CRAFTS AND DIY
Walnut Boat Races -- an easy craft with hours of play
We love cracking walnuts in our home, but those beautiful walnut shells seem wasted in the rubbish bin. So on a lazy Saturday morning, I did a quick google and came up with an easy and instant craft project -- Walnut Boats. These are very simple to make and use a lot of leftovers -- ...
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CHRISTMAS CRAFTS
Little wreaths for little hands -- Christmas decor with foraged goods
We love making crafts over the Christmas season in our home, and this year, we fell in love with these beautiful, delicate, easy to make wreaths. They are very minimal, and look lovely grouped together. And all the items were foraged! Generally Christmas wreaths are very abundant, with greens, and ribbons and additional accessories. But ...
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CRAFTS AND DIY
Resist the temptation for a new Christmas Sweater -- make your own instead!
I understand the novelty of Christmas jumpers/sweaters each year... they are cute, fun, and festive. But honestly, it makes my brain hurt just thinking about how wasteful it is to buy one each year, for each person in your home (especially the kids that keep growing), and multiply that times all the families, homes, countries, ...
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CRAFTS AND DIY
Winter Imprints on Playdough -- Quite Possibly the Easiest Craft Ever!
Need something new to do with all the natural trinkets that seem to fill yours and your kid's pockets this time of year? Take them to your playdough! I'm always so inspired by the amount of crafting that takes place in the homes of some of the contributors here at Babyccino, especially Esther and Lara! ...
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CRAFTS AND DIY
Autumnal Pumpkins, a simple DIY
Pumpkins are not just for Halloween! And although they could (and should) be perfectly appropriate for early and late October, they are also perfect now as their own Autumnal display or centrepiece. It is not too late to make these, and I plan on keeping ours on the table until after Thanksgiving. Along with our ...
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CHRISTMAS CRAFTS
LOLA art boxes, the fabulous Holiday Edition!
LOLA Art Boxes are the most wonderful way to introduce creativity in your family. Every month, the talented LOLA (short for Lots of Lovely Art) team assembles everything you need to create three artist-inspired projects, including an introduction to the artist, recommendations on books or artworks to discover and galleries to visit, plus of course ...
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CRAFTS AND DIY
Falling Leaves -- make Stained Glass
We love seasonal crafts at Babyccino, and Autumn is such a colourful time to embrace the vibrant Fall outdoor palette, and bring it indoors before things quickly change! I grew up making this 'stained glass' craft each year. Perfect for rainy days, or a relaxed afternoon activity after a walk. My children loved this craft ...
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OUTDOORS
Ideas for a Super Simple DIY Fairy Garden
Here in North Carolina, the daylight hours have finally gifted us warm sunny days, and with that comes a renewed energy and longing to be outside as much as possible. I’ve noticed to get my kids outside, I have to give them a little nudge. I can’t just tell my nearly 3 and 4-year-old “why ...
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CRAFTS AND DIY
Collagraph printing -- fun for all ages!
Pim and I recently visited 15 secondary schools here in Amsterdam. It's a huge job as every 12-year-old child needs to hand in a shortlist of his 12 favourite schools. Then, he or she is entered into a very complex poll which will determine the school in which your child will spend the next 4 ...
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SPRING CRAFTS
Dandelion printing, a simple and sweet spring craft project
The first dandelions have turned into seed buds so walks in the park have become even more fun. Blowing those fluffy pompons is so fulfilling -- even I can't resist the contentment of baring a nice, fat and full blowball! Yesterday we decided to try and create our own dandelions, using simple kitchen utensils like ...
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CRAFTS AND DIY
Blown Easter Eggs -- a lovely yearly tradition and beautiful decoration too
Every year, for as long as I can remember since my childhood, we have had a tradition of beautiful spring branches covered in blooms with blown eggs to welcome spring in our home. An Easter Egg tree essentially! A great way to welcome the new season and bring colours indoors. Growing up, we had a ...
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CRAFTS AND DIY
Easy Homemade Easter Stamps - Hoppy Bunnies & Eggsellent Egg Cards
This is my favourite new reuse of recycled toilet rolls, loo rolls, kitchen rolls or paper towel rolls...whatever you prefer to call them! It's super simple and great for Easter bunnies and eggs! We used one paper towel roll to make two bunnies and two egg stamps ... which can make millions of cards. But ...
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CRAFTS AND DIY
Ava's mouse house! A super fun (and super creative!) craft project.
Ava has been working for weeks on her 'mouse house' -- a collection of old shoe, cereal etc boxes with all sorts of different functions inside. It's really becoming such an extensive project! Sara, Pim and Casper have joined the fun as well -- they each have houses too now, but also business. For example ...
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CRAFTS AND DIY
Quick as a Bunny -- a fast and easy Easter craft for all your bunnies!
Hop into the Easter mood with these very simple and sweet Spring Easter Bunny Headbands. Using only paper and glue, they are 100% handmade, and fun for kids of all ages to make and wear. They take 5 minutes to make, so you can easily make them for a whole group of kids too! Of ...
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BIRTHDAY PARTIES
Little Robot Birthday Party -- a fun theme for a 3-year-old
Joseph is three and to celebrate we had a little party for him and his friends. He has a few simple passions, and loves the idea of robots, painting, the colour orange, eating fruit, and how things work. So that is just what we did -- a little robot party, with orange decor, handprinted invites, ...
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CRAFTS AND DIY
Pompom flowers -- a pop of colour in your house!
Ava decided to make pompoms the other day and before long she (and Pim, who joined the fun) had made a bowl full of them. Pompoms are so easy and fun to make! We were expecting dinner guests that evening, and I had no fresh flowers for the table so I asked them to create ...
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CRAFTS AND DIY
Embroidered Name Shirts -- a great DIY craft and gift too!
This may be my new favourite gift to make -- personalised and hand embroidered shirts! I have now created shirts with both monograms and full first names, and they are always so well received! And I often do pairs of them so siblings can each wear one. Embroidery is really very simple, and you do ...
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CRAFTS AND DIY
The Deceptively Simple Joy of a Cardboard Box
I love how interesting the simplest of things can be. And few things have more endless possibilities than that of a cardboard box! It is deceptively simple. And it can elicit a lot of joy for a long time, just depending on how you look at it. Big, small, square, rectangular, all these boxes ...
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CRAFTS AND DIY
Create a Winter Wonderland -- make faux snow that is surprisingly real!
My children are desperate for snow! While I realise it is January and some areas of the world are covered in it, hibernating because of it, and wishing it would start to melt away so cabin fever would disappear. Meanwhile, my children are watching the forecast and wishing for flakes! So this weekend we decided ...
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OUTDOORS
Watercolour sidewalk chalk -- such a simple but genius idea!
I took this photo a few months ago here in Amsterdam on one of the last warm and sunny days of the year. This girl was drawing on the sidewalk with pavement chalk, and had the brilliant idea to add water and brushes to the fun -- resulting in deeper and brighter colours and a ...
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VALENTINE'S DAY CRAFTS
Rose & Lavender Bath Soak -- great for mama time!
Bring colour into your grey winter days, wake up your senses, and treat yourself to this very simple homemade bath soak. Then turn on the water and... relax! This pretty, and very simple soak consists of a few ingredients, and can be made in a few quick minutes, with or without children. We made ...
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CHRISTMAS CRAFTS
Maple seed dragonfly ornament
The last and the most simple craft tutorial from me for this year is this cute and delicate little maple seed dragonfly ornament. It is (again) made from dry, thin sticks and dry maple seed pods that are just about everywhere. At least here where I live. The four things you will need are: Thin ...
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CHRISTMAS CRAFTS
Angel pasta ornaments, ridiculously cute and made of pasta!
As promised, here is my second tutorial, absolutely perfect for Christmas time. I think these angel pasta ornaments would also look absolutely amazing as gift decoration; we will definitely be using them that way. And these are made of things which I’m almost certain you have at home. And the outcome is ridiculously cute in ...
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