Nanny Shecando

Supporting the international nanny industry

  • About
  • Blog
    • All Blog Posts
    • The Read Aloud Series
    • Nanny Life
    • ‘How To’ Series
    • DIY + Crafts
    • Nanny Careers Guide
    • Nanny Resources
    • Lifestyle
  • Work With Me
  • Press
    • Press Mentions
    • Nanny Industry Spotlight
  • Nanny Spotlight
  • CONTACT
    • FAQ
    • Disclosure + Policy
  • New Reader? Start Here…
You are here: Home / Archives for DIY

Spring Crafts: Pipe Cleaner Flowers

To continue the Step Into Spring series, I’m excited to bring you super easy spring crafts to do with the kids. Many of us use the arrival of spring to clean up our lives; to re-gather and re-order. But I also see it as a great opportunity to revamp some old craft projects, to go about your day at home with the kids with renewed energy. This Pipe Cleaner Flower Craft from Mums Take Five is exactly the kind of step into spring crafts I’m after these days – pretty, creative, engaging, but also easy! And with the toddler almost ready to enjoy a few more craft activities, it’s also safe and relatively young toddler friendly.

step into spring, pipe cleaner flowers, mums take five

Pipe Cleaner Spring Flowers

These are quick, fun and mess free! They’re also perfect for some easy kiddy entertainment – a big win in my books. Plus, you only need pipe cleaners!

YOU’LL NEED:

Pipe cleaners – really, that’s all you’ll need!

TO MAKE:

Petals | start my making the petals of the flowers by wrapping one pipe cleaner around your finger. Careful, not too tight!

Stamen | next you’ll want to make the centre Stamen part. For this, I use half a pipe cleaner. You can wrap it around your finger and it fits neatly in between the petals. Or you can wind it up like a snail. To attach the snail to the petals, leave the end unwound and feed it through the middle and tie on.

Leaves | make a stem and leaf by folding a loop into a green pipe cleaner 2/3 of the way down, and then tie onto the back of the flower.

| “Pop them into a little vase or glue them onto paper and you have some lovely spring flowers!”

step into spring, pipe cleaner flowers, mums take five
For more spring fun, Mums Take Five has a great spring Chick Pea Zucchini and Mint Pattie recipe over on their blog. #stepintospring

At Mums Take Five, they’re all about taking five minutes for themselves. Which as busy mums, this can be easier said than done. But if you’re looking for something to cook, a quick answer, a craft to do with the kids or somewhere to spend a few minutes with a cup of coffee, Mums Take Five is the place for inspiration!
______________________
The Step Into Spring Series:

Welcome To Spring
5 Ways To Spring Clean Your Finances
5 Easy Ways To Sort Out Your Superannuation For Spring {Money Mummy}
Spring Crafts: Pipe Cleaner Flowers
Chick Pea Zucchini & Mint Fritters {Mums Take Five}

step into spring, spring post seriesWe’re celebrating the arrival of spring all week on the blog. Featuring some great “step into spring” articles to ease you into the new season, with favourites from Money Mummy, Mums Take Five, Sheridan Anne, and Hunting For Lady Bugs. You’ll surely be inspired to put a little spring into your step! Join us, and tweet your favourite spring themed posts using #stepintospring.

September 10, 2014 By Hope @ Nanny Shecando Filed Under: DIY, How To, Lifestyle

Book Week 2014: DIY Book Parade Costume

book week 2014

PINKY PICK DIY BOOK PARADE COSTUME

Even though Book Week is now over (official dates were August 16-22), I’m not really ready for it be over. Book Week is perhaps one of my most favourite times of the school year, because I just love getting the kids so enthralled with the magic of reading and the wonder of a good old-fashioned book. But I do know some schools have delayed their Book Week a and will be enjoying the events over the next few days.

Last Friday, Miss 7 had her book parade at school for Book Week. And as I had predicted early on here, I was still up late the night before trying to pull together an appropriate costume, despite my best attempts to get us all ready with a little Book Parade Costume inspiration.

In the end I managed it, and Miss 7 was more than pleased with the result. Given she’d chosen to dress up as Pinky Pick from her current favourite book series, Geronimo Stilton, it was not an easy feat at times. Much red wine was consumed on thursday evening in the vain attempt to become less of a perfectionist – not sure if it helped.

So today I’m sharing my hot tips for how to pull together a DIY Book Parade Costume. It’s got all the fun things; fabric dye, squiggly scissors, paints, cardboard cutouts and even wire coat hangers twisted into tails. It’ll be even more helpful if you ever find yourself in the position of being required to pull together a mouse costume last-minute – because that’s a likely occurrence and all.

HERE’S HOW YOU MAKE THE DIY MOUSE MASK + TAIL

DIY_book_parade_costume

YOU’LL NEED:

1 Large sheet of cardboard or card stock
An idea of what a mouse looks like
^ or use pinterest, I found a pattern {here}
3 Pipe Cleaners, light pink coloured
Paint, grey & pink colours
^naturally, I mixed a little black with a lot of white to make grey
Paint Brushes
Scissors
Wire Coat Hanger
Crêpe Paper, light pink coloured
Elastic
Pink Ribbon
2 Safety Pins
Hot Glue Gun
Sharpie

TO MAKE:

1. Assemble all the items that you’ll need to make the mask and designate a clear work space.
2. First off, you’ll want to decide on how big you need the Mouse Mask to be. Then trace your shape onto the card-stock. When you’re happy with the design, use a Sharpie to go over the edges.
3. Mix up your paints to get the shade of grey that you like, so long as its not 50, and paint your mask. Then paint small pink triangles into the hears and a black or dark grey nose. Set aside and leave to dry.
4. Whilst the mask is drying, grab your wire coat hanger and carefully untwist into a straight line. Be careful when doing this, it’s sharp and may snap if twisted too far.
5. Using the pink crêpe paper, wind around the wire coat hanger really tight; overlapping in parts to give it that rubbery mouse-like look. Secure at the ends with sticky tape or masking tape. Then gently twist the wire at certain points along the length to make it curly.

| At this point you can turn on the hot glue gun and leave resting on a sheet of aluminium foil – this is so the hot glue doesn’t stick to something it shouldn’t.

book week 2014

To attach your mouse tail:
6. Cut a small length of pink ribbon and lay flat. Place a small bead of hot glue onto the middle of the ribbon and stick the top end of the mouse tail onto the bead of glue. Press down and then tie the ribbon in a not around the wire tail. Fasten a bow to make it pretty.
7. Pin two safety pins through the back of the ribbon and the wire tail – this will be used to attach onto your child’s outfit to secure the tail.

To finish the mask:
8. Once your mask is dry, cut it out from the sheet of card stock. Then cut two eye-holes.
9. Grab the pipe cleaners and cut in half. Using the glue gun, carefully pipe glue onto the bottom side of each pipe cleaner and stick onto the mask as whiskers.
10. Using a hole punch, punch a small circle at both sides of the mask near the edges and thread through a string of elastic (or ribbon) that will tie together and work to hold the mask in place.

diy-mouse-mask

NOTES:

To pull together the entire costume, I repurposed some old pink ballet “moon boots” and used white masking tape to make a line of white along the bottom. I then had to use green fabric dye to re-colour a pair of white tights (I couldn’t find green tights). To make the top, I bought a yellow hoodie and using 2 pieces of orange felt, I cut out circles and then glued onto the hoodie using a hot glue gun. Note, be careful with the glue gun. Late nights and red wine make using a hot glue gun risky – believe me! To finish it off, I sourced a black long-haired wig from the Dollar Store to complete the Pinky Pick “look”.

 

Has your child already had their Book Parade? Did you have a late night trying to pull together a costume last-minute? Ever attempted a DIY costume?

______________________

BOOK WEEK 2014 SERIES:

Book Week 2014: Connect To Reading
Book Week 2014: Best Book Parade Costumes
Book Week 2014:DIY Photo Bookmarks
Book Week 2014: Press Here by Hervé Tullet
Book Week 2014: Geronimo Stilton Review

pinky pick image source

August 25, 2014 By Hope @ Nanny Shecando Filed Under: DIY

Book Week 2014: DIY Photo Bookmarks

book week 2014
When young kids graduate from reading shorter books to “chapter books”, they do so with a vengeance. For many it’s a grand achievement, a sign of getting older, of moving up a level, and of kicking it in the big leagues.

For us carers and parents, we notice a difference too. Suddenly bed time stories become longer, and although more enjoyable, we’re often making bargaining agreements.

| “If you don’t hurry up and brush your teeth, you’re only getting one chapter tonight!”

Of course 15 minutes later, you’re onto the 3rd chapter because, “oh please, just one more chapter” is simply a request too good to refuse. But if your child is enjoying reading so much, and so involved with the story that they can’t put it down, it’s really not a bad thing is it?

Given we want our children to connect to reading, to enjoy reading, and to willingly participate in the process, allowing one more chapter at night is really the benefit of achieving the outcome.

Of course, graduating to chapter books does bring a slight downside. Because when you do finally call “lights out” and put the book away for the following night, you now have to remember your page. And if your memory is anything like mine, you’re going to want to write it down.

Plus, whilst a dog-eared book is a sign of a well read book, many of us don’t like folding our pages. So today I’m sharing a fun craft activity to do with the kids to make these DIY Photo Bookmarks. No more forgetting page numbers!

DIY PHOTO BOOKMARKS
Photo Bookmark-What You'll NeedPhotos + Stenciles - DIY Photo Bookmarks
YOU’LL NEED:

PVA glue
Coloured card stock
^we used a mixture of glitter card, ribbed card and plain card stock
Scissors
^make sure they’re kid-friendly scissors
Photos
^i used photos from @hopefornannies on instagram and the kids chose their own photos (not pictured). We had them printed at Office Works
Stencils
^we used heart-shaped stencils but any shape would work

TO MAKE:

1. Gather your items on a nice big table and let the kids pull up a stool.
2. Carefully cut our your desired bookmark shape from the coloured card. You can get creative here and cut a few different shapes and sizes to layer onto your bookmark.
3. Glue the coloured card together to assemble the base layer of your bookmark.
4. Whilst the card is drying, select the photo you’ll be using on your bookmark and trim to fit to size.
Tip: you’ll want to cut your photo to be smaller than the bookmark.
5. Offset your photo and glue onto the coloured card, leaving half of the photo free to be flipped up. This will be the “clip” that slips over the page of your book to mark the page.

DIY Photo Bookmarks

A dog-eared book is a sign of a well loved book! #reading

Click To Tweet

NOTES:

We used coloured card and shapes to make these fun photo bookmarks. However as always, it is open to interpretation. You could easily go without the photos, or make traditional rectangular bookmarks to slip among the pages. For a further embellishment, you could punch a hole in the tip of your bookmark and thread through some ribbon.

>>> Are you a page folder or a bookmark-er?

____________________

For more in the Book Week 2014 Series, check out:

Book Week 2014: Connect To Reading
Book Week 2014: Best Book Parade Costumes
Book Week 2014:DIY Photo Bookmarks
Book Week 2014: Press Here by Hervé Tullet
Book Week 2014: Geronimo Stilton Review

 

 

August 15, 2014 By Hope @ Nanny Shecando Filed Under: DIY, How To

DIY Fun Kids Craft Activity Ideas

DIY Washi Tape Magnets

DIY Dream Catcher

Kid Friendly and fun Craft Activity Ideas

Seeing as we’re well into the school holidays here in Australia, and those in America and Europe are enjoying their long drawn-out luxurious hot summer holidays, I thought I’d share a collection of kid friendly diy craft activity ideas here on the blog.

With four kids at home at the moment, I’ve been plucking at random ideas (and consulting Pinterest pretty heavily) for appropriate and fun things for the kids to do. Taking into account we’ve been staying indoors as it’s super cold outside and we’re trying to keep costs low as school holidays are expensive! Luckily, being all girls, we’re all pretty happy to spend a good chunk of the day with squiggly scissors and glitter!

Then again, these holey moley gooey chocolate brownies are pretty much the mother of all chocolate goodies and highly requested by all kids. Including 14month old bub who’s just discovered a hunkering for chocolate and treats! Plus, we re-worked a classic yummy berry muffin to incorporate some mushed bananas we found at the bottom of the fridge crisper and some Brookfarm muesli to make über rich caramel banana muesli muffins.. because hey, why not?!

For more fun craft activity ideas, you can check out my fun kids craft activity boards on Pinterest. There’s Working With Kids, Cooking For Kids, and DIY Craft For Kids. And if you’re not tuckered out by little hands and feet and want to get some super fun DIY crafting happening, there’s also a  DIY Craft For Big Kids. Some great home, house & kitchen DIY tricks and neat ideas in there!

 

 

DIY Popsicle Table Runner

Chocolate Brownies Recipe

DIY Bird Feeders

DIY Baby Playdough

DIY Greeting Cards

Muesli Muffins

one | My Poppet two | hello, Wonderful three | hostess With The Mostess four | Nanny SheCanDo five | Dana MADE It six | Fun At Home With Kids seven | Paper N Stitch eight | Nanny SheCanDo

What have you been doing these school holidays? Do you have any tips, recipes, craft activity ideas or stories to share? Oh, tell me, muffin or cupcake kind of lover?

July 3, 2014 By Hope @ Nanny Shecando Filed Under: DIY, Nanny Life

10 Birthday Party Essentials

I know I’ve already talked about the birthdays here, here and here. But when you’ve got a family of four kids, numerous pets and your own personal lives; birthdays are a dime a dozen around here! So as it’s birthday week here again, (yes I had a little birthday yesterday) I thought I’d share with you these 10 birthday party essentials I found on Pinterest this week!

the decorations

the birthday cake

 

paint a fairy house

 

party games

modern pinata

printable gift wrapping paper

the batman party theme

memorable party invitations

the party food

the party location

 

Photo Credits: 1. Decorations | 2. Cake | 3. Fairy | 4. Balloons | 5. Confetti | 6. Wrapping | 7. Batman | 8. Invites | 9. Fruit | 10. Track

 

This post is linking in with Essentially Jess for #IBOT.

May 27, 2014 By Hope @ Nanny Shecando Filed Under: DIY, Nanny Life

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • Next Page »

Oh, Hi There!

I'm Hope & I help nannies transform their approach to job search, and inspire those working with kids to maximise their potential within the international nanny industry. Plus, did I mention I like crafts + diy, baking & playing! Read More

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Featured Posts

A DIY Velcro No Sew Banner from Dunne with Style

A DIY Velcro No Sew Banner Craft

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! We received this cute heart-shaped VELCRO ® NO SEW BANNER craft, project designed by Dunne with Style, to feature and review on the blog. Given we love all things craft and DIY, we jumped at the opportunity to review […]

Make these kid-friendly salt dough necklaces for mother's day by NANNY SHECANDO and A Crafty Living

Salt Dough Necklaces for Mother’s Day

Give Mum a one-of-a-kind Mother’s Day gift with these simple kid-made Salt Dough Necklaces. We’ve teamed up with Olivia over at A Crafty Living to bring you this fun Mother’s Day gift idea. To make use of your extra salt dough, check out Olivia’s salt dough fridge magnets. With Mother’s Day approaching we got crafty […]

How To Make Recycled Egg Carton Mini Easter Egg Baskets with A Crafty Living and Olivia Foster for NANNY SHECANDO

Recycled Egg Carton Mini Easter Egg Baskets

Easter has come early this year! To celebrate our EGG-citement, for a long weekend, family festivities & of course, CHOCOLATE, we made these Mini Easter Egg Baskets! A hands-on, messy craft using just a few supplies from your craft box. These Mini Easter Egg Baskets are a great way to limit your child’s daily chocolate […]

St Patricks Day Fizzing Shamrocks Craft, A Crafty Living, easy kids crafts

St Patrick’s Day Fizzing Shamrocks Craft

We got in the spirit of St Patrick’s Day this week – Fizzing Shamrocks craft anyone? – with this awesome science-meets-art project. Have you ever tried the baking soda & vinegar experiment? This was the first time Mr3 had experienced it. To say he loved it would be an understatement! I didn’t tell him about the […]

Post Categories

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 133 other subscribers

Recent Posts

  • A DIY Velcro No Sew Banner Craft
  • Salt Dough Necklaces for Mother’s Day
  • Recycled Egg Carton Mini Easter Egg Baskets
  • St Patrick’s Day Fizzing Shamrocks Craft
  • Make These Valentines Day Heart Prints
  • Valentines Day Washi Tape Wall Sticker Love Notes
  • Make This Preschooler DIY Cutting Station
  • Toddler Friendly Easy Kids Christmas Craft
  • The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep Book Review
  • How To Make A Paper Pocket Watch
  • ‘Nanny Life’ Series
  • DIY + Crafts
  • Lifestyle
  • Careers Guide
  • ‘How To’ Series

Copyright © 2022 · NANNY SHECANDO by HOPE FOR NANNIES