Quick DIY Father's Day Gift Ideas

With the flu bug flying around this year for the past month in our home, Dumpling and I have not been out much to do much shopping for Father's Day Gift. I spent some time googling online for fun ideas to do with Dumpling and OMG, I chanced upon this lovely idea of using Lego for cufflinks! And so, with a dig through my cupboards and the Lego blocks, we made this! Ta da!

All that you need to do is just to stick the back of a Lego brick to an old cufflink / new cufflink base. :)

Now, I also wanted to add on more fun ideas where Dumpling can have some input into what she wants to give and we decided on a coupon book!

I basically just used power point to create rectangles where I added on free clip art images. Dumpling then has the free play of deciding what Daddy can redeem for :) She was giggling the whole night as she doodled, added stickers and letters to the pages. And because it is a surprise, we are not revealing what's inside. :p

Looking for more ideas? You can also DIY a simple photo frame with duct tape written by Adora who guest post for me. Or is Dad a foodie? You can also consider making your very own jam with just 4 easy-to-get ingredients!

Here's more Father's Day gift / craft ideas to share:
1) Danielle Space
2) The Crafty Crow
3) Powerful Mothering

4) Tip Junkie

And lastly, for those who wish to e tend this to homelearning, here's a printable pack:
- Father's Day Pack by Enchanted Homeschooling Mom (subscription needed but at a flat one time fee only!)

Happy Father's Day in advance to all the Daddies out there! 

Have a great one!

Mama Sue

Wordful Wednesday - DIY Playdough!

I have been thinking of making our own playdough for some time but just didn't get around to doing it till after visiting a preschool recently and smelling the wonderful mango and grannysmith scented ones which were heavenly.

I expected it to be hard but was surprised at how easy it was.

Ingredients
- 1 cup of plain flour
- 1/2 cup of salt
- 1 to 2 tablespoons of cooking oil
- 4 tablespoons of baking soda
- 1 cup of water
- food colouring

1. Add all the above in a saucepan and mix well. Then add the desired food colouring till you get the desired shade.

2. Then heat it over low fire. You can then see that it becomes clumpy within a minute depending how much dough you mixed.

3. Then knead it! 

We used strawberry red and pandan green which smell heavenly!

DIY Teacher's Day Gift - Notebook!

I admire scrapbooking mums. I think that they are very talented and very patient. With Teacher’s Day coming right up, I panicked a bit thinking what to give to some of Dumpling’s teachers. After asking around, I realized that besides food items (except for religious and health reasons) notebooks seem to do no wrong.

I am not good with book scrapping (the pretty pieces look too delicate for my manhandling!) and can only "ooooh and ahhhh" over my talented mummy friends' FB pictures but I really wanted to make a pretty notebook!

So, after a walk in the trustable Daiso store, I was inspired and managed to make this!

So, here’s one for the non book scrapping mamas!

Level: Easy
Time needed: 20 mins max for the first attempt (try to do a sample copy and then for the next few, you can cut cloth and trace cover sizes in 'mass'. This shaved off a fair bit of time for me :) 

Above picture: Most of the items (except the white roll of cardboard which is from Popular)

Above picture: I tore out pages from this block of paper for the inside pages for the notebook

Above picture: You will need to cut out 2 rectangular pieces from the white roll of artcard paper (shown in Picture 1). One is for the cover and another is for the inside cover. The cover should be a tad bigger than the inside pages.

This is where I "cheated" and bought fabric for the cover. I cut out the fabric and pasted it over (middle picture above) and voila!

We then cut out a strip of lace as and wrapped around the cover before we tucked it under the inner cover and pasted the inner cover down.

The last step was to then place the inside pages in the middle and then staple / sew them to the cover. :) Look at how pretty they are! I love that how the prints on the fabric brought the entire cover to 'live'!  

Hope that these would be useful for non scrapping mums like me. :)

My goal for this week: a week of DIY gift ideas for Teacher's Day. Coming up tomorrow - food gift which your little one will enjoy making!

Here's linking up with Susan's Motivational Mondays!

Lollibox Play Date!

Sponsored Review

I first chanced upon Lollibox when doing some web searches and was pleasantly surprised that such a thematic based craft concept is now available here in Singapore as most that I have come across are available in countries such as USA and Australia.

Lollibox is a "all-in-one" thematic based craft box (materials and know-how instruction guide included) delivered to right to your doorstep every month! In each box, there are 2 to 3 pre-packed craft projects for parents to engage their little ones.

So, with the 2 boxes I received from Lollibox (one on shape and the other on plants), I invited some mummy friends for a crafty afternoon playdate!

The inside "projects" were neatly packaged and this made it easy for parents to grab and craft immediately (especially so when we had 5 mummies that afternoon!). All the necessary "materials" - paint, crepe, etc., were included in the packs and what we had to prepare were just basics like scissors and glue. 

The individual craft projects also came with easy-to-understand and clear instructional guides. 
 

And so, "a-crafting" we did!

Above pic: KJ and EV doing a colour mixing exercise and learning about primary and secondary colours.

Importantly, the crafts were simple yet interesting. Once the mummies have explained to the little ones what was needed, they were pretty much left to create on their own. I felt that this is certainly great for encouraging independence and creativity. :)

Above pic: Qian Ru creating her own "flower in a pot" while mummy Jorina looks on :p

Above pic: Tada - Qian Ru's completed flower pot! I thought that it was really pretty! 

Another cool craft project that afternoon was a stained glass craft - here was what was included in the pack. 

Above pic: guide has a "gathering list" section which pre-empts the parent on what items to prep beforehand

 Above pic: there were photographs included in the guide to show the assembly of the project which were certainly useful for younger children who are not quite reading yet. In addition, there were questions included for parents to further engage their kids


 

Above: Mummy Phyllis and her little one proudly posing with their completed stained glass craft :)

It was a certainly a fun afternoon for us as the kiddos crafted and the mummies chatted. I am also pleased to share a special promotion extended by Lollibox!

Simply key in coupon code 'BEANIENUS' to enjoy 10% off LolliBox purchases during online checkout at www.lollibox.sg. Valid till 14 August 2012.

FREE Welcome Pack inclusive of craft supplies (3M Scotch kids scissors and Bostik Clag Kids PVA Glue) will be given with every 3 / 6 month subscription purchased!

Lollibox is also available for purchase at Joli Petite.  

Disclaimer:
The above review is sponsored by lollibox. All opinions are based on my experiences and 100% my own.



A fun and easy craft for kids in your own home!

I am a big fan of crafts and I try to incorporate that in my homeschool activities with Dumpling whenever I can. There are so many benefits to craft activities - improving of fine motor skills, focus and encouraging creativity amongst many others. 

So how can we start this easily and affordably at home? 

Here, I had a chat with Adora Tan, founder of Buggy Bee Kids, who encourages creating crafts from recycled materials. :) 

Many parents spend lots of money signing their kids up for Art and Craft lessons without realizing that all they need is to look around their home and pretty soon they’ll be able to find something to create!

When I had Poppy, my first daughter, I struggled to find activities to keep her occupied. So we started out with doodling, then painting, then pasting…Well, just making a mess actually! We’re quite prudent so instead of buying ready-made craft kits, we rummaged through our recycling bag to see what we could use.

I quickly realized that I enjoyed spending my time with her doing up simple crafts. We started hosting craft parties for Poppy’s friends and soon after, I took my passion to the next level and started my crafts-for-kids business, Buggy Bee Kids.

Both with Poppy and through my business, we use items that are either recyclable or are easily found at home. This has 2 main benefits: it inculcates the message of recycling and encourages kids to be inquisitive. I can’t tell you how happy I am when a mum tells me, “My son now says ‘Mum, we don’t throw away that empty jam jar; let’s keep it for a craft!” 

Anyone can craft with their kids, but here are some common excuses people make:

I am not good at drawing!

Neither am I. I got a C6 for O Level Art! But here’s the great thing: kids are very forgiving.  

I don’t know what to do!

Here’s where that ipad of yours comes in handy. Simply search for “crafts for ___ year-olds” and voila! Loads of ideas!

I don’t have any materials!

You don’t need anything special. Many crafts are done with the simplest of materials: paper, cereal boxes, tissue boxes, scissors, glue. 

I don’t have the patience!

That’s the beauty of home made crafts. You can make them as simple or elaborate as you want. Start off with something small and quick; you and your child will both be so proud of your end product!

Here’s an example of something that’s fun to do and takes less than half an hour to create. Recommended for 3-5 year olds with parental help, or independent 6-10 year olds. Poppy is almost 4 and I hardly helped her at all.

Materials:

1 cereal box (we used a medium sized Honey Stars box)

A pair of scissors

Coloured masking tape

Sticky tape

Thick piece of plastic sheet (we used OHP plastic)

1 photo

1 magnetic strip 

Step 1: Trim away all flaps and sides of cereal box until you are left with the two biggest pieces (the front and back rectangular pieces). 

Step 2: Place picture in the middle of one of the rectangular pieces (piece A) and trace around it

Step 3: Cut portion the portion you have traced. It should fit well over your photo

Step 4: Paste photo with sticky tape on the middle of the other rectangular piece (piece B) and set aside

Step 5: Cut out strips of coloured tape and wrap them around the border of piece A one by one

Step 6: When that is done you’ll have a very colourful frame

Step 7: Adjust piece A over piece B and paste on. Set aside to dry

Step 8: Stick a magnetic strip on the back of your photo frame and put it up on your fridge!

About Adora

Adora is mum to Poppy, 3.5, and Calla, 7 weeks.  She is a freelance writer for parenting magazines and runs Buggy Bee Kids, a crafts-for-kids business. She enjoys cheap chocolate, smelling her baby’s neck, and would really like a good night’s sleep. Adora blogs at http://www.gingerbreadmum.blogspot.com 

About Buggy Bee Kids
Buggy Bee Kids introduces children to a world of fun out of school and aims to promote creativity through crafting activities. Crafts sessions are $25 per child, per session (or $90 for pack of 4 sessions per child), inclusive of all materials. All you have to do is find a minimum of 2 other similar aged friends and give Adora a holler at buggybeekids@gmail.com 


* Buggy Bee Kids is taking a short break and will be back full force in time for the September 2012 holidays!

How to make a chapteh (feathered shuttlecock)!

Dumpling and I recently attended a Kampung Heritage Carnival and had a blast! There were food stalls and some game stalls too. In addition, there were several workshops - composting, kampung crafts, etc. The focus of the carnival was on "sustainable living" where the key messages were on recycling and reducing.

Dumpling and I decided to sign up for Chapteh (feathered shuttlecock / 毽子) making workshop and we discovered that it really is not that hard to make. Here are some quick steps to make one of your own.

Materials needed:
1. Nail

2. 2 circular pieces of rubber which act as the base (the workshop used some rubber hose
pieces from SCDF if I am not wrong. You can easily look for appropriate items around your home such as plastic bottle caps)

3. A short stub of recycled straw (one inch is a good height) to poke feathers through

4. Feathers

5. Some tape

Step 1: Place 2 pieces of the circular base together

Step 2: Hammer a nail through and then push the circular base right through to the end

 
Step 3: Put the straw through the nail and place feathers through the straw

Step 4: Secure with tape along the length of the straw

TADA!