Day #55 Sticky Sticky!

by Sara le Roux,  Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District

We decided that we should have a bit of a ‘duvet day’ at home today and just relax.  We watched some television, had a visit from ‘Grams’ and then it was time to do our lazy day ‘make’….

What You’ll Need

• 2 x pieces of acetate (OHP) paper
• 2 x pieces of card – we used black
• PVA Glue & Spreader
• Tissue Paper pieces – we actually used some old confetti that I had left over from a recent pre-school event

I handed Boo the PVA glue and spreader and showed him how to cover one side of both sheets of acetate.

‘Oooohh sticky Mummy!’

We then COVERED one of the pieces of the acetate in the confetti – maybe the confetti wasn’t the best idea since Boo just wanted to throw it into the air!!

Whilst Boo was layering up the acetate with confetti, I set about cutting a frame from the two pieces of black card.

When the acetate was completely covered we sandwiched the confetti between the two pieces of acetate and then framed it with the two pieces of card. I asked Boo if he wanted to decorate the frame?

‘Eeess Mummy!’ Feather!

So with a handful of lovely bright feathers added, Boo declared it was

‘FINISHED MUMMY!’

Stunning!

When we hold it up to the light there are so many pretty colours….

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Activity Time: 15 minutes

Day #55 DONE! 45 to go!

Sara x

Day #54 Practice Practice…

by Sara le Roux,  Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District

We had such a busy day today with a reindeer parade in Shelley this morning and me working a 1^st birthday ‘Arty Party’ in the afternoon –  I just didn’t have the energy to get more paint out this evening.  What I thought Boo might like to do is practice his button -hole skills.

What You’ll Need

• Felt pieces – different colours
• Length of ribbon – around 30 cm
• Needle and thread
• Button
• Scissors

Cut a dozen or so squares of felt approximately 10 cm x 10 cm and cut a slit in the middle of each one that is large enough to fit the button through.

Attach the button to one end of the ribbon using the needle and thread, and then tie a nice big knot at the other end.

I handed the stack of felt squares to Boo and then showed him how to ‘button’ a felt square onto the ribbon.

He was absolutely stunned…

The concentration was amazing!

He sat with his squares and threaded them onto the ribbon, one by one until it was all finished – ‘more Mummy?’

All gone Boo!

A fab activity that we will definitely use again and again 🙂

Day #54 DONE! 46 to go!

Sara x

 

Original tutorial found on the ‘Happy Hooligans’ website

Day #53 Autumn Art!

by Sara le Roux,  Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District

Wow is it cold outside!

Autumn seems to have swept in with an icy blast and we are already bundling up like we are about to go out on an arctic expedition!

Today I decided to share this week’s ‘Little Explorer’ session with Boo and create a lovely Autumnal collage….

What You’ll Need

• Paint – we used Crayola washable in autumn colours (green, yellow, orange and red) and also some shimmery gold paint (very nice!)
• Autumn collage – leaves, feathers – whatever you have in or can collect from your garden/park/neighbourhood.  I had some paper leaves that I had cut out of sugar paper in different colours, and also some amazing silk leaves in beautiful reds and yellows.
• PVA glue and spreader
• Paper – we used sugar paper

Boo was very excited that we were getting the paints out again.  We are starting to see a lot more paintings coming home from pre-school now so it’s definitely becoming a firm favourite in our house 🙂

He LOVED the gold paint!!

There were squeals of delight and ‘ooooooohs’ as he swirled it around and mixed it with the other colours.

After he had finished his background colours we began adding our collage.  I had paper and silk leaves left over from classes this week so we used those to create our picture.  After a tickling session we also added some feathers before Boo declared it was ‘finished Mummy!’

Beautiful!

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Activity Time: 10 minutes

Day #53 DONE! 47 to go!

Sara x

Day #45 Racing Rockets!

by Sara le Roux,  Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District

Bonfire night certainly went off with a bang yesterday!! We sat at our living room window with the lights turned off and watched the sparkly, fiery rockets launching into the sky and exploding in a shower of twinkly lights.

For today’s activity I thought that Boo might like to kick off his socks and get his feet all painty…..rockets away!

What You’ll Need

• Card
• Paint – we used Crayola washable
• Collage materials – crepe paper, shiny paper – whatever you have in!

 

We used the same method as we did in ‘Butterfly Baby’ and prepared our paint sponge ready to make some foot prints.

Boo put his foot on the sponge and immediately got the giggles…..’Cold Mummy!’ ‘Squish, Squish!’

We placed his foot onto the piece of card and voila!

Painty perfection!

Now with a little bit of ‘Mummy collage’ – with Boo as chief gluer – we give you……

‘Racing Rockets!’

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Activity Time: 10 minutes

Day #45 DONE! 55 to go!

Sara x

Day #43 Would You Like Some Salt With That?

by Sara le Roux,  Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District

I thought that today we would spend a bit of time reviewing Boo’s ‘Letter of The Week’ that he’s been bringing home from pre-school.  To make things really fun and increase the sensory experience I decided to use an idea that I found on Pinterest that is just a little bit different to the standard felt tip and pen…

What You’ll Need

• Table Salt
• A container for the salt (a tray is ideal for this) – I repurposed a wooden tray that used to have building blocks in it

This activity was really straightforward to do.  I poured salt into the wooden tray until there was a good half-inch layer sat inside it.  After I convinced Boo that our activity wasn’t for ‘eats Mummy?’ I asked him to practice his letters.  We talked about the sounds used to form the letters, the way you could write them in the salt and then how to ‘rub’ them out so that we could practice some other letters.

This was a lovely activity that we can repeat time and time again using the same materials.  It was a really fun way to see the progress Boo is making whilst he is at pre-school 🙂

Prep time: 5 minutes

Activity time: 10 minutes

Day #43 DONE! 57 to go!

Sara x

Day #40 Canvas Creations – Part 1

by Sara le Roux,  Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District

The thing about painting with young children is that quite often all the lovely bright colours get swirled into a muddy brownish mess.  After quite a bit of practice I have figured out a few ways of avoiding this – it doesn’t work every time but in most instances it can be quite an improvement 🙂

What You’ll Need

• Paint – we used Brian Clegg Ready Mixed (nice and bright)
• Canvas – we used a 30 x 25 cm stretched canvas
• Masking Tape
• Paint brushes & Sponge Rollers

I used separate dishes for each of our paint colour choices – less chance for a swirly mess! I had chosen pink, turquoise and purple, as today’s activity was eventually going to be Boo’s present to his great-grandmother and these were her favourite colours.

Masking tape is a great way to add interest to a pre-schooler’s canvas – you could use it to tape the initial of their first name, add stripes, shapes etc – whatever you like.  When they are done painting you can peel the tape away to reveal a nice bright outline which could also be collaged.

Boo used his brush to cover the canvas with paint.  I was careful to keep rotating the colours to him so that we didn’t just end up with layers of the same colour but more of a blend of all three.  When he was done the colours did look a bit ‘blobby’ in some areas so I gave him the foam roller to use again.  The roller is great for taking off excess paint and for blending the colours in a lovely subtle way – this can sometimes improve the look of a canvas and make it easier to collage onto – plus Boo always goes crazy with the roller so it’s pretty much a given that every inch of the canvas is covered by the time he is done 🙂

When Boo was finished painting we peeled back the masking tape to reveal a lovely bright white letter ‘E’ all ready to be collaged tomorrow!

To be continued…

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Activity Time: 10 minutes

Day #40 DONE!  60 to go!

Sara x

Day #35 Amazing Autumn Art

by Sara le Roux,  Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District

Now that the clocks have gone back the evenings are drawing in so much earlier and it is still dark when you wake up – it just makes you want to crawl back under the duvet and stay there until Spring!  Today I decided to let Boo brighten our day by creating some colourful Autumn pictures using a bit of an unusual ‘paint brush’

What You’ll Need

• Autumn paint colours – we used Crayola washable
• A dish brush (not the one you wash your pots with!)
• Paper/Card – we used card that I had printed a picture of a tree trunk onto (you could easily draw this too)

Boo looked at me very strangely when I handed him the dish (paint) brush but he quickly got the hang of it and started to create wonderful Autumnal patterns.

I had given him the tree template to try and encourage him to create the ‘leaves’ of the tree with his brush.  He did get a little excited as he was painting so it wasn’t quite as neat as maybe it should be – ah well… It’s a design feature!

We had so much paint left over after Boo had finished his tree picture that he insisted on using more card and creating a lovely finger painted picture which the whole family had to have a go at!

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Activity Time: 15 minutes

Day #35 DONE! 65 to go!

Sara x

 

 

Day #1 ‘The Hairy Beastie’

by Sara le Roux,  Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District

 

Something that my husband and I have always agreed on is that we want to encourage our children to love reading books.  I have many fond memories of my childhood books such as ‘The Magic Faraway Tree’ and ‘The Adventures of the Wishing Chair’ (Enid Blyton) – and to this day they still sit on my bookcase waiting for that wonderful time when I can share their magical adventures with my own children.

One of Boo’s current bedtime favourites is Eric Carles’ ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’, so with this in mind I decided that we should attempt our own little hairy creature.

We love making cress-heads and recently came across a piece on Pinterest which took growing your art to the next level.  With a few tweaks to make it ‘pre-schooler friendly’ we made……..

Our ‘Hairy Beastie’ – wait until he starts to ‘grow’!!

What You’ll Need

• Compost
• Grass seed (we used rye seed)
• Black tights or knee-high stockings
• Hair bands – nice and bright!
• Pipe Cleaner
• Wiggly Eyes x 2
• Scissors & sellotape
• Card (a very small piece for the face)
• Plastic/paper cup or yoghurt pot
• Spoon & bowl – for mixing!

So I got Boo started with mixing the compost and grass seed – dirt and mixing – his two favourite things! We discovered that we had used WAY too much compost so you’ll only need about a quarter of what you see in the photo – we may have to make a whole beastie family to use it up!

Meanwhile, I cut the bottom off the plastic cup and chopped one leg of the tights down to the size we needed (a little help was required from Boo!).  I pulled the cut end of the tights over the open (cut) end of the cup and created a funnel for Boo to feed the soil into the tights.

 

Boo filled the ‘body’ of our beastie with soil mix and I tied on the hair bands at intervals to create some sections to the body.  This was a great way to practice his scooping and pouring skills and we also spent a few moments deciding which colour hair band we would use each time.

 

We cut the pipe cleaner in two, twirled it around at the ends to make two antennae and then poked it into the ‘head’ of our beastie.  The wiggly eyes were taped to a small circle of card to make the face which was then taped onto the head section……. hmmm we may need to work on Boo’s sellotape dispensing skills J

Tah Dah!!!

All we had to do then was water our little creature and pop him onto the windowsill to start getting ‘hairy’ – UPDATES TO FOLLOW IN LATER POSTS!!

Prep Time:          10 minutes

Activity Time:     20 minutes (whilst our rice was cooking for dinner!)

Safety Tips:

Ensure that your child is supervised whilst mixing the compost so that it doesn’t become an appetizer before dinner!

Wash hands thoroughly after finishing the activity

Encourage safe scissor use – especially if you are letting your little one have a go with the scissors.  Be careful of the sharp edge of the plastic cup (after you have cut it!)

This activity is not suitable for babies or small infants

Day #1 DONE!  99 more to go…… 🙂

Sara x

Create your own Jack o’ lantern Mask

Become a follower of our blog for more spooky activity ideas for Halloween.

We would love to see your spooky masks so please send pictures to art@thecreationstation.co.uk

Debbie McGovern, mum to 2, wins £200 worth of Creation Station goodies

Aby Mason with the winners, Debbie McGovern and her children Ellie and James. Photographed by Moving Picture Photography.

Debbie McGovern, mum to Ellie and James, of Worthing wins the massive prize of £200 worth of arts and crafts materials from the UK’s leading children’s arts and crafts provider The Creation Station.

Debbie noticed that The Creation Station Ltd where giving away some fantastic prizes on the facebook page and so she simply entered and didn’t expect to hear anything. Debbie and her children attend sessions with The Creation Station and also the Create Club after school club and love the weekly opportunity to be creative and explore new things.

“I just never expected win and want to say a big ‘Thank You’ to The Creation Station” said Debbie McGovern “My children are very lucky to have won all the amazing craft bits, and the magic ideas box. They both think they are in heaven! They come home from the classes with so many ideas, it’s great they now have lots of materials to continue creating at home. It is great to have the chance to get involved with them as well.” 

There were also two runners up in the competition, Cheryl Meek and Laura Dark who both received £50 of arts and crafts materials.

“We are passionate about supporting families and carers to help their child’s creativity and imagination grow” smiles Sarah Cressall Founder and MD of The Creation Station “We now run a lot of giveaways on our Creation Station Ltd Facebook Page and I love letting the winners know the great news!”

Aby Mason who presented the prize and runs The Creation Station and Create Club in Worthing said “It is great to get the opportunity to present such an exciting prize. The children love coming to my classes so it is great to provide the materials for them to continue their exploration.”

The Creation Station provides weekly classes including ‘Baby Discover’ classes for 6 months to 14 month olds, ‘Little Explorer’ classes for 14 month to 5 years, plus ‘Family Fun’ sessions and ‘Art Birthday Parties’. Over 105,000 children and families have already been inspired by the magic of The Creation Station sensation.

For your chance to win one of our amazing prizes enter one of our many competitions on The Creation Station Ltd Facebook Page or for further details about classes in your area or to find out how you can get involved visit www.thecreationstation.co.uk