The cardboard drums

I hope you all had a good time for the New Year's Eve!

We continue having fun with recycled materials - we've celebrated the New Years Eve in this way as well.

I've mentioned in the previous post that I have prepared a surprise for our little guests on New Year's Eve celebration.

Ta-Dam, here it is: the cardboard drums!

The original idea comes from Spoonful.com but I've simplified it and adapted to the materials we already had. 

I've wrapped cardboard boxes in a nice decorative paper (this step is not necessary, but it certainly contributes to the aesthetic aspect) and pasted them one to another, in the desired shape. I also filled balloons with oatmeal flakes (really gives a great, rustling sound) and tied them with a decorative bow at small toy brooms, which I then fastened to the box by adhesive tape. And that's it! It was really not hard at all, my biggest problem was to find a piece of decorative paper large enough to wrap the entire box, as you can see from the photos.

Instead of the brooms, I originally intended to use cardboard rolls, but the girls tore them, while I was wrapping the boxes. In the meantime they began fencing with these small brooms quite near TV set, so I quickly found a replacement for the cardboard rolls.

Try it, it 's really not hard, I would like you to write in the comments how you've done it.

This year for our New Year's celebration, I also tried some new recipes and I intend to make them available as a mini e-book, so feel free to stop by again these days.

List of the parties I'm participating in:

 

 

Activities from the Advent calendar - the fourth week

Delicious food and gathering all the family and friends ... Holidays  were just as they should be, despite the Older still had a fever on Christmas Eve. Unlike last week , this week we've managed to find some time for crafts.

24th of December - decorating Christmas tree and listening to Christmas carols

We recently attended a great Christmas concert for kids where we bought a CD with Christmas carols - "Jingle Bells" turned out to be the absolute hit of the day.

25th and 26th of December - holidays ....

 

The menu was rich, despite the recession. Ever since I can remember, my family has never saved on food.... recipes coming soon!

27th of December - the exhibition of toys and funicular ride

 

Our plan was to visit the exhibition of vintage toys in the local museum, but unfortunately we had the wrong information about its working hours, so we were too late to enter it. Fortunately, the exhibition runs until May so we'll see it some other time.  

We also took the kids on their first funicular ride. After it, we went for a walk in the city center decorated with Christmas lights. It is such a magic experience - lights, candles, decorated trees .... and Gluhwein for adults ;)

28th December - recycling plastic yogurt cups

 

I finally got a glue gun and we made this cute little snowman:

So, I pasted the yoghurt cups with a glue gun (definitely a job for an adult, because the glue is heated to 200 Celsius degrees). The Older painted its hat, face and buttons. We are into snowmen these days, probably because of the immense amount of snow in December, which melted too soon.

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These are supposed to be little Christmas trees, but we couldn't manage to put a star on top:

We piled cups one on the other, painted them in green by using temperas. After they dried completely, we decorated them with stickers. Very easy and perfect for younger children. The one on the right was made by the Older. While we were making it, I was thinking it would look much nicer if we used acrylic paints, but it is not something appropriate for children.

29th December - a failed craft

These balloons supposed to be string Christmas decorations, but something definitely went wrong. Except that the string kept untying, I think I should have diluted the glue (I used a glue similar to Mod Podge).... So you can learn from my mistakes.

We also made a nice decoration out of pine cones. It is currently drying so you can expect photos very soon .

30th December - we begin preparing for New Year's Eve

We expect a lot of little guests and preparing them with various fun activities. See here for a couple of New Year's ideas , and we will put ours in one of the next posts.

Activities from our advent calendar - the third week

If you follow me on Facebook , you could see that we were sick a few days before Christmas, so there wasn't a lot of creative work, and unfortunately we have not done all the activities from our advent calendar. We have managed to make only one snowman which will be used as a pencil holder.

We pasted some cotton balls at the glass jar and the added paper eyes, nose and mouth.  Here you can see what kind of snowmen we made during the last week.

We also made a paper garland. Fold the paper into five parts (or more, if you have a larger piece of paper). Draw a figure you like (we drew penguins and gingerbread men). You must ensure that the "hands" are drawn to the edge of the folded paper, because in this way the figures stay connected. The idea originally comes from the book of Christmas things to make and do, which I already mentioned in a post about encouraging children to read and to love books.

The Older proudly decorated it by drawing their eyes, nose, mouth, and buttons:

 I wish you a peaceful, delicious and creative holiday season!

The activities from our Advent calendar - the second week

We continue to open the pockets in or Advent calendar made out of tea bags .
Here's what we have been doing the last seven days:

The 9th of December - the joys of winter

 

After cleaning the snow on our patio, a new resident settled in our backyard.  How do you like its styling? Luckily I was taking pics immediately, right after we made this snowman, because it soon melted. 

And we made a bird house as well. We were not very creative, with it, we just used plain old box and hang it on a tree, but somehow I think birds don't mind it since the food quickly disappeared. As soon as we find some time, I intend to provide more comfortable accommodation for birds, such as the one on this picture.

The 10th of December - sewing clothes for Barbie dolls

 

Not exactly a typical pre-Christmas activity, but the temperature has dropped and even Barbie needs some new, warmer clothing. The photos coming soon. 

The 11th of December - making felt ornaments 

 

I cut two equal pieces of felt and sew them together by using a thread in contrasting color. When I was on "half way", I've inserted a cotton pad among the two felt pieces and continued sewing (see photos below). In the end, I added additional thread so the ornaments can easily be hung on a Christmas tree.





  The 12th of December - making homemade gifts

Unfortunately I have to disappoint you, since I will not upload photos of the gifts we made, as most of my friends read this blog, so in order not to spoil surprises, the photos will come after the holidays.

The 13th of December - balloons in the snow

This is an example of the fact that not all the Pinterest ideas are doable.

It was originally intended for the balloons to turn into large marbles as on this photo, but something went wrong, since they exploded when I was trying to cut their top. I think the mistake was that I have not poured enough water into them. That night the temperature dropped to a freezing -18 Celsius Degrees, so the balloons truly were frozen, but I believe that the large volume of air (compared to water) caused them to explode.

14th December - recycled materials snowmen

 

Our real snowman started to melt, but that's why we've created these little creatures. We used plastic bottles, markers and some bows to make them.

The Older also made her own snowman.

15th December - a little break

  We were invited on a birthday party, so we had a little break from creative activities. 

Wishing all of you a lot of free time for all the crafts you plan to do!

P.S. I am sharing the post on the following linky parties: 

Activities from our advent calendar - the first week

We could hardly wait for the time when we could open our handmade advent calendar. Its pockets contain one or more activities for each day. Here's what we have been doing the last week:

The 3rd of December - paper snowflakes

Except from going to a local Christmas concert for kids, we have made some nice paper snowflakes. When I was a kid, it was one of my favorite winter activities.

Snowflakes can be linked together in a nice garland, like the one on this photo.

 

You can even  make these cute balerina tutus :



 

Not sure how to cut snowflakes? Look here.

4th of December - making greeting cards

Here is what we created with some cardboard, paper cut from magazines, a glue, cotton pads and pastels:

5th of December - cleaning the boots and doing another season's greetings

Kids in Europe traditionally put their clean boots on the window at the night of 5th December, because they believe St. Nicholas will bring them a gift and leave it in the boots if they have been good all year.

6th of December - visiting local outing site

Lots of Christmas lights, just enough to make a child happy!

Source : gorica.hr

7th of December - 'decorating the tree'

The Older keeps asking when are we going to decorate theChristmas tree. Since we traditionally decorate the tree on Christmas Eve, I gave her to "decorate the tree" in this way:

I found a picture of Christmas trees in the advertising catalogues, which overflooded our mailbox these days more than ever, so I cut them, and let her to make decorations. I think you can guess which cartoon character is this week's favorite.

8th of December making paper chains

50 centimeters of snow fell during the previous night, so we had a lot of winter fun, but we still found time for some crafting.

Paper chains are another nice way to use old catalogues or wrapping paper scraps. I believe that many of you remember this activity from your own childhood.

Cut the paper into strips, then paste it so you get a chain link, and continue to do so on until you have used all the strips. Paper chains can be used as a convenient holiday decoration, especially if you're doing it from wrapping paper scraps.

List of linky parties I participate in: