Organic Creations

I was on the computer today, doing jobs and Benji decided he needed to make a t-shirt with Garfield on it. I would usually be all enthusiastic and help but I was already entertained, so I told him to draw it on a piece of paper.

Diligently he did as I'd asked, setting up his toy Garfield so as to draw from life. Once done he went over it in black texta. The other two also joined in so I have three boys lying at my feet drawing while I am consumed by my mac.

Once the initial drawing was complete, it was off to my stash for supplies. Funnily enough I had white tshirts for all the boys, as well as sharpies and fabric paint. I gave them each a tshirt and told them to put their sketch inside and trace it out with the sharpie.

 Then I set the fabric paints up on the table with some paint brushes and they had to simply colour it in. I had a variety of different ones, and as it turns out, some puffy paint as well. Left to dry in the sun and then ironed (and the puff came out in Spencer's to give the basketball an extra diamention - much to his delight. )

The boys were all thrilled with the results and couldn't wait to wear them, so proud that they'd really done them all by themselves.

Now the only issue is how to get them off these kids!

Tiling

After a hectic start tot he holidays with football, bowling, playdates etc. I felt the boys needed to get their creative on. Benji asked to paint, so I grabbed some tiles that I had moved only that morning - leftovers from the newish toilet, and they attempted prints on them. 

 The idea was to use acrylic paint and then remove it with cotton bud sticks to make a pattern and then we would print on them. The problem was that the paint wasn't thick enough and the sticks didn't remove it enough for the printing process

 While it was a bit of fun, they were getting discouraged by the results of the prints - so we changed tack.

 The tiles were cleaned off, and the boys were each given a sharpie to decorate the tile.

I found some porcelain paints that I had picked up on special somewhere a long time ago. I had a funny range of colours, but that was the limitation. Each of the boys took a really different approach to the task and each giving fabulous results.

They were baked in the oven and came out great. I want to put felt on the back of them to use on the table as heat pads but they want them framed on the wall - or even better (to them) tiled on the wall. For now they are in a pile waiting for some resolution!

TMNT Tshirt

Spencer did a great drawing. It is of the Ninja turtles that he wants to buy. Rather than just put it on the fridge, or even in a frame I decided this one could be immortalized on a tshirt. It seriously was so easy, I even surprised myself!

This is how I did it.

1. Scanned his picture
2. Printed it on Dark tshirt  printer paper. This paper is white and the image doesn't need to be reversed.
3. Cut it out with scissors
4. Peeled image off backing paper and placed it onto t shirt
5. Ironed on to tshirt. 
6. Spencer was thrilled to find it waiting for him when he got home from school!

Entertaining

We had a play date at our place today. It was a little longer than planned and that was ok because I was prepared. You know some kids you don't notice when they are over - in some cases it can even be easier to have extra kids. Well, this isn't one of those.

We picked up our visitor after a productive trip to spotlight (yes - I took 3 boys to spotlight!) where I picked up these...

painting sets of Wall E with a square canvas, and the paint pallet and brush included. I know that they're Wall E and no one really cares about him - but each one was only $1. How brilliant is that. For the peace and quiet it bought me it was worth much more.All the boys sat for a considerable period of time and happily painted away. What was great is that everybody had their own interpretation of the paintingAnd I was happy to let them go for it.They were all so happy with the results.

And I was happy that they all played together in a very civilised manner. It made it seem easy!

Artober- cat in the Hat

When Xandy was 4 we had a month of art in the september and now with the twins I am trying to have the same focus again - but now its October. As a comparison, they are much more prolific in their art production at kinder than he was - but he talked (and still does) way more. Different kids really!! Either way - I am going to try to do something creative with the boys every day and mid school holidays it seems like an even bigger challenge.

Today was grand final day - my team were playing but didn't win. I wont dwell on that. Spencer has been fascinated by the cat in the hat and just needed to dress up like him. He had been running around with a broom handle as a tail. Not very safe I know. To substitute we made one out of an old pair of tights stuffed with newspaper. Socks on his hands were gloves and socks on the feet sufficed - but he had to have a hat.

Quick trip to get some card and ta-da cat in the hat. He wore it all day and was so impressed with himself.

He was happy - the bigger boys watched the footy and mum and I sewed which was very productive.

Painting

Mr P has been over at our house working on a painting for his lovely girlfriends birthday. It is all a big secret so we have been doing everything to keep it that way- including giving the boys something else to talk about!

In this vein, Mr P helped Alexander do a painting of his Dad while he worked on his and with a little instruction and some colour mixing he did a really good job.

He really took the time and stuck at it which was great. We will give it to him for Fathers Day and I love it. Xandy was a bit disappointed that it didn't look as good as Mr P's painting of rear window but seriously, have a little look at what he has done and here it is not even finished!

Calm after the storm...

Here we are. It all looks very peaceful - now that is. Today has been a lovely day and the boys have been gorgeous. We have made rocket ships and painted coasters getting ready for fathers day. Yesterday it wasn't so pretty.

It has been a week since the big squirrel left for work, and the pressure was rising. Every niggle seemed to send each of us off in a different direction. I needed to pop out to get something, but on my own with three boys this is never easy. As it turns out after a tantrum (me this time) and starting the car and pretending to drive off (for effect only - mission accomplished), three sheepish boys obediently piled into the car. We didn't get what we needed, just drove around aimlessly for 2 whole hours until we had all calmed down. The cost of the petrol was worth the result. We have all changed - for the better.

The routine is a bit more in order and everyone is more respectful. Lets hope this lasts really cos this single mum needs a bit of order right now....

Easter craft

These little plaster easter decorations were picked up at Aldi for $3 for two, so this was more about the journey than the destination. We had fun and I will pull them out again next Easter.

Dog Day

Lsat year when we were on holidays, Spencer took a liking to a stuffed dog. It was calico and very simple, but he liked the idea of a toy dog and it had been at the back of my mind for a while. Kind of like this image from Etsy.

I had even taken a picture of this one out of a french Marie Claire.

When I found these little puppies at Dimmeys for only $3 each I knew I could cross one project off my list. Now we have to make dog beds and accessories but thats ok.

Easter Hats

The kinder hosts an easter bonnet parade where the kids parade in hats their parents have made at home. It is tomorrow so it was kind of urgent to make two hats.

I have a few paper punches that the kids have been using, so I actually let them cut a heap of circles and butterflies. I know easter really isn't about butterflies, but they have been studying them at kinder, so I could get away with it.

Spencer was quite happy with his hat, a red band of cardboard with dots and butterflies. All stuff we had at home.
Benji was happy to make his but not so keen to wear it. Pipecleaners and butterflies - maybe that's why
And the mess that proves they really did help me make them. Lets just hope they join in tomorrow.......

Placemats

These are placemats I made for the twins. I still owe Alexander one but his needs to be different - more writing and less pictures. It was funny how this happened because I had an idea about picture chore charts and these placements came to mind.

The boys are in 4 year old kinder this year and there are a few things that they will need to know before school and I have tried to incorporate a few things into this.

They are double sided A3 and laminated. One side is for the morning and one for the evening.

The morning has their first name so they can begin to learn this - the evening has both names.

I have drawn in where the cutlery goes and wish I had mentioned left and right somewhere.

Along the bottom are the jobs for the kids to do - to give them a bit of responsibility. The morning is about getting up and going for the day and the evening is the wind down routine.

Other information is the alphabet, numbers and colours. They really like them and look forward to using them which is the most important part. Now to design one for the big boy!

Sometimes it pays off

Yes! Finally I can prove that my stockpile of craft goodies does get used. Last January I bought these do it yourself decorations on sale (of course) and put them away in my christmas craft box. (What?? You don't all have one of these??) The boys are getting in the christmas spirit so I pulled out the box and we did a little painting. We put them in the lemon tree to dry but they actually look quite festive there so we will leave them until the actually tree comes.

Create

We got the creative juices flowing again - well a little here over the weekend. The boys painted some boxes that I got a little while ago. The big squirrel took these pics but he doesn't know how to use the fancy schmancy camera - hence the iso being WAY too high.

I got creative on some long overdue logos for the big squirrel. Digitized on Saturday they seemed to take all Sunday to sew them out - but they look great. Just a few more to do....

Hope you enjoyed your weekend

Here I come to save the day!

In true superhero form today the day was saved. Saved from what I hear you eagerly ask - yes, saved from the dreaded horror of your favorite t-shirt being in the wash!
A travesty of justice occured when one treasured Astro Boy t-shirt was not immediately located and was found spinning, helpless, out of control, in the washing machine. What was a shirtless Spencer to do!!!
He managed a regular plain tshirt, but for how long. How long would it take to wear his poor mother down with whinging and complaining and irregular tantruming. Obviously not long, and thanks to the power of google image, an appropriate picture was soon locateed, flipped using powerpoint and printed onto tshirt transfer paper. The green shirt removed from his body and still warm was placed quickly onto the iron board and picture ironed on and returned quicker than evil goosepimples could appear. Then supermum had to rinse and repeat - no just replicate for other child who was feeling left out. Then the two little superheros could go back to their lair - yes bottom drawers of a filing unit I am looking to move out....

Friday Night - Movie Night

I have made a big bowl of popcorn and set the kids and the big squirrel up in front of the TV to watch Spy Kids tonight so I can blog! One week of the holidays down, and another to go. Just to make it harder on myself we have given the dummies to the fairies. The first day they didnt really notice, however today there have been a lot of tears. I must perservere!

Another craft today for Alexander. He did get out and play some indoor soccer with mates today but this afternoon more rain so we tried to make this desk caddy. I cannot believe the pitiful amount of glue they give you and expect the thing to stick together. Seriously. We had to get out the hammer and nails to get this little beauty to completion.

Speaking of little beauties, look who has been into the popcorn!

Decorate

We were off visiting today and when its cold and wet everyone can get a bit of cabin fever. I tucked these wooden bracelets in my bag with some wool - just in case and they were the perfect solution. Alexander and Miss E concentrated and did a great job simply winding the wool around. It wasn't too complicated and the results were instant which is always a good attraction. I had to do one too, although I may add some more............Oh and the best bit the bracelets were only 50 cents each!

Play Dough

Further along my quest for a quieter and calmer existance, we made play dough today and I also learned a great trick- you dont actually have to cook cooked play dough!

I know it sounds stupid, but instead of cooking it you use boiling water and that activates everything and it isn't sticky and seems to last well too.

Here is the recipe: (and you can reduce the proportions)

2 cups plain flour

4 tbls Cream of Tartar

2 tbls Cooking Oil

1 cup Salt

Food Colouring

2 Cups Boiling Water

I simply mixed the dry ingredients and found that the colour was better if I added it to the boiling water. Then you simply add the water to the dry ingredients and mix. I found it best to then flour the bench and kneed it until it was the right consistency.

I made 4 colours in 1 cup of flour batches which was a nice size and we all had fun....