Category: activities

2018 · activities · christmas

Elf on the shelf plan & Dec 1st box video!

JustBindyLeave a comment

Hey everyone,

Ok December is TOMORROW… I really thought it was just new years… But here we are almost at Christmas!!
Anyway – December 1st means…. THE ELF ARRIVES!

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Elf house construction has been happening for the past few days here…

Yes, if you remember from previous years – we have an elf, Kringle…
In our house we go all out, I love Christmas and love any excuse to be over the top festive!
I’m not really a fan of the elf doing naughty antics, so I plan more funny little set ups or he shows what we are doing for that day…
Tomorrow he will arrive and bring with him our 1st of December box full of lots of goodies for the children, I just posted a video showing the contents of the box – so please CLICK HERE to watch that!
Here is our monthly plan for Kringle’s time with us…

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Now I don’t follow this plan to a tee, it’s more an outlook for our December, so I can see what’s coming up and honestly we all have those moments as we just settle in for a good nights sleep in our comfy bed and then that thought pops into our minds – “darn it – I didn’t move the bloody elf!!” and you have to get up out of bed, half asleep and find the blasted thing and think of something on the spot.
So for me this list is an attempt to avoid too many moments like that.
It’s just our basic monthly plan, I can easily see what’s planned and what is happening at a glance and be inspired…
When I have funny set ups planned, that leaves me space to search for inspiration for a new setup or use one I’ve listed to the side… Also if we have something come up in December like a Christmas outing I’ll just work it into our plan…
I also have purposely left some blank days, that’s to give flexibility to swap things around and for last minute activities or outings!
I wrote this blog post last year with 5 tips to stay sane while our little festive visitor is with us… So I highly recommend you CLICK HERE to read that!

If you would like some elf inspiration please check out the hashtag #KringleTheScottsElf on instagram to see what I’ve done in previous years, or CLICK HERE to see it.

Also for December I write out our Christmas Bucket List and this also gives me ideas for what to do during the month…

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I find writing these lists gives me constant inspiration on what to do during the month and just helps my mind be a little less cluttered with trying to remember every tiny thing.
Do you have a rough plan for what you are doing with your elf or for the month of December?? What is your favourite antic your Elf got up to last year! I would love some inspiration for new cute/funny antics! Comment below or on my social media!
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Easy Easter crafts {2018}
2018 · activities · craft · diy · easter · Uncategorized

Easy Easter crafts {2018}

JustBindy2 Comments

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Hello friends!
It has been a long time between arts and crafts posts, so I thought since we are so close to the Easter Bunny/Bilby’s arrival that an Easter craft would be a wonderful idea.
These 4 crafts are super simple and LuLu absolutely loved them… I really encourage you to take the time to do some craft with your little loves, it’s a wonderful way to connect with them and you can really build up their confidence. Also remember craft is more than just painting and making something cute, it is full of so many wonderful skill developing tasks. It can improve fine motor skills, decision making, cognitive thinking, problem solving and so much more. And remember crafts don’t have to be pinterest perfect – ours most certainly aren’t but we think they are beautiful and enjoyed spending time together.

Easter basket cards…
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For this craft you will need;
– Brown paper (or paper coloured in brown/basket colour)
– glue
– brown crayon
– a plain piece of paper folded in half to be a card
– a toilet roll
– paint

  1. Cut brown paper into small strips.
  2. Glue pieces of paper into shape of basket
  3. Pinch toilet roll at the top of one side to create an egg shape, this is your stamp.
  4. Dip egg stamp in paint and press onto basket where eggs would be. Voila, eggs are in your basket. Continue adding your desired amount of eggs.
  5. Draw a handle on your basket.
  6. You are done.
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Some bunny loves you card… 

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For this craft you will need;
– Paint
– A card or white paper folded in half to be a card
– Hands to make hand prints
– Your choice of paint
– Pens

  1. Decide where you want your little hands to go.
  2. Paint little hands (only the 4 fingers and palm – not the thumb) with a paint brush (I find this the best way so you aren’t dipping hands in too much paint)
  3. Place hands on card, keeping fingers in a Spock like hand gesture, and lift off. (Spock like hand will give you bunny ears!)
  4. Repeat with however many little hands you have.
  5. Let dry.
  6. Draw details on bunny.
  7. Inside card write, “some bunny/bunnies love you, Happy Easter”.
  8. Now you have a sweet card to send to loved ones or surprise Dad with on Easter!

Spotty eggs…
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For this craft you will need;
– Paper or card
– Scissors
– Paint
– Cotton wool balls
– Pegs

  1. Cut out egg shape of the paper/card.
  2. Lay out paints.
  3. Pinch cotton wool balls with pegs – these are your stamps/brushes.
  4. Dip wool into paint and splodge on paper = spots.
  5. Decorate your egg how you wish.
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Our final craft was painting some plaster shapes from Kmart, we buy these every Christmas and Easter, they are perfect for little hands and LuLu just really enjoys them. Big W also has fun sticker crafts and the grocery stores usually have colouring in books and sticker books out for Easter, LuLu loves all of those! We often have a never ending supply of holiday crafts!

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If you would like more craft ideas for Easter please check out this post HERE! 

I hope you enjoyed this post and if you make any of these crafts we would love to see them! So connect with me on social media and tag me in your master pieces!

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2017 · activities · craft · flowers · Uncategorized · video · youtube

Reusing old flowers | Flower craft {video}

JustBindyLeave a comment

Happy Friday friends!

Friday means new video day! And HERE is the latest one.

In this video, I show you an arts & craft project LuLu did with a bouquet of flowers that had dried out a bit… We recycled them to be craft supplies and tools!
This is a quick and easy activity to set up & my daughter (miss 4 in 2 months!) had a wonderful time to doing the craft…img_1185

Invitation to play: I set up our craft table with some paper plates of paint and laid out the flowers so she could chose which ones she wanted to use. Then I left her to make her own choices about how she paints & what colours (I just filmed it). The stems of the flowers make wonderful handles! LuLu swished, swirled, dabbed and painted with the flowers & then she painted & glittered the actual flowers!
The end result is actually quiet lovely & sweet, I think these would make a sweet gift from a grandmother or aunt! (The flowers we used are ones that dry & last very well (proteas), I suggest using a similar hardy dried flower if you are wanting to keep them/gift them, however any flower can be used to paint with!)img_1188img_1187

Learning benefits of this activity:

  • Bilateral Co-ordination; Can be strengthened with crafts.
  • Creative skills; Feeling different textures, improving her painting skills & expressing herself with what she likes.
  • Cognitive thinking; Understanding cause & effect (mixing colours,) & visual processing.
  • Motor skills; painting, sprinkling glitter, controlling tricky objects to paint with.
  • Thinking skills; Considering options & making decisions.
  • Problem Solving; Working out ways to paint the flowers.
  • Colour recognition. 

I hope you enjoyed this post & if you do a craft like this I would love to see it! Please tag me in your posts on social media!
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Have a wonderful weekend!
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Beautiful flowers are by; Belle Bouquets. 

#motheringwithheartandjoy · 2016 · activities · craft · LuLu · motherhood · toddler

Mother’s Day Craft. {2016}

JustBindy1 Comment

Hello friends!
Mother’s Day is quickly approaching, which is exciting. My sister should have had her little baby by then, so it will be a very special Mother’s Day. 
To celebrate Mother’s Day, LuLu & I made some cute cards for my Mum & Grandmother (her Ninna & Great Nin). 
We just used a sheet of A4 sparkly glitter card, but you could make this craft smaller for a card. 
Our card is a bit more like a poster to hang on the fridge and wall! 
It is a card that also gives the lovely ladies in our lives a special bouquet of flowers!


This craft is very simple and you only need a few basics things and the main item you probably have in your pantry!
You will need;

  • Cupcake/patty pan liners.
  • A piece of paper or card. (Any size you like, a plain card or an A4 sheet)
  • Green pipe cleaners, paint or felt for the stems.
  • Glue.
  • Scissors.
  • Glitter or buttons or any other embellishments you would like to decorate the centre of the flowers with. 
  • An extra piece of paper to add a message. (optional)
  • Pens, markers, crayons etc.
  • A magnet if you want to make it hangable on a fridge. 
Steps;
  1. Pick out your cupcake liners and flatten them, LuLu loved doing this! 
     

  2. Lay out your design on the piece of card. This is the part where if you want to trim the flowers with scissors, you can now. Laying it out is helpful so this way you can plan how they will look and they will fit. LuLu picked the colours of the flowers and I stacked them together, while we were doing this craft we were going over our colours and also talking about patterns (dotty, swirly etc) 
  3. Glue your flowers together and then to the card, I found glue stick wouldn’t work and we used craft glue. 
  4. Embellish the middle of the flowers with glitter or anything you find pretty. We of coursed used glitter – because glitter is always necessary according to LuLu.  
  5. Attach stems, we used green pipe cleaners & hot glue (I did that). I find pipe cleaners wont stick with regular craft glue. But painting, drawing or even using a felt stem would work as well. Work with what you have. 
  6. Attach a Mother’s Day message. We attached a small banner to the top and have written a message on the back of the cards. If you wish to attach a magnet, do so to the back of the card. And ta-da a bright and lovely bunch of flowers that will brighten someones day. This card could also work as a birthday card or just a sweet little gift to remind someone you love them!
This craft is very basic, but I think it is very sweet & any Mumma, Grandma, Auntie – whoever would love it. They are beautiful bright flowers that will never die! The best kind!
If you make this craft I would love to see them, please show me on my social media;

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I hope you are all having a lovely week.
This weekend is my husbands birthday & my sister is due very shortly to have her baby – so it is a very exciting & lovely time for us all!
Take care friends!

#motheringwithheartandjoy · 2016 · activities · decorations · diy · LuLu · motherhood · recipe · toddler · valentine's day

Making hearts with my sweetheart. {Easy D.I.Y Clay Ornaments}

JustBindy1 Comment

Valentine’s Day is this Sunday…
So this upcoming sweet holiday has been the perfect excuse to do some crafting with my tiny sweetheart! 
This past week we made some little clay ornaments…
She is at the age now where she is very interested in helping out in the kitchen so she really enjoyed helping make them, rolling them out & cutting out the shapes.
They do take a little time to make, but LuLu had a very fun time making them and painting them with her best little friend.
The dough is very soft to work with and not grainy, it dries well and is a beautiful white colour. 


“Not salt dough, clay ornaments” –
Ingredients;

  • 1/2 cup cornflour (corn starch)
  • 1 cup bi-carb soda (baking soda)
  • 3/4 cup of water.
  • A few drops of lavender (or any essential oil you like) *optional.
  • Food colouring *optional. (if you wish to add colouring, mix with water first then add)
Useful items;
  • Small/medium sized sauce pan.
  • Spatula/wooden spoon.
  • Measuring  cups.
  • Bowl.
  • Wet chux/cloth.
  • Rolling pin.
  • Cookie cutters.
  • Straw.
  • Paint/glitter/embellishments/clear varnish or clear drying glue.
Making the clay;
  1. In a small-medium sized pot add all ingredients. 
  2. Stir over medium heat, it will be very liquidy for a few minutes. 
  3. Then suddenly you will notice the texture start to thicken, keep stirring. 
  4. When it looks like very smooth dough take it off the heat. 

  5. Place the clay dough in a bowl and cover with a damp cool cloth to cool down. (About 1/2 an hour) 

  6. When cool, dust cornflour over a smooth surface and knead the dough.
  7. Start rolling it out flat – you don’t want it to be too thin because that will cause it to crack. Try to not over roll it too many times as that can also cause cracking. (about 1/2 a centimetre thick is good) If you find the clay is starting to dry out or crack a tiny bit as you are rolling it, wet your hands lightly and roll the clay back into a ball. 

  8. Cut out your shapes. You can use cookie cutters for this or stamps (trim around the edges once you’ve made the imprint with a stamp) and you can even make hand prints.
  9. If you plan to hang your ornaments, make a hole in the top with a straw. 
  10. To harden you can either let air dry over night or for a day or pop them in the oven at 80degrees Celsius (175 Fahrenheit)  for an hour, turning them over 1/2 way. *Mine could’ve had a bit longer in the oven, so you could extend the cooking time for an extra half hour or so – but check them regularly, they did finish drying over night. 

  11. Once baked/air dried – decorate however you wish. We used paints & glitter and sealed them with a clear varnish.

This craft was lots of fun for both of us. I also made a few little gift tags to use on gifts. The clay was super easy to make, with the addition of lavender it also smelt nice and the bright white of the clay was very pretty – so if you didn’t want to paint it – you don’t need to. If you didn’t want to involve your child in the making of the dough (because kids in the kitchen can be a bit of a handful sometimes) you could easily whip this up while they were asleep at night and then they are all ready to paint and decorate the next day! This was the perfect activity for a play date, both girls seemed to really enjoy painting the ornaments. 
These love hearts will make very sweet little Valentine gifts for our loved ones! 
I really love doing activities like this with LuLu, it may just seem like a craft or play – but she is learning so much through play.
She was learning;
Maths; Measuring and shapes. (She now tells me every time she see’s a heart)
Science; She saw the mixture change form. From dry ingredients, to liquid and then to a clay. And then from a soft clay to a hard ornament. She also learnt that the clay was hot, but we had to wait for it cool down.
Motor skills; Scooping and tipping ingredients, mixing, kneading, rolling, squeezing the clay, cutting, painting, sprinkling glitter, helping thread the twine and hanging the ornaments.
Literacy; Following instructions and older kids would also be learning to read a recipe.
She also learnt patience while the clay was being cooked on the stove & while it was cooling.
So please always remember every single thing we do with our children is a learning experience. They are little sponges and take it all in, they love to learn. You don’t have to sit down and do actual lessons – play based learning is so wonderful for little kids. 
So I encourage you to try this craft, I would love to see your beautiful ornaments.
Make sure you hashtag #MotheringwithHeartandJoy or share it to one of my social media accounts!

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I hope you have a lovely Valentine’s Day with your loved ones. 


To read my previous 2 posts that have been very popular click HERE and HERE.

On the blog today; making hearts with my sweetheart! ❤️❤️This clay ornament recipe is very easy and is handy to…
Posted by Modern Wife Life 31 on Monday, February 8, 2016

2016 · activities · australia day · craft · holiday · toddler

Toddler crafts for Australia Day {2016}

JustBindy1 Comment
G’day mate…

It is Australia Day this coming Tuesday, so to celebrate LuLu & I thought we would share this super fun & very cute craft.
I am all for celebrating holidays – any holiday deserves celebration. Now that I am a Mumma of a little toddler I really like to make the effort that we do at least 1 little activity for each holiday we celebrate. We talk about the holiday while doing the craft and why we are making this certain thing & how it is relevant to the holiday… You can’t get to in-depth with a toddler (well you can, but I think it may get a bit overwhelming for them), or expect them to know why we celebrate certain holidays with out talking to them first, so I think starting a conversation is good, even if they just take away a very basic point – I just think it’s important & really great to just make them aware and just chat about it. This applies for any holiday. Books are a great starting point for conversations. 
So today we made frill neck lizards and a koala to decorate our house for Australia Day.

They are both simple crafts to do, the lizard does require a little bit of prep work but it isn’t super hard. 

Koala.
You will need…

  • 1 large paper plate
  • 2 smaller paper plates (or cut some card board)
  • Grey paint (or black & white paint – I had no grey)
  • Googly eyes or a sharpie to draw on features
  • Glue & a stapler
  • Cotton wool, white crepe paper, tissue – something to create fluffy ears. I used crepe paper because I cannot stand the feel of cotton wool, so I don’t own any.
Steps…
  1. Cut out or assemble face & ears. I stapled mine together, but you can glue them together if you prefer.
  2. Mix together black & white paint to create that perfect koala grey fur colour (mine is a touch too dark)
  3. Paint the entire thing. 

  4. Let dry. (I just pegged mine on the clothesline)
  5. Add glue to ears and fill with cotton wool or some white scrunched up crepe paper. Leave a small border around the ears… 

  6. Glue on googly eyes, or draw some on. 
  7. Paint or draw the nose on.
  8. Ta-da your little Aussie friend is complete. 

Lizard.
You will need…

  • Some cardboard, I used an old wrapping paper tube leftover from Christmas – this gave the lizard a more 3D type of effect because it was curved and sat up a bit. 

  • Sharpie/pencil/pen.
  • Stapler, sticky tape & glue.
  • Scissors.
  • Paint of your choice, you can either do a natural coloured lizard or some bright fun ones like we did.
  • Glitter or embellishments if you feel like bedazzling your lizard (that’s a sentence I never imagined I would write)
  • Red pipe cleaner.
  • Cupcake liners/patty pans.
  • Googly eyes 
Steps…
  1. Draw your lizard on the cardboard with a pen. Now, draw a test lizard first so you can work out how you like your lizard – I kind of fluked my lizards. They kind of look like spoons with fat stomachs and tails – but I guess that’s pretty much a lizard though! 

  2. Cut out your lizards.
  3. Lay your lizards on another piece of card board, draw legs on either side – use the lizard body as kind of a guide to how you want the legs to look. Mine are not perfect, but, at least my lizards have legs. If you really do not want to bother with legs, make it a legless lizard. (LOL) 
  4. Cut out your legs and staple or glue them to the lizard.
  5. Prepare your paint.
  6. Paint the lizards. 
  7. If you want to decorate your lizard, now is your chance – glitter, sequins – whatever you like – make the lizard shine. (This step is added in because no craft is complete in LuLu’s opinion without a healthy coating of glitter – she makes me proud) 
  8. Let the lizard dry.
  9. Take 2 patty pans, flatten them out & place together with the plain sides facing in. Cut a small section out of them and a small hole in the middle. Attach around your lizards neck and staple, think of it like attaching a necklace. (This step is optional – you could make a lizard that isn’t a frilly if you like) 
  10. Glue on eyes (or draw them on)
  11. Roll up pipe cleaner for tongue and attach with sticky tape or glue. (I attached mine under the lizards head) You could use a blue pipe cleaner & leave the frill off if you would like to make a blue tongue lizard.
  12. Admire your one of kind true blue lizard.
I thought I would also suggest some “Aussie” books that we really love and a few DVDs that I enjoyed as a child, we may watch one of these tomorrow or on Australia Day… (Possum Magic is another beautiful Australian book, I just don’t own it… yet)
LuLu absolutely adores the Aussie “If you’re happy & you know it” & “Goodnight Possum”, we read them countless times everyday. I bought the “If you’re happy & you know it” book for everyone I know with kids for Christmas, I think it’s so sweet. I even sent it to a few friends in America!
Aussie classic – Skippy and a Disney movie based in Australia.
These crafts are not “pinterest perfect” and they do not have to be, this is just something fun I was doing with my daughter. I encourage you to have the same mindset, do not be focused with them being “perfect” – the main idea here is just spending time with our children, having fun, talking about Australian animals & Australia Day… I know my lizards look more on the funny side (that is my own fault, I am not a very skilled lizard artist), but we had a lot of fun making them and LuLu is very proud of them. She picked the colours for them & wanted them to be glittery – I would love to see your lizard & koala creations if you and your little love make these. Please tag me in your pictures on social media or send them to me! 
Well a storm is blowing in, so I best post this, turn off my Aussie classic music (Jimmy Barnes, Crowded House, Midnight Oil, Lee Kernaghan etc) & shut the computer down.
Have a great Australia Day! 
Night!

“We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love … and then we return home.”
 – Australian aboriginal proverb
2015 · activities · christmas · decorations · diy · toddler

Paper plate Christmas trees, 2 ways. {Toddler Craft}

JustBindy1 Comment

Hello lovelies!
Yesterday we had a day that was so terrific it deserves a blog post. 
I recently wrote a very honest blog post about feeling like I lost some of the sparkle out my life, I was trying to get it back – it was almost there… But not just yet. 
But yesterday, that day sparkled and it sparkled hard. Maybe it was the fact LuLu used most of the contents of a huge gold glitter shaker or maybe it was because yesterday was just really, really lovely.
Now, the day didn’t start off super splendid. My day had started at 5am when Trent got up for work and then we were all up. Thankfully I was able to persuade LuLu to have snuggles for an extra hour, but she was pretty insistent that I get up and make her some breakfast.
Now at the time I often do not enjoy dragging myself out of bed, but I do actually love getting up early, especially in the warmer months. I can get lots of jobs done when it’s nice and cool (before the Summer heat kicks in) and I just feel very productive which in turn makes me feel great.
Anyway, we had an early start on the day, not by choice – but I am glad we did…
I got my jobs for the day out of the way early and then I decided LuLu and I would attempt a Christmas craft. Our first Christmas craft.
We made paper plate Christmas trees in 2 styles. We made 1 of each for our house, my parents and for my Nin. These sweet little crafts make lovely little gifts to Grandparents from your child, we delivered the finished product to my Mum yesterday afternoon and it was hung straight away on the fridge. 

Our sparkly Christmas trees. 

I just used items I had laying around the house so you could do this too with your littlies. 

For this craft you will need;

  • Paper plates
  • Scissors
  • Stapler/tape
  • Green paint
  • Glitter, embellishments, pom poms – anything you have laying around.
  • Optional – magnet. (Attach to back with glue or tape after child has finished decorating, for easy display on a fridge)
Directions;
For the flat layered Christmas tree I just cut 3 triangle shapes out of a plate and stapled them together. After cutting out 3 of the same shaped triangle you are left with 1 very small triangle, I used this as the trunk and just stapled it all together.
For the cone shaped Christmas tree, I cut a section of the plate out and then just formed a cone shape and stapled it together. You could also cut the plate in half and then shape a cone out of the half. 
Sorry I didn’t really use a pattern, I just free handed everything. So it was all trial and error and they are by no means cut out perfectly. I actually didn’t plan to blog about them either which is why I didn’t take photos of all the steps. And just a note, when buying paper plates, find the cheapest ones possible. The more expensive ones tend to have a clear coating over them, you want proper paper plates to do crafts with.
Step 1; Do not squeeze your paint tubes so hard the nozzle end shots off and into the cup of paint. Great start to the project Bindy, good job Pinterest Mum… 
Next I just gave LuLu a pot of green paint (I mixed some craft paint I had with a green glitter paint) and let her paint all the trees. She did incredibly well, this was her first ever Christmas craft.
The paint needed to be applied very thickly in LuLu’s opinion. 
While we let the trees dry we went outside for a play, to hang out the laundry and to check out our tomato bushes. We picked the little tomatoes and sat in the sun and ate them… Yum!
Yummy home grown tomatoes – the perfect snack for in the back yard.
After the trees were dry (“I had distracted LuLu long enough to let them dry as much as they could”) I set LuLu up to decorate her trees. I gave her a pot of craft glue and a paint brush, a box of embellishments like old ribbon, cut up pipe cleaners, pom poms, sequins and her favourite decorative touch – the gold glitter shaker.
Now I warn you, if you do this and want to use glitter – be prepared it will get messy. Ours did – there was glitter everywhere. And that is ok. LuLu was having fun and in my opinion glitter is the prettiest mess you can have.
I personally think the glitter adds a nice festive touch to the floor and this maybe a new favourite photo of mine.
I sat there in awe watching her dip her brush into the glue and paint the tree, carefully picking out sequins to push into the glob of white glue and then grabbing the shaker and covering the tree, the table and the floor in gold glitter. Moments like this are what I dreamed of being a Mumma. Just having fun, doing crafts, making memories and a mess and just being together. 
LuLu took decorating her trees very,very seriously. Every tree (& the table & floor) needed a good healthy dose of gold glitter.
Our craft table afterwards. Clean up was pretty easy. I picked up the pieces I wanted to save/reuse, cleared the table, rolled up and tossed away the drawing paper that covers the table and did a quick vacuum. Easy! We then went and jumped in the pool to clean and cool ourselves. 
One of LuLu’s masterpiece proudly displayed on Ninna and Poppa’s fridge.
That sparkle, I love it and it’s coming back, in full force. We take our sparkle very seriously.

I encourage you to have a go at this super simple craft and let me know how you go. I would love to see the photos of your little ones masterpieces. 
If you don’t have any green paint at home, making home made paint is super easy, check out my recipe HERE.
I also have a Pinterest board full of Toddler Christmas craft ideas that you can check out HERE.
Also, I have a give away running on THIS post, so make sure you check it out and ENTER! (2 days left to enter!)
Have a lovely weekend and if you do this craft, share your trees with me on my social media.
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activities · craft · diy · toddler

DIY Toddler Father’s Day cards.

JustBindyLeave a comment
“A father is neither an anchor to hold us back, nor a sail to take us there, but a guiding light whose love shows us the way.” – Unknown

So, we are in September – SEPTEMBER! When did that happen, I feel like I was just taking down the Christmas tree last week… But now being in September, that means I am just months away from setting it up again!! CHRISTMAS… Ok, calm down – wrong holiday for this post… 
September also means – Father’s Day. It is this Sunday! Like in 3 days.
I’ve been pretty organised this year, I have got a gift for Trent & my Dad organised and I have planned a family lunch for Sunday. But sometimes these events just sneak up on us, one day you are thinking “right, Father’s/Mother’s/Valentine’s Day is almost here, I must pick up a card” and then BAM it’s the next day! And you are a left without a sweet card to give to the special person you are celebrating.
Today I am here to share 2 super easy card designs that toddlers can do. So simple that you can do them the night before at bath time, let dry over night and then you have an adorable & unique card! I do suggest either doing them outside or at bath time for easy clean up as both designs use paint.
To start both cards, get an A4 piece of paper (or card stock if you have it) and fold it in half to create a card shape. You can have the card in any style you like, but I found having them horizontal was best for both of these designs.

I’m hooked on Daddy!

Fish card;
1. Coat toddlers hand in an even layer of paint.
2. Do a hand print sideways.
3. Help toddler finger paint some seaweed along the bottom of the card.
4. You can either help your child paint the blue water in or do it later yourself.
5. Once card is dry, draw details on. (Fish eyes & lips, fishing line, hook and message) 
6. I get LuLu to sign the inside of all cards we give by giving her a pencil and letting her do a little “scribble” on the blank side of the card.

Dad card;
1. Get some masking tape.
2. Tape out the word you wish to spell. (Dad, Pop, Mum, Nin etc)
3. Sit your toddler down with an assortment of paints (try to stick to 2 or at the most 3 basic colours, as all the colours will eventually be mixed together during the painting process!)
4. Let them paint all over the page (fingers & hands work great for this project)
5. Let the paint dry.
6. Carefully peel the masking tape away revealing your word.
7. Write a message inside!

We made the fishy card this year for Valentine’s Day (LuLu’s Poppa got one too!) and the “Dad” card was for Trent’s birthday. Both of these designs would be very sweet for Father’s Day cards. 
Cute message ideas for inside the card can be a nice quote (Pinterest has tons! Check out my Father’s Day board HERE) or a sweet acrostic poem is fun and shows creativity!
Some ideas are;
Father;
  Funny
hAppy
sTrong
  Handsome
clEver
 pRotector

Dad;
Daring
Adventurous
Devoted 

Father; 
  Fun
pAtient 
sTrong
  Hero
 rEliable
 pRovider

If your child is school aged this would be an excellent english activity for them to do!
I hope this gives you some inspiration for a sweet project to do with your toddler or child. 
I hope you have you have a lovely Sunday spoiling the special men in your life. I am looking forward to our family lunch celebrating my wonderful husband Trent & my Dad (LuLu’s Poppa – she loves him so much). 
I am extremely fortunate to have married a man who is such a brilliant & hands on Dad, he works incredibly hard at his job and comes home and helps me in anyway he can with LuLu, something that I know is sometimes rare with Dads. Trent is such a smart, kind, adventurous, generous, hard working, handsome and amazing man, I am so lucky to be his wife!
I am also very blessed to have the greatest man in this world (in my opinion) for my Dad, he has worked tirelessly for my whole life to give us 4 kids & Mum an amazing & easy life. He is so intelligent, hilarious, witty, honest & kind. I couldn’t ask for a better Dad. 
And our little LuLu just adores her Daddy & Poppa!

I am so thankful to have 2 amazing men in not only my life, but especially LuLu’s. She loves them with all her heart.

Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads, Step-Dads, Poppa’s & also the Mumma’s who do the job of 2 parents, have the most lovely weekend!

“A Father is someone you look up to, no matter how tall you get.” 
activities · diy · LuLu · toddler

3 fun & easy activities to keep your toddler busy!

JustBindyLeave a comment

Hello!
Today I am back with a “Toddler Tip Thursday.”
Do you ever have those moments when you are preoccupied with something fairly important but your little love wants all your attention? 
Normally LuLu wants me to play with her when I am trying to do some cooking or I am mopping, any other time I normally just stop what I am doing and play with her, but sometimes you cannot leave what you are doing. So, how do I get around this problem?
Besides praying for patience, I try to find activities for her to do while I am busy, I try to avoid just turning the TV on as she isn’t overly interested in it and I prefer for her to be playing than watching television.
Sometimes I will simply ask for her help, by help I mean asking for her to look for spoons in the kitchen utensil drawer (she is allowed to play in that drawer) or we bring out her pretend food, I tie an apron around her and she pretends to cook as well.

LuLu loves to pretend the whisk is a bubba and my jar opening thing from Tupperware is a blanket, she wraps the “bubba” and sshhs it to sleep! 
Giant bowls, a spoon and some plastic food (from KMart) & this activity is always a simple winner! She loves wearing an apron when I wear one & LuLu will often bring me an apron because she wants us to “bake”. 


Other times I set up a simple activity or craft, one that takes only a moment to throw together and is simple enough she can do it without constant supervision. 
I have 3 of those activities to share with you today. 

  • Contact Paper collage;

This is exactly what it sounds like. 
You take some contact paper, cut a section off, tape it to the table/window/floor/any flat surface sticky side up, give your child a box of shapes/scrap paper/craft supplies = simple craft that will keep them entertained for awhile. 
(A tip for sticking it down, slowly peel back one edge at a time and tape down)

This activity is suitable from young toddlers right up to young primary school age. Just adjust the supplies, an older child could actually cut out there own images from a magazine or make a picture from craft supplies. If you did this on a window with cellophane it can create a stained glass look & is a whole different craft!
LuLu liked sticking the bits of cut up wrapping paper & felt shapes down and then pulling them off and also experimenting with the stickiness by pushing and pulling her hands on the contact. 

Sticky hands! 
LuLu’s master piece. 

  • Recycled Chute for Pom Poms; 

This activity does require that you keep a few cardboard rolls from the paper towel or toilet paper, but that’s the hardest part. 

Basic supplies, a large bowl (ice cream container would be fine), cardboard tubes, masking tape & pom poms ($1-$2 from the cheap shop!)

It is as simple as taping some tubes to a flat vertical surface (wall or a side of a bench), placing a bowl or bucket underneath and giving your toddler some pom poms.

A super basic, but fun activity. 

Pom poms work the best instead of small balls, as the balls could bounce and become lost. But a word of warning, if you have cats putting a bowl of pom poms in your house is asking for trouble – trust me I know. This activity stayed up in our house for about a week because LuLu really enjoyed it, but my cat enjoyed diving into the bowl of pom poms and scattering them all over the house. 
Once again, a young toddler will enjoy this activity, but it can be adjusted for an older child. You could give a box of cardboard rolls & masking tape to an older child and ask them to make their own chute set up.

  • Flower/pipe cleaner sieve threading;

This is a Montessori style activity. It works on hand & eye co-ordination and their fine motor skills and takes next to no prep time to organise.
Grab a sieve (or basket with holes, whatever it is make sure the holes are a decent size) and a handful or pipe cleaners, drinking straws or some fake flowers – activity prep done.

I got these cheap fake flowers from IKEA last time I was there. I just grabbed them as a supply to keep in the craft box as they can be used for a few different activities and crafts!

Show your toddler how to thread the stems of the flowers/pipe cleaners into the holes & then leave them be. 
(Flowers actually work the best or even straws, because they are firmer, pipe cleaners can be a little hard for younger toddlers to thread as they bend so easily, but as they get older it’s easier for them to problem solve & work around that issue) 

LuLu enjoyed this activity when she was around 18 months and still enjoys it now at almost 22 months.

These activities are quiet & simple. Perfect if you need to make an important phone call or cook in the kitchen when it isn’t appropriate for your child to “help”. When I am cooking dinner I don’t like LuLu being in there as it’s normally a mix of a fry pan, boiling water & possibly the oven going. If I am baking I am more likely to let her help, but dinner is the time I like her playing on her own. 
I hope these activities have inspired you and help you distract your little love if you have something important to tackle when they just can’t seem to happily go play on their own!
If you have any suggestions for other activities I would love to know, please comment below or leave me a Facebook comment! 
Have a lovely week.

2015 · activities · how to · LuLu · recipe · toddler

Mess free, inside friendly toddler activity. {HOW TO}

JustBindyLeave a comment

So Winter is here which means more days inside & less messy (fun) activities outside. During the Summer LuLu loved painting outside and it was so easy & simple, we would paint & eat fruit then hose off & then jump in the pool. Well, yesterday was rainy & very cold & I don’t see us having days where we can have lots of messy fun outside for another month or so – I’ve been testing out craft activities that can be done inside – so without the mess, so no need for a hose off. So I’ve been Pinteresting away searching for fun ideas.
This is one idea I found, I also did my own spin on it as well. I like this craft because the mess is contained – it looks messy & is fun – but there is no mess!

Ok, to start off with you need a few basic supplies & most people would have these laying around especially if you do craft with your kids…

  • Large ziplock bag (27cmx33cm)
  • A4 piece of paper
  • 2 (or more) different colours of paint
  • Masking tape
Yep, that’s it. 
Now I did this 2 different ways as I saw it done both ways online. 
The first time we did it I didn’t slip the paper in, so it was just bag & paint and I stupidly added glitter. If you want to add glitter make sure it is super super fine – dust like glitter. The glitter I used was a bit sharp and ended up piercing the bag towards the end. I like having the piece of paper in there. But if you wanted to tape the bag to a window/glass surface I would leave the paper out so the light could shine through better. 
The steps for both simple;
  1. Get ziplock bag, if you are using a piece of paper – slip it in.
  2. Squirt paint in puddles on one side.
  3. Seal bag.
  4. Tape to flat surface.
  5. Have fun!
2 different ways – LuLu enjoyed both!
Also just an additional note you will also want to make sure your child’s nails have been trimmed, sharp little nails could pierce the bag and result in paint leaking. 
LuLu really enjoyed this, she loved squishing the paint around and we drew patterns and talked about the red & blue colour and how when they mixed together they turned purple. 
This craft is super basic & clean up is as simple as untaping the bag and tossing it away. 
Towards the end LuLu enjoyed scribbling over the bag with a blunt crayon – it created lines & patterns. She loves to draw so she enjoyed this after the novelty of the activity wore off. 

My own version of this craft that I decided to try is more of a colour sensory bag. Basically I made a basic goopy glue type substance and added in a bunch of fun craft pieces (pom poms, felt shapes etc).
For this craft you’ll need;
  • Boiling water
  • Cornflour
  • Jug or bowl
  • Whisk
  • Ziplock bag (22cmx22cm)
  • Craft decorations or anything you wish to add into the bag – I made sure what I was adding in I didn’t care about and could be just thrown away at the end.
  • Masking tape. 
I picked up all these items for just a few dollars from the cheap shop. I like keeping odd craft materials on hand as I never know what we might be up to! 
Now the steps for this one are just a little more time consuming, but still super basic & it is even something you can whip up while your little love naps or watches a short TV show. (Now I apologise for the fact I have not recorded actual measurements, I kind of just kept adding water/cornflour until I got the correct consistency & amount) 
  1. Add cornflour to your jug/bowl. I was using a Pyrex jug & I just tipped in the cornflour to about just under the 100ml line. (Once again sorry I didn’t measure it correctly) 
  2. Add in boiling water & whisk away.
  3. Whisk & add water until you reach a fairly smooth, whitish goopy substance.
  4. I found about 350ml was a good amount for a 22cmx22cm bag.
  5. Pop jug into fridge for about 5-10 minutes just to cool the mixture slightly.
  6. Once cooled pour into bag, taking care as the goopy liquid may still be hot. 
  7. Add in fun craft items. 
  8. Tape to a flat surface.
  9. Have fun!
What you add in your bag is totally up to you! Whatever you have is fine.
With this activity LuLu once again had a lot of fun, she liked pushing the little balls around & discovering the felt shapes under the glue. It was a spur of the moment decision to colour in the masking tape border (which is why it isn’t very neat!) and then we started organising the craft items in colour coded groups next to the colour on the border. Once they were in the groups & in the right area I would ask LuLu where certain colours were, she is getting very good at identifying colours. 
But that is the way a lot of our craft activities go – we start off we the basic idea and then just go with whatever happens & change it/add to it what suits us. 
Discovering all the fun things hidden in the squishy liquid!
Craft activity turned colour lesson! 
To change up this activity you could add in food dye at step 2-3 for a colourful liquid. But only add a small amount as you don’t want it to become too opaque. Even some glitter at step 7 (I did this). This is the same mixture I use when making homemade paint. You can really add in anything to the bag but I really must stress to make sure it has no pointy/sharp edges as it will pierce the bag.
Also this bag stayed taped to the play table for almost a week and almost every morning she would pop out to the sunroom playroom to have a play with it & push all the stuff around. 

Both of these activities are great for toddlers, LuLu really enjoyed them. They are fun but at the same time if you sit down & do the craft with them you can discuss colours & textures, so it is also educational & also a sensory activity. But if you just let your little love do it themselves it is still fun & can be a great activity for them to do while you are making dinner or doing some work!
Like I said, I am a huge fan of this activity for the cooler months. Painting inside when it is cold is difficult, but by doing this LuLu still gets to have fun with her paints & colours but the mess is contained & clean up is very simple. 

What activities do you in the cooler months? I would love to hear your suggestions. 
The weather was absolutely dreadful here yesterday, cold & rainy – not that I am complaining I actually like days like that. But keeping an active toddler who wants to play outside all the time entertained inside is challenging sometimes, so I hope this simple & clean idea gave you some inspiration! 
My garden yesterday. Very cold & wet.
Thanks for reading!