A winter giraffe

I started this blog 3 weeks ago, following an incident described in my post “The scary world of 12’s”, which was for me a moment of recognition that my closest circle don’t always supply answers to parenting surprises.

I am surprised and excited by the number of comments and new followers of my blog. I know that you are all very busy, and the fact that you are taking the time to read, and care enough to comment and share, is surprising for me and above my expectations.

I think I owe you a paper mache giraffe for that!

Giraffe

To those of you who are not familiar with paper mache yet:

There are endless paper mache sites / explanations.

Basically you need to prepare a paste made of glue and water in a bowl, stir it and use it with newspaper straps or mashed wet toilet paper.

Another attitude is to boil 4 cups of water, add to it a mix of 1 cup of flour with 2 cups of water and 2 spoons of salt: Cook it all on low fire for 4 minutes and let it cool.

Very fun to do with children, and an opportunity to discuss and demonstrate recycling.

If you use newspaper straps, you work with layers: The bigger the object is, the more layers you should put. (Let them dry between 3 – 4 layers and then continue). Another good suggestion is to make the external layer white, easier to decorate.

And last – you can use any kind of paint, but it’s recommended to seal it with varnish or an acrylic sealer.

I collected some ideas, there are endless of course.  

Note that these are various creative ideas of  various creative and talented people, none is mine:

These tins are created by people with disabilities:

See the fish that can also become a mobile: The base contains polystyrene balls. The eyes are small balls, the tail is a piece of cardboard placed in the ball by making a small cut with a knife or scissors.

Here’s the link to this creative designer’s blog

She also made these owls, you already know about my obsession with owls…

OK, I love dogs as well, don’t even remember where I found this dog, sorry:

Houses can be made of milk boxes. You can also cut open windows and doors in it.

Another great idea can be an animal money-box, you cut a hole for coins in a cardboard box, add to it cardboard legs, eyes, nose, tail and cover it with paper mache.

Don’t forget to share with me other great ideas please!