Make a Disney Princess Castle - Arts & Crafts

Hello,

So with all this talk of recent heat waves and only non stop rain the girls and I got stuck into some Paper Mache Arts & Crafts.  We decided on a Disney Princess Castle. You could just paint it grey to make it more boyish or pick colours to create a neutral Fantasy Castle.  In my house as usual, we went for an explosion of pink!! 

                                             
                                         










So I started with getting the base ready. I collected a series of cardboard tubes and taped them together.  I then taped this to a cardboard piece. See below;

To make the towers you roll up a piece of paper in one corner.  As you roll, turn the paper to the right to form a cone.  Tape along the edge of the paper to hold the cone in place.  You will need to make a number of cones for each tower top. Tape cones onto the cardboard towers. These will be the turret roofs. Don't worry about the tape looking untidy as all this will be covered in Paper Mache later.

See below;

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To make the Paper Mache glue I just mix flour and water. So simple!! Tear strips of old newspapers, the kids will love doing this.  I get the girls to use big paintbrushes when applying the Paper Mache glue then place a strip of newspaper then recover it with the glue mixture again.  Cover the whole thing with layers of this Paper Mache glue and newspaper.  It will look like this;

Leave this to dry overnight. Then the painting fun begins!  So we went for all over pink for the base colour.  Get the Aprons on, these are from Ikea. I find them great.

So after the painting was finished we had a very pink Disney Princess Castle.

That was left overnight to dry also and then we just added some details.  Farrah informed me Disney castles have blue tower tops. We just added some windows and doors.



Here is the finished result;

 We are getting some fun out of it with the Disney Princess characters :-)

Have you ever tried Paper Mache with the kids? Give it a go, Great for the rainy days! 

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Thanks for reading,

Orla & Kerri X

Visited Aldi for the Baby Event / Special Buys

Hey Guys,

So Aldi had their first day today of their Special Buys/ Baby Event.  I have always picked up some great baby bits in Aldi, I think their nappies and wipes are brilliant.  

Here is what I got for the girls today.

As we do alot of Arts & Crafts at home I thought I would get great use out of the PVC tablecloth.  It is at a great price at 4.99e.  It comes in 3 different / cute patterns. We tried it out with some painting this evening, good quality. A must for any home with small kiddies.

Check it out here;

 The pattern I chose below.  Good for my two year old's vocabulary too, she enjoyed naming out all the things she saw!

On the table;

The drinking beakers at 3.49e are handy and don't spill or leak, we checked! A few colours to pick from. Have grips on them to help small hands.

I go swimming with the girls at least 2/3 times a week. We are all members in our local hotel/leisure facility so it's a great activity/option to have to keep us busy and avoid the dreaded cabin fever. As my youngest still wears nappies that means we go through a lot of swim nappies. I spotted these washable swim nappies that keep in all accidents due to the elasticated sides. At 5.99e they are worth trying out, especially as summer is coming which means holidays, beach trips and playing in the paddle pool in the garden. The design is cute with unicorns, there was also a boy design option. Various sizes available.

Pick up these nappy sacks, they are much better than the Tesco ones! 1.39e

Did anyone else head to Aldi today? Love to hear what you picked up. There was some great things there. If you were pregnant it would be a good place to start shopping. Here is the link to everything they have in the Special Buy/Baby Event; 

https://www.aldi.ie/en/specialbuys/thur-21-apr/

Don't forget you can keep up to date with Countryside Mumsie on our social media accounts facebook and instagram.

Thanks for reading,

Orla & Kerri X

Quality Time - Easy Arts & Crafts @ Home

                                                                                                            

Today I am blogging about a recent arts & craft project I did with Farrah at home.  It was really simple and we both enjoyed creating it together.  We did a paper mache cat.  It was easy, cheap and fun to make.  It took a few hours on different days to create, which was great to keep Farrah busy while Georgia had her afternoon nap.

What we needed to start:
4 toilet rolls for cats legs.
2 Balloons. One for head and one for the body.
Cello-tape to stick the legs to the balloons and the two balloons together.
Newspaper.
Flour and water to make the paste.

 

Instructions:

 

1: Blow up one balloon the size you want the body to be. Then blow up the other balloon in proportion to look like the cats head. 

2: Stick the head to the body using cello tape. 

3: Stick the toilet roll legs to the body also using cello tape.

It should look like this;

 



 

 

 

4: Make the paper mache paste by mixing plain white flour with water. 

5: Tear the newspaper into strips.

6: We used a paint brush to paint the paste onto the balloons then stuck the newspaper to it, then added another layer of paste on top to ensure it would stick.

7: Using newspaper I made the cats ears and tail which I secured using the paste and more newspaper.  You just cant beat flour and water! :)

8: Cover the whole cat with at least three/four layers of newspaper.

9: Let it dry over night.

 

It should look like this;

Cat when wet;

 

 

Cat when dry;

 

 



10: When it is all dry, talk to your child and decide what colour cat you want. We went for a black and white cat. Farrah had a great time painting it.

 

 

                       Farrah enjoying painting the cat by herself.

11: The whole cat was first painted black.  Then when that was dry we painted on white detailing to the cat.  When that was dry, Farrah painted on the face.

                       Here is the cat after being painted black.



The finished pussy cat looks like this;

 

He now lives in Farrah and Georgia's cubby house outside!

It was great fun to make with Farrah and there were different stages to creating it, so we got loads of quality time doing arts and crafts at home that week.

Give it go, let me know how you get on?

Have you made any paper mache arts and crafts projects with your kids?

I am thinking I might try a paper mache pumpkin next to store the sweets in for Halloween!

Would love to see some photos if you do try it!

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Thanks for reading!

Orla & Kerri xx

 

 

 

 

Free Fun Friday-Arts&Crafts

Hey Mums,

Welcome to our 'Free Fun Friday'.

Hope you pick up some great free fun ideas for the family. Today's 'Free Fun Friday' idea is flower collages. Hope you enjoy!

With all the beautiful nature available to us in our gardens and in the wild at the moment I decided to give flower collages a go. It went down great with my girls holding their attention and they had lots of fun. We got our baskets out and went collecting flowers and leaves. We went around our own garden and then down the road to see what the hedges could offer us. There were giggles and running, grabbing and throwing but by the time we got home we had lots of colourful flowers and leaves to create a great collage.

The girls decided to make a card for Granny and a mask for Grandad. I find if they are making something for someone and I make a big deal of delivering it in an envelop after it keeps them really focused. They love getting attention for their hard work.

All we needed besides the flowers was glue, cardboard and I bought blank face masks at Mr Price. 

The girls loved creating their pieces for their grandparents and it was a lovely activity keeping them busy and entertained.  The odd bug came out of the flowers which were investigated too!

I usually put on background music while they are partaking in arts and crafts it creates a nice atmosphere; the album that was on was 'Now Disney Princess'. Great album for any princesses in your life! To be honest I love it too;-)

Give it a go, post some pics if you try it!  I would love to see them!

Last thing I just want to mention is this weekend's 'Crooms Party In The Park'

Weekend Family Fun in Croom, Co Limerick

'Croom Party in the Park' in Co Limerick is taking place this weekend. It is celebrating the official opening of the Croom Town Park.  The Croom Park and Playground is looking amazing. This is sure to be a great family day out. On Saturday from 1pm there are bouncy castles,face painting, food and craft village, animal road show, train rides, crazy golf, giant jenga and entertainment for all the family. 2e wristbands admits one child to all activities which are available to purchase on the day.

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Have a great weekend and thanks for reading!

Orla and Kerrixxx