Tag Archives: Sabrinas How To Make

How I Helped My Child Fall in Love with Numbers

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I am a huge believer in passing on knowledge to people when it might be useful to them, and for many years I had considered being a teacher. However my life took a different direction once I went off to university. It didn’t stop me from coming up with things that others may find handy though, it was just one of many reasons I decided to start my blog all those years ago.

After I became a parent I found I was coming up with lots of hacks and tips for my son that other parents might also find useful. This particular blog post today is all about NUMBERS! My son learnt his numbers 1 to 10 very quickly thanks to my tips and tricks, by the time he started preschool at 3 he could count to 31. He is now 4 and thanks to my encouragement he can count to a whopping 500!

The fab thing about my tips is that you may already have some of these items laying around in your home that you can use, and if not you can make your own cards like I have also done. Check out online second hand and local shops if you don’t have anything, as well as asking friends who may have slightly older children if they could have a clear out for you. Let me tell you about how I introduced and taught my son about numbers.

Child Clocks or Numbered Blocks

Your baby may already have toys with numbers on, things for age 6 month plus normally have various things on them, you may find a mix of nature and numerical combinations or well known characters with basic shapes and or numbers too. Toys and playmats also sometimes have numbers, those talking toys certainly will, but teaching your little one how to recognise a number visually is important.

You can easily get wooden toys that contain clocks on them or boards with numbers that can be removed and set out in a numerical order. These toys are great for learning the starter numbers (1-10) but also for starting with basic mathematics too. I bought my son a board of numbers and he has a wooden clock as well gifted by a relative. The blocks in my image above were bought online and are of the brand Infantino, these BPA free plastic cubes have an array of animals and numerical variations on them such as dots and actual written numbers. They were some of the first numbers my son saw as a baby.

My son would like to count things around him, so say I gave him 4 smiley faces for his tea I would ask how many I had given him, soon he started counting everything. 2 swings at the park, 7 birds on the fence, 5 sheep in the field. And so on, and lots of praise and encouragement when they get something right is also essential. Make learning a fun thing to do and participate in.

You can also begin time telling by showing them a phone or a watch and asking them to find the time. If they have a child’s clock they can match that time. A children’s clock may just have turn-able clock hands or some have the digits that are also removeable too. For example it might be 10.30am so you ask them what that would look like on their clock and see if they select the numbers appropriately. Making it fun means that it is more likely to sink in to their mind. If they have breakfast at 7.30am every day, you could ask them what the time is on the kitchen clock if you have a steady routine, or if bedtime is 7pm too.


The Home Calendar Block

My calendar block is also a clock! Many of us will have a Calendar block at home, these blocks rotate daily and allow children to understand the passing of days into months. When my son was two I introduced him to my block set, and every single morning before breakfast we would rotate the blocks. I started by giving him one and me the other, I would say something like “Today is the 17th so we need a 1 and a 7, I have the 7, can you find me a 1 please?” And his interest developed from there. Soon I could ask him to find any of the numbers from One to Thirty One and he could place them on the block correctly. For the past two years we have done this every day and he has learnt to count up to 31 just by doing the calendar. My son also asked me why the months were different numbers, why it didn’t go up to Thirty Two and such, it sparked an interest which lead to me making his flashcards up to 50 numbers.

Flashcards – Bought or Homemade

Flashcards are great, you can buy them from most online toy retailers, or if are creative and have pens, like me you could make them. My son has 50 of these homemade numbers now, and thanks to some games he can count up to 500. He does number work at school, and even got an award recently for how good he was with counting numbers. Making it colourful and fun is inviting the child to participate. Always encourage but never force your child to learn, do it on their own terms when you are at home. Plus if it is fun they will be more likely to want to repeat the exercise. My son is currently doing writing practice for his letters and numbers and coming on great thanks to wipeable board books which I highly recommend because they are reusable.

Originally I only made ten numbers but my son was soon asking for more, and the more he enjoyed counting them and laying them out in their order, the more I wanted to continue making and encouraging that growth in learning.

When my son turned 3 I also made a set of flashcards that had the number and the written word such as One and 1 on them, this was so my son learnt the word associated with the number in preparation for reading and writing them.

Other Fun Number Related Activities

Playing Dominoes is another fun learning activity which requires the counting of numbers, and games like Yahtzee, Playing Cards or Rummikub are also fun to start with children of a going to school age.

However you keep using numbers in your child’s life, know this, you are helping them learn through play.

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Thank you for reading this parenting related blog post today. I have tons of parenting tips and hacks across my blog and social media. I even do a Monday Mum Hack on Instagram.

Search #SevernSabrina and #SabrinasMondayMumHacks

Hope to see you here again soon.

✩ Sabrina ✩

World Bee Day 2022 on May 20th

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Happy World Bee Day!

Here is a Photo montage of Bee’s that I have taken this past year…
as a Nature Photographer I am constantly making images.

AWESOME FACTS ABOUT BEES

Bees are insects that have 6 legs and 5 eyes.

Bees have been around for approximately 30 million years.

Here in the United Kingdom we house around 270 species of Bees.

Worldwide there are more than 20,000 species of Bees.

Honey made from Bees was found inside the tombs of Egyptian Pharaoh’s and it would still be edible today.

Honey Bees communicate with one another through dancing moves!

Bees can fly up to 20 MPH!

Male Bees are called Drones.

Female Bees are called Worker Bees.

The Queen Bee can lay up to 2000 eggs a day and a hive will only have one Queen.

A Honey Bee will only make 1 Tablespoon of honey in their lifetime.

Some species of Bee are solitary and live alone except for reproduction moments, these often live underground too!

On average a Bee will fly 32,000 miles in their lifetime and visit more than 1 million flowers!

Honey Bees live in Bee Hives where they work together to make Honey.

If a Bee loses its stinger it will die – so make sure not to hit them and let them just fly around you and fly off again – once they realise you’re not a flower you won’t interest them anyway!

SABRINA’S HOW TO MAKE A 3D BEE!

I thought what better way to immortalise the Bee than to make your very own 3D craft version of one! I came up with this last year but sadly I missed the deadline for World Bee Day 2021, so I have saved it all for today! World Bee Day 2022! They are fairly easy to make and I will now tell you exactly what you need before we begin the how to method!

One Sheet of A4 Thin Yellow Card or Thick Paper
One Scissors
One Piece of Cereal Box Card
Pens – black and brown
A Permanent Pen – Black with a Fine End (for the Wings)
Double Sided Sticky Tape
A Piece of Thin Plastic (mine was off some toy packaging) (for the Wings)
Two Circular Objects to Draw Around – 1 for the Small Bee Head and 1 for the Body Circles

Step 1. Cut All of Your Circles Out – You need 1 head, 1 main body out of box card and four out of the yellow card. The yellow and the body have to be the same size, but the head needs to be 1/4 of the size. Put some double sided sticky tape on the cereal box card circle because this will be your base to work the rest up on. Put the other yellow circles down on a flat surface ready for their details.

Step 2. Draw some sections on the 4 yellow circles that will become the Bee body, you will need to have 3 sections that are lined horizontally and similar in size to each of the other matching circles (See image below). Colour these in Brown. The best thing to do is to have them on top of one another, mark the section the same and attempt to line them up with the opposite side. With the small Circle that is yellow (the Bee head), you need to draw two large Oval Eyes in Black, and then do some vertical lined streaks in brown so it looks like fur. Leave the top section of it Yellow, we will be sticking it to the body shortly.

Step 3. Stick the Head to the Body using double sided tape with only 1/4 of it attached to the Card and the rest sticking out. Now place the Bee in front of you, with the head facing you (facing South). You want to now take one of the striped yellow body sections, choose the one that is least lined up. Put some double sided tape on the back of it and stick it down on to the main card body, covering the edge of the head, with the stripes going horizontally across the Bee body. Place this beneath something heavy for a few minutes so as to stick it all into place while we do steps 4 and 5.

Step 4. Take your Plastic now and Scissors and permanent pen. You want to draw out two identical wings, Bee wings tend to have some ridged ends but you can just do ovals with a pointed end if you’re not confident (See Images below). Look at my Bee montage at the start of this blog post for wing inspiration! Once you are happy with the drawing cut them out, and make sure they’re the same size by overlapping them and trimming any overhanging edges.

Step 5. Draw some lines down the wings with the permanent thin pen, try to match the Bee wings (again take inspiration from my pictures at the start but be creative too this is your own Bee!) and match each other, make the same marks on both wings by having them side by side as you create the lines. Place them off to one side to fully dry. (If you use normal pen on plastic it will likely rub off).

Step 6. Now it comes to the tricky part, you need to take your Bee body parts and fold them in half, all three of them with the coloured lines on the inside of the half fold. Make sure that the centre is through the middle of the horizontal lined sections. Do this for all three and also make sure they are folded the same across the sections so when stacked together they are the same (or close as you can).

Step 7. Once you have folded them and they do match best they can, you need to take two of them to start with, and place some double sided tape strips on the one side of each one, so that is one taped only the left underside and one taped only on the right on the yellow underside of each of them. Take a look at my photograph below for clarification on the folds and the tape.

Step 8. Take your folded Bee body circles and place one on either side of the main Bee body with the head. Line them up with the circle that is already on it, the one you put the tape on the left underside goes on the left, and the right taped side on the right. When you push the body middles together they should be flush and straight in the centre and aligned with the head. Make sure the stripes line up and are horizontal to the head that is facing south, and the crease line for your folds should be straight up from that facing north. If this is accurate you can now remove the double sided tape, stick one side down at a time, to the main body. Then do the opposite side (see Step 7 and 8 images) and this leaves you with the other half of each circle standing up on end. The final circle you still have will go in between them causing the body parts to stand up 3D.

Step 9. Attaching the final circle on to the body is just about lining it up. First you need to put some double sided tape on to the pieces that are already attached to the Bee body that you stuck down in Step 8. (See image Steps 9 and 10 to clarify this next step). With the double sided tape now in place but not removed the tabs yet, you first line up the circles, look at it and think do the edges match and is it horizontal across the body? If the answer is yes then remove the tape tabs and stick that final circle on to the top of the Bee in between the other pieces.

Step 10. Press and hold the Bee body firmly now, gently run your fingers down each of the sides to press the circles fully together and ensuring the tape grips flush. Once they look like they are fully stuck with no gaps anywhere you can now make sure your wings are dry from earlier.

Step 11. Take your plastic wings from before, line them up with where you want them to go on the Bee body (they are usually attached to the middle section of a bee’s body). Then take two thin strips of double sided tape and match those up on either side, stick down the tape. (See Step 10 and 12 image for wing tape placement).

Step 12. Attach the wings now and make sure you press them down on to the tape for at least a minute to ensure the plastic gets a really good grip. Hold the Bee upside down and make sure they don’t come loose, if they do then press again.

Step 13. Tidy up any lines on the Bee and trim any edges with scissors that aren’t in line to neaten her up. Then you have your Queen Bee! You could hang her up somewhere or make her a little hive…

HAPPY WORLD BEE DAY!
You now have a friendly Bee to live in your home and remind you of their importance, coolness and cuteness.

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP THE BEES?

Make a wildflower pot, planter or corner of your garden and attract bees and help them with their pollinating. You can get wild flower seeds free with some things such as “30 Days Wild) and Brands often give them away with food products too.

Don’t pull out all of your weeds, leave a few because bees need them especially because weeds are usually the first flowers of the new season.

If a Bee comes into your house leave it alone, open some windows and let it find its way out, do not attack it or attempt to catch it because it may sting in fear and then it will sadly die. Most Bee’s will head straight back out a door or window when they smell the fresh air.

Visit a local Apiary and But Local Honey products when possible.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO MAKE A CRAFTY BEE HIVE?

What You Will Need

Tiny Craft Wooden Bees (Found in The Works craft shop)
A Narrow Sided Box or a Lid from Something (Rectangle is best)
Disposable Dehumidifier Pot Lids – doesn’t matter what colour as you will Paint them
Brown Paint and a Paintbrush

Step 1. Paint your box and the humidifier pot lids you have collected, they should be brown or a mixture of brown and black and yellow.
Step 2. Leave them to dry somewhere flat overnight at least.
Step 3. Place something to resemble honey and nectar between the lids, maybe tissue paper?
Step 4. Stick the Two (or more) lids together to form mini hive type structures.
Step 5. Stick the lids into the box and stick your Bee’s around. Done!


Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post today, I hope you have enjoyed it. If you make any Bee’s please share your pictures with me on social media, use the hashtag #SevernSabrina and #SabrinasHowToMake or tag me on them using @Severn_Sabrina or @SevernWishes Blog.

Have a wonderful World Bee Day 2022!

✩ Sabrina ✩

Sabrina’s Easter Craft Ideas 2022

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Happy Easter! I hope you’re having a wonderful long weekend!

If you’ve already been out and about and are now looking for something to do within your home to keep the children entertained, then why not check out all my craft pieces below, show your children and they might want to give them a go! They are all really easy and just need a few minutes of your time as the adult to deal with some scissor cutting and poking holes, and then they can begin! You won’t need any fancy craft equipment for any of these either, just gather the following items on my list below and you’re good to go!

If you were wondering what it cost me to make all of the craft items I have done in recent posts it was about £15. That includes all of the double sided tape, various packs of white and coloured card, good quality colouring pens, craft balls and pipe cleaners among other things. But I have lots of them left over from these purchases too for use in future craft projects. I actually have more crafty items in the works and I’m still using up the same items and haven’t needed to buy any additional ones.

Sabrina’s TOP TIP: Making up a Craft box is a great idea, it will keep everything neat and tidy. Throw in left over pieces of card, toilet rolls and crafting left overs. I recommend a Really Useful Box or a similar one which has a tight fitting lid. These are also really strong and stackable for easy storing away.

✩✩✩ What Will We Need for all these Projects ✩✩✩

Toilet Rolls
Cereal Box Cards
Pens to Decorate
Scissors
A Pen or Pencil
A Ruler
Pipe Cleaners
Fluffy Craft Balls
Coloured Card
Googly Eyes
Double Sided Tape
Pritt Stick or PVA used sparingly

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How to Make Sabrina’s Fluffy Craft Easter Animals

These cute and fluffy animals were made using cereal box card, double sided tape and a bag of craft balls! In all it cost me about £2! And we have a ton of balls left over which we can use as flower middles and things like that – I use them in other projects too. This one is easy for little children, you do the templates and then add the glue on and then they can go to town with all the sticking!

Step 1. Draw on a cereal box, inside on the flat side piece, whatever shape you like, a Rabbit, a Chick, an Easter Egg, whatever you like or your children want.
Step 2. Cut out your templates, make them as big or as small as you like.
Step 3. Use PVA or Pritt Stick or Doubled Sided Tape to coat your template with glue.
Step 4. Provide a clean and flat surface for your little ones to sit and stick the fluffy craft balls to their card template.
Step 5. Add googly eyes or card beaks or any other items you want to finish them off.
Step 6. Let them dry overnight, place a piece of kitchen roll or newspaper on a flat surface, add the template, add another layer of tissue or newspaper, and then place a heavy book on top overnight to flatten them down and help the balls to stick.
Step 7. Next day you can display them around your home.

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How to Make Sabrina’s Toilet Roll Flowers

My easy toilet roll flowers are so simple to do! They only take about ten minutes to make once your toilet roll is decorated and dry. You could make a load of these, if you have a kitchen roll tube you may even get 3 flowers worth of petals from one tube! I would like to try and make a Rainbow of these!

Step 1. Let the Children decorate their toilet rolls and let them dry.
Step 2. An adult then cuts the toilet rolls into equal width pieces to make the petals.
Step 3. An adult also then uses the pointy end of their open scissors to poke holes that are 1cm up from the end and through both sides of each petal. (See my photo).
Step 4. The petals can now be opened out and gently threaded on to a pipe cleaner through the holes made with the scissors. Push them on until they hit the middle of the pipe and keep adding round.
Step 5. Curve the Pipe Cleaner round as you go, after each petal, and then after the final one is added you push the ends of the pipe back through the final petal holes to neaten it up. Line it up spaced between the petals while it is flat on a table and then push a fluffy craft ball into the middle.
Step 6. Hang your flowers up around your home on ribbon or string for a nice decoration.

Step 3 – 1 cm in from the petal end
Step 3 – making holes through the petals
Step 4.
Step 4 to 5.
Step 5.
Step 6.

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Step 2 – Cut the Decorated Roll into 5 Pieces

How to Make Sabrina’s Toilet Roll Easter Bunny

My cute toilet roll bunny’s are great for the Easter break! And they should stand up all by themselves! They are a little trickier than the flowers, but lots of fun still! They all start with a decorated toilet roll anyway so make sure you just save them up and get little ones to colour them in.

Step 1. Children decorate toilet rolls and let them dry.
Step 2. An adult cuts the toilet rolls into 5 pieces, a base, two ears, a middle and a head. (See Photo).
Step 3. An adult uses the pointy end of scissors to poke holes in the pieces, each one is specific. So…
Base is one hole, central on one side. Middle piece is two holes, one top one bottom just push the card flat together and the scissor end straight through. The Head piece needs one hole in the base at the centre, and off centre at the top it needs two holes. Each ear needs two holes, both on the same side at either end before the point. (See My Photo).
Step 4. Using a Pipe Cleaner push it on to the base and bend the end, attach the fluffy tail.
Step 5. Add the Middle to the pipe cleaner, push it down until it is flush and flat against the base.
Step 6. Take the Head piece, thread it on through the single hole, make it flush on the Middle piece of roll and then push another fluffy ball down the pipe cleaner until it sits in the middle of the roll.
Step 7. Push the pipe cleaner up through one of the holes in the top, and curve the pipe cleaner round, make sure the bunny parts are all flush and together for the body.
Step 8. Add each ear by pushing the pipe cleaner up through one side with the holes on, in through the bottom hole and out of the top hole, bend the pipe cleaner round and then through the top hole of the final ear and down through the bottom hole.
Step 9. The final step is to push the rest of the pipe cleaner down through the second hole on the bunny head, if you have more than 1cm of pipe left cut it off, then push the last 1cm into the fluffy ball within the roll bunny head, this neatens it up and gets the pointy end of the pipe cleaner hidden away.
Step 10. Adjust your bunny feet base and middle parts so that the bunny is aligned and he should stand up all by himself!

Step 3 – use my guide to make the necessary holes
Step 4 – Base and Tail
Step 7 and Step 8 – Threading the Ears

My bunny making video tutorial can be found on my Facebook page if you get stuck which is right here

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How to Make Sabrina’s Circle Petal Flower Card

This one is nice and easy and once all the cutting out is done, children can stick them down however they like to design their own flowers.

Step 1. Fold a Piece of Card in half for your card base.
Step 2. Draw around a circular object many many times on some different pieces of coloured card.
Step 3. Cut out these circles carefully and assemble flat.
Step 4. Every circle needs to be folded in half.
Step 5. Assemble your Flower by arranging the petals with one side sticking up to make it 3D.
Step 6. Cut out a small circle in a bright colour for the centre of each flower.
Step 7. Once happy with the design either pritt stick or double sided tape each petal down to the card.
Step 8. Make leaves or stems from card, or use pens to decorate your card.

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Thank you for reading this (long) Craft related blog post today, I always showing you my latest “Sabrina’s How To Make’s”! And if you have any questions for me about how to do something you’ve seen on my blog then please comment below on this post and I will happily answer them for you. I hope that you have seen something you would like to try and make yourself!

If you do make any of my craft items please tag me on social media using the hashtag #SabrinasHowToMake I really look forward to seeing them!

✩ Sabrina ✩

Check out my previous How to Make Craft posts for these beautiful 3D paper flowers!

Sabrina’s How To Make Paper Flowers for all Occasions

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Hello and Welcome! If you’re a regular visitor to Severn Wishes Blog then you’ll know that I love to do lots of Art and Craft! If you’re new here then hi, and after this blog post please check out the remainder of my fun Crafts in the section here.

Paper Flowers are a wonderful alternative to buying fresh ones, the beauty of these homemade gifts is that they won’t wilt and have to one day be thrown away, these can be treasured by the loved one receiving them, forever! Give a single flower or make a bouquet it’s up to you!

What Do I Need?

A Ruler (30cm)
A Pen or Pencil
Pipe Cleaners various Colours
Thin Coloured Card or Thick Coloured Paper
Pens for Decorating the Petals (optional)
Fluffy Craft Balls (Flower Centres)
Scissors

My Step by Step Visual Guide is really easy to follow, but I also uploaded videos to my social media if you would prefer to follow that! Carry on reading for my step by step and photographic guide.


SABRINA’S STEP BY STEP GUIDE

1. Cut Squares from your chosen Coloured Card. For example I made my Orange Flower with a 7cm, a 8cm and a 10cm Square. Three Squares is an ideal amount of layers but you can do just two or even more layers if you wish. Assemble these squares on a flat surface ready for the individual folding process. (See my images below for additional guidance).

2. Fold each square you have in half to form a rectangle, do this by folding the bottom line up to the top line and line up the crease and push flat. Repeat for every piece you have.

3. Next, you fold each rectangle back into a square shape by folding it from the left to right and flatten and crease down flat once again.

4. Finally you will have all your layers into folded squares, and these now need to be made into Triangles. But to do this correctly for the next steps you must not rotate them at all during the folding process. Make sure that you fold the bottom right corner of your squares up to the top left, flatten and crease.

5. Next you need to draw a petal shape on every flattened triangle, make sure not to rotate it from when you folded it when you draw on it, otherwise it won’t cut intact during step 6.

6. Now you need to carefully cut out your shapes, gently follow the line and then discard these cut offs for the recycling because you don’t need them.

7. Time for the moment of truth, open out the flowers gently and slowly so as not to tear them. Lay them out flat and make sure they are an entire piece.

8. With the crease lines facing at each compass point you need to mark the petals that are in the South East corner of each flower. (See my images below if you are uncertain).

9. Carefully cut these petals away from the flower, be sure to only follow the crease lines of the folds when you cut and don’t be tempted to cut it too low in the centre, just enough for the spare petal to gently come free. You don’t need these now and these spare pieces can all be recycled at the end of your crafting session.

10. Next step is to mark the petal on the right of the one you just cut away, on each of your flower layers, and then stick a piece of double sided tape or a blob of glue on to that mark.

11. Doing each layer one at a time now, gently place the flower into your hand, and with the other hand carefully fold the petal on the left side over the petal on the right side. The creases and folds we made at the start should allow you to do this easily, if not gently fold the creases again and try again, the flower should (with some gentle persuasion) create a 3D flower with the shape similar to a cone. Push down on the glued part and make sure that you have aligned the petals and that it is stuck down. Repeat this for all flowers and layers that you want to make.

12. Carefully lay out each of the Flower layers now that they are 3D. You now need to decorate them if you want to with lines or dots before we assemble them. If making them with small children you may want them to decorate at Step 10, before you make them 3D.

13. During this step you want to use the end of the Pipe Cleaner you have chosen to gently pierce through the middle of the Flower layers, take one at a time, and force the pin end of the Pipe Cleaner directly through the centre where the creases and folds meet. Once all of the layers are pierced you can now arrange them in order of size.

14. Assemble your finished Paper Flower by sliding the layers on to the Pipe Cleaner, you do want to leave about a 4mm bit of the pipe cleaner poking out so that you can push on a coloured fluffy craft ball (if you have one) and this neatens the whole look of the flower plus it covers the pointed end of the pipe cleaner.

15. Adjust the Petals by rotating the layers slowly on the pipe cleaner stem until you are satisfied with the flowers final look. I hope you are happy with your flower! You can play around and add other things too if you like! Be creative and I cannot wait to see yours! Tag me! #SabrinasHowToMake

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Thank you for reading this Craft related blog post today, I always love doing my “Sabrina’s How To Make’s”! And if you have any questions for me then please comment below on this post and I will happily answer them for you. If you make some flowers please tag me on social media using the hashtag #SabrinasHowToMake and I really look forward to seeing them!

✩ Sabrina ✩

Children’s Chocolate Crispy Christmas Puddings

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If you’re looking for a fun dessert for a Christmas Party that lots of children are attending then this might be the one for you! Look no further than these Christmas Puds! You can make them the day before and leave them to set overnight in a fridge. It will take just half an hour to make up to six Crispy Puds!

What You Will Need

Saucepan
Wooden Spoon
Rounded Moulds – I use an empty fruit pot that is from Tesco! They are the perfect size!
Teaspoon

Crispy Cereal 300g-400g (depends on how coated in chocolate you want them to be)
Milk or Plain or Free From Milk Chocolate 200g
White or Free From White Chocolate (for the topping) 60-100g
Decorative Item such as a Sweet or Smartie

How To Make

1. Melt the Chocolate on a low heat.
2. Once Smooth take off the heat and Stir in Crispy Cereal.
3. Push into Moulds of your Choice Firmly.
4. Refrigerate for a minimum of 4 Hours or Overnight.
5. Remove from Fridge, Turn Upside Down and Squeeze Gently to Remove from Moulds.
6. Melt the White Chocolate, Pour Over Each Pudding and Let it Drip down the Sides.
7. Using the End of a Tea Spoon Drag the White Chocolate to Form a Star Shape on Top of the Pudding .
8. Add a Sweetie or a Smartie on the Top to Decorate.
9. Pop Back in the Fridge until the Hour of Serving.
10. Keep in an Airtight Container for up to 3 days.

EASY PEASY!

Thank you for reading this blog post today, I hope that you like my recipe.
If you make any of these yourself I would love to see a photo of how they turn out!
Please tag me on Social Media! #SabrinasRecipes #SabrinasHowToMake

✩ Sabrina ✩

Sabrina’s How to Make an Autumn Wreath

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Welcome to one of my latest Craft Project posts that I am very proud of.
I have been wanting to make a wreath for about four years now,
and I never got around to it until this Autumn. Oops!

Autumn Wreaths like this can be placed indoors flat or indoors hung up.
If you have a nice sheltered porch over your doorway you could even hang it outside!
I chose to make an indoor wreath using false leaves, dried pine cones, acorns and wooden craft pieces.

Here are all the things I have used to make my two wreath rings.
It’s a good idea to decide on your design before you start gluing anything, I place mine around the outside.

How to Make

Step 1. Prepare your design before you glue anything down.

Step 2. Glue the first layer of items down using a glue gun and wait for that to dry and the glue to harden before you add the next layer. Use a blob of glue per item, just enough to stick it down because you don’t want lots of excess glue on the wreath.

Step 3. Repeat the second layer with the glue and take care when pressing down the items when it is hot. Layer by overlapping the leaves until all the white on the front is gone. Once you’ve done the leaves let the wreath dry a few minutes and the glue harden.

Step 4. Keep adding to your design and let the layers dry in between, it only takes a few minutes to dry each time. You can put as many layers on as you would like to, and then add the three dimensional items last.

Step 5. When the design is fully dry then you are able to either lay it out or hang it up in your home. If you are hanging it up on a window you may want to repeat the design on the other side so that you can see leaves on both sides.

Take Care when Pushing the Items on the the Hot Glue

TOP TIPS! Make sure you only use a little glue, it’s hot and a little goes a long way!

TOP TIPS! Layer the leaves up until you cannot see any more of the white,
overlap them slightly so as to create depth to the wreath ring.

Make sure to decide on where you want to put the items before hand so that you don’t make a mistake when gluing.

What You Need

Wreath Base – Wicker or Rattan or Wood Sticks
Glue Gun and Glue Sticks
Decorations or Naturally Sourced Dried Out Items (like Pinecones) or Both!

Where I Bought From

I did a Nature Foraging Walk with my son.
I got the wooden pieces like owls and leaves and the artificial leaves from The Works in their craft part of the store.
I got the Rattan Wreaths from eBay.
I got the Glue Gun and Sticks from Amazon.

✩✩✩

Thank you for reading this crafty and make blog post today, if you have any questions for me then please comment below this post and I will happily answer them for you. If you like my wreath please let me know!

✩ Sabrina ✩

Sabrina’s How To Make Your Own Unique Gift Tags This Festive Season

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I have always had some creative flare, but one thing I had never done before was to make my own Christmas Present Tags! I came up with lots of ideas while spending time at home.

I took the plunge this November and ordered the things I would need to design them. I already had two awesome sets of Staedtler Pens in both fine line and bold. I also had various sequins. But I needed the tags and the string. I tried my best to use natural string and cardboard that was made from recycled materials.

What you could do if you can’t get any of these brown tags, is to cut up some old Christmas Cards and make them into similar shapes like these, add things like sequins in order to sparkle them up.

String Christmas Lights

The easiest of all my tag designs to make, you will need both thicker pens and fine pens of the same colour. The trick is to create the light shape with the finer pen and then colour it in with the same thicker style pen after. Make sure you leave the small crescent shape on one side of each light bulb so it looks three dimensional.

Begin by drawing the lines and bulb attachments with one pen, dark colours work best for this part. Then choose the pen colours you want for your bulbs. Ensure you don’t put the same shades next to one another and alternate colours like Red and Green for a Christmas look.

The size of your bulbs will depend on how many you want to do across your tag. If it’s just lights and no writing then you can fill up the space. If you plan to write “Merry Christmas” for example then perhaps do the lights top and bottom of the tag and leave the middle area blank.

Check out my images for some inspiration. Give it a go on a piece of plain paper and decide which way to do your bulbs, before doing them on to a tag.

Snow Scene with Tree

If you aren’t very good at drawing then you can still achieve something like this tag, just take your time and follow my instructions. Check out my videos on my Facebook Page too!

You need a brown pen, the finer the tip the better, and you want to start by drawing the outline of your tree. Fill in the branches afterwards, getting smaller to the ends. Next to add a 3D aspect to your tree draw circles for holes and darken undersides of larger branches and the trunk to add shadows. Use a silver, white or light blue mixture of pens now to create the snow. You could do a snow scene or just do the tree. Be creative and have fun! Look at mine below for some inspiration.

The Christmas Tree

I quite like the abstract or deconstructed Christmas Tree type of tags. Mainly because when I try to draw symmetrical and lifelike trees they never look quite right. If you’re good at drawing trees however, then putting one in the centre of a tag would look really great!

Use a nice dark green pen for your tree. Add either stick on crafty bits and pieces or draw on some festive decorations, or do a bit of both! PVA glue is best because it will dry clear! If you want to do a more 3D tag then glue dots or adhesive squares also work well too.

Me on the other hand, I prefer to do the continuous line and have a sequin star on the top, kind of a tree!

Christmas Sparkle

If you have various diamanté, sequins or sparkles you want to use on your tags then you need to come up with designs that suit them. Check out my tags below for some ideas. Hanging decorations or bauble type designs work best for rounded craft items. Think about when items hang on a tree, what they look like. Window decorations like a line of hanging stars or snowflakes are also very nice.

Sequins can be used on their own or accompanying pen lines. Use your imagination and design your thoughts on a piece of plain paper first using a pencil, once happy with it, you can then transfer the ideas to a tag.

You can purchase the brown tags in most craft shops, online at places like The Works, Hobbycraft and Amazon. Try and pick ones that are already made from recyclable material.

I had previously bought my pens online from Amazon, Sequins from The Works and my Glue is also from The Works too. Other crafty items have been purchased by me over the years from various shops and also Tesco superamrket, they had a nice range of sequins this year too.

Other fun tags include, “Merry Christmas”, Holly, Baubles, Rudolph, Robin, Christmas Trees, Christmas Lights, Snowflakes, Snowmen, Santa Claus, Snowy Scenes, Penguins, Stars and things such as “Ho! Ho! Ho!” and “Let It Snow”.

Thank you for reading this post today, if you do give making Christmas tags a go then I would love to see them! Tag me on social media using the hashtag #SabrinasChristmasCrafts

Have a great Christmas!

✩ Sabrina ✩

You can see my tutorial videos on my Facebook page here…