Painted stick wind chimes

The kids and I loved the Happy Hooligans rainbow windchimes we saw the other day. On this blog, the kids painted different sticks and strung them up with screw eyes and string. We collected a big bag of sticks on our recent walk home from school to make our own version of wind chimes.

We painted the sticks with one coat of acrylic paint.

Once dry, my husband helped us put some holes in the middle of the sticks using an electric drill.

We then threaded gold string through various coloured sticks.

And voila we had our own rainbow wind chimes.

Hammer, nail and wood projects

My kids think that weekends involve hanging out in the shed and making something with a hammer, nails and wood. I gotta tell you, they certainly didn't learn this from me. I'm clueless when it comes to building things. My husband is an office worker during the week but absolutely loves DIY on weekends. It appears the kids have inherited his enthusiasm for such projects.
The kids started with different size bits of soft wood, some nails and a small hammer. They loved experimenting. Thankfully there were no major injuries but the ice pack did come out once or twice for a sore finger, thanks to a poorly aimed hammer.

We haven't made anything beautiful yet but it's sure been fun trying!

Plaster of paris moulds

Don't you  just love the idea of adding water to plaster of paris powder and watching it set? We decided to make plaster of paris rectangle blocks, decorated with all sorts of craft bits and pieces.

Step 1: Add water to plaster of paris. The ratio should be 1 part water to 2 parts plaster powder. Stir gently then pour into your moulds.

Step 2: For our moulds we used aluminium foil trays from the supermarket. As the plaster starts to harden, you can decorate with glitter, buttons, feathers or whatever you have handy. The kids really enjoyed this tactile activity.

Step 3: Leave to dry for a couple of hours.

Step 4: Once dry, remove from mould and admire!