Art Project - Winter Wonderland Wednesday, Chinese Lanterns

It's probably easier if I just link to the site I found this from rather than type out my own instructions.

As always the ever helpful Activity Village had plenty of ideas and Callum and I settled on making Chinese Lanterns. These were quite easy to make and didn't take too long. Plus they look fun lit up with a torch inside. I'm sure if you used the right type of paper you'd be able to put some little candles in.

Here is our finished results. I'll try to get a better photo tomorrow when (1) I don't have a six year old son acting like a lunatic; (2) I don't have an 18 month old puppy thinking that it's good to encourage the lunatic six year old boy; and (3) it's daylight.

Life through a lens - Winter Wonderland Wednesday

I had to bribe Dash to come in from the garden with treats, can't belive he actually sat still long enough for me to get a shot. Only took a few minutes to get him in from the snow.

What better way to have a Winter Wonderland Wednesday than to waking up to a blanket of snow. Sadly Callum had to go to school (but not tomorrow!!!) so it was up to Dash to make the most of the snow. Seriously I've never known a dog to love snow as much as Dash.

Although not a brilliant photo it captures that crazy dog of mine perfectly, he'll run up and down this path for ages and use our backdoor as a sort of spring board to turn himself round to go run back down. Crazy indeed.

Art Project - Winter Wonderland Wednesday,

Christmas may be over but boy it's still winter. What with a New Year approaching fast I thought today's project could be to make a calendar. There are plenty of places online where you can make your own and have them printed and posted to you or print up yourself. Or you could just create a table using Word or something and make up a calendar yourself and add a picture/photo/drawing. Another way is to draw a table using paper, a ruler and pens/pencils and add your own photo/picture drawing. Or just simply do a line a day and no table format needed. So much choice!

Here's a set I created on flickr of photos I was going to use to make a 2010 Calendar but as of yet I'm not sure I like the photos I chose.

Instead what I like the sound of today is to get Callum and I (well if I can drag that son of mine away from the PS3!) to make our own from scratch. I'm thinking of using a selection of photos he likes and getting him to do some drawings and we'll maybe go the line a day route. Also it's a project that can be an ongoing monthly one, you could create each month just as it approaches and then add to that any important dates. The world is your oyster.

Right now I'm off to see if I can get started. Fingers crossed I can and we have something to show you all.

Art Project - Winter Wonderland Wednesday, Sparkling Ice Crystals

Here's a link (Sparkling Ice Crystals) to where I got this from but as you can see I've altered mine a bit, I couldn't find any white pipe cleaners and I have tonnes of beads already (not many white though) so I used what I had. Feel free to do what you like, it is after all your own creation and who said ice crystals have to be white. Also instead of using fishing line I used some of that thin elastic you get for jewellery making (again I had loads).




Not yet finished but I'll hopefully have it finished by the end of today. I've had to stop and make superhero rings for Callum out of FIMO.

Art Project - Winter Wonderland Wednesday, Boxes

As mentioned before I love adding that little home-made touch to gifts. This year for Christmas Callum (with Mummy's help) has made some home-made gifts for people and I thought it would be nice to add that extra little touch by making some home-made boxes for them to go in.

I found a nice site called Kids At Art who had very easy to understand and follow instructions on how to make Origami Boxes. There are plenty of sites out there with instructions and some even have print out versions but I liked this site the best. I also liked the idea of using old Christmas cards to make the boxes. All in all it took about five minutes to make one box and with the help of an adult I think these should be easy enough for kids to make.

And now to finish making about ten more. lol.

Art Project - Winter Wonderland Wednesday, Paper Ornaments

This project is very easy to do and you can use the finished result/s either as a single tree ornament or string some together to make a chain.

What you'll need:

• Some coloured card
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Stapler
• Sellotape
• Decorations of your choice (but aren't necessary).
• Ribbon
  

Heart Shaped Ornament

1. Cut two 6 inch strips and two 4 3/4 inch strips.
2. Line them up so that it goes in this order: 6 inch, 4 3/4 inch, 4 3/4 inch, 6 inch.
3. Make it that the ends of all of these match up when laid on top of each other.
4. Staple this end.
5. Next cut your ribbon to your desired length and form a hoop with it by taping one end to the top of one of strips in the middle and the other end of the ribbon to the other end of the other middle strip.
6. Bend the unstapled ends into a heart shape so that a smaller heart is inside a larger heart.
   
7. Align the ends and staple.

If you wish to decorate your card you can do this before you staple the strips together, you could sprinkle some glitter on the strips or use some Christmas themed stickers or just use pen, pencils, paints. It's up to you. Of course they look just as nice undecorated.


Teardrop Shaped Ornament

1. Cut two 6 inch strips, two 5 1/4 inch strips and one 4.5 inch strip.
   
2. Line them up so that it goes in this order: 6, 5 1/4, 4.5, 5 1/4, 6.
3. Make it that the ends of all of these match up when laid on top of each other.
4. Staple this end.
5. Next cut your ribbon to your desired length and form a hoop with it by taping one end to the top of one side of the middle strip and the other end of the ribbon to the other side of the top of the middle strip.
6. Next make a crease 1/5 inch from the top of the unstapled ends on the 6 inch and 5 1/4 inch strips.
7. Then align all the ends and staple together.
   

As above with the heart shaped ornament it is up to you if you wish to decorate.

And if you wish to make a chain of these all you simply have to do is thread a nice piece of ribbon through the top of the hoops on each individual ornament and secure.

I hope you found this fun and easy to follow.

Art Project - Winter Wonderland Wednesday, Origami decorations.

Yesterday while sorting through some drawers I came across a packet of origami paper that my sister Rachel had sent over as a present when she lived in Japan. I've never done origami before but I remember seeing somewhere that did instructions on Christmas decorations you could make using origami. So I used the ever useful Google and found some tutorials. It's easier if I link you to them as they have more detailed instructions and lots more to do.

First I tried out the Origami Christmas Tree Bauble on Activity Village. It was a little fussy to do and probably not for little young fingers but I eventually managed to get my pregnant addled brain around it and came up with this!

Then I tried out A Snow Crystal from the Christmas section of the Origami Club.com website, they have some fun things to do there, although my head just couldn't get around the Christmas tree one. The snow flake though was easy enough to do and something I think you could do with kids and they had a few different designs you could do. And of course you don't need to use special origami paper you could use Christmas wrapping paper or normal paper and just decorate it. The important thing though is to make sure it's a square shape (don't ask how long it was before I realised this was important and how many screams I let out.) I'd love to see your creations, have fun!

Art Project - Winter Wonderland Wednesday

I have fond memories as a child of making Christmas decorations and the pride I felt when each year (well if they survived) those decorations being put on the Christmas tree. I even remember when I moved into my first owned place my Mum handing me over some of those precious things that I'd made those many moons ago. With just over four weeks to go until Christmas I thought I'd make Wednesday's posts about Christmas decorations that are easy and fun to make. Wednesdays will now be called Winter Wonderland Wednesday.

This week I thought we could do Paper Chains.


Paper Link Chains

You will need:

• Various colours and textures of paper cut into strips, about 1 inch by 6 inches is a good size

• Glue

• Glitter, decorative pieces

If you are using glitter or decorative pieces it is best to glue these onto the strips of paper before you comence making the hoops/links. Also This works better if you have a variety of colour and texture of paper. Choose one strip and glue one end of it, loop the piece to make a ring. Next grab another different colour or textured strip of paper. Insert this through the first hoop you have made, glue one end and make that into a hoop to make a second link (just like you did in the first hoop). Continue doing this until you have a link chain of your desired length. When dried out the chain can either be drapped around your christmas tree or hung from walls and doors.