Crafts for Boys

First Communion

(posted by Cara)

In France, making your first communion is a huge deal!  People celebrate with elaborate parties and gifts.  Since we had such a large guest list, 16 adults and 20 children, a restaurant was out of the question and a hall too impersonal.  We had it here and I was in charge of everything.  With a lot of help from my cousin, Mary, and a crafty session (complete with lots of tea) with Helen, everything turned out perfect!

I chose green since it's Anthony's favourite colour and accented it with lots of white (for that communion feel ;) ) and a bit of orange, because well, I love orange.  I also wanted to feel masculine and child like.

The tables were a bit more colourful because finding just the right green was tough.  The place settings were just a simple rolled napkin, with a photo clipped on and they just made the rooms look fun and happy!  

The 'dragées' were in little jars with labels tied on with jute.  

They reminded me of what little boys would use to capture insects and such.  I wasn't far off, as the next day, my boys emptied their jars of the candy and dug out Jacques' chemistry set and had a blast making potions and turning my bathroom red.  I thought someone had had a nosebleed!  Then, yesterday, Helen sent me this:  

So, yeah, the jars were perfect!

I had the flowers done at the florist down the street, but I chose the flowers and I think they turned out perfectly!  

Mary and Helen and I made these pinwheels one morning and they looked great spread around the rooms and they were a big hit with the younger kids.

Tommy and Sharky

Tom's new cuddly friend

What can I do Mum?

posted by Helen

It's a phrase often heard round here and my reply is often a list of crafty things in the hope that I might inspire Tom to leave the computer or my phone for half an hour atleast. Today, after running through all the usual options which were greated with slience, I tried a different tack and suggested sewing and knitting, which to my great surprise resulted in an enthusiastic, "oh yes, we could knit a shark for me to cuddle in bed!!!!!!!!!"

I'm not sure the words cuddly and shark appear together very often, but it is very Tom, so we set off on a hunt for some grey wool. Now I like a challenge but i did think this time we'd bitten off more than we could chew. But after scratching my head and sketching for 5 minutes I came up with a basic pattern and with varying amounts of help from Tom (it did take a little longer than half an hour) we succeeded. Apparently it's not as big as Tom had hoped, but there was only a little bit of grey wool (actually left over from a tea cosy I made for Cara ) so that was my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

Rather than two identical halves, I just made the body to be stuffed, leaving the tail and fin as single pieces. I incorporated a red section for the mouth, then crotcheted some teeth on afterwards. So here he is, Tom's new friend, Sharky, a smily and cuddly knitted shark!

(Please scroll down for the photos!)

May 4th - blast off for our third year.

photo from moarpowah.com

Well we couldn't choose any other date to relaunch ourselves and our boys into the blog-osphere, could we?! So hop into your x-wing and join us for a quick reconnaissance mission to find our where we're at nearly twelve months older if not wiser...

Helen and boys

Well Joe is currently eating peas without grace, having been dragged in from making mud pies in the garden, so I guess he's well and truly attained little boy status ;-) his current obsessions are hay balers, puddles and octonauts.

Tom is nearly six and can now ride his bike and tie his shoelaces, although not at the same time! Life revolves around computers, c'est pas sorcier and tintin. But there's still time to make stuff :-)

Cara and boys

Jacques is in his element when he's outside. Just yesterday, I heard him yell 'I love nature' when we were walking in the forest. He loves science, computer games, reading fantasy and sci-fi novels and talking non-stop about any of the above ;)

Anthony is a huge Sidney Crosby fan and is happiest when on the ice (or in front of a computer screen). He has improved his hockey skills so much in the last few months, you'd never know he only started in September.

Philippe, like most younger brothers, loves doing whatever the big boys are doing. If they aren't around, he still has an incredible passion for all things horses and rides every week and loves to do anything artsy.

Hector, our group's littlest boy at almost 2, is our little clown, he loves to make his brothers laugh with such boyish antics as sticking his finger up his nose. Other interests include climbing (the higher the better) and stomping in puddles.

Just a note about our only non-boy... Juliet, has become much more girly this year with all her little friends at school, but that didn't stop her from watching Star Wars 3 times in as many days, completely glued to it! That's my girl :D

Birthday Invites

posted by Cara

Our renovations are still going strong, but I should finally have my kitchen by the weekend.  :D  It's been since Easter that we've been without it!  Poor Anthony had his birthday party postponed and it's set for June 29th.  This is the invitation that I made. Now, my digital scrapbooking skills are not the greatest, but I'm learning and it's a great way to make things when you need a bunch.  

digi kit is from www.the-lilypad.com

 

Makes for Maman

Posted by Helen and Cara

Sunday was the 'Fête des Mères' here, i.e. French Mother's day (managing to be different to both Canada and the UK) So we thought for a change we'd post some things that our super kids made for us.

 

Over to Helen:

Tommy made me a lovely picture which now has pride of place in our bedroom.

 But the gift that really melted that cold icy heart of mine was a little book about 'maman' with his pictures and some sentences that the teacher helped him write.

 

What made me burst with pride was this one " What I love doing with Mummy is... making things" :o) Love you Tom xx

 

 

Cara's turn ;)

Jacques made me this sweet necklace, he picked his favourite beads and placed them in the front.

Anthony's gift was inside this box he decorated, when I put it together there was a poem that he wrote that spells out my name. :D

Philippe's gift wasn't so much of a surprise, he's not very good at keeping secrets!  He says it's only for picnics but I want to put in my new kitchen... if the renos ever end!

I'll throw Juliet's fimo necklace in here, since the boys in her class made them too.  Besides these are good ideas for the end of the year teacher's gifts ;)

There were cards as well, and the littles recited poems, or at least most of them :D  Oh and yes, I did wear both Jacques' and Juliet's necklaces on Sunday ;)

bathroom blues

Thankfully both my boys love bathtime and all the associated toys (no need to mention Tom and all things fishy...) However this (combined with a lazy mummy) results in my bathroom being a complete tip.  When we replaced our windows and put obscured glass in the bathroom, I struck on the idea of re-using the old shower curtain to make two bags to put the bath toys in - out of sight, and out of mind (for me at least.)

Before...

 

I cut the curtain into four pieces and used the two with holes at the top for the bags.  That way hopefully the draw strings won't tear too easily.  I then painted two scenes in shades of blue (to match my tiling in the bathroom) - in theory there's one with with boats etc for the boat toys, and one with marine creatures for the fish, etc, but I'm sure that won't last!

 

I sewed a double seam along one side to make and tube, then using yellow and brown thread, I used the largest zigzag stitch to make the sea bed.  Hopefully this will allow any water inside to drain out.  I finished the bottom edge with pinking shears and found some nylon thread to make the drawstring.  Hopefully tidying the bathroom will now be more fun for the boys and less of a headache for me!   

After...

 

 

... just wanted to sneak in my bathroom scales too which I rejuvenated with an old cork place mat and my trusty acrylic paints.  I love paint :o)

 

Happy First Birthday!

posted by Helen and Cara

Yay, we made it! 75 posts, 6076 page views and 362 comments later and we're still bursting full of ideas to share with you.  Thank you all for looking :o)

So to celebrate in style, here are some Star Wars themed projects (it is May the Fourth, afterall...)  to get the next twelve months off to a flying start...

Helen's X-wing party set:

This was a 30 minute make, (although I did have to wait a little longer for the paint to dry...) and could be easily adapted to include you own (hmm, your kids own ;o)) Star Wars character or vehicle. 

I splatter painted a sheet of A4 card, used half for a birthday card, then one quarter for a place name and two eighths for gift tags (nothing if not thrifty me) I made a template for the fighter then used some recycled card to make the shapes and labels with pen details to finish. (Backdrop provided by Tom who as usual didn't want to miss out on the fun.)

 

  

 

 

... is out of this world

 

 

 Cara's Woolly Wookie:

With Anthony's birthday coming up on Saturday, I wanted to make him a gift. With most of my craft supplies packed away because of our renovations, my choices were limited.  I had an idea for a needle felted Chewbacca and I knew that my wool and needles were in a box that wasn't too hard to get to ;)

 

I made him up in a couple of nights while watching TV after packing and sorting all day, it was quite relaxing ;)  Philippe and Juliet even helped at the end with the face and his bag thingy.  Philippe insisted that I hide it right away even though Anthony is at his grandmother's until Friday ;)  The metal bits are foil leafing and the bag is just a bit of fabric.

 Here is is with the Yoda that Helen made for Jacques last year, just because I thought they looked cute.

MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU !

 

 

 

Helen's picks of the year

posted by Helen

Of all the challenges I've set myself this year, I think this has been the most difficult - to choose three or four of my personal favourites from all of Cara's projects over the last twelve months...  In the end I narrowed them down to four - one costume, one item of clothing, one bag and one other, but it was tough and I may yet change my mind before I publish this!

I've had lots of fun looking back so here are my top hi-lights of our first year on-line:

In at number one - my all time favourite with top marks for originality. Tom still loves it too and takes it to school every day : Tom's shark bag

I just had to include Dean's fab transformer costume - it's ingenious: Dean's costume

Picking one item of clothing was really hard, but in the end for the shear amount of detail and just cool boyishness it had to be Anthony's robot shirt.

And last, but by no means least, although maybe slightly off topic the brilliant gift that Cara made me for Christmas - it's really cute, fits perfectly in my bag and has already proved incredibly useful - after all boy mums deserve good stuff too :o) My out and about pack.

Here's to the next twelve months :o))