My little man is 5...

... and insisted that he was going to have a Cowboys and Indians party, so I got into the groove and started planning.  I really had to get my head into gear for this one, his birthday is right at the beginning of September, so invites had to be out and with his friends before he finished in July.  Quite an achievement for me to be so organized!!!

I started by spending a lovely morning in the garden, enjoying the sunshine, drinking coffee, and painting (something I rarely do).

This image was then scanned and made into invites.  I printed the cowboy onto card, cut them out and then cut holes at the bottom so that you could put your fingers through and make him dance.  They were fixed to the front of the invites with foam pads and the party details were printed on the reverse of the invites.

This cowboy was then also used for 'pin the mustache on the cowboy' (please also note the decorations the children made...the Fairy produced some fabulous artwork and the Tinker helped paint and cut out the cactus)...

... and also on the party bags.

Next up was the cowboy costume. I found the tutorial for this over at 'House of Noise... I mean boys'.  Really simple costume to make, it took about an hour and a half (honestly)...

...and it looked great!

Next came his card... had to get some paper cutting in there somehow!!! 

And backed onto his favourite colour.

For his cake I made a horse...every good cowboy needs a horse.  I simply made a template in the shape of a head, and cut it from a rectangular shaped simple sponge.  The ears were cut from spare bits of cake and I used BUTTERcream (it has to be butter!!!) to decorate it, colouring it with differing amounts of cocoa.

At parties, I always like to include an activity for them.  I feel it stops them from getting too silly, and means you don't have to play games all the time.  Simple headdresses were made, the children decorated their bands and then added their feathers.

Yee-ha, what a fab party!  

Creepy Crawlies... insect workshop

 I thought I would share with you a few of the insects that a year 5 group make with me this afternoon in a sculpture workshop.  We used pieces of driftwood, wire and old screws and nails.

 I was really pleased with how it went, and the insects they created were fabulous.  I'm looking forward to next weeks session with another group.

What do you think?

Tutti Frutti Wrapping Paper

Thought I would just share with you some of the images of the wrapping paper the children from my Make and Do group at a primary school made.  I knew that they had been doing a healthy eating topic at school, so it was only natural to tie this in and create some Tutti Frutti wrapping paper.

In the first session we look at various fruits that had been cut in half, and the shapes we could see within them.  They then made some simple line drawings of them and chose one to transfer onto their polystyrene sheet (the smooth side of polystyrene pizza bases are perfect for this).

In the second session, we looked at how they would place their image on their sheets.  Some opted for a random pattern whilst others did a repeat.  This is what they created.

I've had a great time, and I'm back for the next bit of the term to do some more work with them.  I'm really looking forward to it.

A Trip To Aunty Em's New Castle!

My sister recently moved to Newcastle (the Tinker thought she'd moved to a new castle, and has been asking, since before she moved, if we can go and stop in her new castle!!), and so we took the opportunity this week to spend a few days with her and her family.  We had a lovely time, and yesterday we managed to spend most of the day out without getting wet... well... most of us did!

We'd woken to beautiful blue skies, so jumped at the opportunity for a trip to the beach, and then to a castle, and so headed off to Blyth Beach all set for a day out.  

We couldn't believe our luck, just look at that sky.  It was windy and quite nippy, but it was good to be on a beach getting some fresh air after being cooped up for most of the Easter holidays.

There were even some gorgeous beach huts.

There was great excitement, and the children played like this for, er... 5mins before the Tinker decided it would be a good idea to leg it into the sea (he's like a little Whippet).  Then realizing he has gone a little too far, and that a wave was coming towards him, he turned, fled, fell over, and the wave covered him!!!  One very wet boy!  I had taken spare clothes, but not a spare coat or shoes (his wellies were filled with water), so our trip to the beach ended prematurely!  Instead we changed him into all the spare clothes we had, and had an early lunch at the fish and chip shop by the beach, before heading back to Aunty Em's new castle for a coat and shoes!

It didn't dampen our spirits though (ha ha!) and we headed straight off to Warkworth Castle.  A fabulous castle to explore with children (lots of climbing, little stairways, and running around to be done), well worth a visit if you are in the area.

Happy holidays!

(I am ready for school to start back though!!!)

A trip out with the Fairy!

Today I took the opportunity to spend a few hours with my daughter... just the two of us... a rare occasion unfortunately!

I decided that I would take her into Preston to visit the Harris Museum and Gallery.  She loves visiting museums and is really interested in history (unfortunately the history exhibition isn't open until the summer!).

We had a lovely time wandering around looking at trinkets, teapots... 

... teacups...

... and fabulous tiles.

Unfortunately I couldn't take any photos in the Gallery which is a shame as there were some lovely pieces of work.  If you live in the area do pop along.  It a lovely way to spend an hour or so, and there are quite a few activities for children to do to help them interact with the pieces in the museum,but also it's really important that we support our local galleries and museums... once they are gone, they're gone!!

After our meanderings around the museum we headed off to Bruccianis.  A cafe that was created in the early 1930's, and hasn't changed too much since.  They don't appear to have a website, but there are some better images than the ones I managed to take here.  They are well worth a look, and if you grew up near to Preston and visted as a child, it is likely that you visited here and had ice-cream soda or milkshake floats... they used their own, very delicious ice-cream, which they have unfortunately stopped making.  It was funny going in the first time as an adult, and actually being able to have a good look around.  As a child you couldn't see from one end of the cafe to the other as there was always a thick smog from the smoke!  Although it's not the best food, or cup of coffee, you have to go for the experience!

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What have you done today?

Snip, snip, snip

This week has been a pretty busy week, I've had lots of orders, lots to make, and a poorly little Tinker to look after!  This evening after the children had eaten their tea, I was sat at the table cutting out some recipe card gingerbread men (I know, I know, I really should use gingerbread people, but it is so conditioned that it just doesn't roll off my tongue, I have to correct myself!!!!) for my Gingerbread Sets and my Budding Chef Cooking Sets...

... and both of the children joined me with their scissors.  

We had a lovely time, it was very relaxed, and lovely to see both of the children snipping away and drawing without any direction.  This is what they did.

The Tinker (aged 3) created lots of bits, and drew 'circles' on some of them.

The Fairy (aged 7) created a story.  this is how it went...

A boat sinks at sea (I think the curve that I had cut reminded her of a wave which must have been how the story began), what you see in the water is a man, a lady, a child, a suitcase and a straw doll (I'm not sure where she got straw doll from, but that is what she said it was!).  The man and the suitcase and doll go under the water and don't come back up again!

They see a life belt in the water...

... but can the life belt (er... it sort of turned into a rubber ring by this point!) save them from the sharks?  The lady swims as fast as she can to the child...

... but they both get gobbled up!

I love it.  I'll have to do that more often and see what they come up with!

Happy weekend, hope you get to do some making :-)