Holiday crafts

Looks like I am still relying on 2012 for my posts. Squeezing my brain to recollect the incidents that I have missed to record in 2012 to make it a post for marathon. If only I had a Pensieve like Dumbledore I can just review the memories of 2012 and make a post every day

Adi had winter break towards end of December for almost 10 days and this year we had spent all ten days inside four walls. It was a herculean task to keep her occupied on these days. The most dreaded question was “what can I do now?” and I had to constantly rack my brain to avoid this question. I had ordered for few workbooks which she hardly touched after all its her holiday break and this is meant to have fun, fun and only fun.

So, the only sane way for both of us was to do get indulged in some crafting. Here are few crafts that we did during this break

Origami

I have ordered for this origami kit and it helped to keep the little lady busy for most days. She has tried most of the origami’s from this collection including the throwing away and crashing of papers if the folds or creases doesn’t come out the way it is supposed to be. The kit comes with an step by step instruction book and I would highly recommend this to kids and even adults who love origami.

Ginger bread house

One of our friend gifted Adi with a Gingerbread house kit and two days were spent in assembling the house and decorating it. This time, most of the decorations were done by Adi and she took her own time to do it which gave me some time to breathe.

Christmas tree ornaments

We made a bunch of ornaments using salt dough and she spent few hours every day in painting some of them. Details are explained here

Timeline collage

I bought a white chart paper and asked Adi to make a timeline collage with her pictures. Usually, when we start with a craft or project I try my best to make her finish it the same day but this time around I took it easy and let Adi do the things at her own pace. This means, she will do the craft/project for a while and then move on to something else. I did not remind her to complete the craft as the next time when she asked “What can I do now?” I had my answer ready

One of the weekend we had mommy/daughter day out. We watched “Life of Pi” in big screen. I was surprised to hear the tamil lullaby as title song. Wishing Bombay Jayashree to win the academy awards for her mesmerizing voice.  Adi didn’t like the movie much and was not ready to discuss about it. She was scared about all the fights between Pi and the bengal tiger.

Rest of the times during holidays were spent by sleeping, eating, being mad over something, watching TV, playing in gadgets, playing board games and so on…

Merry Christmas

to one and all. Adi’s school is closed until next year. That reminds me of all that crazy stuff we used to talk on Dec 31st during childhood days like I will brush only next year, I will take bath only next year, I will eat only next year or I will not talk to you until next year

We made ornaments (posted the details in IMC) over the weekend and the sudden snow on Christmas eve brought up some cheer. We took a stroll in the snow and it felt so magical and peaceful to feel the Christmas snow for few minutes from nowhere that reinforced the existence of God.  The ruffling thoughts of mind was put to peace in a moment when eyes witnessed the Snow through the window. A magical moment that was.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you and your family.

Ornaments: (We made a lot but Adi gave away most of them before I got a chance to click).

 

Celebrating India

Our entries for this month AC challenge. I am just acting as a messenger here. The girl asked me about the theme around first week of August, broke her head on what to make, narrowed down to these ideas and I helped her a little while making the crafts. As I always say Shruti you have a loyal little big fan at our home

She also made a puppet theater with my help and did science experiments on this summer. I will post those details on a different post..

ETA: I did help her with making the crafts. On measuring, cutting the construction papers and fixing the minute details. I am sorry if my writing had given an impression that she made the crafts all by herself. There is still some more time for that.

Peacock – Our national bird – Inspired from here. This is decorating our living room now.

Lotus – Our national flower – Inspired from here. This is decorating our pooja room now. The girl even did an arthi to God with this flower

Did she do a fair job?

Presenting Adi’s art works from last few weeks.  She did all of them under no supervision.

Copy of her favorite doll Minnie

Is it me? I don’t have such a short hair!!!

That’s her friend. Sun and grass had always been her trademark and now a butterfly too.. Please to ignore the pony style change

Clifford

 

Caterpillar

 

Clay models – Minnie again

Unicorn – Inspired from a character in TV show

Princess - Inspired from a character in TV show

Butterfly

And finally the step by step procedure to draw a bear holding a heart. She learned this from the art class.

final output with colors

Which one do you like?

She owns a drawing pad and is “practicing to be perfect” (those were words from her) as she wants to become an artist when she grows up. This is as of April 2012.  I am recording the month and year as in March 2012 she wanted to be a dancer, in Feb 2012 she wanted to be a doctor and so on.  Now you know why I have planned her birthday theme to be based on arts and crafts..

Origami

Our entries for this month artsy craftsy chllenge. We have been doing them every weekend whenever we could get some quality time from the first week of March. I was saving them to make it as one post :)

Windmill , Chair, Penguin,  Rose – made all by herself and a 8-pointed star.

The star was the difficult one of all. It took us more than one hour to make this star .

Inspired from:

http://en.origami-club.com/
http://www.origami-instructions.com/origami-modular-8-pointed-star-p1.html

 

Hearty crafts

Our entries for this month artsy craftsy challenge.  Adi wanted to make valentine’s day card for her classmates. So, there we spent a good amount of three hours on Sunday making these cards. We made around 20+ cards and goodie bag with caryons, markers and candies for each kid.  The cards and goodie bags are going to school tomorrow. I have warned her to not to spill the beans today. Who knows she might tell her friends like “Guys I have a surprise for tomorrow but its not a card or goodie bag”.  Yep she is of that type

Inspired from here

pink/purple for girls, blue/yellow for boys and green/pink for teachers

goodie bags

 

Edited to add : Paper mache heart made at art class in school for this Valentine’s day – Came home last evening

Also, linking in the heart crafts we made in the past

Love bookmark – made during Star student week

2011 Valentine’s card – made at school

2010 Valentine’s card – hearty hands

Christmas crafts

Our entries for this month artsy craftsy challenge

Cards made for next door Patti’s (Grandma’s) - We made 3 cards similar to this (inspired from Shruti’s this post) and gifted the patti’s with gift cards this year.. It was Adi’s idea to make a pouch on right side of the card to insert the gift cards

Card for R akka – who is staying with us for short time..

Christmas cakes – All the cakes made by her in my absence.. Oh there were some cup cakes too.. I missed to click them..

Adi used play dough cake making machine to bake make these cakes… this was one of the gift Santa gave her this year.. I know its a 3 yr old thingie but this girl she wanted it now.. What can I say? Santa just gets them what they wish for so she got it

And a glittery butterfly for mommy – Its the Christmas gift she gave to me (posting again to include in artsy craftsy list )

Pot holders - Another gift she got from Santa. I don’t know if this qualifies for Christmas crafts theme but publishing as Adi spent quiet some hours with all patience to make these holders. You should have seen her posture..It was funny.. Sitting on the carpet for hours resting her back on couch with legs stretched, ankles criss crossed, holding the plastic loom closer to her and weaving the patterns with fabric loops like how the grandma’s do.. She finished two per day. It was so surprising to see her interest in weaving the patterns

this was the outer cover of the kit (Just in case if you are interested in buying for your kid).. I loved it but the girl is not letting me to use the holders. She doesn’t want them to get old.  The maximum I can do is touch them.. She might even keep it in the locker soon..

Button crafts

Our entries for this month artsy craftsy challenge

The moment I told the little girl that this month theme is craft with buttons our hunt for buttons started. We turned the house upside down (not the house really but our craft/sewing supplies) and found only 2 buttons at home .. Then our search continued to the store. I never imagined getting buttons would be so difficult here. We visited at least 5 shops and got the buttons at the 6th shop.  You should have see our faces on finding the button in the shop. It can be related to finding a lifetime treasure.  I was just hugging the buttons and couldn’t let it go for a while ..

We spent a good two hours on Saturday to make these crafts at our own pace.  Without further ado presenting to you all the crafts for this month

Button frame – Can be used for 4 inch x 6 inch photographs.  It is now decorating our living room with a picture of Adi hugging Cinderella at Disney world..

Button holiday card – A card for the holiday season.

Button girl – made by Adi all by herself in my absence. She was not happy with being just a helper for above crafts though she did major part.  The fact is she was not happy as the idea was mine though she liked the crafts.  Hence, on my absence she decided to make one of her own and that is the button girl

Did you notice these things in the girl?

1. The two yellow buttons on the hair.. they are flowers

2. She is smiling with a red lipstick

3. Her tops is red pink and bottom is a blue color skirt

4. Eyes are white and she is a black beauty..

Jack o lantern

This year’s attempt. As M was impressed with the happy face and cat we made last weekend he got us a bigger pumpkin to try one of the difficult pattern (the one on the right. It was more than double the size of the smaller pumpkins). Adi was mighty happy with mommy’s carving skills … All 3 lanterns are now decorating the living room window.

AT – Here are the steps for you.. (tried my best to take pictures at each step)

Setup the work area with all things needed (tissue roll, a bowl of water to wash hands while scooping and an empty bowl to collect the seeds are missing in the picture). This year we bought the carving kit from Walmart ($5) and took print out of free patterns from web. The pattern we made were chosen by Adi..

1. Cut the top portion like a lid so you can close it later (don’t close when the candle is lighted).

2. Cut the bottom portion to fit the size of candle and scoop out the seeds and strings from inside. Messy job..

3. Draw the selected pattern with a marker on the side of the pumpkin that you choose to carve.

4. Cut along the marker lines (that’s Adi in action ). She helped me in carving the straight lines.

5. Make fine adjustments if needed and place the pumpkin on top of a lighted candle.

The smaller ones (both) took 1 hour and the bigger one took 1.5 hours including cleaning and picture taking..

Hope this helps…

October crafts

Here is our entry for this month’s artsy crafsy challenge. As usual Adi made these cards in my absence. I have NIL contribution.

and she wrote this inside

It says “Dear Shruti Aunty,  I like making crafts with my mommy”  

She also made this card for me.  When she is happy her first choice would be making cards. I have got many cards from her especially when I behave to her

She also made a flower bracelet for me. While fixing this on my hand she asked with an innocent face “Mommy why do I always do stuff for you and you never do anything for me? No card, no bracelet, no necklace”  what do I say? Accepted the bracelet with head down.. Have to make some thing for her soon…

On a different note she has recently started piano class in school this year.. Can you guys guess this song?