Angry Birds coaster from Ikea Pyssla beads

My older son is a huge angry birds fan, and while we do not let him play much, it is something that seems to be constantly on his mind. He brought home clay angry birds from pottery class and also likes to draw them...

I was cleaning out the kids room last week and found a jar of Pyssla beads from Ikea. A got it about two years ago, but we only used it once. I was planning to give it away, but my son was onto me before I could get them out of the house.

So I went on pinterest and found some cool patterns we could do. We made one for my husband (will blog about it later), and then we made an Angyr birds one I found the pattern here http://pinterest.com/pin/157766793168664287/  the idea is from this blog http://pat2811.over-blog.com/categorie-11071900.html they have tons of other patterns. I chose this one, because pyssla beads do not come in peach color as the hama beads do and this pattern only used white

Work in progress

 My printer was out of ink so I copied the pattern onto paper, and then gave directions to my son on how many beads he needs and which direction he should lay them down. I found this is a good activity to practice not only numbers but directions, and the combination of the two. Eg. "From left to right, please put two black ones then 4 blue ones and then one black one." So kids can also practice remembering a sequence of instructions while being crafty/artistic. You can go as slowly or fast as needed.

My younger son enjoyed playing with the beads, scooping them up and pouring them into different containers.

Knee Patches DIY 1: Cordrouy Monster Patches

 An increasing  number of my 7 year olds jeans' knees have become threadbare. Rather than trying to change his habits, but not wanting to buy new jeans every month I have been thinking of different types of patches that would appeal to him. (And make me look less cheap and more creative...:) ) This is project number one. My somn liked it so much we wore it to school the next day!

Cordrouy Monster Knee Patches DIY

 

My grandma sewed the corduroy patches onto the jeans. She first sewed around the edge because cord tends to fray. We ended up puting smaller circles above the head because there was a small hole above the knee as well.

 I painted the faces on with acrylic painmt. Because of the texture, I had to go over each feature a number of times, somemes using a thin brush to get the paint in between the gaps.

My son sporting the knee patches!