

Mother's day present from Oliver.  

I love this and may be whipping up a few of these flowers myself for others.

mothers day concert

Today was the mother's day concert at E's preschool.  So cute.  All the mothers got a clay leaf necklace.  Very heavy to wear around the neck, but just look at those colours!

let's swap days

 "Do you want to swap days?" are words that put the fear into me.  My day off, especially in school holidays is pretty precious so when asked by another mum if I want to take her children on my day off, for her to then taken mine on her day.. I reluctantly agree knowing that the kids  probably have a lot of fun on these days.  

So, the day started with the mandatory lego strewn everywhere, loud shouting and cushions being thrown everywhere.   We did sit down and do a bit of painting and mask making.  Big thanks to this site:  http://www.abirdandabean.com/2012/01/cute-owl-craft.html for the owl idea... though the big boys didn't finish theirs as they lathered them in so much 'toxic paint' that they weren't dry enough to finish in time.  

I love how the two littlies chose one big eye and one little eye for their owls.  The gold one is mine with the excess glue!   And E -holding his, the perfect host still in his pj's!

By 2pm when it all got too much - I took them to one of those hideous indoor play centres and we all 'whee'd away the rest of the day going up and down the big slide. 

FINISHED! ninja finger puppets-part 2

ninja finger puppets - part 1

Half made "Oh, Boy! Finger puppet pattern"from Such Designs

The thing that's even better than a long weekend is when it is followed up by a day off!

I have had this pattern for quite a while and have been meaning to make up the ninja finger puppets for the two brothers of the baby who will (eventually) get the little man that arrived yesterday.  So, while there is still a bit of time before the baby is born, I figured today might be the day to embark on the finger puppets. It's school holidays, so O and E and I zipped off to Addicted to Fabric to get some felt before heading off to do other things (including getting new shoes for E and me saying at regular intervals to the two of them - 'keep your hands to yourselves'!).
On the way home I had a worrying thought that I might not have any black thread - in reality a near impossibility, but none the less, once the thought is in your head it won't go away, so we raced back to get some black thread.  On arriving home found, of course, that I do have black thread, but don't have the black embroidery thread for the eyes.  So.. finger puppets half done awaiting little eyes and then the back will be sewn on.  I love this pattern and the fact that the stitching doesn't have to be perfect...because clearly it's not!  Great fun -and I think this all lends itself to other possibilities. 

what I liked about today..

A couple of weeks ago I saw these speech bubble white boards at 'smiggle' and decided to get one each for  O and E.  I made them both draw a picture of themselves and then we stuck the whiteboard above it on the big wall in the playroom.  The plan (!) was to have them each day put something up that they enjoyed during the day.  We must get back to it as I have let it slip..!  These are ones I captured from O: "I like mathematics" (with a Christmas theme!) and "I like playing at school" (with a number of Ninjago characters joining in!)

happy easter

Later this morning we are having an Easter egg hunt with our neighbours, so yesterday we decided to make some rabbit easter egg collecting bags.  O has made his rabbit with holes in his teeth because he doesn't brush them and E decided his rabbit needed long long teeth.  I wonder how long those pom poms will stay on!