Slane čestitke za Novu godinu - Christmas Cards with a Pinch of Salt

Za ovo zvezdano nebo vam je potrebno:

1. Papir za crtanje vodenim bojicama
2. Plava vodena boja ili tempera
3. Nalepnice u obliku zvezde ili pahulje
4. Četkica, makaze, lepak
5. So (kuhinjska, krupna ili sitna)
6. Karton na koji ćete zalepiti čestitku

Postupak je vrlo jednostavan i zabavan i maloj deci i predškolcima. Na beli papir zalepite željene nalepnice (1), potom sve to obojite

(2), a zatim pospite solju (3). Preporučujem da bojite deo po deo čestitke i odmah ga posolite dok je još mokro, jer ako se boja prosuši, so nema efekta. Potom, kad se sve osuši, otresete višak soli i skinete nalepnice. Zalepite čestitku na karton, upišete lepe želje i pošaljete.

Izvor: artfulparent.com

What you need to create this starry night:

1. Watercolour paper
2. Blue watercolour
3. Star or snowflake shaped stickers
4. A brush, scissors and some glue
5. Salt (choose the type you want or mix more types)
6. Cardboard on which you will place the card when finished

The process is quite simple and it's interesting for both for toddlers and preschoolers. Stick the stars or showflakes on the paper (1), paint it all with watercolour paint (2) and pour some salt on it (3). I advise to paint smaller portions of the card and immediately put salt on them, then go on to the next part of the paper, because the salt works best when the paint is still very wet. When the card is finished, let it dry, then brush off the excess salt and peel away the stars. Paste the card onto a piece of cardboard, write your warmest wishes on the inside of the Christmas card and mail them :)

Source: artfulparent.com

Jelka sa dugmićima - Christmas button tree

U izradi ovih jelkica su podjednako dobro mogle da učestvuju i dvogodišnjakinja i šestoipogodišnjakinja, što se ne događa baš često. I to sa minimumom mog uplitanja :)

Dakle, potrebno vam je sledeće:

• penasta guma, filc, hamer, karton ili nešto slično
• dugmići raznih oblika i veličina (preporučujemo da pretražite bakinu zalihu)
• lepak
• trakica

Gotova jelkica može da posluži kao ukras za jelku, a možete je i zalepiti na karton i napraviti čestitku.

Both my two-year-old and my six-and-a-half-year-old equally enjoyed this activity, with minimum imput on my side, which does not happen often :)

You will need the following:

• craft foam, felt, thicker paper, cardboard or something similar
• buttons in different shapes and sizes (I recommend going through grandma's stash)
• some glue
• some string

You can use the finished tree as a Christmas tree decoration or put it on a piece of cardboard and make a Christmas card.

 

Jesenja princeza - Autumn princess

Pre par dana smo u povratku iz vrtića nakupile punu vreću suvog lišća i tek danas smo stigle da ih iskoristimo.

Prvo smo pravile krunu od lišća. Na pravougani tanji karton je Ema lepila listove, zalepila krajeve i onda pozirala.

* * * * *

A few days ago, on our way back from kindergarten, we collected a bagfull of autumn leaves, but only today we had the time to use them.

First, we made an autumn leaves crown. Ema pasted the leaves onto a thin rectangular cardboard, we glued the ends together, and then came the time for posing.

* * * * *

 

Pošto nam je ostalo još puno lišća, setila sam se nečega što smo kao klinci radili - ocrtavanje listova na papiru. Sećate se toga, zar ne? Stavite list ispod papira (to smo radili i sa novčićima) i onda voštanom bojicom pređete preko toga. To je Emi držalo pažnju baš dugo.

 

* * * * *

 

Since we had a lot of leaves left, I remembered an activity we used to do as kids - tracing leaves on paper. Do you remember doing that? You put a leaf under a sheet of paper (we used to do it with coins, too) and then colour over it with a crayon. Ema enjoyed this activity for quite a while.



Moj jednogodišnji projekat - A year long project

Prekrivač sam započela prošlog leta i završila ga skoro tačno godinu dana kasnije.
Plela sam sa St. George Tango pamukom, ali na žalost nisam izmerila koliko je prekiravač težak pre ušivanja postave, pa sad ne znam količinu. Prvo je počelo kao ćebence za Emu, onda je Ema porasla, pa je onda trebalo biti veće ćebence, i na kraju je preraslo u prekrivač za njen krevet.

Tokom tih godinu dana sam naučila sledeće:

1. Uvek je dobro imati u kući jedan ovakav projekat, kojem se možete vratiti kada god neki kraći bude gotov, a vi ne znate šta da pletete. To će vas sprečiti da odjurite u prodavnicu prediva i navrat-nanos kupujete vunu, jer vas „svrbe prsti” (meni se to često dešava).
2. Uvek je dobro plesti projekte koji se ne ušivaju, odnosni čiji se delovi ne sastavljaju, pa kad jednom završite sa pletenjem, završili ste i sa projektom. Ovaj prekrivač je rađen „Log Cabin” sistemom, tako da kvadrat/pravougaonik nastaje podizanjem očica iz prethodnog.
3. Uvek je dobro da kada u zemlji Srbiji kupujete predivo gledate da kupite dovoljno, a ne po sistemu „biće toga i kasnije”, jer neće biti. Barem ne iste debljine, boje ili nijanse. To sam naučila težim putem.
4. Uvek je dobro, a čak i najbolje, kada imate prijateljicu koja je vešta sa šivaćom mašinom, pa može da vam pomogne oko postavljanja prekrivača. Hvala bensedin art na veeeelikoj pomoći sa ovim projektom :)

I started knitting this bed cover last summer and finished it almost exactly a year later.
I've used St. George Tango cotton, but unfortunately I didn't measure the weight of the bed cover before sewing the lining, so I have no idea about the quantity of the cotton used. It first started as a baby blanket for Ema, but then Ema grew bigger, so it was supposed to be a regular blanket, but in the end it turned out to be a bed cover for her room.

During this year I have learned the following:

1. It is always a good thing to have a project like this around the house - a project that you can go back to after you finish a smaller one and don't know what to do with yourself. This should stop you from running to the closest yarn shop, buying the first thing you get your hands on, because your fingers itch from the lack of knitting (this happens to me a lot).
2. It is always a good thing to knit projects that don't require sewing pieces of it together. So, when you're finished with the knitting part, you're basically finished altogether. This bed cover was made using the "Log Cabin" pattern, by lifting the stitches of a square/rectangle to make a new one.
3. It is alway a good thing to buy the whole amount of yarn that you need for a project at once (at least in Serbian yarn shops), and not to rely on the shop having it later as well. Because it won't. At least not in the same colour or weight. Learned it the hard way.
4. It is always a good thing, and perhaps the best, to have a friend who is handy with the sewing machine, so that she can help you with sewing the lining. Thank you, bensedin art, for all the help with this project :)

Pokloni za male princeze - Gifts for little princesses

Juče je Ema išla na rođendan kod svoje drugarice iz vrtića, koja je uz to nedavno dobila i mlađu sestru. Kako bi pokloni malo ličniji pečat, pretražila sam „knjigu sa receptima” i pronašla ovu kapicu. Zove se Poppy, a autor je Justine Turner.
Mustra se veoma lako plete, mada sadrži i neke naprednije tehnike. Savladala sam „kratke redove” i tehniku „obmotaj i okreni” (u slobodnom prevodu), čemu se jako radujem.
Uputstvo za te tehnike sam pronašla na internetu (a gde drugde u današnje vreme, zar ne?), tj. na YouTube-u, pa ću i da ih podelim sa vama.

• Provisional cast-on (odnosno namicanje očica sa pomoćnom niti)
• Kratki redovi i obmotaj i okreni
• Podizanje obmotanih očica

Cvetovi koji krase ove kapice su iz već puno puta pominjane i moje omiljene knjige „Knitting Over the Edge”, autorke Nicky Epstein. (Oko žutog cvetića sam imala pomoć, usled nedostatka vremena - hvala, Heklice)

Yesterday we took Ema to a birthday party hosted by her friend from daycare, who has recently become a big sister. In order to make the presents for these little princesses a bit more personal, I turned to my "recipe book" and found this pattern. It's called Poppy and the author is Justine Turner. It's fairly simple to knit, but it does contain some more advanced techniques such as "short rows" and "wrap and turn" (W&T), which I successfully mastered :)

I have found instructions for these techniques on the Internet (where else nowadays, right?), i.e. on YouTube, and I'll share the links with you:

Provisional cast on

Wrap and turn

Picking up wraps

The flowers were made according to the patterns from my favourite book "Knitting Over the Edge" by Nicky Epstein. I've had some help with the yellow flower, due to the lack of time - thanks, Heklica!

Čestitke - mada ne novogodišnje (Cards, but not Christmas ones)

Obe naše bake imaju rođendan u novembru, pa smo iskoristile priliku da obožavano crtanje vodenim boja uobličimo u čestitke. Jedna od Eminih omiljenih tehnika crtanja vodenim bojama (mokrim bojama, kako ih ona zove) je crtanje prstima, pa smo se toga držali.

Pravili smo buket cveća tako što sam ja nacrtala drške cveća, a ona je umakala prste u boje i dodavala cvetiće. Ukoliko dete ne želi da igra po pravilima, pustite ga da stavlja tačkice gde god želi, a vi posle docrtajte drške cvetova.

Planirala sam da napravimo takve čestitke i za novogodišnje praznike, samo da umesto drški cvetova na slici bude kontura jelke, a da tačke predstavljaju ukrasne kugle, ali smo bili prezauzeti sa selidbom i majstorima, pa jednostavno nije stiglo na red ove godine.

Both of our grandmas have birthdays in November, so we used this chance to channel our beloved water colour drawing into making birthday cards for them. One of Ema's favourite techiques when using water colours (or wet colours, as she calls them) is finger painting, se we stuck to that.

We made a bunch of flowers in a way that I drew the flower stems, and she dipped her fingers into the water colours and added the flowers. If your child doesn't like playing by the rules, let him/her put the dots wherever they want and add the stems later.

I was planning to make similar cards for the upcoming Christmas holidays, but with a drawing of a Christmas tree in stead of the flower stems. The dots were to represent Christmas ornaments. However, with our moving into a new flat, I was too busy to see this through. Next year, perhaps.

Slagalice u domaćoj izvedbi - Home made puzzles

Ema je trenutno oduševljena sa nekoliko stvari. Prvo sa Timijem (odn. Me, kako ga ona zove), Pepom Prase (što već znamo) i najnovije sa Benom i Holi. Druga velika zanimacija nam je slaganje slagalica. Kraćim obilaskom prodavnica došla sam do zaključka da su slagalice prilično skupe, a naročito one sa likom i delom gore pomenutih junaka.

I tako sam došla na ideju da napravim svoje slagalice. Sasvim sam sigurna da nisam izmislila rupu na saksiji, ali rekoh, ipak da podelim sa vama. Početna ideja je bila da slike (skinute sa Neta) odštampam u fotokopirnici (budući da nemam štampač u boji), zalepim na karton i onda isečem. Međutim, pretpostavljala sam da neću uspeti tako lepo da zalepim a da se ne odlepljuju krajevi. Druga ideja je bila da u fotokopirnici umesto redovnog papira štampaju na samolepljivom, pa onda da to zalepim na karton. Međutim, veoma ljubazna devojka u kopirnici, puna razumevanja za moje dileme, ponudila mi je opciju da mi slike odštampa na najdebljem papiru koji imaju, što se pokazalo kao dobro rešenje.

I, evo kako to izgleda:

Potreban materijal:

1. Odgovarajuće slike (šta god da je aktuelno kod vaše dece)

2. Skalpel ili makaze

3. Hamer ili samolepljivi papir i karton

4. Kolor štampač ili predusretljiva teta u fotokopirnici

Prednosti domaćih slagalica:

1. Daleko su jeftinije

2. Možete sami birati slike

3. Možete sami seći slike, tako da delovi predstavljaju smislene celine (što nije uvek slučaj kod kupovnih slagalica)

4. Možete biti ponosni na sebe i svoje delo

Nedostaci:

1. Delovi se ne uklapaju baš najbolje, nego se moraju približiti jedan drugom, pa često klize (preporučujem platneni stolnjak na radnoj površini)

* * * * * 

At the moment Ema is captivated by two things. Firstly with Timmy (Me, as she calls him), Peppa the Pig (which you already know), and lately with Ben and Holly. Her other great fascination are puzzles. A short trip around the toy stores lead me to a conclusion that puzzles are quite expensive, especially those depicting the above mentioned characters.

So I came to the idea to make my own puzzles. I am quite aware that I didn't invent anything new, but I still wanted to share this idea with you. The initial thought was to print out the pictures (downloaded from the Internet) at the photocopier's (I don't have a colour printer at home), glue them onto a cardboard and cut them out. However, I decided against it, since I believed I couldn't paste the picture in a way that it wouldn't come up at the edges. The second idea was to use the self adhesive paper for printing at the photocopier's and paste that on the cardboard. However, the very helpful lady at the photocopier's, who showed incredible understanding for my dilemmas, offered me the option to print the pictures on the thickest paper they have.

So, here it is.

Material needed:

1. Pictures according to your wishes (whatever your child is into these days)

2. A scalpel or scissors

3. Thin cardboard or a self adhesive paper and cardboard

4. A colour printer or a forthcoming lady at the photocopier's

Advantages of home made puzzles:

1. They are less expensive by far

2. You can choose the picures

3. You can cut the pictures yourselves, so that the pieces are meaningful (which is not always the case with ready made puzzles)

4. You get to be proud of yourselves and your work

Disadvantages:

1. The pieces do not fit into each other, but have to be put close to one another, so they tend to move around (I recommend using a tablecloth when playing with the puzzle)