Christmas decorations

A friend gave the girls this material and the idea for these lovely
Christmas decorations. The girls will be giving these as gifts.

Cut squares and pin right sides together
(that's the pretty sides).

Sew around the edge but leave a gap on the TOP.

Turn the right way around. Now the stitches are hidden
and the pretty side is visible.

Stuff.

Add a ribbon and sew the top closed.

Chaps for the chaps

We had friends staying over and the older son had brought a pair of jeans with (which were too big) and asked if I would try and make chaps out of them. I gave it a try, but denim on denim was not really the look he was wanting. Brendon had two old overalls (with broken zips and lots of holes) that I suggested I use to try and create a better look. This was the result.

Very good cowboy look boys!

Giant Paper Poppy

We really enjoyed making these Giant Paper Poppy Flower Decorations. This is where we found the template and watched a video of how it's done. The video is really quick though. So I took some photos to show you some of the steps.

I decided to print the template out at half
the original size so that we only needed
two sheets of paper for each flower.

We used chopsticks to help us form the folds. This is quite
tricky for little fingers. But Ruth did a great job of
cutting her petals out. Excellent fine motor and scissor practice.

Use a glue gun to make a cup with three of the petals and then add the remaining 4 around the outside.

Add the middle and a stem and there you have it.

Decorating paper with coloured bubbles

Mix some paint powder with a small amount of water.
Add dish washing liquid.
Add enough water to fill the container about a quarter.
Mix well.
Blow to form coloured bubbles.
Quickly place your paper on top of the bubbles (quickly because they do pop).
Repeat with other colours.
The result: Lovely home made wrapping paper.

It's also fun to use just the primary colours (yellow, red and blue) and see what colours you can create with the tiny bit of mixing that happens.

Tissue Paper Flowers

Cut rectangles in the tissue paper about the size of an A4 page (cut this in half top to bottom for the smaller flowers).
Take 8 to 10 sheets (6 to 8 for the small ones).
Accordion fold.











Tie the middle with a twist tie.
Trim the edges so that they are more rounded (for the edge of the petals).



Open each side out.
Put the colour that you planned for the inside of the flower on top.














Start unfolding the paper one layer at a time. Work carefully as the paper is thin and can tear easily.
Pull the paper nicely to the middle to for a rounded shape and then continue through all layers.










You will get different effects depending on how small your folds are, how you trim the edges and how many sheets you have used.

They look lovely on the table. Stems could be added and then could be put in a vase. I threaded them onto cotton and hung them up. The girls are thrilled.

Leonardo da Vinci

This was Rachel's first lapbook that she has done completely on her own. She told me what photos she wanted and then she got them to fit on a page to print out. She decided what information she wanted to put in the book as well as choosing paper and patterns for each mini-book. Well done Rachel.

Autumn trees

We have had so much fun watching the trees change and it was great to make a poster to remind us of it.

First we used white crayon to draw some wispy clouds.

Then use blue paint for the sky (lovely for the children to magically see their previously invisible white clouds).

Use fingers for the branches. Biggest fingers first and then smaller and smaller.

Keep those fingers still when you do the print.

Lovely trees ready to be decorated.

Glue some sand on the ground and then start gluing on your leaves. Start with the green tree and work your way down, talking about how the leaves have changed and how different the trees look.

Autumn place mats

The children will love making their own place mats and perhaps a few extra to give as gifts.

Dry the leaves in a flower press for a few days to make sure they are nice and dry and flat.

Give each child a laminating pocket and show them the one side they need to put their leaves on. They can decorate it any way they like. Just try not to have too many overlapping as it gets too thick and also leave a little space around the edges.

Laminate and see their excitement at using them at the next meal.