Category Archives: Half-term activities

Galt Toys Launches Sensational Sequins

Posted on: by Galt Toys

Sensational Sequins Pretty Pets, the latest addition to join the Galt art and craft range, was launched towards the end of last year. This cool activity pack helps children to create six sparkly sequin pictures of a kitten, pony or puppy, on either a  board to hang on their bedroom wall or a stand-up character to display on a shelf, as well as a pretty framed mirror.

This craft kit will provide hours of sparkly fun – all they have to do is simply peel off the backing sheet, pick up a sequin with the specially made wax crayon and then stick the sequin to the picture, matching the colour of the sequin to the colour on the board.  With over 2000 large and medium sequins in assorted colours, children should start with the pictures and the larger sequins, then progress to the stand-up characters using the medium sequins.

The act of matching sequin colours to the corresponding board colour is great for hand-eye coordination and cognitive development. The varying activities in the kit means children will have plenty of new challenges for hours of creative sequin fun!

We are massive fans of art and craft to keep little ones occupied at parties or on rainy days. Get children knitting, braiding, sticking, painting, folding, sewing and creating.  As most of you are probably aware we have a fantastic Activity Zone on the website, full of FREE Make & Dos and we are always on the lookout for new ideas, so if you have any creative ideas or suggestions you would like to add, we’d loved to hear about them – just fill in the comment form below or upload your suggestions to our Facebook page or tweet us at @GaltToys.

 

A Homemade Halloween

Posted on: by Galt Toys

Halloween is one of those holidays that keeps getting bigger. In fact, it is being heralded as the third most significant event in the retail calendar after Christmas and Easter, due to a consumer spend of £315 million in 2011….a frightening cost!

So why do children love it so much? They get to dress-up, wear ghoulish face paint and go trick or treating with friends and family…plus eat masses of sweets. Halloween is the one holiday that celebrates creative imagination.  Everyone can have a spooky costume of some mystical creature, whether they choose to be a witch, vampire or googly ghost, it is great make-believe play.

Halloween doesn’t need to be expensive, there are masses of make and dos you can create at home.

Deadly Decorations:

Flying bats – all you need is black cardboard, black cotton, scissors, pen/chalk and hole-punch. Draw a small circle for the head and an oval for the body. The body is usually about twice the size of the head. Then add two smaller circles to the head for the ears – bats usually have quite big ears and often a little pointy too! For the wings, draw two upward curved lines, coming from either side at the top of the body. These will create the top of the wings, and then draw inverted semi-circles coming back down to the bottom of the body.  Once you have completed your bat outline cut out the shape, gently bend the bat shape down the middle, so its wings stand up. Using the hole-punch, make a hole on one of the wings. If you want, you can decorate your bat using glitter – give it silver fangs! Next, thread some black cotton through the hole and hang up around the house.

Monster Footprints - draw a footprint on a bath sponge. Cut out the footprint. Pour water-based paint into a bowl. Press the sponge into the paint and print footsteps all around the outside of your house for a Frankenstein effect.

Gruesome Get-Ups:

Fake Blood – Ingredients required:  20ml of golden syrup, 1 tsp red food colouring, 3-4 drops blue food colouring, and ½ tsp of plain flour. Mix the syrup and food colouring together first, then slowly stir in the flour. The ‘blood’ should be syrupy, so it can slide down your arm.

Halloween Mask - make your own terrifying papier-mache mask - all you have to do is download our template and the instructions for FREE from our Activity Zone and get creative!

Foodie feast:

Witch’s broomstick - Melt equal weights of chocolate and butter with a little golden syrup (an adult must do this bit). Then stir the melted mixture into some crumbled whole-wheat cereal and, on a greased baking tray, form into the twiggy ends of the broomsticks. Then press in a chocolate finger biscuit to create the broom handle, chill in the fridge overnight.

Dead Man’s eye balls - hard boil some eggs slice in half, scoop out the yolk and mix with mayonnaise or salad cream, place the filling back into the egg and top with a raisin.

Hope you enjoy our spooktacular ideas…. Happy Halloweeeeeen

 

Pens at the READY….

Posted on: by Galt Toys

If your child likes drawing they will LOVE this….. THE BIG DRAW, a month-long festival celebrating the art of drawing is taking place right across the UK with events up and down the country. This campaign aims to get us all believing we can draw! So, if your child wants to illustrate like the Quentin Blake, create characters such as the award winning Gruffalo or colourful masterpieces like Picasso, then check out the BIG DRAW website for details.

We are massive fans of art and craft at Galt and have an amazing selection of art materials to power the imagination for a whole range of ways for little people to get arty. From basic paints and pencils to our popular Squeeze ‘n’ Brush and Paintastics ranges where the paint is IN the brush, there’s something for everyone!

Triangular Pencils

Drawing is one of the first ways for a child to express themselves. From their first scribble on the wall to a colourful piece of art work for the fridge, the value of this creative outlet is huge. The way they draw can tell you a lot about their imagination, thoughts, engagement and emotions, providing incredible insight into their young minds.

Children need a variety of items to draw with and draw on. These could be pens, chalk, crayons, paint and brushes, paper, cardboard, boxes and even concrete – variety is key! Eric Carle, author and illustrator of the hugely popular ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ took his illustrations to the next level with a collage technique. By using lots of pieces of coloured and hand painted paper, he built up his images to make them come alive!

Why not try this technique at home and make your own collage to hang on the wall – get masses of paper, newspaper, tissue paper and magazines and tear them up into all sorts of random shapes and sizes. Then glue the torn up paper onto a large piece of cardboard using PVA glue. When dry, keep on building up the layers of your picture with more colours and textures until you have the desired effect! You’ll end up with a multi-coloured ‘picasso-esque’ picture.

If you want to pass on TV artist Tony Hart’s passion for art, show them that even the most uninspiring household objects such as, toilet roll inners, old newspaper, empty cereal packets and yoghurt pots are great for homemade Make and Dos!

You never know, your child’s creations could become valuable.  Autumn de Forest, an 8 year old from Las Vegas is the world’s youngest conceptual artist and has earnt $200,000 already, with her work being compared to Salvador Dali and Picasso – wow!

If you want to share your little ones creative drawings, please upload them to our Facebook page or tweet us @GaltToys