craft | A Mummy Too

Mask decorating – a fun, easy craft activity for kids

24 March, 2013 By Emily Leary

It’s really fun. I’d be more than happy to do it every day. Daddy has really good ideas – JD, 5

Mark picked up a pack of cheap masks in a craft store quite a while ago and we decided to make this snowy weekend the day we finally got round to decorating them.

Armed with pipe cleaners, poster paint, glue and tissue paper, these are our creations.

‘Devil Woman’ by JD

Poster paint detail and tissue paper horns.

‘Electrical ears’ by JD

Poster paint detail and pipe cleaner antennae.

‘Super Lady’ by me

A fat pipe cleaner for her hair, two more for her eye mask and screwed up tissue paper for her mouth.

‘The beardy fireton’ by JD

Pipe cleaners galore and a little tissue paper.

‘The chocolate man’ by me

Painted with dark chocolate, sprinkled strategically with coloured sugar, and finished with a lollypop.

What ever materials you choose to use, I really recommend giving mask decorating a try. It’s loads of fun and we’re going to hang the results on JD’s wall.

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: craft, crafting, decorating, fun, kids, mask, paint

Inspiring craft ideas roundup

10 March, 2013 By Emily Leary 1 Comment

This is a very beautiful, fascinating place – JD, 5

We went to a craft fair last weekend and I was absolutely buzzing by the time we left. There were so many talented people there, sharing their crafts. The kids were excited too and we took time to photograph our favourite ideas on my phone.

Here’s a roundup of what we saw – it’s inspiring stuff.

Handmade bunny egg cosies from Nonnyrabbit

These are so cute and would make lovely Easter gifts. They’re small enough to be made with spare material scraps and pretty to stay on display all year round.

Check out more beautiful products and stunning sewing craft ideas on the Nonnyrabbit website.

Handmade plastic jewellery by Frances Fantastic

Ever since we saw these quirky shrink plastic jewellery pieces, I’ve been kicking myself that I didn’t buy the Y-fronts necklace. They were a big hit with the kids and would add a touch of personality to any outfit.

I really want to have a go at making them myself, but I’ll also be ordering some from Frances’s Folksy page.

Washable toys from Baska Lindars

This is such a brilliant idea! You buy the dolls, decorate them however you like with washable felt tips, then chuck them in the washing machine and start all over again. They’re beautifully made and would make such a great gift for a preschooler.

Baska ~~doesn’t have a website at the moment~~ has now set up at Etsy store, where you can view and buy her creations.

Solemate sock creatures from Cubby Cards

With a touch of Moshi Monsters (or Pokemon) about them, these hand sewn and hand embroidered creatures would be a hit with most little ones, I reckon. They’re made from colourful socks and look great – each one sporting its own unique facial expression.

Definitely one to try yourself, but if you want the really professional looking ones, head over to Cubby Cards.

Bead bracelets – a craft for kids

While we were at the fair, two lovely ladies gave JD a length of nylon string and free reign of their bead box for just £2. He made me this lovely bracelet and it’s inspired me to order a whole load of beads so we can make more.

A great idea to round things off – sorry ladies, I didn’t get your names!

So that’s what we saw. Feeling inspired? Let me know if the comments about your own creative crafts, if you’d like to :)

Filed Under: Fun, photography and miscellaneous Tagged With: concepts, craft, craft fair, ideas, inspiration

4 fabulous Easter food craft ideas

8 March, 2013 By Emily Leary

*gasp* let’s melt some chocolate! – JD, 5

We love crafting with food – it’s fun to do, pretty, and you get to eat the results. What could be better?!

Today I’m sharing four ideas for you to get crafty with food this Easter.

Cadbury’s Creme Egg chocolate chicks

We love making these chicks at Easter and tend to get started as soon as Creme Eggs appear on the shelves. They’re great fun to make with the kids and were featured in Prima Magazine this month!

Get the step-by-step to making these cute Creme Egg chocolate chicks.

Kinder egg chick in a wheaty chocolate nest

This craft could make a great centrepiece for your Easter get together and the best bit is that that whole thing is edible, so there’s plenty to go round!

Get the step-by-step guide to making this Kinder chick and a wheaty chocolate nest.

Easter bunny sugar paste cake decoration

No tutorial for this one, sadly, but it was sent in by the lovely Little Rascal Reviews and I think you’ll agree it’s a fabulous idea for an Easter cake.

We’ll definitely be giving it go – how cute is that bunny??

Make your own Easter egg

Lakeland kindly send us some egg moulds, a melting pot, spoon mould and chocolate this weekend, and we had a wonderful time brushing chocolate onto the moulds, layering it up and ultimately producing two perfect Easter eggs!

I’d thoroughly recommend trying it for yourself. There’s a trick to getting the chocolate to layer up perfectly: let the chocolate cool and thicken a bit before you start brushing it on. As long as it’s cooled a little and you do it in thin layers (we did 5), allowing it to fully set between each layer, and then leave it in the fridge for 20 mins, it should pop out perfectly!

Disclosure: we were sent the Lakeland items for review. No payment was received. All posts are 100% honest.

Filed Under: Food and drink Tagged With: chocolate, cooking with kids, craft, Easter, food

Easter colouring sheets – FREE Easter printables

12 February, 2013 By Emily Leary 3 Comments

Well done, Miss J – JD, 4

If you’re looking for activities to keep the kids busy this Easter, these printables are just the ticket. JD and Miss J have both enjoyed scribbling on them today and we’re looking forward to doing more tomorrow.

Just click the buttons below to download printable PDFs. There are two different egg designs and an Easter chick to choose from.

Print them, colour them, paint them, cut them out – have fun with them!

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: activities for kids, colouring, craft, Easter, easter craft, easter egg, free, printables

Easter chocolate craft: Kinder egg chick in a wheaty chocolate nest

10 February, 2013 By Emily Leary 9 Comments

Now he just needs a worm! – me

For Easter this year, we’ve been practicing modifying the Cadbury’s Creme Egg chicks we usually make to produce this cheeky little fellow. It makes for a great family craft activity and the chick, the eggs and the nest are all completely edible. Here’s what to do.

Ingredients

4 giant chocolate buttons
1 Kinder Egg
200g dark chocolate
4 Shredded Wheat biscuits
2 chocolate orange buttons
Pack of Cadbury’s Mini Eggs
Black writing icing pen
A little butter for greasing

Instructions

Make the nest

Melt the chocolate
In a large bowl, crush the shredded wheat and then stir in the chocolate, keeping back about a 1/2 tbsp to use with the chick
Grease a sandwich tin and press the shredded wheat mix into it, so it’s slightly higher around the sides, then place in the fridge to set

Make the chick

Turn an empty cereal bowl upside down
Place two chocolate buttons side by side on the base and dab a little melted chocolate in the middle between the two
Unwrap the Kinder Egg and sit it on top, widest end at the bottom – we used a cold stick of butter to lean the egg again while it set
Dip the bottom edge of another button into the chocolate and stick on the side of the chick to make a wing
Repeat to make the other wing
Trim a little off the edge of an orange button, dip the trimmed edge in chocolate and stick on to make one half of the beak
Repeat to make the other half of the beak
Put a generous blob of chocolate above the beak and stick on two white Mini Eggs, pointy end up, to form the eyes
Use the black icing pen to draw on the pupils

Bring it all together

Get your nest out of the fridge and run a knife around the edges
Turn upside to tip out – if it’s stuck, run the hot tap over the base of the tin for a couple of seconds and it should drop out into your hand
To release the chick from the bowl, hold it carefully supporting the body and feet and turn the bowl upside down, then run a little hot water into the bowl – the chick should release almost immediately
Put the nest on a clean surface, fill with the remaining Mini Eggs and stand the chick in the middle

You’re done!

NOTE: this is so much easier if you have a cool room to work in and the chocolate you use as ‘glue’ is almost setting, not hot and runny.

I do hope you try this – it’s super easy and the result is really effective.

Filed Under: Food and drink Tagged With: chocolate, craft, Easter, how to, kids, Kinder egg

Spookily good monster crispy cakes (recipe)

29 October, 2012 By Emily Leary 3 Comments

I seeeeee you – JD, 4

We have three Halloween traditions in our household. We have a party (because it almost coincides with JD’s birthday), we carve pumpkins (JD draws a pattern on and Mark cuts it out) and we make monster cakes that peer right back at you.

Here’s how to make 12 of the little lookers…

Ingredients

200g marshmallows
30g butter
120g rice crispies
2 tsp green natural food colouring
12 white chocolate Lindor (white chocolate truffles)
A pack of icing pens (including black, green and red)

Instructions

Prepare the eyes first by drawing a black circle with icing onto the top of each ball
Next draw round the black circle twice with the green pen
Using a very slightly wet finger (I keep a pot of warm water by me as I work) pat the icing down to smooth it
Finally, using the red pen, draw in some spooky detail from the middle outwards
Set them aside
In a saucepan, gently melt the butter, then add in the marshmallows, stirring continuously with a large metal spoon until completely melted
Keeping the pan over a very low heat, stir in the rice crispies and mix until completely coated
Now add the colouring but try to stop mixing before the colour has distributed completely evenly – it gives a spookier effect
Take off the heat
Line a muffin tray with fairy cake cases and when the mixure is just cool enough to handle, spoon it into the cases – you may have to use your hands as it gets sticky very quickly
Wash any mix off your hands and leaving them slightly damp, push down the mixture in each case so that it’s packed firmly – you may have to rinse your hands a few times as you go
Before they set, push an eye into the centre of each cake so that it’s set in by a couple of milimetres
Allow to set completely, then lift out of the tray and there you have it – 12 crispy little monsters!

Filed Under: Food and drink Tagged With: cake, craft, fun, halloween, kids, recipe, sweets

How to make spooky Halloween play dough

16 October, 2012 By Emily Leary 5 Comments

I’m going to make the spookiest pumkin ever! – JD, 4

Woooo (and BOO!) it’s almost 31st October. It’s truthfully one of our very favourite times of year.

We love all the craft and imagination that goes with Halloween, so today we made spooky orange play dough.

We’ve made this recipe for years but I couldn’t quite remember the quantities so we found them here and this is what we did:

Ingredients

285g flour
340g salt
480ml water
1 tsp / sachet cream of tartar
2 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tbsp natural red food colouring
2 tbsp natural yellow food colouring

Instructions

1. Put all the dry ingredients in a large pan and stir well

2. Add the wet ingredients and mix well to get rid of the lumps (it doesn’t matter if it’s a little bit lumpy)

3. Put over a medium heat and stir continuously for a few minutes until it comes together as a dough – don’t let the bottom burn!

4. Scoop out onto greaseproof and allow to cool a little

5. Kneed well until it forms a smooth ball of dough (this is my favourite bit – very therapeutic!)

And that’s it – your spooky playdough is ready to play with!

We then set to work cutting out shapes with the Halloween cookie cutters we got from Lakeland last year.

When you’ve finished, just store in an airtight container to stop it drying out.

Easy peasy and just a little bit scary!

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: craft, creative, halloween, kids, make, play dough, pumpkin

How to make a junk mail butterfly

16 August, 2012 By Emily Leary 9 Comments

It’s can’t actually fly though, mummy! – JD, 4

What’s in your recycling bin? If it’s anything like ours, you’ll find a few food cans, maybe some pizza boxes, torn up card from toys, furniture and bulk nappy buys and reams and reams of junk mail.

Recently, JD, Miss J and I decided to do something about it. We found a cardboard box (the box for the Stokke Tripp Trapp is virtually butterfly shaped already!) and cut out a butterfly shape.

Next, JD spent a happy hour drawing all over it with a pen, then when he lost interest in that, we gathered up all of the junk mail in the house and ripped it up. Then we grabbed some PVA glue and set to work covering the whole butterfly in the torn up pieces.

All in all, it took a few hours over the course of a week, but the result is quite pleasing and the butterfly took a walk around the local parkland with us (and the camera) and is now hanging proudly in JD’s bedroom.

Are you inspired? Have you done any junk mail artwork? I’d love to hear about it.

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: activities, art for kids, butterfly, craft, junk mail, recyling

Colour and cut out Union Jack bunting template

21 May, 2012 By Emily Leary 4 Comments

It’s for the Jubilee! – JD, 4

Will you be celebrating the Jubilee with some craft activities for kids? Here’s a template to create fun, easy Union Jack bunting:

Download the A4 Union Jack bunting template
Print off as many sheets as you like – you get 10 flags per sheet
Have fun colouring them in
Cut them out, leaving the tabs on along the top edges
Attach the flags to a length of string by folding the tabs over and securing with a little glue

Enjoy :)