Melted bead Xmas tree decorations

For our Xmas tree this year we have made some melted bead decorations. I discovered the melting bead technique over at The Artful Parent. We used pony beads which are nice and cheap. Jasmine helped me choose a range of coloured beads and distribute them in our muffin trays - including round, heart and star shaped ones.

We melted the beads in the oven on 180 degrees celsius for about 20 minutes and on the BBQ outside. They were rather smelly but geez we love the result.

Once the melted beads had coolled I pushed them out of the muffin trays and drilled holes in the top of them. I had some silver thread handy so used this to hang the ornaments to the tree.

I love the idea of a Christmas Ornament Exchange instigated by The Imagination Tree, Inspired Family Magazine, Red Ted Art, Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas. We encourage you to have a look at all the other wonderful hand made Xmas ornament ideas and sign up for the exchange.

The joy of contact paper

We've experimented with a few different activities using contact paper. It turns out it is fun, versatile stuff!

1. SPARKLY WINDOW DECORATIONS

 
Most recently, we made sparkly window decorations. Basically we just cut out squares of clear contact paper. We then decorated them using sparkly paper cut outs and foil shapes. We put a second layer of contact over the top with string in the middle so we could hang them up. Jasmine also liked sticking single pieces of decorated contact paper straight onto her bedroom window.

2. DESIGN YOUR OWN STICKERS

There was something quite satisfying about creating our own pictures with a black marker pen and then peeling them off and decorating with them. For this activity we used pink translucent contact paper.

3. SIMPLE STEPPING STONES

Lastly, something which brought a great deal of laughter to Alex and Jasmine, was the creation of contact stepping stones from their bedroom to the bath. This provided a fabulous distraction from the tedious task of trying to drag them away from playing and into the bath at night. They would walk forwards and backwards along the stepping stones and make up moves for each different coloured spot - including jumping, turning, squeaking etc.

The kids found it hard to trace neat circles on the pink, yellow and orange contact paper so I had to do this and cut them out. However, they were great helpers when it came to sticking them on the floorboards and tiles.

Turning 5 - kids party games

Alex and Jasmine turned 5 last week. For their birthday party we organised some good old fashioned party games. The kids loved all the craziness, and of course the opportunity to win prizes and eat lollies!

Have a look below for some of the favourite games:

1. I hung marshmallows with string on the clothes line and the kids had to eat them without using their hands. I threaded the string through the marshmallows with a large needle a couple of nights before the party. A rather sticky task. Marshmallow eating was a big hit ... not just a sugar hit ... but a fun challenge too!

2. Next I put a lolly on a plastic plate and covered it in whipped cream. Everyone was given a plate with a cream smothered lolly. The first to lick through the cream and chew up the lolly until finished was declared the winner and given a prize. The messy faces were hilarious.

3. We had a superhero and princess treasure hunt in the garden. I printed out some images from the internet, cut them out and stuck them on paddle pop sticks with tape. I hid them in the garden. The kids could exchange the princesses and superheroes for lollies. In addition, two of the images had gold stars on the back of them and thus attracted an extra prize.

4. We tried a few different activities using a parachute. I was hesistant to use the parachute as I thought the kids had outgrown it but Jasmine was keen to give it a go. It was surprisingly popular. The kids loved bouncing a ball on top of the parachute, running around the outside and underneath it.