Free Printable Disney Princess Paper Craft

Miss 4 and I have been busy this week doing paper craft. We discovered free printable Disney princess paper craft on Pinterest and started crafting.

I had a vision of the two of us doing this craft activity together but it turns out that these patterns are quite difficult, so we switched to Miss 4 cutting out the skirts and me doing the rest. The dolls look great and for vigorous preschooler play I recommend printing on card stock and reinforcing with sticky tape. Because Miss 4 is all about equal opportunity, we also made a Buzz Lightyear, which is the "father" in her games.

Visit the Disney website to find the printables, although I find the site a little hard to navigate, so here is a list of some of the highlights:

Ariel | Anna | Aurora | Belle | Buzz Lightyear | Carl | Cinderella | Elsa | Jasmine | Lightning McQueen | Mater | Merida | Mulan | Pocahontas | Rapunzel | Sofia | Snow White | Tiana | Ursula

Pressed Flowers

Despite all the time that I spend these days blogging, social media-ing and otherwise involved in technology, I'm actually fairly old school at heart, with chickens in the front garden and organic produce in the back (yep, that's my bunnykins collection in the background of this photo). So recently I've been teaching Miss 4 to press flowers.

Pressed flowers keep their colour intact as they dry, which makes pressing them a great way to preserve them for later activties. Miss 4 collects flowers and leaves when we are out walking and once we are home, it's quick and easy to press them. We have a wooden flower press, so we place each flower between sheets of paper (the blotter) and then put this paper between sheets of cardboard. We then put the piles of flowers in cardboard between two pieces of wood and blot them together. After a few weeks the flowers are completely dry and flat and ready for craft. Remember that they are very delicate.

If you don't have a flower press, you can achieve the same thing by placing your flowers between sheets of paper (the blotter) and then putting the paper inside a heavy book, like and dictionary or encyclopedia. Pile more books on top or slide into a full bookcase. After a few weeks, the dried flowers will be ready.

What old school fun do you get up to with your kids?

Find some more preschooler art ideas.

Activities For Kids - 2014

The kaetoo blog is all about my inspirations and activities, so a lot of the posts that you read here are about keeping small children entertained and happy. This year, I have been playing with a new baby and a three-year-old.

Below are the most popular children's posts at kaetoo for 2014. Refresh your mind on what we got up to or try out some of the activities that you missed.

1. Keeping big sister occupied after welcoming a new baby.

2. Fitting a new baby into your family.

3. Ideas for play with a four month old.

4. Recycling old art into new art.

5. Ideas for play with an eight month old.

6. Cooking coconut ice.

7. Experimenting on your child with the lying cake test.

8. More experiments with the delay of gratification test.

9. Preserving memories of small children.

10. Encouraging reading.

Read all of the children's activities for 2014.

DIY Peg Princesses

Princesses are so cool at the moment. Even the kindergarten that Misses 3.5 and 4 go to has a giant ice princess castle.

Inspired by Lil Boy Boo, I made Miss 3.5 a collection of 14 princesses. All you need are some wooden pegs and paint.

Use photos of the princesses that you want to make, or DVD covers, as a reference. Paint the princesses with as much or as little detail as you like, but remember to let each colour dry before adding the next colour. The top knots on the blue and green princesses are made by gluing little wooden balls on with PVA glue.

Let your little one paint their own version at the same time.

At the end, seal the paint with a waterbased, non-toxic matte sealer. This will protect the princesses from losing colour as they are banged around.

And there you go, a box of DIY peg princesses. Of course, being all about equal opportunity, Miss 3.5 has now requested peg princes to go with this set... better get some more pegs.

More activities for children.

Preschooler Play - Recycling Artwork

Miss 3 is a prolific painter. Some of her artwork I post to unsuspecting relatives, some I put up on the wall, some I file, but the majority is in a pile in the play room. Let's recycle it into other forms of art!

First, we made hats for the three of us. These "Indian" hats are very easy - cut the piece of A4 paper that you child has painted on in half along the long edge. Then cut strips around an inch apart along the length of the paper, leaving a wide banner at the bottom. Tape the two halves of paper together to form one long piece of paper. Wrap it around the head and secure with tape.

We then made some underwater scenes with some more of Miss 3's art. First, I drew fishes on the back of one of her glitter drawings.

She cut them out.

Then she cut seaweed strips from a green painting that she had done and glued them onto a blue painting.

And finally she glued on the fish.

Voilà! An underwater fish scene made out of three other pieces of art.

What do you do with your children's works of art?
Read some of the other activities that I do with my children.

And Now We Are Four...

Two months ago, we became a family of four when we welcomed a new baby and since then I have been fairly busy doing the whole feed-nappy-settle routine. There hasn't been a great deal of time for crafting, or coming up with fun preschool activities, or being active on social media.

However, I can't (and don't want to) put aside my first-born whilst I concentrate on the little one. Miss 3 can entertain herself, but like all children she enjoys playing with her parents and adores it when I say to the baby "I'm sorry, you'll just have to wait a minute whilst I finish what I'm doing with your sister." Reading is perhaps our favourite activity at the moment, especially as I can read to Miss 3 whilst feeding the baby.

Other things that I have been doing with Miss 3 while the baby is asleep are simple activities around the house that don't require a lot of setting up or pack up. Things like playdough, stamping and painting...

... pretend play...

... puzzles and games...

... walks to the park...

... and imaginary trips to the beach.

There may have also been a couple of actual trips to the beach with all four of us over the last two months. It has been summer in Australia, after all!

Toddlers and Preschoolers - 2013

The 'kaetoo' Canvas Photo Boards Blog has a collection of posts about my creations for my Madeit and Etsy craft stores and about goings on in the online handmade community. But the majority of this Blog talks about my inspirations and activities, including the renovations to our home, recipes and the activities that I get up to with two little girls, who are currently three years old and two-and-a-half years old.

Here are the 'kaetoo' top 10 most popular toddler and preschooler Blog posts for 2013. Read through the activities that you missed and refresh your mind on what we got up to this year.

1 - Teaching kids to deal with missing their family and explaining absence
2 - Taking over the living room and making a cubby house
3 - Practising colours and matching with a colour sort mail box
4 - Distracting children when combating fears with food
5 - Getting crafty making playdough monsters
6 - Spending time with each other doing fun activities, including painting together
7 - Feeding the local wildlife by making bird feeders
8 - Finding things to do with 102 cookie cutters
9 - Rescuing escaped pets in the neighbourhood, including a rabbit
10 - Getting ready for the Christmas season with Operation Christmas Child

Read all of the toddler art, cooking and play and the preschooler art, cooking and play activities.

Preschooler Art - Reindeer Christmas Cards

I saw Meredith of Dee Dub Designs blogging over at bespoke about the reindeer Christmas cards that she made with her baby and though that they would be fun, if not messy, to adapt to preschoolers. So one day we spread newspaper on the kitchen floor and put some brown paint on a ice cream container lid and the girls make some footprints on pieces of coloured paper.

Apparently there is little that is more fun than being allowed to stand in paint and then walk it around the house. Have a little water in the bathtub ready for washing feet.

After the prints had dried, we cut them out of the paper.

Next we set up on the table with googly eyes, pompoms, pipe cleaners, glue and tape. The girls stuck eyes and noses onto the footprints with the glue.

Then Misses 2.5 and 3 taped the pipecleaners onto card and glued on the footprints.

The result? Some very cute, DIY reindeer Christmas cards!

Have a look over the 'kaetoo' Blog for more activities for kids, including toddler art, cooking and play and preschooler art, cooking and play.

Preschooler Play - Library Story Time

The library is one of my favourite places to hang out with children for many reasons - books, understanding librarians, books, often a selection of toys, books, they're free, books, other media including CDs and DVDs, books...

Since we've moved our schedule has matched up nicely with pre school story time for 3 - 5 year olds at our local library. These sessions run for about 45 minutes and have stories, rhymes, singing and a craft activity to finish off the session. The sessions have a theme connecting the activities, such as all about hippos, or food, or snails.

Story time is very common and most libraries run sessions for children - have a chat with your local library about what sessions they have available, as there will probably be sessions for different age groups, including little babies. Story time sessions not only promote a love of reading and books, but also help children to develop their language skills, teach them to listen, socialise and be part of a group, and give them an opportunity to be creative and imaginative. And did I mention that they're free?

Investigate more activities for toddlers (including art, cooking and play) and preschoolers (including art and play).

Preschooler Art - Underwater Picture

An underwater mixed media picture for preschoolers.

We collected some aquatic themed stamps, fish stickers, a star biscuit cutter, a rolled up sponge and a sponge cut out in the shape of a fish to make an underwater picture.

The stamps went on first.

The girls dipped in paint the cookie cutter to make starfish, the rolled sponge to make shells, and the cut sponge to make fish. Then they added seaweed with paintbrushes and crabs with their hands. And topped the whole lot off with some fish stickers.

So many different techniques for making a picture and think about the different creatures that live in the sea.

Investigate other preschooler art posts, or investigate the toddler art, cooking and play posts.

Preschool Art - Playdough Monsters

The girls have been really enjoying playdough lately. I've posted previously the recipe for playdough and we've been teaming it with some coloured icy-pole sticks, plastic beads and googly eyes.

This is real free-form play, with each child getting a ball of dough to then sculpt into whatever their imagination dictates.

Miss 3 has a definite purpose to her creations and a planned location for each addition. What Miss 2.5 lacks for in planning she makes up for in enthusiasm and frequently ripping everything out to start again.

They have constructed some fabulously cute monsters over the last few weeks:

 This is the first post where I've officially had a preschooler in the mix, but lots of toddler art, cooking and play posts are also up here. Have a read.