You know, that elephant dinosaur!

The one thing that definitely can’t be said about my youngest is that he has a lack of imagination! When his older siblings talk about dreams they have had, he will join in with some wild and wonderful tales about his own dreams. He talks in his sleep so I am well aware of the fact that he does actually have some fantastic dreams, but I often wonder how much he makes up as he goes along.

Being a typical four year old little boy he’s never really been one to sit and read, write or colour. He’s far appier bouncing around being a Power Ranger Transformer, making ships out of pillows, or staring goggle eyed at a TV screen. So every time he shows any interest in sitting and actually drawing I try and take full advantage of it. One of the ways he’s always happy to draw pictures is when we get the chalks out and he goes to town on our living room floor. It’s painted concrete so ideal for using chalks on, and him drawing on it means I then have to actually clean the floor, which is a chore I tend to put off far longer than I should!

Dinosaurs have been a big thing with O this year and when he wanted to get the chalks out this week I wasn’t surprised that they played a big part in his drawings. His story to go around them made me giggle though so I thought I would share them with you!

I would like you all to meet O’s Elephant Dinosaur and before you ask no it isn’t a mammoth silly, can’t you see her spines on her back!?

O says that this Elephant Dinosaur is called “Inmhinw” and she doesn’t live in our world. She lives in a world with lots of other dinosaurs like spinosauruses and T-Rex’s. But she doesn’t fight with them. She has a baby inside her belly (She has quite a few legs herself but her baby seems to be a mutant jellyfish baby dinosaur because it has LOADS of legs!) But the baby has now come out of the Elephant Dinosaur’s Fairy (yes that’s what our family calls it, don’t judge!) and is going away to live on it’s own because baby Elephant Dinosaurs don’t need their Mamis. I made the mistake of saying that there were TWO baby Elephant Dinosaurs, the one inside the tummy and the one on the right hand side, it seems I was very much mistaken and this is a picture that takes us through time all in one image!

I thought that would be all from this little world of his, he disappeared for a bit, but then came back announcing that he’d forgotten someone!

This is ‘human with a snake’ seriously, this kid couldn’t even say Mami until he was two and a half and now he’s calling us Humans!

The snake, which I first mistook for a balloon, is going to be turned into a spoon so Human can eat cereal. I didn’t dare ask what Human was going to put his cereal in. Maybe he was planning to eat it right out of the box?

Human and his spoon snake live in the same world as the elephant dinosaur but they don’t hurt each other. Human can control the elephant dinosaur with the two buttons on his spines. The one makes him go fast and run around, the other does something else.

At this point he got bored and left. I have no idea whether Human managed to turn his snake into a spoon, what that second button does, or what happened to the baby elephant dinosaur. Will it go and find it’s own human? Talk about being left on a cliffhanger!!!

I love listening to the stories he makes up, even ones without pictures to back them up. It makes me wonder if I have a future writer (and illustrator) in the house!

Do your kids have wild imaginations too?

Review ~ Stikbot Pirate Movie set

Being a typical 11 year old boy, LV loves anything to do with computers, movies and video games. So when he was given the chance to review the Stikbot Pirate Movie set he was over the moon!

We had one lonely little stikbot already that LV hadn’t really known what to do with yet, but as soon as the Movie set arrived, and he saw the costume stickers, he started planning his epic battle between the pirates and the continental soldiers!

The set comes with everything you need to create a stage for your movie, we just added a big blue background with the help of an old sleeping bag.

The instructions are very simple to follow. You just pop the numbered pieces out of the page and slot them altogether. Everything is numbered, even the holes! Apart from a couple of fiddly bits LV managed to assemble everything by himself, although younger children will probably need a fair bit of help. The pieces are made from what looks like laminated foam, they are pretty sturdy, but longer, thinner pieces like the flagpoles might easily get bent if you are a bit heavy handed with them.

The Pirate Movie Set comes with one Stikbot, who is already dressed as a pirate captain, and there is also a page full of other costumes to choose from. These can be a bit fiddly to get off the page, LV couldn’t do it as he has no nails, I have nails but still struggled getting the plastic sticker off the paper! Not sure where I was going wrong but I got there eventually and the pieces were all shaped perfectly to go on to the stikbots body parts. The bodies are articulated which makes it very easy to pose your characters as you like and when they are on a flat surface they are very good at staying stood up, even when they are holding themselves in odd positions.

The set also contains a full array of weapons that the stikbots hold with the help of these little white clips that slip over their ‘hands’ which are actually suction cups. The suction cups are also on the feet too and they are great for getting your Stikbot to climb up or down anywhere!

We had a few practice runs so we could figure out how much to move the figures to stop them looking like they were bouncing around the set. We also learnt how important it was not to move the camera AT ALL, or the scenery looks like it’s all swaying in the wind! We don’t have a tripod for my phone but a shoebox and some blu tack to hold the phone still worked great for us.

We used the Stikbot app to create the actual movie. It was very simple to do, it is just a case of taking the pictures and the app does the rest of the work for you! Once you’ve finished taking your pictures you can then either add sound effects or music that are already available, or record your own voices over your video.

Here is LV’s finished Stikbot Pirate Movie:

What do you think? I think he did a fantastic job! It may only be 7 seconds long, but those 7 seconds took pretty much an hour and a lot of patience to create!

LV gives the Stikbot Pirate Movie set a big thumbs up and can’t wait to get creating more movies soon!

The Stikbot Pirate Movie set is available to buy from many stores including Amazon. The following link is an affiliate link meaning if you purchase the set after clicking through I will get a small percentage from the sale. This won’t cost you anything extra though!

The Summer Days Linky ~ Fresh Flower Window Frame

Welcome back to the Summer Days Linky with myself and Karen from Stopping at Two. You can link your summery posts at the bottom of this post or read more about the linky HERE.

Last week I promised you a summer themed paper plate craft and I have delivered!

I really love a paper plate craft,I have no idea why, but there’s just something so pleasing about turning a circle of flimsy card into something funky and creative. This particular craft also takes my nemesis that is sticky back book covering and turns it into something beautiful and summery. This fresh flower window frame will only last a few days before the flowers wilt but it is pretty while it lasts.

Stuffed Owl ~ Hillarys craft competition

I’ve never hidden the fact that sewing isn’t my strong point. So when I was asked by Hillarys if I wanted to enter their craft competition, to create something out of 1 meter of their blinds fabric, I was initially hesitant. But I like to challenge myself, so I figured what the heck? What’s the worst that can happen?

Well, after weeks of pondering what to do with my Safi Turquoise fabric, I finally managed to make this little feller:

Not bad if I say so myself! Okay, so he isn’t perfect but I think his higgledy piggledyness just adds to his charm. The fact that he matches the new colour scheme in the hall and stairs is purely coincidental but I think he looks quite sweet perched on the step.

I didn’t follow a pattern as such, I simply drew the shape I wanted onto some paper. Then I cut the eyes, feet, beak and mouth out of felt and stitched them to the front panel along with the wings before sewing him together. I filled him up with the stuffing from an old pillow that was no longer being used.

It was actually a lot more simple to make than I first expected, although I did have a few issues with the machine getting knotted up, but they have a tendency to hate me so it’s lucky to actually to still be alive. Seriously, other sewing machines have not been so lucky in the past.

O is very taken with the owl too. The first time he saw it he kept kissing him over and over. I think I may be making him one of his very own soon!

If you would like to see some of the other entries in the competition you should check out Hillarys board on Pinterest. I have had a look through them all and I have to say there are some fantastic entries!

A lovely Crafternoon with Hillarys Blinds

A few weeks ago I was invited to spend and afternoon of crafting with Hillarys Blinds to showcase what other wonderful things can be made with their fabrics, apart from window dressings of course!

The event was being held in Chapter Arts in Cardiff. I managed to get there in record time even though I went round in circles trying to find the carpark, which I knew existed, but just couldn’t see but after turning right instead of left after my fourth trip around the block I finally found it! After worrying about getting lost and being late I was there in record time and was early! The trip home is a slightly different story but I’ll save that one for later.

Now, it’s no secret that I love arts and crafts. Give me a paintbrush and I’m truly in my element. But sewing?

Well, lets just say sewing doesn’t really like me.

I think to date I have managed to kill two sewing machines. Literally smoking and needing new parts killed. But I can hand stitch.

I say hand stitch…

There probably isn’t an actual name for the stitches that I do but they work and hold things together so I’m not going to knock it!

But when I walked into that room I have to admit I was relieved to not see a sewing machine in sight. Instead there were tables filled with pincushions, as well as one that resembled a haberdashers window display with buttons and ribbons galore along with pre-cut fabrics and a gluegun!

First up we made a lovely book cover, which only involved four tiny bits of stitching, which I managed to do without too much trouble. We then got to embellish it however we wanted. I opted for a simple yet effective wrap around design.

Our second craft was a 3D bird. This one had much more sewing and I’m afraid I didn’t get time to sew up the tail as I was so slow. He also has a bit of a wonky beak, but I’m quite proud of him anyway!

All in all it was a wonderful day and Hillarys, along with the lovely ladies from ‘The Crafty Hen’ also ran this workshop in Glasgow, Newcastle and Birmigham so in all 81 bloggers got to experience the fun too. Why not search #HillarysCrafternoon on twitter to read some other experiences?

Now I promised to tell you of my journey home! In all, what should have been a 40 minute journey took me two hours and a bathroom break in McDonalds. It all started with one wrong turn which lead to another and another. Then, when I thought I was finally heading to the motorway, I realised I was going toward Newport, the exact opposite of where I was supposed to be going!

Cue even more wrong turns and driving past Cardiff Castle three times which finally, after over an hour actually managed to get me OUT of Cardiff AND on the right way home. I think I may need to invest in a Sat Nav!

Are you a perfectly capable stitcher, or are you more of a have a go sewer like I am?

How to Make a Handprint Flower Bouquet for Mother’s Day

These Handprint flowers would make the perfect gift for Mother’s Day, birthdays or simply just to brighten up your day! The fact that they are so simple to make is just a bonus!

What you need:

Paint and brush
coloured Paper
drinking straws
sticky tape
scissors
pot/vase

Step one

Take a willing small child and help them to paint their hands and make handprints. You can take a few approaches to this using a paintbrush to paint the hand, dip the hand into a big blob of paint or squirt a little paint straight into the hand and get them to squish it around.

Once you have managed to get your child to cooperate for a few minutes and you have some nice handprints feel free to let them have some fun with the paint.

Step 2

When your handprints are dry, collect together the rest of your items:

Step 3

Cut out your handprints. To make them sturdy I don’t cut around each finger individually, I have some of these flowers that are over 12 years old and are still looking as good as new! But feel free to cut them out as you wish.

step 4

Use the sticky tape to stick a handprint to each drinking straw:

Step 6

Place your flowers into a pot or vase and enjoy!

I got this small vase in Ikea for something silly like £1. I love the fact that it looks like a milk bottle! It’s a little too tall for the drinking straws so I pushed some spotty plastic inside to give them something to sit on. You could just as easily use pebbles or tissue paper. I then added this little ribbon to pretty it up even more.

I hope you enjoy your handprint flowers for many years to come! You could even add to them each year as you child grows 🙂

Renovating the Attic Space for the Kids

Way back in May last year I wrote this post about getting some work done in our home. As is the way with builders and their busy period during the summer nothing happened until…November! But we are well underway now so I wanted to share with you some of the progress we have made.

Now we had a HUGE list of things we wanted doing, including the attic, a new roof, new windows and doors and the garden. But obviously money only stretches so far so unfortunately we are going to have to deal with the garden another time.

My Sunday Photo ~ The Anderson Shelter

This term eight year old LV has been learning about World War 2. His homework this week was to make a model of an Anderson Shelter. He is my fourth child so far to do this particular piece of homework in five years!

At least I get a six year break before having to do it all again though 😀

Simple No-Sew Grim Reaper Costume

This year our primary school threw a Monster Ball where all the children were encouraged to make their own costumes. LV wanted to be the Grim Reaper. I thought I would share with you the simple Grim Reaper costume we managed to make in a step by step tutorial.

Here is our:

No-Sew Grim Reaper Costume

Eek, I think death has come a knocking!

A Prickly Hedgehog Handprint Craft for Autumn

Earlier this week I sent a picture out of a pile of brown handprints on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, asking if anyone could guess what we were making this week. We had plenty of guesses from reindeer, to wreaths to squirrels (and everything inbetween!). I know I have given it away by the title of the post but would you have guessed?

A pile of leaves perhaps?

Here is my step by step by step guide on how to, and how NOT to make handprint hedgehogs: