Category Archives: Art and Craft

Nature crafts!

Posted on: by Galt Toys

It is wonderful to get crafty with the kids from time to time and crafting is something that we love doing at our house. As the Summer approaches and the kids (hopefully) spend more time outdoors, I would love to share some of our favourite nature crafts with you. The idea is for you go out, explore, enjoy nature, collect and then come home and craft on one of the rainy days.

 

So 5 of our favourite nature crafts:

 

Leaf Crowns

Ostentatiously an Autumn Craft (great to make with lovely Autumn coloured leaves), you can of course make these all year round. Many trees do NOT lose their leaves throughout winter and our park usually has plenty lying around. It is a great craft, as you do it whilst you are out and about and literally all you need is LEAVES! Easy peasy.

 

Pressed Flowers

Flower pressing is definitely one of those “childhood classics” that every child should experience one day. It is all about exploration and experiment with how different flowers and leaves press. Then get creative. In this post we share 10 tips to make your flower pressing more successful!

 

 

 

Rock Monsters

Discover the magic of googly eyes and how they convert anything into something. Rock monsters are great for all age groups as even the littlest can manage to cover a rock in paint and add some fun googly eyes. Great for the imagination too. What other creatures can you paint? We did also did a ladybird and ducks! Be sure to click through and find out about what sort of paint to use.

Fairy House (or Elf House!)

 

We LOVE making fairy houses… such a cute way to explore nature. What things can you find in you area that makes a good house? Great for “building” skills and experimenting how to put things together.

 

 

 

10 Stick Crafts

Yep… we got together and found not one, not two but TEN stick crafts for you to get busy with. Sticks are everywhere and the kids love to pick them up at ANY time of year. Perfect craft material and cheap too!

 

Maggy Woodley, is a mum of two and Author of Red Ted Art, Cute and Easy Crafts for Kids. She likes nothing more than getting crafty with her son and daughter. Making sure that crafts are fun, easy and inexpensive. She also likes to cook with the kids and experiment a little with Science! She writes at Red Ted Art, Life at The Zoo and Theatre Books and Movies.

May Day Mayhem

Posted on: by Galt Toys

May Day – the traditional celebration of the coming of Summer, has for most of us brought with it a day of glorious sunshine. For those yet to see their first taster of Summer, we hope lashings of sunniness will be with you soon! One thing is for certain, May Day sees the coldest April in 24 years finally come to an end!

                

For over 2,000 years we have been celebrating May Day with customs ranging from May Pole dancing, crowning of May Queens, and druids gathering at ancient monuments.

Oxford residents wake to the sound of Hymnus Eucharisticus being sung from Magdalen College tower, a tradition which dates back to the 17th Century. Morris dancers have danced the sun up all over the country, which is just as well because tradition states that if Morris men do not complete this ritual then the summer won’t come. And that wouldn’t be good at all! The crowning of  a May Queen relates back to the Romans celebrating Flora, the goddess of fruit and flowers. The May Queen symbolises Flora in the human form.

 

So what are these ancient customs and rituals all about? Well it used to be a major annual festival, especially in rural areas with celebrations designed to mark the turn from cold fruitless winter, to warm and bountiful summer, bringing good harvests.

May Day has always been an early riser. Households used to get up before dawn to decorate their houses with flowers and greenery in the belief that it would bring good fortune. Girls would wash their faces in the early morning dew, believing it would make them very beautiful.

May Day, and May in general, is significant for us today in no small part due to the two Bank Holidays we get to enjoy this month. The extra days off give us valuable extra playing time to spend with friends, family and the new found sunshine.

 

 

Why not try making your own origami paper boats for an upgraded game of Pooh Sticks, or organise a nature treasure hunt to see what the new season is bringing in?

Whatever you’re doing, let us know, and have a great time doing it!

 

 

AWESOMELY HORRIBLE ART

Posted on: by Galt Toys

We have launched the first ever Horrible Histories Art Set. The new Awesome Art Set is based on Scholastics’s bestselling Horrible Histories books written by Terry Deary.

Suitable for children aged six and above, the cool art set contains over 100 pieces to help create some really awesome artwork. With stencils created by Horrible Histories illustrator Martin Brown, children will soon be able to paint and draw their favourite fiendish characters featured in the books.

We are massive fans of the Horrible Histories series, so we’re delighted to add this product to our ever growing creative art range.  All children have to do is - have a stab at it (excuse the pun!)- this awesome art set will power the imagination.

If your children love the Horrible Histories range we also have a selection of puzzles – Putrid Pirates, Rotten Romans and Terrible Tudors. Each jigsaw puzzle contains 300-pieces and an eight page loathsome leaflet stuffed with foul facts - history with the nasty bits and pieces left in!!

It has been 20 years since the first Horrible Histories books, Awesome Egyptians and Terrible Tudors, were published.  Over the last two decades there have been more than 100 titles published, which have sold 20 million copies to 31 countries - Wow! So it was sad to hear Terry Deary report, earlier this month, that Horrible Histories had naturally come to an end.  He expects his next book, Deadly Days in History, to be his last for children – boohoo!  But apparently he’ll be back with another four-part Horrible Histories series for adults focusing on the Roman Empire, the Vikings, the Elizabethans and the Victorians….which we can’t wait to read!

That’s your rotten lot this week!