Make: Rainbow blocks for less than $10

The Germans seem to have a love and fascination for making children's playthings out of wood. It's just one of the things they do very well: toys beautifully crafted from wood, stained or painted to perfection. I think wood is one of the loveliest materials for toys, with its natural variations in colour, the swirling woodgrain, and it's ability to be sanded down to smoothness. When we were in Germany, I was really tempted to get some of the wooden toys made by longtime toymaker Grimm's Spiel and Holz Design, but they were pretty expensive, so we ended up not getting anything (I half-regret that now though!).

I particularly liked their rainbow blocks, since they came in such a range of colors, and I was very excited to read that you could DIY your own! I decided to try making some using materials from Daiso, and they turned out pretty well, so I'm sharing how you can make your own today:

1. You'll need just two things: a set of liquid watercolors (ours were from Daiso), as well as unfinished wooden blocks (again from Daiso). 

2. Squeeze a dollop of paint (in whatever colour you'd like) onto a palette or plate with a flat base (no rounded bases please), and then add in a few drops of water. Stir to mix. Place the wooden block into the paint, and let sit for a few seconds, before turning to coat another side. Repeat, until all sides have been soaked in paint. Gently tap the block at the side of the palette to let excess paint drip off. 

3. Leave the cube on a tray to dry, and repeat steps 1 and 2 with the other cubes. The cubes should be completely dry in a day. 

Some tips to note:

:: Adding a few drops of water to the paint helps to distribute the colour evenly, since I find that the undiluted paint is too thick. However, you have to trial and error to find the paint-water balance. We discovered that the colors were not as intense as we'd like them to be if the paint is too dilute. Letting the cubes soak in the paint allows for an even colour distribution, compared to using a paint brush (but Lil J insisted on helping so I let him!). The lovely thing about using watercolors is that the woodgrain of the blocks shows up through the colors (unlike if you use acrylic paints), and the colors actually accentuate the patterns of the woodgrain. 

:: To get a whole range of colors, I started by using primary colors, and then gradually mixing them (red with yellow, yellow with blue, blue with red) to get a range of secondary colors. Along the way, I also tried mixing in white to lighten the colors. If you do follow this method, don't forget to continue to dilute the paint by adding in drops of water during the mixing process!

:: The blocks fit nicely into those little crates that they sell at Daiso too. All in all, we used up 3 packs of blocks, so our rainbow blocks set cost us $10, if you include the crate!

:: The quality of the Daiso wooden blocks seems to be dropping. We used some blocks that were purchased a year or two ago, as well as some that were recently purchased. The older blocks were made of harder wood, were sanded smooth, and didn't have splinters. Those were lovely. The newer blocks unfortunately were made of softer wood, were rougher, and many had chips or splinters and had to be sanded down. I'd say that these would be ok for older kids to play with, but keep them away from babies who are still mouthing their toys. Also, remind your kids to ensure their hands are dry when playing with these. If you'd like an alternative (especially since the blocks can go out of stock quickly in Daiso), Amazon stocks these Hygloss unfinished wooden blocks and these quality for free global shipping (Note: These are a tad smaller than the Daiso ones.).

If you do try to make your own rainbow blocks, do share your photos with us over at our FB page ok? Would love to see what you come up with!

Make: Easy house building blocks

The boys and I are down with bad colds and we've been stuck home. Which probably explains why my brain is going into overdrive with regards to making stuff, because cabin fever tends to make my fingers itchy! Anyway, I'm sharing another easy DIY post today, instead of our usual "Grateful Gatherings" post. I am finding hard to write while my brain is foggy from the bug, so craft posts are more exciting to share for the moment!

So back to these wooden blocks. The boys have all sorts of plain wooden building blocks and they do play with them. But the sentimental side of me has been missing the vintage blocks that I used to play with, that have colorful architectural details, and even little pillars and arches. My parents probably gave ours away a long time back, and these days, vintage blocks are hard to find and can be costly. So I thought I'd try my hand at doing some, and it was fun, and pretty easy!

All you need are plain wooden blocks, which we bought from Daiso (since I can't bear to draw on their regular blocks), as well as a set of Sharpies or other permanent markers. I gave the blocks a quick rinse (to wash off any sawdust or dirt), wiped them and air-dried them, then started drawing various building features on them, from windows, to doors, to roofs and chimneys. The possibilities are endless: you can have hobbit hole doors and windows, doors of any colour, windows with curtains… Since you have 6 sides to work with, it means you can draw and build all sorts of crazy buildings!

We had these rectangular blocks from Daiso too, which were half the size of the cubes. These I drew various vehicles, fences and brick wall patterns. I'm still working on them, but the boys are all excited about them, and have been requesting construction vehicles in strange colors, and Lil J has been pestering me to draw him into some of the vehicles!

If you're working with Sharpies, I think the fine point ones are better, since the ink tends to spread out when you draw on the wood. Ours were purchased off Amazon, but no longer ship for free to SG. However, I'm thinking of getting this set with ultra-fine tips, since its now on offer and qualifies for free global shipping! As with working with all permanent markers, please use them in a well-ventilated area, and keep them away from kids unless you want a stripy sofa and graffitied walls!

PS: You can also check out this alternative version using acrylic paints from Mer Mag. I love their simple lines and soothing colors!

Make: DIY light table

I've been wanting to get a light table for the kids, since there's so many things you can do with it. However, light tables are prohibitively expensive, and I couldn't justify spending so much on something that the kids would not be using everyday. I tried making one using a storage box we had, but that version bugged me, since the surface the kids were working on had grooves and bits of plastic molding sticking out, which affected any stacking they did.

In the end, we made a trip down to Toyogo to look for a suitable plastic box. I had combed Daiso for suitable boxes a couple of times, but they didn't have anything large enough for what I had in mind. (If you would like to make a small one out of Daiso's plastic shoebox, you can read this guide by Growing with the Tans.)

At Toyogo, I couldn't find something suitable initially. I was hunting for something large enough to accommodate all 3 boys, but all the larger boxes had covers with a diamond pattern, and bases with plastic molding. But the hubby found these medium sized boxes that were slightly larger than 2 shoeboxes. (Item number 7802, upon entering the warehouse, turn right and walk all the way to the right-most corner, these are located on the bottom-most shelf.) These were perfect for one child, and had unpatterned, translucent plastic covers that were just nice for the light table surface. But they were too small. How? Looking at the price tag gave us the answer: They were selling these at $7 per box, but you could get a discount if you purchase three, at $18.90 for three. So I decided to go with one box per child, since that meant lowering the likelihood of them fighting over work space. Another great advantage of working with three smaller boxes: we can remove the covers and stack the boxes, one inside the other, to save space when we were not using them, and all their materials could fit inside too.

So here's how to make a light table, in about 10 minutes:

1. Gather your materials:
- Toyogo box with cover (Item no. 7802)
- Large LED light from Daiso
- Aluminium foil
- Batteries (each light requires 4 AA batteries, which we purchased from Daiso too)

2. Line each box with aluminum foil, ensuring that you cover both the base and the sides. The shiny side of the foil should be facing you. You can either fold the excess foil over the edge of the box, or hold the foil in place with tape. (We opted to fold the foil, since that means we can remove it easily to stack the boxes together when the kids were done.) The aluminum foil helps to reflect the light, which is helpful since the cover is fairly thick (the picture isn't very clear, but you can observe a difference in the light intensity for the box on the left which is lined with foil, versus the box on the right which is not lined).

3. Insert batteries into the LED lights, and push them to switch them on. Cover the box, and you are good to go!

Now, what can you do with these tables? Basically anything transparent works: you can try using glass pebbles from Daiso, building with Crystal Climbers, or playing with pieces of colored cellophane or colored water in test tubes.

My kids were kept busy for a long time, forming pictures with Power Polygons (these come in a huge set of 450 pieces, so it's best to share them with a friend or two). The toddler was busy building structures with Geometric Solids, which you can get as a set in blue or various colors (these have bases that are removable and are great for exploring the concept of volume too!).

Having light shining through the pieces on the table made everything appear extra beautiful. Also, the kids discovered that they could stack the polygons to mix the colors. It was an activity that kept them occupied for half a morning, and the toddler was especially excited when he found he was able to stack up the solids into a tower. (If you need more ideas on what you could do on a light table, hop over to this post!)

In total, we spent slightly less than $30 to make 3 light tables (if you do not include the cost of aluminum foil), which is quite a steal, considering how expensive real light tables cost! 

Rave Reads: The Beetle Book

Recently, a friend helped us to purchase a pair of stick insects. We've been figuring out how to care for them (including hunting for hibiscus plants for their leaves as food), so I figured it would be a good time for us to read about insects in general. 

We started with Steve Jenkin's "The Beetle Book", with its beautiful illustrations. (You can read our mini book review of the book here.) Junior J had a great time painting some of the beetles in watercolour and drawing some using markers. 

We also made some beetles using cardboard. I helped to draw the outlines for these beetles, and the older two coloured them and added goggly eyes, and pipe-cleaners for legs and antennae. We were inspired by some of the imaginary bejeweled insects we saw at the Singapore Art Museum's Imaginarium exhibition, and added buttons to some of our beetles. For others, we added glitter glue.  

Junior J's jewel beetle (top) and Lil J's pleasing fungus beetle.

Lil J's pleasing fungus beetle on left and mottled tortoise beetle, top right. Junior J's rhinoceros beetle bottom right. 

We're quite bugged out for now, so we'll probably move on to a different topic this week!

PS: If you need ideas for butterfly crafts, check out our post here. You can get more updates on our activities via our Instagram, and if you need book recommendations, check out our Rave Reads folder!

Linking up with: 

Monday Made: My little pony (Or, how to make a baby horse hood)

When I read that the awards ceremony was going to have a derby theme, I thought it'll be fun to let baby J have something horse-related to wear! We had this old brown t-shirt that has been worn by both the older boys, and I thought I could decorate the hood to make it look like a horse. 

A quick search on Pinterest yielded me photo after photo of crocheted horse hats that were really cute. I cannot crochet to save my life, so I eye-balled some of the pictures, and cut out shapes from Daiso felt (thankfully, I managed to find black and white felt in the cupboard, since this was a last minute project!). 

The muzzle was just a semi-circle cut from black felt. I added a white rectangle above that for the forehead. The eyes were just black and white circles, while the nostrils were buttons. These were hand-sewn down (gosh, the stitches were so messy!), since I thought I could make wide stitches which would mean poking less holes in the material.

I then added ears by cutting black felt into triangles, folding them into cone shapes and sewing them down. Then I added a shock of hair at the forehead by cutting a long narrow rectangle and sewing it down in the middle, and trimming the felt into strips.

Finally, the mane was just a large black rectangle that spanned the length of the back of the hood. It was sewn down the middle, then I just trimmed the whole sheet of felt into tiny strips.

Hand-sewing was a little tedious since I'm not good at it... but I did find it rather therapeutic sitting there slowly sewing, and seeing the horse take shape. I loved how baby J looked in it. Now I have a problem: I can't bear to take off all the felt, so I'm not sure how I'm going to wash this!

Monday Made: Toilet paper roll rockets

We've been learning more about outer space and the solar system, and we made ourselves some rockets! These are easy to make: 

1. Cut out circles in a toilet paper roll using a scissors. These don't need to be perfect circles! Get the kids to cover the outside with washi tape (ours were from 3M Scotch, as well as from Daiso), or they can also paint them. 

2. Print out photographs of the kids, cut them out and fit them inside the toilet roll, such that their faces can peek out of the windows. Secure the pictures using more washi tape.

3. Cut strips of crepe paper and glue/tape them down to the base of the rocket.

4. For the top of the rocket, cut out circles using construction paper, and cut out a "slice" from the circle. Bend the circle such that both straight edges meet, and stick the edges together using glue or tape. Stick the tops down to the rockets using more tape. 

And there you have it, your very own rocket to explore the universe! The boys especially love them because of the crepe paper streamers. Have fun if you try this!

PS: If you'd like to have a go at crafting with tape, you could try signing up for the family workshop organized by 3M Scotch, where the family can have fun together crafting with tapes:

 Scotch Make Amazing Workshop

Date: 2nd August, Saturday

Time: 2 sessions (1000-1200 or 1300-1500)

Cost: $20 per family (you will receive a starter kit of 3M products worth $40 to craft with)

Venue: Food for Thought @ National Museum

You can sign up here. Oh, and don't forget to join our giveaway for Scotch expressions tapes (and post-its)... the giveaway is ending soon!

          

Monday Made: Leaf books

Recently, we were studying leaves as one of the topics during our nature inquiry co-op. So I made little leaf books for both the boys to use, and decorated the front with washi tape.

The boys have been most busy hunting for various types of leaves (we referred to this leaf chart here). They pick the leaves, and stick them down into their books using washi tape. Instead of having to lug out a couple of rolls of tapes, I wound washi tape around ice-cream sticks and brought those "washi on a stick" samplers out.

We previously did another leaf book, but I'm liking how these books are filling up fast after every trip to the park!

Monday Made: Rainbows make me happy

It had all started out with a rainbow. I had asked Junior J to help me with a canvas, which I wanted to give my mum for Mothers' Day. I let him use some of my precious Colte washi tapes (those that he never got to use for regular craft projects), and he had a field day cutting and pasting the tapes to form a rainbow. 

He then helped me to paint the canvas, and we added cotton wool for clouds, as well as little alphabet stickers:

He then decided that he wanted to also decorate a canvas for me. So I provided him with another blank canvas, and left him with the relevant materials. He got busy with it, and asked me not to peek. And even tried blocking my view with pillows. And here's what he did:

It was a stegosaurus, surrounded by pink footprints (because Mama loves pink), painted with poster paints and outlined in oil pastels. He also added a rainbow, and stuck on the lettering on his own too (he didn't know how to spell, so he copied the other canvas we did!).

Needless to say, I loved his little creation. I guess it's all the more precious, because you usually don't get creations for Mothers' Day when your kids don't go to school. 

Here's wishing all mothers a blessed belated Mothers' Day. You might not have had an ideal one, and you probably would have spent most of it taking care of the kids. There might not have been breakfast in bed, and the lack of cards and presents might have caused a twinge, especially when you scrolled through your FB feed of pictures of handmade cards and gifts. But remember, this day celebrates you, mama, because you're amazing and loving and super! (My day was an ordinary day, as the hubby was on call. Lil J skipped his nap. But we made it to church without Papa, had a playdate, and my parents came over, so it wasn't too bad a day!) 

Monday Made: DIY dino family T-shirts

Hello! Junior J had a party yesterday to celebrate him turning 5, and he wanted a dinosaur theme this round (if you can remember, we did an "under the sea" theme when he turned 3). I wanted to make personalized mini tote bags for his guests, and since I was at it, I decided to make us dinosaur T-shirts as well. 

These were done using fabric paint (from Art Friend) and freezer paper (from Cold Storage). I cut out the shapes and lettering from the freezer paper using a Silhouette Cameo, which I recently purchased second-hand.  Having the cutting machine really makes things faster, but you can also try hand cutting out the shapes with a pen-knife and cutting mat (which we did the last time). Unfortunately though, the blade of my machine was blunt, so even after I tweaked the settings, the machine didn't cut cleanly for some of the alphabets. So I ended up having to cut out some stuff using my scissors! (And was wondering why on earth I agreed to the dino theme since the names are sooo long!)

After the shapes and letters were cut out, I ironed on the freezer paper onto the T-shirts and daubed fabric paint using a sponge (I used one of those dish-washing sponges, you know those with steel wool on one side and a sponge on the other?). 

I also decided to go with ombre colours, so I started with a darker shade on the lettering, and gradually mixed in white fabric paint as I sponged the colours upwards. I loved how the colours turned out, especially my pink triceratops!

Oh, and we bought our T-shirts from Hang Ten (for the adults), and Tom and Stefanie (for the kids). I used an old white romper for Baby J, but Tom and Stefanie sometimes stocks those too. I love how affordable the T-shirts in Tom and Stefanie are, plus they come in graduated sizes, so its possible to find a perfect fit (something hard in our case sometimes as Lil J is pretty small for his age!):

I'll post a more detailed tutorial for freezer paper stenciling soon, since I kept getting questions about how this is done. Meanwhile, have a great week!

PS: I've realized that white T-shirts for kids don't go really well with parties. The two older boys promptly got chocolate cake stains on theirs! Now, if you know a place that sells good kids' T-shirts in various colours, please leave me a comment and tell me where!

     

Monday Made: A baby album for #2

We now have a new tradition, of making a baby album for each of our boys as a keepsake. Both Junior J and Lil J enjoy hearing stories about how they were like when they were babies, especially when they see how tiny Baby J is now! Junior J received his album during Lil J's full month celebration, and you can view his album over here, and more pages can be found here.

I thought it would be nice to give Lil J his during Baby J's full month. However, the kids all fell sick (even the baby wasn't spared), so I only managed to finish the album recently, but better late than never! So here's how the inside pages look:

The album papers were from Crate Paper's "Little Boy Blue" collection, while most of the embellies were chipboard stickers, die-cuts and stuff cut out from Cosmo Cricket and October Afternoon papers. I especially love the papers and stickers form Cosmo Cricket's "Togetherness" collection, so suitable for albums for families and babies!

Now that this album is finished, I'm hoping to start on Project Life, since I'm finding 12x12 layouts and mini albums a lil hard to complete these days. Am not too used to scrapping so "flat" (I like my layouts to be lumpy and layered!), but I think it'll be a great way to capture memories without spending too much time agonizing about the embellies to stick on. We'll see how that goes!