Make Your Own Zoo - My Book!

What a journey it's been! From those first few toilet paper tube lions, to now; an actual, real kids' craft book, packed full of cardboard creatures. Make Your Own Zoo is out on the 13th August.

Who'd have thought it.

Certainly not me 3 years ago, when I started plundering the recycling pile to make animals with the youngest. My husband had gone to Afghanistan for a year, I'd started blogging to give me a focus away from the endless routine; and making a menagerie of creatures to share online just sort of happened.

My daughter began putting in requests - for giraffes, elephants, hippos - then monkeys and flamingos, and it was a challenge, but I loved it. Slowly our zoo grew, and so did an idea.....

What about a book?

I've plenty of kids' craft books, there are hoards of brilliant ones out there, but not many, as far as I'm aware have a theme like a zoo. In my experience children like going with a theme and adding to a scene they can eventually play with. I've found it helps catch their imagination and their attention, which, quite frankly is key to crafting with kids because they get bored pretty quickly.

Well mine do, I've heard the sighs and seen the rolling of eyes when the cardboard and glue come out, but making the animals together was fun, it felt as if we were going somewhere. And because she was interested, my daughter came up with her own ideas, like making a turtle with a retractable head and putting the flamingo in an ice-cream lid pond.

The zoo also shows the enormous potential of everyday cardboard packaging - tubes, egg boxes, cereal boxes - stuff we all have that usually ends up in the recycling bin.

The fact you can make a whole zoo from these ordinary things has got to be appealing?

And, thankfully, it was. The lovely team at CICO Books took me on, and I embarked on one of the steepest learning curves of my life. Apart from having kids.

Truthfully none of this would have happened without the blog. It helped give me the push I needed to try new things and, importantly, see them through. It also gave me the confidence to take the next step, because I could see people were picking up my animals on sites like Pinterest and Facebook.

I had about 14 projects on the blog before I got the deal with CICO - and there are over 35 in the book, plus short, silly poems for each animal. I've been busy! All the original step-by-steps have been updated, and I've added birds, sea life, enclosures, trees and scenery. Even an aviary and an aquarium. I'm so pleased with how they've turned out.

All the elements are there to make a scene, large or small, whether it's a big game zoo, or penguins and seals in a water park, or your own monkey world.
Wherever your imagination takes you.

The book is packed full of pictures and easy to follow step-by-steps. There's plenty of scissor practice, sometimes a little challenging, so it's best for school age kids with adult help. Parents are always going to be the best judge of how much or low little cutting to let their kids do, but I've found the more you let them loose, the better they get. Some of the bits I thought my daughter would find hard, like making holes and cutting slots, were actually her favourite, once she'd got the hang of them.

I think one important thing I'd like to get across is, whatever you make will be your own unique creation. Working with recycling cardboard is not an exact science - packaging varies; sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. Trust me, I know! So, this kind of crafting is about making the most of what you've got, adjusting and tinkering if you have to. Lots of room for artistic licence! Don't worry if they don't look exactly like the pictures; different is good - they are your animals with their own personalities.

And I'd love to see them! I've started a Facebook page called Make Your Own Zoo where I'll share ideas, and hope eventually people will post pictures of creatures they've made from the book or the blog.

That would be fantastic.

 

A Favourite Place

I've done a lot of wandering up and down this beach. It's near Tyrella by the Mountains of Mourne in Northern Ireland, and we spent all the childhood summers I can remember, in a small cottage a stone's throw from here.

I don't know how we all managed to squeeze in; often there'd be the six of us, plus cousins and Granny, but you don't think about things like that when you're small do you; it's just the way it was.

What I remember is the mismatched china; lucky bags; ulster fries; an army of earwigs in my felt tip case and swing-ball battles. And just lying on the big bed in the main room, colouring in with my sisters, while mum cooked over the fire beside us in large blackened pans. Life at the cottage was pretty close to camping. There was no electricity and we drew water from a deep well in the garden. Best of all the chemical loo was in a marvellous old sentry box with a sea view my Grandad had picked up in a salvage yard. There were two other tiny rooms off the main one and mum had quite ingeniously managed to shoe-horn in three, three tiered bunks she bought when Armagh prison closed down and all the contents were sold off.

So we slept on our prison beds in sleeping bags full of sand, with a night light flickering beside us. The stuff childhood memories are made of.

Back to the beach and the reason for all the walking, because on the whole kids don't tend to be the keenest walkers, and I was no exception, but the thing is I loved hunting for shells. I'd spend hours wandering slowly along the tidelines, collecting any that caught my eye. The prize finds were always cowries and pelican's feet because there weren't so many, and I did become annoyingly good at finding them.

No surprise then that my daughter has caught the shell-seeking bug...with a gentle push from me obviously, and on a trip to Tyrella a while ago the two of us wandered up the beach together and collected a bucketful of shells. We used them to make mice and pram ladies - I remember doing this with Mum, right down to brushing on a shiny coat of clear nail varnish.

I'm fond of this picture with the sea mist softening lines and colours - she almost looks like she's floating. It was strange old weather, with blustery showers, heavy skies, sun and mist, though not so unusual for a beach day in Northern Ireland...

Funny, I don't really remember it raining during those summers by the sea.


Many more favourite places to peruse over at Tara's Photo Gallery.

Savoury cheese muffins with wild garlic and fennel

Love the idea of heading out for a walk in the countryside and finding fresh wild food, but my foraging skills are limited to the blatantly obvious - things like blackberries, wild strawberries, elderflower, rosehips - ones where there's no speck of doubt! Going on a course would help, and I've talked about doing that for ages, but it always slips off the 'would be good to do' list.
We found a puffball mushroom the size of a football a while a go, and even though it really couldn't be mistaken for anything else, there was still this slight niggle about actually cooking and eating it. Silly really because it was delicious. And lasted for days.

Wild garlic is good foraging fodder at the moment, and luckily we have quite a few patches around the garden. The foliage isn't unlike a lot of other healthy green, shiny weeds growing like triffids at the moment, but crush a leaf between your fingers and there's no mistaking that pungent smell. The raw leaves have a strong, fiery taste, though really come into their own when cooked. Even more delicate than garlic, a bit like chives, and a lovely alternative to spinach wilted in some olive oil or butter.

Best picked April/May time, before there are too many star-like white flowers, when the leaves can get tough and bitter - you can eat the flowers too though. Probably coming toward the end of the season now, but the leaves still taste good to me. Wild garlic is usually found in woodland among the bluebells, or in marshy, damp places.
Says a lot about our garden...

It doesn't take long to pick, my daughter knows the best spots now, and you don't need much anyway. Often chop up a few leaves and add them to pasta sauce or risotto, but the thing everyone seems to like the best are these wild garlic, cheese and fennel muffins. They're a savoury-loving lot my kids.


280g of wholemeal or plain flour
3 teaspoons of baking powder
2 tablespoons of sugar
75g of grated cheddar + 25g grated parmesan (or 100g of whatever cheese you have in the fridge)
10 wild garlic leaves finely chopped
1 teaspoon of fennel seeds
1 egg
100ml plain yogurt and 200ml of milk (or 300ml of milk)
90 ml of vegetable oil
Makes about 10 muffins
190-200 degrees C, Gas Mark 5-6

Put the cases in the muffin tin - they tend to stick to the cases more than sweet ones, so if you prefer, do away with them and lightly oil the tin instead.

Add the flour, baking powder and sugar to a large bowl and stir in most of the grated cheese. Leave a little to sprinkle on top of the muffins.

In a measuring jug dollop in the yogurt, top up to 300ml with the milk, and then pour in 90ml of vegetable oil. Crack the egg into this liquidy concoction and beat with a fork.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, add the chopped wild garlic and the fennel seeds and mix together. Don't over-stir though. The mixture will be quite sloppy.

Spoon into the cases and sprinkle on the leftover cheese.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until the tops are golden brow and spring back when pressed gently.

Best served fresh and warm - though not at all bad reheated with a little spread of butter...

   

Paper primrose posy

There was a steep, grassy bank near our house when I was little. It was a great thinking spot - sitting up high, looking out over the garden, and in early Spring it was covered in primroses - a soft, delicate blanket of yellow. Anytime I see them now it takes me right back. So, these paper primroses are a nod to my wildflower bank, where I got lost in big, happy dreams.

They’re based on the paper daisy folding technique - though a little different because the petals are sort of heart shaped.

You will need:
yellow and green paper or plain paper to paint
sheet of newspaper
small plastic flower pot or yogurt pot
yellow and orange paint
PVA craft glue
Two small bottles or pots, for circle templates. One a little bigger than the other (for leaves).

If you have a small plastic flower pot, then that’s perfect - we didn’t, so I rubbed some sandpaper over a yogurt pot to take the sheen off, and painted it with multi-surface primer the night before. 

Make up some terracotta coloured paint using ready-mixed poster or acrylic paints. 

Mix red and yellow together and add just a little blue - then a good amount of white until you’re happy with the colour. I find adding white helps cover shiny, awkward surfaces like this - it works a treat on the outside of cereal box card too.

While the paint is drying, draw round the smaller circle template (we used a spice jar) for your primrose, and cut it out.

Fold the circle in half, then half again.

Draw a straight line up from the tip to the top, and make a mark halfway along the line.
Draw another line passing through this point from side to side, making a cross.

Then draw the rounded top part of a petal, from the point where the lines cross, curved up to the top and back down to the end of the line on both sides (like the top of a heart).  Keep them even.

Carefully cut round the petal tips with small scissors and when you’re happy, open up your primrose.

To make the flower centre, put a small dab of orange in the middle, and two short, thick strokes of yellow, touching the orange, under it.
Fold the flower in half, gently pressing the sides together.

Open, then put two tiny dabs of orange below the yellow and fold and press again. They’ll all have their own look which is perfect.

To make the leaves, draw round your larger circle template and cut it out.

Fold this in half, then half again.

About a cm up from the tip, draw a line straight across and mark a halfway point.

Draw a curved half leaf shape from this point to a top corner and repeat on the other side, so both look alike.

Cut carefully around the leaf tops and open up.

Put a dab of glue on the back of a flower and stick it onto a leaf. Make about 10 or 12.

Scrunch up the sheet of newspaper and stick it into the flower or yogurt pot, making sure a decent amount of it sits proud in a good mound shape.

Glue on your primroses

and overlap them, as that’s the way they like to be - bunched up close together.

Easy paper flowers

We're festooned with  flowers at the moment…mostly cheery, bright cardboard and paper ones. It all started with egg box roses, daffs and snowdrops a few weeks ago, and now there are paper daisies sprinkled around the kitchen like flower confetti! 

They are really easy to make and useful for other projects too.

You will need:
Coloured paper or plain paper to paint
General purpose scissors

For the other projects:
Small scissors (like nail scissors)
Ball of plasticine or modelling clay
Pipe cleaner
White card
Paint
Buttons
Ribbon, braid, string
PVA craft glue

1.  Find things to draw around in the kitchen, like tins, jars or side plates.

2.  It's best to start with a big circle first, to get some practice. Draw around your shape and cut it out.

3  Fold the circle in half, then in quarters and then eighths.

4.  About 1cm (1/2") up from the tip, draw a line straight across and mark it in the middle.

5.  Draw a petal shape from this mark to a top corner and repeat on the other side, making sure the petals look alike.

6.  Then, cut carefully along the pencil lines, making sure the tip of both petals stays pointy - and open up your flower.

7.  When you've made a few and feel more confident, try some smaller circles, so you can build up  flowers with a few petal layers.

8.  If you'd like to make a daisy to add to a spring flower posy, put one of your cut-outs on a ball of plasticine and push the closed tip of the small scissors through the middle of the paper. Don't make the hole too big.

9.  Push a pipe cleaner up through the hole and bend the top 3cm (1") over at a right-angle - then carefully spiral the bendy wire around itself, to make the centre of you flower. Push the paper back up under the pipe cleaner centre.

Making some flower bunting or a daisy chain is another fun thing to do with your cut-out flowers.

10. Find a longish piece ribbon or something similar, and cut to the length you want for your bunting. We used quite thin sequin braid, with a bit of sparkle, but to be honest thicker is better for stable bunting that doesn't swing about too much. 

11. Chose three different sized circles - for the outer petals, inner petals and the centre. 

12. A bottle lid makes a good centre circle template - we went for yellow middles, but pick whatever colour you like. Cut out flowers from the other bigger circles, and make enough of each to space out along your ribbon (roughly 20cm (8") between our flowers). 

13. Glue the centres in the middle of the inner petals, then brush a good amount of glue all over the middle section of the biggest flower and lay the ribbon over it, a little above the halfway point, to stop it flipping over when it's hanging up.

14. Next, dab a bit more glue on the back of the inner petals and stick them down over the ribbon and position so the petals are between the ones below.

15. Repeat along your ribbon - use a ruler or tape measure to space them evenly - then leave to dry.

16. To make a daisy chain, cut out white flowers with yellow centres and glue them straight onto the ribbon. The small yellow centres can be more fiddly to cut, so, if you want just paint them on instead.

17. Smaller flowers make lovely card decorations too. My daughter made these - some with painted centres and some with buttons, which works really well. The vase is cut out from an old birthday card.

I've had a little primrose idea….

Tales of the unexpected

It’s been quite a journey, writing a craft book - a hilly, exhilerating, exhausting hike of a journey. With a scatter of rocky patches. 

The last couple of weeks have been full on: weighty time pressure - the book’s released in August, but I hadn’t fully appreciated that it actually goes to print months before. Like now.  

So, lots of early mornings and late nights. Lots of deep breathing. Everything else pushed to the sidelines - I’ve still had to do all the stuff in the sidelines, I just haven’t done it particularly well. 
You know when you’re driving, and you get to where you’re going and can’t really remember how you got there? I’ve had quite a few school runs like that. Head lost in a cloud of cardboard cut-outs. But I’m out the other side now; nothing more to do apart from trust and pray everything’s okay. I’ve been willing this time to come, and now it’s here I’m not quite sure what to do with myself.

Working flat out has had its advantages though - it’s stopped me thinking about the other major bit of news - that my husband is going off on tour again. And there was me, thinking the last one was the last one. Should have known better. Army life never pans out the way you think. 
So, now my priorities have to change. I’ve got to find ways to simplify things; take some of the pressure off - stay sane basically. 
They’re good kids, our three, but I haven’t found that older means easier. Certainly not when you’re on your own. Yes, they’re more independent and able to do things for themselves, (if they can be bothered), but they can also be argumentative, grumpy, lazy and difficult. Challenging in a word. And challenging is hard when you’re tired and there’s no one to share with. We’re all used to him being away during the week, but weekends are a bit of a game-changer. 

Anyway, not the best time ever to start a kids craft blog. Not just because of impending changes at home, but also because I don’t want to go near another egg box for a while... I’ve got a few things made already, but I’m half-minded to put them on here; to reorganise this blog and stick to what I know. Doesn’t feel like the right moment to start something new.
Keep things simple. Make space. Deep breaths.

A frugal feast

I keep peering hopefully in the fridge, which is a bit mad.
Last day of the Challenge though, and even with an empty, echoey fridge, no one's gone hungry.
I thought I'd quickly whisk through how we've managed to stretch out our £15 supplies this week.

One of the first things I made was a tomato sauce, using the tinned toms, onion, sugar and a squeeze of ketchup (plus the end of a carton of passata). Very handy for pizzas and pasta, and I'm hanging on to what's left for the grand finale pizzas tonight.

Bread. Such a joy. We wouldn't have got through the week without homemade bread. I mixed the plain cheaper flour I bought with half a bag of strong white and some wholewheat flour from the cupboard. Worked a treat I've got to say. One kilo for each batch - enough for two decent sized, (flattish-looking) loaves. I did all the kneading before school pick up, and by the time we got home they'd risen, and were ready for the oven. Warm bread with a (rationed) slither of butter. So good.

The oat cookies kept the kids happy on the way home from school. We all decided they were better than my usual ones; probably because the porridge oats from Lidl are a bit finer than the oats I normally use. 39p a bag too - definitely be buying those again.

AND the 30p a bar dark chocolate. Of course no one noticed a change in the brownies; they disappeared just as quickly. No cries of, 'Mummy, I simply can't eat brownies with such a low cocoa content!'
Can you imagine.

A few spoonfuls of mango chutney livened up the mild chicken curry, so that's worth doing again too. We could have managed without splashing out 40p on rice - we didn't use much and I had a little left in the cupboard. The 40p could have gone towards getting some more milk…. I had to buy extra after the 10 year old (the only milk drinker) knocked the bottle over at breakfast. I hate cleaning milk off the floor, especially at 6.30 in the morning.

Making pancakes is another thing I don't really want to be doing at 6.30 in the morning - but the kids loved them, and for about 10 minutes I was the best mum ever.

The gnocchi was a revelation. I've never made it before - there only appears to be 3 basic ingredients (potato, flour, egg), but, frustratingly, ever recipe I found was different. So, I just mashed some spud, added an egg and mixed in flour until it looked sort of like dough. It was messy- even messier than my bread making, which is saying something, but everybody liked it. Even the fussy one.

I suppose I've missed fruit and a bit of green - our meals have been a rather samey yellowy orange colour… you've probably noticed. But we've all had plenty to eat; it's just meant more planning and more making for me. I've liked being one step ahead - though, as I've learnt from previous years, not quite enough to change my bumbling-along ways!

Still, I've picked up a few useful ideas and we've raised money for Comic Relief, so that's all good.

Fish and chips tomorrow.