Roll on the summer ...

It might still be the middle of winter and the weather we have been having recently is so far from anything summer-like it's hard to remember what summer is like. But a crafting session making butterfly pictures and I can forget about the hurricane force winds and torrential rain for a short time.

I recently discovered affordable box frames from Ikea and have been having fun making pictures to go in them. I love the butterfly pictures I have seen in the shops and decided I could make even better versions of them.

 

I have a cute little butterfly sizzlit die which I used. The best, but most time consuming, part is playing with all the patterned papers I have and matching them with a background I think goes. They came out really well and I even got an order for a bespoke one.

I surprised the little girl by adding her name to the picture and she was delighted with it, matching perfectly with her newly decorated purple and pink bedroom!

If you like the pictures, check out my Folksy shop where you can buy them. The shop is a new venture - a place to sell my pictures and cards and allow me to expand my creative output! Don't worry if the pictures have gone though - mail me and I would be happy to create a new one just for you.

Now - back to dreaming about balmy summer days and fluttering butterflies ....

© 2014 Nicola Noble: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look.

Explore, rescue, protect! It's the GUP A ...

Justin had an Octonauts themed birthday party this year. I searched the web for inspiration for his cake and fell in love with a few ideas, especially having a cake with the GUP A on it (you have to know the Octonauts to know what this is!)

I wanted to make some of the characters myself too, rather than use the toys that Justin already had but I wasn't sure if my modelling skills were up to the task but they turned out so cute I fell in love with them! I started with Captain Barnacles and Kwazi but then Justin also asked for Peso and Tunip and, as they fitted really well on to the board, I was happy to oblige.

I baked two 9" round cakes (which I coloured blue) and one 12" rectangular cake (plain coloured). The round cakes sunk a little in the middle (I always wonder if this is because of the colouring?) but it didn't matter as the GUP was sat right on top. I chopped the rectangular cake to make the GUP - it started out a bit small but with some jigsaw-puzzle-type skills, some judicious carving and the glue properties of buttercream, you couldn't tell once it was covered in fondant.

I used three different shades of blue fondant - two ready coloured and one I coloured myself for the board. I decorated the round cake with a strip of wavy fondant in two colours and decorated around the edge with brightly coloured seaweed and corals with some pearl sprinkles to fill in the gaps.

The GUP A was actually quite straightforward to decorate: I did a strip of teal icing around the bottom half and a semi-circle over the top. The join was hidden by a rope of icing around the GUP. The cockpit comprised a small teal semi-circle on the bottom, a black semi-circle behind the characters and a raised strip to the front of the cockpit with some small controls for Barnacles and Kwazi to use. A couple of circles, some eyes and some shiny teal coloured sugar balls all around and it was finished, apart from the dangly bit, fins and propeller. I made these and added some pieced of cocktail stick then left them to dry for a few days so that they would hold their shape. The cocktail sticks were then used to fix the various bits onto the GUP.

© 2014 Nicola Noble: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look.

Explore, rescue, protect! An Octonauts party ...

Justin was five a few weeks ago and he wanted an Octonauts party.

I managed to get the invitations out before Christmas: I found a cute picture of the front of an Octonauts book and fiddled a little to come up with something I was happy with.

I was very late in organising the actual party (for me) and only sat down and planned the games the day before the party, although I had sourced the party bag goodies and party plates before Christmas (as I learnt to do after his very first birthday when I left it until after Christmas and snow meant the things didn't arrive in time!) 

Justin had 10 friends and the party was held at our local community centre (where we've held previous parties). I bought a blue net and some inflatable fish to decorate the room and we made some jelly fish out of plastic food cartons and plastic carrier bags.

We started the party with an Octonauts Creature Hunt. I was "forced" to play some of the Octonauts games on the BBC website to win some creature cards, which I saved and printed out. These were then hidden around the room  and each child was given a creature chart at the start of the games. Once they spotted the creature they then went to Sophie and her friends (the helpful big girls) to get the creature stamped off with a froggy stamp (the closest stamped we had to a sea creature!).

Next game was Fish Egg and Spoon Race. We have a great set of egg and spoons from Early Learning Centre and the children had fun running up and down the hall trying not to drop the eggs!

After that the children played Ball Pool Creature Rescue. I filled a giant bucket with ball pool balls and dropped in selection of sea creature bath toys. The children then had to reach into the bucket and pull out one of the sea creatures (without looking).

The next game was Musical Islands. We laid out large pieces of paper (the packaging saved from a recent Amazon delivery!) - one for each child. The children danced around the islands until the music stopped - they then had to stand on an island. An island was removed after each round and the child not on an island was out of the game. The last one on an island won.

This was followed with Calico Jack’s Treasure Hunt. I have been saving the plastic eggs from Kinder eggs for a very long time and I put a haribo sweet into each egg and hid them around the hall. There were enough for each child to find three eggs and two of these were large ones with a mini-packet of Haribos in.

The final game before the food was served was Octonauts in the Sea (this was a variation of fishes in the sea). The proper game works like this: set up a circle of chairs facing outwards and each child sits on a seat and is named either Captain Barnacles, Kwazi or Peso. A caller calls out one of the names and the children with that name get up and walk around the outside of the circle. The caller then calls different things:
- the sea is getting rough = the children start running
- tide turn = the children change direction
- shark coming = the children run back to their chair.
The last child to return to their chair is out and turns the chair facing inwards; they can play a version in the middle of the circle for fun.

In reality this proved a bit too tricky for 4/5 year olds and Mr Snowballs just got them all up at the same time and got them to run or change direction or return to their seats as per the game rules. They all had lots of fun.

I also set up a table with some Octonauts colouring as a quiet activity for those children who didn't want to take part in every game.

The party bags were just simple paper bags with a label for each child in the Octonauts logo. I found a font that is similar to the Octonauts font and used this (see here). They each got an inflatable fish, a magic fortune teller fish (remember those from your childhood?), an Octonauts colouring book (I saved the images from the BBC website and then printed them four to a page and stapled them into a booklet), and some sweeties.

Mr Snowballs excelled himself this year with running the games and all the children had a fantastic time - even the shy ones were joining in by the end of the party. And with all the help I got from my family (who are amazing) the party was a real pleasure to organise and run.

Next up, the cake ...

© 2014 Nicola Noble: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look.

Christmas craft fair - more Christmas decorations

I haven't had a chance to write a blog post for a little while and although Christmas seems such a long time ago, I wanted to share the last of the Christmas related crafts we made for our school Craft Fair.

We had some plain white tiles which we made into Christmas decorations. I added the letters NOEL in red glitter paper and silver sparkl snowflakes to some ...

... and I decorated others with Christmas trees in pink and green glitter foam.

I painted the edges of the tiles to give a neat finish: cream on the Noel tiles and green on the Christmas tree tiles.

I was inspired once again by something I found on Pinterest: a simple tree made by folding a semicircle of card. I used the large scallop Bigz die which I then cut in half. It took me a few attempts to get the fold just right but once I had a template, the folding was very quick and easy. I added a glittery star to the top of each tree to finish it off.

I then punched two small holes at the top of each tree and threaded the trees onto some bakers twine for simple bunting. I found it was neater to add the star after the tree had been threaded (see the two pictures above for the difference).

I also cut some letters out in matching paper, punched two small holes into the top of each letter and threaded onto the twine. The only one that caused me problems was the A as I couldn't get the two holes next to each other - making the letter slightly lopsided!

I also made a simple Christmas card with the folded tree, although I didn't make any to sell at the fair. 

The last Christmas thing we made was some cute reindeer food. Some muesli and edible glitter was put into small bags then sealed using the Top Note die folded in half and stapled over the top of the bag. A red glitter circle for Rudolph's nose, white circle eyes with a black dot in the middle and some leafy antlers and it was ready to go. All finished off with a cute poem found via Pinterest! These were incredibly popular at the Fair and we even had people asking for some afterwards ...

We did make lots of other things for the fair (not Christmas related) and I'll be posting details of these soon! 

© 2014 Nicola Noble: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look.

Magic Elf Update No. 3

We had a fantastic time with Sally and Colin and miss them lots now they have gone back to the North Pole with Father Christmas.

Here is the final instalment of their antics before they left ...

- they toasted mini marshmallows by the fire...

- they played Christmas I Spy (printed from here) ...

 - they coloured Sophie and Justin's noses red whilst they were asleep and left a note for them to look in the mirror ...

 - they wrapped themselves in bubble wrap and hid in a box addressed to Sophie and Justin, with some other parcels. Only Rudolph gave it away ...

 - they gave Sophie and Justin some new night clothes to wear on Christmas Eve, together with a book (Father Christmas Needs a Wee) and a new hat and scarf for Rudolph because he helped them so much again this year. They also got some felt parcel bags to sit in addressed to Santa at the North Pole ...

 

On their last night, Christmas Eve, Sophie and Justin popped them into their bags and put them next to the chimney with all the goodies for Father Christmas and the reindeer (a carrot for each one). Sophie also packed a goodie bag for each elf to enjoy on their trip back to the North Pole ...

Thanks Sally and Colin for lots of fun again this year and we hope to see you next year.

© 2013 Nicola Noble: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look.

Christmas cake 2013

My oven is old and generally doesn't bake things well at long, low temperatures so I haven't yet been brave enough to have a go at making my own Christmas cake yet (perhaps next year!). So, as in previous years, I bought a ready made Christmas cake to decorate myself.

Initial thoughts were to create a snowy village scene but time got the better of me and I opted for my second choice of a simple bold Christmas tree that I had seen and pinned on Pinterest a couple of months ago.

So here is my take on the design - I was pleased with how it came out ...

 

 

 

 

© 2013 Nicola Noble: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look.

Magic Elf Update No. 2

The Elves have been with us for 18 days now and they are keeping up the mischief. Here are their latest exploits ...

- they rolled two tiny friends down the stairs in the middle of toilet rolls. We are not sure if Oddbod and Penguin volunteered or if Sally and Colin "persuaded" them ...

 

 

 - they hid under the kitchen table with some Christmas sweet jars for Sophie and Justin ...

 - they disappeared from our house and turned up in mini form at our friends house the next morning. We saw them on Skype ...

- they grew back to their normal size overnight with the help of some Magic Restoring Powder and snuggled up in a sleeping bag in the Build-a-bear tent ...

 - they had fun jumping in a big bucket of ball-pool balls ...

 

- they played ALL the xbox games and mixed them all up in the cases ...

 

 - they"played" Trivial Pursuit but ended up making a mess of all the cards ...

 

 - they decided to become trapeze artists with the help of an empty wrapping paper tube and some string ...

 

 - they had a pampering night ...

 

 

 - they cut snowflakes out of pancakes ...

 - and last night they drew all over the kitchen windows with window pens ...

 

Less than a week to go until they go back to the North Pole with Father Christmas. I hope they don't get up to too much more mischief although a lot can happen in a week!!!

© 2013 Nicola Noble: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look.