Chinese New Year Lanterns

Kung Hei Fat Choy!

This is super easy and can keep children busy for a hours. 

Take an A4 piece of paper and let your little one decorate it...they could draw, colour, paint, stick, whatever they like (obviously if they do anything that requires it to dry, then you'll have to let it dry once the paper is decorated. 

Then fold the paper in half (long side to long side) and cut from the fold to about an inch away from the edge, do that across the paper, leaving about an inch between each cut. 

If you have a 5yr+ child then they will probably be able to do all this themselves, if not they might need help with the folding and cutting

Open up the paper and roll it (so both short sides are together) and stick in place

I've been lazy and used cellotape, but you can use glue

You should have something that looks like this

I like to give it more shape so I push it down gently

Take another piece of paper and cut a strip off the short end

Attach the strip to the inside of your lantern creating a handle

and Voilá you have a Chinese New Year lantern

FO Friday: 12 Days of Christmas and Apple coasters

I've been ever so slightly MIA from WIP Wednesday and FO Friday recently. I was very busy with my daughters Rainbow Party (which I am extremely proud of. It was a lot of work, but totally worth it). Now the party is out of the way, I can continue to work on Christmas.

This year I wanted to do something special for Rheya's teachers. I think they are such an important part of society and I admire their patience so much (I know I couldn't keep calm with thirty 4 year olds running around my feet)

I came across a blog, where the author had bought 12 gifts and each day her child would go into school and leave one gift, with a poem, on the teachers desk for her to discover. My daughter has one main teacher and 2 teaching assistants and I'd already made a couple of gifts for them...Jiji the cat and the apple cozy, so doing this project for one teacher only didn't seem right. There are 3 people and 12 gifts so I figured we could just do it across them all and they'd get 4 presents each, so this is what we've done.

I put together a poem for each present. The poems have changed since I took this picture, but you get the idea

Then I attached the poems to the gifts (basket is just for show). As you can see Jiji isn't there, which is why the poems changed. 1) to take into account the fact that we were splitting the gifts across all 3 teachers and 2) to incorporate Jiji, the apple coasters and a mug cozy (still to make).

Last night I finished the apple coasters

all tied up and ready to go, they just need their poem attaching.

My daughters teachers seem to be enjoying the gifts. Today I've sent my daughter in with some popcorn for her main teacher, unfortunately I won't be there to see the reaction (and lets face it, the reaction is the best bit, right?)

For more finished items, please head on over to Tami's Amis

More Easter makes

I'm in a really crafty mood atm. 

Last night I remelted the egg I ruined and did the mould again, but this time I popped it in the freezer overnight. This morning I glued the 2 pieces together. It wasn't bad, but not perfect, I'll have to try again, another day. I guess I don't HAVE to glue them together at all and just wrap them in foil, but that cuts out the fun of smashing them open.

Here's how it came out 
 

the pack my Nanna gave me even came with foil! How cool! 
 

After lunch I smashed it open for the girls 
 

They're not actual mini eggs, they are mini-mini eggs. 
 

Later,  I made this for Anara. 
 

 

Again it needs feathers for the tail. 
 

Easter makes

I made this egg basket for Rheya (I'm gonna make Anara one too) I just need to finish it with some feathers for it's tail
 

 

I had a go at making my own Easter eggs...they turned out great, but then melted in my hands when I tried to glue the 2 halves together
 

I was going to put these in the middle 
 

I remelted the chocolate and did it again. Then I've put it in the freezer in the hope that I'll have more time to handle the 2 halves to get them glued together...wish me luck!