NurtureStore » Scissor skills

Perfect peg dolls

Cathy @ NurtureStore — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:00:52 +0000

Want an activity that promotes creativity, environmental awareness and maths skills and combines imaginative play with a boost of literacy? Peg dolls are where it’s at!

How to make a peg doll

Take some wooden pegs, add recycled materials from your making box and let the kids get to work, making whatever characters are in their imaginations.

Snow queens made from bubble wrap and cotton wool.

Circus jugglers from feathers and elastic bands.

Butterflies from scrap paper.

Mermaids made from wrapping paper, who know how to skip – wow!

And even cross channel swimmers

Along the way they are measuring, problem solving, practising pencil grip and fine motor skills, working out how to use scissors and learning that great toys can be created from things you’d otherwise throw away.

The best thing about making puppets is you get to play with them too. What character could your kids make this week?

For more ideas on how to make a puppet

Download our free ebook Glorious Junk

Browse our puppet archive for more ideas

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Simple sewing projects: make a doll

Cathy @ NurtureStore — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 16:00:52 +0000

We were inspired by Megan and her daughter over at Sorta Crunchy to have a go at a simple sewing project this week, to see if we could make a doll. We’ve tried embroidery before and made some stitched bookmarks but this was a little more adventurous for us – and I think it turned out great! (She’s called Ruby by the way.)

Megan made some wonderful toys with her daughter – do hop over and see how they made theirs as their technique is great for capturing some kid’s art as well as sewing. But my girls did not want to do any sketching – they wanted to get straight to the material! So here’s what we did to make a doll.

This was a spontaneous ‘what shall we do today’ project, so we used the materials we had available: fabric from a now too small skirt and some cottonwool for stuffing. I just about persuaded B to draw out a doll shape, rather than free styling with the scissors straight on the material, so she drew an outline on some paper, which became our pattern. She cut it out and I helped her to stitch a face.

We placed the right (patterned) sides together and used the simplest running stitch to sew round the edge. B told me it’s hard work to sew with little tiny stitches but I think this is a great lesson that taking things slowly with attention to detail is sometimes what’s needed. We left a little gap, turned the doll right side out and filled her with some cottonwool. After stitching up the final gap, and adding some ribbon hair, she was done. And isn’t she pretty!

L wanted to make something too of course and decided to made Ruby a pillow. She was very keen to do everything herself, so she drew the pattern, pinned it on and cut it out all by herself. She found the stitching a bit hard so had a little help with this and then she was back in charge for the stuffing. I did suggest turning the pillow inside out, to give a neat edge to our finished pillow – but that suggestion was whole-heartedly rejected by the Girl In Charge.

I’m so pleased with this project. The girls are just beginners at sewing, and I’m not very much better either, but I think the doll turned out so well – and the girls are so pleased that they did each step and managed to make a doll and pillow for themselves.

Why don’t you give it a try and see what simple sewing project you can make? We’d love to see a picture of whatever you make.

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Printable bird and bird house set

Cathy @ NurtureStore — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 14:31:54 +0000

Valerie over at the Frugal Family Fun Blog has such great ideas and we love the crafts she does with her two girls. When we saw her post about a printable bird house play set we thought they were so cute we’d have to try and make some. The houses can be made from card, or even a recycled cereal box, and Valerie has given us all a template to use which means they are so easy to make.

B, who’s seven, managed to do all the stages by herself: tracing round the template, cutting, folding and sticking and she is really pleased with her birdhouse. She decided to leave the roof un-stuck so she could put some furniture inside and use it as a play house. The house was a little too tricky for L, who is four, to make by herself but she got involved drawing a pattern which we used to make the roof, and she’s really enjoying all the small world play now the houses are finished. We made some extra houses to hang in the window as decorations too and for these we stuck the roofs down. I think the co-ordinating roofs and perches make this a very stylish neighbourhood! We used recycled wrapping paper to make them but they’d be the perfect way to re-use your children’s art work too.

Printable bird template

Of course then we decided we needed someone to come and live in our bird street so we made a little flock of birds. If you’d like to make some the same as ours you can use this Printable bird template, which works out a great size to match with Valerie’s bird house. All you need to do is draw round the bird template on card, adding a slit where you can insert the wings. The wings are made from a piece of paper folded into a concertina and pushed through the slot in the bird’s body. You can make a hole above the wings if you want to hang them up on a cotton thread, or add a base so they can stand up if you’d like to play with them. You’ll find both options available on the template.

We used the same paper for the birds wings as we did the roofs of the houses, so it turned out to be a good matching game too, making sure all the birds got back to their own house. A big thank you to Valerie for the idea and the how-to bird house template. If you don’t already know the Frugal Family Fun Blog do pop by for a visit as I know you will love her ideas.

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Alphabet wallchart

Cathy @ NurtureStore — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:07:47 +0000

We’re making Little a parade of letters to go around her bedroom wall. Big has had an alphabet wall chart up since she was 3, and if Big Sister has one…

We could buy one of course, but where’s the fun in that? By making our own we can incorporate lots of other skills and new things to try out, such as using scissors. We’re going to include a sensory element too – having touchy-feely letters you can trace round with your fingers helps children to learn the letter’s form. We’re not working from a – z, as learning alphabetical order will come later. Our focus to begin with is on letters which mean something to Little, and as we’ve been knitting this weekend we’re starting with…

W is for wool

I drew out a ‘w’ on some red paper.

Little has learnt how scissors operate and enjoys snipping away to make random shapes but now I’m encouraging her to try and follow along a line sometimes too.

She applied glue very liberally to her W.

And then we added lots of soft wool onto the glue. We left if to dry and then stuck it onto a piece of card. We’ve not decided yet how we’re going to put them up on to the wall – maybe on a long roll of paper, maybe on a washing line. Any suggestions for us?

How are you introducing letters with your child?

Daffodil windmills for St. David’s Day

Cathy @ NurtureStore — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:04:58 +0000

To celebrate St. David’s Day or Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant we have been making daffodil windmills today. I think they look so cheery that they’d be great to make on any Spring day – and a vase of them would make a lovely Mothers’ Day gift. Here’s how we made them.

You’ll need: yellow card (or card and yellow paint), green card, a egg box, a paper fastener, yellow and/or orange paint, a small paint brush, a stapler, a ruler, a pencil, a pair of scissors, (a craft knife – optional) Start by cutting a square from your yellow card. We only had white card in the house, but as Little is painting-crazy at the moment this wasn’t a problem as we did have some yellow paint. If you are going to paint you will need to paint both sides of the card. Cut out the cup part of the egg box – this is going to be the trumpet part of your daffodil. Paint it either yellow or orange, depending on what colour you would like in the centre of your flower.

Once any paint is dry you need to cut lines into the yellow square of card as shown in the photo below. You can draw the lines using the pencil and ruler and then cut along them with the scissors.

Now you need to fold in four of the edges, as shown below. Fasten them in place with a stapler.

Make a stalk for the flower by rolling a piece of the green card in to a tube. Now you’re going to use the paper fastener to join the egg box trumpet, the daffodil and the stalk all together. You can poke the paper fastener straight through the card but you might find it easier to make a hole with either the pencil or craft knife first. You want the hole to be loose enough for the daffodil to twirl around to give you the windmill effect. And there you have it – a beautiful daffodil. You could make a few of them in different shades to make a lovely spring bouquet.

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