No sew tutu

I made a no sew tutu for my niece (going in the hidden present pile for Christmas) So much fun to make! think I will make some more for the other little princess dancers we are friends with. There are lots of tutes on how to do this, I used elastic instead of ribbon so they can have independence and put it herself. sometimes I have girl envy. I started this last night around 9 pm, went to bed it was half done, Eli woke me up at 1 on a no sleep campaign and so this was finished at 2.30 pm with a cup of hot chocolate so I'd calm down and sleep ok.
this was best tute I found video of no sew tutu

sassy scribble week - saturday for Kennedy with love

Gratitude

My lovely friend Alicia has a blog on face book all about gratitude, Alicias 365 Moments of Gratitude Project and its an everyday reminder to me to be thankful. She inspires me all the time with ideas for play and living with sincerity. Check it out, while were talking gratitude she told me her little boy had been loving playing with block cities and his dinosaurs, so inspired Flynn and I dusted off the blocks and had a fantastic godzilla-ish time.

sassy scribble friday + 1 late thursday

 The sheep were drawn on thrusday very late at night while holding an anti-sleep1 year old

what to do with colouring in ?

I end up with heaps of colouring in pages some are treasured in a book, but others end up getting recycled I want to come up with some creative things to do with these pictures. Idea 1, ice cream stick puppets
combine one paddle pop stick some sticky tape and a cut out colouring in picture voila. We took ours into the sandpit the boys enjoyed burying, pretend watering, and feeding them bits of leaves. Not to mention the fire engines rescued the birds and bugs from multiple fires.

Sassys scribble week (wed)

one for my pretend fire fighter

sassy's scribble week (tuesday)

sassy scribble week

sassy scribble friday

In this scribble I was thinking about the balloon play this week and my wedding anniversary today .

Dinosaurs eggs go POP

 

To make your own dino eggs,  pull back a balloon with fingers, insert tiny plastic dinosaur. This is a bit tricky and did make me smirk as it kinda conjures up sex ed classes from high school. Put end of balloon over the tap and fill with water, take off tap, tie a knot and voila a dinosaur egg ready to hatch or rather pop. If you hold them up to the light you can see the dino baby inside. I gave Flynn a big bowl full, but it wasn't enough he demanded more and then some more. Good fun for a sunny day.

Spring Shorts

 This is what i have been making some shorts for next season, spring in Australia, think spring is just about here for us cold seems to have disappeared already and they days are getting hotter. So in anticipation of the hot hot and extremely hot weather that's going to come our way I have whipped up some shorts for my boys. Cute huh, I am tired of shorts that are too long on the boys (most boardies) and I'm tired of how bulky denim shorts can be and I want to make the most of them being little and for them to look like kids and not shrunken adults thus I chose some cute kids prints. I confess I just bought some more fabric online to make even more kiddie shorts.



balloon play idea

A great little play idea, I have never met a kid that didn’t like balloons and when I need a sanity moment like I did this Sunday this is one way I occupy the littlies. I blow up a dozen balloons tie a length of string to each one and masking tape them just above a doorway. Kiddies can whack them, run through them, look through them and I got Flynn to find different colours and count how many he could find in that colour. I blew some big and some small and I got Flynn to find different sizes too. It was perfect little game for Eli who has just started to walk he loved being able to grab the balloons and bash them. When the interest in the balloons began to dissipate I got out some office supply stickers and the sticky tape, Flynn made faces and Eli peeled stickers (he tried to eat some too).  After they finished I moved them to Flynn’s bedroom and he can have a pretend birthday party with some toys later in the week.  When bath time rocked around Flynn asked if he could take a balloon in the bath, they had a lovely time holding the balloons under the water and releasing them with a whoosh. Last year Flynn had an emergency trip to the doctor when his eye swelled up due to an allergic reaction to something, he was very very sad that his eye was “broken” and to cheer him up I filled his bed with balloons he thought this was fantastic it cheered him up immensely. I often have a balloon or two stashed in my purse for emergency play moment if you get stuck somewhere waiting they are a sanity saver. I love simple classic play things.

sassy scribble friday

please note this was a fast drawing for my son who loves cake to colour in and to push him to count beyond 10.

How to make Dino Painting

Ok if you read my previous post on Flynn's dinosaur pictures I said it was possible to make one even if your kiddies are past the extremely free painting stage. You can get there help to do parts of this or you could do it solo. This technique should work for any kind of words and animal silhouettes. So you will need a canvas or a board to paint on, the one I’m using is mdf board from the hardware store, because I’m going to add some handles to the bottom so that bags hat and so forth can be hung from it. The mdf board can be bolted straight into the wall (a job I leave for tortoise). Carbon Copy paper, you could use tracing paper but the carbon paper is so much faster and gives a darker line to follow. I had to ask at the newsagent counter for it as it’s not a popular item anymore so they sell it by the sheet, one piece can be used multiple times. And some acrylic paint, and brushes, and a computer with printer.

Step one (above), print out the images you want on your painting, arrange them till your happy, then I copied the letters because I wanted a definite idea of where they were going to end up, with the dinosaurs I just knew roughly where I would place them. Then I filled these areas with some rough colour, I blended cadmium yellow and orange to give a nice hot lettering effect, and I threw in a bit of cadmium red too.  Wait for it to dry, that won’t take very long if you live in this hot climate.

(above) Next I took some bubble wrap, painted the wrap with some white paint and Flynn and i pressed or stamped it onto the board, it leaves a nice repeated print. We randomly stamped away, then did another layer with a brown (burnt sienna) we did that immediately so it would smudge a bit with the white. You don’t have to be precious as the desired effect is that haphazard random look. Then I took a small plastic cup mixed about 2 tablespoons roughly of water with a bit of paint and Flynn was allowed to flick, dribble it across. It works best with a sharp flick of the wrist. Together Flynn and I flicked lemon yellow and green (mixed from cadmium yellow and ultramarine blue) with gusto. (below)

When this was all dry I drew / scribbled diagonally across the lettering to give it some more definition with a red coloured pencil. Then I added some tiny dotting details in burnt sienna brown mixed with a dash of ultramarine blue, where I thought the large t-rex was going to make him a bit more impressive.

Then using your carbon paper trace the lettering over again, lining it up carefully, and any other shapes you want, Its a bit hard to see the outline of the diplodocus  but in real life its visible enough to work with. The next step is magic, fill in your negative space around your lettering and dinosaurs!

I did 2 layers for the background an ultramarine blue, the darker one let it dry then dry brushed a ultramarine mixed with white blue over it. Dry brush is as it sounds a brush dipped into the paint and don't dip it into your water.  I went back in after this and added a little bit of white and brown for eye definition. I hope this was explained well enough, go ahead and try your own version!

PS. Eli reached up to the table I was working on pulled this jar without me noticing, broke it and I caught him as he was about to shove broken glass a paint into his mouth!! man that was close, I need eyes in the back of my head.

Cozy Car Caddie from blog Handmade by Jill

I made 2 of these car caddies I saw on Handmade by Jill, mine are not as accomplished sewing wise, but my boys LOVE them, Eli's only 1 and he is already a rev head so a perfect project for boys. Make your own by following her tutorial here. Eli's was a first birthday present and it's got a beach theme, Flynn’s was made to occupy him on a very long car trip from cairns to Rockhampton (we took 2 days). Today I updated Flynn's as it was a bit basic with just the roads a traffic light and a pond, now it has lift the flap buildings that are on fire (thanks to the hot glue gun). He has an obsession with all thing fire-fighter and rescue orientated. It was popular and useful when we went out before I think with the extra features it's going to be a massive hit, and definitely a sanity saver.

Check out the great blog handmade by Jill

Finger Paint

Finger Paint = squishy fun

1/2 cup corn flour

3 tablespoons of sugar

1/2 teaspoon of salt

2 cups of water

Food colouring

So you take the cornflour, sugar, salt and water in a saucepan cook until it thickens, this takes about 10 to 15 mins. Its best if you keep stirring it especially as it thickens. Then take it off the heat let it cool a bit divide into containers (I used baby food jars). Mix in the food colouring to each pot. It Makes a great non toxic paint a bit like a jelly that smooshes onto the paper really well. I add a few drops of essential lavender oil because living in the tropics and I don’t want my boy’s paintings to go mouldy.  You could also add glitter, kid’s love a bit of sparkle. And to extend the play for longer I let Flynn drive a little bashed up car through the paint, leaving burnout marks. He also likes using a comb to scrape through the paint living stripes, a plastic fork or knife would work too.  I hope this brings you and your children many happy paintings.

Ps... Before I let him lose with the paint it hake as many pieces of clothing off as I can and I prep the paddle pool or bath for a fast and easy clean up because @ 3 when they have had enough of something that it they have had enough.

Flynn's Bright Dinos

A while ago I got Flynn to paint some canvases for his bedroom it took 3 sessions of painting to get the canvases as filled up as I wanted. The less white space left the better for this project.  He was encouraged to use crayons paint glitter and to really go for it with enthusiasm. I have three others that I have left intact they are beautiful abstract pictures that I will put up in the house but for his room I wanted something a bit more boyish.  Dinosaurs was the obvious answer for him, but this would work equally well for any silhouette.  I asked his permission first before I altered his paintings then I drew out some dinosaurs and painted the background white. It took 2 layers of white to cover the colourful paintings, and it was slow going around the edges but I’m really happy with the results. I will take a photo when they get hung, must hassle tortoise about that this week. I am working on a tute about this that will work out even if your kids are past the abstract painting stage, or you could do for yourself.