We have recently planted our Sunflower seeds and Little N checks each day to see if there is any sign of them sprouting above the soil yet. It wont be long now and then we get to plant them out in the garden and our Sunflower competition begins - Who can grow the biggest Sunflower.

The sun has been out and we have been enjoying lots of time in the garden, but the good old British weather means we have gone from applying the factor 50 and getting to swimming pools out in the garden to needing our wellies and umbrellas!

We recently joined in with Red Ted Art's 31 Days of Love 2015.
We created a salt dough footprint keepsake which was shared over 35,000 times! Seeing as you enjoyed the keepsake so much we decided to create another salt dough keepsake - this time using hands.

We used our Simple Salt Dough Recipe to make the dough. Little N enjoyed helping to measure out the ingredients. I mixed in the hot water and used my hands to form a playdough type consistency, once it had cooled down. Together we rolled out the dough and Little N made two over-lapping hand prints.

I then used a sharp knife to cut around the hand prints and created a heart shape before leaving them to air dry for a few days. I then finished them off in the oven for a short time.

I used acrylic paints to paint the hand print keepsake.

I added the saying 'A hundred hearts would be too few to carry the love I have for you' using a black marker pen.

I sealed the dough using clear varnish but you can also use PVA glue.

So there you have it - another beautiful keepsake idea for friends and family.

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With Spring on our door steps and Mothers Day fast approaching I am so drawn to the beautiful Spring flowers that are providing us with some much loved (and missed), bright colours - Daffodils in particular are my favourite! We have been busy creating some super cute Salt Dough Daffodil Keepsakes and we can't wait to share them with you!

While you are here be sure to check out our Daffodil Handprint Art we did last year too! It's just beautiful and it's what inspired us to make these keepsakes!

We had lots of fun creating these ice sculptures to explore for hands on sensory play!

Continue Reading - Winter Nature Sensory Ice Play

Frozen Inspired Sensory Bag

Who isn't a fan of the Disney Frozen movie? We have been getting creative and using the movie that's a HUGE hit in our house hold to inspire some of our creative sensory play. We have been exploring an oozy, sparkly sensory bag inspired by the number 1 movie, Frozen. 

Continue Reading - Frozen Inspired Sensory Bag












Snowman Olaf

Do you wanna build a snowman? We have a great guest post from Belinda Gerrard who shares with us the best Snowman Olaf I have ever seen, created by her daughter and her husband. 

 Continue Reading - Snowman Olaf 

Snowflake Playdough

We sure do love our textured playdough and today while the snowflakes were busy falling outside we had great fun creating textured snowflakes.

Continue Reading - Snowflake Playdough














Christmas 
25th December, Christmas is an annual festival celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. People celebrate by putting up decorations in their home. They gather with friends and family, give gifts and cards. Many people also visit the church and think about Jesus and the blessings they have.

Homemade Bird Feeders

The birds really do need our help during Winter. Not only are these bird feeders great for helping our local wildlife but it is also a fun, easy activity that children will love doing. Its also great to teach them about taking care of Nature. Today we created Christmas themed Bird Feeders.

Continue Reading - Homemade Bird Feeders










Christmas Playdough Wreath



Guest Post from Jo a stay at home Mom who shares with us a great playdough recipe and activity. 

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Christmas Tree Playdough


We had a play date arranged and wanted an activity that the little ones could enjoy. We decided on Christmas Tree Playdough which went down a treat! Come and have a look at the fun the little ones had!

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Christmas Themed Sensory Box

This was the first ever sensory box we created and it was such fun. Christmas themed it was full of lots of.......

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Three French Hens Craft


On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me......

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Christmas Sensory Box

Guest Post from Tess, an Ofsted Registered Outstanding Childminder based in the heart of Cornwall, UK. She shares with us the Christmas Sensory Box she created for her setting, that her children have been having lots of fun with.

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20 Christmas Time Dreads

Although Christmas is a fun time, there are also a few things that we could do without over the festive period. Here we take a look at 20 Christmas Time Dreads.

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Christmas Felt Tree

Guest Post - Sarah joined us from The Natural Momma in Me to share with us the Felt Christmas Tree she made for her 20 month old little.......

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Rudolf Hand Print Art

We purchased some brown paint from the Early Learning centre and we had fun exploring the paint with our hands and doing lots of......

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Wooden Spool Snowmen

Guest Post - Cindy O’Brien from Northeast Pennsylvania USA.  The children have been enjoying creating these adorable little wooden spool snowmen.  We worked on........

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New Year 
1st January, New Years Day is the first day of a new year - 1st of January in the Western calendar. Some people welcome in the new year by having parties with friends and family. There are often lots of fireworks, world wide. It is a time where New Years Resolutions are set that people want to achieve for the year ahead. 

New Year Memory Jar


This is what all families should be doing! If you don't have a memory jar yet, read this. You will want to start one!

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New Year Sensory Box

Guest post from Louise at Building Blocks and Acorns. There is nothing more fun than having a good old celebration! Although I have designed this as a 'New Year' rummage tub, it really can be for any kind of celebration and.........

Continue Reading - New Year Sensory Box

Valentines Day 

14th February, Valentines Day is celebrated in many countries across the world. It is a time when people show love, affection and friendship. Many people exchange cards, gifts, candy and flowers.

Heart Themed Sensory Soup

Sensory fun making Valentines Heart Soup was on the cards today. Little N enjoys water play and making Sensory soups gives opportunity to add a twist.                                                                                                                                                                                          Continue Reading - Heart Themed Sensory Soup

Delicious and Easy to make Heart Biscuits

Little N really enjoyed making these Heart Biscuits that were great for Valentines Day, but lets face it these would be great all year round!                                                                                                                                                                                                   Continue Reading - Delicious and Easy to make Heart Biscuits

Valentine Themed Sensory Box

We love our sensory boxes. They are great fun to introduce new themes and celebrations so we created one to explore for Valentines Day.                                                                                                                                                                                                           Continue Reading - Valentines Themed Sensory Box

Heart Sensory Bag

We used a different liquid to create this sensory bag that smelt divine! We explored it on a range of surfaces and it looked so pretty when the light....... Continue Reading - Heart Sensory Bag

Valentines Textured Playdough

February the month of love is here once again. Valentines Day approaching so we have been enjoying some sensory textured Valentines Playdough.

We created the playdough at home and followed our simple recipe which can.... Continue Reading - Valentines Textured Playdough

Salt Dough Foot Print Keepsake for Valentines Day



We created an adorable Footprint Keepsake for Valentines Day, made using a very simple Salt Dough recipe........

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Salt Dough Hand Print Keepsake for Valentines Day

We were so delighted with the footprint keepsake we decided to create a fun hand print keepsake too. Again we used a.....

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Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is also know as the Spring Festival. In China the festival begins on the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month of the Chinese calendar. The festival lasts for about 23 days. People usually clean their homes to welcome the festival and create decorations of red lanterns. They gather with family and friends. Many people wear new clothes and give good greetings to each other. Dragon dances are also a big part of the festival celebrations. They believe the longer the dragon the more good luck it will bring to the community.

We have been busy making some keepsakes over the last week or so. Did you see the large foot print and hand print keepsake we shared with you yesterday? If you missed it you can see it here. In addition to the large keepsake we have also created some adorable thumb print pumpkin magnets.

You can view our Handprint Keepsake ornament here.














The next big celebration was Easter so we made some egg shaped keepsakes:

I really loved these as the pastle colours looked so beautiful together!

This was our Egg Handprint plaque ornament.



We also made these heart thumbprint keepsakes. Great to hang up on the wall or your Easter Trees. - Great decorations for childminders, teachers who have a few children in their care!

You can add magnets to the back of them too and pop them on your fridge!

You can see more on our Thumb Print Egg Keepsakes here.








Next celebration we made Saltdough Keepsakes for was Halloween:



We combined both hand prints and foot prints with this one!

Halloween Pumpkin Keepsake.











Using cookie cutters we created smaller pumpkins and made some heart print thumb prints.

Thumb Print Magnets.








.........and our most recent keepsakes have been for Christmas:



These were such great fun to make, so colourful and look lovely hanging on the tree!!

I gift wrapped them up lovely and gave them to friends and family.

You can see details on how we made these and see photos of our gift wrapping by clicking below:

Fingerprint Christmas Tree Ornaments.








Now on to our favourite one.....

Snowman Ornament Keepsake