...a paper wig

What a gloriously sunny day today.  Have you got the sun where you are?

It's been a busy time since my last post.  We've had Red Nose Day and the Wee Man's school had a funny hair day.  Loads of kids with really silly hair.  Claire's Accessories' sales must have gone through the roof.

For the Wee Man I had to have a big think about his hair.  With his allergies I've never used shampoo on his hair as it's very drying on the skin.  Surprisingly his hair is lovely and soft.

Anyway, I decided to make him a wig and found a great tutorial on Martha Stewart's website for a paper wig.  It took ages to do and I got lots of paper cuts.  But it was all worth it.  

Here's the wig.  What do you think?

...a picture frame with kids

It's been a while since I last posted.  My Mum has been visiting so obviously all my attention was diverted elsewhere.  I have been crafting a bit here and there though.

My big exciting news is that I have been invited to the Wee Man's nursery class to hold regular weekly crafting session with the kids.  Yay!  The Nursery Head, Mrs. S. and I decided that it would be best to have more "lazy" crafting sessions.  The times that I've been in have been very goal orientated.  More quantity than quality.  It was quite the norm for me to have ten children at a time crowded round the crafting table demanding my attention.  So we decided that instead of just making something, I would also be giving the kids some one on one time.  So crafting and chit chat in small groups.  I am very flattered that Mrs. S. would consider me worthy of spending quality time with her charges and I really hope I do live up to her expectations.

So what am I going to be making with the kids?  After much debate, we have settled on picture frames.  The Wee Man and I quickly mocked one up for Mrs. S. and she loved it.

I used a photo frame I have as a template and drew around it onto a sheet of corrugated card. Then used a stanley knife to cut it out and then used some scrap fabric and watered down PVA to glue it all on.  Simple and messy for kids to do, so hopefully a lot of fun.

After the kids are finished decorating their frames I'll attach the backing piece and strut (is that what they are called).  All cut from cardboard and stuck on with my hot glue gun.  I love my hot glue gun.  I'm not sure how I coped without it before.

I'm going to give the kids a choice of what to stick onto their frames.  Fabric scraps, ribbons, wallpaper, torn pictures from Kids magazines, buttons and whatever else I can find from the Scrap Store.

I'm really looking forward to the sessions and I hope the kids enjoy them as much as I know I will.  Oh and the pic in the frame is the Wee Man when he was a couple of months old.

...a blog

Well here I am at last. My very own blog. Yay! It's been a year since I started delving into the world of blogs and I've loved reading every one of them. I thought I should try my hand at it, at the very least it will be my own little diary.

So what is my blog about? Well I like making things, so let's start there. I'm a mum with one four year old son and a rather grumpy but understanding husband. My house is full of bits and pieces of crafting stuff. Lots of projects on the go or waiting to be started. Thus the grumpy husband. Why iron when there is a craft to be planned (i.e. blogs and tutorials to be read)?

Last week was a manic week. It was Chinese New Year and I volunteered at my son son's (Wee Man's) nursery to make, talk and cook all things Chinese New Year. It was a manic and thoroughly enjoyable time. We made Chinese drums, Chinese paper lanterns and Chinese red envelopes. I did a talk for them and showed them a dvd of Chinese lion dancing and my lovely son shared his Lion dance costume with all the children in the class. They were allowed to "put it on" and dance to the very loud drums and cymbals. Then a very quick dash to the school kitchen to cook up some dim sum for their snack. Phew!

The photo is of the Chinese drums the nursery children made. They were given CDs to paint red and decorate with gold bits. I then took them home and attached them onto tubes with two beads attached. I got the idea from this great site. http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/chinese_drum_craft.htm