More fun with pipe cleaners - animals, Christmas ornaments, leis and more

Other than cleaning a pipe, poking into play dough and coiling like a spring, what can you do with pipe cleaners?

Here's some awesome animal tutorials from Thoughts from the Beaver Pond.

Flower Leis at All Free Holiday Crafts - theirs are 4th July ones but they'd work well for spring celebrations, Hawaiian themed parties or fairy costumes.

Christmas tree star toppers from 2crafts.com which could be adapted into wands or incorporated into space themed activities.

4 Crazy Kings made pipe cleaner shamrocks for St Patrick's Day - will definitely give this a try next March.

Or try some beaded Christmas Tree ornaments like the ones at Make and Takes - they look even better with clear or faceted beads.

Boy's Easter 'Bonnet'

I just stumbled across photos my mother in law took at Geekling's daycare Easter Parade, so I'm making a very late Easter post - or very early for next year?

We needed to make an 'Easter Bonnet' at home to bring in for their parade.  Which got me thinking - what exactly do you make for a young man?  Most bonnets I've seen are fairly pink, frilly, lacey or otherwise rather feminine.  While I'm not usually one to follow gender sterotypes too closely, I couldn't bring myself to make such a hat for Geekling and was determined to think of something more manly.

I almost made him this one from Sewn Together out of scraps, and almost wish I had as it would have gone into our growing dress up box collection.  But in the end I wound up making a very cheap and simple one from cardboard left over from our wedding invitations (4 years ago!) and some foam letters from our sensory box filling collection.

Geekling's Christmas presents

Would you like a sneak peek at what Geekling is getting for Christmas from his daddy and I, and from Santa?

From his Dad and I:  This Felt World Map we picked up some months ago at ALDI for $30.  We are packaging it up with the individual cultural packages we've received so far from participating in the Chasing Cheerios Cultural Exchange - we have packages from the USA, Germany, Canada, Korea and more.  We hope Geekling enjoys playing with this and learning about the world.

From Santa: We did Geekling's Christmas shopping for Santa in one hit - its all from Bright Bugs, who sell a wonderful selection of educational and handmade toys.  My friend Kelly is a consultant - if you're in Brisbane check out her facebook page.

Every year we give Santa gives Geekling three gifts, which represents the three gifts that the wise men gave Baby Jesus - its our way of linking the religious part of the holiday with the gift-giving custom.  His gifts this year:

Melissa & Doug Wooden Clock Puzzle

Great for learning about shapes and colours, telling the time and more.  Geekling has just started to learn his colours (he knows red, blue, yellow, green, orange, black and white) and shapes (he knows stars and circles).

Melissa & Doug Magnetic Dress Up Joey

When I saw this on a fellow Montessori blogger's site, I plotted to get one for Geekling.  He is just starting to get interested in getting his own clothes and trying to put on his own shoes.

Mix & Match Animal Puzzle

(Sorry - I cannot find a picture of this one)

Easter presents - plastic eggs and finger puppets

Geekling is almost 14 months and has never had chocolate, and we weren't about to change that over Easter.  So I got a pack of plastic eggs and put some of his favourite treats inside - sultanas and dry nutrigrain cereal.  I also made a couple of felt bunny finger puppets and put them inside a couple of eggs.

Here and here are the puppets I based Geekling's on.

And here are the ones I made (still tail-less, as I haven't made it to a craft supplies store or made some pom poms yet):

Update: I am *almost* finished reading through one of my new favourite blogs from the start, and have under 12 months of posts left to read!  I just came across her post from last Easter where she'd made the same little finger puppets and thought I best link it since I copy so many other ideas from her.