crafts/games

• recycling crafts (1)

articles

• Playdough recipe
• Craft of week : Edible painted egg
• Colouring Easter eggs with natural colourants
• Craft of week: Eggshell Mosaic
• Craft of Week: Marbled Eggs
• Crafts this week – Quilling & Marble Painting
• Craft of the Week: Diary Decoupage
• Craft of the week: Fashionista Fun!
• Craft of the week: blooming flower pots
• Craft of the Week-Tissue Paper Painting and Card Making
• Spring in the garden with kids
• Recycling idea with a plastic bottle cap
• Mandela Day in Orange Farm
• Week 4 : Making fun out of nothing with Nikki Bush
• Week 3 : Making fun out of nothing with Nikki Bush
• Week 2 : Making fun out of nothing with Nikki Bush
• Week 1 : Making fun out of nothing with Nikki Bush
• 20 recommended games to play with your kids
• Made in SA games for kids
• Lets make makarapas for the soccer World Cup!
• The family that plays together stays together!
• Make a mess and laugh a lot

supplied by Merle Dieterich, passionate mom and businesswoman whose 2 beautiful children, Lerato and Marvin never cease to amaze and teach her about what counts. You’ll find her at  jozikids.co.za

This is a recipe that was given to me many years ago by a Montessori school teacher and works fabulously. If stored  in an air tight container or in a plastic bag in the fridge it can last up to 3 months. Its also a great activity your kids can get involved in. I started making it when my kids were about 2yrs old and still make it now and then for my 13 yr old!

Here goes:

Ingredients:

1 cup salt
2 cups flour
4 tsps cream of tartar
2 tbl oil
2 cups water
flour
food colouring

The finished product is glorious to touch and play with. You’ll find it hard to resist!

by Erin Ismay, art lover and creative enthusiast, venturing into the world of business running art and craft parties for kids,  loves travel, photography and spending time with her hubby! She’s also the owner of  pop art parties

This is my favourite Easter activity from when I was a child. We did this every year as a family and then would exchange our painted eggs on Easter day! The best part is that they are edible!

You will need:
White candy coated chocolate Easter eggs
Food colouring
Paint brush or cotton buds
Water
Paper towel
Containers for food colouring

Step 1:
Put some food colouring in small containers. You can dilute the colour with water to make it lighter, but be sure not to take too much diluted colouring onto your brush as if its too watery it will run. Otherwise use the colour as is undiluted. For younger kids, use cotton buds to paint with as they soak up extra water. For older kids who want to be more precise in their designs, use a thin brush.

Step 2
You can either hold your egg with your fingers and paint it, or set it in an egg holder and do the top half and then bottom. You can be as creative as you want to do whatever designs come into your head. At the end you should have some beautiful eggs that you can eat later! Enjoy!

by Minette Tonoli, mom to 2 gorgeous girls  (4 + 9mnths), passionate homeschooler and herb lover. Owner of herbs on line

All things sweet these days are saturated with artificial flavourants and colourants, and all the brightly coloured Easter egg candy on display is probably not any different. For something a little different, when making and colouring your own eggs, try using natural colourants – you’ll be surprised to find that many herbs and spices and other foodstuffs you might have handy can give quite surprising colour tints to your boiled Easter eggs. Here is what you do for a quick Easter egg colouring craft.

Instructions ( see colouring options below)

1.       Put your eggs in a fairly large pot – it should be large enough for four eggs to boil without touching or stacking.
-Fun idea – why not draw on your eggs with wax crayon or candles before you colour them – the colouring will not adhere to the wax and your design will show off after the eggs have been coloured. Or tie rubber bands around your eggs to have them look “tie-dyed” after colouring.

2.       Fill the pan with water enough to cover the eggs by about 1cm

3.       Add 2 tsp of white vinegar to the water

4.       Add your dye colour (see ideas below).

-Note that it may take quite a bit of dye material to get vivid colours, e.g. 2tbsp of Turmeric, 2 cups of onion skins, ¼ cup hibiscus flowers etc. It could be great fun having the kids experiment with different amounts of dye material to see the effects.

5. Boil your mixture and reduce to simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes

6. Remove the eggs with a strainer onto a bowl covered with towel (or I simply used the egg carton they came in) and let dry

7. If at this point you don’t think your eggs are coloured enough, you can add them back to your colouring liquid and leave overnight.

8. As a final touch, if you wish, gently rub cooking oil over your eggs to give them a shinier look

Colouring options

Red/Pink – Fresh beets, canned/frozen cherries
Orange – Yellow onion skins / Paprika
Light yellow – Lemon peels / Orange peels / Ground cumin spice / Chamomile tea
Golden yellow – Ground Turmeric
Blue – Red Cabbage Leaves (preboiled for about 30 minutes) / Blueberries (crushed)
Purple – Grape juice
Brown/Beige – Strong coffee / Black tea / Black walnuts shells
Golden brown – Dill seeds
Orange brown – Chili powder
Light green – Spinach leaves (boiled)
Violet / purple – Violet blossoms / Hibiscus tea / Red wine

**Pictured eggs made with Turmeric (gold) and variety of effects with Hibiscus tea (blue/purple)

by Erin Ismay, art lover and creative enthusiast, venturing into the world of business running art and craft parties for kids,  loves travel, photography and spending time with her hubby! She’s also the owner of  pop art parties

In the spirit of Easter and ‘easter eggs’ this is a great activity to do using recycled egg shells to create a lovely mosaic. Mosaics are so popular right now but can be an expensive activity. This is a less expensive take on doing a mosaic type picture.

You will need

Clean broken eggshells
Food Colouring
Vinegar
Paper towel
Craft Glue
Plastic containers
Paintbrush
Paper for picture (can be any colour)

Step 1:

Mix your different colours using a drop of food colouring, fill with warm water and a dash of vinegar to set colour,

Step 2:

Put some broken eggshells into the food colouring and let soak for about 10 minutes.
Then take out and dry on paper towel.

Step 3:

Once you have your colourful eggshells all dry you are ready to start your artwork. Decide what picture you want to make. Then dip your paintbrush into some glue and do the outline of the picture in glue and then you can start sticking the eggshells onto the glue.

At the end you will have a beautiful artwork!

by Erin Ismay, art lover and creative enthusiast, venturing into the world of business running art and craft parties for kids,  loves travel, photography and spending time with her hubby! She’s also the owner of  pop art parties

It’s already April, the month of holidays and Easter time. Whather you celebrate Easter or not, you can still join in the fun of decorating Easter eggs as they are a beautiful activity anytime of the year.  This is a really simple and cheap activity to do at home with the kids. You can even teach them how to mix different colours with the food colouring.

You will need:

Cooking oil
Vinegar
Water
Food colouring
Paper towel/serviettes
Some containers like cups or small dishes
Some spoons
Eggs (if you can find white shelled eggs they will show colour up best!)

Step 1

You can either use the eggs raw, otherwise it would be best to hard boil them first before you start.
Mix 1 Tbsp cooking oil with 1 Tbsp vinegar into your dish, then add a few drops of food colouring and top up with water.

Step 2

Dip your egg into the mixture and swirl around, you will see the colour start to stick to the egg in different places creating a marbled effect.

Step 3

Take the egg out and pat dry with paper towel. Then you can dip the same egg into another colour and see how the colours marble together. You can do this with as many colours as you like on the same egg.

Make a few eggs each as you experiment with the different colours and see what effect you get!

supplied by Melanie Bosman, mother of 2 under 10 year olds, a chartered accountant who has ventured into the world of publishing. Wrote and published Mom’s Big Book of things to do and a series of semi-educational children’s stories

SIMPLE QUILLING

Quilling is a technique by which you use tiny rolled up pieces of paper to create a picture or design.

What you need:

What you do:

Cut a rectangle, about the size of a postcard, from the paper. Lay the pencil along one edge and roll the paper around it. Use a few drops of craft glue to hold the paper in place at the end. Pull the pencil out of the paper. Cut the rolled paper into slices of about 5-10 mm each. The paper will get slightly flattened by the scissors, so gently squash it back into circles.

Use another piece of paper to cut out a shape that you want to decorate. This can be, for example, a heart, a flower or a tree. Squirt a bit of glue into a flat container. Dip the bottom of each quill into the glue and press it onto the shape. Repeat until your design is complete.

MARBLE PAINTING

Create a lovely effect by using paint and a marble.

What you need:

Large flat container with an edge, such as a serving tray or baking tray (it’s ideal to use an old tray but if you don’t have one, first cover the tray with cling wrap)

What you do:

Place the sheet of paper in the middle of the tray. Secure it with small pieces of adhesive tape on each corner.

Pour paint into a container. Drop the marble in the paint and swirl it around until it is totally covered with paint. Drop the marble from the container into the corner of the tray. Lift the tray up with both hands and start tilting it in every direction so that the marble runs over the paper. You will see that the first lines are dark and then fade as the paint comes off the marble. Repeat this until you have the desired effect.

Clean the marble and repeat with another colour. When the paint is dry, carefully remove the adhesive tape and the paper from the tray

Both crafts above were published courtesy of Mom’s Big Book of Things to Do by Melanie Bosman, R110 including postage. Contact Melanie on melbosman@mweb.co.za to place your orders.

by Erin Ismay, art lover and creative enthusiast, venturing into the world of business running art and craft parties for kids,  loves travel, photography and spending time with her hubby! She’s also the owner of  pop art parties

Making a personalised diary or notebook is lots of fun and allows kids to express themselves through choosing pictures, colours and words that represent their interests and passions. Encourage them to find images that are inspiring and uplifting and that tell the world who they are.

You will need:

A5 hard cover notebook or any preferred size

Magazines, wrapping paper etc to find images in

Modge Podge glue or mix equal parts wood glue with water

Scissors

Paint brush

Step 1: Find some pictures and words that you would like to use and start planning where you want to place them on your cover. You can do the front and the back if you like.

Step 2: Start sticking down larger images first to give you a background and then stick smaller pieces on top. You can use the modge podge to stick down all images etc.

Step 3: Once your collage of images is all stuck down you can paint modge podge over the entire cover. Leave to dry and then paint another layer on top. You can do quite a few layers and once completely dry it will have a glazed look over your images.

by Erin Ismay, art lover and creative enthusiast, venturing into the world of business running art and craft parties for kids,  loves travel, photography and spending time with her hubby! She’s also the owner of  pop art parties

I know this is something the little fashionistas out there will just LOVE! This is also a great idea for a fashion themed birthday party! You can really let your creativity and individuality go wild with this one and it’s just so cute! You could start your own fashion diary or file.

You will need:

A few A4 print outs of this template (insert link to picture template)
Any scraps of wrapping paper, material, paper, glitter, embellishments etc
Glue
Scissors
Pencil
Glitter glue (optional but great for some added bling)

Step 1:

Cut out one figure that you can use as your template when designing clothes to get the right shapes.

To print – right click on template, select save image, save and print

Step 2:

Use the template to trace out the shape of the outfit you want onto the paper/material that you are using and then you can easily cut it out.

Step 3:

Glue down your clothes and add whatever you want such as glitter glue, beads and sequins. You can go as wild as you like with your outfits and colour in features of the figure. The options are endless.

For a party you could get the girls to do 3 categories of design such as casual wear, party wear and formal wear as shown above. Then they can have a competition to see who did the best design of each category! How fun!

by Erin Ismay, art lover and creative enthusiast, venturing into the world of business running art and craft parties for kids,  loves travel, photography and spending time with her hubby! She’s also the owner of  pop art parties

This is a lovely way of teaching your kids a bit about gardening and also allowing them to be creative and decorate their own pot plants. Hopefully this will help them take responsibility and pride in the care of their little plants. So take a trip to the nursery and have some fun together choosing some herbs or little flowers that they can plant and grow.

You will need

Small terra cotta pot
Potting soil
Herbs/flowers for planting
School blackboard paint (available Hardware store or Art Supply shop)
Colourful chalk
Newspaper
Paintbrush
Turpentine for cleaning brushes and hands.

If you would like to split this project over two events then first do the décor of the pot plant holders and on another occasion go to the nursery to get some plants etc.

Step 1:

Make sure the pots are clean and dry. Put down some newspaper and set the pot upside down. Make sure you stir the blackboard paint first. Start painting the pot and once complete, leave to dry. You may need to add an extra coat if it has not covered the surface fully.

Step 2:

Once dry you can turn over and paint the inside rim. This way the pot won’t stick to the newspaper!

Step 3:

Once completely dry the fun begins! Kids can draw and decorate their pot and write their names on it or the name of the herb they are planting etc. The best part is that if they don’t like their design they can wipe it off and start again!

You can plant your herbs/flowers after this. This also makes a great gift to give to friends or grandparents! Tie a ribbon around the pot and voila you have the perfect handcrafted gift!

Tips:

School blackboard paint can be pricey so here are a few other ideas for what to do with the paint.

Make a blackboard for your child to draw on by painting it on a piece of masonite board.

If you are really brave you could even paint one wall in your child’s bedroom for them to draw on with chalk!

by Erin Ismay, art lover and creative enthusiast, venturing into the world of business running art and craft parties for kids,  loves travel, photography and spending time with her hubby! She’s also the owner of  pop art parties

I know how anxious moms can get when their kids are at home over holidays or weekends and they have run out of options to keep their kids entertained!  Doing something arty is such a wonderful way to keep children entertained, whilst also stimulating their brains and creativity! You can also join in the fun if you wish!

Tissue Paper Painting is so much fun to do and your kids will love watching the colours bleed into each other as you go!

Here is what you will need.

A few sheets of white tissue paper
Any water based paints like powder or acrylic
A flat surface preferably covered with newspaper or plastic table cloth
Water and container
Large soft paintbrush or sponge brush
Scissors
Glue
A4 sheets of paper preferably 140gsm thick.
A container to mix your paint in, I used an ice cube tray, otherwise use a palette if you have one.

Step 1: choose the colours you would like to use and put a small amount of paint into the container, add a few drops of water making the paint very runny.

Step 2: Lay out your tissue paper with shiny side facing up, now you can start dabbing paint onto the tissue paper being careful to be gentle otherwise the tissue paper will tear, you can even dip your brush in water to drop water onto the paint to get a bleeding effect. As you add on more colours you will see how they bleed into each other creating a beautiful marbled effect.

Step 3: Once you have finished painting your whole sheet of tissue paper, leave it to dry. If you are working outside, be careful to secure the tissue paper down as it will easily blow away and then tear and stick together. Once it is dry it will be quite firm.

Step 4: Now that you have your own beautiful colourful creation of tissue paper you can use it to make some lovely cards. This will keep the kids busy! They can cut out/trace shapes to cut out from the tissue paper and stick them onto the card paper and make personalised cards for friends and family!