Ladybird Egg Box Bugs

With Spring upon us, I've been thinking about clearing out some of the clutter and it has enabled us to be quite creative in the process. All of the packing from various things can easily be transformed into something fun for the Mini Mes and these Ladybirds are an example of that!

They are rather cute and so simple to make all while using up old egg boxes from the recycling tubs. Your little ones could make an entire family too just like we did.

You will need

Win funky fashion with Boj

Boj is a brand new children’s animated TV series shown on CBeebies at 7.30am, 6 days a week. Perfect for those early risers! It is aimed at children aged 3-6 years old and it follows Boj, the cute main character who is a bilby; an endangered big-eared bandicoot from the Australian Outback. Boj has travelled to Giggly Park with his parent Pops (voiced by Jason Donovan) and Mimi, where they now live in their simple yet quirky underground home. It teaches the importance of manners and working together, something which all little ones can benefit from, as creative and messy Boj gets boj-ing to solve problems. It helps to encourage families to get crafty themselves and upcycle at home too which is great fun.

You Know It's The End Of The School Year When...

... The kids bombard you with artwork! All of the wall displays are taken down from the classes and the pictures are sent home. Most arrive ripped, covered in twisted staples or slightly crumpled after being rammed into their bags, but it's always lovely to see how creative they have been.

Minxy has so far this week returned home with quite a collection!

A cat carrying flowers...

Woodland Walks - A Nature Craft

Once the bluebells have been and gone and the green grass is getting wild and long the woodland walk becomes a little eerie. The tree of treasures left by passers by is no longer a cute collection of toys but instead it becomes a spooky bundle of forgotten play-things. 

There is still something beautiful and enchanting about it though...

Football Photo Frames - A World Cup Craft

With the World Cup well under way the Mini Mes were keen to find out a little bit more about it and get involved with some themed crafts too. While discussing how the group stages worked (and avoiding the offside rule, thankfully) we created a simple football photo frame that they can both pop their favourite pictures into.

You will need:

Coloured card/foam

Salt Dough Decorations

The Christmas crafts have begun and first up were some simple salt dough decorations!

You will need

Salt

Plain flour

Water

Cutters

Paint and brush

Ribbon

Glitter, sequins, pens etc (optional)

The ratio I use is a portion of flour to half a portion of salt and half a portion of water. Firstly you need to mix the flour and salt together and then slowly add the water to create a soft dry dough - it shouldn't be sticky!

Knead for a few minutes until smooth and then roll the dough out to around 1cm in thickness.
If you do it any thicker it takes a lot longer for the decorations to dry and any thinner they can break.

This is a fun sensory activity for the kids to get stuck in with!

Use the cutters to cut out the shapes you require (we chose stars, Christmas trees and reindeer for a festive theme) then place them onto a baking tray.
Don't forget to make a hole in the top of each so you can hang them up, we used a straw to do this.

Place the decorations in the oven at 75 degrees for 90 minutes on each side.
You will know when they are done as they will be firm and slightly lighter in colour.

Jamster selected a HUGE paintbrush!

We used paint to decorate each and added some glitter for a pretty sparkle to finish.
We inserted ribbon through the holes to hang them from the tree with although you could easily make them into bunting.

We also used our hands to create some Santa decorations by cutting around each and pressing down firmly to leave finger indentations. These were baked in the same way and then decorated with red and white paint to look like Father Christmas.
We dabbed a little pink paint on too for blushed cheeks and used a felt tip pen for detailing.

What Christmas crafts have you been making?

WIN a Craft Bundle from Yellow Moon #ChristmasGiftGiveaway

Christmas is a great time to get crafty! Making gifts with the kids is not only good fun but it can save you pennies too. You can also make your own Christmas decorations so your home has a special personalised touch this December.

Yellow Moon is a favourite shop of ours as they have a huge variety products at affordable prices.

They have kindly provided a box of items to ensure you and your family can get creative too!

• This pack of 4 tealight holders would be a lovely stocking filler for your own little night owl when decorated with a selection of fine tip porcelain pens.

• Each knitting kit includes yarn, 4mm plastic knitting needles, stuffing, plastic needle, self-adhesive felt decorations, wiggle-eyes, ribbon bow and instructions to create 2 cute seasonal items.

• You can make your tree sparkle with this lovely sequin bauble kit. A great craft activity that develops hand eye coordination and pattern skills too.

• Bracelets and key rings make great presents for friends and a bumper bead pack will help you to make quite a few with plenty of cord and elastic included.

*** WIN ***

For your chance to win a bundle of craft goodies from Yellow Moon you can enter via the Rafflecopter entry form below.

The giveaway closes on 1st December 2013.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Make sure you enter the previous competitions and return tomorrow for our next #ChristmasGiftGiveaway!

You can find out more information here: 

http://www.theminimesandme.com/2013/10/christmas-gift-giveaway-2013.html

Pine Cone Hedgehogs

Don't let the cooler weather put you off exploring the great outdoors, there is plenty to see and do during Autumn and some spectacular photography opportunities with the beautiful colours of the season.

We have had great fun collecting conkers and acorns and we decided to use the pine cones we discovered to create some cute little hedgehogs!

Equipment

Pine cones

Air drying clay

Fork

Googly eyes

Method

• Firstly clean your pine cones to ensure there are no little hidden bugs inside.
• Using the clay roll out a ball for a head, 4 balls for feet, 2 balls for ears and 1 ball for a nose.
• Shape the clay ball for the head into a cone, attach to the flat end of the pine cone and spread out the edges to ensure it is connected properly.
• Add the ears and use the fork to make a small indentation in each.
• Add the nose to the tip of the head.
• Press the fork down into each of the feet and then attach to the pine cone firmly.
• Use the fork to make a mouth, attach the eyes and leave so the clay can dry.
• Play!

Collect some Autumn items of your own and get creative!

You can find out more information on your local Forestry Commission woods here: 

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/autumn

Saturday Caption

Have you got a caption for this picture of Minxy in her hand-made glasses!?
I would love to hear it!

Have a great weekend

The Funny Things Kids Say and Do... Crafts

I regularly get the craft boxes out for the Mini Mes to be creative, usually when the weather is miserable to keep them occupied, and we often attend free craft events over the summer at the local leisure centre and churches.

While away last week we went to Chatsworth House and as the rain poured down we made shelter in the barn where they too had some great craft activities to keep little ones busy, until the sun reappeared.

First of all the Mini Mes coloured and cut out some glasses which I think reminded them of the cute yellow Minions of Despicable Me that they are currently obsessed with!

They even had left handed scissors available there which was great for my little lefties.

Minxy then decided to pick up some small envelopes which contained the materials to make some whales, so her and Jamster (and the Mr!) got stuck in.

Her finished whale was really sweet....

Until she opened it up and showed me the heart, blood and guts she had added using the red tissue paper...

That combined with her facial expression made me giggle!
She is definitely creative.

What funny things has your little one made?

I'm linking this with...

...and I'm also entering it into the Cycle Addicts competition and nominating My Sidekick and Me plus Actually Mummy to enter too!

Watch Bake Create - Transport

 

 

This week focuses on transport and we have:

Watched Up
Baked Traffic Light Biscuits
Created a Cardboard Space Ship House
 

 

 

Traffic Light Biscuits

 

 

Ingredients

Biscuits
4oz butter
3oz sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
11oz flour
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Decoration
Smarties/M&Ms/Skittles/crushed lollipops/jams
(anything you wish to use that is red, orange and green!)

Method

• Preheat the oven to 170 degrees
• Combine all of the biscuit ingredients together in a bowl to create you biscuit dough
• Roll it out to around 2cm in thickness and cut out rectangles 3cm by 8cm in size
• Using a small circular object cut out three circles from each biscuit (we used a piping nozzle)
• Cook the biscuits for around 10 minutes then remove from the oven, add your sweet decorations into the three holes and bake for another 3 minutes
• Allow to cool
• Scoff!

We popped a few of ours onto sticks which were great to use with some toy cars in the garden when we had a picnic!

Cardboard Space Ship House

Jamster had asked for a new home for some Moshi Monsters figures so I decided to create one quickly from a box that I had spare, rather than just buying one on this occasion! It takes a few minutes to create but if it saves some pennies towards days out this summer then it's definitely worth it.

Equipment

Cardboard
Pencil
Scissors
Paint
Objects to decorate (anything you wish to add)

Method

• Cut out two large, curved, triangle shapes using the cardboard, 2 smaller sized versions (then cut down the centre to create 4 pieces) and 3 different sized circles to use as platforms/levels.
• Cut 4 slits in each circle, a quarter of the way round.
• Cut a slit from the top to a third of the way down on one of the large triangles and from the bottom to two thirds up on the other. Then cut three horizontal slits in them using the circles diameters as the measurements
• Paint the pieces and allow to dry fully
• Assemble the space ship by slotting the two large pieces together and inserting the round bases into the slots
• Decorate and play!

 

Up

 

 

This is one of our favourite Disney Pixar movies which follows 78 year old Carl Fredricksen's journey in his balloon-driven flying home!


He spent the majority of his life dreaming of travel with his wife but after she passed away he finally got round to doing it in an extraordinary way. Teamed with 8 year old Junior Wilderness Explorer Russell he encounters wild terrain, villains (and their talking dogs) and strange jungle creatures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next week the theme will be Bees.

If you have any transport themed posts feel free to add your links below!
 

 

Watch Bake Create - Owls

This week focuses on owls and we have:

Watched Legend of the Guardians
Baked Chocolate Owl Cupcakes
Created Tissue Roll Owls

You can grab the badge and link up any of your own owl related posts at the bottom.

Chocolate Owl Cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes

2 eggs

4oz sugar

4oz self raising flour

4oz butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

Decoration
200g chocolate
200g double cream
Oreo biscuits
Smarties/M&Ms/Skittles etc

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
• Combine all of the cupcake ingredients (butter, eggs, flour, sugar and vanilla) together in a bowl to create you cake mixture
• Divide the mixture equally between 12 cupcake cases in a cupcake baking tray
• Cook for around 12-15 minutes until risen and golden
• Allow to cool
• To create your topping, warm the cream in a saucepan and pour it over the broken chocolate in a bowl
• Leave the cream to melt the chocolate for a minute and then stir well to remove any lumps
• Place in the fridge to chill for an hour
• Apply to the cakes
• Split the Oreo biscuits in half and place the sides with filling on top of the topping
• Add a small amount of topping onto a sweet and place it on top of the biscuits to represent eyes
• Use an orange coloured sweet and push it into the cupcake beneath the biscuits to represent a nose
• Leave to set for 30 minutes in the fridge
• Scoff!

Tissue Roll Owl

Equipment

Tissue roll

Sticky tape

Cake cases

Glue

Scissors

Pen

Felt/card/paper

Method

Fold the top edge of the tissue roll over in two and tape it down to create two points

Cut 3 paper cases in half and remove the non ruffled area

Using the glue, stick two halves of the cake cases onto the sides of the tissue roll for wings

Stick 3 of the remaining halves onto the front of the tissues roll for feathers

Using card (or paper and felt), cut out circles as eyes, adding details with pen and stick above the paper case halves

Add a triangular piece of felt/card for a nose

Leave to dry

  

Legend of the Guardians

This is an animated adaptation of the first three books of the 'Guardians of Ga'Hoole' series by Kathryn Lasky. Barn owl Soren is captured and taken to St. Aggie's, a home for orphan owls. This orphanage for young owls forces the owls into becoming soldiers and they are made to join the organisation's army. Soren soon makes friends and together they break free and travel to the island of Ga'Hoole to help a group of owls battle against the evil leaders at St. Aggie's....

Watch Bake Create - Insects

 

This week focuses on insects and we have:

Watched Antz
Baked Worm Covered Cupcakes
Created Butterfly Stone Pets
 

 

You can grab the badge and link up any of your own Insect posts at the bottom.

 

Worm Covered Cupcakes

These delicious biscuit and sweet covered cupcakes are really simple to create and are ideal for themed parties and Halloween.

Ingredients

Cupcakes

2 eggs

4oz sugar

4oz self raising flour

4oz butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

Decoration
5 1/2oz butter
1lb 2oz icing sugar
45ml milk

Oreo biscuits

Worm sweets

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
• Combine all of the cupcake ingredients (butter, eggs, flour, sugar and vanilla) together in a bowl to create you cake mixture
• Divide the mixture equally between 12 cupcake cases in a cupcake baking tray
• Cook for around 12-15 minutes until risen and golden
• Allow to cool
• Create your icing by mixing together the icing sugar, butter (softened) and milk in a bowl
• Apply to the cakes
• Crumble up the Oreo biscuits and sprinkle over the icing to look like mud
• Add your sweet worms on top
• Scoff!

Butterfly Stone Pets

 

You can read more about our Stone Pets and how to make them just here:

http://www.theminimesandme.com/2013/06/stone-pets.html

 

  

Antz Movie



Ant worker, Z, has his heart set on Princess Bala and after swapping places with his soldier ant friend he finds himself on a wild adventure. He finally comes head to head with General Mandible who wants to liquidate the colony... will he save the day and his love?

 

 

If you have any Insect themed posts (crafts, recipes or activities) you can link them up below.

You can grab the badge code here too if you wish.

 

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Next week the theme will be Owls.
 

 

*** WIN ***

Find Me a Gift have kindly provided some insect themed goodies to giveaway; a Bug Safari Naturalist Kit and some Toy Bugs!

You can enter via the Rafflecopter entry form below.
The giveaway closes on 23rd July 2013.

Good luck!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Matchbox Stone Pets

This craft activity is part of a sponsored post for Collective Bias®

 

I regularly come up with my own ideas on things to make and bake with the Mini Mes but when I need inspiration Pinterest is the perfect place to find it!

I've made Rock Pets and Egg Box Bugs before and with a love of the great outdoors as a family this Stone Pet idea, complete with home and inspired by RedTed Art, looked like a simple yet fun craft to make.

Having checked what was required, and after a short trip to ELC to stock up on materials, we made this rather cute butterfly.

What you will need:

 

Smooth stone (that will fit inside a matchbox)

Matchbox

Felt

Wobbly/sticker eyes

Glue

Pen

(You can add pom poms, glitter, sequins etc if you wish to decorate)

• Attach felt to the outside of the matchbox using glue to create a home for the pet. We used green felt cut into points to represent grass and brown felt to represent mud. Allow to dry.

 

• Add eyes to your stone using the glue and attach felt for other body parts if you wish. We made wings from 4 small pieces of pink felt and antennae using red felt. Allow to dry.
• Draw on a mouth

 

You can now store your pet in its new home!

This is a very quick and easy craft and ideal for pre-schoolers. We had great fun creating it and using it to play - we intend to make some other creatures too over the summer.
 
 

You can find lots of great craft ideas on Pinterest here: http://www.pinterest.com
 
You can view our photo album relating to this craft idea here: Google Album

 

Weekend Box Club *Review and Giveaway*

The weather doesn't always go your way so rather than a dull day indoors you can have some fun as a family with a Weekend Box Club delivery!

The Weekend Box Club is a fortnightly package that fits through your letterbox, delivery is free, and it's bursting with something to cook, something to make, something green and something to read or write.

We received one just before the weekend and had a great time completing the activities. Suited for children aged 3-8 (although Minxy aged 9 still enjoyed it) the instructions are informative and easy to follow. They are all colour coordinated and each box comes with stickers to pop on the activity sheets once it has been completed which gives a great sense of achievement.

 

 

Our kit contained:

 

 Super Strong Salad, the first in a series of seeds to grow your own herbs and salad at home

Gingerbread Cookies Recipe, with a special mix to add to your ingredients

Bertie Birds Nest, a simple yet cute craft activity

 Build a Story, which encourages reading and writing

  PLUS a bonus activity of Patchwork Letters to create a sign using card and pretty fabric

 

 

The Bertie Birds Nest craft came with everything to complete the activity including card, powder paint, PVA glue, feathers, fabric, felt and a wobbly eye. The materials for this activity, and all of the others, were packaged within small envelopes and labelled well so everything was organised and we could begin without delay. We added a little water to the powder paint and tipped the glue into a pot to start, then Minxy got busy making her nest - no assistance was required although I did join in too!

 

 

 

For the Super Strong Salad the box contained seeds and compost pellets, all we required was a sprinkle of water from the tap and a pot - you can just use a milk carton or egg box. This is a great educational activity as it teaches about growth in a fun way and Jamster has been watching his seeds and looking for development each day.

The gingerbread cookies were tasty and simple to make with a ginger mix being provided in the box to create them. Details on the method and ingredients required were all on the activity sheet,  I imagine most parents will have the ingredients at home already in their cupboards so you won't need to spend a fortune shopping to bake them.

 

 

To complete the Build A Story activity there were scene questions with a simple woodland image to help the Mini Mes to produce a story. It's a great way to develop reading, writing and imagination skills and your child is then encouraged to draw a picture too.

 

The Patchwork Letters bonus activity allowed us to use our old boxes to be creative. The fabric provided was floral and pretty and Minxy made a sign for her bedroom door which she was rather proud of!

 

 

 

I was impressed with just how much was inside such a small box and the variety of the activities, which were great for both boys and girls (although I would like to see some different coloured fabric more suited for boys). The fact it fits through the door means you won't have 'missed delivery' cards or the hassle of waiting in for the post lady to arrive!

 

I also liked the fact that box encourages you to reuse your empty boxes and cartons and that 100% of the Weekend Box Club contents are reusable or recyclable. It's nice to do your bit for the environment and to know that time has been taken when the boxes have been put together.

 

I was pleased with the end results and the quality of the products. With each sheet having a checklist to ensure you have everything you need to hand, a difficulty rating and a time scale it helped to make each activity run smoothly.

 

 

 

Each box is £10 but there are subscriptions available which will provide discounts for you.

 

To get a box for just £5 you can use promo code: WBEMMA

 

 

*** WIN ***

For you chance to win 1 of 2 Weekend Boxes you can enter via the Rafflecopter entry form below.

To be in with a chance of winning you must complete either the first or second entry method.

The other methods are bonus entries.

 

The giveaway closes on 16th July 2013.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

*We received a Weekend Club Box for the purpose of this review. The opinions given are honest and our own*