February 24th 2016 - Halloween Preparation

YES I know it's MONTHS until Halloween 2016 BUT i'm stating preparation early, infact I started it this time last year with my spell book.

This years theme is going to be HARRY POTTER (HP)!  2/3 of my sons really like HP, me and hubby like it and it's going to be very easy to do.  During half term we went to the Harry Potter Studio tour and I took loads of photos to help with ideas. All of the people who will be invited have been pre-warned of the theme so that they have time to sort out witch/wizard outfits or a character from the HP series if they wish to.  If they want to just dress halloweeny that fine with me.

I have pieces of paper and word docs all over the place that have various ideas on - whether for decorations, outfits, props, food, games etc.  I plan to add them to here so that they are all in 1 place and I can access them (as well as helping others with ideas).  I can't claim that alll ideas are my own, nor can I remember exactly what page/site on google that I found.  IF I am able to add a link to the source I will do, but if not I thank the original person now for sharing their ideas.

I plan to post ALL ideas on here and I wont be saying which ones I am doing - I will confirm some but not all as I want them to be a supprise for my friends at the party. 

I think I will make extra posts linked to the party - 1 of food ideas, 1 of games, 1 of decorations etc, that way they will be easier to add to and easier to find.

My house has an "L" shaped lounge/dinner and part of that is the under stairs cupboard.  YES you've guessed it this is going to be "Harry's bedroom" under the stairs.  It does mean that all my "junk" that gets chucked in there will need to be moved in order to make it work.   BUT it will be sorted by halloween.  This is also going to be accessible for all of the children to go in one at a time and have a photo taken which I will print out for them to take home at end of party.  I am going to print out some book images to fix to the underside of the stairs as well as making a meter box from cardboard.  There will be toy soldiers, an air bed and cover and shoes and not forgetting "Hedwig" the owl in a cage and dustpan and brush on the door.

Hedwig is a soft toy owl that came from £1 shop, however, its more grey than white so I am going to keep looking for a more white one.


My spell book that I started last year is now in it's final stages.  From my original idea of printing the pages and sticking them to pages in an old book didn't work as the printed pages were the same size as pages and made the book too thick to close, so I have used a make your own book website and had the spells professionally printed.  This is going to be fixed (somehow) into the original cover I made.  Watch this space!!!  I also made a second book of Witches food and meals (not that I would want to eat them) but this has been printed as well.

December 21st 2015 - junk modelling

my lil man loves nothing more than being able to make junk models from empty tubes, boxes and tape. 

We have been trying to stop him making anymore before christmas as 1. we have tidied things away and 2. so that he has extra boxes n tubes to go with the big box of odds n sods my sister has collected and bought him for christmas.

Well I had to nip out today and when I come home he was running around with a 2ft junk model space ship that he had made!  He was so proud bless him, and it does look good.

November 30th 2015 - Christmas gift box

I have spent today playing about with bits of paper and cardboard trying to make christmas gift boxes for my SJA cadets to make on wednesday night.

I did have a tree shaped box that I planned to use but when I printed them and tried to make 1 it didn't stand up so the template shape is wrong.  So I had to look for a replacement.  The replacement works ok and I have printed them off ready.

Each box will have a couple of sweets placed inside them.

November 25th 2015 - Christmas Crafts

 I was at the school for family learning today and we were doing Christmas Crafts and making things that could be given as gifts.

There was loads of options for them to do.  They had the option of making tree decorations from sewing kits, making christmas pictures, and many more.

Lil man made a reindeer from brown paper and added magic reindeer food to it and needs to sprinkle it on christmas eve.

The middle one made a christmas bauble but as this was still very wet it got left at school to dry and 1 of the teachers will give them out later.

Lil man decorated a mini treasure chest and said that him and Daddy are going shopping for a diamond ring me to go in it.

They both  made snowman countdowns to christmas.  This confused lil man as he thought it was from today and didnt realise it was from dec 1st, but we explained he was fine.

The boys also decorated cakes as melted snowmen but these got eaten.

We also made candy cane star decorations which involved a hot glue gun to fix them together and to fix the decorations onto them.

november 24th 2015 - jazzing up xmas jumpers

A couple of weeks ago I bought the kids xmas jumpers and although they have designs on them they are very plain and boring!  So I asked the kids if they wanted them made better and they did.  So today has been spent jazzing up the jumpers

Here are the 2 original jumpers:

 

To modify the 1st 1 lil man asked for a santa hat to be added, so I took 1 small santa hat, stitched it together and then to his jumper.

Lil man thinks his jumper looks good and is now ready for xmas jumper day.

The middle ones jumper wasn't such an easy task, well it was but it just took longer to do as I had to wait for bits to dry.  He wanted the baubles on the reindeer to look more 3d, I did think pompoms but it didn't look right so I decided on bells!  

I only had gold effect bells and they didn't look right so I set about painting them with blue nail varnish:

They had to have 2 coats and I was only able to paint the tops and then the bottoms each time because of placing them down to dry.  Once both coats and all of the bells were done I set about attaching them to his jumper with black thread in the same place as the sewn on ones are on his jumper.

so now when he moves he jingles.  He did ask about them going on the back as well as it's the back of the reindeer but we decided not to as they may dig into his back when he's sat on a chair at school.  Again he is happy with his jumper.

November 22nd 2015 - toilet roll yule log

 I'm sure by now you are aware that my lil man loves making things, and especially likes using toilet rolls.  Today he came downstairs with 2 toilet rolls and asked what he could make.  He was told to wait 5mins as I was helping his older brother with something but I had an idea for a Christmas craft with them.

5mins later, we are working on making pages to print out and collecting our supplies to make the toilet roll yule log.  To make it you will need the following things:

toilet roll tube
double sided tape
pictures of holly (or plastic holly)
birchwood effect printed paper (if you do the whole of an A4 sheet it will cover 2 tubes)
fake snow (optional)
glue (optional but needed for snow)
robin
paper plate
stapler
scissors

supplies and printed birchwood paper and holly.











Cut the paper in half so you have 2 pieces.  place a line of tape from 1 end to the other on the tube.  put 1 piece of the paper over the tape and wrap all the way round (you may need to cut it slightly smaller).  Make sure both ends are fixed with tape on the tube, you shouldn't be able to see anyvof the brown tube now.  If your paper is longer than the tube you can tuck the excess into the open ends of the tubes.

Take the stapler, the wrapped tube and the paper plate, fix the tube to the plate with the stapler on the middle of the tube so they are no visible from the top.

You next to cut to out the holly.  we flipped our picture b4 printing so that we could double side it but you dont have to.  As ours is double sided I taped them together before we cut them out so only cut once.   Lil man folded our leaves slightly so they had shape rather than looking flat.  We then putt a small piece of tape on the underside of the berries and stuck to the middle of the tube.  This was then stapled as they kept falling off with tape.

Sadly this was as far as we got as we realised we didn't have any robins to fix  into the middle and we cant add fake snow until we have the robbins in place.  I have ordered some robins and they should be here in the next few days.

November 18th 2015 - Snowman card

As there is only a few weeks until Christmas we are doing Christmas crafts at St John Ambulance for all the youth members as part of their craft badges.

Tonight the Badgers made Snowman Christmas Cards like the link shows.  I had made them all scarves from plaited wool, cut out triangle noses from orange paper, added  googly eyes to the bag along with plain white card.  I showed them the card I had made and left them to do them how they wanted.

Some added christmas tape others added buttons etc.  They all looked really good and i'm sure whoever they were written to will love them.

October 23rd 2015 - Halloween day at school

As today is the last day of term the school allow the children to go dressed up in Halloween outfits and they have a day of fun as wel as some work.

This year my middle son (eldest of the 2 at the school) wanted to go as a Skeleton Pirate, and this is what we did for him:

This  was very easy to sort as all 3 boys have pirate outfits and we had  2 skeletons outfits so it was just a case of mix and match of what fitted him best.  He had to have a mask as he is allergic to face paints.  Apart from fact skeleton legs bit short he looks really good.

My youngest  son found a pair of monster feet in a charity shop and said that he was going to wear them and go as a monster for Halloween at school.  Meet the feet:

The only problem we faced now was he had no monster outfit.  "Not a problem you can make me one mummy" says son!  Hahaha!

Well I hunted ebay and found a cute fluffy dog onesie that was similar colours to the feet, and thought I could alter it (see post).  It altered really well and here is lil man dressed as a monster ready to go to school:

I think he looks really cool.  I'm not sure the school are going to be happy as the monster feet make monster noises as he walks!!! lol.

Hope they both have a good day.

October 19th 2015 - purse

I have a small purse that is pocket size and great.  But I wanted another couple and was struggling to find them online at a sensible price.

So I took out the material box and some old clothes that were going to charity shops with zips in and set about making a new purse.

I have never stitched in zips to  things before, so the first of the purses I cheated and used the material that was already around the zip in the trousers and cut and stitched to the size I was after.  I over stitched the end of the zip and then coated it in superglue so that it should hold. (green in pic).

For the 2nd purse I half cheated as had a pocket that had been cut from an old pair of jeans, it still had the outer part of the jeans as well as the denim lining so all I had to do was attach the zip.  It took 2 attempts to get it in right but it worked.

Now you may be wondering why I would want multiple purses if I already have a good/nice one. Well as i'm off to London in a couple of weeks I don't want to keep all my money in 1 purse together incase it gets stolen.  At least if I have a couple of purses I can split my money and where they are on my person = less likely to loose all of it.

October 17th 2015 - paper book folding

I have spent today again trying to come up with easy crafts that are suitable for both boys and girls for my St John Cadets to do that are not the "normal" cut and stick kiddie crafts.

I have a pile of books upstairs that are going to the charity shop, so I decided to try and make a paper book folding christmas tree.  Looks easy enough so I had a go.

The insctructions I found were in German so I had to hunt for some in English asn translation didn't make sense.

Anyway, take a book and remove the cover and take out about 60pages leaving the glue on the spine, the more pages you use the thicker the finished tree will be but it will take longer to do:

From here you need to start folding pages like you would to make a paper airplane!  Make sure you have the spine to the left when you start as its easier.  Take the top right corner and fold down to the spine and crease so its a sharp fold (I use and old store card):

Then you need to take the section and fold onto itself so that you get a thin point at the top and airplane shape, again crease so its a sharp fold:

You will notice that the bottom of the folded page sticks out below the bottom of the book, this also need folding.  If you bend it down over the rest of the book you will get a fold mark, using this tuck the bottom bit upwards so that it is hidden under the 2nd fold:

Keep folding the rest of the pages in the above way (it is time consuming but worth it):

Then once you have folded all the pages you will need to staple the 1st and last pages together to make it as a cone shape and it will look like this:

It is now upto you if you decorate it or leave it plain.  I am going to add a glitter paint to the folded part of each page that makes the tree and add some sparkly stars and a pom pom to the top.

please make sure if doing with children that the books are suitable incase they decide to read any of the pages!  I had planned to use the books that I have upstairs for charity shop but as I made this 1 I realised they are NOT suitable and will still be going to charity shop, so I will be going to buy some more suitable ones (maybe from the kids/teens section).

October 16th 2015 - Christmas Candy Sleighs

I know it is only October and we haven't got as far as Halloween BUT I needed to sort out some craft activities for St John Ambulance including 1 week where they are in uniform which means no paint, glitter or glue or anything that would make a mess.   Yea not the easiest of tasks in the world!

Then I remembered the Christmas Candy Sleighs I made for the boys teachers 2 Christmas's ago - they were very easy to make and used double sided tape.

These were the ones I made for the teachers.  They look pretty good and the teachers liked them.

Que me going shopping for sweets and chocolate to make them.  £19.81 later I have everything I need to make a new demo version and enough sweets for 19 children to make sleighs - that work out at £1 per child - when you put it that way you cant really complain especially as 4 bar kit kats are 79p each in my local shop.  The sweets were from b&m, home bargains and poundland, all in multi-packs.

Take 1 huge pile of sweets:

And  split them to what you need - 1 kit kat, 2 twix bars, 2 maoam blocks, 1 orange segment, 1 choc santa and 2 candy canes:

And you are almost ready to make the sleighs.  You also need 2 pieces of christmas ribbon and either double sided tape or sticky glue dots.

Step 1. Take out your kit kat and 2 twix bars.  Place the Kit kat right way up on the table.  Take 1 of the twix bars and a glue dot to each end on the back, then push down onto the back of your kit kat.  Do the same for 2nd twix and stick infront of the 1st one. You can add a sticky dot between the 2 twix bars to keep them together.

 

Step 2. Place kit kat on the table.  Take 1 of your 2 maoam bars, add a glue dot to each end of it on the back and stick on top of the twix bars.  Do this for the 2nd maoam as well.  You can add a glue dot between the 2 so they stay together. 

 

Step 3.  Place your kit kat on the table.  Take your orange segment and put a glue dot on each end on the base.  Stick this at the back on top of the maoam blocks. 

 

Step 4.  Take your Santa and place a glue dot on the base and 1 on the back about half way up.  Place Santa infront of the bars on the kit kat. 

Step 5.  Take 1 of the candy canes, put a glue dot on the top near the straight end, a glue dot in the middle and a glue dot near the curve.  Stick this to one side of the base of the kit kat.  Do the same for the other candy cane.  The curves need to be at the front near Santa. 

Step 6.  Take 1 piece of the Christmas ribbon.  Place a glue dot in the middle of the kit kat on the base and place the middle of the ribbon on it.  Take the ends up and over the sweet “parcels” and fix with a glue dot on the top.

 

Step 7. Take the other piece of the Christmas ribbon, tie both ends of the ribbon together in a knot.  Place a glue dot just infront of Santa and fix the knotted it to it (leave the knot to flap about like reins).  Take the rest of the ribbon under the front of the sleigh, stick to the glue dot from 1st ribbon if possible and bring up the back of the sweet “parcels” and fix on the glue dot on the top.

 

You now have a sleigh with reins. 

Some websites say to make these with hot glue or super glue - i dont reccommend this as the glue melts the plastic wrappers of the sweets and ends up touching the sweets making them un-eatable.  Therefore it is safer (especially if being done with children) to use double sided tape of sticky glue dots.

October 12th 2015 - Frankenstein repair kit

Following on from previous Halloween posts and apothecary bottles I have spent today making a Frankenstein repair kit.  

This has to be one of the easiest apothecary bottles you can make.  You need the following items:

An empty spice bottle.

An assortment of screws, nails, bolts, pieces of wire, springs etc.

Combine them together and seal the lid to itself and then to the jar with a strong glue like UHU.  Allow to dry.  Then you can add a label that says:

And you  have your finished frankenstein repair kit in a bottle ready to add to your apothecary shelf.

October 5th 2015 - tshirt 2 pillow

October 5th 2015 - tshirt 2 pillow

Last year myself and a friend in USA did a christmas gift swap based on Elves.  It was great.  We decided that we would do it again for this year.   Just after christmas last year I picked up a baby tshirt that said "I Elves they have magical powers".  My friend doesn't have a baby so this may seem like a strange thing to buy for her.  However, I had plans for the tshirt.  And that plan was to turn the tshirt into a pillow.

I started off  by cutting the long sleeves to just below the arm holes (as you don't need long sleeeves or extra pieces of material as they will just get in the way.)  I then stitched up the arm holes and along the base of the tshirt:

 I then started to stuff the tshirt via the head hole and pushed it down into the tshirt.  The stuffing is from a quilt I bought for this type of craft.  Its cheaper to buy new quilts and rip the stuffing out of than it is to buy bags of toy stuffing which is exactly the same thing!  Once it was fully stuffed I stitched up the head hole.

And have a finished pillow.

I forgot to take pics as I was working hence why its all a stuffed pillow.  I think it's nice and i'm sure my friend will as she is Elf mad!

October 4th 2015 - toilet roll mummy

October 4th 2015 - toilet roll mummy

Lil man was wanting to do some crafts today, so as its near Halloween we decided that we would do Halloween crafts.

We have made some toilet roll mummies from a bandage and googly eyes.  It has kept little man amused for while.

October 3rd 2015 - pot o gold

October 3rd 2015 - Pot o gold

Today I have finally finished the leprechauns house for the fairy garden and started to varnish it.  Tomorrow I will varnish the bottom and then it is ready to go outside.  Lil man asked if I could make him a pot of gold to go with it.  This pin gave me the idea. 

Instead of using a bottle I used a small plastic medicine tub:

I took off the lid and cut the tub abit shorter with a sharp knife.  From here I coated the inside in a grey nail varnish and left to dry.  I then coated the outside in a dark blue and silver nail varnish and left to dry.

 I filled the inside of the tub 3/4 of the way up with clear silicone and then started to place gold pirate coins into it, I also put more silicone around the coins so it should be waterproof.  I did place a few more coins than are in the photo.

It is now sitting drying ready to go outside tomorrow with the house and leprechauns.

September 30th 2015 - Spell book

September 30th 2015 - Spell book

Going back to the beginning of the year I started to make a Spell book from some of the spells on this board.  It has taken ages to get sorted as I have typed up all the spells I want to use, had to make sure they were all the same colour and fonts and all had the page logo on.  I bought cream paper to print them on and hhad to wait until I had ink to actually dothem.

I spent a long time today printing the pages, some duplicated, some printed in a pinky colour not brown so I had to re-do them.  I am happy to say that my spells are now printed for the book.  I just need to glue the pages to the book that I made.

This is just 1 page before it was printed on cream paper but it gives you an idea of what I have done.

September 29th 2015 - Wizard Wand

September 29th Wizard Wand

Lil man has 2 outfits for halloween this year - his monster for school and a lovely blue wizard outfit (that I made better by adding star ribbon to).  The only thing the outfit was missing was a wand.  I had saved this pin to my Harry Potter party board ready for next year as I planned to make them for the party.

Well this has been the trial run of it - lil man wanted a blue wand with silver bits on the handle!  I didn't have any chopsticks like the pin says BUT I did have a huge hedge in the garden that has been cut down!  This emans I have loads of branches so we went out and found 1 that he liked.  We cut all the sticky out bits off, pealed the bark off it and allowed to dry for a few days.

Yesterday I started to make patterns on the handle end with  UHU glue as I couldn't find my hot glue sticks (I think they will work better and dry quicker), I did 3 layers in total building up  on the layer below so it was raised.  Again the wand was left to dry over night.  And today (after a trip to town to get the right colour blue sparkly nail varnish for it) I started to cover the wand in nail varnish.  It had to have 2 coats as 1 went patchy and wasn't as dark as me or lil wanted.  Once the blue was dry I had to go on a hunt for a thin paint brush, this was a task in itself as the kitten had knocked the tub of brushes off the windowsill and then batted them around as toys - I found 1 near the dvd shelves and cut some of the bristles so it was smaller still.  I then used a silver sparkle nail varnish to go over the raised glue on the handle, this took 2 coats as well so it was really bright and shiny. 

Lil man is really pleased with his 1-of-a-kind wand that goes with his outfit.  I just hope it still fits him for Harry Potter next year.  This was really easy to do and I will be doing 1 for all the kids for next year and maybe the adults (may not use my hedge but bamboo skewers or similar) and if  I have enough time I will make and extra load and attach a small bag of sweets to for the trick or treaters.