6 cute, fun and creative ideas to occupy the kids over Easter

From the www.

So, we're halfway through the Easter holidays, and maybe this is the point where some of  the charm has worn off??

You've had the lovely food, been on the day-trips out, seen the family and been to the cinema....the kids are going stir crazy with cabin fever and you've run out of ideas...

well today I am sharing 6 easy,fun and Easter-y ideas to keep the kids occupied for just a little while longer! These makes are cute enough to keep for next Easter's decorations and doesn't need a lot of supplies or skills!

This post links to items for sale from The works, not because it is sponsored by them , but for your convenience: So that you can pick these items up easily from the high street!

Image from Wayaiulandia

Firstly: If you haven't yet made an Easter tree with the kids, this is a great way to occupy them: Get outside for a brisk walk and pick some branches to decorate and display at home: They are traditionally decorated with colourful feathers, but why not use some brightly coloured mini pom poms, like in the image above?

Of course no Easter tree is complete without some decorated blown out eggs...See my previous post here to see how I made mine this year, or visit Yes missi for 20 more creative egg-decorating ideas, like the splattered paint effect ones pictured above.

Moving on from the Easter tree, why not make a decorative feather garland?

Use some colourful feathers and wire them on to some string, or even better: (because it will keep the kids occupied for even longer :)) Set the kids to paint some watercolour feathers , cut them out and string them up, like in the image above....Visit  I heart naptime for the full tutorial.

Or how about making these super cute bunny bowls in air-drying clay? These are bound to become a favourite Easter decoration for years to come, no? Visit Alice and Lois for the full tutorial!

Or how about this adorable yarn pom pom rabbit I found on pinterest?

All you need is some yarn to make the pom poms (If you don't know how, check out This easy tutorial) , some glue and some card or felt to make the ears with!

And if you get a slightly failed pom pom, or you get one spare(?) why not stick a piece of double sided tape to it and go to sugar and cloth to download this free printable "pin the tail on the bunny" image, for some fun for the littlest ones??

I hope these suggestions will go some way towards combating the kids boredom over the rest of the Easter holidays...

Just remember: Relax and enjoy....they're only little once!!

Easter crackers....DIY

...DIY

I spent this morning making these fun Easter crackers for our Easter breakfast table, and I just love how they've turned out!

They are really easy to make, I will show you how:



Use your empty toilet rolls to create the shell of the crackers, and use any napkins, tissues or gift wrap you have to decorate with... There's two other things you will need for this make, the first is THE CRACKER SNAPS...I ordered mine from here

Second, You will need to cut some A4 paper to create those neat cracker ends...I have done the hard work for you and measured out where to cut the paper to fit an average toilet roll:

 I have created this template for you, to make the first step easier:

Cracker template...click, save to your computer and print



Step1:

First, use a scalpel to cut out the diamonds on the template..

If your toilet roll is extra large, you may have to elongate the diamond shape...

 Step 2

Attach the template to the toilet roll with double sided tape (Or you could use glue, but tape is less messy). The cut out diamond shapes should sit outside the edges of the toilet roll.

DECORATE

Cut a piece of tissue paper, or napkin to fit, about 2-3cm over the edges of the ends of the toilet roll.

Roll it on and secure in place with some double sided tape.

Use some string to tie off one end of the cracker....
Trim off any excess paper.

FILLING

 

Place the cracker pull inside, then fill with treats...I chose little Easter stickers, Little chicks and chocolate eggs...
Tie off this end of your cracker as well...


FINISHING TOUCHES

Why not make your crackers extra special and fun for the kids by drawing on little faces and attaching bunny ears or beaks and feathers...

Create some funny characters...get the kids involved!!

 

I just love the little characters...

And they will look great at the Easter morning breakfast table... 

Cute...don't you think?

I love Easter: Its all about spring, colours, sunshine , good food and lazy days...

In Norway everyone heads to their cabins in the mountains for a spot of skiing...

I do miss those Norwegian Easter traditions her in the UK, but I guess we'll have to create our own....

....and I think I have just found one we can easily do every year...Our very own homemade Easter crackers....

xxx

June



Norwegian cookie men...

....Kakemenn

A few weeks ago we had my mum and dad over from Norway, and my mum taught me and little Miss Moo how to make Norwegian Christmas cookies: "kakemenn".

In Norway, you know Christmas is coming when the bakeries start selling "kakemenn", and they are a Children's favourite, simple and sweet in flavour, and shaped like little men and women.

They are also very easy to make, and Norwegians make big batches of these, not just for munching on whilst doing some Christmas crafting, but also to be decorated and hung up on the Christmas tree...

They also make a lovely gift, to a friend or neighbour....

Today I am sharing my mum's kakemenn recipe as well as how to turn them into a beautiful and tasty gift....with some simple DIY gift-tags!

KAKEMENN RECIPE:

100 g Unsalted butter

4 medium Egg-whites

2 dl sugar

8 - 8 1/2 dl flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Melt, then cool down the butter.

Whisk the egg-whites and sugar together, then add the cooled-down butter.

Stir well.

Add the baking powder to the flour, then gradually mix it into the liquid, until a dough is formed.

Towards the end the dough needs to be kneaded on a floured surface until even...

Wrap the dough in cling film and put it in the fridge to harden for at least 1 hour, or until you are ready to  start baking...

My mum and little Miss Moo ready to start rolling out the dough.

Little Miss Moo loves baking cakes, and these are easy and fun to do with the kids!!

Split the dough into manageable chunks, and roll out 1 at the time to approximately 3-4 mm thick.

 Kids may need some help here, to ensure the dough is rolled out evenly...

Time to get your cookie-cutters out!

Kakemenn is traditionally, as mentioned above, shaped like men and women, and I am lucky to have inherited my mormor's (grans) old cookie-cutters...but just use whatever shapes you've got!

If you haven't got any cookie cutters, just use a knife and cut the rolled out dough into squares...

   

 Little Miss Moo got creative and used a variety of shapes....

....whatever makes it fun!! 

 

 

Place your cut out cookies on a baking tray lined with baking paper and cook in a preheated oven, 100-125 degrees centigrade for20-25 minutes...

   

 

The cookies will rise slightly, but should not really change colour...

Leave to cool...

  

 A little taste...

 

 

MAKE IT A GIFT

I bought some Kilner jars from the local super-market, and stuffed them full of homemade cookies...

Before jazzing them up with some paper doilies, snowflake window stickers (I found these in the pound-shop) and some ribbons with some DIY gift-tags:

DIY GIFT-TAGS

I glued some of my vintage decoupage images onto some card board...(an old cereal box will do), then cut them out and used a hole-punch to make a hole so I could thread through the ribbon...

Pretty.....and pretty easy!!

 

 A perfect little hostess-gift!

 

...or as a little Seasons greetings to your children's favourite teacher...

 

Or maybe you have a friend or neighbour that deserves a little pre Christmas treat!!  

Christmas is coming around fast, and its easy to get stressed around this time of year....Sooo much to do!!

The advice I give myself is always: Try to enjoy yourself!!

(I may have to repeat as a mantra in the coming weeks)

If you are all done with your Christmas gift shopping: Congratulations!! (I've not even started)

If not, and you are still looking for that perfect gift, pop back next week, as I will be sharing my ETSY gift guides and showing you a few DIY gift ideas, so stay tuned!

xxx

June

THE NOSTALGIECAT SUMMER KIDS CLUB....

....Session 3: Arty nature

 

 Welcome to the 3rd session of the Nostalgiecat Summer Kids Club... todays session is inspired by nature, and I will show you what Me and Little Miss Moo's friends, Ellie, Scarlett and Caleb got up to on Monday: We made some "flower paper", marbled some plant pots we planted some seeds in, we made a beautiful "flower box" and flower-sun catchers for the window and we had fun making a large leaf-rubbing and watercolour banner...

All these activities work well for both indoors and outdoors...

Here's what we did, and how we did it:

FLOWER PAPER MAKING

 

We started off by making some "flower paper"....

YOU WILL NEED:

Paper/tissue (any non-glossy paper will work, so recycle what you've got)

White glue

Boiling hot water

Flat Wire mesh (we used a mesh splash screen from the £shop)

Cloth/ tea towels

Glitter

Dried flowers (See my microwawe flower pressing tutorial for how to make these)

 Rolling pin

A large bowl 

The first thing to do is to shred the paper...we used toilet tissue, as it will break down quicker....

Pour over some boiling hot water and leave to soak for 15-20 minutes...

 Then poor the mushi paper-mix into a blender, add 1-2 table spoons of white glue....

Blend until you get a smooth(ish) mix...

Ellie, Caleb, Little Miss Moo and Scarlett thought my blender was very noisy...

Spread the mushi mix out on the wire mesh, over a bowl, then squeeze out as much of the water as possible...flattening the paper mix in the process...

Place a tea-towel/cloth on top, then flip it over to transfer the mush onto the tea-towel, taking away the wire mesh...Place on the table, then cower with another piece of cloth, and keep pressing, and flattening the mix to get out the excess moisture....

Change the tea-towels/ cloth, then using a rolling pin, flatten the mix....

 Remove the tea-towel on the top, and add some dried flowers and glitter... 

Replace a tea-towel on the top, then use the rolling pin to press the flowers and glitter into the paper mush, thinning and flattening as much as you can in the process....

Ellie did a great job flattening the flower paper...

Leave the paper on the tea towel to dry out...

I tried speeding up the process by putting it on the oven on low, but it actually took 2 days for the paper to dry out properly...

Then I cut out round circles of the paper, using a cookie-cutter and a scalpel...

 

 ...so that the children got one  flower paper disk each...

 MARBLED FLOWERPOTS

Whilst we were waiting for the tissue paper to soak and dissolve in boiling water, we went outside to make some marbled flowerpots...

I got the inspiration for this project from henry happened.

YOU WILL NEED:

Terracotta plant pots

Nail varnishes (use old ones, revive them by adding a little acetone/nail varnish remover to the bottles and shake)

Big bucket half filled with water

+

soil and seeds for planting later....

This one may be best to do outdoors because of the fumes from the nail varnishes...

Poor 2-3 bottles of nail varnish into the water...choose some nice, contrasting or matching colours...

Let the varnish spread out on the surface of the water...use a stick(or similar) to gently swirl the colours together....

Dip the terracotta pots in, on their side, and gently rotate to pick up the varnish....

.....watch the beautiful effect the nail varnish makes...

Ellie had a great technique, twisting the pot into the water...

If needed, re-dip to cover the entire pot....adding more nail varnish as needed...

Put aside, and leave to dry!

In places, the varnish will be quite thick and lumpy, so leave to dry for at least 1 hour...

The marbled plant pots are now ready for planting in...

A bit of soil/compost, and some pansy seeds....

....and a little water...

The kids got to keep their own marbled plant pot, and now they've just got to wait for the seeds to start growing...

CARDBOARD FLOWER BOX AND SUNCATCHERS

Whilst we were waiting for the varnish to dry on our marbled flower pots, we finished making our flower paper (above) then we made a beautiful flower box and some sun catchers for the window...

I got the inspiration for this project (and the next) from artful parent, a great blog dedicated to children's art projects.

YOU WILL NEED:

Small cardboard box

Scissors(knife)

Transparent contact paper

Flowers and leaves

Cut out the sides of the box, leaving approx. 1" around the edges (as in the picture above)...

Attach sheets of contact paper on the inside of the box, sticky side out....making sticky windows in the box... 

 

  

Let the kids place flowers, leaves and petals onto the sticky back plastic...one side at the time, then cover with another sheet of contact paper....

...and there you have it: a beautiful flower box...

Little Miss Moo was absolutely fascinated by the colours  of the flowers against the light....

And we had a look at how it looked when placed (temporarily) on top of a lamp in a dark room...

...beautiful...

Scarlett and Caleb had fun putting their heads inside the box to have a closer look...

We also made some lovely flower sun catchers out of the squares we cut out from the box (waste nothing...) so that the kids could take a piece each home...

Scarlet makes a beautiful picture....

As with the box, we stuck on some contact paper to one side, then the kids placed flowers, leaves and petals onto the sticky side....

Ellie created a beautiful display by ripping the petals of the flowers before placing them on to the sticky back plastic....

Then we covered the flowers with another sheet of transparent contact paper...

Caleb was very pleased with his....

And Little Miss Moo loved the way the colours of the flowers come up when the light shines through...

LEAF RUBBING AND WATERCOLOUR BANNER

We finished of the session with some fun messy play, making a leaf rubbing and watercolour banner.. 

YOU WILL NEED:

Easel paper roll/large sheet of paper

Leaves

Crayons

Watercolours/ paint

Brushes and water

Spread the leaves out in the middle of the table...

...cover with paper.(use a bit of sticky tape to hold in place)

 Then show the kids how to bring out the shape and details of the leaves by rubbing the sides of the crayons over the paper....

 Scarlett said she would rather try to draw the leafs....

Next, we tidied away the crayons and the leaves under the paper, then we got out the paints, and I explained how, if the paint is watery enough, the wax in the crayon marks will resist the paint and make a lovely effect:

And so, they went to work...

Little Miss Moo and Scarlett just painted the same spot over and over until the paper broke...(never mind...they had fun, that's the main thing!!)....

 

.....but Ellie got the concept straight away , and Caleb was so gentle with the paint that they got some beautiful results...

 

We really did have lots of fun, and I got to recycle some paper, a cardboard box , the (dying) flowers I got for our anniversary last week and my old nail varnishes....not bad hey?

I  hope you feel inspired to try out some arty projects with your kids...

Please visit my pinterest board kids crafts and fun for more great ideas of things to do with your kids over the holidays...

Let me know what you think about todays kids club, or maybe you have a great idea for something to do with the kids over the holidays that you would like to share: Please leave a comment below...

And don't forget to visit my post:  a celebration , and leave a comment at the bottom of the post, to be in with a chance of winning a set of 3 of my lace print plates...

Due to a technical glitch my end with the comments section, I have decided to extend the deadline for this competition, so the draw will now take place on Saturday 24th August  and the winner will be announced on the following Monday....

Thanks for looking!

xxx

June