christmas cupcake art

We have had some crazy weather lately... wet and cold, then hot, then full blown storms... we got stuck with one late last week and so I needed an indoor activity to amuse two littles.

The request was for cooking so we somehow found all the things to make cupcakes :)

Amahli was more than excited to help with pouring and even cracking the egg was fun this morning :)

Jared was keen to help but his role was more about making sure the oven was on, finding patty pans, fixing the timer. It was great to see them working together to get a job done.

Once the cupcakes were cooked, we let them cool and I had a great idea for decorating them. I iced them with white icing ( icing sugar and milk, I made it really thick) and let them go solid in the fridge for half and hour.

Once hardened, I gave them some food colouring and cotton buds so they could paint on the top! The idea was that they were going to paint Christmassy things but they were just more keen to paint :)

I left some for Jumeirah to do once she got home from school. She really enjoyed decorating them... but all three enjoyed eating them more.

Well, at least the icing anyways ;)

the beginnings of Christmas

I worked it out :)

That weird, disconnected feeling?? Its because I TOTALLY was. I was fussing most of the day with washing, tidying, cleaning, retidying.. never really getting anything done and not spending any time at all with the littles I love.

When I fixed that ( clean only for an hour in the morning) by settling with them by 10am and playing until we had finished ( anywhere from half and hour to 2 hours) I felt so much better in myself and was able to clean with a purpose instead of just filling time.

So to fix it, I started by setting up the tables the night before with some activities that they could sit and do with me.

Yesterdays activities looked like this:

Letter boards and story stones

Marble transfering

And we began our Christmas craft :)

The christmas tree shape activity I designed myself in about 2 minutes in a word doc, printed it out, cut the triangles out and we were ready to start.

Amahli and our little Monday friend really enjoyed sitting and working out how the triangles went. Jared flew through his with minimal help, and he didnt even really flinch at the glue :)

I love a productive morning.

Stay tuned tomorrow when I show you our new addition to the Mumma Made It clan.... ;)

the beginnings of christmas craft

CRAZY! This week has had so many twists and turns Im feeling rather giddy.... coupled with the fact that Big Miss is having a birthday this week and yesterday told me she would LOVE something handmade ( a cat, no less) Im racing against absolutely everything to keep my head above water...
so instead of just ignoring you for another day, Im reposting the beginnings of Christmas craft :)


Paper towel dipping



Now this craft can be messy. But if you do it in an organised ( read anal) way, it does work really well for kids of all ages from about 3 up ( unless you are really game).
To start with, you need the best paper towel money can buy. In Australia, its VIVA. If you cant find a really absorbent paper towel, dont do this craft as its really dissapointing when it doesnt work.
So, not really listening to my own advice, I bought a generic brand of paper towel. And whilst I did manage to do this craft, it didnt work as well as I wanted it to.


You also need food colouring or waterclour ink. (food colouring is what we used)
Each colour we put into the paint tray, ready to be dipped into. I only added a little bit of water as I wanted the colours really vibrant.



As this was going to be a Christmas craft, I cut the paper towel into tree shapes before we folded it. ( See here for another version of this paper dipping craft without the christmas bit)
Then, I got Jumeirah to fold the tree as best she could into a square shape and then dip each corner into a different colour ink.





Once dipped, turn the square around so that the ink runs all over the paper. Once this is done, carefully open the paper towel up. ( this is probably an adult part, especially if you didnt listen and bought cheap paper towel :). This is where you need to be strong)

And there you have a gorgeous tree!
Lay it on some old paper, ( newspaper will do) to dry completely. Then, you can hang them, use them as wrapping paper decorations.. whatever you like :)

loved :) / christmas paper

Wow. Totally not the response Id thought Id get! Looks like my bloggy days are not done yet ;)
Thankyou to those whose comments made me feel a ton better, to those who are reading about this little tribe of mine.
I feel loved :)

And so, with that, I gained Christmas cheer with renewed vigour, much to the worry of my two littles....
Today, I set up a easy Christmas craft that will also save you MONEY!!
Have you done your Christmas shopping yet? Bought cards?? Did you remember the ridulously expensive paper??? I hope not! Cos this little craft is an easy way to make your own :)

I created two stamps using a old kitchen sponge and some random float-around-the-house-until-I-kick-them-under-the-lounge blocks.I cut the sponge into two Christmas trees but really you could cut any shape you like... stars, candy canes, santa if you were really clever...


I then glued them to the blocks and set out red and green paint to dip them in.

I am lucky enough to have a huge stash of big paper from when we moved house but you could use any paper you like. Go ask the local butcher for some. Bat eye lids, surely that should work!

I sat both kids down, and lay out the paper for them stamp on.




Such an easy craft, but it has great results and you get some great wrapping paper as well! Unfortunately, in my haste to do this, I didnt let the glue dry so the sponges came off, but they were still able to produce enough prints for at least 8 pressies so Im happy with that ;)

Thats one more thing off the list :)

Guess what I made for tomorrow??????