Craft It Up Around the World book review

Today I have the pleasure of review a wonderful book called Craft It Up

Around the World by Libby Abadee and Cath Armstrong.  Craft it Up Around the World by Libby Abadee and Cath Armstrong is published by CICO Books at £9.99 and is available from www.rylandpeters.com. This book was sent to me by CICO Books to review here, and I have to say I am so pleased to do so. The book contains 35 craft projects from different places throughout the world. The crafts are meant for children to do, and if they are older than Hazel, they will not need much help from an adult. The authors are currently based in Sydney, Australia, but between the two of them they have lived in many parts of the world and are trying to inspire children to look at the world around them and learn more about other places. I have to say it is the perfect book to go along with our multicultural adventures between our Fairy Tales in Different Cultures, Virtual Flat Stanley and Around the World in 12 Dishes.

One of the things I really like about this book is several of the crafts use recycled materials. The first craft I want to share is this wonderful map bunting. You could focus your circles to be spots you have lived, visited or want to visit, or you can do what we did and just take any place to be included. Hazel enjoyed helping me sew these circles together into the bunting. As we did this I thought it would be neat for a birthday party with a world travel theme. Really this book would be perfect for it. Now to convince Hazel of this idea.

To make this bunting I used one of Steve's outdated Atlas books. I had planned on going to AAA for a free world map, but didn't make it there, so I asked Steve to see what he had. I figured it was even better to use a book he didn't need or want anymore. I did not have a big enough circle punch, so I traced a glass and cut the circle myself. It really took no time at all to make a pretty long bunting. Now we are going to hang it on Hazel's tree in her room.

After that we made some of the crafts to go with the countries we have already "visited" this year. We made the Easy Peasy Felt Tulips for the Netherlands. Hazel is using them as the centerpiece on her play kitchen table. Great craft for springtime.

We made the Saving for a Snowy Day for Finland. He is made from a recycled smoothie container. We will be saving him for the winter. This is a great craft for the winter.

For Spain we made Click Clack Button Castanets. Hazel hasn't tried them since the glue was drying, but I did. She will love them, and she got to pick out the scrapbook paper we used. I made them a bit smaller than the instructions called for, but I thought this would help Hazel use them. This would be a great craft for any Spanish themed lesson or party.

For France I made the "Ooh La La" Pretty Parisian Embroidery. We will hang it in Hazel's room. She probably could have helped with some of the sewing, but I made it while she was in bed. She did however help me cut the fabric for the project. Again, wouldn't this be a perfect decoration for a world travel themed party.

The final craft idea I will share is for Egypt (this month's destination for Around the World in 12 Dishes) and it is Howard's Treasure Hunt Bottle. It is a recycled jar filled with some Egyptian objects and sand. I added on it a print out of the Egyptian flag and map. We used objects from Safari Ltd. Miniature Replica Toobs. Some we had and we picked up the Ancient Egypt one the other day at Michaels with our 40% off coupon.

We also included a bird amulet and a cat statue.

So Craft It Up Around the World is a great book full of ideas for kids who are exploring the world. The book includes a picture of the country's flag and shape of the country as well as some interesting facts about the countries. There are a variety of crafts calling on different skills, so they will appeal to both boys and girls of different ages. Again Craft it Up Around the World by Libby Abadee and Cath Armstrong is published by CICO Books at £9.99 and is available from www.rylandpeters.com. You can look for more great crafts from this book as we explore the world through all of our fun adventures as well!!

Metamorphosis: Caterpillar - Chysalis - Butterfly Cycle & some crafts and activities

Congratulations to Tracey over at We Made That for winning our Sewing School 2 giveaway!

For awhile I have been eying the butterfly nurseries at Lakeshore Learning. I have seen so many wonderful posts about people watching the amazing metamorphosis of the butterfly with their children and really wanted to do it with Hazel. Then they went on sale and I couldn't resist. I bought one in May, but I told Hazel we could not send away for the caterpillars until after our trip to Florida so we would be home to watch everything and take care of them. She was so excited and could not wait to do it. When we returned home
we sent the coupon in to get the caterpillars. 

The caterpillars arrived on June 19th. They come in a jar with food in it. The instructions were not to open

the jar until all the caterpillars were in chrysalis. The caterpillars traveled to Cape Cod with us that weekend so Hazel would not have to miss a thing. We watched them grow, but apparently I did not bother to take pictures of them growing. One did not grow and we realized it had not made it so we were down to four. On June 29th all the caterpillars were in chrysalis, so we opened the jar after preparing the butterfly nursery and hung them on the hook. Then we watched. 

On July 5th, the first butterfly came out of its chrysalis. We were so excited! Soon two more came out. The fourth did not make it. Hazel had knocked over the nursery by mistake and one had fallen. Although we gently made sure it was on the bottom of the nursery (and not under the paper), it did not recover from the fall. So we had three beautiful monarch butterflies. We prepared by reading Monarch Butterfly by Gail Gibbons. We fed them sugar water as the instructions said, and then on July 13th, we let them go. Hazel was very sad to let them go, but she understood why we did. I told her every time she sees a butterfly she can pretend it is one of ours.

It was truly amazing to watch!! I think I may have been more excited about it all than Hazel. I definitely checked the chrysalises more often than she did.

We also did some butterfly crafts and activities. I made Hazel a butterfly barrette, using this pattern from Bugs and Fishes. I love the mobile she had the pattern for, but we did not get around to making one.

Next we took some ideas from Making Learning Fun. First a butterfly life cycle bracelet. Each bead or group of beads represents one of the four phases of metamorphosis. The white bead represents the egg. The red and green represent the caterpillar (we used more green ones than suggested since we used flat green ones) and then the clear bead is the chrysalis and finally a butterfly shaped bead. I made it the perfect size for Hazel to wear and I think we will make some of these at Hazel's butterfly party for which we still need to pick a date. (This summer is flying by!!)

Then the next activities also came from Making Learning Fun. I happened to be looking for some Roll-a- activities because Hazel loved it when she tried it at the new school she will be attending this fall. The day we took a tour the Pre-K class was doing a Roll-a-Frog activity and the teachers had Hazel try it. I bought her some dice today and put them in the little containers I had bought ages ago for it. Then I went looking for some pages. I changed it a bit in I did not have her draw them like the directions from Making Learning Fun said. I knew she was not ready for this with her drawing ability. Also the school one was putting pictures together from paper, so I cut them out of construction paper. While searching for the activities I found Roll-a-Caterpillar and Roll-a-Butterfly.

I printed off and made several other ones as well, but I won't share those right now. So that is one thing I really wanted to do with Hazel that we got done this summer! And we loved it! For more butterfly activities and crafts, check out my Pinterest Butterfly Board!

Virtual Book Club for Kids--The Snail and the Whale

This month the Virtual Book Club for Kids Author is Julia Donaldson. Last week I shared Hazel's favorite Julia Donaldson book, Room on the Broom. This week I thought I would share my favorite, The Snail and the Whale. 

Before we get to the book, however, just a reminder you have until Monday to enter to win two great Julia Donaldson books--The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child--both have been made into movies as well. There are many wonderful activities to go with these books in the blog hop below!

This rhyming story tells about a snail who wants to see the world. A whale offers him a ride on his tail. They tour the world and see wonderful sights, and then the whale gets beached. The little snail thinks quickly and goes to get help by writing a message on a chalkboard in a classroom. The people in the town save the whale and the snail and whale continue their trip. When they return back to the snail's rock, they tell the other snails about the amazing sights and they all hop on the whale's tail.

This book is an amazing tale filled with so many wonderful messages on friendship, helping one another, helping nature, not making fun of others for their dreams and more. I absolutely love reading it. It also gave us a chance to learn more about whales and snails. We found some great information on whales at The Ocean Adventure. The snail information we read was from Snail World and Wikipedia (on Sea Snails).

For crafts, I needle felted a whale and a snail for Hazel to reenact the story. Then I found a great whale pincushion pattern in Stash Happy Felt by Amanda Carestia. I changed the pattern a bit and made a snail pin instead of fish ones.

Then our final craft was to make snails from shells and clay. These are very easy. You shape the clay to look the body of the snail and stick them into the shell.

Now it is your turn to share an activity to go with a Julia Donaldson book!

Easter Flower Fairy Peg Dolls

So last week I shared with you a few of my animal peg dolls for Hazel's Easter basket. Today I'm going to share a few more. I made her a daffodil fairy and a tulip fairy.

I painted the two bodies green and then cut green leaf wings. For the tulip I cut two pieces of petal strips and glued them on as a crown after giving her a face and hair.

For the daffodil, I did her face and yellow hair and then cut out the petals and the inner strip. On the inner strip I added a little pink since I did not have orange paint marker. 

Now I want to do a sheep peg doll and a Jesus peg doll and I then I'll sew some felt animals for her as well.

Getting Ready for Easter with Peg Dolls

I like to give some non-candy items to Hazel in her Easter basket. Her grandmother (my mother-in-law) tends to give her a lot of candy and the truth is Steve and I end up eating most of it since Hazel eats healthy and is usually full after a bite or two of the candy. This year we are planning on getting her a book about Easter and I am making her some peg dolls. I made her a duck, bunny and chick for her basket.

Since her favorite toy is Ducky, we always seem to gravitate to ducks. This is my little duck that I made her.

An Easter basket is not complete without a bunny, so here is her pink and white bunny with a sparkly pom pom tail.

And of course we need a chick for her basket. Next maybe I'll make a lamb. I'm also going to maker her some spring flower fairies. I'll share those a different day though since they are not done.

What do you do for your child's Easter basket?

Royal Clothespin Dolls

After making Hazel the peg doll fairies and animals, she wanted some princesses, princes, knights, king and queen to play with her castle playmat.  I decided to use clothespins since I had a bunch of them. We needed to glue buttons on the bottom so they could stand on the playmat. I decided to paint the males and I painted the tops of the females and added felt to be their skirts. I used wool roving for the females' hair. Some of which I even needle felted into place.

She has named each one. One is Princess Moonlight and there is Cinderella (in blue), and Princess Carrie. The men are named after her father, grandfather and first cousin. She is still deciding which are princes and guards.

Now she loves to make up stories about all her princesses. It keeps her busy for hours and then she puts on a show for us.

Peg Doll Animals

I'm still being inspired by Margaret Bloom and her new book, Making Peg Dolls, well actually I guess her book blog tour. Last Friday, Anna Branford was the book tour stop and she shared some adorable animal peg dolls. Now of course there is more to the story. Last Thursday when I went to pick Hazel up from school, I saw a bluebird fly by in the long driveway to the school. Now a bluebird in the winter is very unusual here, but its brilliant blue wings and reddish pink breast made me certain it was. Now remember this is the day before the blizzard hit here. Poor bird. Anyway, I went inside and was talking to the teachers about the bluebird and one of them mentioned how seeing a bluebird always makes her and her husband happy. That night I told Hazel a story about Happy the bluebird at bedtime. Then I saw the bluebird that Margaret Bloom made at Anna Brandford's site and I was inspired. I decided to make a bluebird.

Now I was a bit lazy and glued instead of sewed the head and such. But I am happy with how it came out. Next I decided on a robin. Yes, with all this snow I am thinking about spring.

Plus Hazel got the book How Robin Saved Spring by Debbie Oullet for her birthday. This is a wonderful book that tells the tale of Lady Winter and Sister Spring and how the animals try to wake Sister Spring when Lady Winter uses her magic to keep Sister Spring sleeping so she can stay reigning the world. In the story you find out why some animals hibernate and why the maple tree gives sap for syrup and other wonders in nature (like why the robin is red breasted). Last year I needle felted her Lady Winter and Sister Spring dolls, but I don't think I ever shared them with you.

Then wanting to get away from birds, I decided to make a red fox. A fox has been in a few of our stories as of late, so I thought she would appreciate it. One of her favorite play things is to use her peg dolls or even Barbie dolls to make puppet shows and tell stories. I love her creativity!

She has asked me to make a seagull, pigeon, chickadee, gold finch, cow, horse, parrot, ... next. I guess I better get some more peg dolls.

For my previous Margaret Bloom inspired peg dolls visit here.

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures--Chinese Cinderella

In honor of the Chinese New Year, I thought I would share the Chinese Cinderella. Now, I have read in several sources that the oldest, written version of Cinderella came from China. It was recorded in Yu Yang Tsa Tsu (Miscellany of Forgotten Lore) written by Tuan Ch’êng-shih around 856-860 AD. (Source) I have found two slightly different versions to the story in picture books, but the main parts are the same. First we will look briefly at China.

Happy Chinese New Year!!

Gung hay fat choy. (I wish you good luck and happiness.) Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year. 2013 is the year of the snake. Here are some ideas that we are doing to celebrate.

Dragon Parade by Steven A. Chin is a wonderful picture book about a Chinese man who moves to San Francisco and opens a grocery store. It is based on a true story about how he brought San Francisco a large celebration for the Chinese New Year including the first dragon parade in the Land of the Golden Mountain (America).

I posted earlier in the week about the Chinese instruments we made. With these instruments we will make some noise to scare away the evil spirits and parade around the house. There is also a link to Daria's giveaway of beautiful tingsha hand bells.

We will also have a dragon parade and lion dancers at our parade with our homemade puppets. The top one is the dragon and the bottom three are the lion dancer (each view).  The dragon puppet idea came from Enchanted Learning. The lion dancer puppet came from Activity Village. I wish I had used larger pieces of construction paper for the middle part of this one. Hazel loves them. She gave the lion dancer orange eyes, so they are a bit hard to see on the front.

Then we decorated the dining room. I saw the snake cut-out at Activity Village (the snake coloring page next to it is from there as well since it was the model of the snake for the cut-out). The dragon is also from that page since they used it as a pattern for a paper cut craft. I decided after doing my snake, to stop there with the cut crafts. The other snake coloring page is also from Activity Village but a different page. The snake mobile which we used as a decoration for our chandelier instead of being a mobile also came from Activity Village.

Then we made a Chinese themed dinner. We used the two Chinese recipes from The Kids Multicultural Cookbook. We made a ginger honey chicken wings recipe and a peanut noodle recipe. Then of course we ate them with some green beans with soy sauce on them and ate with chopsticks. We are hoping to make some fortune cookies later today or this week. The snow removal has taken up much of our time so we have not gotten to as much as we hoped.

Finally, I made Hazel some simple felt dumplings and felt fortune cookies. I found some simple fortunes on-line and printed them out and then followed the tutorials on Kaboose. I did not use hot glue for either and did not find they took long. In fact I'm hoping to have Hazel make a few herself. For the dumplings I gathered them up for a minute or two to make the fluted edge. I used a clothespin for the fortune cookies to get their shape. If we make more, I'll take some pictures and provide you a bit of a tutorial on how we did it.

How are you celebrating the Chinese New Year?