August 22nd 2015 - toilet roll owl

August 22nd 2015 - toilet roll owl

Lil man had seen this toilet roll owl on pinterest and asked if we could make 1.  I agreed.  Well his owl is different to the pic as he had been and collected scraps of brown and white material and googly eyes and that is what we used.

The brown material offcuts were shaped like triangles of sort but he said they were going to be the wings.  So They were double sided taped to the toilet roll tube.  The white pieces were originally a cover of a new pillow and were going to be used as marshmallows for day camp but I had cut too many.  So the big squares were cut into 4 to use as feathers, these were double sided taped to the toilet roll overlaping each other.

He then stick his googly eyes and a triangle of orange to the front and a few small bits of brown as the tufts out of the top of the owls head.  It looks really good and he said its for Nanny!

June 30th 2015 - Making an Indoor campfire

June 30th 2015 - Making an Indoor campfire

We are hoping to run a day camp during the summer holidays for St John Ambulance, but as it will be in a building we can't have a real fire.  So whilst I was looking for camp ideas over the past few weeks I found this very basic indoor campfire.  Although it would work I set about how I could make a better one.

I knew I had brown curtains (think 1970's and your on the right lines) in the airing cupboard that had previously been used on the doors (they are now nice teal colour that matches walls).  So I went and got 1 and started cutting rectangles (as you do) without a template or plan or exactly what I was doing.  I then stitched them as tubes and at 1 end, stuffed them with an old pillow and made logs and twigs.  And I came up with these:

 They will make the twigs and logs for my campfire.

I had some red organza in  my material box left over from last years pirate party and thought I could use i as part of the flames, but would need yellow and orange as well - I ordered some chair ribbons like you have at weddings in 2 shades of orange and a bright yellow.  I was now ready to make my flames!  The next pic shows the oranges and yellow but not red:

The chair ribbons were a nice width to use as flames and the bonus was the edges had been hemmed so they were less likely to fray.  I cut across the organza in about 2.5-3" pieces, 1 of each of the 4 colours:

I stitched them together with the red at bottom, dark orange next, light orange and then yellow at top and cut the yellow to look like flames.  See pic below:

Once they were stitched together and the flame shape cut I started to add thin wire to them so that the flames would stay upright rather than just fall over.  I stitched the bottom of the red to the thinner of the logs/twigs I had made - 2 per log 1 each side.  All of the flames are different as they haven't been measured i've just cut and stitched and the same with the yellow flame shapes i've just cut.  But I think this adds to the effect.  Here is 1 log with flames on it:

I've not quite finished it all, but I think it looks really good and i'm pleased with how its turned out.  I have fake t-light candles (battery operated) that are an orange colour and flicker, i'm looking for some white flickering ones as well and these are all going amongst the logs so it looks like the fire is flickering.

June 24th 2015 - Dying

June 24th 2015 - Dying

Not me,i'm fine apart from hayfever which the meds are doing nothing for. I'm dying fabric, well clothes and tea towels.

I bought a pair of 3/4 trousers off ebay, they were a lilac with deep pink stripe and slightly faded in places -

I had 3 pairs of white trainer socks in my drawer (came as part of pack with black ones).  I've not worn white socks since I was at school and that was for PE!  So they have been sat in the drawer not doing much.  I also have about 5 t-towels that were white with purple but now look a pale grey with lilac so I have chucked them all in the machine with the dylon violet dye.  Fingers ccrossed they all take and look as good as my blue curtains did a few months ago when I dyed them.

Pirate party revisited

2years ago my eldest son had a pirate and princess party, it went well considering it was at very short notice.  I got some banners printed on plastic of both pirate images and princess,

 

as well as a "pin the patch on the pirate game" and a "pin the crown on the princess game".  I made a pirate ship in about 2hours from cardboard boxes, brown paper, tape, glue and lego.

A friend printed out edible cake toppers for the main cake and small fairy cakes.

And as we already had disco lights we had a disco, and did normal party games.


WELL......My 4year old came home from school last week and told me that he had invited his teacher and TA and some of his friends round to our house for his pirate birthday party!  Luckily I still have all the plastic banners I had printed, I still have the template for the invite and the cake toppers, sadly the ship got broken when we moved house, but I can make a new one. 

However, as I have until August for lil mans birthday I plan to do things better this time round.  I wont be hiring a hall but having it at home, I have gazebos and plan to get another 1 (or 2) before his birthday.  I started hunting the net for pirate things and ideas and made a board on pinterest so that I could keep them all in one place.  I found a lovely banner but it was £15 for a 3ft length which will work out very expensive, so I decided to buy some long dresses and skirts off ebay in red/white/black stripes/spots/stars/patterns/skulls and plan to make my own once they all arrive by cutting strips of material and tying or stitching to rope.

some of the materials I have bought

My son then asked IF I could turn his wooden army fort into a pirate ship!!!  I know i'm good at crafts etc BUT this could prove hard.  But after a few hours thought I came up with a plan.  1.We pull the army netting back over the roof.  2.We use the spare wooden bits from where it was raised to make a triangle and place it against the side of the fort to look like the front of the ship.  3.We make an anchor and chain (see below) and lean against the front of the point.  4.We add a wheel to the inside (somehow) and 5.Maybe add a sheet as a flag, (again somehow).

The anchor and chain, now i'm really pleased with this as I wasnt sure HOW to do it, or even if it could be done as I don't want anything heavy that could hurt children or pets.  So I drew an anchor shape on cardboard, I cut it out and then scrunched up paper and masking taped it to the anchor on one side only so that it had a 3D image.  From here I added paper marche to it over 3 layers, letting each layer dry for 24hrs before doing the next one.  I then painted it with a mix of silver, orange and black acrylic paint (it still needs another coat of paint in pic).

 

 For the chain I used small paper plates.  I cut the ribbed outer edge off the plate, leaving a solid circle, I then cut the middle from this which is what I made the larger links from, and again cut a smaller ring from the solid center small circle, this made the small links.  They were linked together by cutting a slit in 1 ring and then masking tape it closed once the other rings were linked.  I then did the same on the chains as I did for the anchor by screwing up balls of paper and masking tape them onto one side and then paper marching it.  I will be painting the chains and adding to the anchor (will add photo at a later date.


I have also sat and trawled the net for food and games.

GAMES/IDEAS TO DO -

Buried treasure - each child can dig in the sand pit for: 2x necklaces, 1x ring, 2x gems, 10x coins,, 5 gold rocks (plastic jewellery & gems bought, rocks from beach painted gold and varnished)

Walk the plank - raised piece of wood over either a small paddling pool with water in or blue sheet on grass, toy crocodiles in it.

Pin the patch on the pirate game - picture of pirate and some sort of patch to stick on it, closet to where his eye is wins.

Hoop toss over a sword or hook - who can throw the most hoops onto a sword or hook wins.  Alternatively you could have a few fixed onto a board and points for each one and whoever gets the highest points wins

Decorate your own sword - pre cut out cardboard swords and have glue, gems, pens etc for the children to decorate their own swords (do this at the beginning of the party and they will be dry to take home.)  Make sure you write childrens names on back.

Pirate tattoos (and face paint) - do these at the beginning as all pirates have tattoos, check that children are ok with face paint before parents leave.

Pirate photo booth - Draw a picture of a pirate on cardboard and paint it, cut out the face, cut a slit in the middle at the bottom.  Take a small piece of cardboard and place a slit in the middle of top edge, this will be fixed into the slit on the pirate so it can stand up.  Child stands behind it and puts their face through the hole to have a photo taken as pirate.

Knock the pirates over - skittles with pirate pictures stuck on and bean bags/balls to knock them over, peson who gets most wins.

Pass the parcel with pirate forfits - Wrap the parcel and add a forfit to each layer, do 1 per person plus a couple of extra layers.  Forfits - *stand up and shout "ahoy me mateys", *squark like a parrot, *talk like a parrot and say "polly wants a cracker", *hop round the circle like peg leg jake, *dance a pirate jig, *name a pirate film, *sing a song like a drunken sailor, *go walk the plank, *stand up and say "yo ho ho and away we go", *Talk like a parrot and say "pieces of eight, pieces of eight", *stand up and say "shiver me timbers", *Stand up and say "this is me ship mateys", *stand up and say "where be me treasure", *pretend to swab the deck (sweep), *tell the joke - "what do you call a pirate who went to school?"......"smaaaaart",* tell the joke - "where do pirates go shopping?"......"at the maaaaaarket", *tell the joke - "what does a pirate put on his toast?"......."maaaaarmalade"

Pirate pinata - Make or buy a pinat and add sweets, home made badges, catcha-bubbles, confetti, etc

Pirate colouring pages and pens - leave some of these on a table incase they want to colour

Cannon ball bop - give each child a black balloon and on go they have to keep it in the air, any that hit the floor are out, winner is one who lasts longest.

Cannon ball fire - loads of black balloons, put sweets in some, confetti in others,  and leave some empty on go the kids have to "fire" (burst) all the cannon balls by bouncing on them with their bums.

Flap the fish - 2 fish shapes cut from tissue paper, 2 paper plates, split into 2 teams, place the fish on the floor infront of first person, using only the plate they need flap the fish down the room to set place and then back again, hand to next person who does the same, 1st team to have all players do it wins.

Musical pirates - like musical statues EXCEPT when the music stops they need dance like a pirate, last one to do it is out.

Feed the shark - draw a sharks head and open mouth onto cardboard, cut out the mouth.  using ping pong balls (12 pack for £1 in £1shop) they can each throw the balls through the mouth - most through wins (make older children stand further back than younger children.)

Treasure hunt - clues to find the hidden treasure or coins hidden around the place,

Musical islands - paper islands - each child has an island to start with placed on floor, when music stops they must stand on 1.  remove 1 island and go again, child without island is out.  last 1 wins.

Wheres the treasure hidden - piece of paper with treasure island/map in squares on it, get each child to put their name in 1 square when they arrive.  (pre-choose the treasure square and make a note of it) at the end of the party award a prize to whoever guessed correct or was the nearest.  (try and make the map the exact amount of squares for guests).

 FOOD -

canon balls - malteasers or blueberries or black olives

planks- twix bars or pretzel sticks or bread sticks

pollys crackers - mini cheddars

pirate ships - hot dogs with cocktail stick flag

pirate gems - chunks of fruit on kebab sticks

golden nuggets - chicken nuggets

swords - bread sticks and half grape near end

golden rings - hula hoop crisps

ocotopus legs - gummy worms

fresh fish bread - tuna sandwiches

pirate punch - water, blue food colouring and raspberry flavour 

sharks blood - red drink

pirate teeth - popcorn

pirates peg leg - sausage rolls

sea scrolls - "coffee" wafer biscuits (tubes) tied with a liquorice lace

veggie island - platter of sliced vegetables

golden rocks - cheese & pineapple

dead mans fingers - cocktail sausages

hawain islands - ham & pineapple pizzas

pirate islands - biscuits iced with treasure map lines and a x

I WILL ADD MORE ONCE I GET SORTED AND DEFINATELY ADD MORE AFTER THE PARTY.