I adore bright colours and the bold illustrations drew me in from the very beginning. They say not to judge a book by it's cover, but sometimes we are stopped in our tracks. The vibrant colours and intriguing title made me want to take a closer look. 

Chinese New Year is fast approaching again. We have made some super cute fire breathing dragons made from recycled toilet rolls! An extremely easy craft, needing little materials and the end result is not only colourful and effective - it's LOTS of fun!

We have enjoyed crafting for Chinese New Year in previous years too. We made Chinese Lanterns by recycling the paintings my daughter (toddler at the time) had done freely at her easel. We also made some 2D Dragons using the butterfly technique. They looked fabulous all together in a display - and is a craft accessible to the youngest of children!

To make a Toiler Roll Dragon you will need:

Toilet Rolls

PVA Glue

Paint

Paint Brush

Pom Poms

Googly Eyes

Tissue Paper

Begin by painting your dragons. I found that they dried really quickly as the toilet rolls absorbed the paint. I didn't find it made the colours less vibrant which was a bonus as my Preschooler was keen to move on to the next step.

Attach the googly eyes using your glue to the Pom Poms. They can be a little temperamental. We found that adding a good blob of glue helped hold them in place. 

Add glue to the inside of your toilet roll and stick inside the colourful strands of tissue paper. You can cut them as large or as fine as you like. You could even look at doing a mixture of both and allowing the children to explore (once dried) which they prefer.

We only stuck the tissue paper one side of the toiler roll. We did this because the strands at the bottom will only hang and wouldn't blow out effectively. The side you glue your paper to is the TOP. This is where you will need to add the pom poms. 2 larger ones with the googly eyes attached towards the back and two smaller ones for the dragons nose. 

Again it can be fiddly getting them to stick down, but adding a good blog of glue should do the trick. 

Leave them to dry and then even more fun can begin! 

You will need to show the children how to angle their blowing to make the fire breathing dragons look even more effective. 

Aswel as being the perfect craft for Chinese New Year, you could also do this craft to accompany various stories with Dragons such as Room on the Broom, Puff the Magic Dragon, How to Catch a Dragon etc.

We have been crafting for Valentines Day. It will soon be here and heart crafts are fun to do all year round! We have made some adorable Heart Luminaries that are perfect to give to loved ones with a little candle! Why not give one with a 'I Love You to Pieces Suncatcher Card'?

We have had the pleasure to be the judge over on #kidscrafts101 hosted by Red Ted Art and Incredibusy on Instagram. Every day you have the chance to add the crafts you have been up to by simply adding the hashtag #kidscrafts101 to your posts. 

I enjoy having a look through the photographs anyway. I love seeing what other people have been up to. It's great for finding some new ideas to try. 

This week we choose the theme Hearts. I thought it was the perfect theme for the upcoming Valentines Day. 

I have worked with children for a long time and have observed many hours of play. There are so many children who spend a great deal of time playing with cars, trains, bikes - pretty much anything with wheels.
No matter what resources we put out some children are reluctant to move away from the toys they love playing with the most. Today we are looking at how we can bring other variations to Transport Play.

Make a super cute 'love you to pieces card' with your children for somebody special. Whether you make it for a Birthday, Valentines, Mothers Day, Fathers Day a celebration/occasion or simply just because.... I'm sure it will be received well!

If you follow us over on Instagram you will know we are always out and about, doing something together as a family. If we're not out and about we are crafting and getting messy.

Did you see the beautiful heart suncatchers we made? So pretty!! It was actually the suncatchers that inspired me to do this craft with my daughter - who is always asking to make cards! I have seen the craft floating around so we decided to put our own spin on it!

Today I am sharing with you a very simple but effective craft! You will need some toilet roll holders! If you're anything like me you will have already have a couple tucked away (just in case an opportunity to use them arises).

We had our first down pour of snow here in the UK, West Midlands last week! 

Sadly it wasn't quite deep enough to make a big Daddy Snowman that my 4 year old requested, but we managed to scoop enough snow up to have a little snowball fight! It was so much fun!

It's given us the taste and we want more!! I want the School Closures... the hot chocolate drinking under warm blankets after we've been outside playing in it! We haven't had a decent amount of snow in a good few years now. There is still time.... but until then we have been doing some fun Snowman Crafts. 

We created a Melted Snowman Family, A Snowman Handprint Keepsake and a cute Snowman card and today we are sharing with a you a snowman collage made using empty toilet rolls!!

Rainbow Streamers make beautiful decorations for parties and celebrations. They are also fabulous for the children to take outdoors and look on as the streamers dance around in the wind.

They tie in brilliantly for weather topics and also for St. Patrick's Day!

Its the season for snow! We are keeping everything crossed that we will have a decent fall of snow this year! I would love to take my 4 year old sledging, have snowball fights, make snow angels and of course build a snowman! How exciting!

We have been doing some Snowman crafts. Did you see the Snowman Keepsake we made last year? You guys loved it and I have really enjoyed lots of you sending me your versions of the craft in!! We work hard to inspire! When we see photos that you have gone off with your children to enjoy what we have posted it really does mean a lot to us! Keep them coming!! We made a card version of the craft too!!

Back to today's craft. A very simple snowman craft that is perfect for any age - especially toddlers and preschoolers!! There is no right or wrong way to do it and the messier the project gets the better it looks!!

We have seen various versions of this floating around on Pinterest but we decided to add our own little spin on it!

You will need:

Coloured paper (something bold for contrast)

White Paint

Paint Brush

Googly Eyes

Snowman Parts (Carrot Nose, Hat etc)

Scissors

Glue

Some of you may wish to have the snowman parts pre-cut before starting this activity. Others may wish to leave this for the children to do independently. You know your children. You know what they would enjoy best. Go with what you feel. I cut them out but left the paper I used with the scissors available on the table so if Little N wanted to she could have made her own too.

She sat down at the table and we compared the sizes of what I had cut out. I made a variety so she could make choices. She decided to make a melted snowman family with a Daddy, Mommy and a baby! - CUTE!

She set about by making white painting splodges over the paper. A big one for Daddy, a medium sized one for Mommy and a smaller one for baby. Her mathematical language during this activity was super! What a fun way to promote talking about size - the children are that busy creating, they're not paying attention to you being sneaky and checking their understanding! 

Once the splodges were made she randomly added the snowman parts to the white blobs. Really simple and she found it rather amusing!

It also got us talking about melting. She was asking lots of questions about what happens when a Snowman melts. I am keen to start doing some ice activities again with her so she can experience this first hand. I can't wait to do the Preschool Salt and Ice Experiment again - it was so beautiful!

If you decide to give this Melted Snowman Painting Craft a go - take photos! Send them to us to add to this post! It's always great to see how other people get on with crafts.

Well we have made it past Christmas! It was a relief to finally get the house looking 'normal' and cluttered free again! I have actually started thinking about the upcoming celebrations and events which has led me to think of Valentines Day!