For the Kids - Toucan Box Review

If your kids are anything like my Wiss, they'll love making stuff and they'll love getting a package in the post even more! We were sent a Toucan Box to review and this exciting looking baby arrived on our doorstep...

Toucan Boxes contain everything you need to play, learn, create & explore. They come in various sizes, containing one, two or four projects and are aimed at 3-8 year olds. We received the Grande Toucan box and Wiss couldn't wait to get stuck in!

Inside were two smaller boxes, each containing a craft to make, plus there was a book to read and a colouring chart with stickers (that you can collect over time to claim a special prize.) Our box had a seaside theme which was echoed in the book as well as the makes, perfect for Wiss as he loves the beach and Octonauts, but there are loads of different themes to appeal to everyone - even a chill out yoga one! I particularly like the fact that they are non gender specific - all of them come in the same boxes.

The crafts are really original and come with a detailed and easy to follow instruction booklet. Wiss made two Hermit Crabs (pictured above) from a polystyrene cup complete with googly eyes and mini pegs for claws! And then we made Jellyfish Racers pictured below. Once you've made your jellyfish you can pull the ribbons to make them climb up the window or mirror. It got very competitive in our house!

The storybook is a great way to enjoy some quieter time together but still continue with the theme of your box. We received 'Titch the Tiddler'; a story about a little fish that saved the day.

We really enjoyed everything about our Toucan box - even the fantastic 'interactive' box has been played with regularly, as an airport and a multistory car park! I think a Toucan Box would make an excellent and original gift, and with half term just around the corner they're a great way to keep the kids entertained. If you sign up to their newsletter then you'll be given a code to entitle you to 50% off your first Toucan Box. What's not to love about that?!

Disclaimer: I was sent the Grande Toucan box for free for reviewing purposes but all opinions are mine (or Wiss's!) Normal retail price £12.95

For the Kids - Graze Box Hacks

A few months ago I signed up to Graze, along with a couple of colleagues. In case you don't know about Graze they send you a selection of snacks in the post as frequently as you wish (weekly, fortnightly...) You can also pick which items you love and those you don't like, and with over 100 choices there's a wide variation and something for everyone.  It's a great way to always have snacks at hand (perfect for when pregnancy hunger  strikes!) and I love that each week it's a surprise what's in my box.

However...you do end up with a lot of boxes! They are cardboard so of course they can be recycled but the hoarder in me just can't bear not to use them somehow. So I started collecting them!

Inspiration struck and I started to turn these boxes into little play scenes for Wiss. The boxes lend themselves to endless scenarios and adaptations, and best of all they can be closed up when not in use so make great portable toys.

Here are the hacks we have made so far:

The Cretaceous Period - Wiss loves dinosaurs and has loads of toys ones. We made the Cretaceous period for them to hang out in using images found on the Internet. These were spray mounted to the inside of the box, then I added some foam sprayed green for the hills, miniature trees and a little blue stream.

Race Track - One of Wiss' other loves is Lightening McQueen and the Cars films. I made this track for his little Micro Machines to race on. I found the graphic online and stuck it across the whole box, then simply added some chevrons around the edges. A picture of Lewis Hamilton in his Formula 1car on the front means that Wiss can identify the box by himself.

London in a Box - we chose London but this could equally work with any city or town. It could be a good way to introduce a new place to a child before a holiday, or perhaps even better made afterwards as a memento of somewhere visited. I printed out a London scene for the backdrop, and the EastEnders aerial map is on the base of the box! Key landmarks were just stuck onto card and then a little block or tab added at the back to enable them to stand up.

Outer Space - I let Wiss loose to make his own box and he came up with this! He covered the box in black tissue paper, added sequin stars, foam planets and even made an egg box satellite!

Laptop - the shape of the Graze boxes lend themselves perfectly to being made in to a laptop. Wiss made the keys of the computer by writing on foam blocks but you could use card, and then I made the screen using a sheet of acetate. I stuck this on three sides only, leaving the top open so that any pictures can be inserted to create various screens. (It would work just as well by using an A4 clear plastic pocket) Admittedly this laptop is not quite as much fun as an iPad, but Wiss has still played with it a lot!

Marble Run - This one has been a huge success! I lined the base of the box with bright coloured paper then stuck foam walls at various intervals allowing for a marble to pass through the gaps. Make sure the gaps are staggered to make the maze a little harder. Then cut a hole in each side to allow the marble to be put in, and drop out at the end. My mind has been racing with ideas of harder and more elaborate marble runs to make next!


A quick search on the internet has brought up lots of other ideas for recycling Graze boxes - 3D picture frames, filing systems, homemade book covers.... I'd love to hear about any other ideas you may have. And if you make some Graze box hacks then please do share the photos with me - either leave a link below, find me on Facebook as This is Wiss or tweet me a picture @thisiswiss. Happy making!

Easy Halloween Decorations to Make with the Kids

We got our hands dirty in the name of art this week!
 

 

Our Dining Room Art Gallery needed a new exhibit, so we went spooky for Halloween... Floating Ghosts and Creepy Spiders! These are so easy to make the kids can do most of it themselves, and they look fantastic too.

For the Ghosts you will need:

Some polystyrene cups, some plain white tissues, pva glue and some googly eyes.
Then all you need to do is turn the cups upside-down, paint around the base of the cup with glue and stick on one tissue, making sure there is enough hanging down past the cup. Repeat with another tissue to create a full ghost effect.

Once the glue is dry stick on googly eyes as desired. Hang away from the wall with fine thread (to create the illusion of the ghosts hovering). The ghosts will move whenever someone walks past....oooooooohhhhhh!

The spooky spiders are made from two black hand prints cut out and stuck together and their web is just cut from folded tissue paper (like you would make a snowflake)

 

I have always loved the Mexican Day of the Dead imagery and think that it is a wonderful idea to celebrate those no longer with us. The brightly coloured sugar skulls and fun skeletons are in contrast to our own spooky ones, and they are great for kids to make (especially those that may get a little frightened by Halloween.)

I drew a very basic skull shape with eyes and teeth and left the rest up to Wiss and his glitter pens! As he was drawing I explained that the festival remembers the happy lives of those who have died so that we don't have to be sad. He thought for a minute then asked if we could paint a happy 'Jimmy'. Jimmy was his black fancy goldfish that was unfortunately found floating on Saturday morning :( So, here are our Day of the Dead inspired skulls, and a fish!

 

Enjoy Halloween with the kids (and the sugar-induced craziness!) but if you're looking for something more grown-up then check out the Horniman Museum website. They are hosting a Day of the Dead Late night on 7 November from 6 - 9pm for over 18s only. With parades, theatre, puppets, Mexican street food and costumes, it looks amazing!!! See you there?

Octonauts! To your stations!

Last week my baby turned three! I have no idea where that time has gone but this is not a post about those cliches, this is post about the P.A.R.T.Y.!

Wiss adores the 'Octonauts' and it was the first thing he said/shouted when we asked what he wanted for his birthday. Even though the guest list was very small (4 other children) this was the first year that we had the space to have a party at home and we were keen to have lots of homemade touches. I spent a lot of time on Pinterest and as always, there was tons of inspiration, and we added a few touches of our own.

I wanted to involve Wiss as much as possible and the decorations seemed like a good place to start. We spent one very cold and wet afternoon making Paper Plate Fish, and some underwater scenes with potato prints, sponges and finger painting. He was really proud when we put them up for the party and I definitely want to do more crafting with him in the future.

Wiss loves helping out in the kitchen and these fish biscuits (cheesy pastry) were perfect for a budding toddler chef. The rest of the food was pretty simple - tuna or ham rolls, sausage rolls, carrot sticks (with a nod to Tweak!) and hummus, but we had a trump card to play. I had seen this Shark Fruit Salad on Pinterest and wasn't sure if we'd be able to find a watermelon in January, let alone make it look convincing but I think that the husband did a fantastic job with a scalpel...

I made some card Octonauts hats with logos that could be coloured in and some felt collars with velcro fastenings for all the kids to wear. We planned some simple party games that fitted with the theme - 'Musical Starfish' (basically Musical Statues but you make a frozen star shape instead), magnetic fishing rods, Find the Octonauts (which was the same as this game but with the added extra of having an 'Octo-Alert' to hit when one was found), and 'What's the Time Professor Inkling?'. This re-working of What's the Time Mr Wolf? obviously needed a costume, and so I made this in a hurry using an old shirt collar and some felt! The kids loved it, the husband did not!

The hat was not meant to be part of the costume but  he became rather attached to it!

The party bags were Peso's Medical Bags (see Knitty Mummy for a pdf of the logo) and along with some sea life blowers and stickers, I included some crayons and colouring sheets from the Octonauts CBeebies Page as well as these crocheted beauties from @catgopur...

@catgopur on twitter is making crocheted & knitted toys to raise money for
The National Autistic Society. Contact her if there's anything you'd like yourself.

Can you believe that I forgot to take a picture of the cake? There was cake, honest! A real jam-filled victoria sponge with blue icing, the octonauts logo and neon blue sugar crystals. It was a far cry from the dairy-free, no refined sugar blueberry muffins I made for Wiss to take into nursery...there's just no photographic evidence of it so you'll have to take my word for it!

While I was on Pinterest looking for party ideas I stumbled upon a pattern for a crocheted Captain Barnacles: he looked fantastic, and I thought that he would make a great present for the birthday boy. I commissioned Emma from Lemons for Lemonade to make the Captain as I knew she would do him justice! (Check out her Mr Tickle from last year.)

And talking of birthday presents, we decided to buy Wiss an Octopod from ebay - there are loads on there in perfect condition, with extra figures and vehicles included too; especially at this age, it made good sense. We set it all up for him while he was sleeping and he was so excited when he opened his eyes!

Raoul the Giant Catfish meets the Octonauts!

I think it's safe to say that we all enjoyed the celebrations, some guests were more excitable than others but we all went to bed happy...and exhausted! Happy Birthday little man, we love you!

World Book Day Event Part 6

Hello! We have reached the penultimate day of the week-long World Book Day event here on This is Wiss and I have asked another special guest to write today's blog.

Lisa started her blog, 'A Day in the Life of a Crazy Busy Mum of Two' last year and it does exactly what it says on the tin! She describes herself as a 'craft virgin' but she crochets, knits and stitches and has tackled a whole range of projects recently including Kindle covers, bunting, keyrings and participated in craft swaps. She has so much enthusiasm and is always trying something new, that it's always exciting to see what she's been up to.

"So when Angela contacted me to write a guest blog for world book day two things happened. The first was a wave of excitement came over me and once I’d quickly typed my acceptance then came the fear! I’ve only been blogging myself a few months and tend to ramble and digress. A bit like I’m doing here!

World Book Day! I am a self-confessed Bookaholic, if there is such a thing. I love them, my house is filled with them and luckily it seems to of rubbed of on my two and a half year old.

I knew straight away which book I would like to write about as Nathan and I have been having fun with it for a couple of months now. It’s called '365 Things to Make and Do.'

Now you need to bear with me here, Nathan isn’t the easiest child to photograph for two reasons, one he doesn’t sit still long enough and two when you ask him to smile we seem to have taught him to grimace?!

Anyway, the book has, as the title suggests many many activities to make and they are all very easy and simple. There are detailed steps and images to show you just how to put them together and all you really need is a "Treasure Bucket" just a good selection of craft bits.

Nathan loves just sorting through them first.

Then we start the actual making, I can’t get pics of that though due to me needing to be very alert around the use of glue! We’ve made many things using the book, from a tiger mask to a real spider with 8 legs! Today however Nathan decided on a rocket. I’m sure you’ll agree with me that we did a very good job?!

Nathan is still quite young to be using the book but I’ve found that if you choose things that are very quick at producing results it will hold his attention just long enough. I recommend this book wholeheartedly and like I said I’m a Bookaholic. I have several childrens craft ones although this is the only one we have used so it must count for something. There are fabulous pictures inside, so much so that Nathan happily looks through it for periods of time just to decided what we can make next time!"

Thank you Lisa, and of course Nathan! I love the fact that he chooses what he wants to make from the book, and it must give him a great feeling to see his real one alongside the one on the page. It has inspired me to try some crafting with Wiss!

Once again, I'm going to urge you to check out the Official World Book Day website. They have lots of fab competitions, including Design a Bookmark, or Design your own Picture Book (which will get printed if you win!)

Please come back tomorrow for the very last post in this week-long event.

Kelli from Tales from a Homemade House will be sharing the favourite authors of her four children, and from her own childhood!