DIY shadow puppet theatre

I saw a great idea on the Seedling Facebook page a couple of weeks ago- making a shadow puppet theatre. They were running some workshops for the school holidays and the pic showed a scene from the Gruffalo. (Here's the pic on their page. )  I thought it would be fun to make our own one so I had a go- the girls loved it and played with it for ages..always a good thing!  

Here's how I made my one...

You will need
printer/photocopier
white A4 paper
black card
scissors
wooden skewers or lollipop sticks (I bought mine from a cake supplies store a while ago with grand plans of making lollipop cookies which hasn't eventuated yet!)
cereal box
sellotape
glue stick
cake board (optional)

1. Print out these Gruffalo colouring sheets and reduce them to about 25% of their original size. Cut around each picture like above and stick onto some black card.

 2. Cut out each picture and stick onto a wooden skewer or lollipop stick

3. Take apart a cereal box so it lies flat. On the two largest rectangles of the box measure about 1.5 cms in from each side (see below) and cut out (see below 2nd pic)

4. Tape the box back together so the outside of the cereal box becomes the inside.

 

5. Now trim a piece of A4 white paper to fit inside the box. Cut a piece of black card the same size.

 

6. Cut out two trees from the black card (nice and easy because the black card is the same height as the white paper) and stick onto the white paper

 

7. Stick the white paper to the inside of the box like below

8. Cut a slit out of the bottom of the box closest to the white paper for your puppets to go.

 

9. I sellotaped the theatre to the edge of a cake board so it was easy to keep the theatre stable- make sure the slit is just over the edge of the board if you do this (see above)

10. Set up a lamp behind the theatre on a stool so it is roughly the same height as the theatre. Warn children to be careful of hot light bulbs (learnt that lesson!)

11. Have fun acting out your story!

 And here are some more pics from the Seedling workshop for more great story ideas as well as ideas for decorating your puppet theatre-  thanks for the idea Seedling and Tweet Design!

Megan x

A travel themed party

A lovely family I have got to know through my daughter's class are about to head off on a year long overseas trip, basing themselves in the UK and doing lots of travelling during the year.  Their daughter Edie has become a great friend of Amelie so I offered to help Edie's mum with a little farewell party for Edie and her brother George. I'm a big fan of simple, low cost parties, especially as most children seem happy as long as they have their friends there and there is plenty of treats and a cake! So I thought I'd share some of the things we did for the party- some of the ideas would be great for a Flight themed party as well.

 

Invitations- I made these on the computer, used a large circle punch to cut out the circle and put a jet plane lolly in a little cellophane bag and taped it onto the back of the invitation.

 

Decorations-  paper map bunting made by colour photocopying a world map, then stitching the triangles together using the sewing machine. Edie's mum also found this awesome bus and beefeater fabric at Spotlight to use as tablecloths. Some blue and green balloons were hung as well.

I made these placemats using clip art images - they were also a colouring in activity to keep them busy before and after food time.

Food- I saw these cute 'earth' cupcakes on pinterest so I had a go at making some and added some toppers using clip art images. I divided my cupcake mixture into two bowls, coloured one bowl green and one blue using the gel icing colours you can get from cake decorating shops. I then just put a tablespoon of blue in first and then a tablespoon of green but it ended up looking more layered than swirly like the ones above so next time I would add teaspoon blue, teaspoon green x 2 and swirl it a teeny bit before baking to get the look like the one above.

These 'In Flight Meal's' were my favourite thing- I came across the idea in this amazing blog post 

http://www.apartystyle.com/2010/04/around-world-party_12.html. I made one up with some ideas to show you as I didn't take any photo's at the party...

 

I got the containers and lids from Payless Plastics (they were less than a dollar for both the lid and container). (I added a little container for the popcorn and jellybeans in the photo above but you could use cupcake cases so you don't need to buy lots of little containers too!) The mums at the party loved the idea of everyone having their own little 'lunchbox' - no need to use lots of serving platters, easy clean up and no fuss- the kids loved them too. Also probably same price or cheaper than some paper party plates and reusable too!

And we couldn't find these in NZ but I came across these 'Earth' chocolates online so thought I'd share them with you - these would be very cute for a world/travel themed party if you can get your hands on some!

Cake- Edie's mum made a delicious chocolate cake and decorated it with jet plane lollies and sprinkles- the kids loved it.

Games/Activities-we were just going to have two activities- colouring in the placemat and making and decorating paper planes (I googled paper plane instructions) but in the end they were happy with just colouring the placemats and then playing fairies so that was easy!!

We are going to really miss you guys- safe travels and we look forward to reading all about your adventures :)

Megan x