craft jar kiddie gift

Lately I've been having fun thinking of ways I can create gifts that are cute, inexpensive and fun. I decided to turn one of Sophia's favourite activities (crafty collage) into a birthday gift for one of her little friends. It's a smaller version of her collage box--I decided to go for a jar.











It was a simple process--predominantly gathering and packaging--and as inexpensive as you want it to be. Seashells, sand, cotton balls, buttons, scrap fabric, magazine and newspaper pages or pages from old torn children's books are perfect additions. Things you can find around the house. I bought a little tub of glitter and a tube of PVA to accompany all the fun little bits to stick and scatter.

I raided Mum's old jar box (mental note to self to save used jars) and chopped out large confetti circles out of construction paper, newspaper and old beat-up picture books. I used my handy dandy circle stampers to do this, which took all of five minutes, however for Sophia's kit we spent an afternoon making paper dolly chains etc by hand and filling a jar with them.











To cover the tops of the jars, cut out a circle of fabric and make little snips a cm or so apart around the circumference of the jar lid. Spray glue the fabric, pull it over the lip and stick down smoothly. Or another option is to use a bit of Mod Podge and effectively paper mache over the lid with it.

















For the large jar, I stamped out the label onto calico, cut it out and spray glued it on to a large piece of fabric, then glued that piece as well and wrapped it around the jar.

















I filled one little jar up with buttons, and another with paper confetti. I wrapped a few other additions in little plastic bags, however I suspect that all the bits and pieces will end up mixed together in the jar after it has been used a few times. I had fun packaging the pieces individually for the gift though. I grabbed a few twist ties and pulled the plastic coating off the wire. I then spray glued two little strips of fabric and placed the wire between them to create a fabric twist tie. (This is a great way to present baking as a gift also. Check out the DIY here for a quick and easy version using patterned tape.)

















Bundle all the little packaged bits and pieces together into the jar and attach a gift tag (I used a piece of fabric and spray glued it onto card). Voila, simple gift complete. And a good one too--anything that encourages art play and imagination has my vote for kids.









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Little arty one, I love you.

You preggy mums who have more than one child already, please tell me, how do you do it? Tips for a fledgling would be very welcome.

This second pregnancy of mine has been smooth and exciting and generally less uncomfortable than the last--I've felt relatively spritely (give or take a few weeks here and there) ever since the end of my first trimester. This week, however, my body seems to have decided that I've had it too easy. Am I carrying a human child or a small whale? And surely that weight should be restrained to my torso, not my shoulders arms and legs as well. And those burning, swollen hands and feet have set in, which is lovely. Of you, mothers of three, I am in awe.

However after close to half of Charlotte's Web and the impending threat of Little Einsteins episodes, I rallied, dragged myself out of bed and proceeded to plod around the house whilst gathering dirty plates and piles of washing--and even managing to wipe a few bench tops. So, with that little bit of extra energy that mental de-cluttering can give me (clearing my space thus clearing my head--it does sometimes help), we crafted. Or she did and I watched.

Yes, I am very fortunate to have a little girl who adores anything tactile and creative, and who will focus for an hour on carefully composing her art. Bless her. I just love the way she lights up over a paint brush, a pot of glue and some glitter. She is growing up quickly, I have become so aware of it over the last few weeks. What she can learn and manage to do herself has advanced significantly in a small amount of time. My little baby now exists only in photos, and my little girl is growing and learning and bouncing into the weeks and months. And I am so thrilled to see her run forward into life, while doing my best to capture these moments that are truly here today, gone tomorrow.

So thank you, little old blog, for helping me to do just that when I could so easily keep my focus on my tired head and achey everything. :)


Here are a couple of this week's creative moments.










This idea of having a 'collage box' is a great one (thanks again, oh blogger of inspiration, Kelle Hampton). We spent some time last week cutting up bits of paper into various shapes and filled a jar with them. I grabbed a bunch of buttons and invested in some (not so cheap but super cute and toddler-friendly) glitter pottles--$7 each from Spotlight. Along with a bottle of PVA and anything else that is collagey (old paper and fabric scraps, cotton balls, seashells, sand etc etc) we stuck them into the kit that we will now be able to pull out whenever the fancy takes us. If your kid is anything like mine, it's a bit of a winner. We've now a bunch of pretty collages to give to Opa and Grandma tomorrow, and one for Daddy's office wall! :)

[I've turned this kit into a kiddy gift idea, FYI, to view click here.]

And yes, the good old playdough is now our friend. We are past the eating it faze, and the 'smooshing it into everything and moving on in five minutes' stage. Which was, needless to say, more stressful than fun. We've now happily reached the place where I will open the pots and Sophia will play with the dough. Happy campers! ;)























This one was a Grammie find and a definite winner. Mum picked up a little wooden aeroplane toy from Spotlight complete with a set of mini colouring pens to decorate it with. The combination of toy plane (cars and trucks were available also) and artistic activity = Sophia heaven. With her two buds around the activity lasted all of three minutes, but during those more quiet moments it made for focused, creative bliss.























This next one is an activity that my sister-in-law found for my little nephew, Aaron. It's a bit of a kiddie winner. May I suggest (unless you are a parent to slime, muck and bug-loving boys) that you stick to one or two snails max. I was enjoying the activity (or Sophia's delight in it at least) while one snail crawled across the paper leaving it's trail of food-colouring (mixed with a strange sort of foam and a little green poo)...











...but Mum kept finding more snails to join the group of artists. That's when they started to wake up and mass all over eachother, spreading a whole lot more than just food colouring over the page. I'll confess at this point, when I could feel my lunch rising a little, I swiftly decided the activity was over. We 'admired' the art and put it straight into the bin. Thankyou snails. :) I can see why my little nephew loves it so much--a definite boy game! :)

















These paintings, however, bring happy thoughts. My little one's delicate brush strokes make me smile. And this is another example of how she's grown. Back when I wrote my painting with toddlers post we needed that structure. Without it the floor and the kitchen cupboards would have been decorated in a matter of seconds. Now the paper (and only the paper) is covered so neatly and carefully, all I need do is stand back and admire. I just adore it!











Before I close, did I mention how excited I am getting over meeting my new little man? Just you wait, world of the blog, for the digital moments I will relish (for anyone who is interested, but mostly for myself) when this one arrives... :)


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