Category: craft

Easy Easter crafts {2018}
2018 · activities · craft · diy · easter · Uncategorized

Easy Easter crafts {2018}

JustBindy2 Comments

img_4687

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…
img_4683
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.
    img_4692
    img_4691

Some bunny loves you card… 

img_4682
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…
img_4684

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.
    img_4694

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!

img_4686img_4685
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!

Facebook.
Instagram.
Twitter.
Pinterest.
YouTube.
Snapchat; Bindy_30

Signature

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!
Facebook.
Instagram.
Twitter.
Pinterest.
YouTube.
Snapchat; Bindy_30
Have a wonderful weekend!
Signature

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;

Facebook; Modern Wife Life 31
Instagram; @Modernwifelife31 & @Housewifetohuntress 
Twitter; @Modernwifelife3
Snap Chat; Bindy_30

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 · craft · diy · st patricks day · toddler

4 fun & easy St. Patrick’s Day Crafts.

JustBindyLeave a comment
May your troubles be less and blessings be more and nothing but happiness come through your door. – Irish Blessing.

Hello friends!
St. Patrick’s Day is tomorrow! (To be honest, for some reason I thought it was on the 21st!)
So this week I am bringing you 4 very fun & easy St. Patrick’s Day crafts, I know they are almost a bit too late – but they use very basic craft supplies & are a lot of fun.
We did these yesterday as just a bit of fun & to do a craft as LuLu loves craft time, they turned out so sweet I thought I would share them with you all.


Pot of gold under the rainbow.
We made this craft unique by changing the way we did the rainbow, I was missing a few paint colours for the rainbow, so I had a stack of paint cards in the craft box so I cut them up and we made our rainbow a collage. I think it turned out lovely. 
You will need;

  • A paper plate.
  • Scissors.
  • Paint.
  • Glue
  • A way to decorate the rainbow, paint, colour pencils, texta, crayons, coloured paper – the choice is yours.
  • Cotton wool balls.
  • Gold Glitter.
How to;
  1. Cut out one half of the plate, leave a “handle” up top. It should look like this. 

  2. Paint the base of the paper plate “the pot” black. 

  3. Decorate the rainbow how you wish. 

  4. Attach cotton wool balls as little clouds/overflowing gold out of the pot. 

  5. Add gold glitter. We added it over the cotton wool balls and painted some craft glue onto the top of the pot for the “over flowing gold” look. 

  6. Admire your work. 

3 Leaf Clover.
We made this a 3 leaf clover, I did try a lucky 4 leaf clover – but it looked a bit awkward. The 3 leaves, look much better. This craft is so easy!
You will need;
  • 3 small paper plates.
  • A stapler (or a way to attach the plates together)
  • Green paint (or green colour pencils, crayons or pens)
  • 1 green pipe cleaner. 
How to;
  1. Attach 3 small paper plates together. 

  2. Paint the plates green. 
  3. Attach pipe cleaner as stem.
  4. Admire your 3 leaf clover!

      

Leprechaun. 
You will need;
  • 1 large paper plate.
  • A sheet of white paper or card.
  • Scissors.
  • Glue
  • Orange paint (or crayons, pencils, textas)
  • Green paint (or crayons, pencils, textas)
  • Black paint. 
  • Gold pen or paint.
How to;
  1. Cut out the centre of the paper plate. 
  2. Cut out the shape of a hat & also one strip of paper to be the hat band. 

  3. Paint your pieces. Hat band – black.

  4. Hat green. 
      
     
    Trent helping LuLu before he left for work.
  5. Paint the circle orange (like a beard & hair, you could also use cotton wool balls or another craft supply that you think looks like hair!) 
  6. Attach the hat to the beard & the hat band to the hat. I just glued them all together.
  7. Draw on a little gold buckle with a gold pen or paint. I used gold puffy paint.
  8. Say hello to your little leprechaun! Your child can even use this as a little mask, take a photo of their face through the cut out hole! 

Handprint 4 leaf clover.
This is so simple and only takes minutes to do and makes for a very sweet keepsake.

You will need;
  • 1 sheet of paper or cardboard.
  • Green paint.
  • A small set of hands. 

How to;

  1.  Paint your little ones hand. 

  2. Press hands onto paper. 
  3. Repeat 4 times, to make 4 leaves. 

  4. Draw/paint on a stem.
  5. Admire your sweet little lucky 4 leaf clover! 

I hope you enjoyed these very simple but very sweet crafts.
If you are wanting more festive crafts to do, last week I did a blog post on 4 Easter Crafts please click HERE to check that out! 
I hope you all have a lovely St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow & the luck of the Irish is with you!

If you recreate these projects with your little love I would love to see it! 

Happy St. Patrick’s day! 
Posted by Modern Wife Life 31 on Monday, March 16, 2015

#motheringwithheartandjoy · 2016 · craft · diy · easter · toddler

4 Simple & fun Easter Crafts.

JustBindy2 Comments

47D44A9F-27B3-4C62-8EE5-FA9AB1A9369E_zpstnd3q8cx

Hello!
It is that time of year, the Easter bunny is so close to hopping by.
We have been reading Easter books, singing songs, talking about why we celebrate Easter and doing LOTS of crafts.
I have documented the 4 crafts we loved the most and thought we would share them with you all today!
The 4 of these are very simple and 3 of them use very basic everyday items you probably have in your house & LuLu had a really good time with them.
There were parts that I helped her with, but for most of it she did everything and picked all the embellishments!
Now for the tutorials…

E8C5A10A-E79D-4EE3-8BCD-F177E9D45C5E_zpsnaeqgb4b


Easter stamps.
This one would have to be the most simple to create. These stamps turned out surprisingly very good, so cute in fact I got a bunch of plain cards and we made some quick and easy Easter cards for our loved ones!

You will need;

  • A paper towel roll or a few toilet rolls.
  • Scissors.
  • Tape or a stapler.
  • Paint.
  • Paper or cards.
  • Embellishments if you wish to add them to a card.
How to;
  1. For the egg shaped stamp pinch the top of a toilet roll, voila you have an egg shaped stamp.
  2. The bunny is a little more complex. You need to make 2 egg shaped stamps and attach them to a regular shaped roll. (So 2 ovals attached to a circle)
  3. You can attach them with a stapler or glue. I found sticky tape was quick & easy.
  4. Set out your paints & admire how easy this was and how cute your bunnies & eggs look!
  5. For our Easter cards we did 3 eggs on one side and 1 bunny on the other. We then added Easter egg sequins & little foam stickers. I think they look so sweet & lovely!
    9EE7A410-5DED-4531-BC23-741EED49C574_zpsj3puuizp (1)67BE8A05-39A2-40CD-99F9-4000EF08703A_zpsonnxiqjm58970ECC-A151-4454-922C-78CB5BA4D791_zpsdpl84cwj (1)

     

3340C9FC-DAC7-4E0F-8E9A-66D877A41D09_zps0qwjo6yj

Paper plate bunny.

This craft turned out very cute and LuLu had so much fun making it! She did pretty much everything, I helped a little bit with attaching embellishments, but she insisted on helping glue each item & also painting the mouth on.
You will need;
  • Paper plates.
  • I used a doily as an added touch of pretty – but it’s not needed, I just had spare.
  • Cotton wool balls.
  • Plain paper or card.
  • Glue.
  • Stapler.
  • Pipe cleaners.
  • Paint.
  • Googley eyes – these are also optional but LuLu is obsessed with these eyes lately so every craft project we do needs eyes. You could just paint eyes on.
  • Magnets if you wish to hang it on the fridge.
How to;
  1. Attach paper plates to each other (I stapled them) & if using a doily glue that on now.
  2. Make prints of your little loves feet & hands. You can do this however it is easiest for you. LuLu sat on a step for me and I painted 1 foot at a time & stamped them, then I used a wet wash cloth to wipe her foot clean (we did this inside) & then did the same on her hands. You could also do this outside, but the day we did this was super windy! While the paint is still wet you can sprinkle with glitter if you like.
  3. While the prints dry, glue cotton balls to the bunny. To do this I just spread glue over the area of the bunny that needed fluff and let LuLu attach the cotton wool balls how she wanted. (Turns out she is just like me and hates the feel of them! But she still loved this craft)
  4. Once all cotton balls are attached, carefully cut out the feet & hand prints.
  5. Attach them as shown in the picture. Hands for ears & feet for the bunnies feet.
  6. Add extra embellishments. Pipe cleaners for whiskers, draw on some eyes or add googley eyes, draw on a mouth and attach a bow.
  7. Admire your very cute & festive creation. This bunny would be lovely attached with a magnet on the back for Grandparents.
    83C6E04F-4103-46C8-BD38-C495D54528E1_zpsiqflwpvgA5AE090B-6938-4B7E-B8AA-4CA8E32D87D9_zpsatzwmdenE90C40A7-AFD8-47E0-A443-4A97D0560B82_zpsenwxi7gx

     

9406149D-55CC-4795-B53F-B69F97D118F3_zpsrjo4xjl4
Painted eggs.
Now this craft is the most simple out of all of them. You don’t need to make anything & it is easy! I decided this year to use styrofoam eggs instead of blowing eggs to dye. Using real eggs would be a bit tricky with a toddler. These eggs aren’t delicate so they can’t be broken & paint is a bit easier for a toddler to work with instead of food dye. Also, I can never find white eggs in Australia!
You will need;
  • Styrofoam eggs. I got mine from a cheap shop a few years ago.
  • Paint.
  • Paint brushes.
How to;
  1. Paint the eggs. LuLu had a lot of fun experimenting with how to paint the eggs.
  2. Let dry, they dry fairly quickly.
  3. Display & admire!
    98166778-5429-4872-8FA8-4B40480598D2_zpsycqhms7a (1)

     

57554987-722D-4CD1-9689-9C9061144D22_zpsbdvoakdg
Toilet roll bunnies. 
These bunnies turned out very sweet & they make me smile. They were simple to make & LuLu thought the bunnies were so great. Once again these guys needed googley eyes but drawing them on would work fine.
You will need;
  • Paper towel or toilet rolls – cardboard tubes.
  • Scissors.
  • Stapler & sticky tape.
  • Paint.
  • A marker.
  • A cotton wool ball.
  • Any embellishments you wish to use. (Glitter & googley eyes are not needed, but in LuLu’s opinion are a must have in any craft project!)
How to;
  1. Cut 2 small sections from the cardboard tube – these will be “the ears”
  2. Pinch the circles to make ovals.
  3. Attach the ears to a longer bit of the cardboard tube “the body”.
  4. Paint & decorate how you wish.
  5. If you wish to add glitter, do so while the paint is wet. The easiest way I found for us to do this was to hold the tube with my fingers inside & just roll it as LuLu sprinkled the glitter on.
  6. Add features such as eyes, whiskers, nose & mouth.
  7. Attach cotton wool ball tail on.
  8. You now have one very sweet bunny made from something that was probably going to the recycling bin!

    BEF1532D-0BFE-48C0-9194-9940464A503D_zpses1skzxt (1)C28C399F-64D5-443F-B397-CE4C76D76CA0_zpsmbqrylyy (1)8A25AF18-D67E-4399-A53D-B45D655AE3F0_zpst90tqju3
I hope you found these little craft projects inspiring & that you do one or all of them with your little bunnies!

These crafts just weren’t fun & wasting time, as we craft I try to encourage LuLu to learn new things. Colours, shapes, how things work, about bunny rabbits etc.
Everything is a learning experience for kids. Craft time is can be extremely beneficial to your child’s brain development.
Some of the benefits of doing crafts include, but aren’t limited to…

  • 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 (cardboard tubes & eggs roll around unlike a flat piece of paper) & helping attach small embellishments.  
  • Thinking skills; Considering options & making decisions. 
  • Problem Solving; Working out ways to stop the egg from rolling & how to paint a round object.
  • Listening skills; Following instructions. 
  • Science; That glue is sticky when wet but isn’t when it is dry, round things roll & paint is wet but when we wait & have patience it will dry.  
Doing craft is so much more than just passing the time and making things that look cute. It is amazing the things young children pick up & learn!
It is also a great time to spend with our children, bonding, talking, working out what colours they like and teaching them things.
I encourage you to take a day, an afternoon or just a few hours before Easter or over the Easter long weekend and make some crafts with your child. They don’t have to look perfect, your child will not care – the crafts above aren’t perfect, but we are proud of them & think they look wonderful. We had so much fun making them and LuLu just loves craft time and I can bet your child will love making them too with you.
I look forward to seeing your creations on social media!
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
christmas · craft · diy · toddler

Deer oh deer, some deer-lightful Christmas crafts. {Toddler Craft}

JustBindy1 Comment

Hello fellow Christmas lovers,
How are you? Are you waving your festive freak flags proudly? Crafting up a storm? Or did you just finish your Christmas shopping yesterday, like I did? (Yes, Christmas is next week and my unorganised self just finished Christmas shopping!)
Now, it’s no secret I love deers, we all love deer. I like them just as animals, their antlers, their tasty meat (sorry) and as ornaments…
And of course we love the most famous reindeer of all, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. 
So here are some adorable little Rudolph crafts…


To make these adorable little fellas you will need some basic things you probably have laying around your house;

  • Paper plates
  • egg carton 
  • Brown paint (or crayon, or pencil) 
  • Brown cardboard
  • Red embellishments for a nose
  • Googly eyes
  • Scissors/stapler for parent to use
  • Pen/pencils
Now the simple steps;
1. Cut your paper plate in half and then cut 1 half in a triangle.
2. Staple together.
3. Cut out 1 section of egg carton. 
4. Draw around your child’s hand for antlers on the brown cardboard, cut out 2 copies of a hand print per paper plate reindeer you are making.
5. Also cut out 4 legs for each reindeer.
6. For egg carton reindeer, draw antlers (mine are not very good) and ears and cut out.
7. Paint your reindeers.
8. Let dry.
9. Attach googly eyes, red noses, antlers and ears.
10. Ta-da you have the most adorable little sweet reindeers.
I also made a few other “reindeer” things this week.
I whipped up a stocking for Trent with some lovely fabric from Spotlight. This is the first stocking I have ever made and I was impressed that my basic sewing skills created this…
And yesterday LuLu and I baked some gingerbread cookies, I used The Pioneer Woman’s recipe and it is really nice. If you use this recipe keep in mind it does make a lot of dough. I decorated the gingerbread men like deer, please excuse my basic icing ability. Trent & LuLu think they are tasty and cute though!
  To end this deer-lightful post I will leave you with some photos of the “reindeer” (red deer) that were at a shopping centre in town the other week, LuLu loved them and wore her sweet little “deer” print top. She loves deers and says “doe” & “buck”.
Comet is death staring me down because he knows I have a relative of his in the freezer, Blitzen is in the back oblivious, singing Christmas carols. 
Have a beautiful week before Christmas friends.
If you make these sweet reindeers, I would love to see them so tag me in them on social media!

2015 · bullets · christmas · craft · diy · housewife to huntress · shooting & hunting · video · youtube

Tutorial; Recycled Ammo Christmas Bauble {VIDEO}

JustBindyLeave a comment

Hello!
It’s nearly Christmas – it’s nearly Christmas! Ok, a little while to go – but it’s close… 
I tried to keep the Christmas posts until December – I did… But I did this awesome craft over the weekend & it’s super basic, but I am in love with it – it takes next to no time at all (can totally be done during your child’s nap time!) and I was so excited about it – I filmed a video. Yes, I FILMED A VIDEO! And I have been so excited to share it with you all… So I am sharing a Christmas craft tutorial – in November… But hey, it’s late November – so that is ok, right? 
Oh heck, even if it isn’t right – I am proudly waving my festive freak flag! 
Now, I know this may not appeal to everyone – but the beauty of this craft is you can totally customise it to your own taste… You can add whatever you like…
I made “recycled ammo Christmas baubles” or “bullet baubles”… 

But you could add into the bauble anything you love… 
I know a lot of people don’t have surplus of empty shells laying around like I do – but I know some of my readers are fellow hunters & shooters.
This ornament would also be a great addition to a gift you are giving to someone who maybe interested in hunting or shooting. Just wrap the gift in brown paper, tie with brown string and attach the bauble – I think it would look really great. 
This is the perfect ornament for “manly men” – my husband, brothers & Dad don’t care that much for Christmas decorations – they just go along with whatever is put out or on the tree – but they thought these were really cool. And because it’s made from empty shells, bullets they actually shot – it makes it a little more special. 
The baubles I used are from Lincraft and I got them when they were on a 50% off Christmas stock – I can’t remember the exact price but I am positive they were under $4. I’ve also seen clear shatterproof baubles at some cheap stores.
So here is the tutorial, (if by chance the video isn’t showing up please click HERE)


I really love how these turned out. I made 4. 1 for our tree, 1 each for my brothers & their girlfriends and 1 for my parents. They were all really impressed with them.

If you recreate this craft, please send me a photo on one on my social media – I would love to see!!
Facebook; Modern Wife Life 31
Instagram; @Modernwifelife31
Twitter; @Modernwifelife3
Have a wonderful day! 

birthday · craft · decorations · LuLu

Crafting for LuLu’s 2nd birthday party with Spotlight.

JustBindyLeave a comment
This post is brought to you by Nuffnang & Spotlight. 
“To be creative is to let little pieces of your heart go & place them into each project you make.” – Pat Bravo 

September is here!!! September as mentioned in my last post is almost Christmas time, but we aren’t here to talk about Christmas in this blog post… Never fear though, I will be waving that festive freak flag of mine shortly… Just you wait. 
But now, back to it being September.
A few years ago the start of September use to mark the start of birthday month for me – YAY. A month long celebration of writing off every purchase as a birthday gift for yours truly. But now since being over 25, the joy & excitement of showering myself in treats & small gifts for a month and celebrating turning older is gone. Now I am much to busy to dedicate a month to myself anymore #mumlife. Instead now my birthday month is now birthday party planning month for my favourite little person who is a much, much more important person than me, to me. LuLu turns 2 next month & I am not necessarily ready for it, to be honest it has kind of crept up on me!
So anyway, for the past few days I’ve had my party planning hat on and being having quiet a few crafternoons. 
Spotlight was kind enough to send me a wonderful parcel overflowing with some wonderful products that I could use for LuLu’s 2nd birthday party decorations. All these products are by American Crafts and from the DIY Shop collection. I really like these products, they are wonderful bases for any craft or decoration. I was actually torn on if I should use them for LuLu’s party decorations or some Christmas crafts. I figured her birthday was just around the corner so I better get a start on that first. But I have saved some for Christmas craft which I will bring you in November. 
Onto LuLu’s party, last year I kept her theme under wraps – I like going for the surprise effect for my guest when they see invitations and decorations. But for the sake of this post, I am going to give everyone a sneak peek and also reveal her theme. I like themes, I think they are necessary.

I’ve decided to go with a “Tea for 2” theme where her little friends are invited to bring along their favourite dolly/bear or favourite toy. I did have a few other ideas floating around, but that is the one that stuck with me the most. As for colours, it will be similar to her party last year with pinks, brown paper, floral, gold & silver glitters. A bit of a shabby chic/vintage tea party. This years party will be a lot smaller than her 1st, but I still like to make an effort with decorations & food. I rarely can find the exact decorations I want & if I do they are normally very over priced, which is why I prefer to make them. I swear by the time LuLu’s party was over last year the staff in at Spotlight knew who I was and what I was buying everything for, after all the trips I made in there picking up more supplies! And it’s great that my Spotlight VIP card can often get me discounts! (You can sign up for one too, my Mum made me sign up for one years ago – so handy & I highly recommend it!) 
Let’s talk craft… These are the wonderful products I was sent by Spotlight, I love how they are so versatile and can be used for any celebration or theme. They are great quality as well, which I find very important. Spotlight is a trusted company in Australia, everyone knows they are the place you head to when you need fabric & craft supplies! They also stock a wonderful range of homewares. 

To decorate each item I just used products that I had in my craft room left over from LuLu’s last birthday party. 
The first thing I decided to do was use the gift tags as invitations and they fit into the envelopes perfectly. I decorated one side of them and I plan to type up the party details just on my computer & print it off on some pink paper and attach to the other side = invites done! 
Last year we had her invites designed & professionally printed, they were amazing & so stunning, but they also cost a lot of money. This year, I decided to make my own in attempt to save some money. They still are lovely, unique & a little bit nicer than the standard note pad invites from the news agency but they also won’t break the bank!
I think they are very sweet and kind of look like tea bags, perfect for our theme!

To get the sparkly 2 effect I used a craft glue to make the shape of the number and then tipped glitter over it. So easy and it looks very impressive. Each tag is handwritten which is why they aren’t identical or “pinterest perfect” but they are real & I think doing something yourself shows love & effort. 
For the envelopes, similar to last year I just address them with a nice white pen with fake calligraphy. I know I am not perfect at it, but its better than last year and I think it’s sweet putting in the extra effort to try & do some fancy hand writing. 
A tip for doing fake calligraphy (not that I am an expert) is to thicken all your downwards strokes. I just try to write in a nice cursive style and then thicken those strokes & that’s the result.

Next I decided to make some bunting for a party decoration. Firstly I typed out what I need on my computer in the size I wanted but reversed the letters. After printing I cut out each letter and glued it on to the back of the sparkly cardboard & cut out each letter. I glued each to a separate bunting flag and edged it with craft glue and topped with glitter.

I will string this up at her party with some lovely ribbon. I love how sturdy this bunting is. I can also reuse this at future parties by just changing the number. Last year I did hessian bunting, which is lovely but is a nightmare to work with and to cut & paint. It is also VERY messy! This was very easy and I think looks a lot neater as each flag is perfectly cut & shaped (& there is NO mess!)
The chalk board tags are so versatile and sweet. I can use these in so many places. They would be perfect for tags on each food plate, but I already have little wooden chalkboards from last year for that, so I decided to use them for other little signs. Like for the bird cage that all LuLu’s cards will go in. I used just white ink as I find it shows up the best and also because it is a plain colour that  can be reused for any future party or theme!

They are just a few of the party decorations I have whipped up in the past few afternoons while LuLu napped. Her party isn’t until the middle of next month, but when you think about it – it really isn’t that far away!
I hoped some of these simple party decoration ideas gave you some inspiration for your next party or event. I know some people think so much effort for a party is silly & over the top, but I absolutely love throwing parties for my family, especially my LuLu. 
Spotlight has such a wonderful range of craft supplies so you can have lots of fun crafternoons and if you want customise and create your own unique party decorations. All it takes is a little bit of creativity and then your options are endless. They have lots of fun project ideas on the Spotlight website as well as their recent catalogues and you can now buy online! 
Please check out Spotlight on Facebook & Instagram.
Also if you aren’t following ModernWifeLife31 on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter – make sure you do as I update regularly on there with what I am up to!
Have a lovely day & #GetCreative! 

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.”