Curly Birds

Kids' Drawings Turned into M&M'S

For Eric’s birthday party, I spent so long trying to think of fun ways to add little personalized extras to make his day special. It is hard for me, with two little girls, to think of manly party ideas that are not too cheesy.

Everyone agreed that the customized M&M’S of the girls’ drawings of Eric were really cool. They were subtle, but fun – a bit like Eric. My girls were so proud to be able to contribute something tangible to the party.

 

 

To make the M&M'S, I drew a 4" circle in pencil on a piece of paper and gave the girls a black pen to draw a picture of their Daddy. I then erased the circle and took a picture of their drawings. I went to http://www.mymms.com and downloaded the pictures. The site was easy to navigate and I added text to some M&M's.

As the print is black, lighter colored M&M's work best. Two images can be uploaded per bag. Maximum file size is 5MB.

 

A great Father's Day idea for chocolate-loving Daddies - YUM!

 

(This is NOT a sponsored post!)

Double Page Spread

Have you seen Tinkerlab's new Double Page Spread Challenge? To encourage parents to be creative alongside their kids, Rachelle invites her readers to draw a double page spread in a notebook everyday! 

My time sketching in this notebook has become a few minutes of mummy time in our day - a bit like a creative fika. I don't normally post things I've drawn, and to be honest it is a little outside my comfort zone, but here we go...

 

The girls and I sat in the yard and drew pictures of our picking garden - this is what I hope it looks like in a few more weeks.

 

Here is more info

What do you do for a little down time?

Creating a Kids' Picking Garden

This is one spot to call their own.

Full of herbs, favorite veggies and flowers.

For busy hands and feet to stomp, water, pick, and eat.

 

Edible Flowers

Poisonous Flowers 

We included rosemary, mint, thyme, basil, sage, carrots, cherry tomatoes, marigolds, lavender, chamomile, daisies, hollyhocks, and sunflowers. It only took one sunny afternoon to choose, buy, and plant. Phew!

 

Mothers and Teachers LOVE hand made gifts (it is just who they are)

A little crafty inspiration for your spring makings… I’m thinking mother’s day and teacher gifts.

1. Little Vases

 

2. Felt Vase

 

3. Flower Seed packets (craft project for Design Mom)

 

4. Jar of love (craft project for Bloesem Kids)

 

5. Hugs

Teacher Appreciation Gift

Have you started thinking about a thank you gift for your children's teachers yet?

I like to give the girls' teachers a thoughtful gift made by little hands. This year's class gift is in the works and I will share it soon.

Before I do, here is a look at last year's gift... a class book of love. 

Each Daisy, as our class is named, was given two simply and sweetly designed pages with their name, photograph, and a few lines for a special memory.

We collected all the pages together and bound the book with pretty ribbon to make each teacher a book filled with smiling faces, happy drawings, beautiful memories and exubing love. Perfect!

See the full tutorial here...

Celebrating Spring (and a give-a-way)

A little gift inspired by spring... 

Made with two little girls in mind who are busy planting seeds, feeding birds, chasing butterflies, watering new plants (and each other), and feeling dirt squish between their toes. 

Yes, spring is definitely celebrated in our house.

 

The kind folks at Clearsnap sent me ColorBox classic pigments and mini stamps and I used Q-tips to 'paint' the spring flowers on regular white paper. I glued the little butterfly onto the package and finished it off with Honeydew twine.

 

Leave a comment on each participating blog by 11:59pm EDT, Sunday, May 6th, and you could win the 'Colorful Bunch Sampler Pack' from The Twinery. How fun is that?

 

Can you Step Through a Card?

 

Yes, these are our New Years cards. Yes, they were printed, signed, stamped, and sealed in January. Yes, I just sent them out last week. 

Happy St. George's Day

St. George is the patron saint of England and even though St. George's Day isn't celebrated so outwardly in England, I strive to impart some of my Englishness onto my girls, and decided we would celebrate in our own sweet way.

 

Traditionally, on St. George's Day, English people pin a red rose onto their lapel - I remember this custom as a kid.

I also remember my Mum cutting a picture of a rose out of a magazine and taping it to my school uniform because she said roses were too expensive!  

We decided to do things a little differently and give each kid in the girls' class a rose.

 

Yesterday, I drew St. George's flag on mailing tags. The girls coloured in the flags and wrote their names. We attached the tags to the roses with festive twine.

 

Today I took the roses to school and the girls handed them out to all the kids in their class. It was a fun day and I hope it keeps England in my girls' hearts and minds.

 

Interesting little snippet: Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616 (St. George's Day!)

For the Birds... Nesting Materials

I collect all of my craft 'waste' in a pretty jar - I hate to throw it away. But the jar was very full and I have been wondering what to do with it. Last Saturday we watched a bird gather materials for its nest. And it gave us an idea...

 

I gave the girls 22 gage brass wire and they wrapped it around a juice bottle to create a wire container for the clippings. The wire did not wrap well and it was a tad bit frustrating.

 

The girls ditched the bottles and decided to make their own baskets.

 

The baskets were super twee, but super small...

 

We found these corn holders for birds at the hardware store and decided to give them a try.

 

Success! The corn holders worked perfectly. Nola and Kira commented on the color, texture and size of each little piece of felt they put in the holder. Thinking of baby birds brought out all of the girls' nurturing tendencies and they spent over an hour filling these holders up.

 

Now we are waiting on the birds...

 

Quick Update:

The birds have started gathering some of our supplies. The other day I saw a cardinal taking some brown wool, and everyday there are different little pieces of fabric on the ground.

A reader suggested not offering bright colours for nests because it could attract predators, so I have taken out the really bright pieces.

Check out Paint Cut Paste for some nest zest and other lovely Waldorf inspired projects.

Twine + Wooden Beads = Pretty Necklaces

My first craft is up on The Twinery... I was going to wait until Easter to give these pretty necklaces to the girls, but I got all excited and gave them early. So now you can make some just in time for a little bunny to give - check out the full tutorial.