A Special Project

We had the honour of attending a special little guys 5th birthday party today.
It was a lovely afternoon of swimming, playing, eating and catching up with friends.

The invitation for this particular party summoned knights and ladies to Sir James's 5th birthday party - and it got my wheels turning with all kinds of handmade gift ideas!

Initially I thought of making a knights costume for the birthday boy...
worried his little brother might feel left out I thought maybe a set of shields and foam swords...
concerned how even foam weapons could go wrong in the hands of a 2 and 5 year old I came upon the winning idea: A Castle Play Fort!!



Conscious that no parent wants their kid to receive an unexpected gift that will take up half the living room I decided that I would make the castle in a way that would allow it to be easily stored when not in use.

For this project I used

2 pieces of foam core ( 1 - 4'x8', 1 - 4' x 6' ) Coroplast would work too
20 feet of cording
2 - 1" long, 1/4" diameter bolts with matching washers and nuts
self adhesive velcro
2 sided tape
1 brand new, small exacto knife
1 metal edged quilting ruler
1.1 meter of 60" fabric + felt and ribbon trim for a bag to store all the pieces in ( sorry I forgot to get a photo of it! )

I had the huge sheets cut down into smaller chunks at the art store.
The 4' x 8' sheet was cut into 2 - 3'x4' and 1 - 2' x 4' sections. The smaller was cut in half.
They still didn't fit completely into my Sunfire's trunk though and it was a precarious drive home.

I would have liked to do a tutorial for this project but with Luca home from daycare all week and Christian away at the geek fest in Indianapolis, I wasnt able to capture and record every step / measurements. Here you can see the main structure at it's simplest:

Please forgive the random fabric and mess everywhere, it was a busy crafting week and my basement paid the price.

What I can tell you about the process of making this though is that it was not actually that difficult; however, careful measuring is needed for success. You need to be sure to cut when you need to cut and score when you need to score or else things don't turn out quite as planned!

The side panels that fold at 90 degrees to support the bulk of the castle were cut at a small angle on the bottom so the castle leans back a bit onto them. The 'towers' actually help to keep the panels from collapsing onto themselves or out to the sides.

The 2 sided tape and velcro were used to create tabs that keep the windows closed as well as to create tabs to tie off the ropes that lower and raise the draw bridge.

The kids LOVED it! The older kids really enjoyed pulling the draw
bridge up and hiding behind it where as the younger kids got a thrill from entering and exiting via the draw bridge.

It looks great in just white but I also gave the birthday boy paint and brushes to decorate it with on a sunny day outside if Mom and Dad say its okay =)

I will definitely be making one ( or a few ) of these for Luca in a few years!

Ooops... when good ideas go wrong

Sometimes as parents we try a little too hard.
We have flashes of brilliance peppered with ingenuity that seem like the perfect thing to do with the kids on a lovely summer afternoon.
But once in a while these ideas have repercussions that leave the kids looking like lobsters.

Yup I said lobsters.


I guess I should rewind here and tell you what actually happened.

Luca and I were hanging out, while Papa packed his suitcase and finished up some things around the house before his trip. Sick of the trains we had been playing with Luca looked up the shelving unit, settled his big eyes on the crafting bins and asked to paint. Loving this idea and pulled down the bins and pulled out what was left of the paint - blue, green and white tempra paint and black acrylic. Not feeling for scrubbing hardened black plastic out of the grout lines of the ceramic I decided it was best to put the acrylic away for another day. In hindsight maybe I should have just gone with the acrylic.

Looking at the three colours of tempra I was underwhelmed.
We had painted with these ones before and the results were drab at best. With a proverbial scratch of the chin I headed for the kitchen to see what I could dig up. With no beets on hand I turned to the baking cupboard... There, sitting untouched on the bottom shelf, were 2 little cylinders of gel colour food tints in hot pink and purple which had been sweetly passed along from a friend, but would likely not get used any time soon. Perfect!

Mixing them with a bit of water in small plastic container I added them along side the tempra paints and headed out onto the patio to where Luca ( dressed only in a diaper ) had started on our creation by using pencil crayons and markers on a piece of an old photo backdrop.
I joined him, ready to create a masterpiece...um mural =P


Luca asked me to draw a fire engine, police car, and ambulance and then headed for the paint. I decided to draw a fish, a crab and a jellyfish ( some of the things we saw on our recent trip to PEI ) and then added seaweed and coral.

Shortly after he had begun Luca's hands and feet were covered in paint. Of course I had expected this... what I didn't expect was that the pink food colouring would not wash off AT ALL after we were done! So much for my bright idea. From his toes to his thighs and half way up his arms Luca was fluorescent pink. Not that he cared though. He just thought it was a fun thing to do with Mom on a sunny afternoon and that, in the end, is what matters.

Today he looks like he has had his finger and toe nails painted pink but the majority of the colour on his arms and legs has warn off from sand at the play ground and bubbles in the bath tub... I have a feeling I should be very happy that his navy blue sheets are on his bed as well. We'll be walking over to the store to get red and yellow tempra paint this afternoon.

Crafty goodness