Craft Archives - ET Speaks From Home

Origami Endangered Animals Review

Would you like to learn the art of origami in endangered animals and help to raise awareness for wildlife conservation? This Origami Endangered Animals kit will donate a portion of the proceeds to benefit wildlife conservation!

This well-written kit is designed by master origami artists Michael LaFosse and Richard Alexander to educate us about our planet’s endangered species and entertain in equal measure. I love how they explain the background to these endangered animals and make it simple to understand for children and adults alike. The only thing that I didn’t like is that there is no indication of the difficulty. It would be nice if they labelled it so I can work my way up from beginner to expert.

Polaroid Play 3D Pen Review

This Polaroid Play 3D pen allows you to build your own 3D models with ease. You can also use their free Polaroid Play Trace app (App Store and Google) to stencil your own photographs and bring them to life or use the existing stencils to create and assemble 3D models! I love doing crafts as my pastime and this Play 3D pen is just what I need to create endless possibilities!

Super Cute Origami Review

Super Cute Origami is a brand new origami kit that will appeal to all ages! This super cute collection of easy origami crafts can be customized in endless ways. It comes with 10 delightfully adorable designs which you can very easily personalise them in thousands of ways. The possibilities are limitless!

Origami Fish & Other Sea Creatures Review

In Chinese culture, fish is considered a lucky symbol as it is associated with surplus or abundance. Many people who practise feng shui will have exactly nine fishes in the tank or pond, not more and not less. The reason is number nine is the most auspicious number which symbolizes your wealth having a long life span. Even at Chinese New Year, we will have a dish of steamed fish as it represents long life. Through this Origami Fish & Other Sea Creatures kit, you can now create your very own feng shui fish craft!

Origami Games for Kids Review

This origami games for kids kit is very different from most other origami books. It not only explains how to make origami, but it also provides a lot of ideas for games you can play with them! There are 15 interactive games your child/children could enjoy with their finished origami crafts. It is time to get them off their gadgets and start enjoying some creative, made-up games!

Chinese Christmas Stocking Ornaments

Last week, it was our last Lichfield Mandarin Club lesson of the year and it was my turn again to take the class on crafts. Besides doing crafts, I also incorporated learning to read and write Chinese characters in the lesson. Last year, we had to cancel the lesson due to heavy snow and I decided to re-use the lesson plan that I had in mind.

Tiger Tribe Review

This week, we are getting crafty with two Tiger Tribe craft sets: 3D colouring set (Sci-Fi) and stained glass set (Sunbeam Dreams). Before I show you these two fun craft sets from Australia, first let me introduce the brand Tiger Tribe to you.

Tiger Tribe was started in 2007 in Australia with the vision to design children’s gifts and toys that were creative, engaging and affordable. They wanted to create products that children would play with, that tapped into a child’s imagination and sense of fun. They design compact and portable activity sets that are ideal for café play and travel. Now they are expanding their products in the UK and are available to buy from good stores and Amazon.

Dumpling Craft for Dragon Boat Festival

It was the Dragon Boat Festival again, which is also known as the Duanwu Festival. This year it fell on the 18th June 2018 which is the 5th day of the 5th month of the traditional lunar calendar.

As some of you may remember, I help run Lichfield Mandarin Club which started six years ago and we often do arts and crafts with the children, especially with themes based on Chinese festivals. So this school term, one of the mummies Ailin organized some party games for the children.

Ang Pow Origami Dog

Do you like origami and love to learn about Chinese culture? Then this is the right place for you – check out this awesome looking ang pow origami dog! The first day of the Chinese New Year 2018 falls on the 16^th February which is the Year of the Earth Dog. The Dog is the eleventh of all zodiac animals. It is one of the most important days for Chinese culture. It marks the new year and we welcome the good fortune into the home by hanging lots of decorations!

Halloween Pumpkin Carving Challenge

This week, I have been set a Halloween Pumpkin Carving challenge by my favourite brand Ryobi to carve our pumpkins with a twist! We were asked to use any ONE+ tool to carve a pumpkin! As regular readers may know, we have taken on various projects from building Pallet Playhouse, Pallet Climbing Frame and testing out the 36V Fusion Cordless Lawnmower. We are no strangers to Ryobi and are thrilled to be part of this project.

Last year, Ryobi had carved their Ryobi pumpkins using a ONE+ multi-tool and this year they want their followers to try their hand at carving a pumpkin using any ONE+ tool. You can either download the design from their pumpkin carving templates or it could be an original design! Remember to follow @RyobiToolsEU and tweet using #RyobiPumpkinChallenge hashtag to showcase your awesome pumpkins!

After looking around on Pinterest and Google for ideas using drills, I decided to carve a Tinkerbell pumpkin and a Flowery Pattern pumpkin using the Ryobi ONE+ drill.

Make your own R2D2 Costume for World Book Day

Make your own R2D2 Costume for World Book Day! In time to celebrate the World Book Day on 2nd March 2017, Egmont is challenging us again (very excited!) to create a Star Wars themed costume and also sent us a range of Star Wars books for review.

Spring Craft with Baker Ross

I am so pleased to welcome the month of February which means spring will be here soon. I can’t wait for the weather to change! We often have craft kits at home which are great to do together during rainy days and in a kit form, it’s nice that all the relevant materials are included.

As part of the team of Baker Ross bloggers, we often receive great craft kits from them and this month, we have received a range of spring themed craft kits. We were provided Peacock Crinkle Decoration kits, Flower Suncatcher Decorations, Bug Pom Pom Decoration kits, Flower Creative Colouring Wreath Decorations and Craft pens.

Papier Mache Year of Fire Rooster

This coming Chinese New Year falls on the 28^th January 2017 and is the year of the fire rooster. To celebrate, we decided to make use of our leftover papier mache animals from Baker Ross.

Chinese New Year Ang Pow Fish

This is a very simple Chinese New Year Ang Pow Fish tutorial, especially suitable for younger children. For this coming New Year celebration, I am going to host the craft lesson for my Chinese club and to make it easy, I am going to teach my students this simple ang pow fish. If you don’t have square ang pow, then you can use any ang pow packets and cut them into a square shape.

Chinese New Year Ang Pow Fan

This is my Chinese New Year ang pow fan tutorial. If you would like to learn about other lantern designs I have made previously, do take a look at my Pinterest board for Chinese New Year.