Silver and girls Day 1

Project One - So, my daughter had a few friends around over the weekend and I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to get started on the 12 Christmas Crafts challenge!  Our first project was making tree decorations using what we had lying around (metallic craft card, glitter glue, ribbons...)

We drew out the designs onto the back of the card pieces, which we folded in half to make two images the same.  Next, as responsible grown up (who me?!) I cut out the shapes for the kids, these included two Christmas trees, a shooting star and a Snowman.  The kids then let rip with the glitter glue and ribbons, while I sat and pondered the sanity of my decision to let them use the glitter.  The table did however survive the ordeal after a good clean up!

After leaving them to dry for a few hours, they were ready to put on the tree.  So while we were waiting the kids and I decided to crack on with project 2, some baking...

Kora and boys Day 1

 

As a mother of three young boys, the prospect of twelve Craft Sessions brings me out in a cold sweat! Our boys are adorable on their own .... but en-masse they can be virtually unbearable! I am, however, going to give the Challenge a good go! Maybe one boy at a time would be a sensible option. I decided to ease in gently with a simple Christmas card for my 2 year old and his little (girl) friend to have a go at. A bit of sticking and cutting... it should have been straight forward! I got everything ready...the glue, the cards, the scissors, the sparkles, the fabric....."I want to go to bed" said Jack. With that, he promptly took himself to bed for the rest of the afternoon, leaving myself and Mali happily crafting away! We had a lovely time..but I'm just a bit concerned that I've already defeated the object of the Challenge by working with somebody else's child!! Oh.....and so this is what it would be like to have a little girl!



Hayley and Gabe Day 1

We finally got around to it - after Gabriel was safely returned having gone AWOL with Pappy (to the cinema) on Friday - our originally planned "Craft slot". The intention was to make Tree Decorations - Gabe had a plan.. "We're gonna get a big sheet of paper and make a tree shape and cut out stars and sprinkle snow...." However... by today we had a new plan. We've just come home from a rather brilliant Art Exhibition..  which prompted Gabriel to ask what a Masquerade was. Being a Superhero in his spare time, he was delighted to hear that part of Masquerade involves masks. And what do Superheros always wear?... So the conception of "Snow Ranger" and his side kick: "The Christmas Pudding" (thanks Daddy for the comedy input… there were ruder superhero names that quickly got discounted!) were born!

There were a few distractions - Gabe has discovered the fun that can be gotten from covering your fingers in PV, pulling it off and going "Mummy... my skin is peeling..." as well as how to make people from pipe cleaners.

The end results is two pretty cool Christmas Hero Masks...

Tanja and the family Day 1

Noa and I have a tradition of making Finnish Christmas biscuits: ‘piparkakkuja’, which used to be important part of my childhood Christmas. The recipe is from my mum. These biscuits are very similar to ginger biscuits, but they include special Finnish spice mix that makes them just a little bit different. We usually make the dough advance, freeze it and bake small amounts of biscuits throughout December. Noa says: ‘’I like them.” (He typed this himself.) Noa’s task this year was to measure ingredients with the scale and practice some numbers. I am looking forward to our first patch of mouth-watering biscuits. 

Adeola and boys Day 1

Right, so the boys were all very excited to do this  project again and started off with some highly ambitious ideas. Lo definitely wanted a reindeer (lots of them and a sleigh and Father Christmas!)  Roti suggested that we use the autumn leaves to make a reindeer. Yay! So on the way to school we (they mostly) collect the most beautiful selection of autumn leaves. Then we decided on a reindeer template. Next, the real work begins.

I have to admit that this did not turn out how I expected. However, this was led by Roti and I am happy where his instincts led us. My interpretation didn’t quite work. Lo was on the playstation3 with daddy and was visibly upset that he missed the action. The only consolation was that we have 11(!) more pieces to do. Babi did his fair share of gluing and the leaves that got stuck to the carpet were actually not at all difficult to peel off.J

Johana and boys Day 1

I'm not sure how 'Christmasy' our first project is, but it is crafty and collaborative and perhaps the glitter will come later! My oldest son T was invited to an fancy dress 80's hip-hop themed 4th birthday party.  As a kid growing up in the 80's it was the clocks around some rappers necks that really stood out to me and I thought that by making a clock I could sneak in a bit of learning too!

I love Addy's project for lots of reasons, but a big one is that this is an opportunity to recycle our waste, rather than consume more things, as we do in epic proportions at this time of year in particular.  

So the evening before the party I found a bit of cardboard packaging and T drew around a cd to make a circle, we then used his stickers to put the numbers on.  I helped him make the cardboard clock hands and he had a great idea to make the time 4 o clock, as his friend was to be 4 years old.  He then set about painting the pasta gold for the 'chain' part and whilst we were waiting for the pasta to dry made the card.  We used the cardboard we cut the circle out of to make the card and also drew on the present's wrapping paper (recycled paper packaging).  When the pasta was dry he threaded it through some twine and his 80's hip hop accessory was complete!



Cat and Eilir Day 1

 

 

Penguin Pizza

Got the idea for this from a picture on Facebook using cheese, olives, and carrots to make penguins. Eilir came up with creating a snowman too. We thought it would be fun to have a before and after photo. I think Eilir's favourite bit was grating the cheese over everything chanting "It's snowing, it's snowing!"



Steph and G Day 1

Realising scarily how close Christmas was really getting, we endeavoured to get a bit of wrapping paper in action.  Potato stampers were the tool of choice, although who could resist a few hand and fingerprint snowflakes here and there. It proved a jolly activity with a friend, and then even when the friend had long gone, our desire to use up the generous paint portion that had been squidged onto the plates, and just the relaxing nature of filling floor size sheets and padding about in socks between them with the heating on, considering the chocolate biscuits we might have in a minute, gave us another good hour. We threw the spuds away, they were pretty simple, and g was having ideas that if we do some more we should aspire to angel shapes, might need baking potatoes for that.