Wet weather + sick baby = craft time @ home!!!

Wet weather + sick baby = craft time @ home!!!

Yes, William is sick with bronchitus and the wet weather has left Ruby and I at home with nothing but our imaginations - and we went wild.

Here is a snapshot of the things we created this week and a quick rundown on how each item was made. This is more like a picture gallery (except the first one) - as they are so simple to make, detailed instructions aren't needed and all you neeed to do is to look at the picture to see what we used.



Re-planted our vegetable garden



Gardening
The finished garden (left) and our herb section (right)

Ruby just LOVES this and we've been doing this for years. The wet weather made it perfect planting time too. Ruby knows to use her spoon to dig the hole, stick the plant in the hole and put the sugarcane mulch around it (we call that the blanket).

We then cut out old milk containers - stuck them to bamboo skewers (sticks would be better) and labelled our plants before covering our garden beds with old mosquito nets.

 This can be done in pots, old shoes, evens styrofoam boxes or just dig into the grass - sprouts are cheap, easy and super fast to grow

  





Little Characters
Kids love creating their own characters. You can do this
by gluing eyes on anything from old socks, rocks, pine cones,
old containers - ANYTHING!!!



 
 

Using a template

We used our teddy bear templates to make 'Nanny'
and 'Poppy'. Sticking a magnet on the back means
that they can be stuck on the fridge.

We used paddlepop & matchsticks to make the bed and ladder





 

Bird seed hanger
Mix peanut butter, honey
(or maple/golden syrup) with
bird seed and mould it onto a pine cone -
no measuring required, just make a sticky
mixture. Simply hang out in a tree.
We hung ours on our home made
bird feeder - the parrots love it!

 

Gift Boxes

Ruby decorated a gift box (pkt of 3 boxes $5) using

various objects from our craft box. Inside the box

she put the bracelet she made herself using foam beads ( $2 pkt),

wool & a plastic childrens needle. Put anything inside!

Don't have a gift box? Use an old tissue box or food packaging.

Wrap in foil, gift wrap or paper to give you a blank canvas.



Doggy Treats

We made home made doggy ice blocks - simply fill

a container with old meat or doggy treats and fill with water.

Zada loves biting through the ice to get the meat - great

doggy treat for summer!

Fairycrow

We made a fairycrow for our garden. Ruby's step brother Jaidyn came to help put too. Here are some step by step photos. This took about an hour.



Get ready

Materials: old fairy dress, wand, wings, wig, fishing line, needle,

old stockings, hay ($7 from local produce or try a hardware store), gluegun

and craft items for eyes, mouth, shoes etc
Use anything you think - make a family member or animal or
find the clothes first and go from there!

Stuff the stockings with hay

 I used two of Ruby's old stockings

to make the legs (pink) and the body/arms (purple)

 

Making the head

Using another pair of stockings. Cut the legs off.
Tie off the ends, fill the 'bum' part with hay to make the head



Put it together
I used fishing line to sew the two paris of stockings together (at the waist).

I then sewed on the head

and dressed our fairycrow.

 

Decorate Head
Jaidyn used the hot glue gun to stick on eyes (pom poms & googly eyes)
and a mouth (sparkly pipe cleaner). I used fishing line to sew on earings (bells),
a wig and a crown.





Finishing Touches

We then glued on a wand, some shoes, bracelet and a necklace

(that we made). Now you are finished and ready to put it  in the garden.



Our fairycrow is in our vegetable garden under a little awning. If it was out in the weather, I would have added a childrens umbrella to the post to add some protection. Ruby loves
our fairycrow!