arts – the joy of five

Arts And Crafts, Children, Children's Books, Crafts, Families, Family Life, Kid Bloggers, Learning, Reviews

Minion Crazy With Crayola

August 3, 2015August 12, 2015by thejoyoffive4 Comments

My children along with thousands more are completly minion crazy at the moment. So when the lovely people at Norton and Co sent us this ‘Colour Alive’ minion colouring book from Crayola they were over the moon.

This is no ordinary colouring book as it works together with a free downloadable app that brings the characters on your page to life!

It was really easy to download and use. Number three who is nine added it to her iPad with no help from me.

They were fascinated that their art work could come to life in front of their eyes and to be honest so was I.

We are off in holiday soon and I know that this is going to keep them occupied for a good few hours whist we are away.

This book was given to us as a gift and all opinions are my own.

Arts And Crafts, Children, Crafts, Education, Families, Family Life, Imagination Play, Learning

Hours Of Fun With A Cardboard Box Car

July 7, 2015July 15, 2015by thejoyoffive12 Comments

As we all know cardboard boxes are a massive source of fun for kids.

We have all bought that super expensive, much asked for toy for it to be thrown into the corner in favour of the massive cardboard box!

After a boring trip to the supermarket today to purchase a new microwave we came home and removed it from its oversized box much to the delight of number four.

We had a few hours before the school run so I decided to change the box into a car with the help of a couple of things we had knocking around.

If you fancy giving this a try you will need:

A large box
Five paper plates
A plastic milk carton lid
Coloured paper to cover box
Four cupcake cases

First I pushed the flaps of the box inside leaving one end slanted to create a dashboard.

I then stuck a paper plate to the flap with the milk carton lid stuck to the centre to make a steering wheel with a horn.

To the side of the steering wheel I cut a small hole that he could put in a spare key I found.

Next I covered the outside with some red paper and then added the paper plate wheels.

Lastly I made a number plate on a piece of paper for either end and added the cupcake cases to make some lights.

For a boy that has a massively small concentration span this kept him occupied for hours.

He was pretending to drive his friends around, watched a bit of TV and then finally crashed out in it! Well worth the small amount of time it took me to make.

Arts And Crafts, Crafts, Handprints, Messy play, Paint

Retro Crafts:Potato Printing

May 30, 2015June 3, 2015by thejoyoffive9 Comments

With a basket full of soft potatoes and some bored children on a rainy day I decided to go a bit old school and make some potato print pictures with them.

I can’t remember any of mine coming home with any potato printed items and I cant recall doing it myself since I was at school.

It’s such an easy craft activity that requires very little equipment or preparation.

We simply cut a few potatoes in half and number three then used her imagination to carve out some great shapes from the potatoes.

She created mainly raised shapes. Squares, triangles, simple lines and a little house. There was also a heart that she dug into the potato thus using the outside of the potato to create the picture instead.

Once the shapes had been made we rolled a large piece of paper across the table and put some blobs of paint onto some paper plates and then left them to get creating.