It is that time of the year again – to be making Angpow decors for Chinese New Year.  We will be welcoming the Year of the Rabbit on January 22, 2023. The rabbit is the fourth in the twelve-year cycle of animals in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. Legend has it the Rabbit was proud and arrogant even of its speed. However, according to the Chinese Zodiac, people who are born in the year of the […]

I’m not a gamer hence I know nothing about the game Among Us but Ayden is a huge fan of it. The other day he requested for an Among Us paper craft for him to play the offline version with his friends so I made him an Imposter. I used coloured paper, a cloth peg and glue to make this.  Watch this video to see how I made it: I also made AMONG US bookmarks […]

During these restricted movement times, we are going to spend all our time at home. I was cooking in the kitchen when I heard Ayden talking. I wondered who he was talking to as Ethan is upstairs. Went out to see him recording a tutorial all by himself 😱 Kids these days…. Anyway here it is! This Paper Plate SUN tutorial video is recorded entirely by Ayden. I need to hide my phone after this. […]

We will be welcoming the RAT zodiac next year hence I’ll be sharing THREE videos on how to make a simple yet adorable ANGPOW MOUSE and ONE video of Meat Floss RAT cookies. Watch the tutorials here:    For more Chinese New Year Angpow decor ideas and tutorials, head over to our YouTube playlist here: DIY Chinese New Year AngPow Decor 

The rainy season is here and this situation is expected to last till the end of the year. With the boys cooped up at home unable to go to the playground due to these constant evening showers, I have to think of something to keep them occupied. Children these days get glued to their gadgets easily if we don’t practice certain control over them. With them getting more and more exposed to different types of […]

A couple of weeks ago, on a Saturday when big brother Ethan was busy with taekwondo, we brought little Ayden to a Hari Raya open house by a property developer.  Besides having a tour of their show houses, there were also a couple of complementary art and craft activities for the little ones.  Little Ayden painted this batik kampung house. It is his first time to complete a batik painting entirely on his own as […]

It’s the beginning of the new year and that means time to get busy again with DIY Chinese New Year Angpow decorations.  We’ve been receiving requests on doing tutorial videos for the many DIY Chinese New Year Angpow decoration written tutorials I’ve shared in the past years.  I was not into video making then hence there were no video tutorials for them but we are now so I’ll be sharing all our Chinese New Year […]

Happy Halloween! We don’t celebrate Halloween but the boys always enjoy participating in public Halloween events.  This year, Ayden’s Mandarin enrichment class will be celebrating Halloween in class and the kids are encouraged to bring something related to Halloween.  I baked chocolate chip cookies for Ayden and got the boys to make Ghost Lollipops to share with Ayden’s friends.  Materials needed are: 1) Tissue Paper 2) Lollipops 3) Thread 4) Scissors 5) Black Marker Instructions: […]

The boys were a little under the weather with flu and cough recently, so I bought them lots of tissues for their runny noses. Anyway, Ayden and Ethan are better now but since we have so much tissue paper at home, I thought of making a tissue craft with them. We made a candle transfer craft art. Materials needed are: 1) Tissue papers (We used Vinda Deluxe 3-ply Facial Tissues in soft packs) 2) Candles […]

It rained the past couple of days so I had to find something interesting for the boys to do as they can’t go to the playground. Both Ethan and Ayden love colouring and painting. Usually I’ll print something out for them to colour or paint but today I tried something different with them.  Today, I introduced the boys to augmented reality colouring app for smartphones or tablets. It is not something entirely new as it […]

Being home-schooled, one of the activities I frequently do with Ayden at home is painting. Painting provides endless benefits to children. Even myself as an adult find painting therapeutic. Here are some of the benefits of painting for children: Hand-Eye Coordination – This is a very important skill at their age; to be able to coordinate their hand movements at par with their vision. It may sound easy to us but for young children, practice makes […]

It has been raining the past evenings, Ayden has caught a cold. Yesterday, it looks like it was going to rain again so I decided to bring the kids to the playground much earlier. At least if it rains, they would have gotten some sunshine and fresh air before rushing home.  Since Ayden is nursing a cold and won’t be able to play with the other kids, I let him do some art work in the […]

November is here and that means Christmas is NEAR! LoL I know, I know, I can get a little over excited sometimes. But it is never to late to start decorating our house. I love filling the house with the kids’ handicraft so I get Ayden to make one today. The elder brother will make more during the holidays. Handprint Christmas Mitten Watch this video to see how easy it is to make this lovely […]

Just the other day I shared the benefits of stamping for toddlers. In case you missed it, you may read all about it here. Today, we explore further on stamping with a new paint tool – sponge. Ayden loves Koi fish so I thought let’s make today’s art activity more interesting by letting him paint his very own koi fish. I did this same art activity with big brother Ethan back in 2012 when he […]

Ayden is 3 years old. It is important to work on his soft motor skills. At this age, I pay more attention to his finger muscles and hand strengthening as it is crucial in helping him to hold the pencil when he starts going to school. Stamping is one of the best activity to work those finger muscles as he will be utilising all four fingers and his thumb to hold the stamp. It helps in […]

Ethan came home from school one day showing me the instruction for his school craft project. I took a look at it and asked him what is that supposed to be. He said that is an owl. We got into a heated argument as I refused to believe that is how an owl is supposed to look like but he insisted it is an owl.  I don’t read chinese so I don’t know if Ethan […]

The past few days have been frustrating as it rained in the evenings, today included. We were all ready to go to the playground but as we stepped out of the house, it started to rain   You don’t know how important it is for us to go to the playground. The boys need to go to the playground to burn off whatever surplus energy they have otherwise they’ll have difficulty sleeping at night. I need […]

It’s the school holidays so let’s make something useful on everyday basis for the kids or even better when they get back to school. My boys love to read so we’ll be making an Angry Bird bookmark I learned from here. We’ll start with a red square paper. Fold it half as shown above.  Fold both ends up to form a crisp line as shown above.  Unfold the two ends.  Fold the tip of the paper down, […]

It has been a while since our last arts and crafts project. Today’s project is making paper popsicle out of the boy’s footprint. Ayden can’t do much here so Ethan assisted him when it comes to tracing and cutting.  Materials needed are coloured paper, popsicle stick, glue, pencil and a pair of scissors.  Big brother Ethan helped trace Ayden’s footprint.  He also helped to cut it out.  Ayden is able to apply glue onto the […]

Today’s craft is inspired by the colourful rocks found in big brother Ethan’s school. Ayden follows Ethan on Saturdays for big brother’s Taekwondo class. He loves the colorful rocks in the school compound. That prompted me to let him paint his own rock. Materials needed are acrylic paints, paint brush, an empty egg carton for the paints and an empty Vitagen bottle to wash the paint brush. You can always use a paint palette but I […]

It is craft time again. I love crafting using natural materials. Today, the boys did sand art.  Kids need to explore to learn. They need to FEEL how grainy the sand is and by feeling is not buying them the ‘TOUCH and FEEL book’ but letting them PLAY real sand.  After they are done playing, it’s craft time. I got them to collect the sand in the big bottle for our craft activity.  Using glue, I […]

Ayden enjoyed doing the Torn Paper Apple Art we did several days ago and kept requesting for more arts and crafts activities. I happily obliged. This time I brought them outdoor. The weather is always beautiful in the evenings and it will be such a waste not to enjoy it. I made a video of Ayden painting and stamping independently. The elder brother Ethan disappeared soon after collecting leaves to join his friends for a game […]

The weather is horrible these days. It is scorching hot in the mornings and early evenings and then it rains in the evenings causing the boys to be trapped at home. No fret though as that only means more time for art and craft! Today the boys had fun making torn paper art. The materials needed are: 1 piece red construction paper 1 piece white paper A pair of scissors A marker pen Glue *Edible […]

Big brother Ethan came home with his art homework last week. His task for that week was stamping using okra and leaves. Of course little brother Ayden won’t let the big brother work on his homework in peace unless he is given the opportunity to do the same too. So I got an extra okra for Ayden to have fun together with Ethan. I wrapped the okra with tissue as their hand gets itchy holding […]

Can you believe it that we will be welcoming the Fire Monkey in just a few more days? Still it is not too late to make some DIY CNY decor using past year’s ang pow packets.  This is the first time I am making a basket using red packets.  Chinese New Year Ang Pow Basket  I used 6 red packets for the basket + 12 red packets for the decor + 6 gold packets for […]

Today’s Chinese New Year Angpow decor is a remake of the classic Red Packet Fish Ornament but we added additional tail to it, making it more beautiful :) Chinese New Year Red Packet Fish Ornament We’ll need an angpow with beautiful prints on it.  Cut it into a square. Turn it over and draw lines as shown above.  Cut along the lines.  We’ll need another angpow with different print or color for the tail.  Attach […]

Chinese New Year is just a month away. We will be welcoming the Year of the Monkey. As usual, it is time to take out the Angpow wrappers and make decors with them. I did an origami monkey with my gold wrappers. Chinese New Year Angpow Origami Monkey It is best to use gold wrappers to make this monkey. I tried with pink wrappers and my friends do not seem to fancy it. They said pink […]

We have not been doing art or craft for a very long time now haven’t we? I finally took out the tempera paste today and get the boys to do a handprint Christmas tree. Ayden is much better in painting now. He can paint his own palm and stamp accordingly.  I’ve forgotten how fun it is to spend time doing artwork with the kids. Let me think of more artwork to make with the boys […]

Late last year we got ourselves a new HP Deskjet 4515 e-All-In-One printer that is able to print content from the Web without the need to connect to the computer. We had so much fun during the year end school holidays making lots and lots of origami printed from HP Printables.  Ethan had the time of his life as it is extremely easy and convenient to print origami templates from HP Printables using our HP […]

Halloween is just a couple of days away. Though Ayden is still clueless about what Halloween is all about, it doesn’t stop us from making a simple ghost artwork for fun.  I guided him to trace the outline of his foot on a piece of white paper.  Happy ghosts come in twos. He said they are very cute.  I cut the ghosts out for him to be used as bookmarks but he rather play with […]

During the long school holidays late last year, I held a craft lesson for some of Ethan’s classmates at one of his classmate’s parent’s tuition centre. The kids made Minion pencil holder.  Minion Pencil Holder using toilet paper roll and colored paper.  Recently, I have some extra time so I decided to make one again. This time I used colored felt for a better finish.  I get Ayden to help me glue the toilet paper […]

Both the boys have too many toy cars scattering on the floor. I decided to help them build a multi-storey garage last weekend. We used the larger toilet paper rolls for this project. We used 15 rolls for this multi-storey garage. Maybe we can build a bigger one next. Stick double sided tape on the TP Rolls. Stick them together as you wish. We made three levels with 5 garages on each level. Ayden seemed […]

Ayden is turning two next month. That means he is ready for art and craft activities with me. Today, we made an apple tree using toilet paper roll and coloured crepe paper.  First, I get Ayden to paint the toilet paper roll with brown tempera paste.  He only needs to paint half of the toilet paper roll as we’ll be using only half. I did not cut it first because it is easier for him […]

Ethan will be celebrating Teacher’s Day in school today. He had no time to get gifts for his teachers so I helped him buy but I forgotten to get wrapping papers. I only realized we are out of wrapping paper after dinner and it is already too late to go out already. How? We made our own wrapping paper. First, I cut a heart shape from a piece of paper.  Then I placed another piece […]

I was spending time drawing and colouring with Ayden. As usual, I’ll help him trace his hands and feet and draw faces out of them. We have been doing this since he was a baby and he loves it. Today, I am going to be very generous and share with you how to draw a human face out of your foot print. It is such an intricate art so you should pay close attention to […]

Art subject can be fun and interesting but more often than not, parents and students don’t see it that way. For example Ethan brought home his latest art project last week. It is a texture and color art work. His teacher gave him a piece of paper with a printing of a robot on it. He is required to find surfaces with textures, place the paper on it and color; making prints on the robot along the […]

We don’t usually go to Paradigm Mall but several weeks ago we did to meet up with friends. After out meet up, we thought of walking around for a while when we passed by Popular Bookstore and saw that they are giving a free art and craft session for kids but there was not even a single kid keen to participate. Why? What is happening to kids these days? Art and crafts don’t fancy them […]

It’s time to dig out your ang pow packets and make Chinese New Year decorations again because before you know it, Chinese New Year will appear right in front of you :) Though I’ve always used only angpow packets for my decorations, today’s decor requires one additional item though. We’ll need toilet paper rolls to make this lantern.  Ang pow lantern I used big toilet paper rolls instead of the normal small ones as this […]

When I published “How to make a Halloween Paper Pumpkin” 3 days before Halloween I got many mommies buzzing me requesting to post seasonal crafts EARLY so that they can make them on time for their parties.  Well, Christmas is in December and it is only the beginning of November now. I hope this entry is not too early though :D I’ve compiled 15 of our most popular Christmas crafts to share with our readers […]

I am very fortunate as I have a great Whatsapp group that consists of Ethan’s classmates’ moms. One of the mom initiated it and slowly but surely we help to add other mothers we got to know along the way. They have been very supportive throughout Ethan’s Primary One journey. We checked with each other if we were unsure regarding their homework or anything school related. Before the school holidays, I suggested that the kids […]

When Ethan was 3 years old, we did a footprint Christmas tree art together. Christmas is only a month away and now we have Ayden to join us for art and craft. This time, we use Ayden’s cute little footprint instead. Ayden together with Ethan painting Ayden’s cute little foot.  Ayden can’t paint his foot lah. He can’t even feed himself so Ethan had to do it all by himself. It is so weird that […]

I was browsing the net and came across a paper plate shark craft by Cindy and her son Trevor from My Creative Life. It looks good so I made that our project last week. Besides the paper plate, we used different materials for other parts though.  Ayden can’t paint yet so I just let him sit on his high chair watching the elder brother at work.  Ayden got restless on the high chair so I […]

Still in the mood of making simple animal crafts. Today’s extremely easy to do craft is made of paper plate. I love using paper plates for crafting as they are more durable compared to art block. It’s also nicer to paint on paper plates.  All we need is just ONE piece of paper plate. Fold as shown above. Paint the folded areas black. Glue them so they stick onto the plate.  Add eyes, beak and […]

Ethan made this cute paper plate cow back in 2011 but it got stolen during one of our craft events in Tropicana City Mall some time ago. Who on Earth would steal a child’s cow craft buffles me.  Paper Plate Cow Ethan at 4 years old back in 2011. Ethan and his cow before someone stole it. So cute this boy last time.  Why I’m sharing this again today is because we made another cow […]

A friend reminded me recently that I made a really cool, magical bird back in our primary school days that got them all awed. Funny that I don’t remember about it until he mentioned it. I’ve forgotten how to do it though so I asked my sister if she remembers and sure enough, she did. We discussed further how to actually make it and today, I made it with Ethan. This is a really fun […]

It’s the school holidays and that means planning some activities to keep the boys occupied. I did an impromptu origami session with Ethan a couple of days ago but he doesn’t know what we are making. LoL OK! Looks like I have to write up a lesson plan to introduce WHALEs to Ayden. Hmm… where can I find an edible whale? :D

It’s the school holidays and that means having Ethan at home all day, all night, all week :D To keep him occupied, we did an artwork yesterday. We did a Hand and Footprint Sun. We used Ayden’s hand and footprint for our art. Ethan tracing Ayden’s handprint.  He then traced Ayden’s foot. Ayden admiring his footprint. I get Ethan to cut out the hand and footprints. And paste them. Finally, he drew a pair of […]

Ethan’s in Primary One now. That means bringing homework home, artwork included. I can’t stand how his art paper always ended looking like salted vege (all crumpled) at the end of the day so I made him this the other day – a telescope art paper holder. I didn’t actually make a telescope initially. Just a normal paper holder but after a chat with my Whatsapp group friends, the idea of telescope came to mind.  […]

We were at the playground one evening when I recalled seeing a leaf art in one of the SJKC book recently. I quickly prompted Ethan to pick up some leaves home. Dried leaves of different shapes and sizes. Guided him to paste those leaves in place. Drew the eyes using liquid paper.  Add the eyeballs using a black marker.  Tah-dah! Can you guess what this is? A forklift! fox leaf.. Urm.. I mean a fox […]

15th September 2013 marked the first time my boys did art together. They did toe print caterpillar. Well, the big brother did most of the work but still.. :P Ethan painted a leaf. Stamped in onto a piece of paper.  Then he painted his toes.  And stamped them onto one of the leaves.  He drew legs and all and woke the little brother up.  Painted Ayden’s tiny toes. Ayden was pretty ticklish and kept pulling […]

With Merdeka Day just around the corner, Ethan has been learning a lot about patriotism and singing the Jalur Gemilang and Satu Malaysia songs everyday in Kindy. Yesterday, he brought home his homework and proudly showed me the Jalur Gemilang he drew in class.  I find it amazing that he is able to draw the STAR as I always find it difficult during my school days. I told him that my star always ended up […]

Ethan is having almost 2 weeks of school holidays and I’m already losing track of the days of the week. It happens when we are too free and need not remember what day it is today unlike during school days when every Monday means SPELLING, Wednesdays means EJAAN and Thursdays means TING XIE.  We did not go out of town as we dread the heavy traffic jam so I kept Ethan occupied at home. We […]

How many of you charges your handphone this way and worry that some elephant might stomp on it when you are not watching?  I used to do it this way until that day when I saw a genius creation of a handphone charger holder being made out of plastic shampoo container being shared on Facebook.  Well, I don’t think I can even cut a shampoo container so I decided to make do with a milk […]

I love snorkeling!  This is the best time of the year to go snorkeling but since we did not get to go snorkeling this year, we are just going to make a snorkeling craft instead :D Snorkeling pencil holder A cute toilet paper roll going snorkeling! :P We’ll need a large toilet paper roll, a straw, a sauce cup I got from McD’s (shhhhh… don’t tell them!) and a rubber band for this craft. Paste […]

The kindergarten that Ethan is attending is kinda ‘weird’ in a sense that though they have Art & Craft in their timetable, they don’t do much BUT they’d encourage us to sign Ethan up for the additional Art & Craft classes held every Thursday AFTER schooling hours with an additional fee. Some of his friends go for this and Ethan’s teacher is always commenting that though Ethan is doing great in every subject, he is […]

Every once in a while I like to buy milk in a carton. We don’t drink them too often but we do-lah once in a while. Knowing me, you’ll know that I don’t throw away things easily. I’ll try to come out with something before disposing them off.  So we did this – Milk Carton Sailboat. Ethan and his milk carton sailboat.  Ethan enjoying his glass of chocolate milk. I super love chocolate milk! Ethan […]

I blogged about making spider biscuits for Halloween Treats last October. Refer to my Spider Biscuit post to see the full instructions. The spider biscuit craft made its way on TV when it appeared in Chiki Boom’s Saya Kreatif segment last Sunday. The making of Spider Biscuit Look at Ethan and Abang Alif ‘sibuk curi makan’ while Bella and Chandini are busy making their spiders! ^_^ After completing their spider biscuits, they finally get to […]

Ethan got home from school the other day with his Mandarin homework that requires him to write the word PANDA in Mandarin and also to draw it. He did not know how to draw a panda so I taught him :) Ethan’s panda. Cute? ^_^ Here’s the step by step on how to draw a panda ^_^ We used 50, 20, 10 and 5 cents coins for this.  First use the 50 cents coin to […]

I think we’ve never experienced haze as terrible as we did the past few days.  With majority of schools closed due to the haze, we still send Ethan to kindy as usual the past two days as his school is a corner lot house with full air-conditioned and is operating as usual minus the outdoor activities. Today, Ethan was supposed to go for his BaoBei class too in the evening but he told us that […]

Last month, I posted the tutorial for Ice cream Stick Cloth Peg Aeroplane Fridge Magnet. It was actually done in preparation for the recording of Chiki Boom’s Saya Kreatif segment. Aeroplane Fridge Magnet Last Sunday, it was finally aired on TV2. This episode is extra special to me as they recorded it in my very own studio, Crafty-Crafted Studio. It is also extra special as Ethan is extremely cheeky in this particular episode. He can’t stop […]