Poseable Snake

An easy craft, intended for toddlers and pre-schoolers. A parent or carer will need to do the cutting out and fastenening the pieces together.

You will need:

Card
Scissors
PVA glue
Tissue paper
Paper fasteners/brads
Wiggley eyes



Cut out 3 strips of card of approximately 3cm x 13cm. I just used a cereal box. Curve the ends of the strips.



Cut your tissue paper into small pieces. Cover the card strips with PVA glue and let your child stick on the tissue paper. If your child prefers, they could paint or colour the snake in with crayons or pen instead.



When the glue has dried cut the excess tissue paper from around the edges.



Fasten the snake together using 2 paper fasteneners or brads. To finish, give him googley eyes.

Learning to knit

I am still very much a knitting novice, but I thought it would be fun to share some "how to knit" links. Basic knitting is something I learnt to do as a kid -nothing fancy, just scarves - but forgot about over the years once I stopped doing it.

When I had my second son I got the sudden urge to start knitting, (must have been the pregnancy hormones!), so I had to teach myself how to do it again. I've uploaded a picture of my son's baby blanket below. I used a very basic stitch to make little squares, sewed them all together and then stitched around the edge to finish it off. It took most of my pregnancy to complete and the finished product was quite small, but it was big enough to stick over his swaddling blanket on colder nights and I was pleased with my handiwork.




Here are the knitting links. I think the first one is the website I used the most when teaching myself to knit, but can't remember exactly because it was 2007:

Learn 2 Knit

Craft Yarn Council

YouTube is a great resource if you want to look for videos to help you understand the instructions. CyberSeams and eHow both provide good video tutorials on learning to knit.

Great simple craft projects for kids to do with knitting are scarves or blankets. They can graduate onto more complicated projects such as bags and hats later on.

How to make a TARDIS out of junk!

The kids are back at school! Here is one of the crafty things I did with eldest monkey (age 5) while he was off:



He wanted to make a TARDIS for his Matt Smith and David Tennant figures and this is what he came up with.

The main part of the TARDIS is a tissue box, with doors constructed from scraps of card and sellotaped on. The light is a cork covered in paper which I superglued on the top for him. He painted it and did the windows, etc, himself.

Not a bad way to spend an afternoon during our wash-out summer!