Craft Time

 

Time sure flies by lately. I have missed a few weeks but in general I feel like I have missed a few weeks of life as work has been so busy. I miss crafting and sleeping and baking. It all feels like one big haze since mid August.

I did do a little craft. I made a painted letter. Way back when, we painted letters like this at a Birthday party that I had. Everyone came up with their own designs and used the colours of their choice. I quite liked the one I made. I still have it. It would look perfect on the door of a nursery or little kid’s room and I have a perfect little sweetie to make one for so take a look at the creation that I made.

First of all you will need a wooden letter. I picked an S which I got from the craft store. The one I got was painted white.

Next choose your colours and design. I went with a soft bright purple and I decided on a lady bug crawling design so I also needed red and black paint. I based this off a another S I painted at my Birthday party. I basically used a lady bug stencil and I traced out a path for my lady bug to follow.

You want to completely paint your letter with a few base coats and allow to dry before you start marking out your design.

                                   

Once it’s all dry then you can trace out what you want to paint or you can free hand it. I plotted out where I wanted my lady bug to go (three points) and then with a pencil I made a little dotted line path for it to follow.

I painted the lady bug in red with a thick coat which I let dry overnight and used black for the antennae.

Next I painted over my sketched dotted line with black ink.

Lastly after everything was dry, I sprayed it with a sealer so that it would last longer.

Now all I have to do is wrap it up and give it away!

Birthday Cards

Happy Summer! It’s officially Summer now and the sun is shining bright and people are taking advantage of the outdoors. It’s a nice break from being inside all of the time for so many months.

The kitchen is still being worked on so another week still from being able to do some nice baking. I thought it might be nice to look at some of our favourite birthday cards that we have created. We haven’t been able to craft together for some time now so it will be nice to take a look at some of our favourite creations. I picked birthday cards in honor of my Grandmother who turns 93 today!

Enjoy and be inspired.

Chinese New Year, Year of the Rat

This week’s national day is not really a national day but a holiday. This week we are focusing on Chinese New Year which we usually do each year.

We are sharing with you a cute rat, since it is the year of the rat, craft. The craft we have chosen is super simple and quick and very cute looking. We are making origami rat corner bookmarks.

To make these bookmarks, you will need coloured paper (we are using regular paper along with construction paper in red, grey, and light pink), a glue stick, a black marker, scissors, and a pencil.

First of all, cut your coloured paper or construction paper into a square. We are using 8.5x11 inch paper. We are making two versions so one has a grey body and the other a red one to celebrate the New Year. One of the squares is 15cmx15cm so that would fit your average book and we also are making a slightly bigger one at 20cmx20cm as well.

Now fold the paper to make a triangle.

Fold the bottom right corner up to the top and then fold the bottom left corner up to the top to create a diamond.

Now unfold it. 

Take the top corner and bring it down to the bottom. 

Take the bottom right corner and fold along the previous fold line and then tuck into the pocket. Do the same to the other side.

You should have a rat body now.

Attach some ears and a tail and then draw on some whiskers, eyes, and a nose and you’re all done.

Use on the corners of your books to keep your place or make them for your friends and family.

 *Take a look at where we got our inspiration from...
https://www.redtedart.com/easy-mouse-corner-bookmark/

Penguin Day

Happy Thursday! This week we are looking at another national day, National Penguin Day. It’s quite fitting because we have been having quite a bit of wintery snowy weather, just what most Penguins love! I love Penguins. They are just so cute and cuddly looking so I am very excited to be celebrating this day.

Take a look at some cool Penguin facts so that you are ready to celebrate the day which is January 20^th.

·         Penguins are aquatic flightless birds.

·         Most penguins reside in the Southern Hemisphere but there is one species that lives North of the Equator, the Galapagos Penguin.

·         Most Penguins are a combination of light (white) and dark (black) shades which helps them in the water. They are countershaded for camouflage.

·         Penguin’s wings are like flippers for swimming in the water.

·         Penguins like to eat krill, squid, different fish, and other sea life.

·         The largest species of Penguin is the Emperor Penguin and the smallest is the Little Blue Penguin.

·         The larger Penguins tend to be found in the colder climates and the smaller ones in the warmer climates.

·         Male Penguins are called cocks, female Penguins ate called hens, and a group of Penguins on land is called a waddle and a group in the water is called raft.

·         The word Penguin originated from the Italian word Pinguinus.

·         There are many Genus’ of Penguins and even more Species.

·         Some Species of Penguins are...King, Emperor, Chinstrap, Little Blue, White Flippered, Galapagos, African, Yellow Eyed, Rockhopper, Royal, and Macaroni Penguin. And that’s not all of them!

·         They are distantly related to the Puffin.

·         They have a thick layer of insulating feathers to keep them warm in the water

·         They can drink salt water because they have glands that filters the excess salt from the bloodstream.

·         Even though the climate is similar to the South Pole, there are no Penguins at the North Pole!

·         Large populations of Penguins can be found in Anglo, Antarctica, Argentina, Australia, Chile, New Zealand, and South Africa.

·         Most Penguins lay two eggs per clutch and all share in the incubation process.

·         Penguins have no fear of humans and often will approach humans with no fear when they come in contact. This is possibly because they have no land enemies in Antarctica.

Also, take a look at some neat Penguin crafts that we found along with a few cards that we have made in the past featuring Penguins!

https://www.easypeasyandfun.com/paper-penguin-craft/

https://www.thebestideasforkids.com/penguin-bookmark/

https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/heart-penguin-craft-1253177

http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter04/PATTpasha.html

https://gluesticksblog.com/preschool-penguin-craft/