Category Archives: DIY

Santa napkin – DIY

Posted on December 1, 2015 | 3 comments

This is the first time i am hosting my family for Christmas dinner after 4 years of marriage; we were alternating between my parents house and my in laws. I am beaming with excitement, it’s also Joud’s first Christmas. I want everything to be up to this special holiday, this year should be memorable.

Beside crafting some of the decorations with my son, my little artist, dressing the table for the traditional réveillon, is as important. A simple yet enticing Santa napkin will add a festive mood to the dinner.

It’s so simple and easy that your little ones can be involved in the making. All you need is red napkins, white pompoms and click here to download a printable file for Santa’s face that you need to cut out.

Here is a sneak pic to how my table will look like on Christmas Eve.

Follow this step by step tutorial to see how to make this cute Santa, it will take less than 5 minutes:

Place one on each plate, wow your guests and let your table radiate with joy!

You can check here previous posts form Marmite et ponpon on napkin folding and napkin rings for Christmas:

It’s never early to start celebrating. Happy holidays to all. Ho Ho Ho!

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.

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Posted in DIY, special occasions

Tagged art, beirut, christmas, christmas 2015, craft, DIY, food blogger, jaymmy, marmite et ponpon, napkin, qatar, santa

Christmas tree advent calendar – DIY

Posted on November 26, 2015 | 2 comments

Here comes Christmas! The most beautiful and meaningful annual festival when happiness is a small word to what I actually feel. This Christmas comes with double joy, my family doubled in size; Nady and Joud my Christmas star.

It’s not early to set up the festive mood especially when it comes to Christmas decoration. Advent calendar should be ready by 1st of December, so if you are willing to DIY as we did, better for you to go ahead.

Last year we had a reindeer advent calendar, this year we created a beautiful cute forest of Christmas trees to start the countdown to the big day. A fun and simple craft to lay the foundation of a very exciting season. What’s better than the Christmas day is the anticipation to it.

First you need to prepare 24 green cones, made with 200gsm cartons. You can use different shades of green to give it a realistic look.

After all is done, i gave them to Nady to unleash his creativity. Give your kids their favorites materials and watch them being creative; pompoms, paint, washi tape, stickers….

For display, lay them on a white surface or use cotton to create snow. The sky is the limit, use any material for the mood you want to settle.

Now the fun part of this advent calendar is what lays underneath 🙂 Oh yes, sweets and toys. Who doesn’t love a daily surprise gift while counting down?!

If your kid’s age let you take the advent calendar to the next level, don’t just hide sweets or toys under the cones, put words like love, hope, faith….to teach them the real meaning of Christmas.

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.

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Posted in DIY, special occasions, way to play

Tagged advent calendar, blog, blogger, christmas, christmas tree, DIY, lebanon, marmite et ponpon, qatar, seasons greetings, way to play

Fingerprint art project – Surpriiiiise!!

Posted on November 19, 2015 | 2 comments

fingerprint art project

Nady loves the crafty projects especially the ones that involves art and colors. This fun activity takes art to another level. We created an abstract art piece that reveals a surprise at the end.

I started by taping off Nady’s first initial onto a piece of paper. I gave him a palette full of paint and asked him to fill all the paper with fingerprints, dots created by his index to practice finger isolation.

fingerprint art project

Finger isolation is a fine motor activity using one finger to perform a task that will reveal its magic later in writing, tying the shoes, typing on a keyboard and many other skills….

We spent fun time covering all the white spaces on the paper experiencing various colors, mixing and learning difference between dark and light colors.

fingerprint art project

When he was done I pulled off the tape to show him what he had created. He was so happy and fascinated. Process of discovering many types of art medium and the surprise element is so magnetic for kids.

fingerprint art project

Not only was it a fun craft to make, but it was also a great way to teach:

finger isolation (fine motor)
finger’s name (using the index)
colors
shapes (round and dot)
the letter “N”, his name’s initial
And counting

Nady liked it so much, he decided that this piece of art is going to be added to his wall of art.

fingerprint art project

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Posted in DIY, way to play

Tagged alphabet, art, blogger, colors, dots, fingerprint, jaymmy, kids activities, marmite et ponpon, name, points, way to play

Blotto art – foster your kid’s imagination

Posted on October 1, 2015 | 2 comments

A fun art project that always allured kids with its surprise element. What is really fascinating about blotto art is that each time your kids reveal a new painting; No two are ever the same.

To create a blotto painting:

fold a white paper in half,
open it to put drops of paint in the center,
close it again and rub gently the paper to help spread the paint
and finally open it to reveal your surprise blotto art!

Unfolding the paper was really fun! The look of surprise on Nady’s face was priceless. Each time and before revealing the painting, he was trying to imagine what it looks like. We did so many and it was hard to stop this project, Nady showed full admiration.

It’s a great fun project to fire your kids imagination. After revealing the final blotto paint, ask your kiddo what he can see and enjoy their creative imagination.

All parents should favor the imagination of their children and feed this power. It’s like revealing the natural genius in them. A child with a good imagination is a happy child. He is more alert and present ability to cope with life’s changes, and more likely to grow into a secure adult.

Imagination ignites the forces of creativity in your children. A creative child, is not necessary growing into an artist adult. Creative people see things in different ways and find solutions to problems others might miss. Problem solving and innovative thinking begins with the power of imagination. Leaders are creative people!Back to our blotto project, to extend the fun we decided to add objects to the paintings after giving them identity. We enjoyed sticking wiggling eyes, feathers, pompoms…

Leave the freedom of imagination to your kids, don’t force a yellow spot to be the sun, sit back and watch him spark his brain to forge imagination pathways of its own.

The first few years are really important for your children mental development, expose your toddlers to new experiences especially the pretend play to help them grow up as problem solvers.

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Posted in DIY, way to play

Tagged blotto art, DIY, imagination, jaymmy, lebanon, marmite et ponpon, mom blogger, painting, qatar, way to play

Volcanic eruptions and rainbow lava experiment – My Little Scientist

Posted on September 23, 2015 | Leave a comment

Art and science come together in this fun and colorful experiment. This activity comes together with just 3 ingredients and no preparation; In a brown cup (close to look like a real volcano) we put roughly 1 cup of baking soda with few drops of food coloring, then we poured the vinegar, enough to start seeing the eruptions (due to acid – base reaction).

To get those colorful ripples, looking like a rainbow, we were adding the food coloring one after the other while the volcano was erupting.

We started with green, yellow and blue, first all together then one at a time to get like earth colors ripples, and ended it with the red orange to look like a real volcano!.Every time we were adding a color, Nady was pouring more vinegar to get more and more eruptions. We did many until there was no more vinegar left at home 🙂

Stunning right? Nady and I were in awe!! Don’t hesitate to try this experiment, it’s absolutely safe (The chemicals produced are non-toxic), easy and so much fun.

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.