It's a Creative World

Dancing Peg Dollies… and a pretty Silver Angel

Hi folks, just me, Jakey,  with a little project for you and the kiddlies

 

I actually made these with my ladies at the nursing home where I work, and they were delighted with them – they’ve all got a dancing dolly hanging in their room now, but I thought maybe it might be a fun thing to do in the Christmas hols with any crafty little girls you know, be that daughters, nieces or grand daughters – what small girl could resist making one - or a whole troupe - of these?

 

 

First you’re going to need a few things for the dancing dolls:

A pack of dolly pegs, which will set you back all of about £1 at wilko’s, or your local hardware store.

A pretty scrap of material, big enough to cut a circle approx  6 or 7 inches across.

Pipecleaners – gold, silver and flesh coloured. I like the fuzzy ones for the arms.

Pens

Scraps of wool

And a few sequins, or sparkly bits.

 

 

 

And for the angel you’ll also need:

 

 

 

A paper doily, preferably cocktail size.

A small piece of sparkly pipecleaner twisted into a circle.

 

TO MAKE:
Cut a circle out of the gauzy material approx 6 or 7 inches across, and make a small slit in the centre.

Cut the flesh coloured pipecleaner in half and bend the ends up to make hands. Then wrap it around the dolly peg, under the ‘head’ and bend arms into shape.

 

 

 

Slip the dress onto the doll and secure with a sparkly pipecleaner.

Draw a face and attach woollen hair with craft glue.

Pretty up her dress with sequins, beads or whatever.

 

Done!

If you want to make some angels... maybe for your tree? Then just cut a triangle out of the doily for the wings, trim to shape and wrap the pointy end round a piece of sparkly pipecleaner and attach to the angels back. Another piece of silver pipecleaner twisted into a circle become her halo. (Attach to the ‘neck’ at the back).

Have fun playing… can’t you just tell I’m still a big kid at heart?

Love from jakey xx

Letters to Santa

Hi from Jo!

My boys love writing their letters to Santa every year but they've always looked a bit dull so this year we decided to jazz them up a bit.

We started with plain paper, A5 size, but of course any size would work. I then let the boys loose with (some of) my Christmas stash. One chose to go with some patterned paper and stickers:

 

The other had great fun with various Christmas stamps and colored pencils:

 

There are loads of things that could be used - glitter, sequins, foam shapes or your child's own drawings. When they've finished decorating the paper then comes the next fun bit - writing a wish list.

Hope your children have fun with their letters to Santa this year!

Tutu much fun

Hi, it's Maria here again and I have a little *helper monkey* today.  My eldest Daughter, Charlotte, loves to get crafty either alone or with me so I thought that she'd love to help me with a post here on It's a creative world.

So, without further ado I shall hand you over to Charlotte.

Hello my name is Charlotte and I am ten.  I love making things, watching The winx club and playing with my Sister and my friends.

It was fancy dress night at Guides last week and I really wanted to go as a ballerina princess.  I didn't have a costume so I decided to make a skirt all by myself.

It was very easy to make but the sewing took me all day.   All you need is a length of tulle, elastic and some ribbon to decorate.

1. Mummy measured my waist and I cut a piece of elastic to fit me.  I then sewed the end of the elastic to the end of the tulle to keep it in place.

2. The tulle was folded in two so I just put the elastic into the fold and sewed underneath to make a tube.   The tulle was very long so we clipped some pegs onto the elastic to stop it jiggling around.

3. When I had sewed to the end of the elastic we gathered the tulle to the start of the elastic and I carried on sewing.

4. When I was happy with the gathering and at the end of the elastic Mummy sewed the two ends together.  I let her help with this bit as I wanted it to be secure.

5. I then sewed the two ends of the skirt together from top to bottom.

6. I decided to put some ribbon on the back so I sewed it to the waist and Mummy tied the bow for me.

I was really pleased with my skirt and everyone at Guides liked it.  My Guide leader was very impressed that I'd made it by myself.

Thank for letting me show my skirt.  Here I am wearing it with my Sister Amelia.

Maria here again.  This really is a nice project for children who want to learn to sew.  The holes in the tulle make it very easy to sew straight(ish) and the rough texture means it's not slipping about all over the place.

If you fancy the skirt but not the sewing you can cut strips of the tulle and tie them to the elastic waistband.  Thank you to the fabulous Kirsty Wiseman for that top tip.

Having finished the skirt Charlotte has declared that she still wants to be a fashion designer but will be using a sewing machine.

Toodle pip

A heart-y treat - cooking with kids!

Hello, and a happy Friday to you all! If, like me, you're spending the week at home with your children for half-term next week, here's a little something to keep everyone occupied for a good hour or so. As it's coming up to Valentine's Day, I thought it would be great to make some sweet treats with a lurve theme, and these hearty fairy cakes are just the job. You will need:

125g self raising flour

125g soft margarine

125 caster sugar

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

And for the topping:

50g margarine

100g sieved icing sugar

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

icing sugar to dust

cocoa powder to dust

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C, gas mark 4. Cream together the margarine and the caster sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and beat in. Add the flour and mix well until all the ingredients are properly combined and the mixture is smooth. Divide the mixture into two, and to one half add the vanilla extract, and to the other, the cocoa powder, mixing well until fully combined. Divide the mixture into paper cases - this recipe will yield approximately 8 vanilla and 8 chocolate fairy cakes. Put in the oven in tart tins and cook for 15-20 minutes, until the vanilla cakes are golden on top. When the cakes are cooked, transfer to a wire rack to cool, when they will look like this:

While the cakes are cooking, you can make the topping. Cream together the margarine and icing sugar, adding a little icing sugar at a time. When all of the icing sugar has been added, and the mixture is smooth, divide into two, and add a tablespoon of cocoa powder to one half, and a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the other, and mix well. When the cakes have cooled completely, use a spatula to spread chocolate icing onto the vanilla cakes, and vanilla icing onto the chocolate cakes!! (Or vice versa if you don't want to mix the two!) Make a template for dusting a heart onto the top of each cake by cutting a heart shape out of a piece of card, like this:

Carefully (this requires a steady hand!), using a sieve, dust a cocoa powder heart onto the top of the vanilla icing, and an icing sugar heart onto the top of the chocolate icing, et voila! Heart fairy cakes for everyone to enjoy:

Happy baking, and happy half-term to those who, like us, break up today!

xxx 

Quick Quiches - kids in the kitchen!

 

These quick, mini quiches are great for after-school snacks, lunch box treats, or as part of a main meal. You can be as creative as you like when it comes to the filling: today, along with the staple grated cheese and egg & milk mix, we used pesto, tomato puree, smoked salmon and sweetcorn fillings, and they were all absolutely delicious!

You will need:

150g plain flour

75g margarine

6 teaspoons very cold water

pinch of salt

50g grated cheddar cheese

1 egg

3 tablespoons milk

variety of fillings: tomato puree, pesto, smoked salmon, flaked tuna, sweetcorn, cooked broccoli

round pastry/cookie cutter, approx 8.5cm diameter

greased tart tin

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 5, 190 degrees C, 375 degrees F. Grease the tart tin with a little margarine on some kitchen paper.

Make the pastry by sifting the flour into a big mixing bowl, and adding small pieces at a time of the margarine, rubbing the margarine into the flour until all the marg has been used up and a consistency of breadcrumbs has been achieved! Try and do this using the tips of your fingers - as my daughter said, you should have clean palms at the end of this process!!!

To the breadcrumb mixture, add the water using a blunt knife to mix it in. Squeeze the resulting mixture into a ball of dough.

Sprinkle a little flour onto your work surface. Roll out the pastry fairly thinly - if you don't your quiches will be too stodgy. Cut out circles from the rolled out pastry - these quantities should give enough for around 12 quiches.

Press the cut out circles into the greased baking tray. Now comes the fun bit - adding your fillings! You don't need large quantities of anything - we used tomato puree, pesto, sweetcorn and smoked salmon, and you can see from the next photo that you don't need much - a squeeze of puree, a teaspoon of pesto, a couple of ribbons of smoked salmon, and a heaped teaspoon of sweetcorn should suffice.

Next, sprinkle some of the grated cheese on top of the base fillings.

Beat the egg and milk together in a jug, and pour a little of the mixture into each quiche case. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until they are golden and puffed up! Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy!!

My younger DD really did do most of this herself - they are easy enough for children to make with careful supervision, and she thoroughly enjoyed the fruits of her labours for her tea!

Jo xxx

Lollipop stick puppets!

Hello! And welcome to this, my first post of the New Year, and my 36th birthday!! My cake is groaning under the weight of all of those candles...!!!

It's the last few days of the children's holiday from school, and, after the excitement of Christmas and New Year, you might be looking for something to keep them occupied for a little while. This is something you can make for or with your children, they can be personalised and made to look like people you know, or you can let your imagination run wild with your own creations! I had a quick hunt through my crafting stash and gathered together some big lolly sticks (like the kind the doctor uses to push down your tongue!), some googly eyes, some glue, a selection of scrap paper (off-cuts from other projects), and a black pen to draw some features.

This is how my little people came together:

First of all, I stuck on their eyes, choosing three different sizes of eyes for a bit of variety, and because they look funnier like that! Next, I drew their hair in pencil on the reverse of some coloured card, effectively making a frame for their face with the hair. I then cut these out, cut fringes for some of them by making tiny snips with the scissors, and then stuck them on with my Glossy Accents. This is what they look like in their naked state (!!):

Next comes the fun part - dressing them! I made two boys and four girls, and the girls are definitely easier to dress as their basic shape is more accommodating - you don't have the worry of trouser legs!! It's important that you make sure you don't stick the clothes right at the bottom of the lolly stick - glue them at the top or waistband, to leave room for little fingers to manipulate the stick. The shoes are attached to the bottom of the trousers, or dress, not to the stick. I've used scrapping papers for my girls' dresses, and just added little details with my Sakura pen. And here they are, dressed and ready to dance to the tune of the kids' imaginations!

We've named ours, as you can see, and Anja has had a go at making her own with no help from me - it didn't take long at all, and she loves him!

Freya's sings beautifully, she's given a pop concert today:

And yes, that is a belly button you can see between her top and trousers!!!

We've had several performances starring our puppets today, and more than a few minutes' fun.

Happy crafting! Jo xxx

Goodbye 2007

We hope that you're all looking forward to the New year and have your party poppers and bottle of bubbly ready.

We have had an amazing year with It's a creative world and are so excited to say goodbye to 2007 with some more artwork from the children.

We will announce the winner of the lucky dipper tomorrow.

by Rebecca aged 11

by Callum aged 14

by Andrew aged 8

Thank you so much for all your support this year.  You, our readers, are all very special to us and keep us going when our *mojo* is on walkabout.

The generosity of our sponsors has been amazing and we are so grateful for every donation that we have received.

We hope that you will pop by tomorrow and catch up with our hopes and dreams for 2008.

Happy New year xxx

Ooh, we've had a couple of last minute entries so we thought we'd pop them in.

Hannah is five and her Mum said *she has made them her self including folding the cards and cutting all the letterson her new cuttlekids and added chocolates with a glue dot after seeing your link this morning*.

And, we're ending our childrens art with brothers Charlie and Alfie.

Charlie is 12, and created these cards completely by himself, it was his first attempts at stamping and watercolouring.

Alfie is 4 years old, but loves using Mum's cuttlebug.  On these cards he has embossed the card and cut the letters.  He has then used metallic rub-ons to colour the embossing and painter dabbers on the letters.  Mum said that  he had a little help putting it all together .

 

I'm sure that you will all agree that these are fantastic cards and we're so grateful to all the children for joining in the fun.

Don't forget to pop by tomorrow to see who won the art set very kindly donated by our own Angela.

Creative children

Hi, it's Maria here to remind you of our current project to get our children creating.

We will be taking a break between Christmas and New year but don't want to leave our cherished blog all lonely and unloved.

So, here is where you lovely readers can help.  Simply email your child's creation to us as at acreativeworld@hotmail.co.uk and we will make sure that it is shown right here.

There is no set criteria and we would love to receive anything seasonal that your child has created.

Everyone who enters will be entered into a lucky dipper and one lucky child will win an art set.

Imagine your little one's face when they see their work up in lights.

And there's more ....... There really is.

The lovely Angela at Angel Crafts has donated a prize to continue our fund raising for breast cancer awareness. 

Simply make a donation to our Just giving site and you will be entered into a lucky dipper.  We would love to double our initial target and every penny counts.  Whether you donate ten pence or ten pounds it all makes a difference.

Toodle pip

Easy-peasy Christmas cards - great for kids!

My elder DD and I were pondering on a design for Christmas cards for her friends that would be both fairly quick and easy, AND stunning to look at! We decided to use a really simple circle template for making snowmen, and were both delighted with the results. To make Freya's card, you will need: a square card blank; some Christmas-themed backing paper - there is so much of this around, and I have been tempted to buy some of the new scrapping lines, but I am determined to use up my current paper stocks before buying any more! Freya pounced on this pretty snowflake paper which is Belleville Blizzard by Scenic Route, and is double-sided; plain white or glittery card stock; black cardstock for the hats; star and circle stickers, or punches/die cuts. We used the large (red) Sizzix circle die to cut our circles, but circle punches, or drawing around bottles/lids from your larder would work just as well! To assemble the card, cut a square from the backing paper which is just a bit smaller than the card blank. Stick the bodies of the snowmen in position on the backing paper, and then affix the heads with a little overlap onto the body. Cut hats for the snowmen from black paper, and attach these, and then add stickers/stars/circles for their features. Freya also added a little bird stamp on top of her smaller snowman's hat, and, hey presto, one sparkly, festive Christmas card. These take so little time to put together that you could quite easily get a bit of a production line going, if your Christmas card list runs to a whole class full!

So, having been inspired by my daughter, I thought I would have a go and do my take on her design. Instead of a festive backing paper, I've used black cardstock, and have dotted this with the end of a paintbrush (the wrong end!!) dipped in white acrylic paint for a snow effect. The rest of the card is put together in exactly the same way.

If you're looking for more ideas for Christmas crafts to do with children, I can't recommend highly enough these two books from Usborne: Big Book of Christmas Things to Make and Do and Christmas Things to Stitch and Sew both of which are very reasonably priced and have some fantastic projects, a lot of which can be completed without having to buy special materials.

Hope all your Christmas preparations are coming along swimmingly!

Christmas is for children

Hi, it's Maria here and WOW I love our new home.  Thank you once again to the fabulously organised Di for getting us here.   Now, let's get down to business and it's a goodie.

Isn't it amazing how your view of Christmas changes when you have children or there are children in your family?

It is such a special time and if you're anything like me you want to make the most of it.  Time flies far too quickly so I try to pack as much magic in as I possibly can.  We have our little traditions at Christmas like new pjs delivered by the Christmas fairy, reindeer food and a new handbag filled with goodies at the end of the girlie wirlies beds.  They are very girlie girlie and love a handbag or five!!!

Anyhoo, we at It's a creative world are starting our own Christmas tradition and we hope that you will join us.  We will be taking some time away from the blog between Christmas and New years Eve.  We all love our bloggie and don't want to leave it bare and lonely over the festive season.

What we would love is to showcase the work of your children once again.  If your child would like to be included just email their creation to acreativeworld@hotmail.co.uk and we will pop them on.

Plus, all the children who enter will receive a certificate and be placed in a lucky dipper to win a prize.  We really hope that you will join in and I'm sure that your children will love to see their work *in print*.

And just a reminder

To celeBRate the move to our new 'home' we have a prIZe givEAway.

All comments received on this blog on Friday the 30th of November and Saturday the 1st of December, will be entered into a lucky dipper draw!!

And that's not all - a message from Di:

We have resolved the issues with getting your 'I'm a Creative Girl'  button on to your blogs. If you look at the top right hand corner of the screen you should see a link that says 'Get your 'I'm a Creative Girl' button. Click on that and the instructions are there. I do hope you do not have problems as the code has been well tested!!!