Getting Creative With Nestle

A couple of months ago I was set a challenge by Nestle Cereals, I had to write a breakfast diary for a week to show what my families breakfast habits were like and whether they needed improving.

Now Nestle Cereals made choosing what to have for breakfast easy because the green banners on the top of each of their boxes let us know that they contain wholegrain as well as at least six other vitamins and minerals.

Well this month Nestle cereals have set some bloggers a new task, this time we need to get creative, you know Blue Peter style i.e. here's one I made earlier.

Printing Pictures

One of the subjects I took at school was art, it is surprising how much I have forgotten since leaving school though. My kids are constantly reminding me of things that I did when I was younger. The other day Elise was on about printing pictures and at first I didn't quite understand what she meant, so of course she had to show me. A piece of polystyrene and a pencil later and it all became clear.

You will need :

* Pieces of polystyrene

* A pencil

* An assortment of paints

* A paint brush

* Plain paper

To make :

Take a piece of polystyrene and using a pencil draw out the picture you would like to create, then using that same pencil, you need to push into the polystyrene and follow what you have drawn, creating a type of stencil.

Weekend Box Review

I don't know about you but there are definitely times when I struggle to think of things to with my children, especially when the weather is cold, wet and windy and your stuck indoors. We always end up doing the same things, watching a DVD, baking cakes. Don't get me wrong, we always have fun but sometimes it is nice to find other activities to do and that is where Weekend Box can help.

Weekend Box is a new company that deliver activities for 3-8 year olds right through your door. Each box contains something to eat, something to make, something to explore and something green. And because they fit straight through the letterbox, you don't have to worry about being in for delivery.

Magic Painting

Whilst Layla was napping yesterday afternoon, Gracie and I decide to a little bit of magic painting.

You will need :

* white paper
* white crayon/pencil
* paint, peferably water colours but we used acrylic diluted with water
* paint brush

Time to Get Crafty

My children love making things, whether it is drawing, sticking, colouring, cutting, they are always creating new things for me to look at and keep in that massive box I have upstairs that is already full to the brim of their brilliant creations. The thing I can sometimes struggle with is keeping them stocked up on supplies to carry on using those little imaginations of theirs. This is where One Stop Craft Shop have come in handy.

I was given the opportunity to take a good look around their site and I was also sent a little package of goodies from the wide range of items that they stock.

One Stop Craft Shop stock everything from card making materials, baking, craft essentials like glues, glitters and paints, as well as lovely craft kits for those younger crafters. I really love that the site is extremely easy to navigate with drop down menus at the top and all categories listed in alphabetical order down the side of the homepage for you to browse.

Each category when clicked leads you to a page of sub categories which are all clearly labelled and with images above the writing I think it would be difficult to click on the wrong one.

Each item that you click on states the price and gives a full product description so you know exactly what you are buying. What I love is that it tells you whether the chosen item is in stock or not, no need to chase for out of stock items after ordering.

My girls and I were kindly sent some acrylic paints in various colours and some lovely shape cutters.

We decided to make use out of the acrylic paints first. One Stop Craft Shop stock all purpose acrylic paint from purpose in numerous amounts of colours, each bottle cost just £1.15. The girls decided that they would like to do some potato stamping, so I gave them the cardboard that is left over once a roll of wrapping paper runs out and I let them stamp away.

The girls had loads of fun and soon decided that the potatoes weren't the only thing they wanted to stamp with and proceeded to paint their hands to create finger prints and hand prints. Just take a look at Gracie below.

What was great about these paints was that they washed right off, not even soap was needed just good old water and this meant no pesky stains left on the clothes either, I will definitely be using these paints from now on. 

And I bet your wondering just what their finished creation looked like once finished :

I think you will agree that is lovely and vibrant, a real work of art. We even used the paints after to finish painting our homemade Christmas tree.

One Stop Craft have a great giveaway running throughout December too. If you place an order this month you will have a chance of winning a free gift, one winner will be chosen each day. I was more than impressed with their site and what they had to offer so why not take a look yourselves.

Keep up to date with all their news and goings on facebook and twitter.

We will be using the shape cutters to make some scrummy layered cookies soon so look out for that post!!

xxxx

Disclaimer : The paints and shape cutters were sent to me free of charge for reviewing purposes however all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Toilet Roll Christmas Tree

I recently guest posted over on BusyBeeMummyBex showing how we were making some homemade Christmas decorations, we started with paper chains. Well over the past few weeks we have been saving up the empty toilet rolls, what could we possibly make with these, well a Christmas tree of course.

You will need :

* 16 toilets rolls

* double sided sticky tape

* glue stick

* paint brush

* green paint to paint the tree

* decorations to stick on

* other colour paints 

The first thing you need to do is stick all the toilet rolls together. I used double sided sticky tape to stick each of them to one another. I then stuck the tree to a cardboard base.

You then need to paint all of the toilet rolls green, making sure to paint in all the little gaps and any showing sticky tape too.

Once the paint has dried it is time to stick on all of the sparkly decorations on to the tree.

Finally paint present boxes on the cardboard base because no Christmas tree is complete without presents underneath it.

Have you made any homemade decorations this year?

xxxx

MakieLab Makies - Creating the Doll

Makies are a new brand of doll from MakieLab, when I was contacted by them to see if I would like to create and review my own doll, I thought this would be a nice thing that I could do with my two older daughters.

These poseable dolls are 3d printed and stand at 10 inches tall. Created completely by you, you get to choose everything starting with their hair, eyes and mouth, even down to the width of their smile and the clothes they wear.

We were sent a Makies "Gift a Makie" which cost £69, included in this is a gift certificate which pays for the price of creating a Makie doll. You can create your doll on their site like we done or you can download the makies app from iTunes and create your doll whenever and wherever you happen to be at the time.

The process is quite simple and really fun, my daughter's and I had a good laugh at the way we made the doll look, some very weird and wonderful facial expressions seen.

Below is a short video showing my girls going through the motions of making their very own doll :

We have now sent our doll selection off to be made. Delivery costs £6.60 and once purchased your very own Makie doll should be with you within about 2 weeks time.  Look out for my next review showing you just what these dolls look like in real life, to say the girls are excited is a bit of an understatement!!!

xxxx

Disclaimer : The doll making kit was sent to use free of charge for reviewing purposes however all thoughts and opinions are my own.