Favorite Kiddie Crafts ?

Nikky - that sounds awesome! I was only thinking about painting on canvas yesterday.

ZV - Pom poms are cool. The last play dough I made was very gritty from the salt. It was a no-cook recipe. Next time I was going to think about add-ins like glitter.

Have just finished making the base for home made paint - flour and water, so easy! ;) I am just waiting for it to cool so I can add the food colouring. A few of my yummy mummy friends are getting together for our first play group tomorrow and I'm organising painting for us all. We have brushes, sponges, paint and fingers so it'll be an interesting afternoon watching half a dozen 18 month olds getting into painting, most for the first time!

Another idea I was thinking of trying that you might be interested in, ZV, is weaving with old onion/fruit bags. I thought we could use grasses, leaves, sticks, bark, wool, feathers, straws, fabric etc and make some kind of woven 'thingie'.

Oh, and one of the other mummies mentioned fly swat painting. Not exactly sure what it involves, but logic would say it's very messy and lots of fun! Toothbrush splatter painting is cool too - old toothbrushes dipped in paint and splattered on paper. Makes lovely wrapping paper. You can also turn the dried splatters (or big blobs of paint dropped onto paper) into funny creatures by drawing around them with a felt pen then adding faces, arms and legs etc. You get two art projects for the price of one that way! ;)

Made playdough today, was awesome!


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ZF - did you end up making the salt dough? I made it a looooooong time ago (when I was 9!) and was planning to make some Christmas deco's with DD this year... but there are soooo many variations on line! Although most call for 1 to 2 cups of salt and none with oil....

MG

MG - I'm having the same trouble deciding which play dough recipe to follow! So many choices...
ZF - How did yours turn out? Please post the recipe if you like it!

Does anyone watch Mr Maker? Lots of good ideas on there!

Through Learning Ladders i've bought 1 of the Mr Maker books, can't wait to get it and try some of the stuff with DD.

Made another 1 today, green with gold glitter ;)
So so so so easy, 1 cup flower, 1/4 cup salt, 2tsp cream of tar tar, 1 tbs vegetable oil (i used olive oil), 1 cup water - food coloring & glitter if you want to add it :)
Throw all ingredients into a saucepan, let the kids mix it once combined pop on the stove on medium heat and continue to stir until it forms 1 big ball, take it out and place on baking paper allow to cool then knead until soft.
Store in an airtight container :)

I am going to make red, white & green with glitter through them and find some cheap cutters, twist them together and into tubs to give as x-mas pressies :)

Haven't tried the salt dough yet but i want too :)

Thanks ZV - it's on the to-do list for tomorrow! ;) The pressie idea sounds wonderful too!

JCE - Ooooh, Mr Maker books?! Fun! :p

The play dough recipe i use is pretty good also, no cook

2 cups plain flour
1 cup salt
1 tablespoon cooking oil
3/4 cup to 1 cup of water
2 drops of food colouring

Method
combine plain flour and salt
add water food colouring and oil
mix until ingredients are combined
knead well

:

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JCE - Ooooh, Mr Maker books?! Fun! :p

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Yep there's 2 books "Let's Make It: Mister Maker" and "let's Make More! Mister Maker", says from 4+ but i guess younger kids could use them as well.

Our new and improved playdough was a huge hit! I used the recipe from the back of the cream of tartar. It's pretty much the same as ZV's, but only had 1/4 cup salt plus the cream of tartar. And I used way more food colouring ;)

Ok ladies i have some salt dough ornaments in the oven, used the recipe i posted a couple of pages back and am hoping that 2 1/2hrs in the oven is all they need as the kids will WANT these things, so will cook them, let them cool and hope they are rock hard and do go brown ;) then paint them, glitter them and then spray them, throw some ribbon on and see how they look.

We have 2 x x-mas trees, a bell, a stocking, a candy cane, some round 'tags', some loveheart tags, a dinosaur (for nephew), a butterfly (for niece), a snowman, 2011 made out of numbers, 2 x A's (nephew and DD1), Z & E.

So hopefully they turn out well, then i can also make some for my KK people this year and for the kids to go with the x-mas playdough i am making, can do a tag with their letter, how cute will it look :)

We're about to paint some terracotta pots to give to the kids grandad as a birthday present. Using acrylics so better get a painting smock on them!

ZF - love the idea of the saltdough ornaments. Haven't done it since my nanny-ing days, so might have to give it a go with DD.

how did it go ZF? I've been wanting too but haven't had a chance. Hopefully this coming weekend I will be able to with DD.

Turned out great, DD2 painted 1 for her manna tomorrow, would look fantastic if an adult made them with time & effort :) we will be making more :)


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excellent! so 2.5 hours in the oven? What temp did you have the oven on?

I had it at 120 fan forced, and prob went just a tiny bit over the 2.5hrs but they hardened a lot on taking them out.


Sent from my iPhone, more than likely while I should be doing something else!

Thanks ZF!

Oh my!

I just rediscovered CLAY!!!!

Lil Miss H and I just spent an hour making *stuff*!

H made a *dog-hopper* (a cross between a dog and a grasshopper!), a butterfly and a ..erm, I have no flippin idea what it was! but it is interesting hehe

As for me, I stuck with a snail to start with, and then progressed onto an Elephant! Rather proud of myself hehe

Hope you other crafty ladies are going well! xx