The Memory Library

January 24, 2013 By Kate in Homing Instinct, Making, Paper Paper! Tags: bookplates, bookplates.library, crafting, diy, family, kids books, library, memories, play house, snow, snowball, winter 28 Comments

I come from a bookish family, enjoying an upbringing where reading was considered to be the ultimate sporting pursuit, and where every household nook and cranny was crammed with a life-history of books, from the trashiest novel to the most highbrow doctrines of Greek philosophy (our shelves were nothing if not egalitarian, and we relished them all).

Thus I learned the facts of life mostly from Judy Blume novels, and yet was extremely well-read about world history from our travelling-salesman set of Encyclopedia Britannica, the 90′s print forerunner of Wikipedia. Sadly, volume 12 vanished without trace at some point meaning that anything listed under ‘M: Malachite – Mycenae’ will forever be a gap in my knowledge.

It’s perhaps no surprise that Harry is showing signs of being a book-lover, who delights in being read to (and in pretend-reading to us). At 3yrs old he already has a small but precious handful of books which have marked the various stages in his life and which have been transient obsessions, and I wanted to capture those memories before they fade and get swallowed up into the general joyous mayhem of childhood. I designed some simple bookplates to stick in the cover papers of his favourite books, recording the memories associated with them, so that he (and we) can look back on these in the years to come…

Harry’s first ever book was a picture book by the inimitable Emily Grevatte, whose simply rhyming and repetition tickled the then 6-month old Harry and produced a chortle which turned into a full belly-laugh, and culminated in such hysteria that in time I only had to pick up the book for H to start giggling. Any new mum will tell you that whoever can make their babies laugh is a friend for life, so Grevatte’s books will always have a special place in my heart. The Gruffalo was another hands-down favourite..

The bookplates themselves were printed onto standard white paper and I then used a glue stick to paste them into the dog-eared and well-loved books. If you want to do this and don’t have the time or inclination to make your own, there’s a downloadable version below which you can simply print out and fill in (minus the picture of Harry, of course!)

Download by clicking on the attachment; I’ve saved this a PDF with 6 labels per sheet; these should fit most books.

Printable Bookplates

As I pack Harry’s old baby books into the loft for the next generation, it’s lovely to think that the family stories behind the storybooks themselves are captured and waiting to be rediscovered.

Other things… it’s been a snowy week here in Britain, with a huge blanket of snow falling thickly for several days. Nurseries and schools closed, fires were lit, and we took to the fields and hills to make the most of it. We decided to go to the local park (Windsor Great Park; home to the Queen and some stunning landscapes) just as dusk was falling, and we had the place to ourselves; it was indescribably beautiful..

We came across this couple, absorbed in the beauty of the winter landscape…

..and obviously in the early stages of a great romance…

We taught Harry the art of the snowball fight – something I’m sure we’ll regret before long – before heading home for crumpets, tea and to admire how beautiful everything looks in our snowy garden, including Harry’s new playhouse – a secondhand one which I spruced up with curtains, carpet and a weather vane; it was Harry’s 3rd birthday present and he’s very house-proud; even delivery men get invited in for a cup of tea and a story…

Starstruck at Christmas

November 30, 2012 By Kate in Making, Paper Paper! Tags: 3 d stars, 5 point star tutorial, amish stars, chirstmas craft, festive, papercraft, snowflake craft stars 26 Comments

Regular followers will know of my obsession with all things paper, and with projects which take very little time or specialist skill. As Christmas draws ever closer, I’ve been experimenting with different types of festive stars and bring you some simple projects to try today. My usual reassuring criteria apply; these had to be things I could a) get right the first time – or very occasionally the second; b) could do in front of the TV, merlot in hand, and c) look far more elegant and skilled than the actual labour would suggest. I hope you’ll agree!

Below you’ll find my instructions on how to make each of these stars; the classic 5-point Amish barn stars, 6-point folding stars and concertina or snowflake stars, which look beautiful hung in windows. Once you’ve got the hang of it, each of these are really simple to make and look beautiful when clustered together on a tree, or hung on a staircase - or even just gathered in a large bowl on the table.

Five-point stars are in some ways the most striking and simple stars; reminiscent of Amish barn stars and New England folk decorations, they are the kind of stars that children draw in their first pictures. They make beautiful garlands or tree decorations, and once you’ve made one you can knock up a whole galaxy very simply.

I love layering these stars once I’ve made them, and propping them on mantels and against walls. I’ll also be hanging them on bedroom doors this Christmas with monograms or name tags on, so that all our visitors can still find their room after an evening of eggnog and mulled wine.. Just overlay your stars and use glue dots or hot glue to secure them. I added a Christmas bell and a pearl bead to these below;

They make gorgeous gift-toppers too….

Here’s my step-by-step guide to creating 5-point stars. You can use any thickness of paper or lightweight card; paper is perfect for stars you want to thread into garlands or hang from the tree; card stock is best when you want to prop them up on their own ‘points’ – the greater thickness will give strength and avoid them bending or curling after a few days. You’ll need a compass and a protractor. I’ve marked my star in black pen for simplicity, but use a pencil to avoid it showing through.

Finally, fold! If you’re working on the ‘wrong’ side – with your markings facing you like in the picture above – you want to fold the dotted lines towards you (mountain folds), and the solid lines away from you (valley folds), so that when you flip it over your star looks like this finished one below. The good news is that the stars are quite forgiving and can take a bit of refolding before they collapse. Make one out of newspaper or a tax bill first, then use your prettiest paper when you’ve got the technique nailed.

If you’re making a garland or a set of same-sized tree decorations, I’d suggest that you draw your one star onto card stock and then use it as a template for all of the others by just tracing around it; very gratifying, and it means that you can throw your compass and protractor out of the window with glee.

You can find my original tutorial on how to make 6 point stars here, so I won’t repeat all the steps below; suffice to say I find these even quicker than the 5 point stars to make, and they look beautiful when strung together round a wreath frame, threaded by their points into a garland or hung in clusters like these on Harry’s playroom staircase.

If you are stringing them into a decorative garland (looks beautiful over a fireplace or along shelves), poke a needle threaded with invisible thread through two of the tips of the stars as shown below. If you thread them through the opposing, centre tips they’re more likely to spin in the air and you will spend a lot of time gazing at the backs… not ideal.

Again, if you’re mass-producing these, draw one out onto stiff card and use it as a template for all of the others; it’ll save you hours.

Which brings us finally to the easiest of all (and arguably the prettiest); concertina or snowflake stars. I’ve made mine using 12″ square polkadot paper, but try using a large sheet of tissue paper or thin white paper to get far more folds/points and a large, ethereal white snowflake. Again, newspaper is great to practice on here; the paper thickness and size is perfect for these kind of stars.

The visual steps are set out below, and here’s the lowdown:

Take a large sheet of paper and fold over an inch – you can measure this but I always do it by sight; these stars can cope with a bit of innacuracy! Flip the paper over and fold it back again by the same measurement to create a concertina fold. Repeat this until you run out of paper or have at least 4 full folds.
The more folds you have, the fuller and more ornate your star will be. I’d practice on newspaper making one with lots of folds and one with fewer (like mine), to decide which style you prefer.
Trim off any leftover paper, making sure that your raw edges are both pointing down (like the first pic below), and you haven’t been left with a half-fold; if you have, just trim it off.
Fold your concertina in half to find the middle point, and then draw freehand a pattern which looks symmetrical on both sides (fig 3). Make sure that you are keeping most of the folded side intact – I’ve just made a couple of circular patterns as you see – and cutting mostly on the side with the raw edges.
Cut out your pattern, holding the concertina tightly together, and then add a stitch in the centre (fig 4)
Fan out your concertina and spread and flatten the points out to form your star
Flip it over and staple the raw edges together on each side to form the star
Tada! Congratulate yourself and hang it in the window for all to admire…

Experiment with drawing different designs and seeing the effect that they have; my curvy drawing produced these fat, cheery stars. Creating more folds and drawing a pattern with straighter lines and more geometric angles makes for a more icicle-like, frosty snowflake which would look beautiful when made on pure white or sparkly paper.

FInally, if after all of this you’ve caught the star-crafting habit, here are a couple of other ideas to try;

A paper star wreath
A mantel-top cardboard barn star

Let me know how you get on if you try these, and have a great weekend when it arrives. We have Harry’s actual birthday tomorrow, and of course the first day of Advent so will be starting our advent tree which has now been laden with tiny boxes in the playroom. The first snowfall of the season is rumoured, so we are waiting with slightly bated breath; it would be just too perfect for it to arrive on a birthday Saturday, but we’re hopeful nonetheless!

Hand & Footprint Reindeer Cards

November 27, 2012 By Kate in Making, Paper Paper! Tags: christmas, handmade christmas cards, holidays, kids crafts, reindeer, rudolph, santa 11 Comments

A little midweek creative fun for you if you have little people around (or just a very large sheet of paper if using your own hands and feet; well, why not?). Harry and I like making homemade Christmas cards, but unless you make them all in one long afternoon, it’s an activity you have to start early and do in fits and bursts of enthusiasm in order to have your finished beauties ready for posting in good time. Harry has a typical toddler attention span so we will usually make 2 or 3 cards before the temptations of lego / the biscuit tin / muddy puddles lure him away, leaving a glittering array of half-glued creations and festive painty footprints in his wake.

This year we’re making hand and footprint reindeer. It sounds – misleadingly – like possibly the easiest project ever, as it simply involves painting your child’s hands and foot and pressing them onto a sheet of paper. If you have a baby who can be strapped into a highchair for this, it’s ideal. If you have a mischievous toddler who makes it his mission to evade your clutches and is slippery as an eel, then it is a battle of wits and cunning. Huge fun, but wait for a clear day and try this outside if you can…

To make this, you’ll need child safe paints (fingerpaints, powder or poster paints are ideal; anything that won’t cause a reaction on the skin and will be easy to wipe off), eyes, red pom poms or buttons and scraps of gift wrap. We also used little paper snowflakes cut with a craft punch, and glued on a bell. Brush the paint onto your child’s hands and one foot (a tip; do this one at a time, or your child will turn into a paint octopus and you will have no hope of co-ordinating anything). Press each one firmly onto a sheet of white card stock. If your child is old enough (or very young), you can probably get the placement right first time, but if not just get them to stamp lots of handprints and footprints, and you can cut out the good ones and arrange them collage-style afterwards.

Fig A: When crafting with a calm and cooperative child who has not consumed any sugar lately:

Fig B: with a more conventionally unpredictable toddler, just cut out 3 good prints and arrange them onto a fresh piece of card in the shape you want.

Once you’ve made your reindeer head, you can embellish it however you like – this is great fun for older children, or something you can do yourself if your toddler has lost interest, or is not yet dextrous enough to do the sticking and decorating.

We trimmed ours and mounted it onto a sheet of A4 sized red card stock. It’s a picture rather than a stand-up card, but can easily be propped on a mantel or pinned to a kitchen noticeboard to add some festive cheer.

When we’d made a couple of these big pictures (and before we glued on eyes and embellishments), we took a photo of the reindeer, uploaded it and used it to print off lots of smaller ones onto pre-folded A6 blank cards – this is a great way of mass-producing your original art without the stress…

As you can see, using different sized eyes gives some very different and comical expressions. Each reindeer will look very different depending on the print and the size and shape of your child’s hands, so make them look as original as they are!

I’ll be back later in the week with some festive stars and also the results of my weekend willow-weaving course (but really, there’s no need for bated breath and huge anticipation of majestic willow marvels I assure you; let me manage your expectations in advance )

A Cracking Christmas!

November 15, 2012 By Kate in Making, Paper Paper! Tags: christmas, christmas cracker, christmas lunch, cracker snaps, DIY cracker, glitter, holidays, toilet roll craft 79 Comments

A recent – if brief – snowflurry in our village brought thoughts of Christmas to the fore. Not practical thoughts of course; the turkey remains unordered, the cake unbaked, and the annual pre-festive season plan to lose 6 pounds in readiness for vast amounts of eating has not even crossed my mind. Okay, it crossed it, but was quickly relegated to the dusty mental file marked ‘mañana’. No, it’s thoughts of décor and gift-giving that are proving deliciously distracting, and so I’ve embarked – very slowly – on the construction of handmade Christmas Crackers for everyone who’ll be around the table for Christmas Day lunch.

I hadn’t appreciated what a peculiarly British tradition crackers are; originating in the 19th Century and traditionally filled with French bonbons (there! Don’t say you never learn anything from me…), they are now a great British institution without which no Christmas table would be complete. Come December 25th, families up and down the country will be bedecked in dreadful tissue-paper hats, sharing cheesy festive jokes and examining the tiny plastic gifts contained within, as the smell of gunpowder from the cracker snap threatens to overpower the turkey.

This year for the first time I wanted to make my own crackers and avoid the mass-produced, expensive ones. I used Kate Lilley’s beautifully simple template and instructions, and blew it up to 150% before printing onto white heavyweight watercolour paper, to create my understated and slightly ethereal oversized crackers, to which I then added strips of gift wrap, monograms and ribbon, tied with festive polka-dot bells.

I wanted mine to be big enough to house a small but carefully chosen gift, so this year my recipients might get a French milled soap, a LEGO city mini man set, or a bicycle inner tube (I know, I know… families, eh?). No cracker would be complete without a seriously bad joke, so I’ve trawled the internet for the very best I could find and added those too, along with some festive confetti.

The most important element is the cracker snap, because Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without someone suffering heart palpitations at the sudden loud bangs caused by cracker-pulling. Cracker snaps are notoriously hard to come by, so as well as sourcing my own, I’ve gathered a small stash of sets of snaps to giveaway if you fancy making some of these yourself; details at the end of the post.

Given the need for clean fingers and craft knives, I’ve obviously made these ones without assistance from my mini-helper, but Harry and I will also be making more of these easy crackers together (below) as gifts for his friends and nursery teachers. Using toilet rolls and glittery crepe paper (and snaps, of course!), they are simplicity itself, and look pretty and festive, especially when filled with chocolates and candy canes – and sparkly nail polish for the teachers. It means saving up an awful lot of toilet rolls, but I have a toddler who is still thrilled to have graduated through potty-training and to have discovered the flush toilet, and so have time – and approximately 1,000 bathroom visits – on my side.

So; Christmas Crackers two-ways, depending on your staying power and inclination; a lovely DIY project to contemplate at this point before the mad rush takes over and you declare yourself insane for even contemplating frivolities such as this. As well as accessorising the Christmas table, they also make beautiful boxes for important small gifts. Like jewellery (she said, hoping her husband is reading..).

If you fancy making crackers yourself, I have 10 sets of 10 cracker snaps to give away; just leave a comment below along the lines of ‘yes PLEASE!’ to throw your name into the virtual hat and I’ll get Harry to pick at random and be in touch re your details; the near weightlessness of the snaps means I can send them around the world without having to send Harry out to earn a living just yet.

I should reassure regular readers that these last couple of posts don’t signify my whipping myself up into a full-tilt Christmas frenzy in the middle of November; rather, I am distracting myself from the thing I should really be focusing on; Harry’s birthday is in two weeks and he has indicated that what would make him happiest in the WHOLE WORLD would be a giant home-made birthday cake, shaped like a pirate ship. With real pirates. And a parrot. And a canon. And… well, you get the picture. Yikes. Watch this space…

Black & white image credit: Imperial War Museum, London.

Preparing for the big countdown…

November 9, 2012 By Kate in Making, Paper Paper! Tags: advent, advent calendar, candy cane, christmas, DIY christmas, gifts, Kids, robin 36 Comments

Whilst Christmas is still some way off (thankfully), Advent is fast approaching. This week I’ve spent the evenings cosily wrapping a myriad of tiny boxes with surprises, notes and treats for Harry to uncover through each day of December. I’ll string them from an armful of silver-sprayed branches and position them in the hall where they can offer a tantalising reminder of the excitements to come.

For my advent boxes I’ve used a random collection of matchboxes, raisin packets (both full and empty), old jewellery boxes and others, and used offcuts of white, red and brown paper to wrap them all with scraps of ribbon and silver thread – each one is different, but the repeating colour palette gives them a harmonious appearance when hung from the branches. I’ve used pretty buttons and embellishments extravagantly because I know I can just gather them up once discarded in the thrill of opening, and reuse again next year.

A number of the advent boxes contain chocolates, raisins or other sweet treats, but there are some surprises too; I found this tiny nativity set here, and have packaged each member up individually and spread them across the month, so that Harry can collect them all and we can tell him the Christmas story as we go… there are also a couple of decorations to hang on the tree as Christmas approaches.

With Harry’s birthday falling in early December, we’re anticipating something of a swelling of the toy cupboard next month, so one advent box provides a bag for him to carefully choose some toys he’s grown out of and no longer plays with that we can take to the local charity shop to be loved again by someone else – and to create some crucial space for new arrivals. At risk of sounding pious, I want Harry to understand how lucky we are, and from the outset to see Christmas as a time of giving as well as receiving.

Harry’s advent calendar also marks a few of the events that we know will happen over the month; the nursery school nativity play falls in the middle of December, and Harry has been cast as Joseph (how my heart secretly swells with maternal pride! Harry himself is a bit cross because he wanted to be a reindeer). It’s the first time he’ll have performed in any kind of play or production, so feeling the safety of this ‘magic button’ in his pocket may help keep wobbles at bay when he sees us in the audience.

The most important box of all will be opened on Christmas Eve, and is immediately identifiable by its sparkly gold exterior. Inside, Harry will find a tiny letter from the elves, sealed with a button, explaining all the things we need to do to prepare for Father Christmas’s arrival (carrots for Rudolph, stockings over the fireplace and a myriad of other anticipation-building activities..). There are also a couple of little treats for the elves themselves; a tiny half walnut-shell bed, with a down feather to ensure the softest nap ever – because they must be exhausted at this point in the year, and everyone benefits from a power nap – plus a few ‘elf donuts’; Cheerios sprinkled with powdered sugar (in case Harry is tempted to sample one himself).

If you fancy making one of these for the little (or not so little) people in your life, here’s a wee list of some of the other things in our boxes (just don’t tell Harry…)

Chocolate ‘gold’ coins and racing cars
Lego mini men
Raisins
A handful of ‘snowballs’ (white pompoms) to thread together
A few real coins for Harry’s moneybox
Paper chains to make to decorate the playroom

What Christmas traditions do you have for your children? It’s the first year that Harry is really, properly aware of Christmas and excited by it, so it feels like the first time we can start to create some family traditions and memories for him; all further inspiration welcomed please!

Have a wonderful weekend…

Cheerful Ghosts and Bouncing Spiders…

October 25, 2012 By Kate in Making, Paper Paper! Tags: cheesecloth ghosts, family, halloween, handprint craft, handprint ghost garland, handrpint spiders, holidays, Kids 11 Comments

Today Harry and I have been feeling ultra-crafty, as Halloween-fever sweeps our little village. The challenge with Halloween decorating in our house is that my crafting partner is a still of an age (at 2 and 3/4) where ghosts are a bit scary, spiders are only sometimes interesting and witches are downright terrifying. So, we needed to make some spooky projects designed to make us smile, that are only a little bit scary. Here’s what we came up with (detailed ‘how-to’ pictures for each of these at the end of the post)….

For the garland, I traced around Harry’s hands lots of times on a large sheet of white card stock, whilst he was half-distracted by a Toy Story DVD, then together we cut around them all. Harry enjoyed the ‘scissor practice’, though for aesthetic reasons I discreetly omitted his dismembered and fingerless hand cut-outs from our final garland… we glued sequin eyes to the front of each ‘ghost’, then threaded them together using an embroidery needle and silver thread. Harry chose and organised all the beads to thread between our ghosts, whilst I did the tricky stuff with the needle. Harry located the tissues when I accidentally stitched myself, and offered to check me over with his toy stethoscope, so all-in-all it was a team effort.

By this time, Toy Story was abandoned and Harry was keen to do more tracing and cutting, so we switched colours to black and started making these bouncing handprint spiders…

They’re very simply made by overlaying two handprint cut-outs and glueing together, then adding eyes, feelers (we used little buttons), and threading a piece of elastic through the centre. I added a colourful bead to each which also helps to weigh the spider down a little and increase the bounce. These were Harry’s favourite; they look super-cool dangling from shelves and the mantel, but they also made for a great game to test Harry’s co-ordination – every time he managed to catch the spider once I had set it boing-ing (is that even a word?), he won an M&M. And so did I.

Our final project was the messiest by far; creating real ghosts out of a pile of Harry’s old muslin cloths (cheesecloth, in the US). We soaked and dunked the cloths in a bowl of fabric stiffener spray, then soaked and dunked ourselves in the bathtub to clean up. I draped each cloth over a pumpkin placed on a stool to create the shape of a ghostly head with trailing vapours. Next morning, our cloths had dried to rock hard, ethereal-looking ghosties that cheerfully stand up of their own accord. All it took then was a couple of eyes, a pair of false lashes (never has a ghost looked more alluring, if slightly trampy..), then I strung them up in the entrance hall; perfect!

To make the handprint ghostly garland you’ll need;

white or ivory card stock or heavy paper
silver or invisible thread and a needle
beads (optional) to use as descorative spacers between your ghosts
scissors
false eyes, or a black pen to draw these

To make the bouncing spiders you’ll need:

Black card stock and a white pencil or chalk (to draw around the hands)
Scissors
Craft glue
eyes, buttons and any other embellishments you want to use
a length of black elastic for the bouncy ‘web’ thread

For the cheesecloth ghosts you’ll need

a handful of old baby muslins or squares of muslin / cheesecloth
fabric stiffener (used to stiffen fabric for roller blinds; ardware and haberdashery stores are likely to stock this. Buy the liquid rather than the spray so you can give your muslin a good dunking
a round ‘head’ shape to drape your cloths over to dry, in an area where you don’t mind a bit of mess and drips
false eyes (or you can just cut out eye holes for an even more ghostly effect)
invisible thread for hanging

The house is now in a state of sticky, papery disarray, so we will temporarily avert our eyes and deny all knowledge of it if my husband should get home first; after all we have a very important trip to make - our first ever outing to a pumpkin patch!

Have a wonderful weekend when it arrives, and see you next week..

Making a Statement: brighten up a dull day

October 5, 2012 By Kate in Making, Paper Paper! Tags: banner, bunting, craft room, design, diy, paper mania, papercraft, parties, projects, quotations, typography 7 Comments

I’ve just finished redecorating the room in our house I use for all-things-creative; the walls are whitewashed, the old navy blue carpet ripped up and consigned to a skip, and it feels light, bright and inviting at last. I wanted to paint the ceiling and walls bright white to maximise the light, but as a result they can look a little bare. Last night’s project was therefore a simple paper banner which I can change at will, loosely strung between two wall tacks along a length of ribbon. It adds a vibrant splash of colour but is entirely temporary, and can be reconfigured to create other words when I get bored….

To make this, I decided on my phrase and typed it into a document file, one letter per page. I switched the font randomly each time, and played with the colours. I then simply printed out the sheets and glued each to an A4 sheet of coloured cardstock (I love these tonal papers and use them for most projects, and tend to always have a pack in my drawer)

I then strung a length of ribbon between two tacks I nailed into the wall, and used wooden pegs to attach the sheets. In my usual slapdash style, I didn’t make any measurements and just did this by eye – it looks rough ‘n’ ready and that’s fine by me!

I can see these appearing round the house in due course in various permutations; I can create an ‘enter!’ banner from my existing letters to string over a door, and by adding an ‘H’, ‘L’ and ‘M’ to my collection I can make a ‘Harry’ sign for his bedroom door, a ‘NOEL’ for Christmas, and a ‘Be Mine’ for those romantic moments which manage to occasionally elbow their way into life with a young family. The possibilities are endless.. almost. ’Never Be Ordinary’ seemed an appropriate motto for a family whose various members will frequently go shopping in a cowboy hat and swim goggles (Harry), and hold a Guinness World Record for running the fastest 3-legged marathon whilst tied to your brother (the unlikely-but-true pick-up line used by my future husband soon after our eyes met across a crowded room…). Embrace individuality – and so say all of us!

The Apple Game; making the most of Autumn!

October 1, 2012 By Kate in Making, Paper Paper! Tags: apples, autumn, children, fall, game, halloween, kids activities, nature, pumpkins, recipes, toffee apples 17 Comments

This could be my last post before I go to jail. A solemn occasion, therefore, because once I enter the local Correctional Facility I doubt I will emerge the same person. It is Harry who has introduced these Draconian threats and warnings, as he passes through a very literal phase where life is governed by rules, warnings and consequences. Thus it is he who will exclaim loudly in shocked tones in a restaurant; ‘Mummy!! Are you talking with food in your mouth?? We don’t do THAT in our family!’. He’s right of course, and I hasten to add that I don’t make a habit of it – but still, I am ashamed. My latest misdemeanour was to switch off the television and refuse to say sorry for doing so. ’If you don’t say sorry’, Harry announced, staunchly and a little regretfully, ‘you will go to prison with lots of naughty men’. Now, naughty men may occasionally be appealing, but jail is less so, so I am attempting to distract from my shortcomings with a new family game; Pick An Apple.

12 small paper bags hang from this eye-catching board, each with a different mystery seasonal activity and the equipment we need to do it. On weekends or days when Harry and I are free from work and nursery, Harry gets to choose an apple bag at random and that’s what we’ll do for the day. I’ve picked a number of age-appropriate and interesting things – mostly outdoors but with a few bad-weather alternatives – which include collecting leaves, choosing and carving pumpkins, apple-bobbing and helping Daddy to make a big bonfire. The content of each bag varies accordingly; for our pumpkin picking there are just enough coins for Harry to buy the right size pumpkin, and a list of tips I found online about how to choose a good one, which will require us to squeeze, juggle and weigh our way around the field as we discard lesser pumpkins in pursuit of the most magnificent. For our toffee-apple making activity (below), the bag holds lollipop sticks for Harry to push into each apple, wipes for sticky fingers and the recipe itself.

I bought the brown paper bags cheaply at a local stationery store, then cut out apple and leaf shapes and glued together with a small piece of twig to form each apple. Tiny wooden pegs hold these on the bags and keep each bag closed to avoid peeping. The bags I hung from pushpins on an old cork pinboard which I painted black and stencilled. If you don’t have a convenient pinboard or canvas, the bags would look equally good strung along a wall or fireplace like bunting, pegged to a piece of ribbon.

And here’s the result of our first activity; making windfall toffee apples. No danger of talking with your mouth full with these beauties; our industrial-strength caramel effectively seals your jaws together and prevents conversation for several minutes after consumption…genius! Perhaps I should market these as a budget-conscious and appealing alternative to the gastric band. We’ll work through our activities between now and Halloween as the days grow shorter and the seasons change in technicolour. I’d love to hear what your favourite activities are at this time of year, and anything we should add to our list…

Self-Assembly with Harry the Friendly Pirate

September 20, 2012 By Kate in Making, Paper Paper! Tags: cardboard craft, curtain rings, diy, homemade telescope, ikea, pirate ship, pirates, pretend play, projects 33 Comments

It’s been a chaotic week here chez nous, with builders in residence, my husband travelling, and flat-pack-tastic furniture from IKEA covering every surface awaiting my amateur attempts at self-assembly. Harry has been angelic throughout, only occasionally becoming stuck in near-dry cement, chewing on innapropriate pieces of hardware (‘these nails taste spicy Mummy’), or dragging still-warm power tools into his den. As a reward for his forbearance, I decided to use all the leftover cardboard packaging to make a pirate ship. It’s been a darn sight easier than assembling a LeftvigKlemtangerArkleHeinig filing cabinet, that’s for sure….

I used a square cardboard box as the base, then stapled long pieces of cardboard either side to form a boat-shape. I covered these in leftover wood-effect wallpaper for a nautical touch, though paint would do just as well. The sails are made from sheets of standard A3 paper, printed with a skull and crossbones, then lashed to bamboo poles with an old washing line, before being tucked into a silver-sprayed cardboard tube. I punched holes in the paper first and reinforced them with eyelets.

I threaded spare curtain rings on string through the cardboard to simulate life-rings (not very pirate-esque, but let’s call it artistic license…)

Harry’s telescope is 3 empty toilet rolls, wrapped in black paper and edged with glued-on ribbon. I tucked them one inside the other and used a glue gun to secure them. Apparently you can use it either way around to spot ships and bounty…

I made the treasure map by printing out the text on a sheet of paper, scribbling on a rough ‘map’, then daubing with used teabags. Here comes the exciting bit; stand far away from smoke detectors (outside, preferably), and singe the edges, blowing out quickly each time.

The ‘anchor’ is the doorstop from my office, threaded through with a length of chain we rescued from a neighbour’s skip. It threatens Harry with juvenile hernia every time he gamely attempts to toss it overboard; I may replace it with a cardboard model before social services arrive.

Even pirates need to eat once in a while, so I constructed this fishing line from a slotted wooden spoon, ribbon and fish shapes cut from coloured card stock. I used buttons for the eyes and reinforced the holes with eyelets, in the hope that these wee fishes manage more than a single outing from ocean to boat.

And so, as the sun sets we will sail off in our cardboard ship to seek our fortune on the ocean wave, and turn a blind eye to the 648 pieces of pre-drilled swedish hardwood which are scattered throughout the house. Let’s hope we spot my husband and his screwdriver on the horizon sometime soon…

Mantelpiece Makeovers

September 16, 2012 By Kate in Making, Paper Paper! Tags: cereal boxes, clothes peg crafts, display artwork, kids projects, mantelpiece, stocking holders 8 Comments

Having just installed a couple of beautiful stone fireplaces, and spent months painstakingly painting numerous walls and woodwork, I’m finding for the first time in my life that I’m becoming a little hesitant about bashing nails into every surface and applying sticky tape liberally to fix my latest garland / project / Harry’s artwork, etc. Who knew that domesticity could strike so late? As a result, I’m left with a huge pile of things I still want to display, so this week I have been experimenting with alternative - but temporary – ways of doing so. I made these cheerful display clips (above and below) by filling individual cereal boxes with rice and then sealing and decorating, with a clothes peg added for the clipping of artwork, letters and cards which can now adorn the mantelpiece and be moved around at will….

These are so straightforward that they don’t need a step-by-step tutorial, but here’s a few tips; I used individual portion cereal boxes like these (below), which are just the right size – small enough not to dominate shelves and mantelpieces, but big enough to hold enough rice/beans so that they don’t topple over when you hang things from them. Fill the empty boxes with uncooked rice or dried beans, right to the top. Avoid sand or other fine substances – you’ll suddenly realise just how many tiny cracks an apparently sealed cardboard box can have! Wrap in gift wrap or craft paper, and attach a clothes peg or bulldog clip to the front using strong glue. Hey presto – you’re done!

I kept most of the boxes pretty simple, but some I wanted to use just in the playroom for Harry’s artwork and photos, so I decorated three clothes pegs with animal faces, shown below. I keep a big shoebox full of small offcuts of coloured paper leftover from when we’re making things, and a quick rummage in there produced the scraps and odds and ends I used here.

I use these mainly over fireplaces, because we have them in most rooms, but they’d look equally cute on bookshelves or cupboard tops. Or why not make one to package up with a drawing or painting to give to grandparents? I’m thinking a numbered series of these would look beautiful on a mantelpiece in white or natural tones at Christmas time to display cards and festive invites – but we’re going to have to focus on working our way through a whole lot of cereal first…

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