2012 Summer Olympics
Feeling lost without the Olympics? We were feeling a bit lonely as well. Never fear, backyard Olympics are here! On a recent family vacation, we had our own Olympic fun. Since everyone can’t be Michael Phelps or Gabby Douglas, we played games from Minute to Win It. This was a great way to introduce the real spirit of the Olympics to the kids while literally laughing our socks off. The Olympics are not only about winning medals and breaking records, so much more lies behind the five rings than meets the eye. While the spirit of competition is palpable across the world, many forget about the sense of unity and respect amongst the nations that partake in this grand ceremony.
To play, we had the kids pick teammates and countries to represent. As soon as we had the kids pick their country of choice, I could see a light bulb went off in their heads. Things started to make sense. No longer were the Olympics only about winning the gold medal but about representing your country with pride.
We played a total of 4 games: homemade Ring Toss, Face the Cookie, Shake your Tail Feather, and a Hop Off.
Team United Kingdom's best effort at the Olympic Ring Toss.
The ring toss was so simple to make. I used an empty paper towel roll, wrapped it in colored tape and attached it to a piece of cardboard. I cut the rings out of paper plates and painted them in Olympic fashion.
Tyler concentrating on getting the Oreo into his mouth.
Face the Cookie was by far the funniest game. All you need is a few Oreo cookies and a chair. Have your contestant tilt their head back in the chair. Place the Oreo on their forehead and begin. The object is to move the Oreo down your face into your mouth using only your facial muscles all in under a minute.
Shake the ping pong balls out as fast as you can.
Shake your Tail Feather required a little more preparation. Save those empty tissue boxes and attach a belt to it and fill it with ping pong balls. Attach the box-belt concoction to your waist just above your rear end. The object here is to shake out all the box’s contents as quickly as possible.
Which country can outlast the rest ?
Last but not least, our Hop Off displayed each country’s ability to stay hoping on one foot for the longest.
Olympic Medal Ceremony
After four games, Botswana won gold, France won silver, and the United Kingdom came in third with bronze.
Blair Stocker is a mother to Ian and Emma, wife to Peter, and maker of things, living in Seattle, Washington. She believes that the best of days involve making something and enjoying the process whether it be sewing, spray painting, cooking, or creating things with her kids. She blogs about her creative pursuits at wise craft.
diy finger crochet tutorial
I’m so excited to share a project today on Studio Tea! This is an easy project for kids of all ages (and adults too). When my kids were smaller and we were out and about, I would use this to keep their little hands occupied if we were waiting in line and had time to spare. All you need to finger crochet is a ball of yarn. In fact, the hardest part is choosing a yarn color. My daughter and I did this the other night and found the whole process very meditative and enjoyable. Give it a try!
Print out your own Finger Crochet tutorial.
My daughter and I used lengths of finger crochet to create a necklace (try adding large beads or bells). We also held 2 yarns at the same time to crochet new shoelaces. See what you can come up with.
Skate into the new school year in style with our little friend. Dress him up for his first day of school.
Color your monster for his first day back to school.
Download your very own monster skater here.
Once you’re done, submit your creation to blog@teacollection.com for your chance to win a $100 Tea gift certificate! Every month, Tea staff will pick one artistic little citizen to win! Honorable mentions will also be uploaded into their own featured blog post. Let your creative juices flow and show us your inner artist!
Be your own little monster in this tshirt.
Happy coloring!
Our latest diy project was inspired by the Lunefuld Dress’ whimsical flowers. Create bouquets for pennies rather than benjamins.
DIY tissue paper flowers
Materials:
-pencils
-scissors
-thin cardboard (we used a file folder)
-green pipe cleaners
-rainbow variety of tissue paper
Step 1: Start drawing flower petal shapes onto thin cardboard. Download our flower petal template or draw some free hand designs of your own.
Step 2: Cut out flower petals from cardboard and start tracing the shapes onto tissue paper.
*Tip: Fold the tissue paper into quarters to trace once but get 4 times as many petals.
Trace petals onto issue paper. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
Step 3: Cut out the flower petals. The more petals the better!
Our organized tissue paper flower petals.
Step 4: Lay them out and start stacking your petals. The biggest petal will be the first one you poke onto the pipe cleaner.
Biggest petals on the bottom and smallest on top.
Step 5: Poke your petals onto the pipe cleaner. Push only about 1/8 down the pipe cleaner, then fold the top 1/2 inch down to form a nub, so the flower petals can’t escape.
Fold the pipe cleaner down like so.
Step 6: After all desired petals are safely secured onto your pipe cleaner, gather the petals into a cone shape with your hands to create a ‘blooming’ look.
Gather petals for a blooming look
Once you start it’s hard to not get carried away.
A complete tissue paper flower
Back by popular demand is guest blogger Naomi who has a United States passport, but considers herself a global citizen and currently lives in New Delhi, India. Along for the great adventure is her husband, one teenage traveler, two little citizens and an Indian street dog. She blogs about their life (including an upcoming relocation to Singapore) at Delhi Bound [http://delhibound.com].
Going off my experience of living in a climate where it’s often “TOO HOT!” outside to play, I will share my favorite things to do with children that encourage creativity, kindness and exploration.
The temperatures are rising all across the United States, and in the warm climate areas of the world, and kids are saying those dreaded three words, “Mama, I’m bored.”
We have some sure-fire crafts, activities and things to do that will help to beat the heat.
First, our favorite. Using ice cube trays, fill them with water that is tinted with either liquid watercolor or food coloring (if your children are older). Freeze until solid, then after removing them from the tray, place them strategically on a piece of white fabric that is laying directly in the sun. Move them around every so often to distribute the melting colors, and end up with a beautiful piece of art, with all of the hard work being done by the sun.
Even if you do not own an ice cream maker, using a resealable bag can be just as much fun (and it doesn’t take nearly as long). Place 1/2 cup of both milk and heavy whipping cream, along with 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 tsp vanilla into a quart size resealable bag. Put two cups of ice into a gallon size resealable bag. At 1/2 – 3/4 cup of salt to the ice. Place the sealed liquid bag into gallon bag and seal tightly. Massage, rock and shimmy-shake the large bag for 10-15 minutes. Keep shaking and massaging the bags until the mixture feels like ice cream.
Get a bucket, some liquid detergent from the kitchen, some sponges and wash the car. Of course, parents may want to have the last rinse, to ensure that no suds are baked onto your vehicle.
Combine an indoor picnic with a mid-afternoon dance party. Nothing beats the heat like some indoor munching and boogeying.
Last but not least, create an indoor snowball game. Roll up white socks into themselves, making balls. Using the couch in your living room or a dining room chair, create protective “base” walls and go to town throwing snowballs at your family members (being sure to remove any breakables before Operation Snowball begins.
Above is Nico, one of the Tea kids, who is coloring the snow monster graphics from our Nordic Design Activity Book.
Have you entered our Activity Book Contest for the month of July? Take a picture of your child’s completed activity book picture and send it to us at blog@teacollection.com with “Activity Book Entry” in the subject line. We pick one winner each month to receive a $100 Tea gift certificate. We’ll also post all honorable mentions on our blog page and all submissions will be posted on our Flickr page.
Two pages from our New Nordic Design Activity Book artistically colored by Nico.
We can’t wait to start seeing entries from our new Nordic Inspired Activity Book. If you haven’t received it yet, you can download activity pages on our Inspiration page online at teacollection.com. You can also download activity pages from our past collections here: http://blog.teacollection.com/activity-printouts
Good Luck! We can’t wait to see what you create.
Tea staff member Marjorie has her two children create dragon masks inspired by Korea.
Supplies:
a. Dragon printout
b. Markers, crayons, colored pencils, etc.
c. String
d. Hole punch
e. printer
Directions:
1. Download our Dragon outline from our Activity Book.
2. Using a projector, resize the image until the dragon head will fit your child’s head as a mask.
3. Print the mask and use markers, colored pencils, or paint to fill in the design.
4. Cut out the mask. Use a hole punch to put holes on each side of the mask.
5. Have your child hold the mask in front of the eyes. Tie the string on one hole and wrap it around the back of their head, resting the string on their ears and tie the other side of the string to the opposite hole.
As your children are wearing their masks, snap a few pics and enter them in our “Around the World Activity Contest” for your chance to win one of our 10 weekly prizes and be entered into a sweepstakes to win a $500 Tea gift certificate. Contest ends 7/31/2012. Visit www.facebook.com/teacollection to enter.
This activity was inspired by the Sejong Dragon Pant which first debuted in Destination: Korea in Spring 2010.
Named for the king who invented the Korean written alphabet, these pants feature an embroidered dragon graphic on a cargo pant style.
Looking to add a little spirit to a gloomy day? Look no further! You can make your own spirit stick. This activity is perfect for all ages and easy to create. Oh, and did we mention just how fun it is too?
Supplies:
a. Tree Stick
b. Tissue paper/ Ribbon/ Scarf/ or any other textile to give it “spirit.”
Directions:
This activity is quite simple, perfect for the littlest of citizens. Simply decorate your stick with “Spirit.” Paint, glitter, markers, textiles or anything else you can find around the house looks great fastened to this stick.
As your children are shaking their spirit sticks, snap a few pics and enter them in our “Around the World Activity Contest” for your chance to win one of our 10 weekly prizes and be entered into a sweepstakes to win a $500 Tea gift certificate. Contest ends 7/31/2012. Visit www.facebook.com/teacollection to enter.
This activity was inspired by the Sanga Dress, which first debuted in Destination: West Africa in Spring 2008.
The dotted swirl print is inspired by Mali motifs and hand dyed textiles.
Tea staff member Marjorie has her little citizen create a Japanese fan.
Supplies:
a. Fan outline (link provided below)
b. Colored pencils
c. Scissors
d. Watercolors and paintbrush
e. 1-3 Popsicle sticks
f. Glue or tape
Directions:
1. Download the Japanese fan outline online here: http://bit.ly/japanesefan
2. Pint the fan on thick cardstock paper.
3. Once printed, color in the graphic using colored pencils.
4. Use watercolors to paint in the background.
5. Once colored and painted, cut out the fan shape with your scissors.
6. Flip fan over and add a Popsicle stick to the backside using tape or glue. For added strength, use three Popsicle sticks and make a ”Y” shape.
While they’re crafting their fan, snap a few pics of your little citizen and enter them in our “Around the World Activity Contest” for your chance to win one of our 10 weekly prizes and be entered into a sweepstakes to win a $500 Tea gift certificate. Contest ends 7/31/2012. Visit www.facebook.com/teacollection to enter.
This activity was inspired by the Butterfly Dot Dress, which first debuted in Destination: Japan in Fall 2009.
The Japanese inspired print featuring a flurry of red butterflies on a field of blue dots has come back in a classic flutter sleeve silhouette.
Evan, Tea's copywriter, has his daughter make her own paper.
With just a few supplies and minimal direction, your little citizen can have fun crafting their own paper! Read on below for the easy step-by-step guide on creating paper.
Supplies:
a. White or brown paper
b. Watercolor paints
c. Paintbrush
d. White crayon
Directions:
1. Use your white crayon to draw whatever you would like on your paper.
2. Once you’re done drawing, paint over the crayon with watercolors to see your image appear.
The finished product- pretty cool, huh?
While they’re painting their paper, snap a few pics of your little citizen and enter them in our “Around the World Activity Contest” for your chance to win one of our 10 weekly prizes and be entered into a sweepstakes to win a $500 Tea gift certificate. Contest ends 7/31/2012. Visit www.facebook.com/teacollection to enter.
This activity was inspired by the Hanji Floral dress which first debuted in Destination: Korea in Spring 2010.
Inspired by handmade decorative Korean paper. We brought it back in its original printed poplin wrap style dress with side tie closure. Be an original!