The Mothership used to be a Cub Scout leader. Periodically, whilst playing with The Girls, she is reminded of the utterly brilliant projects she used to make with her tribe of boys. Only recently she recalled this which may actually be the best craft ever and perfect for Jubilee Weekend: How to make a Toilet Roll Cannon. You need: a toilet roll tube a cork two bottle lids a wooden skewer a small balloon a nail or pin some … [Read more...]
Introduction to Art: Warhol and the Queen
Moving on from the last Introducing Art session, I thought that it would be good to do a project that would coincide with the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations this year, and in my cruising around Pinterest, this work by Hockney seemed to fascinate both of The Girls. So I spent some time one evening working out how we could recreate it. … [Read more...]
Quick and Easy Jubilee Bunting
The Queen is visiting Bromley tomorrow. The High Street is decked with bunting and the shop windows are suitably bestowed in Red, White and Blue. Our Road will be closed from around 8am so the fact that we have no car plays little part in whether or not LBG will make it to Kindergarten. As we have been at home due to the changeable (read 'wet') British Weather, The Girls and I thought that our house ought to carry some decoration, in case The … [Read more...]
Hand-painted flowerpot gifts
We made these painted plant pots for Easter, but they would also make great gifts for Mother's Day, her birthday or a Teacher Appreciation Gift. I work very hard to come up with hand-made items for my Little Misses to give to their grandparents on high days and holidays. I like to think that they appreciate the thought and are happy to show off these items to friends. I am buried daily by a flurry of 'art' that they bring home from … [Read more...]
How to make a Russian Icon
LBG and I are really enjoying our trip around the World in the company of Glittering Muffins and others. This month we're off to Russia. And when we were looking at Artists and Art for the Kid's Art project a few days ago, we came across some Russian Icons, which LBG loved, and thought that we should get one. She likes sparkly things. Given that Icons are a little beyond our budget, we made one instead, using: black card leftover gold foil … [Read more...]
St George’s Shield for Girl Knights
LBG made a very interesting point recently whilst watching one of her favourite CBeebies programmes, Mike the Knight. "Girls can be knights too, can't they?" "Of course they can, darling" was my lightning-fast response. Which got me thinking about children's programmes in general and CBeebies more specifically, since that is the channel that we watch almost exclusively. There seems to be quite a strong leaning towards the more traditional … [Read more...]
Introducing Art to pre-schoolers: Damien Hirst
When Maggy at Red Ted Art recently mentioned her idea for a linky to encourage the introduction of Art-with-a-capital-A to children, I got a little bit excited. I don't remember Art Galleries or Museums so much when I was a child, which is more a reflection of my life overseas and my generation than a judgement on my upbringing. I remember going all the way from school in Yorkshire down to London for the day to see 'proper' Art as part of my GCSE … [Read more...]
