Summer Crafts

A busy summer has not stopped Rhia and her boy getting crafty! 

Hello lovely readers, as you are by now aware there has been a takeover here and we’re all talking summer. Thanks so much to the lovely Mrs Crafty B for having me once again.

Readers of my own blog will know that my little family has had a very busy summer what with moving house and some lovely holiday breaks. My boy and I love undertaking arts and crafts projects together and usually they involve a lot of mess, paint, a week’s worth of recycling and some old-fashioned imagination. However, due to our hectic schedule this summer (and all the packing and unpacking) we have been unable to get stuck into building spaceships out of yoghurt pots - but there was no way I was going to stop our fun crafty sessions though so I came up with ‘mini-makes’. I decided to purchase some craft kits and accessories to speed us on our way, keep things simple and mostly less messy! All of these projects can take under 15 minutes – perfect for killing time, a rainy day or just good, clean fun ;)

This WH Smith Craft Kit is stuffed with goodies. I’m looking forward to painting the pegs and gluing the feathers and eyes to make little peg birds – cute!!

Not pictured here is a bag beads and reel of nylon thread plus clasps for making jewellery. My boy loved threading the beads and was very particular about the order. We made a friendship bracelet for one of his friends, one for him, one for Mummy and one for Daddy – that’s a lot of beads!

The pom poms in this kit gave me so many ideas! A current favourite with my boy is making magic wands so we used a large lolly stick from the kit and coloured it with felt tips then glued the pom poms to the cardboard star. Ta-da MAGIC! 

I plan to glue goggly eyes onto some of the larger pom poms and make little fluffy aliens and maybe attach some to the pipe cleaners for wiggly worms - but that’s for another holiday. My favourite thing to make with these though are fun garlands like this. Super simple - just thread a needle with the coloured thread/wool/string of your choice and thread the pom poms one by one through their centres. Join them up or leave gaps in between depending on what you like the look of, interspace them with beads or knots…whatever takes your fancy. I decorated my boy’s bedroom window with this garland. It really makes me smile to look at this! 

This pack is from Paperchase and intended for children 6 and over but since we are going through an obsession with robots I had to get this! I did all the cutting out and my little helper used the pritt stick with surprising accuracy for a three year old! These bobble-headed robots are lovely, a bit fiddly but again, super-quick and satisfying to make. There are 8 different robots in this kit.

Speaking of robots, I decided to feed this obsession a little more. Does anyone need a keyring because I now have 5 spares!! These are nifty foam sheets. You pop out the shapes, peel off the backs, stick the bits in the right place, add the goggly eyes, thread the chain and hey-presto = keyrings! We made this more of a game by matching the right body parts with the right characters and we could practice colours, shapes and numbers at the same time – Every Day’s A School Day! This was a fun project which my boy really enjoyed. 

Anyone remember doing this when you were little?

The other day I was in a waiting room with my boy, desperately trying to keep him entertained without many props to hand – except actual hands – and a pen. You would not believe how much he loved this and now whenever we are waiting somewhere he asks for a ‘little friend’ to talk to – so adorable. Wouldn’t you know it, someone has gone one step further and come up with these transfer tattoos for hand animals. They are a little big for my boy’s hands just now but there are loads to chose from and they last pretty well then wash off with soapy water.

So now you know what’s been keeping us entertained this summer, but who could forget those old classic activity books featuring our favourite characters from the TV?! Stickers, colouring and dot-to-dots are always a winner and these are totally portable for car journeys too. So, these might not be the most back-to-basics crafts and might be a little commercialised – which reminds me – you can get some brilliant free apps for little ones too – but I think there’s room in our lives for crafts old-fashioned and modern. There were certainly no arguments from the boy!!

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