February 28th 2015 - Painting the spell book

February 28th 2015 - Painting the spell book

Today I am going to give the spell book its 1st coat of paint.  As I don't have enough purple acrylic I am going to do the first coat in a pale pink (mixed with silver) to make sure I have enough, this paint also has a sparkle to it.

I found a pin on pinterest about using acrylic paint to paint book covers with.  I planned to use this paint anyway as its stronger than kids poster paints.  I am also thinking about varnish or pva glue to protect it.

Here is the book after its pink coat of paint:

I think its starting to come along quite nicely.

February 27th 2015 - Making a viking tunic

February 27th 2015 - Making a viking tunic

Following on from yesterdays post about making a viking shield (which is almost complete, just needs the front bit glueing onto it with hot glue).  I have set about making the viking tunic.  I got the idea from this pin which came from Where's my Glow blog.

As I said yesterday I bought a toilet and bath mat set for £3.99 to use as the base to make his tunic/ wasitcoat.  They are a great idea as they are brown and fluffy like fur.

I started by marking a line down the middle of the toilet mat on the back.  From the toilet mat I stitched the small top bit to one corner of the bath mat (I turned it the other way to the photo).  I then made my son hold it all whilst I worked out where the arm hole needed to be to, marked it on the inside with pen and took it off him.  I sewed up the side to where I had marked and tried it on him again.  It fitted ok.  I went to start the other side only to realise that the top is narrower than the bottom, so I had to cut on my line to make it into 2 pieces and then stitched the other small top piece to the bath mat - it was just over half way so I had to cut it.  I then stitched the side and left the arm hole.  This side was much harder to sew as it didnt have the nice bound edge, so I stitched it twice to make sure it holds.

This is what it looks like:

We are slowly getting there as a viking!

February 26th 2015 - Making a viking shield

Februatu 26th 2015 - making a viking shield

Next Thursday (5th march) is world book day.  Yesterday on our family learning at the school we were talking about books (its a literacy course after all) and world book day came up and how the school doesnt do dress up for it etc, the teacher who is sat in on the sessions said that as the school iss doing a big push on reading at the moment they ARE allowing the kids to dress up as a book character this year.

I spoke to my sons when we got home about it, neither had a letter (we were told they would be going out in day or so), and asked what they want to go as.  You name it and i'm pretty sure in 1 of the 3 boys cupboards, the box of dressing up "bits" (hats/masks/gloves and extras) or the halloween box in the loft we have most things or can at least make something from a combination of.  My youngest said he is going in his thomas the tank outfit (like a onesie but is a full thomas suit not just a picture of him)  and will take 1 of his thomas books.  Brilliant I don't have to do anything there.  Asked my middle son what he wants to go as hoping he says something we have etc and he goes upstairs to his books, comes back down and says "I want to go as a viking!"  ME -  "errrr it has to be a character from a book, you have no viking books", Son replies "I do, my how to train your dragon books have vikings in, can I go as Hiccup and take my toothless pillow?"  Well that shut me up didn't it, nothing like a smarta** kid and his comments. lol.

Well I started hunting the net for "proper" outfits and I am not paying the price that they are - £7.99 upwards, i'm not paying that much for one!  So I did my usual and hit pinterest in the hope of finding a "how to make a viking outfit".  I found a few including a really good tutorial on making a "furry" waistcoat" from a bath and toilet mat!  I went to town today and bought a bath and toilet mat set in brown for £3.99, but this will be tomorrows pin as I need to meansure son before I start cutting and sewing.

Todays pin is how to make a viking shield.  This picture is taken from google and is Hiccups orriginal shield from when he was younger (about the same age as my son is), in the later films he has a dragon it, this is the design I will be painting onto our shield.  There is also this pin that shows you how to make a shield in general.

I have cut out the curcle and have the duck tape to go round the edge, I have covered a small plastic pot in duck tape to make the silver bit in the middle of the shield - i'm going to hot glue gun this on once its painted, I also have a piece of cardboard that will be glued or duck taped to the back to  make the handle.

February 25th 2015 - Family learning at the school

February 25th 2015 - Family learning at the school

Today is another week of the family learning at the school.  We were talking about stories and making them up and how you can come up with a story just from looking at 1 picture or from 1 line that is already written down.

We mad jigsaw pieces about ourselves to go on a display board on the wall, similar to this -

I forgot to take a picture of it but will do next week.  My puzzle piece I covered it in purple tissue paper, I added my name down the side in black letters, a big pink pig in the middle as I collect pigs and have liked them since I was a toddler, a gold ring with a silver glitter diamond, a rose and some stars.  I was going to put a green cross for first aid on it but you couldn't really tell what the cross was for.

When the children came to join us for their part they all headed for the biscuits staright away, I do wonder if this is why they are coming along to it! lol!  Once I had managed to collect my 2 boys from the snacks I explained to them what they were going to be doing.  There was 2 parts to their work - the first was to make a simple book from a piece of A4 paper by folding it and then cutting and re folding it (see the book link above to pinterest).  The second part was to colour or stick things onto a paper person that will be the character in their mini book.

Blake decided that his person was going to be a zoo keeper called  Blake and he gave him zebra print trousers, a giraffe print top and red hair (see below).  And Kenzie made a boy with silver spiley hair and named him spike (see below).  They were then laminated, had a hole put on the top and a piece of string threaded through and were selotaped to the middle of the book so that the character can visit every page in their mini books.  They have got to finish them next week.

 

The pics of the jigsaw shapes we made.

February 24th 2015 - Spell Book the next part

February 24th 2015 - Spell Book the next part

Back at the end of January (almost a month ago now) I posted about making a spell book.  Since posting that I have managed to glue all the pages together so that they are thicker and there's now only just over 100 instead of the original 200+.

Today I have started to make the fauz leather cover, the idea was combined from this thread on pinterest and an article I found on the Halloween Forum Thread about handmade spell books.

1 and 2





3 and 4

5 and 6

1. Kitchen towel which is 2ply was seperated and gave the bumpy effect.
2. I covered the inside of the cover with pva glue and then placed the kitchen towel on to it.
3. I then covered the outside cover the same way
4. was a plastic lid I placed inside so it didnt stick together when I turned it over to do the back.
5. The front and back covers of the book all covered.
6. A couple of hours after I did it, its starting to dry with lots of texture.

I now need to decide if I am going to add a 2nd layer of the kitchen towel to it, so that the red of the book is definately gone b4 painting, and possibly loose the texture or leave it with just one and the texture I have.  I'm leaning towards leaving it as I like the way it looks.

February 23rd 2015 - Hill Climb game

February 23rd 2015 - Hill Climb game

Back last August we got our youngest son a cheap tablet as his main present hadn't turned up, he loves it and plays on it most days and will tell anyone that asks (or listens) that he has an "i-pad".  He has a variety of games on it - some that he asked for and others that we thought he would like.  Hill Climb is one we thought he would like.

Upon reading the blurby bit on google play store it says QUOTE "Meet Newton Bill, the young aspiring uphill racer. He is about to embark on a journey that takes him to where no ride has ever been before. With little respect to the laws of physics, Newton Bill will not rest until he has conquered the highest hills up on the moon!  Face the challenges of unique hill climbing environments with many different cars. Gain bonuses from daring tricks and collect coins to upgrade your car and reach even higher distances. Watch out though - Bill's stout neck is not what it used to be when he was a kid!".  Sounds ok and the sort of thing a 5year old would enjoy playing.  And I was correct, he loves it.

It's a challenge for him to get to the next meter distance and collect as many coins as he can and he can upgrade the different vehicles and buy different scenes to try and complete.  A lovely game for him to play.  That was until the other day when he's sat by me playing it and declares "i've just broke his neck it went with a crack, did you hear it Mummy?"  ME - "errr no I didn't."  SON "i'll do it again listen!".  So he repeats the level and crashes the vehicle on purpose and yes there is a lovely crack as his head flops back and forth and the level ends.  NOTE HERE the line from above - "Bill's stout neck is not what it used to be when he was a kid!"   It doesn't say that you can hear it break, nice!!!

Well I downloaded the game to my laptop to see if it was every level or just a one off and it happens every time you crash the vehicle.  Plus if you have a bus full of people theirs all do the same!

Despite this lovely breaking of peoples necks complete with sound, the game is actually very adictive and fun.  As I put above you can get different vehicles and levels to race.  You need to collect coins from the levels in order to upgrade the vehicles and buy new levels.  My personal favourite is the quad bike in the cave and I have got a long distance with this combination.  My son loves santa's sleigh on any level.  The graphics are pretty cool but basic and change as you move along.  Each level is the same thing to get as far as you can without dying or running out of fuel (you pick this up along the way).  You can quite easily waste a good few hours playing this game once you get over the shock of the broken necks.

As long as your not bothered about the gruesome cracking and breaking of necks its a great game and suitable for all ages.  Me and my son were "racing" each other to see who could get the furthest, he was on his tablet and me on my laptop.  We also had played to see who could get the most money and buy a new level.   I would reccommend this game to my friends with children.

February 22nd 2015 - Trilogy of books finished

February 22nd 2015 - Trilogy of books finished

Today I have finished reading Keri Arthur's Circle Trilogy of books, Circle of Fire, Circle of Death and Circle of Desire.  These are being classed towards the 2015 reading challenge I posted about back in January.

Although the books are classed as a trilogy they are not all part of the same story which is what I thought they would be and why I was eager to read them all one after the other.  They do have links to same magic circle but they do not have the same people in.

I enjoyed reading the three books as they are magic/paranormal based.  But they didn't seem very different to other books of this genre, and nothing that really stands out.  They are well written though and interesting.