What I made
23
days ago

Three fun ‘finish your food’ cards

Posted in: To make the kids smile, , ,

Finish your food cards - Monkey bottom

Finish your food cards - Stealing your food

Finish your food cards - Space race

Finish your food cards - Empty plate

My two boys are constantly on the move, even at meal times, which makes getting them to finish their food almost impossible. So with this in mind I decided to turn eating into a challenge – something that would appeal to their sense of competition. The result was the rather unusual plate accessories you see above. They clip onto the edge of the plate and carry different messages, all aimed at getting kids to ‘finish their food’. And they work (see below)!

How to make one

Finish your food cards - How to diagram

The trickiest part will be making the clip attachment. I used a bulldog clip, thick wire and some pliers. Just follow the diagram above – the goal is to firmly attach one end of the wire to the bulldog clip, and then bend the other end in such a way that it can grip the base of the cards.

As for the the card designs, they don’t need to be highly finished, the idea and message is more important – just have fun. But just in case you are out of inspiration, I have made colour and black and white versions of my designs available for download (see link below). Good luck.

Download paper targets here

TIP: Before I wrap up I’d like to thank Diane, owner of the excellent Craftypod website. I recently purchased her Creating a blog audience: an Unconventional Marketing Guide e-book, and it has been a great help to me. Diane was also kind enough to offer me some encouragement and advice – so this post is dedicated to her!

What I made
54
days ago

A dangerous alphabet for kids

Posted in: To make the kids smile, ,

Alphabet for kids - A is for ants

Alphabet for kids - Letter B is for bumper cars

Alphabet for kids - Letter C is for castle

Alphabet for kids - Letter D is for dinosaurs

Here’s the first four letters of a dangerous alphabet for kids (well, mainly boys). I thought it would be fun to have each letter depict an amusing scenario containing a touch of violence or misfortune, nothing too serious, ants getting burnt with magnifying glasses, that sort of thing. Eventually I thought I could use the alphabet to create name plates, but so far I haven’t got very far. So if you like them give me some encouragement and I’ll persevere with the rest of the alphabet. Oh… and I’d also be happy to take suggestions for the other letters.

Now you make one

It turns out that this is also a fantastic kids activity, my son (Dylan) at least has really got into it. You might need to help choose and spell the words, but that’s all – it should keep them busy for hours. For further ideas and inspiration check out Dylan’s alphabet for boys.

What I made
60
days ago

Five plastic dart gun targets

Posted in: To occupy the kids, , ,

Paper target of bath tub helicopter

Flying bath tub: 5 pts

Paper target of penny farthing bomber

Penny-farthing bomber: 50 pts

Paper target of hydraulic stilt stomper

Hydraulic stilt stomper: 11 pts

Paper target of sneaky trash can squirter

Sneaky trash can squirter: 30 pts

Paper target of a chainsaw wielding tree stalker

Chainsaw wielding tree stalker: 40 pts

My son won a plastic dart gun at the local fair, it was actually quite cool, it shot suction darts and little rubber bullets – and it shot them pretty far. So far in fact, that most of them ended up in the neighbour’s garden! So with bullet preservation in mind I encouraged my son to shoot at targets (so we could easily retrieve the bullets). To make this a more exciting prospect than shooting his younger brother, I made the targets a bit more fun than just ‘sitting ducks’. Hope you like them.

How to make one

Kid’s (especially boys) love targets, you don’t even need a dart gun – you can use balls, marbles and even stones to try and knock them down. If you don’t have the time to create your own, you can download my targets and have your kids colour them in. Have fun.

Download paper targets here

TIP: I was excited to recently discover that Craftzine had included this project on their blog. So thank you. And if you haven’t checked out their site please do, it’s a fabulous resource for anyone interested in crafts.

What I made
89
days ago

A face from a Starbuck’s lid

Posted in: To make the kids smile, , ,

A Starbuck's lid turned into a picture of a child's face

I always thought the lid on a Starbucks take-away cup looked like a mouth. To test my theory I added some more features using a permanent marker. What I didn’t realise however, was that with the addition of a carefully positioned spill, it looks like someone being sick (there’s no classy way of saying saying it, apologies!).

And that got me thinking about SMS/TXT symbols for faces – would this be a good one for being sick?

:-c<

Compare it to the photo above, I think they are a spitting image!

What I made
94
days ago

A play-doh sculpture

Posted in: To amuse myself, ,

A cartoon style splat made from Play-doh

I had huge ambition. I was going to create something intricate and inspiring from my son’s Play-doh. Think of the Sony Bravia Play-doh bunnies TV ad, but bigger and better.

I threw myself into the task… green, yellow, purple, black, blue … there were pots, lids, and little balls of play-doh everywhere. I was going great guns. 3 hours later my masterpiece was complete. A splat!

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