Paper Gingerbread Men

My 5 minutes arty-crafty time again!

I love reading Beijing Kids, a magazine with comprehensive information and recommendations of new play areas in Beijing, recipe and DIY arts for parents to try on (especially in this cold cold winter when most of us are home-bound), interesting articles written by expat mums/ dads to share their raising kids experience in Beijing. And most important of all, it's FREE! and readily available in supermarkets and schools. I will always grab a copy at the beginning of month and reading it with great anticipation for all the new insights. And i always happy to find some new "discoveries" of each issues.

There is an article showing illustrating how to make gingerbread men. So i get ready my scissors and paper and start cutting (a prelude to the baking of my gingerbread cookies!) hee..

Ta-da!

Cutting gingerbread men nicely is a challenging work for my 3yo, it involves fine motor skill that he has yet to master well. He cuts through the gingerbread men's head & limbs and making it a handicapped one instead. Haa! And i definitely love to involve him in this artwork, he is happy when i ask for his help to draw some face features of this gingerbread man. Look at his creation!

The 1st man was drawn by me, 2nd one was Zq's creation. I love his "cheeky" gingergerbread man! :)

Christmas Wreath

5 minutes is all you need for an artpiece done!

A quicky one as the boys napped way too long, we have about half an hour before their dinner time and this craftwork is good.

Cut a big hole in the middle of the paper plate, then paste the green paper on the rim of it. Zq used a pen to "push" the paper to create a "gathered" effect and it looks much more lively and real. Then lastly, touched up the green wreath with a few red paper for a complete look of the wreath.

When we were doing up our wreath, i was wondering what the meaning of a Christmas wreath is, and so i did a google on it.

The essence of what a Christmas wreah signifies:
- eternity,
- everlasting life,
- growth
- Jesus's blood,
- and the circle of life that is forever

Since the circle has no beginning and no end, many believe it represents God's love for us, no beginning and no end. In other words, God loves us thick and thin, regardless of what daily challenges we happen to struggle through.
Evergreens are used in Christmas wreath as it stays green all year round and represents hope that we all need to live as joyously as possible.
Though i am not a Christian, but the meaning of the Christmas wreath touches me lots. And isn't it symbolize the love to our little one as well? I will always love my boys no matter what happened, regardless what changes & challenges occured along the way, my love is going round and round and will never end. And HOPE is what i want to teach and share with them, we need to live with hope for a positive and meaningful life..

Zq said it looked like a CLOCK! :p

We hung it on our main door for decoration and to welcome Santa Claus's arrival (he will visit us and give him a big present as he did a very beautiful wreath - claimed by Zq) :p

And our ingenious papa asked us "Is it a doughnut on the door?" when he back from work. Duh!

Multiple straws cup

A good way to train An An's fine motor skill. I love recycle and reuse things and make them into useful stuff and fun toy for the boys!

Materials: a used plastic container and some straws. Poke many holes on the container, cut the straws into handy size for his little hands. What a good way to keep him self-entertain for 10 minutes :)

All by my little chubby hands!

Snowflake

In the midst of brainstorming and researching on winter-related theme of activities/ art & craft for the boys, i chanced upon a blog of a mama demonstrating how she did up beautiful snowflake with her daughters, and it was very simple yet lovely! So the not so arty-crafty me decided to give it a try!

The materials needed:

- white canvas sheet

- masking tape

- blue & purple paint

Masking tape is used to form the shape of a snowflake. And recently i have been reading some Baby Einstein winter flash card to the boys, how appropriate it is to be used here again!

Snowflake facts:

• all snow is made of hundreds of thousands of tiny snowflakes. they are so tiny that one can sit on your pinky!
• snow flakes are really just little drops of water that have frozen into crystals
• each snowflake is different. no 2 are alike!

The boys painted the whole canvas sheet with blur & purple paint. Zq was engrossed and painted his picture carefully, while An An was more interested in my cammie. This activity tooks a longer time and i think it's more age-appropriate for a 3yo rather than a 18 month :)

We peeled off the masking tape after the paints dried. And we outlined the snowflake with a black marker to enhance the effect of the picture.

Isn't it lovely?