Cuisine & Culture the Chinese Family Way
This is a Chinese New Year lotus ang pow lantern. Have you made yours yet? If you have not, why not check out my Chinese New Year craft section for more inspiration? Today we are making this lotus ang pow lantern to decorate your home. This lantern is quite big (approximately 23 – 26 cm by 26 cm) and heavy as I have used 30 ang pows to make it.
Who loves money? Chinese people believe that in the coming New Year, the house needs to fill with good fortune and wealth in order to be wealthy for the rest of the year. Hence they decorate their house full of auspicious items to welcome good fortune, wealth and prosperity! On the first day of the Chinese New Year, the God of Wealth will visit each household to bless the family with wealth. This is why we never sweep the floor for the first few days of the new year. It is bad luck if we sweep the floor, as we will sweep all the wealth away!
The Paper FX tool kit simplifies weaving and allows you to turn any scrap piece of paper into beautiful accessories, gifts and decorations in four simple steps! Tear it, crease it, weave it and make it!
In every household, there is bound to be a sock monster hiding behind the washing machine or dryer waiting patiently to steal one of the sock twins! We have all been in this kind of situation before where its twin is nowhere to be found in the load. It can be so annoying especially if it is a brand new pair of expensive socks. No need to worry though as there are many other uses for them. Socks can act as cleaning dusters, dog toys and so much more.
What is diamond painting? Recently, I came across the Craft-Ease website, which sells a huge range of gorgeous Paint by Number kits and Diamond Painting kits. It got me interested in their diamond painting kits range! I had not seen them before and neither had my friends that I spoke to. Diamond painting is a combination of cross-stitch and paint-by-numbers, by using an applicator to apply hundreds of shiny round coloured diamonds on an adhesive colour-coded canvas painting! The result is astonishing!
This October, we are getting super creative with Design Bundles to create a fun range of Halloween decorations for our home! Who doesn’t love Halloween? I have always enjoyed the build-up to Halloween which culminates in an exciting and fun day for all ages! It is a day where everyone just lets loose and dresses in silly or spooky costumes to impress. Some people will spend days decorating their homes getting into the theme.
During this month of July, Trolls World Tour is working in partnership with the anti-bullying charity, Kidscape for a month-long positivity campaign to encourage children to participate to win some great Trolls prizes.
Learning through playing is very important for children as play allows them to use their creativity while developing their imagination, fine motor skills and intellectual skills. I am so thrilled to introduce you to Foamë play system with ‘construct, connect and adapt’ elements for boundless creative play that is suitable from three years old and above!
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.
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!
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!
So Glow DIY Magic Jar Studio is everything you need to create your own magical light up jars in three simple steps! This is a brand new So Glow DIY range that has recently launched in the UK. They offer a fabulous range of colourful themed jars to customise, decorate and keep. You can choose from, cool colour themes; turquoise ‘Chill’, purple ‘Cosmic’ and blue ‘Dream’ and warm colour themes: yellow ‘Happy’, green ‘Harmony’ and pink ‘Love’– designed to match every mood!
Let’s get creative this summer holiday with Interplay Fuzzikins craft set with your child! The Fuzzikins craft sets are a great gift as your child can customise the Fuzzikins by colouring them with whatever designs they desire! Then wash it off and your child can colour them again with a brand new look. They are great fun to keep the kids entertained during this summer break!
The top 3 reasons to use a Serger Sewing Machine
Sewing is a very important and useful skill to learn especially for moms struggling with buying clothes for their quickly growing toddlers. However, while sewing is an essential skill, it is also very hard to learn. Lots of people have been pricked by needles, struggled with the stitch paths, locking the ends and dealing with the corners of fabrics. Fortunately, with the aid of technology and innovation, sewing machines were invented and made our lives easier. Now with sewing machines, sewing has never been easier and more convenient. Furthermore, with developments in the sewing machines new features have been introduced to make sewing not just convenient but also fun. And one of these developments is the serger machine. Basically, a serger machine or also known as an overlock machine is a type of specialized sewing machine that combines or binds two pieces of cloth together with an overlock stitch. Furthermore, serger machines can allow the user to use up to 5 different kinds of threads for their sewing. It is a sewing machine that can seam, trim and overcast a fabric or cloth in one full swoop.
CBeebies’ arts and crafts hero, Mister Maker is back on tour with the hit live theatre show, Mister Maker & The Shapes Live! The first date of the tour happened to open at Lichfield Garrick theatre last Saturday and we had the opportunity to watch their first ever show! They are off visiting 44 theatres from Edinburgh to Brighton, Ipswich to Belfast, ready to delight Mini Makers all around the UK! The show is booking through until November 2017, visit www.mistermakerlive.com for ticket sales.
