Free Fun Friday – Mother’s Day Milk Lid Magnet

Free Fun Friday - Mother's Day Milk Lid Magnet - recycle, upcycle, quick craft, small gift, easy, milk bottle lid, juice bottle lid, paper craft, free printable, free template, kids craft, children, greeting card

Free Fun Friday - Mother's Day Milk Lid Magnet - recycle, upcycle, quick craft, small gift, easy, milk bottle lid, juice bottle lid, paper craft, free printable, free template, kids craft, children

Mother’s Day is just around the corner… just a couple of days away!  Maybe you need a last minute gift to go with a lovingly prepared breakfast, or with a cup of coffee and morning tea, just to let your special mum or grandma know that you love her!

Free Fun Friday - Mother's Day Milk Lid Magnet - recycle, upcycle, quick craft, small gift, easy, milk bottle lid, juice bottle lid, paper craft, free printable, free template, kids craft, children

Free Fun Friday - Mother's Day Milk Lid Magnet - recycle, upcycle, quick craft, small gift, easy, milk bottle lid, juice bottle lid, paper craft, free printable, free template, kids craft, children

Or maybe you want something to decorate a plain wrapped present, or you need to transform a blank card into a fancy one?

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Our cheery Mother’s Day Milk Lid Magnets are so versatile you can do all these things and more!  No special supplies are needed except for a magnet, unless you want to add a little sparkle with some glitter.  If you don’t have a magnet, a little reusable sticky putty on the back will do the trick!

Free Fun Friday - Mother's Day Milk Lid Magnet - recycle, upcycle, quick craft, small gift, easy, milk bottle lid, juice bottle lid, paper craft, free printable, free template, kids craft, children

It only takes five minutes to make one, using one of the 19 free printable flowers we have included, as well as a milk or juice bottle lid. Of course, you can make all 19 if you like, to make a colourful collage on the fridge!

Free Fun Friday - Mother's Day Milk Lid Magnet - recycle, upcycle, quick craft, small gift, easy, milk bottle lid, juice bottle lid, paper craft, free printable, free template, kids craft, children

Click on the button below to get started with our easy and free tutorial and diagrams.

Free Fun Friday - Mother's Day Milk Lid Magnet - recycle, upcycle, quick craft, small gift, easy, milk bottle lid, juice bottle lid, paper craft, free printable, free template, kids craft, children

Whatever the case, you can sneak one on the fridge some time during Mother’s Day, so your mum or grandma gets a little surprise next time she walks past!

Free Fun Friday - Mother's Day Milk Lid Magnet - recycle, upcycle, quick craft, small gift, easy, milk bottle lid, juice bottle lid, paper craft, free printable, free template, kids craft, children

Sometimes there is no need to give an expensive present, as it really is the thought that counts!

Free Fun Friday - Mother's Day Milk Lid Magnet - recycle, upcycle, quick craft, small gift, easy, milk bottle lid, juice bottle lid, paper craft, free printable, free template, kids craft, children

If you make something from our pattern and instructions, we would love it if you popped a photo into our gallery for all to see!

How to Make Less Mess With Glue

How to Make Less Mess With Glue - junkmail, glue, children, kids, craft, activities

How to Make Less Mess With Glue - junkmail, glue, children, kids, craft, activities

Craft and art can be messy activities, especially with children involved! Mix that with glue, and you can be in for a real messy ‘treat’!

There are a few simple tricks that can make crafting with glue less messy.  The type of glue used can cause more (or less) mess than others:

  • Use not so messy glue – This is usually in the form of tapes and other sticky, non messy adhesives.  We sometimes use double sided tape for this reason, and to help the project have less glue mess on it too.
  • Use a glue stick – If the project involves gluing paper to paper, a glue stick can be a less messy glue option.
  • Use a small tipped glue bottle for liquid glue – The bigger the tip on the end of a glue bottle, the more glue can ooze out, and the more mess it can make.

How to Make Less Mess With Glue - junkmail, glue, children, kids, craft, activities

With most glue you will need to protect your work surface.

For years we used to spread out loose pieces of paper over our table, only to have them end up on the floor and all over the place because they were easily shifted, or they would be blown off the work surface.  However, a little while ago, we discovered a very simple solution to the problem.  Junk mail! (Also known as ‘advertising material’.)

That’s right!  Most of the time junk mail ends up in the bin, but here is a way to use it before it ends up there, and it will also help to make less mess with glue!  If you don’t have junk mail, old telephone books and other scrap paper can be used instead.

  1. All you need to do is grab one multipage piece of junk mail – we use the glossy junk mail, and if using liquid glue, thick pages work better.
  2. Open the junk mail to the first double page and lay it flat on the table or work surface.How to Make Less Mess With Glue - junkmail, glue, children, kids, craft, activities
  3. Place the item to be glued on top of the junk mail.How to Make Less Mess With Glue - junkmail, glue, children, kids, craft, activities
  4. Spread glue on the item and position it into place.How to Make Less Mess With Glue - junkmail, glue, children, kids, craft, activitiesHow to Make Less Mess With Glue - junkmail, glue, children, kids, craft, activities
  5. If there is a section on the two junk mail pages free from glue, place the next item there and repeat step 4.
  6. When both pages of the junk mail have glue on them, turn the page, so that you have two new unglued pages. The glue will now be contained inside the previous pages, and will stop the glue from accidentally sticking to the table or the project you are working on.
  7. Once you have finished gluing or used all the pages in the junk mail, place the junk mail in the recycling bin if you have one, or put it in the garbage.

Easy!

We hope you have fun with your next craft or art project, and in the process make less mess with glue!

And… if you are little intrigued as to what Annie is making in these photos, come back soon and you will see or have a guess in the comments!

Back to School Bag Tags

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Back to School Bag Tags, bag tag, school, milk bottle lid, juice bottle lid, recycle, upcycle, children, free, tutorial, kids, back to school, printableSchool holidays are almost over, and the children will be back to school next week!  The holiday breaks always go so fast, even when they last two months!

Do your routines go by the wayside during the school holidays?  Ours do!  We love the slower paced mornings, and I don’t know that any of us are keen to say goodbye to them! Whether we like it or not, routine will start up again next week!  The bonus this week is that our Free Fun Friday post is up a day early, to help you get organised!

So, do you have the kid’s school books all covered?  We still have a bundle to do, so if you are like us, and not quite finished yet (or not even started!), then head over to our book cover posts!  There you will find instructions for How to Cover Books for children to follow so they can cover their own books (and they can do that at age 7!) as well as a page of ideas for School Book Covers.

The next job to do after covering school books, is naming everything, so things don’t get lost, including the school bags.  Usually these don’t go missing, however, sometimes other children have the same bag, so we like to have some visible difference, so they don’t get mixed up.

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We came up with a quick and easy school bag tag that you can make from a juice or milk bottle lid, and because these lids are usually bright and colourful, your school bag should be easily identifiable.

Thanks to JJ, we have bright and colourful designs ready to print, cut out and pop in your milk bottle lid, but if you would rather have your own design, we have a blank circle template that you can use.  Click on the button below to get the instructions and templates.

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If you find the circles are a little too big for your lid, carefully cut the circle a little smaller all the way around the edge.

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We love the fact that our bag tags are almost free to make, and that there is another milk bottle lid or two getting upcycled!

Have some crafty fun getting ready to get back to school!

New Year’s Eve Party Poppers – Rockets

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Free Fun Friday - New Year's Eve Party Popper Rockets, party poppers, new year, craft, kids, make, paper craft, recycle, cheap, confetti, paper shred, push popper, rocket, free, pattern, tutorial Christmas has passed, and 2014 is just around the corner!  How do you celebrate the coming of a new year?  Do you visit your local New Year’s firework display?  Have a barbecue with friends? Stay up until midnight to watch the specially broadcasted city fireworks and New Year’s Eve program on TV? Or maybe you have a party with friends or family?

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Whatever the case, maybe you are looking for some crafty New Year’s Eve party poppers to make?  These remind us of the poppers that go off with a bang, and sprout streamers everywhere. Our design is a quiet version, shaped as a firecracker rocket, and can be made to suit any colour scheme.  They are easy for children to make, are made from cheap and recycled materials, and can be refilled and reused.  You can also put wrapped lollies or candy in them.

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Click on the button below to view the New Year’s Eve Party Poppers instructions.

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If you make rockets from our New Year’s Eve Party Poppers pattern, we would love to see photos of them.  Contact us! Don’t forget we have a great value quarterly ezine for kids that will keep them busy in the holidays.  Subscribe today!

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Milk Bottle Lid Christmas Decorations

Milk Bottle Lid Christmas Decorations, Christmas, decoration, gift, handmade, milk bottle lid, juice bottle lid, kids, craft, recycle

Milk Bottle Lid Christmas Decorations, Christmas, decoration, gift, handmade, milk bottle lid, juice bottle lid, kids, craft, recycle

Christmas is so close, and hopefully you are all organised for the day!?  We are literally in the middle of packing boxes at the moment and are moving house over the weekend, so there is no Christmas tree up, no Christmas decorations hanging, no presents wrapped, and no Christmas food cooked.  That hasn’t stopped us from thinking about Christmas though.

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Maybe, like us, you need some last minute Christmas decorations to hang on the tree that you haven’t put up yet?  Get the kids crafting over the weekend and you can have a tree full of decorations in no time!  Annie and Elissa have been busy behind the scenes making some pretty, sparkly, Christmas decorations… from milk bottle lids!

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That’s right!  Milk bottle lid Christmas decorations!

While these ones won’t be hanging on our tree this year, Annie has made a huge bundle of them, about 60 in fact, as she plans to give lots of them away as small gifts to family and friends.  She loves giving gifts and she loves being creative!

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Do you want to make some too?  If so, we have free instructions and diagrams for the children to follow (or yourself), and all you have to do is click the button below to open the pdf file.

Milk Bottle Lid Christmas Decorations, Christmas, decoration, gift, handmade, milk bottle lid, juice bottle lid, kids, craft, recycle

Even though we have rated these as 4/5 on our difficulty rating system, Annie, at aged 8 made almost all of them by herself.   Younger children will need a little more help with poking holes and threading the cord through the holes.

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You may notice that some of the decorations don’t have the cord attached. We will attach cord to them all, but even though we haven’t done so on all of them, we do recommend that you attach the cord before gluing the glitter on, so that you don’t rub the glitter off while you are poking holes and threading the cord through the lid.

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We hope you have a great time being creative with these milk bottle lid Christmas decorations, and we would love to see some photos of yours too!  Contact us, or keep an eye out for our Milk Bottle Lid Christmas Decoration Gallery.

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Free Fun Friday – Father’s Day Key Chain

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Father's Day, gift, handmade, milk bottle lid, kids, craft Father’s Day in Australia is only a little more than a week away, so if you need a gift for dad or granddad, we have something quick, cheap and easy for you to make.

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Key Chain Attached to Key Ring

It is a fun key chain that is made by recycling a juice or milk bottle lid, and it will cost almost nothing to create.

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Key Chain Supplies

We have three different key chain designs you can choose from, each with a phrase (group of words) that go with the design.  We love the way the shapes move around under the cellophane!

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Key Chain Fronts

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Key Chain Backs

You can easily change the look of them by changing the colour of the lid, paper and cord (and ribbon if you use it), so we would love to see yours when you are done!  If you go to our Father’s Day Key Chain Gallery you can upload your photo there.

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Key Chain Sides With Ribbon

We have full instructions and diagrams to make the Father’s Day Key Chain, which are easy enough for children to follow, so just click on the button below.

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Happy crafting, and happy Father’s Day to all the dads and grandads!

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