Last week's session at The Little House in the Park was all about eyes, to tie in with the latest exhibition at the Holburne Museum. 

The activity that Matthew and I loved most was the printing - proper printing with blocks, rollers and printing ink. I did a printmaking course years ago and had forgotten how satisfying it is when you peel the paper back and reveal your bold print.

We made the blocks by cutting out and gluing bits of cardboard and paper straws onto some thick card. When the glue had dried we rolled ink on and then pressed the paper on top. 

Most people are unlikely to have proper printing kit at home, but this works pretty well just with normal paint too, applied with a brush or sponge. In fact that's now on my ever-growing list of things to try with the boy... 

We were back at The Little House in the Park on Friday, celebrating the summer solstice with some seriously sunny crafts.

First we used fabric paints and pens on yellow t-shirts to make summer tops. Sorry, you really can't see in this picture but think yellow/orange/red paints with printing blocks of suns etc and you get the idea. All the kids loved doing their t-shirts - so easy to do. Just a shame I let Matthew wear his later when he was eating spaghetti bolognese for tea... *sigh*

The collage on a stick is meant to be the sun (clearly). It would have worked better if I'd cut the gold card into more of a sun shape first but frankly I was just feeling too lazy.

To make the poppy, first we got a cotton wool ball and spiked it on top of a willow stick. Then we wrapped some black material over it with a rubber band, and tied some wispy bits of black wool around for the stamen. The petals are four pieces of red crepe paper, sort of stretched at the top and taped at the bottom. Then we got a long thin strip of green crepe paper and wound it round and round the stick to make the stalk. Looks pretty good, I think. 

But my favourite thing is the simplest - the oily sun that Matthew's holding up. We cut sun shapes out of orange sugar paper and then just painted oil onto them - not all over but in dabs. When you hold it up to the light it's so effective - you can just about see in this pic. Now I'm trying to think what else might work well using this oily technique. Hmm... Any ideas? 

I've made a series of enamel wall panels based on some drawings of railings. I really love looking at all the railings when I'm walking around Bath. Some of them are incredibly ornate and elaborate, but I like the rows of uniform, plainer ones too. 

First of all, need to say this is not my own idea (nor was it made at The Little House in the Park) - but it's so damn cute I just had to share. 

We went to a children's activity last week, run by Kidzfun as part of Bath Fringe Festival. It was all about magical creatures - lots of small children running through bubbles pretending to be unicorns, that kind of thing. Worth going just for the experience of being in the wonderful Spiegeltent. 

Anyway at the end of the session we were given a little cardboard door to decorate. The idea is that you stick it on your skirting board and that's the door that the fairies use. Now clap your hands if you believe in fairies...