Our latest set of wheels . . .

. . . well it doesn't have wheels *yet*.

But it is a two-seater, with a baby seat (for a baby pony of course) and seat belts. It has had some minor bodywork done - some limited edition graffiti by Miss E.

All in all - it worked out pretty well and they do love to play in it. So far it is standing up to rigorous playing without falling apart. The only thing is Baby Pony's seat sometimes gets overloaded and the bulldog clips give out. Might have to book it into Kidsafe House for a safety assessment :-)

I was going to make a tutorial for it but ended up making it in the 30 minutes before dinner last night after the kids had been begging me all day to make a two-seater cardboard car - and I kept putting them off because of gardening. So my guilt kicked in at 5.30 and it was done by 6! Nothing quite so satisfying as crafting by the seat of one's pants! I do have more cardboard though so sing out if you think you might like a tute.

Do you think she likes it?

Fly me to the moon . . .

Having saved all these boxes, I decided to use some of them. I got a slow cooker for my birthday (yay!) and the Styrofoam packing seemed to be a good size to form some structural support for a cardboard car - the last one we made was very sad and droopy :-)

So we started with this frame . . .


. . . and this fruit box . . .


I trimmed the inner circle of the Styrofoam so it was a touch bigger and then pushed it into the bottom of the fruit box - and it fit perfectly!



A quick check for size . . . all good!



Next we added some wings (yes, by now we had changed from a car to a plane!) and I thought we were finished! But Master O reminded me that planes have nose cones. So we added that too.


Here's a close up of how we added the wings and nose cone - just a simple tongue and groove arrangement. Works quite well!



Next was a coat of paint and we were done for the day. Had to let it dry overnight.


Some headlights and . . . . . it was ready for take off!!

Enjoy!

More Beanstalk action.

So here is how we are situated now. We have three clouds, from left to right is O's, mine and then E's :) She subscribes to the "less is more" school of design.

On the top is O's artwork - the Giant's castle with the Giant poking his head out. The Giant, as well as the O figure and the Mummy figure are all separate and have little cardboard sticks on them so we can make up stories and move them around. O decided he didn't want pegs on them - he wanted sticks. So there you go. Glad I didn't rush out and buy a bag of dolls clothes pegs!

And here is O, Mummy and their house.

Master O's version of the story is . . . .

Once upon a time there was a boy named O and his mummy. They lived in a house and one day the Mummy asked O to go to the markets to get some food. He came back with lots of vegetables and ice-cream for dessert. He grew big and strong because he ate his vegetables. Then they threw the beans out the window and went to bed.

Next morning they woke up and looked out the window (much throwing up of hands and exclaiming) and there was a GIANT BEANSTALK!!!! It was so cool. So O climbed it and went up to the top through the clouds. He knocked on the door and the giant was there and he said "come on in O!" He wasn't mean at all - he was a friendly giant. His name was Mr Friendly. Then O's mummy climbed up and they all had a cuppa tea.

The End.

I love his stories - but then I am a sucker for a happy ending :)

Jack and the Beanstalk

O was home from Kindy today - could probably have gone, but tomorrow is the last day of term 2 and they're having pizza and doing other fun things. So I'd rather he have a quiet day today so he can enjoy tomorrow :)


I saw this the other day via One Pretty Thing - this has to be one of my favourite online resources for cool things to make. I HEART it even. I know. It's serious.


Anyway - O has really been getting into the Jack and the Beanstalk story in one of his bedtime books so I thought this would be a great way to take up some time today.



Here is our beanstalk - I drew the rough shape on some old cardboard I saved (see my husbane??!! There IS a good reason to hoard all that stuff!), then I squirted some green paint on and the kids painted roughly where they were supposed to. Do you like my beautiful christmas-themed drop sheet? Then I cut around the shape with a stanley knife (NOT a box cutter as we live in Australia ;) )





Next we hung it up on the door in the loungeroom so that it can be a focus for awhile and be played with while I'm doing things in the kitchen.

Then we were going to use some old photos as the characters but I got such a look of disgust from my son! He wanted to draw them! So he did - and little sister wanted to be in on it too.






The concentration is palpable!

I will update over the weekend once all our characters are drawn and attached to either iceblock sticks or clothes pegs - haven't decided yet.