Our Art Centre - Freedom and creativity

Craft is a fun way to let children explore lots of different materials and resources while building on their fine motor skills and many other crucial developmental abilities. It is a great tool for inside play on rainy days or for the times your child is feeling crafty and creative, it can also be a fun outlet for imagination.

Is your craft usually structured?
It can get very messy.
Young children love LOTS of glue and need to learn to hold scissors correctly and I am sure you have had your share of Art creations that are wall art or carpet sculptures?  I remember finding Dimples one morning camped up under our king size Doona, quiet as can be.... I now have a lovely white flannelet fitted sheet with beautiful black swirls all over it!

For this reason I, as I am sure many parents do, easily fall into the habit of using quick easy craft ideas out of books and off the web that require few materials with the least amount of glue and let dimples make his own version of these cool craft projects.  Cool yes, original No!

To celebrate Dimples creativity I decided to redesign a corner of our home as a Art Centre for him where he has the freedom to create what ever he wants to safely. Everything is at his level and organised. All his materials and tools are bright, appealing to the eye, easy to see and easy to reach.  He calls this his "business" & his "Office work".

The materials in it are all his to use for the taking as he wishes, however there are rules he needs to obey such as using the bin, tidying up, using materials wisely not wastefully and sitting at his desk.
So far so good!

Dimples Art Centre includes-

• His own glue (sticks and clag only mind you),
• a scissor caddie,
• The scissor box You can check out the scissor box idea here 
• sticky tape,
• some craft jars (sequins, googly craft eyes and beads),
• a crayon caddy,
• a pencil pot,
• a pot full of bingo stampers & stamps,
• a pot full of kids stamps and hole Punch's,
• colour coordinated markers in jars (These are office pen jars painted and hung on the side of the shelf)
• a file of coloured paper and card stock,
• a box full of colouring in books,
• a box full of craft paper and envelopes (cellophane, crepe, wrapping paper)
• Craft draws with felt stickers, pipe cleaners, pompoms, ribbons, chipboard letters and numbers.
• His own Desk, Bin and Display string with clips.
• stickers

To date there has been some unique and clever creations that I would never have thought Dimples could or would create. He has let his imagination go and its been amazing to watch how this freedom has allowed him to express his ideas in a way he wants. If you are creating a space like this you must remember that these materials will most likely get used in every way other then intended, sticky tape around crayons for instance but the point of the art centre is freedom and creativity so pick your materials wisely and keep the special resources out of reach.

Dimples is nearly 4 and has been very responsible in his space, if he were a little younger or this space was tucked away in an area out of sight I wouldn't be comfortable with this much freedom. There are times when he will just sit and cut different shapes right into the bin from his scrap paper, he is still learning, focusing and practising important skills so I am happy for him to do this.

That is the beauty of the art centre. It is meant to provide freedom so if he feels like sharpening all his pencils for no apparent reason then he can, if he feels like folding a pompom over and over again inside a treasure map then he can, if he feels like cutting a bit of paper into a million pieces then he can and every once in a while he makes an awesome creative piece of art that I get to hold on to.

Happy Adventures



Felt Recreatable Christmas Tree

 

 

If you look on Pinterest or follow any other children's blogs you may have already seen a similar Tree to this; A Felt Children's Christmas Tree.

I made our Felt Re-createable Christmas Tree last year but never did a blog post on it as there were so many others at the same time so here we are now, setting it up for the second year.

 

The basic idea of the Felt tree is that it is a very special Christmas tree, made especially for the child to recreate. They are always distracted and drawn to the shining sparkling Christmas tree decorations but once your tree is up, you would like it to stay that way.

With out little monkeys swinging off it trying to grab up at the decorations, rearrange the tinsel, possibly even trying to climb to the star at the top!

Sound Familiar?



That's where the Felt tree comes in handy. This is their very own Christmas Tree that they are allowed to grab at and re-decorate over and over again keeping their fingers busy and away from the real thing. 

All you need is Felt. A Large Piece of Green (well it doesn't have to be green, you might like a White snow Tree), cut into the shape of a tree. Then smaller felt pieces in different colours for your decorations. Pin your tree up to a wall or large board and get your decorations cut out ready to play with. Then your little one can recreate their tree every day.


 

Its like a large felt board, just cut your circular balls, some stars, stocking shapes and so on as your decorations. You can be as plain or as crafty as you like.

You can use Christmas Cookie cutters as inspiration, simply trace your shape and cut it out.

I used a hot glue gun to combine colours on some of the decorations and to make some presents.

Now the felt tree can be created with any themed colours in any way every single day if they like, one day might be all stars, or all red decorations, one day it may remain blank or with no presents.

Dimples has a small gift bag that his decorations stay in at the bottom of his tree until he wants to decorate it.

 

Happy Adventures  :)

Our Snowman Christmas fridge

This super easy DIY Christmas decoration is a must to get little ones in the spirit. It was so easy that dimples did the decorating himself. He was very pleased with his snow man and asked me to send a photo to his favourite aunt.

All you need are some circles cut from paper or cards stock. Eyes and buttons. Some wrapping paper cut long enough to fit across your fridge as his scarf, with some longer down pieces. Bluetac or tape, an orange triangle nose and dot stickers for the mouth.
I had everything in the craft box but you could make do with what ever you have available; pom poms, real buttons, a plane colour scarf.

Dimples was in charge of the blue tac and helped Colour in the Snow mans eyes. He also chose the scarf wrapping paper and the coloured buttons.
He loved the snow man so much it got a big Hug.
It ties our fridge into the Christmas Decorations nicely.

Happy Adventures  :)

Halloween Party Decorations

Halloween Spooktacular Party Decorations

For our Halloween Party I put together some DIY decorations. On the table above, Dimples and I made the spiderweb place mats with glue (you add whatever colour paint to your glue bottle) on non-stick baking paper. We Did the web on the paper, he sprinkled a generous amount of glitter and we let it dry. Once it was dry we peeled it off as a cool table decoration.

This broom Stick is handmade from a Bamboo stake and some rough looking twigs strapped on at the bottom with some cane twine. The Table centre piece on this table was a fog water machine. We added red food dye and some eye balls to make it look like an eery cauldron.

 

These table decorations were made a couple weeks back. Check out Our salt Dough Decorations Post

 

Decorate your House, or a Cubby with a Wicked Witch that has been flattened, check out the post here .

 

 

Add a Gelatin Zombie Brain for play, or for decoration Check out our Tactile Sensory Tubs Here.

 

Add some eyes here and there, some plastic bats and rats. Drape old materials scarfs over tables and colour coordinate balloons in black and orange. We used Laundry buckets in Orange with drawn on Jack o Lantern faces to put the drinks and ice in, they also double as a great Goal to shoot balloons into.



Make some Bats to sit around on Windows and decorate with, they can also be used for bowling.
Here are the directions for our Bat Bowling Activity

Home made Ghosts in the yard.  These DIY decorations are simply a post in the ground, a Helmet on top and a small cross post for the arms.  Draw a ghost face on an old white sheet and there you have it.

This DIY Decoration also doubled as a play Doll house, the back is open and the children can play with figurines in the back. It is bright and colourful and really suits the theme as well haunted-halloween-cardboard-house Post

If your looking for more Halloween Ideas Check out last years Party Halloween Ideas for the little ones
Check out our  Spider Cave that was a cool Decoration & fun game

Don't forget to check out our Halloween Linky Party for More Awesome Ideas that have been Shared.

Wicked Witch of the East Legs

 

Wicked Witch of the East

As in the classic Wizard of Oz Movie, the Wicked Witch of the East gets flattened by Dorothy's house.  If you recall the move the Wicked Witch ruled over the little munchkins and slaved them until she was flattened by the flying house. The Wicked Witch of the East was wearing some striped stockings and the Red ruby slippers and after she was squashed by Dorothy's house she wilted away and turned to dust leaving nothing but the magical slippers and the munchkins were forever grateful to their saviour.

 

Well here is our version, Dimples' magic flying cubby house landed on this Wicked Witch and flattened her. She didn't have red ruby slippers but she did have your typical Witch boots, pointy toes ugly looking and a little scary, these are too small for me now and I think were given to me years ago but will never be worn and some bright striped tights that we got for $2 at the bargain shop but you could really use any old tights that you find laying around or you always grab something cool and inexpensive at the Salvation Army or Saint Vincent DePaul 2nd hand shops.

 

It worked well and looks pretty awesome under the cubby house.

The perfect Halloween Decoration; All we did was roll newspaper into the legs of the pair of over knee socks, tie the tights together at the top and put on some boots. The stuck it under the edge of the cubby house, and Dimples (who has never watched Wizard of Oz) thought it was hillarious.  

 

 

 Happy Adventures

Balance Stumps - Outdoor Play Decor

Our Out-Door Play Area is slowly growing, its beginning to take over the yard. I love it! I am a strong believer that outdoor Play is essential and one of the fundamental ways kids learn. Particularly gross motor skills, but outdoor play also builds a kids physical confidence; it encourages safe risk taking, children get to test their ability and know their boundaries. Through this they learn what they are capable of and when they should stop. Have you seen Dimples tree house & water wall??? Click here.

These bright balance tree stumps are such as easy way to spruce up an outdoor play area.  They look fun and add a colourful addition to a play area, they could be adapted into any area or even used as a garden border. All you need is a fallen tree (or you could get a post from the hardware shop) we are lucky enough to live in the country and had a fallen tree that was in perfect condition. Adventures Dad cut it up into different lengths and Dimples had a ball painting them with me.

I used Exterior Paint, half a litre of paint in each colour did about 3 coats on each stump, the paint was fade proof and didn't require any under coat or protector. However, if your timber was still wet it may absorb the paint so you could end up needing more paint as it dries out. The other thing I was weary of was the colours, I went for bright rich colours instead of light ones, again if you picked light colours or pastels you would require much more paint or under coats to seal the stumps first.

The stumps were dug and packed into the ground using mud about 15-10 cm deep, ideally you would cement them in but a good strong pack has done good for us and they can steadily hold my weight with out any movement what so ever so I trust they are safe for Dimples.
Just to add another element to the task I placed them around in a S shape so that Dimples has to shift balance and direction, they are also at different heights.

There are many benefits of outdoor play, this type of activity helps develop a child's body strength, Imaginative play, happiness being outdoors & being active, Perseverance, Testing their own limits, Balance, Attention & focus, body coordination, Stretching, Learning what they are capable of doing, connecting them to natures, & helping them to rely on their own instincts.

Dimples has already formed a game where he is surrounded by snapping crocodiles below and he mustn't fall into the swamp below. He has learnt to have his arms out by his sides as he balances and he tends to go right foot first as he steps down, but left foot first as he goes up a step.
The colours are also fun. Dimples and his good friend Miss K chanted the colours for each other as they stepped on them and it brightens up his whole play area making it look so much more appealing.

Happy Outdoor Adventures :-)

Pirate Party - Invites & Decorations

A Pirate themed Dress-up Party for one fabulous 3 year old & his fellow Mateys!

Part 1 - Invitation & decorations
For Dimples 3rd Birthday I planned him a Pirate Party, big extravagant parties wont be a yearly occurrence that's for sure but this year we tried to go all out for his special day.
Dress ups, Buried Treasure, Pretend Pirate Play with a real Pirate boat and a Pirate Treasure chest Cake. Everything was themed in Red & Black from the table decorations, the food and the buckets of treasure...
What follows are the party ideas, food ideas, play ideas, decorations and the Pirate themed fun we had with our high spirited Pirate Crew!  this may take a couple of posts, so this is PART 1 & keep your eyes open for Part 2

First the Invitations:
A message in the bottle was given to guests. The Invitation was a scroll, printed on beige paper with a photo of Dimples holding a sign "I'm turning 3" & popped inside glass bottles with some sand, shells and a cork on top. Each was personally labelled by name.
The Invite was in Pirate Language with phases like " Set the date, dont be late or youll be shark bait" - "don ye best Pirate outfit or walk the Plank"

Decorations-

Fish net & skeletons

Red & Black Birthday Canvas-
 Dimples covered a big cardboard #3 with red & black buttons and glue for me, then I further glued it on red cardboard cut out the number 3 and stuck it on a black canvas we had painted the week before.
& little sculls & cross bone sequence were scattered every where.



Bubbles & Balloons and Streamers Everywhere.

(not that they lasted for the day)

Pirate flags-

Real ones and some I painted on old bed sheets.

Table decorations:

I didn't get very many photos of the table but one had a red table cloth with a black vinyl runner and the scull/cross bones scattered over it.  I wish I got some photos before the chaos began, when it was set up and untouched.

It had golden chocolate coins scattered up the centre as well and this table had a Pirate boat blow up drink cooler in the centre that held toddler pops in ice and some soft drinks for the adults.

The other Table was a Pirate table cloth with 2 red square place mats in the middle, one had "sea water" in a jug & the other had " Pirates Punch, again the table was laced with skull & cross bone sequence and golden chocolate coins.



Keep an eye out for the rest of the Pirate Party, including Games, Dress up Costumes and food ideas.

Pretend cooking: wild berry muffins

Pretend Cooking : Wild berry Muffins in the outdoor oven

For some quick fun messy play in the afternoon sun Dimples cooked up a storm in his outdoor kitchen. 

He mixed together Water beads & Shaving foam until bumpy.

Added some red & some blue colour (food colour/water in spray bottles).

 Poured in some blue dessicated coconut.

Then he decided "this needs to be mixed by ARM" & squeezed the mixtures around.

I am not to keen on using real cooking ingredients just for the sake of it, but these were things Id had for a while that would be close to getting tossed anyway :)  The water beads have been used over & over again, the shaving foam... well you can grab it for $1 a can and you only need a few squirts for some fun messy play!

Add nuts & spoon into the muffin tray

Don't forget more colour for extra juiciness!!

Cook in the outdoor oven.  DONE!!! 

Then feed it to the dog  (who happens to be blue on this occasion)

Lots of fun.

Want more pretend cooking ideas?

Add some saucepans and cutlery, some measuring cups and spoons.

a cake tin or muffin tray, mixing bowl. Plates to serve on!

Extra ingredients can be added by raiding your cupboard and looking for end of, near date or never to be used again things. nuts, flour, oats, seeds, cooked pasta or rice. Add shaving foam, hair gel, coloured spray always works well on shaving foam.

The Pirate Room

The Pirate Bedroom for Dimples has been a work in progress since he was a baby.

The Mural taking the longest part to finish, and it is still not complete. It is very flat with some unfinished fish and objects on it. I did it for a few months solid as his room got renovated.

It has some nice sea creatures under the sea : octopus, eel, crab. leather jacket, blue tang, anenomie, clown fish, jelly fish, lion fish, turtle, clam, star fish, angel fish and more. My favourites are the school of bright yellow fish.

On top there is a pirate boat with a mermaid sculpture on the front, silly me only realised yesterday i haven't even got an anchor on it so there is yet, more work to be done. Ill get there (probably by the time he is a teen & is well and truly over pirates)!  It still needs details to make the sails look life like and some stuff on deck. As I said its flat and hasn't had an surfacing done yet.

Then there is a boy in a boat with a parrot, a light house on an Island, a hot air balloon and a single propeller plane pulling a sail.

The treasure box is complete with 3D jewels that have been super glued to the wall. It is full of treasures including a chalice, a sword, a plate, rubies and emeralds, a pearl necklace and coins.

On the opposite side is his very special Pirate boat bed that I found from KIDZ-KAVE-Bedroom-Furniture. He has a matching Wall Anchor that I love above it, courtesy of kidskave as well. His boat was a design I drew up and kidskave mastered and built. It has a built in shelf on the bed head for his soft toys and 3D waves along the bottom of it. It was designed as a toddler bed with a built in side. On the end of it is another anchor and on the side is a life buoy with his name.

I found a red paper light shade, a red touch lamp, and a funky red bookshelf to add. On the shelf is a photo of Dimples as a pirate. A skull ornament, a pelican statue and a lighthouse.

 The most recent edition is a boat shaped shelf that goes in the corner, it holds some more pirate/ocean theme play things that dimples has. Over his 3 years he has slowly got lots of ocean and pirate themed things and they all live in his room.

His favourite would be the little people pirate boat that he got on his second Christmas.

On the floor there is a funky circular shaggy mat, its shiny and matches the theme well. I got this from Ulladulla-Floorworld & it has been a good play mat to represent the ocean when dimples plays with his boat and ocean toys.

There is lots to finish, lots of things are half done. Like the curtains that i cut off, I need to hem them up (my sewing machine is out of order at the moment) & use the rest of the material to make matching cushions.  Lots of things to finish on the mural as well but its getting there and is looking pretty awesome so far.