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

Spring flowers + a DIY

Yay Spring is here and we've actually had a few warm (ish) days lately which has been lovely after a very wet and cold winter. We don't have alot of flowers in our garden but I noticed yesterday that we actually had a quite a few flowers around the house so I thought I'd take some pics.

Daffodils from the Tauranga Farmers Market hubby and the girls went to yesterday morning.

 

Daphne - my favourite flower for its scent- I planted two plants last year so this is their first year flowering

Wild jasmine picked from the side of the road

 

Lavender and daisies from our garden

And this lovely line of trees is at a community garden just down the road from our place where people can buy lots and grow their own vegetables, herbs and flowers- a man there said one more week and these trees will be bursting with blossoms so will have to take another pic then!

 

This flower was in someone's plot- isn't it stunning- can anyone tell me the name of it?

and I made these little felt 'flowers' the other day after seeing a big vase of them in the Moochi store here in Tauranga- you just cut three hearts for each flower out of felt and stick them onto a twig- there's a tutorial on the Moochi blog I discovered via pinterest. 

And here's a couple of lovely Spring themed art works from the artist Katie Daisy- I love her work. Check out her website or Etsy store and she's on Facebook too.

'Bird Chirping Weather' print

Daisy Field print

Love this 'Wonderful World' print too, especially after seeing this youtube clip I shared on my facebook page last night

'Wonderful World' print

Happy Spring (or Autumn for you northern hemisphere readers- love that season too!)

Megan x

Family movie nights

I am loving that two of our three kids are old enough (5½ and 3½) to have family movie nights together- I have read about these on lots of blogs and always thought how fun it would be when we can finally have our own!  We've watched a few movies so far  (along with the obligatory bowls of pop corn) so I thought I'd share them with you- I asked the girls to help choose a rating for each movie. I really like old fashioned movies and movies from books so that's what we've been mostly watching so far, with a few new ones as well.

Mary Poppins 9/10- Both girls loved this and I absolutely loved that a movie made in 1964 could still captivate my girls today (can't wait to go to the musical in Auckland soon too!!)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 8/10- we watched both the original Gene Wilder version and the new version with Johnny Depp- both the girls and me enjoyed the original more- I think younger children sometimes prefer less special effects maybe??!!

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 7/10-this was a great movie with a neat story line- loved the children in the film and the whole other era of when the movie was set- the girls did follow the story and enjoyed most of it but did not like the 'child catcher' at all (there were tears) so might be better for older children!

Fantastic Mr Fox 5/10
This was one of my favourite books when I was little..however I thought the movie was a real disappointment- the style of the movie was way over the heads of my girls and neither hubby or I really enjoyed it either!

The Lorax 6/10

The girls enjoyed this movie but I wasn't that fussed on it- it felt like a pretty simple story really dragged out in movie form to me (haven't read the story though)

Toy Story 8/10-we all really enjoyed this movie- so clever and I love the characters of each toy especially the dinosaur :)

The Smurfs 7/10
We all enjoyed this movie although there are a few 'scary bits' if you have young children...

The Borrowers 7/10- this was a great family film

Bee Movie 9/10-This is nearly our favourite movie- me and the girls loved it- Jerry Seinfeld was the perfect choice for Barry Bee. Great story line and we loved the music too.

The Muppets  10/10
Our favourite so far! This is such a great movie for kids and adults to enjoy together, and the music really makes it so memorable and fun to watch. It has been so neat to see the kids getting into the muppets songs and we've been watching some of the old Muppets series on DVD which has been fun too. (Going to write a separate post about The Muppets soon!)

If you have any family movies to recommend please leave a comment as I'd love to find out about more, especially kids or family movies that have stood the test of time!
Megan x

PS: Finding the original movie posters for this post reminded me about the website 'AllPosters.com' - I used it years ago to buy the 'Amelie' movie poster that I got block mounted. I love vintage/retro movie posters so I'm thinking one of the ones above would look so cool in the girl's bedroom- although I think the one they would really love is this muppets one! A fun christmas present maybe...

Muppets movie poster at All Posters.com

Display boxes and printers trays

Hi all, can't believe it's been nearly a month since my last blog post...there hasn't been a lot of time for crafting or blogging lately but I do miss this space and this part of my life so will hopefully be writing a few more blog posts in the near future! I have managed one little project lately- this little decorated display frame.

I got the idea to decorate it after seeing this gorgeous image on pinterest

(via one of my favourite 'pinners' Meg McMillan, owner of the gorgeous store Tea Pea.)

Mine actually wasn't a display frame to begin with..it was the wooden compartment box that this Melissa and Doug magnetic dress up toy came in (didn't take a before pic but it was similar to this one)

I painted it and used some scrapbooking card from Spotlight to decorate the back of each compartment.
 (I just used a glue stick to stick the card to the back but modpodge would be good too).

I haven't decided where to hang it yet...if I had a craft room I would put it in there with a few cute crafty bits and pieces but for now it's sitting on the dining table waiting for a home.  The project got me thinking about something I am seeing a lot of at the moment in home magazines- using vintage printer's trays as art works or to display little treasures. I would love to buy one and decorate in a similar style to my little one and fill with treasures as well- they really appeal to my love of colour, organisation and little things. Actually I would like one in nearly every room as you'll see from the ones I am loving below! I looked on trademe the other night and there were quite a few on there for sale..not so many now but I'm sure they will keep popping up if you are wanting one for your home too.

Here are some decorated ones that have caught my eye on pinterest....

http://pinterest.com/pin/108579040985615843/
Love the painted backgrounds and the bits and pieces in this one...

http://pinterest.com/pin/48343395971082662/
...and the gorgeous background papers in this beautiful tray

http://pinterest.com/pin/98234835591528693/
Add hooks and turn a printers tray into a jewellery holder- love this idea

http://pinterest.com/pin/142707881912517868/
I'd love to have my threads organised like this if I had the space!

http://pinterest.com/pin/229824387203781052/
A great way to display kids special treasures and toys

http://pinterest.com/pin/106538347404476562/
Love this shell display

http://pinterest.com/pin/205124957997379672/
You can even use one as a giant photo frame

http://pinterest.com/pin/96475616987743354/
Even undecorated they look stunning as wall art.

Well I better go and get organised for the weekend now..we are having our first child free night in..well nearly 2 years to be honest...how crazy is that?!
Megan x