Carboard Crafts #2: The Pirate Ship from a Tissue Box

More hot weather crafty cardboard antics from us in Doha:





A while back, Oliver and I made 'Little Fluffy' (featured in the previous cardboard crafts post) a novelty bed out of a tiny box, we decided on a racing car theme for this, we cut out & glued on little whells, painted on headlights and used a nice metallic paint for the body-work; Little Fluffy was needless to say very happy with his new bed.





Thus, we decided that Big Fluffy might like his own novelty bed, this time we went for a pirate ship theme. Here are some instructions in case you fancy doing something similar with your little one:





1) Take an empty tissue box and cut the top off;


2) Create a nice boat-shaped nose to the box with some nifty cutting and taping; optional extra - add a bit at the back of the boat too (see picture, sorry these are not more specific! It's a bit of trial & error!);


3) Paint wavy, erm, waves along the bottom;


4) Paint the rest of the 'boat' in brown then using a small round object print portholes in black paint along the sides;


5) Draw, cut out & paint a little anchor then once dry, use a needle and some thread to attach it to the boat.





Your child can play with it as a pirate ship for his/her toy and then put them to bed in it at night!





As you can see, Big Fluffy is very pleased indeed! Happy cardboard crafting!

Cardboard Crafts #1: Surfboards

With the weather so unbelievably hot and icky (humid), we often have to get creative with things to do indoors (like in the UK, 'cept it's sunny outside). One day recently, Oliver & I made cardboard surfboards for two of his favourite toys.

After choosing a toy you think would like to own a surfboard:

1) Search for images of surfboards online (e.g. on google images); or just draw and colour in your own.

2) Copy & paste to word doc and resize according to the size you need for chosen toy;

3) Print out & cut out;

4) Glue onto card (e.g. from empty cereal box) & cut out.

5) Give to chosen surf-dude toy and let imaginative play commence!

Don't forget the sunscreen!

This picture shows Little Fluffy posing near a beach in Hawaii I believe.

We've been living in Doha for almost 3 months now. Missing some things about home today, namely the cool sea air, little boats bobbing on the Teign (or any estuary in South Devon!), a portion of chips on the beach in the evening. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving my time here in Doha, and in future posts I'll share with you some of the things I've seen and enjoyed here so far, but just for now, I'm missing some things about home.

Drove out to the Pearl this morning, I have to say, it's not my idea of a place to live, but incredible nonetheless. Call me old fashioned but I do prefer a bit of ancient, solid ground beneath my feet, ground that's been around for a few million years, not 'reclaimed' from the seabed and built up in the sea over a few days (ok weeks). Ok, I know there's more to it than that and I truly admire the engineering going on there, but I just couldn't live somewhere like that, with no feeling of history; I like a bit of patina to my environment.