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Father’s Day DIY Cards

DIY Cards For Father’s Day

Finding a suitable father’s day craft has not been easy. It had to appeal to Miss 7, who’s a bit of a perfectionist and likes things a little more complex. And it also had to look fun and interesting to Miss 14 months if I was going to have any chance of holding her attention for longer than 20 seconds.

In the end we came up with something, an activity that still involved plenty of coloured paints and stickers without the need for major action with the scissors. Miss 14months loves scissors and if we didn’t remove the scissors to high places, you could find her at any given time roaming about the house just casually toting a pair or scissors and chatting away. Of course that in itself isn’t that risky, but who knows what could happen. These toddlers are mighty unpredictable.

The dad loves all things photography, and is often capturing some of the most magical moments in his children’s lives. Some of the photos now framed on the walls of the house are absolutely amazing, and adds to the family vibe. So we decided to make a cute little diy card for Dad. With a fitting little photography theme of course!

How To Make A Father’s Day DIY Card

YOU’ll NEED:

White Card Stock
Coloured Paints & Paintbrushes
Water Container
^to rinse the paintbrushes
Glitter, Sequins or other decorations
A Sharpie
^or other marker pen for writing
Scissors
Glue Stick
PVA Glue
Camera Picture
^or use a stencil if drawing is not your thing

TO MAKE:

1. Gather together everything you’ll need and clear a space. Make sure you lay down some plastic sheeting or butcher’s paper to protect furniture from the toddler wielding the paint brush!

2. From the card stock, cut your card to size. Note: we actually used a basic manilla folder as we’d used all the card stock making the DIY Book Parade Costume! Also, make sure you’re careful with the scissors and don’t let the toddler get their hands on them.

3. Paint the card any colours your like, then if using a stencil of camera drawings to glue onto the card, paint or colour those as well. Once dry, you can glue the camera photo onto the cover of the diy card.

4. On the inside of the card (the right side of the page if you’ve got it open like a book), draw or paint a large rectangle in the middle of the card. This will be your photo frame for the kids to put their photos or message in for dad so that it’s “framed”. Just like daddy does with his photos on the wall!

5. Using calligraphy markers, like these Micador markers that we love using in our diy craft projects, write your Happy Father’s Day message to Dad on the inside left-side of the card.
6. If like us, you love glitter and sparkles, then now is the time to paste clear-dry pva glue all over your card and sprinkle with glitter. The more the merrier – dad needs sparkle in his life too!

7. Leave everything to dry and set aside in a safe spot until Father’s Day morning.

8. Lastly, don’t forget to clean up all of your craft things and put them away.

Deliver with breakfast in bed and big cuddle on Father’s Day morning!

_______________________

What are you doing for Father’s Day this year? Are you going to do a craft with the kids?

Children That Are Not Your Own

So a nanny huh. It’s all playing with babies, reading books, maybe an outing to the park and then before you know it, the day’s over and you can hand the kids back. Right? Wrong.

| “This family is messy, your efforts don’t last, everyday will be the same battle – don’t work here!”

Does that sound familiar to you? Unfortunately, for me it’s all too familiar! So I want to ask you a question. Have you ever looked after children that are not your own? I’m sure you have. And I’m sure you can relate. Like when your child’s best friend comes over, and you suddenly turn into Tiger Mom because you want to make sure you’re setting the right example. Or when you won’t let them run down the road to the corner store, even though you would usually, because you fear something going wrong to the other child whilst in your care. It happens. And it’s a natural occurrence.

For me, working as a nanny means I look after other people’s children each day. And whilst that’s the career path I’ve chosen, and the nature of the job, there are certain issues at time that can make the task challenging. Or to be specific, there are certain challenges that make the job tiring.

Like when you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, desperately trying to do what’s best for the children whilst also being seen to support and side with the parents. And when those parents have differing opinions to each other, it can become even more difficult!

I wrote about this, the ins and outs of looking after children that are not your own, and it’s over on Multi Tasking Mummy. I shared my insights of the nanny life and working with other people’s children. Of raising, and sometimes parenting, other people’s children. Of at times, being the glue that holds the family together. And of negotiating those tricky moments when families boundaries become blurred and the dirty laundry in all it’s forms is aired.

You can hop on over to Eva at Multi Tasking Mummy to check out it out.

>>> Looking After Children That Are Not Your Own

Happy weekend lovelies. xx

>>> Have you ever turned into a Tiger Mum when other kids are in your care?

>>> Or do YOU face any of these challenges in the nanny life?

Book Week 2014: DIY Book Parade Costume

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

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.

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.

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

Lilac And Gold New Season Kikki.K

Seeing as it’s been book week and all things literature based here on the blog (in my opinion truly one of the best times of the year), I’ve been thinking about how I can better organise my bookshelves. Namely with the lilac and gold new season Kikki.K range.

Our 2nd bedroom is currently being used as a makeshift music room, library, craft room and guest bedroom. It’s the ultimate slashie. Because we haven’t decided on the decor, and we can’t seem to agree on how we’d like it to be arranged, we’ve left it be. And so it’s become a sort of dumping ground for all things non-essential.

Now that I’m setting up my own business, it’s also become a home office. Except the only resemblance to an office is that the desk is covered in scattered papers and there’s an overflowing pile of receipts to either be filed away or shredded. It’s a mess.

So when the Kikki.K emails pop into my inbox, my eyes tend to gloss over and I always start to get a bit dreamy. Oh wouldn’t it be nice to have an office fitted out by Kikki K, all nicely organised and with everything in its rightful place. And with their new “Live Bright” Season Collection of purples, pinks and gold – it’s as if it was meant to happen!

I have an office just begging to be renovated and reorganised into a purposeful space that’s a hub for creativity and inspired work.

Here’s what I’m drooling over at the moment.

Fall in love with lilac & gold leather you say? Oh I have Kikki.K, well and truly fallen!

Right, I’m off to stock up on supplies. But before I do, I guess I better get things tidied up first.

Have you got a home office set up? Do you like things tidied and well organised? Or like me, do you often find things get away from you and the piles of paper get out of control?

image credits: kikki.k

Book Week 2014: Geronimo Stilton Review

Whilst Miss 7 enjoys reading, and can sometimes be seen choosing the company of a good book rather than her iPad and those dreaded mine craft games, she doesn’t always read the typical books you’d expect. Whilst her friends are all still enamoured by Harry Potter, and Billie B Brown, Pony Pals and even Captain Underpants, she’s reading Geronimo Stilton. And true to form, this year’s Book Parade costume decision didn’t come from the list of our favourite book parade costumes either, nor from what her friends have decided upon. You can also assume correctly that a gentle suggestion from me, purely in the selfish attempt to ensure she choose a costume easy enough for me to put together, was not well received either.

For Book Week 2014, the Book Parade sees Miss 7 dressing up as one of the characters from Geronimo Stilton. But, just incase you thought you had it all figured out, it’s not Geronimo Stilton himself. Instead it’s the lesser known character of Pinky Pick.

So I set about familiarising myself with the book and it’s characters.

As it turns out, Geronimo Stilton has a great interactive website that’s perfect for kids in the 7-10 age bracket. So too does the scholastic website. There’s free colouring pages, interactive games, an e-book, a review of all the books in the various series and even an app available for download in the iTunes store. There are many books in the series, and each book is a fast-paced adventure with vibrant and interesting art in a format that young readers love.

BOOK WEEK 2014: BOOK PARADE COSTUME

To pull together Miss 7’s Book Parade Costume for Book Week 2014, I’ve consulted eBay, Pinterest, and many craft shops in order to find the necessary tools and inspiration. As she’s chosen Pinky Pick, from the book Fabumouse Vacation for Geronimo, part of the Geronimo Stilton series; there will be craft involved to make the mouse mask and tail. Instructions and how-to will uploaded to the blog tomorrow to share in preparation for the Book Parade.

Has your child read any on the Geronimo Stilton series? Do you know what you’re doing for Book Parade?

______________________

“Elisabetta Dami is the author of the Geronimo Stilton series, a bestselling children’s book. She writes under a pseudonym of Geronimo Stilton. She is also a co-owner of Italian based publishing company Edizioni Piemme. Her books have been translated into English by Scholastic Inc.” GoodReads

THE BOOK WEEK 2014 SERIES:

Book Week 2014: Connect To Reading
Book Week 2014: Best Book Parade Costumes
Book Week 2014: DIY Photo Bookmark
Book Week 2014: Press Here by Hervé Tullet