That time of month has rolled around again for us to create a craft from a box of goodies sent to us by Bostik and Craft Merrily. I know this might seem sacrilege to some but I’m already looking forward to the New Year. With only a week in between that in Christmas, this is a fun little craft to fit in with your kids at home, especially if the weather ends up keeping you indoors.

What you’ll need:

A cone (either take a look in a craft shop or fashion your own by rolling the side of a cereal box, stapling it together and cutting the excess)
Glittery pipe cleaners (for the fireworks!)
Glittery pom poms and stickers to decorate (stars and snowflakes feature here)
A small measure of rick rack (to go around the bottom)
A sheet of coloured issue paper
Glu dots
A pair of scissors
A hole punch
Ribbon (to tie the hat to the wearer’s head)
Glitter glue (I ended up forsaking the purple glitter pictured above in favour of this – less mess)
A permanent marker

What to do:

Use the glu dots to stick the tissue paper to the cone. Go gently when you’re sticking paper to paper to make sure it doesn’t tear. Tuck the ends of the paper inside the base of the cone.

Punch the holes for the ribbon to attach the hat to the wearer’s head. We did this after decorating the hat but it needs to happen beforehand, really, so your child knows where to avoid putting stickers.

Let your child loose, sticking where they please. If you attach glu dots the pom poms, they basically become stickers. Same with rick rack but you might have to help placing that one.

Cut off the tip and stick glittery pipe cleaners (cut in half) in as “fireworks”.

Write “Happy New Year” and circle it in glitter. Or, hey, write it in glitter.

Thread the ribbon (cut in two lengths) through the holes and knot it on each side.

I think she’s thinking about her New Year’s resolutions.

Have you started thinking about the New Year yet?

Talitha is unbelievably pleased with this crown. She’s even talking about friends’ houses she wants to take it to. It was a quick and painless craft to do (well, painless as long as glitter doesn’t stress you out) yet surprisingly effective.

This is this month’s Bostik Family Bloggers craft. We were sent a box containing Bostik Glu Pen and Glu Dots and some craft goodies from CraftMerrily, including these beautiful fabric leaves.

We followed the veins with the glu pen (my three-year-old’s lines were embarrassingly better than mine) and dusted them with glitter.

I cut the base of the crown from an old cereal box, measuring it on her head and stapling it into a circle.

Then we stuck the leaves to the crown using glu dots.

Easy, beautiful and well-loved. You could do the same with real dried leaves too.

Have you been up to any Autumn crafting?

It really is no secret that I’m not that into sewing. It’s something I aspire to take up in a big way, hopefully in the near future. In the meantime, anything no-sew is a win, especially if it means three-year-old Talitha can join in.

This month, Bostik sent us their Sew Simple fabric glue, along with some fun bits and pieces from Craft Merrily to try our hand something for the Bostik Family Craft Bloggers Network challenge. We decided to make bunting.

We took a piece of leftover curtain from Talitha’s room, we took turns using a glass to trace circles on it and I cut them out with pinking shears.

I traced the butterflies using a cookie cutter on felt and cut them out as it was a bit of a fiddly job. Talitha stuck the butterflies and buttons on and I helped her attach the circles to a piece of twine. Then we mounted the bunting to her bedroom door, which she’s pleased about.

What would you make with fabric glue?

Each month Bostik sends us a box of crafty goodies for us to put together a craft with. This month I wanted to do something symbolic of the garden coming to life and fairies seemed to hit that note.

So, I thought we’d make a fairy picture frame. Since we’re putting together an alphabet for Talitha’s room (started before she was born!), we’ve framed an “F” for fairy.

The Bostik products included this month were medium foam pads and blu stick. I found these foam pads worked better than the smaller size we received a couple of months ago because Talitha can handle them herself so was able to put together the fairy with little help from me (though I admittedly did suggest where things could go with the first one).

She had a great time using the blu stick to attach the crumpled tissue paper to make the “F” and to attach the “F” card to the frame. The stick paints on blue then the glue goes clear, which she was intrigued by.

The fairies we made with foam triangle bodies, bug stick-on, sequin heads, feather wings, all assembled on small lolly sticks with the foam pads. The frame’s made with average-sized lolly sticks as you can see.

A simple craft for a Spring-nearly-Summer afternoon – just what we need at the moment (crafts with a baby around – not so easy it turns out!). You been up to anything crafty?

I was really reluctant to plan many Easter activities with Talitha, in case it proved too difficult with Ophelia in these early days. I figured that we could fit something in on the weekend with Laurence around, though, so looked forward to getting crafty with the bits and bobs Bostik sent us for this month’s project.

I figured we’d make fridge magnets – double the fun as Talitha could play with them afterwards. The challenge was to have fun playing with Bostik Blu Tack glu dots and glitter pen.

First, we lay card paper on a sheet of yellow felt. I drew chick shapes on the card and cut them out of the paper and the felt. We stuck the felt to the card using glu dots.

Talitha decorated the chick with a goggly eye and a foam sticker flower for a wing.

She added a beak with the glitter pen.

She then stuck pipe cleaner pieces between the card and felt to give the chick feet.

Aren’t they sweet? Talitha thinks so.

She also used foam stickers and Bostik glitter pens to make a flower. It is Spring, after all.

Then we got down to business making an Easter bunny. I cut a bunny shape out of a sheet of foam for her. Apparently pink means this bunny is a girl. Ah well.

Again, Talitha decorated the bunny, sticking on eyes, ribbon and buttons using Bostik glu dots and adding a nose and shoes with Bostik glitter pens.

She also made an Easter egg for good measure. I’m not sure she understands what chocolate eggs are yet, though. To make the magnets easier to move around, we stuck wooden clothes pegs to the back and magnets to the pegs. Glu dots did the job for now but I think I’ll reinforce them with the glue gun, actually.

This was such a fun little project and Talitha gets such a kick out of these magnets that I think we might do this again with another theme.

What do you think?

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