Make your own upcycled fruit and veg fridge magnets. Easiest DIY ever!
Have you been collecting Jamie’s Garden stickers lately? (For international readers these are stickers being given out by one of Australia’s major supermarket chains at the moment.)
You could put your stickers in an album, where chances are you’ll be coerced into collecting more and more so as to fill all the last niggly little spots.
Or… you could make some DIY stickers for your refridgerator door, where the kids can play (and learn) with them over and over again.
And, here’s the best bit, you probably have the key ingredient already. I got the idea from Childhood 101’s post on how to make a DIY Charlie & Lola magnet game. She uses those icky promotional magnets that somehow appear in your mailbox (despite your No Junk Mail sticker), and end up on your refrigerator door. You know the ones – Joe’s 24 hour plumber service, or the 2012 calendar, or the Poison’s Hotline. (Second thoughts, maybe keep the Poisons’s Hotline one…)
Stick the sticker straight on top of the promotional magnets, and then cut off any excess. Then put them on your fridge at child height, and let them discover their new toys.
If your kids are like mine, there’ll be lots of questions about what mint and garlic smells like (those stickers are scratch and sniff ones), or that Jonathan apples are just one of the many varieties of apple, or that rockmelons grow on a vine.
And your fridge will look much prettier minus all those ads!
xx Danya
PS: For another fridge prettifying idea you might like to make a DIY Photo Puzzle, like this one. 🙂
Happy birthday JJ! My sweet little girl turned four this week. She asked for an Octonauts party, starring Dashi of course!
Since most of JJ’s friends attend her preschool, we decided to hold her party at the preschool’s playground after preschool one afternoon. In some respects, this made hosting a party so easy! It meant we were able to save our house from a preschooler avalanche, the playground was perfectly suited for a large group so we could invite her whole class, and all the guests arrived on time! It did also mean however, that I only had 15 minutes of set up time. Makes it slightly tricky! Luckily I was able to put together all of these aspects beforehand, and pull off a pretty awesome Dashi party for my little Octonauts fan. Here’s how we did it:
Dashi Dress Up Costume
JJ loves dressing up, and so I made this Dashi mask (or would you call it a hat? or a wig?) as a surprise for her to wear at the party. She loved it!
To make it, I used a crown that JJ had decorated and worn earlier that week, so I knew it was the right size. I cut off the spikes and hot glued on some cardboard cut to the shape of Dashi’s fringe.
I cut cardboard ears, and covered all the pieces with the material from an old brown cardigan that was in my scrap fabric collection, and glued with PVC glue.
To make the hat, I pasted blue paper to cardboard and added some details with a blue marker and white acrylic paint, and then glued to the top of the hat. Pegs held all the individual elements together overnight until the glue set. Then I added a few hair clips, and JJ’s Dashi mask was ready!
She wore it for the entire party and loved being the centre of attention. And she’s scarcely taken it off since. 🙂
Octonauts Party Food
Second to the birthday girl, the star of any kids birthday party is the cake….
Dashi Mud Cake
I started baking a fortnight before the party and my initial two chocolate cakes failed miserably. I then switched to this large chocolate mud cake recipe and it worked! I used a large roasting tray, and froze the resulting rectangular mud cake for about a week, defrosting it the day before the party.
I flipped the cake over so that I could decorate the firm base instead of the crumbly top crust. I cut it to Dashi’s face shape and covered with a dark chocolate ganache. I then used ready to roll icing to add the decorative details.
I won’t pretend this cake was easy. It took a lot of attention to detail and several hours to decorate. It wasn’t until I had finished decorating her face that I realised I had forgotten one of the elements – her Octonauts hat. As I was already pushing for space on our square cake board, I made a little “cake board extension” using several layers of cardboard wrapped in tape and foil. I tried to balance this aesthetically by adding her blue collar below her face as well.
Despite the hat debacle, I still think this is the best cake I’ve ever made. It was moist, dense, chocolately, not too sweet and easy to shape. I received so many compliments! And, most importantly, the birthday girl thought it was amazeballs. Here she is blowing out the candles (with a little help from her friends).
Other Sea Snacks
I intentionally didn’t over cater as I was concious that the kids would be going home to dinner shortly. I did put out some mini packets of sea animal biscuits shapes, and these cute little oyster & pearl biscuits that I made using Choc Ripple biscuits, icing and yogurt covered sultanas.
One of my friends also made some gorgeous little Captain Barnacles Gup cars using Tiny Teddy’s, Milky Ways and Smarties. (Thanks so much M! Wish I had gotten a photo!). I also put out some rockmelon & grapes. I provided a few cups in case any of the kids wanted to help themselves to tap water – because after all this is what fish drink. 🙂
Octonauts Party Games
With over thirty kids, we didn’t organise too many structured games. I thought it would be better to have a few Octonauts themed party ‘stations’ that the kids can move between if they wanted to, whilst letting them direct their own play. Here’s what we put out:
Sea Creature Sandpit Toys
The preschool has a large sandpit, so I made sure to bring plenty of buckets and spades. I also included various sea creature moulds and cookie cutters to lend an Octonauts theme to the sandpit play.
Octonauts Colouring In
These Octonauts free printable colouring in activity sheets only took a few minutes to print off. Paired with washable markers and crayons in a quiet corner of the playground, I thought this would make a calming activity for any kids that were overstimulated or needed a time out. On the day I noticed that this area was also used by some of the younger siblings who weren’t quite able to keep up with the ruckus of a preschooler filled playground.
Kwazi Eye Patch Dress Up
These were really easy to make and look quite effective. I just cut semicircles of felt, glued them to strips of black ribbon with PVC glue, and pegged them on the washing line to dry. There’s no need to be too precise with the glue, as the glue dries clear, and you don’t see the back when the kids are wearing them. I made one for each of the party favour / loot bags, and an additional fifteen to act as Kwazi dress up props for the actual party. It was adorable seeing all the little pirates, especially the toddler ones!
I had also intended to also make some cardboard Dashi camera dress up props that they could wear around their necks, with a cellophane eye piece for the kids to look through, but alas I ran out of time….
Sea Creature Sensory Bin
JJ loves sensory play, and I was sure that her preschool friends would too! I simply added pre-soaked water beads and little sea creature figurines to an underbed storage tub, and let the kids explore. Given our 15 minute set up time frame, this was a quick and easy activity to add a bit of themed novelty to the party. This sensory tub had kids flocked around it from the get go. Yes, by the end of the party all the water beads had been squashed, squished, bounced and lost – I take this as proof they were well played with. 🙂
What’s the time Captain Barnacles?
By JJ’s adamant request, a couple of the kids joined in for a game of “What’s the time Captain Barnacles?”, which is an Octonauts twist of the classic game “What’s the time Mr Wolf?” This is such a popular game among the preschoolers at the moment, they love counting the steps, sneaking up, and then squeeling as they run away from Captain Barnacles at dinner time. (I love that it sneaks in a bit of playful maths practice too!)
If you are looking for more easy Octonauts games, you could try “Shark, Shark, Seal!” which is an oceanic twist on the classic game “Duck, Duck, Goose!” I had this game idea up my sleeve in case the party needed jazzing up, but the kids were having so much fun playing together that we let them be.
Peso Medical Bag Party Favours
Peso carries his little medical bag with him everywhere, and I thought this would be a super cute party favour / loot bag idea.
If you Google search “Peso Medical Bag party favor” you’ll find lots of different interpretations of this idea. For our version, we used craft noodle boxes, onto which I glued Octonauts bandaid images to the front and back. Inside I put a handmade Kwazi eyepatch, shark & dolphin bandaids, sea creature glitter foam stickers and a few lollies to stop the kids from rioting. (Party favours are commonly called lolly bags in Australia, and Aussie kids expect at least a couple of lollies inside…)
I think our party was, by a four year old’s standard, a huge success. The weather smiled on us with 280C temperatures (outstanding for Sydney in late May), the kids played happily and the parents were free to mingle. We came home to a (relatively) clean house 2 hours later with one exhausted but very happy Dashi Dog. Yay!
Remember all those sticks that JJ and Bee played with in their Sticks Sensory Bin? Well, afterwards I couldn’t resist getting a little bit crafty with some of them…
I made this 3D stick heart shaped artwork to complement a set of three heart shaped artworks that Bee already had hanging alongside her toddler bed.
For the “canvas”, I upcycled the packaging from a new sous vide machine that Mr Banya recently bought. (Yay for new yummy meals). It is similar to polystyrene or Styrofoam, except that this type of packing didn’t turn into little balls when I cut it, so perhaps it’s made from a slightly different type of plastic foam? Anyway I cut it to size, and then painted it with a very pale violet paint. Once the paint was dry, I glued the sticks on using clear drying PVA glue, layering the sticks slightly in parts.
I nailed four wall hooks to the Bee’s bedroom wall. The three original artworks already had hooks on the back for easy hanging. I didn’t worry about attaching a hook to the back of my stick heart art, as the foam packaging canvas is soft enough that the wall hook can penetrate it slightly and it hangs like this on it’s own.
As you can see, I’ve hung these four pieces of art at child height along the side of Bee’s toddler bed. Usually they stay there, but sometimes she takes them down. That’s the whole point really. I want her to notice them, study, them, touch them, experience them. I want her to rearrange them. I want her to try and put them back up on her own and see if she succeeds. And besides, it only take two seconds for me to put back up again while she’s still learning how. #atouchofmontessori
Besides adorning a toddler’s bedroom, this stick art would also make a nice (and practically free) gift for Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day. You could make different shapes as well. I think a little stick train art would look lovely in a nursery. I imagine any rough sillouette shape would work…
Remember the Very Hungry Caterpillar toy that I made out of toilet paper rolls the other day that JJ didn’t want to make? Well, I thought I would try a different tack – so I suggested we paint a Very Hungry Caterpillar using the cardboard rolls instead of a paintbrush.
JJ (3 years and 9 months) loves to paint, especially if it involves painting with some kind of twist, so she was jumped at the painting with toilet paper rolls idea.
I like to paint alongside the kids. It allows me to show them new techniques, without overly directing or correcting their own creative process. On this occasion I painted what I reckon (IMHO) is a reasonably respectable interpretation of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It ended up looking like this.
Bee went for a more abstract creation. She had an absolute blast, first with the painting, and then drawing with the markers. For 18 months, she is such a creative soul!
Whilst I don’t think Bee was intentionally painting and drawing anything in particular, she was certainly copying technique. Art is such an awesome activity for toddlers. There is immediate cause and effect. Learning to hold a cardboard tube or marker is all great fine motor skills practice for this age group.
JJ declared that she wasn’t painting a Very Hungry Caterpillar after all. She was painting a Wing-Shaped Attapillar. She spent a lot more time imagining the characteristics of her Wing-Shaped Attapillar than she did actually painting. She decided it didn’t need feet drawn on, as it would slide along the ground instead.
I asked if she wanted to write ‘Wing-Shaped Attapillar’ on her painting, but she said that she didn’t know how to write yet. So instead she dictated to me what she wanted to have written down. Then she then declared herself competent to write it down herself after all. Her ‘writing’ contained more intricate details about the Attapillar than what she had originally dictated. (Self-directed pre-writing practice for the win!)
Make a moveable Very Hungry Caterpillar from TP rolls! Fun spring craft activity for kids.
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Have you read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle? Surely everyone has, haven’t they? It’s a wonderful, classic book for toddlers and preschoolers that I highly recommend.
Here’s a fun way to make your very own moveable little caterpillar to go along with the story.
You’ll need:
Cardboard rolls (I used toilet paper rolls, but you could also the cardboard tubes from the inside of paper towel or gift wrap).
Scissors
Paint & brushes
Pipecleaners
Stapler & tape
Marker
Begin by cutting the cardboard rolls into lots of small sections for the body, and a slightly bigger section for the head. Paint using bold colours and large brush strokes to mimic Eric Carle’s illustrations.
Then attach the pipecleaners to the insides of the tubes with tape, staples (or both).
And lastly draw on antennae and some feet with a black permanent marker.
And that’s it! A cute little toy to go along with a great book, and a great kids craft for spring. Props like this are a great way to incorporate kid literature into everyday play. Our very hungry caterpillar has been seen eating it’s way through our toy food collection, one apple, two pears, and three plums at a time.
I believe this would be a great craft idea for preschoolers. I say *believe* because MY preschooler declined to make one. She has a wonderfully stubborn head on her shoulders! Apparently she had a different Very Hungry Caterpillar (or should I say Wing-Shaped Attapillar) art project in mind instead. Both of these projects are listed on my new Arts & Crafts for Kids page, which is an easy way to check out all the arty crafty things that we’ve been up to. We *may* have a slight obsession with toilet paper roll crafts (like these ones…)
* This post contains Amazon affiliate links. An affiliate link means I may earn commission if you make a purchase through my link, without any extra cost to you. It helps to keep this little blog afloat. Thanks for your support.
JJ’s showing a big interest in learning to read letters and numbers at the moment, so we’re incorporating letter and number recognition into our play. Here’s a little activity with polystyrene and thumbtacks that we did a few weeks ago. (You can tell it must have been just after Australia Day, because JJ’s fingernails are still painted green and gold!).
All you need is an old polystyrene box, some letters written on in permanent marker, and a box of thumbtacks. Easy peasy!
I wrote the letters a, b, c, e, i, j, o, p, r and s on various sides, as these are the letters we are working on at the moment. JJ then pressed the thumbtacks into the polystyrene to trace over the shape of the letter.
As JJ ‘worked’, we chatted about each letter’s name, the sound the letter makes, the shape of the letter and words that start with the letter.
Besides learning letters, this play also works on her concentration and fine motor skills. Those little thumbtacks are tricky to pick up, rotate in your fingers, and press in exactly the right spot.
I was surprised at how enthusiastically JJ took to this ‘work’. She hungered for it. She brought her polystyrene box to the dinner table just so it could be close, even though she knew we wouldn’t allow her continue through dinner time. She started up again after dinner and would have continued all night if she could.
The next day she started back up again, but not before hiding inside. My children are quite possibly reincarnated cats – they love to hide in boxes of all shapes, sizes and materials.
We still have the box a month later, and JJ has played with it several times since. We’re only letting her play with it when Bee is sleeping (as thumbtacks and toddlers is not a great mix), so it is a special ‘treat’ for JJ when we get it down.
Would you like to give this a go? If you don’t have thumbtacks handy, pushpins would work equally well. You could do this activity with numbers or sight words instead of letters.
You might also like to check out these Colour & Shape Boats that we made last month, and there are loads of other polystyrene (styrofoam) crafts and activities listed at the bottom of that post as well.
I’ve had a few people ask where to buy affordable art, craft (and play) supplies. So I thought I would share a few of my budget-friendly trade secrets….
1. Nature
You know I love using natural materials! We use flowers, leaves, sticks, bark, seedpods and stones that we find in our backyard or our local neighbourhood. You could also gather dirt, sand, shells, pine cones and feathers all of which are fantastic for playing and creating with. (Please note: be respectful, and if you are in a national park or other protected area, remember to take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints…)
2. Rubbish & Recycling
We also love to raid the rubbish and recycling bin for items that can be upcycled. Free art & craft supplies galore! Cardboard boxes, plastic bottles, bottle-tops, polystyrene, plastic bottles, bubble-wrap, egg cartons, paper rolls, scrap paper, glass jars and old clothes are all hoarded away at our place for future use. Our lovely friends and family often turn up with (precious) rubbish to donate to our cause.
3. Around the house
There are so many things around the house that can double as art, craft and play materials. Is there a hole-punch in your stationery drawer? Get the kids to make their own confetti, and then use it to make a collage. What about a potato masher? They would be great for preschoolers to stamp with paint. Combine a colander with pipecleaners and you have a fun toddler toy.
4. Council Clean Up
Some of our best toys (and furniture) have been scored from the side of the road! When it is council clean up time, it’s a great excuse to go on a few extra neighbourhood strolls…. You don’t really find many small odds and ends, but you might find buckets, craft tables, easels etc, that only need a bit of spit and polish. (Please do sense-check before you collect, especially if it’s outside the usual council clean up time. There may have been a special kerbside cleanup service already booked. If in doubt, knock and ask.)
5. Freecycle
This is an awesome international website where people can list things they are willing to give away for free. It’s a first email, first serve basis so you have to get in quick. A lot of the items I’ve seen listed are things that have no commercial value, but might come in handy for someone handy with tools or the creativity to make something from nothing. Want to start a retro herb garden? Then those 11 x teapots with chipped spouts might be just what you are looking for! It’s really, really, really tempting to pick up all sorts of awesome odds and ends – so much so that I’ve been banned by Mr Banya until we empty out all the ‘treasures’ that is starting to accumulate in our garage. #cough #hoarder
Another place I’ve been banned from. Reverse Garbage is an environmental cooperative in Marrickville, Sydney* that diverts industrial discards from landfill and sells it for next to nothing to creative types. It’s like Freecycle – but on an industrial scale. Rumour has it that many Sydney Mardi Gras floats are made from Reverse Garbage materials, and when you visit you can see why. They have everything and anything. I love the place.
7. Garage Sales & Charity Shops
I love garage sales. Mr Banya hates them. Some weekends I win, most weekends he does…. Either way, both garage sales and charity shops can yield some amazing treasures at budget prices, especially if you are prepared to roll your sleeves up and have a good sort through.
8. Online Auction and Classifieds Sites
I buy lots of stuff secondhand on sites like eBay or Quicksales (for Australians). I figure, why buy something new, when there are perfectly good secondhand options available. It’s better for the environment, better for the hip pocket, you can set up searches to make browsing easier, you can shop in the middle of the night while up feeding the baby, and they deliver to your door! I bought loads of JJ’s toddler toys and clothes (which are now Bee’s) as secondhand bulk lots, from families who had kids just that little bit older than ours. Most of the clothes had only been worn once or twice! I’ve also bought lots of new craft and sewing supplies from these sites as I love that I can access brands that are not readily available in Australia. Often the US brands end up cheaper (even with postage).
9. Discount Shops
This is another addiction of mine. $2 shops (or whatever denomination they come in nowadays) are awesome for picking up the type of useless junk that is so much fun to play and create with. They are particularly good for stocking up for upcoming holidays. (The discount shops are floor to ceiling green at the moment for St. Patrick’s Day for example).
10. Grocery Stores
Stock up on cheap salt, flour, corn flour, pasta, lentils, food colouring, paper plates, cooking twine, shaving cream, baby oil, hair gel, cotton tips, cotton wool… Or even better, just raid your cupboard at home for whatever you have that you are not using, or is already out of date… I find that I’m crafting with these items more and more lately.
11. Art & Craft Suppliers
OK this one might not be budget friendly, but there are some things that are worthwhile paying the extra to get from a specialty art & craft shop. Good quality paint and paint brushes will last many craft sessions. Great pencils encourage pencil grip and pre-writing skills. Hot glue guns are amazeballs for impatient crafters like myself. Craft shops will stock that particular shade of green glitter that you need to finish off a project. And whilst we don’t do a lot of ‘kit’ art and craft at our place, there are some occasions when being able to pull out a pre-made kit with instructions is a lifesaver. But these shops aren’t cheap, so anything you can do to reduce the cost is a bonus. Join their loyalty program. See if you can find out in advance when they are having sales. And remember that you can generally order online from individual suppliers too. I bought a big box of paints and other supplies from Micador for Great Grandma to give to the girls for their Christmas present, and it’s the gift they play with the most. (Thanks GG!)
So, now it’s your turn. Where do you score your bargain art & craft supplies? Got any secrets to share?
xx Danya
* I have heard of similar organisations in Melbourne (Reverse Art Truck) and Brisbane (Reverse Garbage Brisbane – note this is a separate company to the Marrickville one).
This is a partnered post with Quicksales. All opinions are (and always will be) my own.
Last time we crafted with boxes, we made our Baby Activity Box. This time JJ came up with another easy cardboard box craft idea: a preschooler (and toddler) made DIY Robot Costume. It’s an oldie, but a goodie!
I cut smaller holes for the neck and arms, and a larger rectangle on the other side for the legs. Then I let the kids loose with the paint! JJ (3 years and 8 months) chose pink and purple, and is showing off her ambidextrous two brush skills. Bee (17 months) tried out a paint brush at first, but quickly switched to just her hand.
The next day was rainy and gloomy – perfect weather to craft indoors. We glued on the robots dials and buttons using old buttons, bottletops, beads and other loose parts from our recycling. We discussed what each dial and button might do as we went. There was an off and an on button, a button to go this way or that way, a volume dial, various buttons to play different songs, etc.
It was JJ’s idea to apply the glue directly on the buttons with a paintbrush. (She rejected my suggestions of either applying the glue to the box first, or just dipping the bottletops into the glue by hand). She quickly discovered that buttons wouldn’t stick if she only applied glue to the indented part, and self-corrected by making sure to apply enough glue to cover the entire side of the button. She stuck on a lot of buttons, only stopping because dinner was ready. This sort of delicate work is great for developing concentration and fine motor skills. As you can see, she is still holding her brush in a fist grip – so we’re doing lots of this sort of fine motor work at the moment to develop her hand muscles and encourage her to switch to a pencil grip when she’s ready.
Bee joined in the fun again too. She wants to do everything her sister does lately. It is great to see her showing an interest in all sorts of arts and crafts at this age. I love encouraging toddler creativity!
The next day we took JJ’s new Robot Costume to preschool to let all the kids have a turn. The boys especially loved it. They kept asking what each button did, as though I was supposed to have all the answers. I just said “Oh, this one sings The Owl and the Pussycat, and that one makes you walk sideways like a crab” and things along those lines.
Anyway, JJ loves it, and that’s what counts.
And before I sign off, I’m pleased to announce that Lisa Barton-Collins and Chont were the winners of our Steggles competition with their comments:
Lisa Barton-Collins: “That is a genius idea, I can’t wait to try it! Q – What sound does a space turkey make? A – Hubble, Hubble, Hubble! SO funny. xx”
Chont: “What do you get when you cross a turkey with a banjo? A turkey that can pluck itself! Where do you find a turkey with no legs? Exactly where you left it! How can you tell a male turkey from a female turkey? The male is the one holding the remote control. What sound does a limping turkey make? Wobble wobble.”
Congratulations to both of you! Please keep an eye out in your inbox (or spam folder) for an email from me.
by Eric Carle? Surely everyone has, haven’t they? It’s a wonderful, classic book for toddlers and preschoolers that I highly recommend.
