Aidan is two and a half which is roughly the same amount of time he has been involved in arts and crafts.
He honestly loves creating and when he saw the Santa Sack I made him (I also happen to be selling these through Oh!Boy) he immediately asked if Santa could fill it with crayons and glue – That is how into arty things he is (for now)… So I thought I would share some of the “hacks” I use to keep the mess and cost down when crafting, because the holidays are coming up and the “how do I keep my kid busy” question is about to rear it’s ugly head 🙂

1. Chalk board paper…

This is extremely quick and easy, basically a roll of contact paper which can turn any surface into a chalk board (Sidebar: every surface in my studio/office is already a chalkboard to keep Aidan busy when I work) You can stick a piece of this down anywhere which is pretty great for play dates and it comes off really easy also it’s around R30 a roll at places like Makro and Game

2.  Ice-cube tray painting…

Aidan loves to paint but I am not nearly ready to let him run wild with the paint so I fill these with different colours and it keeps the mess down (you know as down as it can be when a two year old paints)

3. Get a smock…

If you don’t have a fun little apron like the ones I’m selling at Oh!Boy (shameless self promotion) why not make one from a t-shirt like I showed you here…




Make this 5-minute smock

Or buy this

4. Craft on the go

Why not convert a old DVD case into a travelling art station you can use with dry erase crayons and as a play dough mat – I showed you how to do it HERE

5.  Foam stickers FTW!

Aidan loves stickers but the paper ones end up with me having to loosen them for him (Ain’t nobody got time for that) So the foam ones are great and are rather inexpensive. Under R10 a pack.
And bonus, if you stick them on a hard surface like a big lego it becomes a paint stamp which you can just dismantle when you are done

For today’s nursery rhyme we are doing Mary quite contrary. I don’t really know the meaning behind it just that it gives me this whimsical feeling and what is more whimsical than spinning flowers 🙂

I did this craft with Aidan and as you can see it was a hit

A video posted by Eleanor Douglas-Meyers (@justellabella) on Oct 22, 2015 at 2:03am PDT

U need paper plates with two small holes in the middle, string, paint, scissors (although I did not do this I think it would help to glue two plates together for firmer spinning flower)

Paint your boards into bright flowers and leave to dry

String through the hole, you want it to be a loop. so you have a long piece of string put one side in one hole and other side in other hole then knot the pieces together

Then spin and pull 🙂

That’s it from me don’t forget to take a look at what the others came up with:

LUCHAE
RUTH

Hey all!!! I’m so chipper today, it’s because it’s my off day you see. 

What I decided on is star bunting for Aidan’s room. He has plain white blinds and I was looking for a way to cheer it up a little and this is what I came up with…

It actually took me three days (not continuously hehehe , there is just lots of drying to do) it took me like 10 minutes a day so it’s actually quite quick

DAY 1

For the first step I needed air dry clay, a straw and a star cookie cutter

Kneed the dough and roll it out

Cut out 7  stars

Use the straw to punch out holes then leave to dry overnight

DAY 2

Chose paint colours and paint your stars with acrylic paint (preferably four one colour three another, but it is up to you really) then leave to dry

 DAY 3

Cut four longish (20cm) pieces of string and four shorter (15cm), also cut one the length you want your entire bunting to be

Attach the pieces of string to the stars then start in the center of the long rope and attach evenly  (short long, short long)

TAH DAH!!!

what do you think?

PRETTY PRETTY!!!

Well this is my star craft, do share with your friends on pinterest, facebook, twitter…:) 

there are all those share buttons below see

also be sure to check out what
LUCHAE
RUTH
VENEAN
came up with