If you’re anything like me and can’t decorate a cake to save your life then keep reading. I marvel at some of the incredible cakes out there but I can’t even begin to dream of creating anything that looks even vaguely attractive. Give me a piping tube or an icing gun and you can be sure that I will end up with a cake that looks something like this.
If you can relate to epic cake fails, I have good news for you. While we may never be able to create a cake that looks like some exotic animal from a faraway land, there are lots of easy and fail proof ways to decorate a cake yourself. You could even get a supermarket cake and give it your own touch with some easy DIY cake toppers ideas.
So here are 6 of my favourite easy DIY cake toppers that anybody can do. Yes anybody:
Do you know what worry dolls are? I hadn’t heard of them until a few weeks ago when Anya came home from school insisting that she needed a worry doll. I googled it and found out that worry dolls come from Guatemala and that they are tiny dolls that fit comfortably in the palm of a child’s hand. These tiny dolls are made to take away a child’s worries. Whenever your child has a worry, they can take the worry doll to bed with them, tell the doll their worry and place the doll under their pillow. The next morning the worries are gone because they have been taken away by the doll. Worry dolls are especially for kids but adults can use them too. I loved the idea so much – what a sweet and simple way to help your child with their worries.
I love Easter. Not just because of all the divine chocolate you’re allowed to eat but also because of the four day weekend which is a rarity in the UK. It’s a great time to switch off, spend time with family and of course eat more than your own weight in chocolate. What’s not to love?
Last year I shared these free printable Easter treat boxes and this year I decided to make little DIY Easter treat bags that Anya can give to her friends. One of my favourite bunnies out there is Miffy so he was the inspiration behind these cute little treat bags. And the best part is that you don’t need to sew to make these bags, just use a glue gun instead. Here’s what I did:
I never considered myself a DIY’er or a crafter but since I started some crafts for this blog a while ago, I can’t seem to stop. It’s so addictive. My latest crafting obsession is making stuff with home bake clay. Oh the possibilities! My first DIY clay project was making clay necklace pendants for kids. We chose moon and star shaped pendants but you could go any any shape you like. Here’s what we did:
I was recently gifted a pom pom maker and I can’t even begin to tell you how many pom poms I’ve made. I thought it was about time I did something with them and so here is my first pom pom DIY that I want to share with you. These DIY pom pom hair clips are so easy to make and so pretty! I’ve made so many that I’ve started gifting them too and they’ve been really fun little handmade presents to give to Anya’s friends. I’m also loving the idea of using these as pretty little party bag treats.
Autumn is definitely here and when you are surrounded by an abundance of leaves in the most amazing colours, it seems crazy not to do something with them. There are so many fun crafts you can do with autumn leaves that kids will just adore getting involved in. I’ve got a fun idea for a craft which I plan to do soon but in the meantime, I have collected 7 fabulous autumn leaf crafts that you can make today. Most of these crafts don’t require anything special but instead can be done using stuff you have lying around the home. Just get the kids to gather a bagful of leaves each and get started:
Paint your leaves and make fun animals. The shapes of the leaves are so great for making all kinds of animals and the stems are the perfect ready made noses or tails.
Instead of animal faces, you can just paint the leaves in pretty colours or patterns which is easier for younger kids to do. How stunning do the bright colours look and I’m especially loving the polka dots.
For a super sweet and simple DIY, how cute are these animal headbands? All you need is a handful of leaves, some kraft paper and a pen and you’re good to go. Easy and oh so cute!
This is another great idea for a craft using autumn leaves. If you’ve got paper punchers in any shape, you can punch out autumn leaves and then what you make with them is entirely up to you. I’m thinking collages, bracelets, bookmarks or anything at all.
I think these fishy leaves are just the best. Make a whole aquarium using just some leaves and two paint colours – fab!
Using leaves and other gathered bits like sticks, seeds and acorns, make the funniest leaf faces! I love how simple this craft is, perfect even for the youngest of kids.
For older kids looking for a bit more of a challenge, try embroidering autumn leaves – create faces, patterns or even stitch up a few leaves together to make a garland.
I love each of these autumn leaf crafts and can’t choose which one to try first! Have you done anything fun with autumn leaves? Do share in the comments.
Image credits and find all the how to’s: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
Are your school mornings a mad dash? We are already three weeks in to the new school term and nothing has changed here – no matter what, we are always running late. Sometimes we make it just in time but often we end up being late and it’s getting embarrassing given we live next door to our school. I had been trying to think of ways to organise our mornings better when Anya suggested a kids morning routine chart. She said it would help her to know what order she has to do things and when.
I decided to give her suggestion a try and I finally made one last week. It’s a very simple DIY kids morning routine chart that outlines exactly what she has to do and when. We’ve only been using it for a week but the chart has helped. One of the best things about it for me is that I don’t feel like a drill sergeant anymore! I’m no longer telling her to brush her teeth 20 times before she actually does it. Or if I left the room, I used to come back and find she had emptied her lego box and started building a mammoth house which was impossible to tear her away from. Now she looks at the chart and she knows exactly what to do when. And the chart is also helping her to be more independent.
We’ve also built in a little treat called ‘golden time’ which falls in the middle of the morning routine. If the first part of the routine is done in time then she gets 5 minutes playtime. This has really encouraged her (more than I imagined) to try and get things done quickly. For us, it was always the first part of the morning that went so leisurely which meant that in the last 5-10 minutes before leaving, we were running around like headless chickens to get out the door on time. Anya doesn’t always manage to get her ‘golden time’ but the incentive is there for her to try.
I’ve made the kids morning routine chart out of regular printer paper, spelling out the morning routine. I used a teardrop shape because it looks pretty and used some washi tape to add colour but also to keep my walls from peeling! And I intentionally used a stand out colour for golden time so that it can’t be missed or forgotten. You can of course make any kind of chart – it takes just minutes and it could take some of the stress out of the mad morning dash!
Do you have any tips for taking the stress out of the morning madness?
With all this rain going on here in the UK, we’ve been spending lots of time indoors. While I love watching the rain when I’m inside and dry, I can’t say that Anya feels the same. She is restless. So we’ve been having a few play dates, more tv than we should 😉 and lots of DIY and crafting time. Of all the stuff we’ve made, Anya has most enjoyed making this DIY water xylophone that she spotted on Cbeebies.
It’s such an easy and pretty DIY that I thought I would share it here. Simply let your kids fill 6-8 plastic or glass bottles with different amounts of water. Mix in some paint, in the colours of your choice, and your musical instrument is ready. Tap with a spoon or similar to explore the different musical sounds. Anya made her water xylophone in a pastel palette which I thought was so pretty!
Confession time. My 6.5 year old can’t tie her shoelaces. How bad is that? I’ve just let that little life skill slip and I’ve forgotten to teach her. It doesn’t help that nearly all kids shoes come with buckles or velcro fasteners so the need to tie shoelaces hasn’t really arisen. But that’s no excuse, every kid should be able to tie their shoelaces right? Hands up who else is in the same boat – I’m not the only slacking parent, am I? I did a bit of a google search to make sure I wasn’t the only one and I found that many children learn to tie their shoe laces a lot later these days. There is no set age but kids should be able to tie their shoelaces by around age 5.
A little while ago Anya got a pair of shoes with laces and I had tried to teach her on those but it was proving too tricky to learn on the shoes themselves even though she tried quite hard. Anya ended up getting really frustrated that she couldn’t do it so we kind of gave up and forgot about it for a while but it recently dawned on me that she should really be able to tie her laces. So instead of learning on the shoes, together we made this very simple cardboard shoe cutout for her to learn on. Using a board like this is a much easier way to teach children how to tie their shoelaces.
Anya’s only had a handful of goes at tying and she has already nearly learned how to do it. She too says it much easier learning on this board than on actual shoes. Once she has perfected it on here, we will move back on to the shoes. I’m haven’t given you any step by step instructions on how to make this board as it’s pretty obvious form the pictures. But if you do want some instructions there are loads of tutorials out there like this one that inspired me to make my own. I will add that let the kids make this shoelace board themselves and they’ll enjoy learning on it even more.
Can your kids tie their shoelaces? Do you have an easy method to teach children how to tie their shoelaces? Please do share in the comments.
P.S. Here’s a short video on a very easy method of tying shoelaces, not the two ears method. A good idea to make it even easier for younger kids.
Do you get homework over the Summer holidays? We don’t but reading and writing practice is encouraged. With the best will in the world I know I’m not going to sit down with Anya and start practicing writing every day or even every week. We get enough homework during term time so we all need a break 😉 But I do think it’s a good idea to keep in touch with writing and reading so I thought I would make her a Summer diary where she can write what she does every few days. Last week I rounded up some fabulous fruit crafts which inspired me to make these fruity DIY Summer diaries for Anya.
Anya loved the idea of making fruit inspired DIY Summer journals and chose strawberry, pineapple and orange as her fruits. If you’d like to make these, read on.
What you’ll need: A6 notebooks A4 coloured paperin red, yellow and orange 2-3 sheets thin green card black pen and brown and white coloured pencil scissors tape or glue (optional)
Begin by covering your notebooks with the coloured paper. When I was in school in India, we had to cover all our school books or there would be big trouble. With so many years of practice I can now cover books with my eyes closed! But in case you haven’t done it before, here’s how:
Once the books are covered, you can stick or glue the inside flaps down but I prefer to leave them just folded without glue or tape. Next I needed to make the books look more like the fruit they were meant to be. I drew leaf shapes on my green card – just using a pencil. This isn’t meant to be precise or perfect so just draw freehand. I drew three different types of leaves – one for each fruit. And then I cut them out. But I wanted to create a bookmark too so I cut a long piece of card with the leaves cut out at the top as the picture below shows. So you not only have a DIY Summer diary but also a super cute DIY bookmark to match.
To finish off these fruity DIY Summer diaries I used a fine black pen to add seeds to the strawberry, a brown coloured pencil to line the pineapple diary and a white coloured pencil to add a touch of white to the orange diary.
My favourite journal is the strawberry one – I might even make one for myself! If you’re looking for some more fruit craft inspiration, check out my round-up of some of the best.
Ebabee Likes is a style guide for babies, kids, teens and their mamas. It’s all about inspiration, ideas and indulging yourself and your brood. It’s written by me ~ Nomita ~ a style loving girl from Mumbai who now live’s in London. Read More...