Tuesday 12 January 2010

Gone Fishing

Not in the real sense of the word of course, in a family with two vegetarians, a vegan and three seafood hating carnivores 'real' fishing isn't something which is on the agenda.

Recently the girls have been enjoying the holiday season with one of their favourite treats, sparkling grape juice. We had the corks from the top of the bottles lying around and I tried to think of the best way to utilise them. To be quite honest, I'm not always into crafts for craft sake, I always feel guilty about loading up the environment with old paper mache pencil holders and the like. Instead, I like for whatever we make or create to have some sort of purpose, so it took me a while to think of a way to make corks useful. Then I though....a fishing set! So Kyla and I set to work.






She gave the corks an undercoat of white, then after they dried we decorated them in different colours, and sprinkled some glitter on them, because everything is better with sparkles. Then we put a little curtain ring in the top of each cork, to act as a point for our magnets to connect to.


Then it was time for the hot glue gun, to stick on the eyes and fins to finish off the fish.







Next we made rods. Just sticks of bamboo, (lucky I'm such a hopeless gardener that mine aren't in use), with string and a magnet attached to the end.




Then it was time to go fishing!





They really enjoyed themselves, of course taking it to an entire new level as they always do, creating a whole imaginary world where the fish all had names and they were their pets and elaborate scenarios were played out. They have also got the rods and fish out at least a couple of times a day since, which is satisfying. Now they want more corks to make sharks and other sea creatures, so stay tuned!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh thats just awesome Sophie was leaning over my shoulder and goes :mum please can we make some" lol
Great ideas!!

Hannah said...

That looks like heaps of fun!! What a neat idea!

Anonymous said...

Great fish! Looks like lots of fun was had.. Can't wait to see the other creatures. :-)

Sarah said...

Those are the most adorable looking fish I've ever seen! My girls keep asking to make fishing rods and fish to play a similar game and you have totally inspired me with your cork art. Thanks :) x Looks like you've all had a ton of fun with this project and it looks like there's no end in sight!

Hay said...

Haha Susan, sorry! They are lots of fun though.

Sure are Hannah, when they aren't poking eachother with the rods!

Thanks Mich, yep, we just have to drink more grapejuice. Can't find corks to buy anywhere!

Awww, thanks Sarah. These are fun, and very humane, lol.

The Word Party

Loving words clutch crimson roses,
Rude words sniff and pick their noses,
Sly words come dressed as foxes,
Short words stand on cardboard boxes,
Common words tell jokes and gabble,
Complicated words play Scrabble,
Swear words stamp around and shout,
Hard words stare eachother out,
Foreign words look lost and shrug,
Careless words trip on the rug,
Long words slouch with stooping shoulders,
Code words carry secret folders,
Silly words flick rubber bands,
Hyphenated words hold hands,
Strong words show off, bending metal,
Sweet words call each other 'petal',
Small words yawn and suck their thumbs,
Till at last the morning comes,
Kind words give out farewell posies....
Snap! The dictionary closes.

-RICHARD EDWARDS.