Making Christmas trees- upcycle cardboard

I saw that they were selling cones that were like Christmas trees in our local store and thought how we could make those but better and sparklier.  The activity uses cardboard up-cycled from cereal packs (something that we have plenty of). I also saw the idea later on Pinterest!

I got the cones ready the night previous so that Little Boo just had to decorate!

The first of the trees we decorated using thin tinsel just wrapping it around the cone which had double sided tape on.  We then added some small ball balls with foam pads.

Little Boo enjoyed this but seemed to want to colour so for the next tree she coloured in, used stickers on a green piece of card then added tinsel.

The other tree used loads of pom poms.  I got a massive pack for 99p! Little Boo and me just added the pom poms onto the cone which had double sided tape on it.  I think this is my favourite tree as it is the one that Little Boo seemed to enjoy making the most.

The start of Christmas Craftiness!- Our ball ball wreath

I have decided that it is about time that I started to share with you the Christmas crafts.  Apologies to readers who do not celebrate Christmas. I have been doing lots of cooking with Little Boo just recently so have decided to post these ideas as well alongside.  This year it is brilliant as Little Boo is capable of doing so much more than last year! Her attention span has increased, she can use scissors better and even starts to suggest what we could do.  I will make sure to add in what we did last year when I open up the decorations box.

First I am sharing with you our ball ball wreath.  I saw this posted on Pinterest and just had to have a go at making it with Little Boo.  All you need to have is

• Hot glue gun
• 80 or so ball balls (you could upcycle some that are no longer used for the tree,this is the cheaper option, we brought ours from the £1 shop 12 for £1)
• wire coat hanger/thick wire

First of all you need to secure the ball ball and hanger with hot glue.  I did this part of the activity whilst watching the Television (I was also procrastinating from writing my assignment, whoops). 

After this I got the wire coat hanger (thanks to my mother in law) and bended it into a circular shape.  Then it was just a case of getting Little Boo to thread the ball balls onto the hanger.

There was no specific order or anything just go for it! It really made me realise how much she has developed her fine motor skills. It was nice as we were chatting as we were doing the activity about Christmas and Santa then about the colours that we were using.  It was funny as Little Boo still has a Mommy and a Daddy one for everything! so many of the ball balls were placed on in that way one Mommy then a Daddy then the baby ones. Anyway after this, I just (well my husband actually, I am weak) twisted the coat hanger back together.

We added a ribbon at the top and there you go a wonderful wreath for your house.  Many people who make these use ball balls that have been in the family for a long time as a way of showing them off in a nicer way than putting them on the tree.  Anyway I love ours even if the ball balls were only cheap, it would also make a fantastic gift for someone at Christmas.

Feely box- guess the underwater animal

Sometimes the quickest ideas are the ones that bring the most fun and laughter.  That was definitely the case today all we did was make a feely box out of a shoe box and an old pair of Little Boos trousers.

We first of all felt all the underwater toys and made sure Little Boo knew the names for them all.  Luckily we managed to borrow these from the toy library this week and they are really nice toys.

Little Boo starting the game feeling the animals in the box 

Little Boo then started to put the animals in for Mommy to have a go .  She even told me how many animals there were in the box. 

Up-cycling childrens artwork to make a card

A member of the family had their Wedding Anniversary so we decided to make them a card. This is a great way to up-cycle the paintings that have been done and some old cards that we had in the house.  First of all I took a painting that Little Boo had done previously. I made a view finder out of some card to select a suitable section of the painting.

The viewfinder used to select the pieces of the painting.

The pieces of painting cut up and placed on the card.

Little Boo helped with the sticking!

Little Boo chose some pictures that she liked of the couples wedding no surprise that the cake was one picture!

. The completed card!

Fathers day present!

For Fathers Day I have been thinking around the topic of favourite things! Me and Little Boo have been talking about what Daddy likes! It was actually a funny conversation as a lot of it centred around crisps! As apparently "daddy really likes them" which I must admit is true. This is where the thought of making a hamper of "daddy's favourite things" came from. It has been really fun choosing the things. 

I was considering a way of containing the items, then whilst in our local pound shop (again) I found a plastic tub which looked ideal. I did not want to leave it like this so set to work customising it with Little Boo. We got a pile of old photographs and one of Little Boos paintings. The idea was to collage the tub with photographs of Little Boo and Daddy. Due to the tub being plastic I went over it initially with sandpaper to make a rough surface to sick to.

Little Boo has a fascination with cutting at the moment so this activity was brilliant! Here she is cutting up the art work that she made.

After a few minutes of cutting.  She also wanted to cut up a few pictures.  These were stuck to the container with normal glue stick but then we had to go over the top with a few layers of PVA glue and it looked great!

Our own shredded tissue made with up cycled art work.  It looks fantastic and sounds nice too.

Daddy's hamper granted not the most healthy but it is fathers day after all! He deserves a big treat. I later covered it with some cellophane so it all stayed together.

I hope that you like the idea it could be used for birthdays as well.  There is always the thought that the hamper could contain all home made items for the recipient.
I hope that you all have a wonderful day tomorrow it is not just "Fathers Day" at work we tend to think of "A Special Man" I hope that you all have the opportunity to thank a special man in your life tomorrow.

Making our butterfly mobile

Here come those bottle tops again! This idea came from sitting down with Boo and watching how she played with the bottle tops.

Luckily, the bottle tops were open so Little Boo started by pushing pipe cleaners into them.  I then thought these look like antenna! We could make a butterfly.

After looking at our bottle top collection I knew we could thread the bottle tops to make the body.  This is when I asked my better half to get busy making holes in the bottle tops (which is pretty easy to do) Whilst we got to making the wings. The sequins had to come out.

The wings were created on fun foam  

The bottle caps were then threaded to a pipe cleaner (just looped the
 bottom to stop them falling out)

We then picked out two googly eyes and left it to dry.

 After this I glued it all together using a hot glue gun then used fishing wire as a method of hanging it up.  I hope that you like this idea.  We are making a few more so a mobile can be made.

Shared on

The upcycle pig

Little Boo loved the up cycling activity, so much so that we had to do some more today (think she likes playing with the sequins).  Yesterday it was very funny as there was a lid on the table and she put one of the milk bottle lids inside then some eyes and said "it is a piggy mommy".  How amazing I thought it definitely could be a pig (she always comes up with the best ideas).  So the pig creation started...

Glue was put into the lid.  Little Boo enjoyed squeezing this in.

Sequins and googly eyes added.  There is also a milk bottle top

I drew some ears and Little Boo wanted to cut them out.  She can not cut on the lines yet but it is all good practise!

Double sided sticky tape was placed on the back of the foam paper.  Little Boo loves peeling this off.

And then the completed piggy!

I am actually considering using this as a magnetic memo pad as I will put some paper to the back of it with a few magnets. 

Upcycle bottle tops into magnets

As part of our up-cycle challenge me and Little Boo have made use of the bottle tops and made them into magnets! This is a very simple idea and the possibilities are endless.  We decided to put sequins and glitter inside the bottle tops to decorate them.  However, many items can be used such as photographs or small old toys.

Here is how it went

First, we had to give the bottle tops a "bath" very funny that Little Boo said that herself and enjoyed cleaning them.  This led to discussion on how the bottle tops were "floating in the water".  Little Boo then counted them onto the towel to dry and dried them by hand.  The bottle tops could be left overnight to dry if needed.  I was thinking of doing this bit myself but I am glad that I decided not to as little Boo has so much fun.


Once dry we started making

First squeezing out the glue

Then adding the sequins

Little Boo also wanted to cut up some straws to use

Leave them to dry for a day and add a magnet on the back. We decided  to add a feather to this one.  As you can see once they are dry you can not see the glue

You could chose to add a magnet on the back, use them as counters or for matching games. This was very simple to do we have loads of bottle tops so watch this space I am looking at more things to make. 

Upcycle Challenge!

It is really strange that since I have started to do crafts with Little Boo that everything starts to be used as something else. A toilet roll for example has been made into a pair of binoculars, a puppet, a chute for pouring activity and a stamp for painting.  The possibilities are endless! Therefore I have set myself a challenge how much of our household usual waste can we up cycle to make wonderful crafts? So far the contents of the bag is photographed above there is plenty to crack on with. Any inspiration would be appreciated.  I have started a pinterest board to help with inspiration. So far we have used old magazines and an egg carton.

Maths sorting activity

Yesterday before work me and little Boo had five minutes together to do a sorting game. I was actually really happy with how well she got on with this talking about the sizes of the beads and the shapes. Would of been nice to do a patterned necklace after as they were sorted so well.