Fable of the Day Refrigerator Magnets

Do you like to regale the people in your life with useful advice? I do, whether they want to hear it or not! I love this project because it allows me to combine my love of Aesop's Fables with my interest in discussing morals and ethical dilemnas with my children. What you do is use the spinner to find the Fable of the Day. (or week, or whenever.) Then you can use the magnets to set up the fable on the refrigerator or on a magnet board. Then if you want, you can talk about the moral. I picked 7 fables that happened to appeal to me. Some have straightforward proverbs, like "don't count your chickens before they hatch." Others are more equivocal like "a tree that is unbending is easily broken." I am looking forward to springing this project on my family as soon as Corinne finishes taking pictures for me. (The poorly composed, badly lit photos are mine and the good ones are hers.)
You might find the 7 fables I picked to be not to your taste but fortunately there are over a hundred fables to choose from. Here is a convenient list of morals at the angelfire site. After you find a moral you like you can search for the fable and find it pretty easily online by typing the moral into Google with the word "fable" attached. Then there are numerous sites that feature fables. Of course, you may have a book of fables to read and mull over, which would be even better.
Here are the 7 that I chose.

The Farmer and the Stork

Moral: Birds of a feather flock together                                                The Olive Tree and the Reed

Moral: A tree that is unbending is easily broken.

The Hare and the Frog
There is always someone worse off than yourself 

The Serpent and the Eagle

One good turn deserves another

The Tortoise and the Hare   Slow and steady wins the race                                                      
 

The Milkmaid and her Pail

Don't count your chickens before they hatch.

The Lion and the Mouse

   No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted.

To make your own magnetic fables you have to decide which fables you want to use and how you want to make the characters. I cut mine out of felt. You could draw them onto paper and laminate it, use clip art from the internet, or come up with your own original way to illustrate the fables. You also need to write or type the name of each fable and the proverb that goes with it.

Materials

• Artwork to accompany each fable ie animals, props, title of fable, moral
• Magnetic printer paper
• Craft glue
• scissors (It would be good to have both big and sharp and tiny and sharp.) 

Steps

1. Take each fable and decide what you will need to execute it. I tried to keep things simple. For The Lion and the Mouse I only have the animals and a net. This is the same net that is used for The Farmer and the Stork. Many items like trees and roads can be used for multiples stories.
2. After you have your list make the items and glue them onto magnet paper.
3. You can hand write or type the title of each fable and the accompanying moral.
4. I made my spinner out of blank shrinky dink paper. I punched a hole in it before baking so that I could insert a brass fastener. If you have any old board games laying around with spinners it would be really convenient to just repurpose an existing spinner, or at least dismantle one and use the arrows.
5. The bag that holds everything is just a piece of felt folded in half and sewn up the sides. I bought two magnetic clips so it can hang on the refrigerator too.  
6. Now, spin the dial and discover some words of wisdom to guide your day!

 

 

Greek Goddess Paper Dolls

 I just made my kids something I wish I had had as a young girl. Magnetic, Greek Goddess Paper Dolls.

I am aware how nerdy this is.

We went to the library, pretty much weekly when I was a kid, and each got to pick out our own selection of books, and movies. One day I discovered this book,  D'Aulaires Book of Greek Mythology  and I never forgot it. I poured over all the information inside, and studied the illustrations.  I would return the book, and quickly check it out again. This is where I learned all about Greek Mythology and really, never forgot it. 

So, I really enjoyed coming up with these dolls and finding the right distinctive items to showcase each goddess with dress and hair.

 The doll is a simple Greek maiden with braided, pulled back hair and simple white dress. 

 Artemis-goddess of the hunt, archery, children, animals, virginity, the moon.

(she was my favorite, when I first read about them)

 Athena -goddess of Wisdom and defense, handicrafts, strategic warfare.

(she is my new favorite!)

 Hera - Queen of the gods, marriage and family.

 Aphrodite-goddess of love, beauty and desire.

 Hestia -goddess of the hearth and family.

Demeter-goddess of fertility, agriculture, nature, the seasons.

Here is the link to the pdf if you would like to print out and make your own paper dolls. (not for resale!)

Just print them onto a sturdy paper like cardstock and then cut them out. Glue thin magnet paper onto the backs and you are ready to play.

I will be making a set for the gods too, the goddesses were just more fun to make and came first!

If you want to learn more about the Greek Gods and Goddesses online, here is a start. Although I prefer the book I mentioned above.

I came across this quiz too, and just for fun had to take it. I got Athena! (although it was pretty easy to manipulate that, I thought)

Which Greek God are You?

'Little Red' Matchbox Paper Dolls

 So lately it seems I am a bit obsessed with re-purposing matchboxes into little worlds.

I have also always bit a bit obsessed with fairy tales, so what a perfect match this little project has made!

 Outside, the tiny box displays a deep forest and title, "Little Red", giving a clue 

to what is inside.

 Another forest scene with a path and tiny Little Red Riding Hood and one Big Bad Wolf paper dolls

to play with.

This was very simple to make.
Materials

• one small matchbox
• decorative tape
• paper (or photos)
• drawing items of choice if you choose to draw your own. Pen, marker,colored pencil, water color, etc.
• glue
• scissors
• ruler

Steps

1.  Just measure the cover and inside dimensions of matchbox to create the inside image and cover in these same dimensions. Use printed images, magazine cut outs, photos, or draw by hand as I did on paper.

 

2. I used decorative tape to cover the edges, inside and out.
3. The characters measure about 2" tall and were drawn on heavy card-stock.
4. You could glue your printed images or photos to card-stock to give the paper dolls more stability.
5. For the scalloped edge I just used scalloped edge scissors, and cut a thin trim.  Glue it to the top edges of the matchbox, finishing it off nicely.

This makes such a sweet gift, and fun, portable little toy for someone special.

A Box of Pirates

If you read this blog you will know that Corinne and I often make little toys and games. We also like to make cute containers to hold these toys so that they make nice gifts and also can be stored neatly. Recently, I repurposed an old cardboard pencil box using felt scraps and the Jolly Roger flag. This box is nice enough on its own for school supplies and as a keepsake box for your favorite wanna-be pirate, but I decided to make a little scene to fit inside and make it even more fun.This is a pretty easy project but it has a few parts so I will lay them out separately here. 

The pirates:  Use my tutorial for Ping Pong Ball Fairy Puppets and make

 pirates instead of fairies. I dressed mine in a variety of shabby fabric and felt scraps and added some messy hair and facial hair and a bandana for one and an eye patch for the other.  I did not want the pirates to be puppets but to be able to stand on their own. So, when everything is done you will want to insert a wooden craft clothespin under the clothing and up into the ping pong ball head where the finger holes are. You can then glue the clothespin into a wooden clothespin stand (they sell these in bags at craft stores) and your little figures will stand up nicely. I should also add that for some reason I gave my dark-haired pirate vertical stripes. It would look way more pirate-y if the stripes were to go across his outfit. But hopefully you can tell they are pirates.

Treasure Chest

I used a mini Altoids tin, some leather scraps, felt, and a little key and lock charm I got at a bead store. You could follow my example or come up with something different. If you don't have leather, felt will work fine. Glue the pieces on with craft glue. Inside the chest I glued in lots of beads and glitter and balls of tinfoil to represent the treasure.
The Trees

I made a banana tree and a coconut tree for my pirates. I painted craft sticks of different lengths brown then added felt leaves and either bananas or coconuts cut out from felt. I glued the craft sticks into a clothespin base so they will stand. I had to file them down a bit to get them to fit. I would also add that my banana tree is so tall it is a little off-balance and if I did it again I might make both trees shorter for better stability.
Swords 
The swords are probably the least successful part of my little play scene. You can do better! I used gold and silver polymer (Fimo) clay and shaped these little weapons and baked them.

More...  there is plenty of room in the box for additional accessories. I found a cute little bird and added that to the collection. Ideally you would give this to a child and help them make more stuff like more maps, more weapons, more pirates. A mermaid would be cute, too!

Jolly Roger Pencil Holder

  

I am making a little felt pirate play set. This first part of the post is where I show how easy it is to make a cute box to hold the pieces. The second part of the post shows how to make the pirates, trees and other accessories. The box is really nice on its own, though, and would just make a nice pencil box makeover without even putting the toys inside.

Materials

• felt-  black, white, blue and colors of your choice
• craft glue
• plain pencil box
• scissors

Steps

1. Cut out the Jolly Roger pieces from white felt.
2. Cover the top of the box with black felt
3. Cover the sides with the colors of your choice. I added stripes to the front
4. Line the inside of the box with ocean blue felt and add some waves if you want to
5. Glue on the skull pieces and let it dry.