Oven proof dish with a personalized message

Let's have another Christmas present that your child can help making. This can be made probably by any child over 2. Obviously the younger the child the more help they might need from you!

All you need is

• an oven proof dish (they don't cost much, but if you want to save even more money go to op shops)
• letter stickers
• sharpie

Come up with a message you'd like to see when the dish is empty. I wanted to write 'that was so good', or 'that was so yum grandma' but these letters I had in my stash had been bought from Finland and there had been only one letter g and it had already been used, I had to improvise.

Stick your letters down and let your child go nuts. I encouraged Emma to just make spots and at the end I added a few spots around the letters just to make sure that they were covered all around.

When you're happy with it start peeling the letters off and see how magical it is when the letters appear!

 Before you wrap it remember to bake your dish so that the sharpie will stay on the dish. 30 minutes in 150 degrees should do the trick.

I think anyone who loves cooking will love this gift, especially if you write a personalized message. And there you have it, another cheap and quick Christmas present any child can make.

Quickest handmade Christmas calendar

IT'S 30th OF NOVEMBER! That means that movember is finally over, WOHOOO! Sorry, I get a bit excited about that because I haven't been a big fan of the mo. But really what I meant to say was that TOMORROW IS THE 1st OF DECEMBER! Do you have your Christmas calendars?

I made one for Emma last year, but it didn't work as I hadn't bought something for all of the little bags so it looked silly and those ones that I had put something in, she would pull out before it was even that day. This year I nearly bought a chocolate one, but then it hit me. What if you made just one Christmas calendar bag and just put your surprise in it the night before so one treat at a time.


This will cost you next to nothing and take you maybe 30 minutes to make.

Here's what you'll need:

• material (any kind, you could use an old sheet, or a pillow case, old curtain or a t-towel)
• sewing machine (if you don't want to hand stitch)
• a bit of ribbon
• fabric pens (optional)

First cut your material. I just cut what looked like a good size.

Who cares about wrinkles, just iron later.

Before you sew your long sides together, get a piece of ribbon and make a hoop out of it and put it in between the two sides, remember to leave the ribbon on the right sides of the material so that it ends up on outside of your bag. Sew the sides together.

Now put that seam in the middle and sew the bottom of your bag.

Then just decorate with fabric pens and iron.

Now wasn't that easy? So if you have a sewing machine in your cupboard, get it out and make your own Christmas calendar, no excuses to buy one last minute.

Personalized pillowcases // kids craft

THIS NOTE IS FOR MY HUBBY, PLEASE DO NOT READ FORWARD UNTIL AFTER CHRISTMAS!

 Lets start thinking of Christmas presents shall we, better yet, lets start MAKING them! I was thinking whether I should share ideas that you can make for your kids first or whether to share ideas that your kids can make themselves. Well I'll share them all in time and they are all so quick to make that the order doesn't really matter.

This first present idea is one that your children can do, and it was a lot of fun and kept my child very busy and concentrated a long time. It's super easy and CHEAP and doesn't take much time to make. *Drum roll please* PERSONALIZED PILLOWCASES!

Let me explain to you why it's so cheap. Pillowcases are CHEAP! They don't really cost a lot of money! But if you decide to make this for a family member, you could actually take one from your cupboard and use that! Most of us have heaps of pillowcases without any prints that are just waiting to be decorated. And that way you have not bought anything, you've just taken it from the cupboard! Also op shops have a lot of pillowcases for something like 50 cents, that's if you don't mind using someone else's old pillowcases (I'd still wash them first).

I let Emma choose what colour pillowcase she wanted to decorate. So after you've pulled out your pillowcases from your cupboard all you need is an old news paper and a fabric marker. I was dreaming of doing blanket covers as well, but my daughter is too young to have the patience to draw that many people.. But if you have a bit older kids and decide to let them decorate blanket covers make sure to take a picture, I so want to see what it would look like.

Put your newspaper inside the pillow case so that the fabric marker won't go through to the other side, and then just let your child's imagination run wild and draw what ever they feel like.

It's very tempting to tell our kids what to draw but try letting them draw what they feel like. It was so much fun to come and have a look what she had drawn and then ask her what they all were. I wrote under all the pictures what she had drawn as I really want to look back and remember what she drew.

Once your child is finished drawing remember to iron the pictures in. That way the pictures won't come of when you need to wash the pillowcase.

I love this end result! I know we're going to give this to her dad, but I think it'll end up in her memory box. I'm sure that she'll find some of these pictures very funny when she's a teenager. Can you spot the octopus or the ladybird? What about the dinosaur with a bellybutton? And I love her explanation on that weird looking person:

Em: Emma is big and strong because Emma goes to gym.

Me: What are those spiky things in your mouth?

Em: They are my teeth

Well of course they are!! How silly of me..

There you go, first Christmas present idea that costs next to nothing and takes about half an hour for your child to do.