Recycle with kids- making toy kitchen out of cardboard box.

It was a rainy day , and the girls were bored stiff . I just thought to throw out the vacuum cleaner box , when it hit me -this is what they can occupy themself very nicely.
So we took:
the cardboard box
plastic glue
plastic bowl for the sink
botlle caps from the plastic bottles, for the oven and faucet knobs
spray bottle for the faucet.
glue gun
wrapping paper of different colours, whatever we had at hand
glue tape 
4 CD's for the stove

First we glued the box , so it will not fall apart very soon (even though i'm not optimistic about the kitchen's chances of survival more than a month). We also glued together 2 pieces of cardboard and glued it to the box for "kitchen wall".
Then i made a hole for the sink,  measured it to fit the plastic bowl.

We covered the whole thing with different wrapping papers.

I cut out the oven door , and a little window in that door. Later on , i cut and glued some tranparent  filing plastic bag , to create a fill of glass window of the oven.

Faucet was a different problem,we decided to use a spray botlle for that , but  the Baby sister loved it immediately and decided that it's too good a thing to waste it on some toy kitchen. So , after i hot glued  the top part to the spray bottle to the cardnboar tube, covered with some nice paper , she came over and pulled it out. After gluing it for three times in a row i came out with the idea- i made the hole for the faucet a bit bigger and screwed it together with the spray bottle itself on the inside of the box. So now,  even though the faucet wasn't tall and pretty , as the Princess wanted, but  the Baby sister couldn't tear it anymore, not that she didn't tried.

This is the tap with a nice cardboard roll under it, lasted three seconds , till baby teared it out.

For the stove we took 4 CD's , and glued then on top , and on them i glued some circles cut out of black plastic bag. Princess had drawn on them grids with the permanent pen , that is used to write on CD's.

For the knobs we used the plastic bottles caps, for the oven handle , some large beads. I fastened it together with a wire, using big beads on each side, so that the wire won't come out on either side.

And , of course , the little chefs need aprons and towels. So i made two frilled aprons for each cook, and cut some fabric for towels and sewn a ribbon , so it's possible to hang it on the hooks, tha i glued for that purpose.  The little picture that is on the back wall of this kitchen is the piece of art , that my Princess made.

This is how it looks after a week of heavy use.

Apron1

Apron2

Past fun activity - Building a fridge box house

This house was built by mom and dad and decorated by princess from a fridge box .
For a long while it was a favorite toy of Princesse's ,and of all her friends, and there are even some "followers" among our friend that built something similar (and more sophisticated) for their kids.

What we had:

box cutting knife

fridge box

some wallpaper  or wrapping Paper

some red paper for the roof

hot glue gun

plastic glue - a lot of it

(Well,  we didn't have the glue , so i made the flour and water glue , that is usually used for papier mache :

 1 whole cup of flour to three cups of water. In a bowl, mix the flour with a cold water. Mix to a smooth consistency (a bit like making custard). Gently boil, stirring constantly for two or three minutes until the mixture thickens.

Allow to cool before using.)

Then we got to the box itself .First we cut out some upper part of the box, so it won't be so high , and made the pointed front part for the roof.
We cut out the roof and glued it to the house with hot glue gun .
Then we cut the door and windows ,but didn't cut it out completely , and  left the window/door attached, so that it can be opened and closed.
Then there was the wallpaper or in our case wrapping paper turn. I think i could also just paint the house , but then we would need a lot of paint and to put a 2-3 layers of it.
 


 I also glued to the window shatters some green paper.
 


and glued on the red paper for the roof
 


Danny made this cool balcony.  







The landlady is working hard on her new home decor.
 

Refashion: Plain skirt into favorite

I bought a really cheap plain skirt for my princess. She wore it as is, but i decided that it would be a great thing to remake (and it wouldn't be too bad it i would screw it up). I thought that it needs some eye-catcher.
First of all i made the white roses , using this great tutorial in Tea Rose home blog: http://tearosehome.blogspot.com/2010/01/tutorialruffle-shirt.html . I attached the white roses and decided that it's not enough, so i added 2 pink ones.

It looked nice, but i felt that there still something missing , so i cut strings of white and pink fabric and attached it: first made white ruffles string and attached it, Then attached pink string as straight ,without ruffles.
I liked the result  and someone was very exited to wear it next morning to kindergarten...

Refashion: Cut 'n' knit old jeans into skirt

I had a pair of kids jeans that my Princess wouldn't wear.
Generally , she prefers skirts, so i decided to remake it into a skirt.
I cut off the legs  pretty high up , just under the zipper.

The knitted part is done by the pleated skirt pattern:
1si round: P2, k10, [p5, k10] to last 3 sts, p3.
Rep this round until panels measure 3" (total length is 5").
Next round: P2, k2, m1, k6, m1, k2, [p5, k2, m1, k6, m1, k2] to last 3 sts, p3.
Next round: P2, k12, [p5, k12] to last 3 sts, p 3.
Rep this round until panels measure 6" (total length is 8").
Next round: P2, k2, m1, k8, m1, k2, [p5, k2, m1, k8, m1, k2] to last 3 sts, p 3.
Next round: P2, k14, [p5, k14] to last 3 sts, p3.
Rep this round until desired length.
Cont in this manner, inc two stitches in each panel every 3" until each panel has 22 knit sts.
Rep this round until desired length.
Work four rounds of garter stitch.
BO all stitches loosely.
Then  the jeans part and the knitted part were sewn together.
Adding some decor was neccessary in this case, so i crocheted the flower and a bird, and embroidered it on the upper , jeans part.

For flower i used a pattern :
Using a size H hook, chain 4. Join the end to the first chain with a slip stitch to form a ring.
Round1:(single crochet in the ring, chain 3) 6 times. Again, join the last stitch to the first single crochet with a slip stitch.
Round2: (single crochet, chain 1, 3 double crochets, chain 1, single crochet) in each space created by the chain 3.
Round3:Now you begin working in the back of the flower you have started creating. (single crochet around the first spoke, then chain 4) 6 times. Join last stitch to first stitch with a slip stitch.
Round4:(single crochet, chain 1, 5 double crochets, chain 1, single crochet) in each space created by the chain 4.
Round5:Repeat round 3, but chain 5 instead of 4. Join last stitch to first with a slip stitch and weave in ends.
If you want to add another layer of petals, repeat Round 3, increasing the number of stitches in the chain by one, and Round 4, increasing the double crochets by two.
The bird bas based  on crocheted circle.

The favorite part of my Princess' is the "belt", she loves them . She thinks it came out ok...

Kids fun activity - what came out of broken crayons

We had a big box  of old crayons of various kinds, most of them broken. Both girls love playing with them, BUT there were two problems:
First of all, baby sister is very persistent about  pulling those things into her mouth and cannot be distracted with other toys. Second of all , both find it a great idea to spread those pieces all over the house and i got a bit tired of stepping on it or finding it in my shoes.
So then came a solution that i found in one of the craft blogs:
-we broke those crayons into even smaller pieces
- all those pieces were inserted into some old rusty baking molds i used once for muffins.
- put that stuff into the oven for 15 minutes on 120 C (~ 250 F)
 Important! It comes out of the oven very hot and a lot of patience needed.

And they're drawing