Mini Vault......

On Sunday we headed on down to Mini Vault (the new addition to the Vault festival) in the tunnels under Waterloo. You've still got time to make it if you've not already checked it out. 

Our own little hippy absolutely loved it and what child wouldn't? The main space is decorated like a child's wonderland with lots of dangly, shiny and tactile decorations. A large craft table dominates the main area where for £2 children can spend as long as they want helping themselves to a large array of craft materials to create to their hearts content. Eloise loved this, I don't think she's sat at one activity for that long in her life, and the fact she was allowed to decorate a box from Cardboard Kingdom making her own crazy monster was demonstrated with some outbursts of crazy dancing and fits of giggles. 

With live music, play tents, soft play area complete with sofa's and children's books, drawing stations, giant Connect 4, giant o'x and x's, children's hula hoops, toys and face painting there was plenty to keep our 20 month and 3 year old happy. I wish I had taken my camera to show you but I don't think the pictures would have done it justice as it was probably the laid back festival vibe that made it really enjoyable.

Needless to say they did not want to leave so we took a stroll along the main tunnel watching the artists creating their amazing spray painted creations and then along the South Bank homeward bound.

Definitely one for our diaries next year!

Frosty mornings....

Although I can't wait for the summer time to come now there are moments when you wrap up warm and are reminded of the beauty of nature in winter time. Frosty mornings are one of them especially on a gorgeous clear sunny day......

....then come back into a nice warm house to a cup of hot chocolate!!

Creative inspiration for babies and toddlers....dancing ribbons

A friend of mine made one of these for her little one and seeing how easy it looked I thought I would give it a try. I also had visions of my little ones enjoying a little ribbon dancing, gymnastic stylee....

Here's a great example on Buggy and Buddy's website:

Ours has been played with constantly and pulled apart constantly. I even found one of the ribbons tucked under my pillow the other day! So sadly no picture but that proves how much the girls loved it and it's another quick, easy and cheap make. I used ribbons from my supplies, letting the girls choose some colours and textures, and a teething ring to tie them around and voila.

Enjoy making!

Creative inspiration for toddlers and children....discovery bottles

If you havent already heard of discovery bottles they are a very cheap, simple and quick make that children love. Here's a link on the Imagination Tree's website, which is a brilliant website full of great ideas to get creative with kids. 

 

I have to be honest and say that Eloise just loved making it and they didn't get played with that much afterwards but even for the fun of making them it was worth it. 

Eloise loved looking through and choosing individual bits for her bottle including sequins, buttons and ribbons. She then put them into an old but clean plastic bottle, filled it with water and I glued the lid on. Voila all finished.

We ended up with pink water from adding a pink ribbon but I think it makes them look even better so you could even add some food colouring to yours!

 

Enjoy making!! 

Be inspired by James Green....

Whilst trying to get some inspiration for a new lino print I came across the work of James Green. 

A lot of his work is very playful but I love his prints of aerial views and seaside towns, shown below. He works on a small scale no bigger than A4 and prints everything by hand often using the back of a spoon, which made me appreciate his work even more. In an interview he said he enjoys creating work with his bare hands which I agree with, there's something very satisfying about it and also leaves a beautiful and natural feeling to the work. 

Here's some of his work that inspired me.........

 

 

To see more of his work visit here: http://jamesgreenprintworks.blogspot.co.uk/

Printing....

Doing the printing evening at Waltham Abbey inspired me to create a new lino printed Christmas card. After various requests to do a religious theme from my mum, I opted for the Three Kings. 

She loved it so much she requested them for all her Christmas cards in festive red. 
This is the little production line we set up in her house.....

I'm a little less organised and so if you didn't manage to get a card this year, I apologise and I'll try to be a bit more organised for next year.

Just in case there are any super organised people out there you can buy them from our Etsy store for next Christmas: Three Kings Christmas Card

Peace and quiet.....

after what feels like a very hectic Christmas, shown by lack of blogs, I now have some peace and quiet. Especially as Eloise has started playschool for 15 whole hours a week, which feels amazing to finally have some more time on my hands!!

So things I didn't get a chance to share with you last year:
From the Family Learning festival at Havering Adult College one lovely mum left me some great feedback here (scroll down to Marbling madness and Fairies and Witches!): http://www.kidsactivityexpo.com/news/

I also took part in a creative team building day. I had never done one of these before and we all had a lot of fun. I divided the group into two teams and gave them a blown up Matisse image cut into 8 A4 pages. Working as a group they had to print each A4 image using the string and cardboard technique and assemble into the final Matisse Sorrow of the King image. I chose Matisse as he used simple, bold shapes which I felt catered for all levels so even if people felt they had little creative ability they would all be able to tackle this.

It was really interesting to see how people take different angles to look at things and the different approaches used but the results were brilliant. 

I love the background texture made when the ink slightly hits the printing plate. Though the groups had the same image it was really interesting to see how creatively different they were....

I thoroughly enjoyed the session and had some great feedback so I'd love to do some more.