Scrapbooking

One of my earliest posts on DorkyMum was about DorkySon’s love of sticking things in his scrapbook. Or doing ‘Cut Stick Glue’ as he called it.

We used to spend hours going through magazines and newspapers, cutting out pictures then pasting them into his book. It was a great way of expanding his vocabulary and talking about the things he found interesting in the world.

Unfortunately, that passion seems to have waned. He still likes making the occasional collage for people by cutting out pictures and arranging them on a piece of card or paper, but these days he’s only interested in photos of cars and trucks. The extended DorkyFamily can all look forward to getting transport and building site themed Christmas cards this year…

Anyway. I’m wondering if I should maybe carry on DorkySon’s mantle and start scrapbooking myself.

Continue reading

Toucan Box Review

Text 'Toucan box review' on top of an image of green felt coaster

There has been a lot of chatter online about something called a Toucan Box.

If you’re even an occasional reader of this blog, you’ll know that crafting is not really my thing. My only (slightly tongue in cheek) attempt to post something creative on here involved a lego man and a champagne cork. It wasn’t pretty.

But I’d like to change that. It’s the one area of parenting where I feel I let DorkySon down slightly. He has unlimited access to paper, crayons and pens at home, but we rarely do anything more exciting than that, especially since he has started nursery. I have handed all responsibility for his craft activities to them. At home, his glitter glue is going crusty in the tube, and his paint box hasn’t been opened in weeks.

So when I started to read more about the Toucan Box, I actually got quite excited. It’s a monthly subscription box that is delivered to your house, containing all the materials you need to do a range of craft activities on a certain theme. When I was offered the opportunity to test a Toucan Box, I couldn’t resist.
Continue reading

My First Ever Craft Post

I am not the craftiest of people. I love to write and take photos, but anything involving more skill or dexterity than that is usually beyond me. At school, I once managed to stitch the fabric pencil case that I was making to my own tights…

But DorkyDad set me a challenge, and I couldn’t resist. He bought me a bottle of champagne for Mother’s Day. After we had quaffed it, and I was tidying up the kitchen, he mentioned seeing something online once about making a chair out of a champagne cork.

What?” I said, sounding a bit dubious.

Really.” he said. “You should Google it. It was very cool.
Continue reading

A Tale of Two Paintings

DorkySon is massively into painting just now. He always asks if he can get his paints out about quarter to five – just when I’m about to start cooking his dinner – but because I’m so pleased that he’s got a new interest (which isn’t related to trucks in any way) I’m always happy to spend some time getting messy with him.

Last night I decided to show him one of my favourite things to do with paint – folding a piece of paper in half, putting splodges of colour on one side and then squishing it together to make a ‘beautiful butterfly’.
Continue reading

Cut, stick, glue! My scrapbooking son.

We are currently working its way through one large Pritt Stick a week. It seems that scrapbooking is the activity of the moment.

DorkySon follows me around the house, chanting “Cut, stick, glue! Cut, stick, glue! Cut, stick, glue!” until I finally give in and sit down with him at the table, a tower of magazines in front of us.

I suspect it may be in his genes, as I spent ridiculous amounts of time and money doing the same thing as a teenager. But while I filled my scrapbooks up with pictures of boybands, carefully cut out from Smash Hits, DorkySon’s tastes are a little more highbrow.

So far he has shredded the entire collection of Lonely Planet magazines that were my birthday present last year. We have to hide the Saturday and Sunday supplements until we’ve read them; otherwise they end up in pieces across the living room floor. Last week I even found myself buying a copy of Top Gear magazine, because I knew it’d have enough pictures of cars to keep DorkySon happy for a whole afternoon. The only publications he won’t cut up are his own Peppa Pig and Bob the Builder magazines… funny that. Continue reading