Dinosaur craft for a sick little boy!

My almost 4 year old has been dinosaur obsessed since before he was 2. Other obsessions have come and gone but dinosaurs have always been a constant. (It's okay I know that was an ironic statement!)

This week while he recouperates from having since tonsils removed, I have been racking my brains for things to do that aren't energetic but are interesting enough to take his mind of the pain for a little while.  Enter Mister Maker's dinosaur from a bowl! (I think it was from Season 3.)

For this project you will need:

• A plastic bowl you no longer want. (I used the ikea ones which are 6 for £1)
• Some newspaper
• Some sticky tape
• Some PVA glue
• Some kitchen roll
• Some paint and a paint brush
• Some googley eyes or stickers to decorate (optional) 

Start with a sheet of newspaper and fold it up about an inch and keep folding this way until the end.  Fold it in half or thirds depending on how long you want your legs to be.  Repeat this step 3 more times!

Once you have four legs tape them to the inside of the bowl.  Make sure they are all the same height so your dinosaur can stand up.



Next take another sheet of newspaper and repeat the 1" roll.  This time fold one end over about 1 1/2" and then again.  Tape this together to form the head.  Tape this to the outside of the bowl at the front.

Take another sheet of newspaper and roll it into a tail. You need to do this across the sheet rather than up and down so that one end is thinner than the other one.  When you are happy with the tail, tape it to the outside of the bowl at the other end.  I had to fiddle with mine a bit to get it to bend enough not to lift the back legs off the floor.

Once this is done, you (or the kids) get to do a bit of paper mache.  Water down your PVA glue and tear up squares of kitchen roll.  Cover your whole creation in the glue and kitchen roll.  The kitchen roll is great because it gives texture to your dinosaur skin.  Set it aside to dry.

Once dry your children can paint it and decorate it however they like.  We used some foam sticker shapes to give our dinosaur that WOW factor!

The Miracle Cure!

My 3 year old son had his tonsils and adenoids removed and grommets inserted last Friday.  He really hasn't been fit for much since and there have been lots of days spent cuddling on the couch watching movies.  Getting anything past his lips has been difficult; including any pain relief!

This morning he woke up crying at 8:30am.  After a battle, he took some Calpol and promptly went back to sleep until 10am. When he woke again he was still every sad and wanted to stay in bed and watch a movie.  It looked like we were headed for another sad day for us both.

It was at this point that I remembered the package that had arrived the night before.

It would seem that curiosity is greater than pain when you are 3! Very quickly he was out of bed and in the living room tearing open the box.  For the next 2 hours we played happily and he was the happiest I have seen him since the op.  Even better he fed himself a bowl of cereal while playing and then asked for another.  This also promptly disappeared! 

What was in the box?  What was that miracle cure?

Two hours well spent!

Buttons for a coat or a coat for some buttons...

At the end of last year I had the opportunity to use artist's clay to make my own buttons. About 6 months before, I had bought some beautiful variegated yarn to knit my daughter a winter coat. I wasn't confident of finding the right buttons to set off the coat, so when this opportunity came up I jumped at the chance. My friend Elaine and I set off and had a very enjoyable evening crafting our own buttons in different shapes and sizes.

Energised by the thought of my customised buttons I set about knitting the coat. I followed this pattern from Ravelry. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/swing-thing The coat knit up really quickly and I was so happy with the results.

It took Elaine and I while to synchronise our diaries to get back to paint our buttons but we spent one lovely Saturday afternoon painting away. I had taken a swatch of the yarn to get the best match for the buttons. I was so keen to get the finished buttons and put them together with the coat. I even started thinking about lining the coat for an extra "professional" finish.

Unfortunately the shop closed down before our buttons were glazed and fired.

Today I explored options to try again to make my own buttons. I found this great blog about MYO Polymer clay buttons. http://www.lisaclarke.net/2011/02/07/bbc-lesson-one-%E2%80%93-introduction-to-polymer-and-your-first-button/ At the next opportunity I'm off to the local craft store with my swatch to get the best match and finally finish the coat. Maybe this new craft opportunity will also inspire me to finally finish the embroidery on the coat...

A new venture but will it stick...?

I am new to blogging. I am not confident I will stick at it. I never maintained a diary as a child for longer than a few weeks and what I did write bored me silly. I'd like to pretend that it was a tactic to keep my mother from my deepest darkest secrets but in reality I don't think I had anything interesting to say. These days however I have an almost constant dialogue going on in my head about my latest craft project or my next meal invention. So I thought I might try writing it down and seeing if it still sounds interesting when it is out of my head and down on virtual paper. Let me know what you think...