This year is the Year of the Earth Pig. To celebrate I’ve created a fun Chinese Lantern decorated with pigs.
The paper lantern is an easy craft project to do with kids and will also decorate your house for the celebration of the Lunar New Year.
Download the Year of the Pig Chinese Lantern
Instructions are on the Year of the Pig Lantern PDF that you will get as soon as you fill out the form above. The download happens instantly!
Year of the Pig Chinese Lantern – Download yours today, its free!
I’m sure your kids will have a lot of fun making their own Chinese Lanterns. The twins have done a few and have added them to their bedroom for decoration.
Year of the Pig Chinese Lanterns. The girls have added the lanterns to their room, don’t they look fab!
Enjoy this free printable and I hope your house looks more festive with these fun Year of the Pig decorations.
It is always nice to have gifts that are unique. A gift that has meaning, and of course is special to you and others.
Creating a gift that is a work of art is even better.
How about decorating a handkerchief for dad, mum, or anyone!
This gift idea is not only just for dads but can be for mum, grandparents, friends or even as a teacher gift.
Yes, this idea is easily adapted to whoever you wish to give it to. It just depends on your imagination.
This simple DIY gift is super easy to create and won’t cost the earth.
Equipment Need:
Handkerchiefs – You can purchase some or even make some if you are crafty at sewing. I purchased plain white ones. You can get different colours with patterns if you wish and incorporate this into your design.
Cardboard or paper to put on desk to make sure that the pens don’t bleed onto the desk.
Before you get started with your design it is always advisable to think about what you would like to achieve.
Check out what I created below:
A Breakdown of my decorated handkerchief:
For my first attempt at decorating the handkerchief, I just stuck to patterns in one colour.
I alternated rows to give it a better visual effect.
As the handkerchief had a pattern on the border I decided to not decorate there and leave the pattern the way it was originally.
Once the patterns in the red colour were finished, I then added some text on one side of the handkerchief and did it on the other end, and it is upside down from each other. This was done on purpose to make sure the text can be read no matter which way you have the handkerchief.
I was going to iron the handkerchief afterwards to heat set but have read that this is not needed for the Sharpie pens.
One post that I read recommended leaving the decoration for an hour to set.
Lillian working on her masterpiece for daddy.
The twins have both decorated their own handkerchiefs for daddy and I think they look amazing.
If you need a quick gift I would give this a go. I’m sure he will not have anything like it and of course love the fact that it is such a personal gift.
Julia creating her own colourful handkerchief for daddy.
If you do create a handkerchief decorated with sharpies for Father’s Day it would be amazing if you could share your pictures on our Facebook Page. I am sure that we can gain inspiration from your creations.
My first attempt at using Stained Sharpie Pens to decorate a handkerchief for hubby.
Thanks for following another great craft idea from Mummy to Twins Plus One. Stay tuned for more on the blog soon.
Julia’s finished artwork on a handkerchief for Father’s Day.Lillian’s brightly coloured Sharpie coloured handkerchief for daddy.
I hope you enjoyed this post.
Sign up to my newsletter
Stay current with all the things that are happening on Mummy to Twins Plus One? Don’t miss a thing by signing up to my newsletter. This newsletter will list all giveaways and fabulous things that are happening.
Need a unique gift for a family member? Don’t have heaps of money? Well this great project will give you a cheap gift and your family member will cherish the present for years to come.
This gift can be for birthday’s, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Celebrating being a new mum/dad, or even Christmas. So don’t worry it will be perfect for any occasion.
Create your own hand and feet print canvas, great gift idea. Be prepared for mess. It was a bunch of fun though, but the baby got the messiest. Enjoy!
Gather Your Materials
Washable Paint. If you have more than 1 child you will need different colours for each child. I purchased red, blue and white paint. I made purple paint and also pink out of these colours. I ended up having purple, pink and blue for the 3 kids to use.
Canvas (You can small sizes, large ones or enormous size canvas. It is up to you and the project you are making) I chose small square ones so that they would easily fit in the post and also on a wall.
Newspaper to cover the floor or outside area. This makes sure you don’t get too messy.
Towels – You might want to have towels set up on the floor to protect the path to the bathroom so that your very messy kids can not mess things up too much once they get in there to get clean. I do find that if my kids are head to toe covered in paint, the walls and doors get covered in it too. Therefore having a washable paint is ideal as all you have to do is to give the wall and floor a quick wipe and all is good.
Paint brushes – We used the paint brushes to put the paint on hands and feet. You can just put your hands and feet in the paint but using the paint brush made it a bit easier.
How To Create the Prints
Step 1: Have your paint ready to go. If you need to mix colours have it all organised before the kids get near it.
Step 2: Put the newspaper down and then lay the canvas on top.
Step 3:Make sure kids are in clothes that can get dirty and then paint a foot or a hand and press on the canvas. (You might want to figure out where each hand and foot is going to go on the canvas. You don’t want to figure it out with excited kids who are ready to paint everything and anything. Before we put anything on a canvas I spoke to the girls about where each persons hand was going to go and we were going to save space for the baby as well.)
Step 4: Since I was making more than one canvas at the same time I did this 3 times for each person. I made one for my Mother in Law, one for my mum and also one for me!
Step 5:Once you have all the hands and prints on the canvas, it now needs to dry. It should dry well overnight and be ready to post the next day. I packed one up for my Mother in Law. It just needed some bubble wrap to protect it and it sat in the box with the other goodies for her birthday.
This is a good rainy day activity. I am sure it will keep the kids happy and having fun. Afterwards they can have a bubble bath and you get some peace and quiet after they are relaxed and tried. Maybe after the bath put on a film for them to watch or read them a story…… I do live in hope that the kids will be super tired after activities.
Oh well, whatever you do enjoy. I hope this gives you some great ideas and a cheap gift idea to create.
Need a unique gift for a family member? Don’t have heaps of money? Well, this great project will give you a cheap gift and your family member will cherish the present for years to come.
This gift can be for birthdays, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Celebrating being a new mum/dad, or even Christmas. So don’t worry it will be perfect for any occasion.
Create your own hand and feet print canvas, great gift idea. Be prepared for a mess. It was a bunch of fun though, but the baby got the messiest. Enjoy!
Gather Your Materials
Washable Paint. If you have more than 1 child you will need different colours for each child. I purchased red, blue and white paint. I made purple paint and also pink out of these colours. I ended up having purple, pink and blue for the 3 kids to use.
Canvas (You can small sizes, large ones or enormous size canvas. It is up to you and the project you are making) I chose small square ones so that they would easily fit in the post and also on a wall.
Newspaper to cover the floor or outside area. This makes sure you don’t get too messy.
Towels – You might want to have towels set up on the floor to protect the path to the bathroom so that your very messy kids can not mess things up too much once they get in there to get clean. I do find that if my kids are head to toe covered in paint, the walls and doors get covered in it too. Therefore having a washable paint is ideal as all you have to do is to give the wall and floor a quick wipe and all is good.
Paintbrushes – We used paintbrushes to put the paint on hands and feet. You can just put your hands and feet in the paint but using the paintbrush made it a bit easier.
How To Create the Prints
Step 1: Have your paint ready to go. If you need to mix colours have it all organised before the kids get near it.
Step 2: Put the newspaper down and then lay the canvas on top.
Step 3:Make sure kids are in clothes that can get dirty and then paint a foot or a hand and press on the canvas. (You might want to figure out where each hand and foot is going to go on the canvas. You don’t want to figure it out with excited kids who are ready to paint everything and anything. Before we put anything on a canvas I spoke to the girls about where each person’s hand was going to go and we were going to save space for the baby as well.)
Step 4: Since I was making more than one canvas at the same time I did this 3 times for each person. I made one for my Mother in Law, one for my mum and also one for me!
Step 5:Once you have all the hands and prints on the canvas, it now needs to dry. It should dry well overnight and be ready to post the next day. I picked one up for my Mother in Law. It just needed some bubble wrap to protect it and it sat in the box with the other goodies for her birthday.
This is a good rainy day activity. I am sure it will keep the kids happy and having fun. Afterward, they can have a bubble bath and you get some peace and quiet after they are relaxed and tired.
Maybe after the bath put on a film for them to watch or read them a story…… I do live in hope that the kids will be super tired after activities.
Oh well, whatever you do enjoy. I hope this gives you some great ideas and a cheap gift idea to create.
Sign up for my newsletter
Stay current with all the things that are happening on Mummy to Twins Plus One. Don’t miss a thing by signing up for my newsletter. This newsletter will list all giveaways and fabulous things that are happening.
This post was originally created for a Father’s Day tutorial. However this could be applied for Christmas gifts, birthdays and anything at all. Use it to create some great presents for Christmas.
I do have something organised for hubby for Father’s Day. However I thought it might be nice for the twins to do something creative for daddy themselves. I have had some friends do things with sharpie pens and I have always been curious. Online I saw that you can decorate a mug/cup with sharpie pens, then bake it and all good to use. How amazing and interesting. Will it work? The only way is to give it a go.
So I got the kids some sharpie pens from the shop and a white mug each and then each child had to decorate them. I told them that they can do whatever design they wished to. One child was very expressive and creative and wanted to colour the whole mug in and the other was trying to draw and write more on the mug. Interesting the difference. It did not matter what they created, it was an expression of them to their daddy.
What do you need?
1. Sharpie Pens. I purchased mine individually as this worked out a little cheaper. You can get a pack of 12 for about $20. Packs I saw for less varied between $14 or more.
2. A cup or a mug to decorate. I choose to have white mugs as then the colours from the pens will show up more
3. An oven to bake the mugs in
Concentrating on her creation for daddy.
What is the process?
1. Once you have all your materials ready you can then start.
2. Decorate your mugs
3. Finalise your decoration and once happy you are ready to bake in the oven.
4. Bake in the oven for 30mins at 180°C or 356°F
Once baked you are good to use the cup. Might need to wait a bit and hand wash carefully to make sure it is all clean to use. As I have never done this before I am keen to see how they go. I would not put in the dishwasher.
Happy creating and this is a great cheap last minute gift for Father’s Day. Have fun!
Finished mugs ready to be baked
Note: Some colours after it was baked have changed. The gold seems to have turned into brown. Maybe I need to get different sharpies next time.
Do your kids love to play with play dough? Mine just adore it, they get very creative and it does get messy. So expecting mess I set them up in the backyard with the dough and things to play with the dough, cutters and rolling pins and so on.
One of my girls decided not to play with any of the extra things I provided, she decided to get bits of plants and put them into balls of play dough. This creation was called a gum tree. I know it was not a gum tree but it was very clever none the less. My little creative girl was very insistent that it was a gum tree, I did explain, but decided to leave her to her creations.
So if you would like to do this to keep your kids entertained this is what you need to do:
1. Have play dough, it is so easy to make your own and you can create any colours – You can find a great recipe from Mckenzie’s Foods, I think the magic ingredient is their Cream of Tartar. Adding Cream of Tartar seems to make the play dough nice soft and gives it a great texture, try it you will see the difference.
2. Once you have the play dough give to kids to create balls to place things in it to resemble trees or flowers.
3. Kids can pick things from the yard, flowers, weeds, or leaves to stick in the playhouse.
4. Imagination is key, anything is possible. How about getting sticks, glitter, or anything that you think would work will add magic to the play dough gum trees.
Now leave the kids to create a forest with their new weird and wonderful trees and flowers. How about keeping your creations to create a town or even as gifts. This creative task had the twins busy for hours. I managed to get a bit done without interruption and I was happy as well as the girls so a win win.
Do you kids create great works in play dough? What are some of the great things that have been created? Send in your comments and why not continue the discussion on our Twitter or Facebook pages.
My kids create so many drawings and some have been just wonderful (Pre-school has told them that if they don’t put their names on their art it gets put in the recycling, I have been told they are prolific creaters and of course the quantity they create). It is great to see the girl’s drawings looking like people and actual things that they are saying they have drawn.
For Father’s Day this year I thought why not frame some of the girl’s drawings. I did ask them to draw daddy and they were good enough to oblige. This gift idea is not just for one event it could be for birthdays, Christmas, Mother’s Day and as mentioned Father’s Day. So be creative and include your kids in the gift giving.
My artists work
Having a nice framed art from the grandkids would be a lovely gift that is cost effective also. I got a deal with the frames. I think from memory I purchased 3 for $20 so a bargain. The paper we already had and of course the creative little artists had a myriad of pens, textas, and crayons to use for their art.
Once framed the drawings look amazing, it makes them looks great and important. One good idea is that if you don’t want to part with the drawings you can hang some on the wall and rotate the drawings. This is a nice way to showcase your kids art and proudly on the walls.
My creative little artists
So why not give a unique gift that will not cost the earth. It is also nice to have the kids help with the pressie giving and creation. Why not give it a go and see the smile on your relatives and friends faces when they receive the wonderful art from your little artists. Send in your comments.
While searching Pintrest I stumbled accross this great list of craft ideas and activities for Thanksgiving. This find was brought to you by No Time for Flash Cards. I am sure that there will be plenty to amuse your little ones and to keep the whole house busy. Enjoy and have a Happy Thanksgiving.
Last week the girls and I were watching Play School, in the episode they did craft. I don’t know if you are like me, but when these crafty segments are in the kids programs I cringe and wait for the barrage of questions and pestering, “Can we do that mummy?” So with this craft idea on play school I said yes. The girls were very excited and happy, so next morning we got started and it did not take long.
Ice Boats – Perfect fun for kids.
As you will see from the pictures the girls loved it and had a ball. So what is ice boats? Well, it is really simple.
Get plastic containers, food dye, blu-tack, straws/sticks and you can create flags for your boats if you want to. We did not but that would be the next step.
Once you have your container, add some tack to the bottom of it.
Stick your stick/straw into the tack to make sure it is not going to move.
Mix the water and colour of choice from the food dye in a mixing jug.
Pour coloured water into plastic container.
Put in freezer to set.
You might want to have a bit of room so your sail does not snap off.
When taking the ice boat out of the container, I had to put some hot water around the bottom so it would slide out easily.
Playing with the boats before they melt.
Now you have kids in bath, and they are getting clean while also having fun, plus you have done some craft time with them also. Bonus points all round.
Do you dread the crafty things on kids television programs? Does it put pressure on you to be really crafty too? I know the feeling, especially with two keen kids who want to get involved and messy to boot. I am hoping to find more crafty things that I can do with the girls while they are on school holidays, and it has started today. So project tire kids out has started in ernest.
Send in your tips and tricks and then maybe I might have some more crafty ideas to try out these holidays.
Today it has not stopped raining, so another indoor craft day I think. What to do to keep the little monkeys busy? The fun for today was painting and tent building.
I set up the dining room for painting. Sheets of paper were organised as was the paint, water and brushes. To make it easier for each child I put the paint into muffin/cupcake tins. Lillian painted a great picture of a platypus and footprints, Julia painted a platypus and a jungle with footprints, very creative pictures indeed. This kept the girls entertained for a couple of hours, enough for me to tidy up the kitchen. A big mess was made, but it is all okay as it will wash off clothes and furniture. If you don’t use Crayola paint you should as it washes out and you can be confident that it will come out of clothes, walls and other things. Crayola have textas and other items that are washable and I have found these great as well, the girls tend to colour their faces, legs, and other body parts, so it is nice to know that it will all wash off.
After painting the kids hands, faces were washed. A change of clothes were needed for kids and also to mummy as I got dirty as well. Then daddy and the girls built a tent in the living room. The tent was a space for books to be read by daddy and puzzle making time. Tent was made with 3 dining chairs and a sheet.
As I write this the tent is still up and kids are busy creating more works of art using their pencils and textas, with Wallace and Gromit playing in the background. What have you been up to this long weekend. I know that hubby is a bit sad that it is raining and wet, he wanted to do some yard work. Maybe next weekend it will be sunnier.
This June long weekend has been wet and cold. What do you do with kids with this kind of weather? Yesterday the hubby and I made some wonderful playdough, blue this time instead of the pink that is constantly requested. We used the recipe from McKenzie’s Cream of Tartar for playdough as it gives a nice smooth fluffy feeling, I used to use the recipe on the side of the food dye box but have found this one with cream of tartar is far superior. The recipe calls for you to put it over the stove, however we just put hot water mixed with the food dye and mixed it in a bowel and added more flour if it needed it. I urge you to give it a go; I think you will be very surprised at how brilliantly it turns out.
I have a box, called the “collage box” that keeps decorations, paper, glue and other things that can be stuck on paper to decorate it. I have taken to keeping paper that is pretty and other cute things for later collage masterpieces. We did a bit of collage and had the box out when the playdough was used. The girls got creative with their snowmen and added sparkles, eyes, and other things to make unique pieces of art. Both snowmen are still on the dining room table to dry out.
Let us know what you think of the girls wonderful art, I think it is just very clever and creative, however I am their mother and supposed to think that.
Playdough Snowmen
What have you done on a rainy day to keep kids entertained? Do you have any great craft ideas? Send in your comments.
On Friday I visited some friends, and the girls were given a cardboard box to play with. The girls were pretending to be a Jack in the Box. This game got a bit tricky as they then had to dodge the big giant hand, which was my friend Fred trying to tickle or scare the girls; this led to screeches of laughter.
It was this moment that I thought how simple it is, just give a child a cardboard box and they are happy for hours. All the different things that a cardboard box can become, a jack in the box, a house, a shop, a table, a bed for the dog/baby/mummy or whoever they are pretending to be at the time.
We received a gift card from my mother, for James and my birthday next month, and this was for a new microwave. I know not the most exciting present, but as money is tight and our old one ended up on fire a new one was in order. The gift card got to me by Friday so Saturday we all went to the shops to purchase the new microwave, and as you guessed it. It comes with a big box.
The girls now have this big box in the living room and have been happy pretending it is all sorts of things. James wanted to throw it out, however I saved it as I think the girls would be crushed if it disappeared. They have been giggling away, jumping in and out of it and also organising cushions and blankets for the inside. Boxes definitely help to build imaginary worlds that your child/children can be engrossed in for hours on end.
Relaxing in the boxVery happy in our houseNice to watch some tv
Do your children like to play with boxes? What is the most creative thing that you have turned your box or boxes into? If you have the time, patience and energy, you can create some wonderful things out of cardboard.
Here are some great links that will give you some inspiration:
Have you ever thought how do you make things more interesting for your child/children. The girls for a while have been wanting to do more artistic things so I searched high and low to find out more that I can do. Ages ago, I found this great site called, “I can teach my child“, this has great creative and educational ideas. On this site, I found a great way for the girls to paint while we are having a shower. It is a no mess, fun and creative way for your little one to just go mad and you are happy as the shower washes it all away.
I have added to the idea by making sure that I put the paint in a silicone cupcake container. This means it is easy to clean, just pop it in the sink and rinse out or straight into the dishwasher.
Okay, I suppose you now want to know what I am talking about. Well, it is shaving cream paint.
Step1: Purchase the cheapest shaving cream you can find.
Step 2: Before the shower, put shaving cream into the silicone cupcake container.
Step 3: Add food colouring to each area and mix it with a spoon. Make sure that it is all mixed in and if not to your liking add more colouring.
Step 4: Have paint brushes for the kids.
Step 5: Have a shower and then watch them go crazy painting the shower and being creative. It is so much fun that you end up getting painted as well. You can paint the kids also.
Did you end up with wonderful artwork on the shower wall? Or did your kids get covered in paint head to toe? Let us know.
I hope you enjoyed this and of course it means that your kids will be happy to take a shower.
