Spring Blossom Craft

One of the things that tells you Spring has definitely arrived is the blossom appearing on the trees, the children love running under the trees and playing in all the blossom as it falls on them like confetti or snow. So we thought we would recreate the spring blossom branches.

First we collected some small twigs or branches from the pile offcuts pruned back earlier in the year. Then I have cut out some blossom flower shapes from pink tissue paper, the cut out flowers and the twigs can be seen above.

Then take a couple of your cut out flowers and push down in the centre with the end of something like a paint brush and twist slightly, this gives you the blossom shape, as seen above. Once the brush is removed the piece left in your hand is the piece glued on the stick.

This can be a craft adaptable for any age group, as you can see above my daughter put loads of glue and blossoms on her stick. We have just used normal PVA glue.

Or you can use less blossom and try to arrange it naturally to try and look as much like a real branch as possible.

Above is a photograph of the finished spring blossom twigs drying in a vase, I think they will look lovely on the mantelpiece or on the window ledge, they really brighten the place up. The children had a lot of fun with this.

It even looks quite realistic close up.

Egg Shell Candles

The spring equinox falls tonight and we have decided on a craft to celebrate Ostara, although it would also be a good craft for Easter. We really loved the look of the egg shell candles but as you know, I have really small children and I was not keen on melting the wax to make the candles as they both get very enthusiastic at craft time and hot wax could be a bit dangerous for them if it spilt. So we have decided to make egg shell candles in a totally safe way even for the smallest of children.

First, save some egg shells, I tried to break the eggs in a way to leave one side slightly larger to accommodate the candle. I used a knife to try and get the right size and make it as clean a break as possible and no eggs were wasted, we used them all. I then gave them a quick rinse out and left them to dry.

We put the egg into an eggcup to steady it and to stop small fingers from accidentally crushing the delicate shell. If you choose to you can neaten the edges of the shell with some scissors but we decided to leave them.

Next we used colourful candle sand so that we did not have to use hot wax, this is available at craft shops or you could use wax beads as an alternative if you have some. Aim to fill the egg shell about half or two thirds full, my children decided to fill the shell right up.

Next is the cheating bit, everyone who has small children will have lots of these laying around in the back of the candle drawer, well if you are anything like me that is. Half used birthday candles make excellent emergency wicks, just push the candle down into the wax sand until just the wick is visible. You could use wick if you prefer but I was thinking of the simplest thing for small children.

This is what the finished multi coloured candles look like, you can't see the birthday candle at all, I think they look quite beautiful and it was absolutely safe for small children to make.

As you can see they look lovely alight too...

Crocus experiments

We recently bought a couple of new science experiment books for the children, one containing nature experiments and the other was just a general science experiment book, covering many different topics. As the sun was out today we thought we would venture out into the garden to perform one of the easy nature experiments but things did not go quite as planned! First we chose what we were going to do, gathered what the book said we needed and discussed what outcome we expected to achieve, all good so far.

The children had just chosen the perfect crocus for the experiment, then something extraordinary happened, the crocus had an encounter with our very grumpy cat who just strolled up and sat on it and then promptly tried to chase us out of the garden. So we were off to a bad start, that should have been a sign.

Another crocus was chosen and the book told us to cover the open flower with a shoe box, hence blocking out the sun and set a timer for 5 minutes, which we did. Unfortunately, the crocus did not understand the experiment and it just opened wider, so we repeated it with a different crocus and the same happened again.

As you can see in the above photograph it opened as much as it could, the book states that the flower should close, so we thought for a moment, discussed this conclusion and wondered whether the fact we had used a black shoe box had any effect. Black absorbs more heat, so we changed to a white box hoping it would now work but alas, still no joy. We had changed all variables that we could think of different flowers, different colour boxes all had the same result... the opposite to what the book said, by this time the children had got a little fed up and went off to explore the garden. The only thing left is the time, maybe 5 minutes just is not long enough to reach the desired result, so the next time the sun comes out we will test this theory out.

In the mean time the children checked the garden to see if our vegetables had started to grow, helped with some weeding and found a stash of snail shells by a rock. We assume this was left by a thrush, but it gave the children the opportunity to examine the empty shells more closely, especially the inside spirals.

So we had quite a busy day, my son was concerned that the experiment failed but it really didn't, experiments don't fail at all they give you opportunities to learn, to re-think your expectations, to test out many different theories and even if you don't get what you were expecting the journey has probably taught you a lot.

Charity shop finds

For this weeks magpie Monday charity shop post I thought I'd start with the replica copper ship lanterns we found in a charity shop for £3.99 last week, my husband loved them instantly. They hold tea light candles at the moment which would look quite atmospheric on the patio for outdoor eating on a summer evening but my husband has been wondering whether he can convert them to run off solar power.

Next as my little ones are important too, I thought I would show you a couple of the things that they have found. This train set cost cost us £1.75 it is a fisher price geotrax set, normally very expensive, we took a bit of a chance because we didn't know it worked but luckily after putting it together everything works. There are more parts than you can see in the photograph but they only built a small track today, hours of fun!

We found this wooden doll's cradle for £3.00, it needs a small repair to the rocker at the bottom and a re paint but the work will be worth it and will keep my husband busy. This is so sturdy that my children can sit in it, perfect for my daughter.

I also bought some circular knitting needles, two pairs for 25p bargain price, not really sure how much these cost in the shops nowadays but they can't be as cheap as that!

 this post will be linked as a magpie monday post on the blog me and my shadow by missielizzie.

A look at February

Well, we started the month with learning about Imbolc, Chinese new year and Valentines day and the children enjoyed making many related crafts... we were very, very busy! So for the last week or so we have been having a more relaxed time. There has still been many crafts but of a more free style, sort of a raid the craft box and glue it all on paper style.

Since we made the 'bristlebot', a small robot, last year my son has been quite interested in electronics so we got a starter kit for him and he has been learning all about circuits.

The above photograph is of some parts of the starter electronics set that my husband has been helping him with, we will probably buy a more advanced set soon as he has been enjoying it a lot. My husband wrote about the electronics in greater detail if you would like to read further here.

There has also been much gardening, my husband made some new raised beds for vegetable planting and the children were very much involved in this. They helped with digging and planting and of course the bug hunting and the excavation for treasure! My husband has also written about making raised beds in further detail if you would like to make some yourself, totally from recycled materials.

We have been on some nature walks, looking at the bare trees and for the first signs of spring, using a guide for identifying trees from their bare twigs and buds which has been very informative. I found some vintage books for sale for £1.50 by Enid Blyton and we have been reading them together to while away the winter evenings... I found the language used in these adorable and old fashioned and the children love them very much.

You may remember from previous posts that I was putting together small crafts to make a Valentines day card for my husband, I made a woven heart and some paper quilled hearts then assembled them as you can see in the photograph below, don't worry it is a close up to spare you the details.

And that was February! 

Vintage finds

I have recently noticed on twitter that a group of people have been blogging about their vintage and charity shop finds, and linking up as a Magpie Monday post. So I thought I would join in as this is one of my passions, and will start off this week with a couple of very small, cheap items that I have come across.

I have been looking out for various transfer printed plates in different colours for a long time now, I personally love the way food looks when displayed on them. So far I have only found one that I really like as vintage transfer plates seem to be very popular where I live and the charity shops very rarely have any in. The above plate was just 50p and not really that vintage but it is well liked here.

It has a frontier picture on the front and my daughter loves looking for the horses and cows in the scene, the above photograph is of the stamp on the back of the plate, appears to be American.

These candlesticks I originally saw and dismissed I'm ashamed to say, as they are not quite a matching pair I know that sounds so bad! After returning home, I realised my mistake and my lovely husband offered to go back to the charity shop and purchase them for me, luckily they were still there. They cost 80p for the pair, what a bargain! The slight differences are not really noticeable as they sit one at each end of the mantelpiece.

This little posy vase cost just 50p again and really wouldn't look out of place in many of the modern colour schemes, it reminds me of an owl for some reason, which is probably why I like it. It is hard to see from the photographs but the top colour almost has a texture to it.

 This is the bottom of the vase... I guess it comes from Devon!

Well that is an introduction to some of my stuff... what do you think?







The link up is over at the above blog, me and my shadow by missielizzie.

Woven paper hearts

As I said earlier I have been busy with little bits of crafting here and there to put on a card to give my husband on Valentines day. This time I have tried paper weaving, the same card strips that I have been using for quilling.

As you can see in the above photograph, it's just a simple under, over technique until you reach the required size. I haven't glued it at all as I plan to give the heart a paint effect but you could glue it if you choose to, you could also do this with coloured paper, to create a lovely design.

As with the quilled hearts I wanted to give the woven paper a vintage, antique feel so I started with a red paint and a very dry, stiff brush. I just lightly dipped my brush in the paint and then wiped most of the paint off before dragging the brush across the card, the effect looks a little like a fabric.

I then lightly sprayed over the red paint with gold spray, don't worry if you spray this too thick as you can gently rub off some of the gold after it is dry. This actually adds to the vintage look and you should end up with the red just showing like an undercoat.

I then decided to cut out a heart shape from the woven card, the paint should have fixed it together but if you find a loose bit a quick dab of glue should sort it out. At this stage you could really cut out any shape you want to, as long as you weave to the required size. I loved the heart like this but thought I would add some beads to see what it looked like.

I added tiny, little red beads at the point at which the card strips cross, I'm not really sure yet which I like better... with or without but I can change it back if I want to and the beads give the card an extra depth. So that is another little piece of the Valentines card finished, got to work on the design now for tomorrow, that is the hard part.