15 Fun & Festive Crafts For Kids (and grown ups!)

Both James and Evelyn love crafts all year round, but there is something about Christmas time that seems to ramp up their excitement when the crafts come out. Maybe its the huge tree in the middle of our living room that they seem hell bent on decorating head to toe in handmade decorations, or maybe its just the tinsel and glitter making us all a little wild.

Either way, when Christmas comes round I love getting out the craft box and getting stuck into some festive crafts with the kids. So in case you guys are like us, or your kids love getting crafty too, I have compiled (with the help of some fabulous bloggers) a list of 20 fun and festive Christmas crats that everyone can get stuck into over the Christmas period.

Toddler Valentines Day Crafts!

As I have had both kids home this week for half term we decided to have a go at some toddler/child friendly valentines craft ideas. All of the below we attempted ourselves and they were all simple to do. Some were quite messy so be prepared for some mess and perhaps lay an old sheet or plenty of newspaper down before hand.

Here are some of the valentines crafts we had a go at this week -

Love Bug Valentines cards

These were really simple to make just paint most of the foot red and leave the heel of the foot, paint the heel of the foot black for the bugs head. Carefully place your childs foot on to the card and hold for a few seconds. For smaller children an adult can add in the legs and eyes etc, older children can do this themselves. Then just add your message on to the back. 

Valentines heart shaped cookies

If your kids love baking then they will love making these simple cookies (I used a basic shortbread recipe). Let them get their hands messy helping mix the biscuit dough and then once baked and cooled let them decorate. We used a basic red icing and then the kids went wild with the sprinkles and decorations!

"Love" Canvas picture

This is a lovely idea that can be displayed all year around. We purchased a basic canvas and I painted on the L and E. I thought it would be a lovely idea to have both kids involved in the same picture so James provide the hand print O and Evelyn's feet provided the V. It was really simple to do once you can get the kids to stay still (I would recommend purchasing a back up canvas lol!). We added some glitter to the paint whilst it was still a little wet for an added sparkle. 

Do you have any fun Valentines themed crafts you do with your toddler/children? I would to hear your ideas! 

xXx

Getting Creative (and Messy!) with the Creation Station!

Both James and Evelyn have a keen interest in crafts, painting drawing and most of all getting messy! So when Evelyn was invited along to join in a session at the Creation Station I knew it would be something she would love!

Creation Station isn’t just about learning how to paint, model or collage along the lines of “Here’s one we did earlier”. It’s about having a go, being inspired by something quite simple and encouraging each baby or child to develop their own ideas and have fun doing it! 

Here is how we got on during our session at Creation Station -

We started the session with a fun welcome song which was relaxed and upbeat and got all of the children in a circle ready for the first activity. Next Sue got out a bag full of sensory items which were placed in the middle and left out for the children to explore. Evelyn was a little wary at first but Sue was fantastic at encouraging her to join in and showing her different sensory items which eventually took her interest. 

Next was the "Messy Play" activity and we were really excited to discover this week it was... JELLY!! 

All children are given red overalls to wear to restrict the mess on clothes although I would advice to wear your or your child's best clothes of course as mess spreads lol. The 3 tubs of different coloured/ flavoured jelly were placed in large tubs on top of paper and plastic sheeting and the children are let loose! They are free to squelch their fingers in it, wriggle there toes and splat it on to the paper, the messier the better lol! 

Evelyn loved this activity and after sussing out what it was really got stuck in. After a while Sue added white paint to the jelly giving it another texture for the children to explore, Evelyn loved running this through her fingers and Sue was amazing at showing her what to do and really getting her involved. 

After some time playing with the jelly we all cleaned up and went on to our final activity which was making hand/ foot prints in clay to bring home. 

Over all both myself and Evelyn loved Creation Station, Evelyn loved the Messy Play part and I don't think she stopped smiling and giggling the whole hour. I loved the session as it gave Evelyn a chance to get really messy without any worry which can be difficult to achieve at home. Sue is fantastic with the children she really encourages the children to get involved and you can really tell the passion Sue has or these classes and the children in them. 

We finished the class with a goodbye song and bubbles which were a big hit with all of the children. The atmosphere throughout the class was fun, upbeat and most importantly for us relaxed. The classes were small enough that Sue really interacted with each child and you didn't feel rushed or cramped at all during the class.

We loved Creation Station so much we have signed up to start classes in November and cannot wait! 

Sue runs creation station classes in Frampton Cotterell and the surrounding areas, as well as the weekly classes Sue also runs "special" craft sessions on certain dates such as Halloween and Christmas. If you don't live locally check out the Creation Station website (link below) to find a class in your area. 

If you want to find out more about classes or the Creation Station you can visit the Website, Facebook or you can contact Sue directly HERE for any queries or questions you may have. 

xXx

Flair Plasticine **REVIEW**

James adores craft activities and there is nothing much better to keep a child entertained on a rainy day stuck indoors than a day of crafts! I am in awe of James imagination and what he can create with a few simple objects and his own imagination.

So when we received a lovely bundle of Plasticine products for James to try out from Flair I knew he would be over the moon, it also brought back childhood memories for me! 

James immediately noticed the Ninja Turtle squidgems (no surprise as he is a huge ninja turtle fan!) and he was so excited at the possibility of creating his own ninja turtle.

The squidgems kit comes with the 2 colours of plasticine you require as well as thin cardboard accessories which you apply to the plasticine once you have moulded the body, head, arms etc to create all of the details such as eyes and weapons. Priced at just £1.49 these make great inexpensive activities or gifts for any ninja turtle fan. 

Also included in our plasticine bundle was this set of colourmax plasticine (rrp £2.99) which is a set of 24 tubes of plasticine in a wide variety of colours. Or if you are looking for slightly larger quantities of plasticine you can also purchase the Funtubulous set (rrp £6.99) which include 7 larger tubes of plasticine + 4 cutters. There are no instructions or limitations with plasticine which is what makes it so great! 

Here are some of the things James made with his plasticine (we used the colourmax and funtubulous plastice to create these) - 

For me Plasticine is one of those childhood toys that will never go out of fashion and even as an adult I had the urge to sit down with James and help him make little creatures. The great thing about plasticine is that it doesn't dry out either so your creations can be kept or reused later on to make something different without having to ever worry that the Plasticine will dry out and become unusable. 

We did find that one the colour's were mixed they were almost impossible to separate again however this didn't really bother James as he wanted to keep his models once they were made anyway.

If you want to find out more about Plasticine and the wide variety of products you can buy pop over to the Flair website here - www.flairplc.co.uk.

Do your kids or you love to create with plasticine too? What do your kids love to create? 

xXx

* I was not paid for this review. All opinions given are my own.

* If you would like me to review your product or service, please email me on xJessLegresleyx@hotmail.com.

Half term fun - Using up old wallpaper.

This week I have been searching for ideas to keep James entertained as he is home all week for half term. 

We were stuck indoors today thanks to some pretty heavy rain and no car to venture anywhere. So I had a rummage round and found some old half used rolls of wallpaper from when we decorated our living room. 

I simply got out a selection of pains, pens, pencils, stamps and glitter pens and placed them on the floor.

I then unrolled a part of the wall paper but so it was plain side up and tah-dah a massive plain space for your little artists to let their imaginations run wild! 

James absolutely loved it and had great fun painting all of his favourite super heroes on it and then creating a trail of "foot prints" on another part of the paper. It kept him happy for ages and it cost next to nothing! So if you have some old part rolls of wall paper laying around then this is a fab fun way to use them up. 

Here is part of James masterpiece
. 

Do you have any low cost ideas to keep children entertained? Please do share with us below!

xXx

Christmas Crafts - Hand-print Christmas Reef

James is so excited about Christmas! Especially as he is at school this year and they have of course been practising for their christmas nativity and learning all about christmas (this has only increased James excitement lol!). So we have been doing lots of christmas crafts and today we made these...

Hand-print christmas reef's. 

They are simple to make and all you will require is -

Thick white paper/ card,

Green paint,

Glue,

Embellishments such as sequins, pom-poms, glitter etc

You will need to get several hand prints from your child, So just simply paint your childs hands and print them onto the paper. We used 10 hand prints for ours. 

Once you have your hand prints cut them out and stick them together in a circular shape like this-

You can then let your child loose with the embellishments and let them decorate the reef as they please (the more sparkly the better of course!). 

We then made a small hole in the top of ours and hung it with a piece of ribbon and tah-dah you have your reef! 

xXx