Category: craft

February 4, 2019

Bring Star Wars to Life with Star Wars Maker Lab

Ever wanted to move things without touching them like a Jedi can? Or grow your own kyber crystal? Now you can (and maybe just maybe you can share with your child!).

About Star Wars Maker Lab

With 20 amazing projects, Star Wars™ Maker Lab teaches your child how to become a Master of science, in both the real world and the Star Wars galaxy. Using clear step-by-step instructions, the book guides scientists and makers through each experiment – from making Jabba’s gooey slime or a hovering landspeeder, to an Ewok catapult and a glowing Gungan Globe of Peace. Each experiment has fact-filled panels to explain the real-world science as well as the Star Wars science fiction from the movies.

With projects that are out of this world, this Star Wars book can keep children entertained for hours, making use of many household items such as cardboard tubes, baking soda, cornstarch, straws, balloons, and food coloring. There is also plenty to keep adventurous scientists engaged, with instructions on how to make your own bristlebot mouse droid, lightsaber duel, and Mustafar volcano. Star Wars Maker Lab supports STREAM topics and helps children to learn the basics of science by traveling through the Star Wars galaxy.

My Thoughts

This beautiful hard cover book is a child (and adults) dream come true. We are huge Star Wars fans although we do argue over if the newer or older movies are better (I still love the oldies!). This bold, vibrant book is full of ideas that help make the popular series come to life.

I have to be honest, some of the experiments would require you to have to go out and make a special purchase as you may not have them lying around the house. Which is perfectly okay – you just would have to plan out the projects to ensure you had every item (I don’t own a hamster ball but that project looked like so much fun).

We decided to tackle making Kyber crystals this weekend. I had most of the items needed except for clothespins but we improvised and it still worked. The kids loved the craft but were a bit impatient with wanting to eat the crystals as soon as possible. I loved how the book explained the process of creating the cyrstals and how it worked while incorporating a Star Wars theme. I was also a bit impatient and kept pulling the skewers out of the solution to check on the state of the crystal formation, this was fascinating to watch even as an adult!

This is an excellent craft book for any Star Wars fan. You will want to plan ahead to ensure you have everything you need to create the crafts but you will not be disappointed (our next item to tackle is creating our own light sabres – awesome right?). The instructions are easy to follow, a lot of illustrations to help you along the way and helpful hints (like watch the hot sugar boiling but this Mom still managed to splash herself!). Enjoy hours of Star Wars themed fun with this book – you will never have a dull PA or snow day again!

You can learn more about this book on the DK Canada website and purchase a copy on Amazon.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

December 14, 2016

Create Family Adventures with Trollhunters This Holiday Season

We are so close to the Christmas holiday break and soon the kids will be out for school for two weeks. While they are always super excited to be home (yay no school!), too quickly the ‘I’m so bored’ can set in. While you may look at them and wonder how can you possibly be bored with all the new gifts, we know this happens year after year. Netflix is here to the rescue with the release of DreamWorks Trollhunters on December 23rd, 2016.

Trollhunters follows the tale of a fifteen year old boy who finds a magical amulet. This amulet gives him the title of Trollhunter, defender of the trolls that live below the human town of Acadia. With his friends, they become tangled in this new world and in the fight between good and bad trolls.

There are twenty-six episodes which total thirteen hours of adventure, suspense and imagination. Parents will love the acts of bravery and friendship, as well as the adult humour tied in there that we get but will go over the kids heads (big thumbs up there!). Kids will love the twenty gross out moments and the forty-six moments that will make them laugh out loud.

To help you out on this adventure (and to keep active children busy), check out this handy battle and armor sword activity to help bring the action to life. Just print out this PDF and get ready for action packed fun. And if you really want to embrace the Trollhunters fun, make some delicious hard rock candy – we all know Trolls love hard rock candy and so will your little adventurer.

So my question to you is: how do you handle the long two weeks of the Christmas break? Do you have any go to favourite movies/activities/crafts?

Disclosure: I am a #StreamTeam Member and receive perks with this affiliation. All opinions expressed are my own.

September 21, 2016

Family Movie Night Bingo #StreamTeam

It’s no lie that we love our family movie nights. We create a camp out in front of the living room television with blankets and pillows, make some popcorn and turn on Netflix for some family fun films or series.

Sometimes this can get boring for our kids so we have to switch it up and add some flair to our movie nights. Netflix came up with the best solution for family movie nights by including movie bingo – sounds fun right? If you aren’t sure about the movie bingo concept, you have your bingo card and as the words (like dancing, swimming, etc..) happen in the movie, you cross/stamp/sticker that box off. You choose before if you want a line, the full card, a square, two lines to be the winner.

Here is how we set up our Family Movie Night Bingo:

First print out these awesome bingo printables courtesy of Netflix. You can add some designs or stickers to them or even have your child decorate their card the night before to make it more personal. Let them get creative – it gets them excited and looking forward to movie night with their family.

It’s important to choose your family movie before movie night arrives. Save yourself the headache of the arguments and tears and have a system in place of who gets to choose the next movie and the type of movies that are allowed. There are some great films on Netflix right now such as: Maleficent, Tangled, Zootopia and The Princess and The Frog.

Now that your family movie night is here, prepare your family’s favourite movie snacks whether it be popcorn or licorice and lay out your drinks on a side table if yow allow snacks in the family room or in the kitchen if you have a no snack rule out of the kitchen. Have your bingo cards ready along with markers for stampers or stickers to take the place of stamps.

All that is left is for you to get your movie started and see who wins the bingo game! Maybe even make the winner the one who chooses the next family movie night?! That ups the competition level up a notch. And once the kids go to bed – save some cards for you and your spouse! We had so much fun battling it out to be the Netflix Movie Night Champ!

How do you add variety to your family movie nights?

Disclosure: I am a #StreamTeam member and receive perks with this affiliation. All opinions expressed are my own.

September 19, 2016

Printable Colouring Book Fun with KidloLand and WMJ

Educational Fun with KidloLand Nursery Rhyme App

A little over two months ago, I shared with you the educational nursery rhyme app, KidloLand on my blog (you can find all the information here). I have once again partnered with them to bring you a twelve page printable colouring book for your little ones.

My boys love to colour and I am constantly online printing out new cartoons, new animals and cars for them to colour. It keeps them physically and mentally busy all while having fun! It also let’s you as the parent get some much needed time to get other things done, like maybe cooking dinner – I know it has always helped us out in the past.

Make sure you download and print off the exciting new colouring book and share your child’s colourings with me online! I would love to see their work. Enjoy!

Disclosure: I received no compensation for this post. All opinions expressed are my own.

September 9, 2016

Ladybug and Cat Noir Masks

Ladybug and Cat Noir are back in their latest adventures! Your child can join in on the fun with these cool printouts from Shout! Kids. Don’t forget to enter our current giveaway here to win a DVD of Spots On!

Click here to download the here.

To download a Cat Noir mask, click here!

Enjoy!