Craft: Medal for the #1 person in your life

Hi hi ladies of Hazelnutt House (",) 

Kiddo loves medals and trophies.  We decided to make a '#1 Dad' medal for The Hubs for his birthday.  We got the idea from a craft book that we borrowed from the library.  

So, to start off, we made circular templates and pinned them onto felt and cut the circles out.  You will need 1 big and 1 smaller circle.

Next, we stitched the smaller circle onto the larger piece.

The last and biggest piece of circle is optional and we decided to use a scallop shears to give it some nice details.  We hot-glued the circles as well as the number 1 cut out as shown below.

Kiddo wanted jewels on hers so we glued some on hers.

Here's The Hubs' '#1 Dad' medal (",) 

This DIY craft is suitable for grandparents as well as teachers too (",)

Robot craft for kids

Hello friends of Hazelnutt House (",) 

Kiddo and I embarked on a robot sculpture project using boxes that I have been collecting.  Yup, I have a corner in the craft room where I keep empty boxes coz you'll never know when they will come in handy for craft projects.  

First we placed the head, neck, body and legs together to see if the body parts go well together.  

Next I covered each individual box with silver vinyl.  My dad found a huge ream of silver vinyl discarded outside a warehouse and he carted it home for me.  It's a huge industrial sized ream and he has been bugging me to use it.  So now I have!  After covering each box in silver, Kiddo and I added hot glue and stuck everything together. 

We decided on how we wanna design the face and body of the robot using random bibs and bobs that we have and Kiddo put together a name for her girl robot... she also insisted on adding eyelashes to make it look like a girl.

Kiddo made a marshmallow stick for MXJO using the packaging peanuts that I kept.  We also used the same foam peanuts for the arms of MXJO. 

Here's a rundown of the items that we used other than the boxes and silver vinyl:

• plastic fork and spoon for antennae 
• plastic bricks and goggly eyes for eyes
• jumbo paper clips for ears
• cardstock for mouth and name tag
• magnetic clock on body
• green glitter foam for button panel
• pom poms for buttons
• packaging foam peanuts for arms

Oh yes, I untwisted the jumbo paperclips and pushed the foam peanuts through for the arms. 

Yups, that's all for today (",) 

MXJO checking out! 

Phone craft using foam and random bits

Hey hey friends of Hazelnutt House (",) 

Kiddo has a phone! ... yup...one that she made with foam (",) 

I kept these two pieces of foam sheets after removing them from a package and today, I thought of a good way to use it - Kiddo and I decided to make our own mobile phones (",) 

I cut out some rectangles for the buttons using card stock.

To achieve a slightly popup effect for the buttons, we used these double sided foam to stick the buttons onto the foam.

When Kiddo was done with her buttons and home screen, she pulled out her sticker album and started to add some Bling! to her phone.

Kiddo's really thrilled with her phone...*ahem... pls ignore the laterally inverted numbers that she has written on the buttons >_< 

Here's my foam mobile... robot style. 

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Simple, easy to make Christmas gift.

Ho ho ho! 

Well, this isn't exactly a gift... but I definitely can't call it a greeting card.  So I thought I will just call it a gift.

Kiddo and I made some Christmas canvas boards today.  Instead of giving her teachers at the art school a card, we made these holiday themed boards. 

Whenever I spy these small canvas boards in Daiso, I will load them into my basket, knowing that they will definitely come in handy.  

Before I go on to show the simple steps that is involved in this quick project, I wanna talk about this compass cutter that I found at Daiso.  I have been wanting to get a circular cutter/puncher despite having circle dies for my Sizzix Big Shot machine as well as a Silhouette Cameo machine that practically cuts any shape in the world.  This cutter is easy to use and very portable.

Here is a close up of the compass cutter.  Using the mathematical compass concept, instead of a pencil, there is a blade - instead of drawing circles, you cut circles (",) 

You get to cut a variety of sizes by simply adjusting the compass needle to the left or right.

Kiddo chose the patterned paper and I went ahead to cut out some circles.  This $2 compass cutter worked fabulously!  The only drawback with such cutters it that you will end up with a hole in the middle of the circle due to the needle point.

We gathered some sequin strips and bows...

and some colourful magazine pages.

Kiddo is allowed to use the hot glue gun under my supervision and we glued the sequin strips, circles and bows in place.  For the holiday greetings, we cut out a rectangular background and proceeded to stamp out, 'Merry X'mas!' on a less colourful cardstock.

All done! (",) 

Simple and quick and definitely not too shabby - Christmas ornament balls canvas boards.

Review: Bake Your Own Cupcake Shrinking Craft

Hello, friends of Hazelnutt House, 

I was looking through the Toys R Us catalogue and  this 4M cupcake craft kit which retails at $10.90 for members caught my eye.

I told Kiddo about it and she hunted it down the next time we were at the store.

There is also a Glow-in-the-dark Fairy Buttons kit which I am also tempted to get coz I of the pretty good experience with the shrinking cupcake kit. 

This kit comes with 20 pre-cut cupcake sheets, coloured pencils, some chains and beads as well as jump rings that you'll need for turning the shrunken cupcakes into earrings or pendants. The small cake stand is made of plastic and you'll be able to hang the finished products on it.  

I don't think that the beads and strings that came with this set is enough for this jewellery making project that Kiddo has in mind.  It doesn't matter as she has a Totally Me! bucketful of beads which I have mentioned in an early post.

This is how the cupcake sheets look like and you're supposed to colour in on the rough side.  I tried colouring in with pens and markers but they didn't stay on the sheets.  I guess only coloured pencils work for these sheets. 

When you're done, pop them coloured side up into an oven set at about 170 degrees Celcius. 

Within a few seconds, you'll see the sheets curl up and shrink right before your eyes!

Here are the shrunken cupcakes which are slightly bigger than a 10 cents coin.  The colours became darker and more vivid after the shrinking process.

I noticed that the cutting on most of the cupcake sheets were askewed and that upset me a little.  Coz as you can see from the shrunken ones above, there is a thick white border on some areas while in other areas, they are really close to the outline. 

This picture below shows that the outline on the left of the cupcake has been cut off and there is a wide border on the right.

So for the next pair that Kiddo and I coloured in, I trimmed the sides with a pair of scissors.  We have not placed them into the oven coz it was already time for bed but these with the sides trimmed off should look better than the first two that we made. 

I highly recommending this craft kit, coz it is easy to work on and the end product didn't fail.  Kiddo is already making a list of aunts and friends who will be receiving these cupcake bracelets, keychains or earrings that she is gonna be working on.

At $10.90 and for the fun and success of this kit, it's definitely a hit for me.

I should be getting the Glow in the dark Fairy Button kit the next time we go to Toys R Us.

What toys/products to avoid for Christmas or birthdays

Hi hi friends of Hazelnutt House (",)

After a long list of what's good to buy a kid for Christmas Part 1 and Part 2, I am gonna feature some items that are really not worth buying.  Hopefully this helps in some way when you are deciding on what to buy kids for Christmas or on their birthdays.

Pardon me if these products are meant for girls.

1) Melisa & Doug Princess Crayon Set

I mentioned that I really love Melisa & Doug products but this Princess Crayon Set was a total letdown. 

It doesn't come with the Disney princess sticker.  Kiddo stuck it there. 

So, the plastic case looks pretty and I was very pleased with the grip of these three-sided crayons.

The bad:

1. The formula is really dry and it requires adult strength to produce enough pigmentation when colouring in.  
2. The pastel pink and fuchsia sticks looks very different but on paper, they look similar.  (4th and 5th shade from the left)
3. There is NO GREEN!  Granted that this is a 'Princess Crayon Set'  but don't princesses go to the garden to admire flowers in bloom?  My kid had to look for a green crayon from another set to colour in Daddy pig's (Peppa's dad) green shirt. 
4. Way too many pink/red shades... they should remove one of these shades and just add in a green. 

2) Hello Kitty Spectacular Spinner and Whirl 'n Wear Spectacular Spinner (click on link for reviews on Amazon.com)

I bought the Whirl 'n Wear set and on closer look when I saw the Hello Kitty set, they look like they have the same concept.  Even the prints and words on the box is similar. 

So, I included a picture of it here. 

So the concept is, you add the charms into the slots of the round spinner, then as you spin, the elastic thread should run in through the charms effortlessly.

The charms are lovely and that was what caught my eye.

The bad:

1. It was really difficult loading the spinner which is the big round object that you see on the box.
2. You need to aim very well to ensure that the charms sit within the tiny slots.
3. The spinner always get stuck and it was difficult to spin the thread through the charms without having to stop to adjust something.
4. It was really difficult to fasten the ends of each jewellery with the fasteners provided. 
5. If fastened wrongly, it is impossible to remove the fastener and try again.  

Although this toy set is meant for kids 5 years and above, it was awfully tough for an adult to operate.  And you know, when an adult can't work the toy, kids get impatient.  Not a good sign. 

3) Hello Kitty Aqua Beads

The concept of this crafting set allows you to arrange beads on a board using the template cards provided.  There are holes on the board to allow the beads to sit in.  Once completed, you spray the beads with water and it will expand and become gluey, attaching onto neighbouring beads.  Once dried, you have your beaded item. 

The bad:

1. The beads are a nightmare.  They fall everywhere even with the placement casing provided.  
2. It wasn't easy to place the tiny beads onto the board, if you upset one bead, it may cause the rest to get out of place.
3. The beads smell of glue once wet and when dried, the beaded item still carried the smell of glue.
4. Drying time is long, about an hour or so.  Not suitable for impatient kids and we know that most kids are impatient. 

4) Hello Kitty Crystal Creation Kit

The idea behind this kit is that you'll be able to create crystal stickers following the numerous templates that the kit provides. Once the crystals are laid out on a sticky pad, you adhere a layer of something on top and load it into Hello Kitty's back and you'll pull out the completed crystal sticker from in front. 

This toy looks good when displayed on Kiddo's shelf but it was a total nightmare to work with. 

The Bad:

1. The crystals are TINY... difficult even for an adult to handle.
2. It is not easy to stick the crystals onto the sticky pad.
3. The sticker layer that needs to be adhered onto the crystal tends to crease and once that happens, it is almost impossible to undo coz it is ultra sticky.

These are some of the crystal motifs that we made and I am sooOOooo glad that we ran out of crystals. I believe that I can use the crystals that I have for crafting but I don't wanna go through the hardship and nightmare working on it with Kiddo.

So, look out for these frustrating and unrewarding items and try to avoid them as gifts.  (",)

Toys for Christmas or birthdays - Part 2

This second entry is a continuation of the earlier Toys for Christmas or birthdays. 

There are two brands that I like to look out for when I am at Toys R Us.  They are Melissa & Doug and the Totally Me! range.

These aren't really toys, they are more like crafting and accessory making kits except for the first Melisa & Doug dress up set.

I bought this for Abby & Emma magnetic wooden dress up dolls for Kiddo last year and a year later, both of are still having lots of fun playing dress up with this set of good quality and sturdy wooden dolls.  The change of outfits and clothing items are substantial for creating lots of different outfits for different occasions.

Next up from Melisa & Doug, are their wooden stamping kits.  

I bought this Melisa & Doug Fairy Garden stamping kit for a girl who will be turning 4.  She's having a fairy theme party, so I thought other than frilly fairy dresses and princess dolls, this will make a good gift.  This set goes for $30ish and can't recall the exact price.

 Also from Melisa & Doug, here is the Sticker Collection sticker pads.  They are the size of drawing blocks and Toys R Us is currently having a buy 2 get the third free deal.

Kiddo has this Melisa & Doug Sweets & Treats sticker pad with 16 pages of desserts and candies which you'll need to decorate.  The stickers and pages are of really good quality and the colours are absolutely beautiful.

The next range of kits that I will be talking about are from Totally Me!

This huge bucket-ful of over 3000 beads and beading parts was $50is when I saw it last month.  When I went back to Toys R Us for some shopping this month, I was thrilled to find that the price has dropped to $36 or $39.  I happily bought two buckets... one for Kiddo and the other for her cousin.

Pink and purple wooden beads and charms

Yellow and blue beads and charms

Coloured strings and ribbons

I've not tried these Totally Me! Jewellery Craft sets but I guess girls of 9 -14 will probably get lots of fun time out of these sets. 

Kiddo has this Totally Me! 3-in-1 Designer Sketch Book kit.

It comes with 3 booklets of full body, upper body and face as well as leg templates.

The stick-on accessories like bows, glasses, earrings, nail art, jewellery are abundant.  There are also a wide variety of stencils of dresses, skirts, pants etc. 

Kiddos' friends of 11 and 12 years old enjoyed playing with this designing kit as much as she did.  Kiddo is 4 by the way.

Check out what toys/products to avoid on my entry here.