School holidays kick off here in New Zealand next week and I like to be organised and have a pretty clear plan of what we’re 
going to do or where we’re going to go each day. This helps me get organised and also (hopefully) avoid the “I’m bored” catch-cry that’s every mummy’s nightmare!
It’s also Create Month at Warehouse Stationery! They’ve just launched their brand new Art and Craft Club – Inspiration Station. There’s lots of super-cool and creative initiatives happening in stores around New Zealand and we’ve teamed up to bring you some fun and crafty ideas to help survive the school holidays!
Crafts are good, if not essential winter holiday activities. They are cheap, fun and creative and can usually be re-invented and repeated without your little darlings losing interest.
Both Nix and Ethan are obsessed with dinosaurs at the moment, so integrating what they are playing with into a creative exercise is a no-brainer. Both of these craft ideas would work well with any animal theme – come on Mum’s you can do it!
Let’s get creative!
DIY Dinosaur Fossils
This is a great, therapeutic activity using everyone’s favourite – modelling clay! I wanted to create some cool looking bones and fossils that the kids could use in play with their dinosaurs or alternatively they could bury them in kinetic sand and use small paint brushes to excavate them and play paleontologists – think of the fine motor skills mamas, not the mess of the sand lol!
Step 1: Head into Warehouse Stationery and pick up some bake-in-the-oven clay (all modelling products are 30% off until 31/7/16!).
Step 2: Roll out clay ready to use. I had totally forgotten how hard these clays are! I used little dabs of canola oil, dotted it on small pieces of clay then rolled it out really flat to get it soft enough for Nixon to use. There are ‘soft’ clay varieties available from each brand and these would definitely be better for little hands.
Step 3: When the clay is nice and soft use toy dinosaurs and let the kids stomp footprints in it to make fossils, press shells or lay little dinosaurs on their sides and press into the clay to create cool profile fossils. Slightly older kids will be able to make bones to add to the fossil pile!
Step 4: Place finished creations on baking paper on a tray and bake for approximately 30 minutes at 130?. The clay will harden fully as it cools.
DIY Dinosaur Matching Game
This activity is so easy and cheap and will provide little ones hours of fun. As I mentioned above, you could use any animals, trucks, household items that your child enjoys – you could even have them create their own artwork to use!
Step 1: Source your images, you will need 6.
- If finding them online, look for creative commons / royalty free images that you can legally reproduce.
- Take photos of toys / items you have at home
- Use kids own artwork and take scans or photos of each piece
Step 2: If you want to, label each image with the name of the dinosaur or animal etc. I used Photoshop, but this can easily be done on your phone using an app like Phonto. Can’t be bothered? Once you’ve ordered your prints, write the name on each image with a marker!
Step 3: Order your 12 (x 2 per image) 4×4 photos using the amaze Printicular app. I love this app so much, Ethan and I use it all the time for his school projects or when I need crafty images printed out in a hurry!
Step 4: Head in store to Warehouse Stationery to pick up your prints. I took some double-sided tape and scissors with me so I could get everything finished while I was in store – there is plenty of bench space to work on projects at the print centre!
- Lay out your images on a large piece of cardboard available to purchase in-store and fix the photos with a small piece of tape or glue.
- Get the print centre staff to cut up your cards using one of their guillotines and then laminate them so they will last well.
Take them home and play!
There’s heaps more inspo in store at Warehouse Stationery, plus lots of take home activities the kids can do, totally a School Holiday desperation destination!
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