Thermocol Crafts : Sparkling Snowman

Sparkling Thermocol Snowman

          Hi friends ,it feels so good to be back to blogland after a gap of a month. We had gone on a family vacation to Singapore and I am settling down to normal life only now!
          While it's still winter I would like to share a cute snowman my daughter created using thermocol/styrofoam balls and "sparkling dust" a new product launched in India by Crafters Corner.

Thermocol Crafts

      My kiddo is quite good working with clay and she fashioned a nose and sculpted ear muffs  for her snowman using air-drying clay . The hat and muffler were made using pipe stem cleaners. It was so easy to make the snowman sparkle by giving a nice spray using the spray adhesive and dusting over with the "sparkling dust".

You can read more about this child friendly spray adhesive here : Spray Glue Tutorial

Snowman Crafts

I hope you liked this simple cute sparkling snowman
I have missed my blogger pals and will be visiting everyone soon!!

How A Switch Works -Teaching Kids Electricity !

Simple Electric Circuit

        Hi friends, teaching a 9 yr old the concepts of electricity can be a bit tricky and when the syllabus includes in-depth topics such as electrical circuits, how  a switch works ,the mechanisms of a battery etc...it can be quite daunting!!

        My daughter loves to take charts and models to school though it's not compulsory at all; I often oblige since it's a hands on way of learning and something she is not likely to forget at all!!

Simple Electric Circuit

Having a stash of assorted craft supplies and most importantly good adhesives on hand will make your job super easy while making any kind of school project! When I discuss school projects with the moms of other kids ...the question I get asked most frequently is " How do you stick it?!!"

Simple Electric Circuit

          Whenever I see sticker backed adhesive foam in any shop I always pick it up as these are awesome for children to handle..they are non messy, quick to use and have fabulous adhesive properties and are quite safe from little pulls from curious fingers!

        My daughter used self adhesive glitter foam to make all the key elements in her electrical circuit and I just had to help hot glue the electrical wires[ made of pipe stem cleaners!]

Simple Electric Circuit

My kiddo drew the light bulbs to which we connected the wires! My kiddo was quite thrilled we had "reeeaaal" popping  wires!!

Simple Electric Circuit

On the half of the circuit where the switch is connected to "complete" the circuit...the light bulb glows nice and bright!!

Simple Electric Circuit

Hehe this was one fun and simple project and if you are my regular reader do humour us with your comments 

And if  you landed here from google while searching for a school project...I hope our simple project idea was useful to you!
Linking to
Simon Says Wednesday Anything Goes With Glitter

Foam Crafts - DIY Dinosaur Mobile

DIY Dino mobile

Dear friends I better issue a warning at the beginning of this post :”Not for the faint hearted!”

My 7 year old daughter is learning about Reptiles and Dinosaurs in particular. Yesterday she came home from school and demanded we make a large diorama with lots of dinosaurs as another child had brought a diorama to school.

Like all moms I do have my “not in a mood to do anything” days…yesterday was one of those days! Eventually I give in seeing her enthusiasm …but alas I didnt have a good sturdy box for a large diorama!

DIY mobile

This was one of those times when being a blogger came in handy!I follow a blog on felt crafts by Carla and she makes the most adorable mobiles…so ambitiously I decided to to make a dinosaur mobile!

We had just 2 hours before my daughters bedtime so it was a super fast project and I dont have step by step photos to share.

I recycled the frame of an old toy clock to make the frame of our handmade dinosaur mobile.

Dinosaur school project

Tied up all  my daughters toy dinosaurs  to the frame . We didnt have time to colour the white ropes so my daughter prettied it up by wrapping sparkly green pipe stem cleaners on all the ropes of the dinosaurs mobile.

Foam crafts

The frame looked ghastly with all the ropes tied on, so we cut up grass freehand from textured foam and glued it onto the mobile frame with the glue gun [I love the glue gun…it  makes school projects such a breeze!].The red roses are also made from foam.

We strung alpha beads on pipe stem cleaners  to write my daughters name and wrapped it on our mobile frame

She also wanted to add her toy snakes on the mobile and eeeek they did look scary all wiggly on our DIY reptile mobile!

Dinosaur school project

My poor husband had to help carry it to school!! It was a big hit in her class and she proudly came and showed me the “sticker” she had got for it !!

I hope this idea comes in handy for a unique school project! Do tell me how you like it
Here are links to more Foam crafts :

• Foam Flower tutorials :Foam Rose tutorial 1, Foam Rose tutorial 2,Foam Cala Lily tutorial
• Foam Fridge magnets
• Foam DIY Pen stands: Foam Pen stand -Fairy land, Foam Penstand -Panda

Foam Crafts -Huggy Hearts

Foam Crafts

I am very lucky to have my mom stay in the flat next to ours and though I am "old and a big girl", I tend to rush to her with the slightest worry or problem .Also every evening my daughter gets to spend 2 hours at her grandma's place[that's my blogging time!]Recently my mom went on a religious pilgrimage and we missed her so much!As a "we love u" welcome back present we made these Foam Hearts.

Foam Crafts

These hearts were inspired by these heart crafts and we used glitter foam sheets, glittery pipe stem cleaners,googly eyes,foam punches,dies and magnets to make  our Huggy Heart Magnets.

Foam Crafts

I die cut the hearts and letters for my daughter though she is adept at using the big shot as you can see in this post on Ocean crafts.But she punched the foam hands on her own using her new foam punch[If you have a child crafter buy lever type medium sized punches as they are so much easier for little hands].

Googly eyes crafts

I love foam crafts and the big pluses for me are that foam stays cleaner while crafting unlike paper[a big plus while crafting with kids] and lasts long.The big negative with foam crafts is what adhesive to use.Here my daughter is trying to glue her letters to the foam hearts but they kept swimming away![White glue on foam needs a lot of time and patience!]

Foam crafts

My 6 year old crafter is quite knowledgeable about adhesives now and she said "Amma can we use glue dots?"Using the glue dots her heart faces were all done in 10 minutes!

Googly eyes crafts

We tried pipe stem cleaner bodies and I was thrilled that she was able to twist and turn the chenille stem sticks herself!

Pipe stem cleaner crafts

And here is our first Huggy Heart using foam crafts.

Valentines crafts

We intertwined the sparkly hands and the feet and stuck them behind the foam heart

Foam heart doll

I used the glue gun to stick the foam hands to the pipe stem cleaners

Pipe stem cleaner crafts

My daughter had fun taking her foam heart people all over our house and here on our balcony is Mr L Foam heart man.

Foam Hearts

And this is the young crafter having fun playing with her foam craft heart people

Valentine crafts

I glued magnets on the heart people and Kuttu placed them on her grandma's fridge as a welcome home "Love U" Banner!

Foam Crafts

My mom came home last night and on being greeted by these Huggy Hearts, I dont know who was the happiest one -me ,her or my little daughter ! 

I guess we can celebrate Valentine's Day and Mothers Day all year long!

Supplies : Glitter Foam sheets,Googly eyes,Foam Punch,Glue dots,Alphabet die[Donna salazar], Glitter pipe stem cleaners,Nellie Snellen Heart Die

Recycling Craft- Doll Making

Recycling Craft

Recycling Craft

Recycling crafts are a passion of mine  but boy did I struggle for ideas recently when I had to come up with a kids recycled craft ! My 5 year old has a week long exhibition in school on recycling crafts-- sounds easy ??? Well the catch is the kids have to take the material from home and  assemble it themselves in the school in the time given to them !
I shuddered at the thought of sending scissors and glue to school . What if she smeared glue all over her project or worse what if she hurt herself with the scissors ??[like many mothers I am a bit paranoid where my precious bundle is concerned!].
My daughter herself solved my problem- she invented her own recycled craft !
I saw her balancing a ball atop a broken toy part which she had inserted inside the cardboard tube of an used party popper - she had made a dancing doll!
I helped make a frock for her doll and we had a cute recycled dancing doll!
Sharing how we made this doll [To help any mums out there who might have to invent similar stuffs for their kiddos!]
These are the materials we recycled to make our recycled doll.

Recycling Craft

• Gems Ball Container- Useful ball shaped one that is so good for recycling crafts.
• Broken Umbrella - I have quite a few broken umbrellas at home!
• Fruit cover netting - Apples and pears have these lovely thermocol/styrofoam net covers these days.
• Broken toy part - originally  a trident toy
• Party popper -a used one .I wondered myself why I was crazy enough to have saved it!

I stuck the gems ball on the top of her broken trident using the glue gun [the glue gun is the best tool a mom could have!!].My little one designed the face and hair-- kids have weird color ideas and she wanted her doll to have a green face, blue hair and a purple nose! The blue hair is a pipe stem cleaner [ chenille stick].I plan to send this top part as such for her recycling craft.

Recycling Craft

I cut off the fabric from the umbrella and it left just a small hole in the top part.Taught my little one to slide it down the party popper cardboard tube to help make the skirt of her recycled craft doll.

Recycling Craft

Next she just had to slide down the fruit cover net to make the blouse of the doll.The fruit cover net is so springy that it stays snugly in place like a real blouse!Here is the dress of our recycled craft doll.

Recycling Craft

Next just insert the middle prong of the trident into the cardboard tube of the party popper and you have a doll which dances as the top part is not fixed but is free to swing to and fro!

Recycling Craft

The party popper we used has a weighted base so if you are making a similar doll with a bottle  or other container weigh down the bottom as otherwise your doll will topple over when she dances.I hope you enjoyed reading about this kids recycling craft!

Recycling Craft

I have dismantled this doll and packed the  parts for my little one to take to school tomorrow . As this was simple for her to make, I am also sending her a cardboard box  castle to make.Will share pics of that later.Keeping my fingers crossed all goes well tomorrow at her recycling exhibition.
Do share your thoughts on this recycling craft.