Crafts for Boys

Dinosaur stomp

posted by Helen

It took Tom a while this year to decide what he wanted for his birthday cake, but finally he chose a dinosaur. (Previous years it was a fish (rather obviously) and a bee (!)) As this has been his first year at school, I also decided to hold a party for some of his friends, despite the fact that having a house full of French speaking 3-6 year olds filled me with terror!!

 

I kept things simple based around the dinosaur theme.  For the invites I cut out a pile of dinosaur shapes in various bright colours, then stuck them onto contrasting paper (with the necessary information printed on the back) and added a few pen details. 

 

I also used some of the cut-outs to make straw markers – two stuck either side of the straw with a couple of photo tabs and then with the appropriate name written on.  (although make sure it’s quite high up on the straw so it doesn’t get wet and you can’t tell Eve from Eva…)

 

 I love the fact that paper table cloths are common here – a plain white one just asks to be drawn on… so we had two dinosaur outlines to colour and embellish.  I opted for buying a couple of packs of cheap felt tips for the occasion, as I couldn’t cope with the prospect of convincing Tom he had to share his, and split them into bundles with the same 5 colours in each (so there was no “ but I want pink and so-and-so’s got it…) all tied up with yet another dinosaur. 

 

I also had the idea of making little marzipan dinosaurs to decorate the fairy cakes with… then remembered I was dealing with small children, so we all had bowls of icing and sugar sprinkles instead.  A bit on the sticky side, but lots of fun!

 

PS.... Make sure you visit us on Monday to find out about our next giveaway....

Cara's crafty mother-in-law

posted by Cara

My MIL loves pottery, she even has her own kiln.  She's forever making dishes and pots and whenever the kids are there for any length of time they want to play with her clay!  My favourite things that she's made are things that are a bit out of the ordinary when it comes to pottery, like square pots or pottery purses ;)  A few years ago she made this for Jacques' birthday.  Isn't if FAB?  I love that red colour.

 

Tom's teepee

Posted by Helen

When Nana and Grandad were over last I took the opportunity to do some jobs I’d been putting off like sorting out my towels and bed linen.

I spent a very happy morning sorting and folding and best of all I found a couple of old sheets just begging to be repurposed.  Hmm, what would Tom like for his birthday? A teepee…

Unfortunately I’ve lost a fair few grey cells since passing my A-levels, so I resorted to cutting out bits of paper to get the proportions right (which was much more fun than doing calculations!) before attacking my sheet.  I decided pale blue wasn’t very authentic and certainly not muddy garden friendly so I opted for dying it brown. (we may live in France but summers are far from being long, hot and dry!)

Well it turned out more murky green, but that’s fine too.  Now came the challenge – getting it to stand up….

OK, I admit it, one of my faults is being convinced that my way is going to be better than anyone else’s!!  I’m stubborn, independent, don’t like asking for help… yeh, yeh, I know.  This often leads me to lots of lost hours going round in ever decreasing circles, when I could have just asked someone else for help and got it finished in half the time. But do I learn? Do I heck!

So after hours of struggling with garden canes and string and elastic (of course this was the eve of Tom’s birthday – we don’t do things in advance round here!) we managed to prop it up long enough for him to open his presents, but with a firm resolve this time to ask for help.

Any ideas??

Jaws

posted by Cara

 Tom has always loved fish and anything to do with the sea.  Helen has mentioned before that fish (or fsssssh) was one of his first words.  If it lives under the water, Tom is a fan.  So for his birthday I decided to make him this shark bag.  I did ask Helen what he might need it for and so I went with a regular kids size back pack, to at least fit a pair of slippers or a school snack.  The bag itself is canvas with fleece teeth and the tail is padded, just a bit.  

 

 
The thing with pregnancy is how differently my mind works, especially at night, it seems to go into over drive.  I don't know how many times in the past months I've woken up with some great craft idea.  A lot of them recently have been about how to make a shark shaped bag ;)

final curtains

Posted by Helen

When we bought our house just under four years ago, every single room had horrible wood effect curtain pelmets.  Since then, with the help of assorted willing volunteers, we have been on a mission to remove them to a point where only one room remained – our new baby’s bedroom.

The project started before Joe’s arrival, so I was looking for bright unisex fabric.  I’d seen a rug with a design of bright squares which had really taken my fancy,  so off I waddled (I was 8 months pregnant at the time!) to the fabric shop.

 

 In the end we went for a grey carpet and turquoise walls, so I wanted curtains to reflect the other colours.  I found some bright spotty lightweight fabric which was just the right palette, but I wanted something thicker too to be warm in winter and keep out the light in summer. Of course, I couldn’t find exactly what I had in mind, so I decided to piece together a chequered design from plain cotton fabric. 

They didn’t have pink, which is just as well as Joe arrived not long after, so I chose yellow; orange, brick red and turquoise, arranged in a repeating pattern of large squares with a central panel of smaller contrasting squares.

 

 
  

 

Of course this took even longer than running up straight curtains (um about nine months in total and thanks to some expert ironing from Nana :o)), but the result was worth it.  Especially as this room is now both boys’ bedroom and anything that increases nap time is more than welcome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

... and furnish it with love

Posted by Helen

As students, my friends and I often used to leaf through design magazines and dream of having our own houses.  I still love looking, but now with my own house in semi-rural France, plus husband, plus 2 kids, the images which inspire have changed and I’m a lot more sceptical about what I read.

One such feature I viewed recently claimed to be ‘child friendly’.  It was beautiful shades of pink and beige upholstery with lots of very breakable looking ornaments…apparently the secret lies in having a separate room with a flat screen TV and treating the furniture with stain repellent. 

However, in another magazine I did come across a quote from Madeleine Castaing which more closely matched my design philosophy:

“ Love is essential to the decoration of a house…A room must say ‘ My love is here,’”

And for me, the best way to show this love is to surround my kids with their cherished possessions from friends and family around the world, especially those of course which are hand-made or have been passed down from previous generations.  

 

Now I freely admit that my house isn’t going to make the pages of any interior design magazine any time soon, but I strongly believe that my kids will be happier for it!

Party Time!!

posted by Cara

Being 8, almost 9, months pregnant with my fifth child doesn't not make hosting parties easy.  Anthony's birthday party was two Saturdays ago and Jacques' First Communion was this past Sunday, so I found myself looking for ways to decorate nicely, but with minimal effort on my part.  Believe me I get winded very easily these days ;)

 
For Anthony's Transformer party, my printer was my best friend.  I just googled Transformer images and printed them out.  Of course the boys wanted to decorate so most of them ended up crooked ;)  One very simple decoration that I love to make because it's quick and easy and looks fab are banners.  Again the faces are just print outs.

For Jacques' communion dinner, it had to be a little more formal, but still look masculine.  I decided on turquoise and brown, and bought little brown baskets to hold the dragées .  I went to a party supply store and got table runners, napkins and some other little bits and bobs.  Helen came over one day and we wrapped up the dragées.  I ordered white flower bouquets to go in the bigger baskets I bought.  Simple, quick and very elegant.

 

Maxi Cosy

posted by Helen

When I was expecting Tom, I had a lovely time making things: appliqué panels for the bedroom; a cross stitch sampler; a knitted teddy bear as well as birth announcements and 'thank yous' . I even made maternity clothes for me. Second time round with a three year old to keep up with, pregnancy wasn't quite the same experience.  Poor Joe!  

 Having two boys meant I had most of the clothes I needed, but with one summer baby and one winter baby, there were a few differences.  One thing I decided I really needed for my new arrival was a blanket for his car seat. I found one in a catalogue, but at over €30 I decided at trip to the fabric shop was called for. 

Cara had already alluded to my love of fleece and in this case it was the perfect solution - lovely and warm, easily washable, quick to dry and super easy to sew.  I chose two-tone orange and brown which turned out to be perfect for my ginger Joe.

I cut out one and a half long squares which I hemmed and joined along two sides to form a pocket.  I simply cut two slits in the back and was able to bring Joe back from the hospital snug and warm. And he had at least one thing that mummy made just for him!

As you can see from the photo, I had a bit left over to make a matching hat for his new big brother.

 

Cara's Esty Finds for Boys

posted by Cara

Sitting at my computer with a cup of tea browsing through Etsy can be so inspiring.  Sometimes I buy, sometimes I write ideas in my journal, but more often than not I just let ideas sit in my brain to morph into something else that we need or want more.  Like what I did with our monster tissues.

As most anywhere else, Etsy is full, full, FULL of girly frilly things.  AWESOME girly things, but sometimes you really have to do some searching for the boy stuff.

Here are some of my recent favourites.

Pirate banner from Blue Moon Studios. I absolutely LOVE this thing and wish that one of my boys had picked a pirate themed room for our upcoming renovations, just so I could get it ;)

Robot Hat from the fuzzy Robot.  Too CUTE!!  Can I have one for me?

 

Fun little preggo Giraffe from Tiny Oyster Designs, I think that little baby is what did it for me, but she has lots of sweet little monsters.

 

Pirate Adventure kit from Mayasmomma.  Again, how cool would this be for a pirate themed room.  It would also make a great birthday gift.

 

Baseball hat from For Stitch's Sake.  When I first saw this, I immediately thought of my cousin Krista, the hugest baseball fan, who is now pregnant with number 3.  If it's a boy this time Cuz, I'll getcha the hat ;)

 

Robot Cushion from Tobyboo.  How cute and cuddly can a robot get?  Love him!!

 

Amigurumi pattern from Amy Gaines, these guys are so great and she has lots of lovely boy them patterns :D

Boogey Man

posted by Cara

In an effort to continue in my 'going green' process.  I decided to switch to handkerchiefs instead of Kleenex.  Apparently, paper tissues are the worst offenders when it comes to deforestation and bleaching, etc.  To make the transition more appealing for the boys, I remembered some monster tissuesthat I had seen on esty.  Only these were fleece and even though that would make Helen happy, fleece just doesn't seem too absorbent.  As well, I just happened to have an abundance of flannel receiving blankets left over from my babies (even after keeping some for this coming baby).  I liked the idea of flannel rather than the traditional woven cotton of hankies because I wouldn't have to iron them :D

I couldn't decide how to make them at first.  I liked these monsters from Danger crafts 

and their ferocious but oh soooo adorable underbite, but their shape was a bit complicated for tissues.  I could have used pinking shears to cut out the monster shape from the flannel, but I know myself and every time I looked at them I'd beat myself up for not making them prettier; yes, I have issues with perfectionism ;)  So I decided on a less complicated shape and turning and topstitching and I used fleece for those teeth and embroidered the eyes.  I made up 12, one for each boy for each school day, they use regular hankies at home.  they measure about 10x15cm, which is a good size for kids, though not ideal for full out colds.  They can use full size hankies for colds.  

 

Green Note :D

The only disposable product in our house beside the odd disposable diaper is toilet paper, and that's not going anywhere ;)