Matthew's been experimenting with trashy little cheeses lately. He mostly loves unwrapping them rather than eating them, so we end up with bits of cheese packaging (and bits of cheese) all over the place. 

Now these latest ones - Primula Pods, I believe they're called - came in the most fish-like plastic packets imaginable. So we (I) sort of felt obliged to make something fishy with them. 

The plan was to make a mobile, but for various reasons - I won't bore you with them - that turned out to be a bit ambitious, so we did a collage instead. Matthew got really into this. First we painted each fish a different colour (they could have done with two coats ideally, but I felt like that would be pushing my luck), then we sprinkled glitter on, and when they were dry we added spotty stickers and googly eyes. 

We put glue all over a sheet of blue card, to make it nice and shiny, and then stuck the fish on, along with a few bits of crumpled up green tissue paper just to make it a bit more exciting. I could have gone on... but the boy had had enough. A good innings though. 
 
So we built a snowman in the garden (a snow pirate, actually), did snow angels, had a snowball fight, went sledging, yada yada. What next? Back indoors to warm up and do some snow-related crafts, that's what. 

To make a snowman collage, all you need is cotton wool (balls are nice and easy), a sheet of dark-coloured card (to make the white cotton wool stand out), some glue - and then add whatever bits and pieces you have to hand for hats, scarves, noses, eyes etc (fortunately we are never without googly eyes in this house). 

The sticking was a bit fiddly - I would probably make them a bit bigger next time - but Matthew did most of it himself and he really loves these snowmen. And these ones won't melt and break his little heart. 
 
OK this enamel mobile isn't a new piece, but it was looking particularly photogenic today with the snow and all, so I took this pic.  

The 'icicles' are made of thin sheets of copper bent into long cones. I used a solid glue stick in quite an uneven way to hold a thin covering of white enamel powder, then fired the pieces so that they just turned slightly greenish in places. I'd punched holes through the tops first so I could then thread them through a circle of thick copper wire for hanging. 
 
We were back at The Little House in the Park last week, getting creative again after the Christmas break. 

The session was all about exploring wintry colours - silver, white, pale blue and purple. We made long hangings and collages using various bits of paper, felt, wool, tinsel, pine cones etc. Matthew also discovered the apparently endless joys of using a hole punch. Anyone needs any holes punching, he's your man.  
 
One of Matthew's best stocking presents (which I had to grudgingly let Father Christmas take credit for) was a kit for adding wheels to cardboard boxes to make them into little carts etc. Really cool and very easy to use (check out Rolobox). 

Now while it's great having some extra storage for toys, it wasn't the most attractive cardboard box, so we decided to paint it to make it blend in a bit more tastefully with our snug (OK - the tasteful bit was my idea, not the boy's). A couple of coats of white paint, followed by red and yellow finger paints on top - job done. 

But the possibilities are endless really. How about a bright red fire engine... or you could cut a tractor shape into the box... or tie several together to make a train...