Category Archives: DIY

Expressing love and gratitude

Posted on February 12, 2017 | Leave a comment

This is the third year in a row we enjoy this beautiful game of love. This year we revisited it as per Nady’s request, who is so proud and happy of what we love and appreciate in him.

The beautiful part of this game this year is that he was teaching his youngest brother the rules of it and he was expressing his recognition to us (mom, dad and brother) through words that were my daily serotonin and immunity dose; lets say i was waiting impatiently for his heart everyday. Trust me you never expect the attention to details and the quantity of emotions kids can express. And yes the recognition to the smallest things you do to them!

It’s so important to tell your children “I love you” everyday. Knowing that they are loved unconditionally, develops their secure attachment to you. Strong closeness to the family will lead no doubt to positive relationships in adulthood and high self esteem.

So the aim of this game is to put the reasons i love him (mainly appreciating the good things he does and expressing my big love and pride) in written words on cutout hearts to celebrate love.

As i always say, many of you stopped celebrating valentines for how commercial it became. Don’t lose faith in this beautiful occasion and teach your children about love in deep and expressive ways.

This year we are hanging the hearts as a garland. Last year we did a frame of love, and the year before it was a wheel of love. You can click on the hyper link to review them.

If you like this game and wanted to do it with your kids, click here, to download the file of hearts to use. Enjoy writing on the hearts the many and endless reasons why you love your children and husband/wife too 😉 It’s not just for kids! Do it to your significant other and let love flourishes in your hearts and homes! You can do it over a week until valentines day comes or even extend it as much as you want to enjoy.

Don’t forget that love is not only words, it should be followed by actions, and the most important the presence. Be present for your kids, in love, protection and service. Happy valentines xx

My PRECIOUS part of me

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kids want to have fun! Kit Kat Christmas treeTs

Posted on December 22, 2016 | Leave a comment

It’s the season to be jolly … I think it can be also it’s the season for serious chocolate lovers! When you say Christmas you think chocolate, they come together like best friends. Kids and adults indulge in all kinds of chocolate desserts with no guilt, it’s Christmas!

This is an easy kit kat chocolate dessert with lots of fun preparing it with your kids. Not just looking cute, but it tastes nice also.

You will need Kit Kat chocolate bars (the one of four parts), as many as you want, depending on how many piece you want, keeping in mind each one makes 2 to 3 trees.

White chocolate melt colored green.

Confetti and stars (made of sugar), you can also have any small sugar Christmas decoration, as cane, santa, snowmen….up to you.

Cut 2 or 3 triangles out of each Kit Kat bar, keep the trimmed edges to make the tree trunk. Place on parchment paper. Put the green chocolate melt in a ziplok bag and make a very tiny cut at to pipe the garlands. Sprinkle the confetti (and the decorations you find), and finally place the star.

PS: to attach the trunk to the tree put a little chocolate melt

Place in the fridge for 15-20 minutes before placing them on a tray, using a little chocolate melt that serves like glue to prevent the trees from falling. Sprinkle coconut powder to look like snow between the trees.

So cute to be eaten! Try it with your kids and have fun, these are the best moments spent with your kids especially during the magical Christmas season. Enjoy!

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

How to DIY an angry birds birthday party decoration

Posted on December 19, 2016 | 5 comments

19 december 2012, a miracle was born and my world hasn’t been the same since! Today my first son, Nady, turns four.

Four precious years with you my son, gave to love different meaning and to life new dimensions. You are my joy, my best genes, my faith and my eternity. If the earth turns around the sun, then the sun must turn around you or else where he will get his radiance from….

Nady is a big fan of angry birds, lately everything in the house turned to be branded as angry birds star wars, angry birds space, angry birds go…. We are living in an angry bird world, so it wasn’t unexpected to ask for an angry birds birthday. I guess i said angry birds six times in one sentence, so imagine how many times i hear it in one day !

I wanted to surprise him with the decoration, cake design, animation… basically with everything! All i wished for is to see that awesome look on his face when he sees the set up and i believe i succeeded. It was a very nice party, and I would like to share with you some nice decoration ideas that i crafted myself and made all the difference!

Angry birds star wars banner, calling for action!

Click here to download the high resolution file 2×1.3 meters without the typography, to add your personal text!

Angry birds lanterns! All you need is to cutout the faces i prepared for red, chuck and pig.

I prepared vector files, easy to be resized without affecting the resolution. To download them, click on chuck, pig and red. Resize it depending on your lanterns sizes.

Angry birds flags, four colors/birds design. Green for pig, red for red, yellow for chuck and blue for jay, jake and jim!

Click on red, green, yellow and blue to download editable vector files for the buntings!

TNT boxes for more action!

Very simple, just get some brown boxes and stick TNT stickers, pile them and you get a nice decoration element, to add more fun and action! And here is attached a printable tnt-sticker.

Cupcake angry birds star wars toppers! Glue two circles on a wooden stick and insert it in a cupcake to see this beautiful display!

Click cake-topper and cake-topper-2 to download the printable files.

If you are wondering where i got the display boxes from, you can find them in Ikea!

Here is a nice way to display the marshmallows and pop corn!

Stick pig face on a bucket and put a catapult!

To make these TNTs, you need to roll 5 or 6 red cardboard into cylinders and stick them together with black tape. Glue beige thread on top of each to make them look realistic.

M&M bottles as angry birds food!

Click here to download the high resolution file of the bottle tags!

Angry birds nest!

A creative and fun way to present the pretzel sticks and nuts!

Angry birds water! Click here for the printable tag design.

Giveaways bags!

I chose two characters, red and bomb and stick their faces on the corresponding bag color, red for red and black for bomb. (I’ve attached already the faces printable files in flags)

And finally, the t-shirt design as per nady’s request! Click on tshirt to download the high resolution file to be printed on a white tshirt.

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Posted in design, DIY, special occasions

Tagged Angry birds, angry birds bags, angry birds banner, angry birds birthday party, angry birds flags, angry birds lanterns, angry birds M&M, angry birds nest, angry birds pop corn, angry birds star wars, angry birds star wars birthday ideas, angry birds TNT, angry birds tshirt, art and craft blogger, birthday, blog, craft, design, DIY, doha, food blogger, high resolution, lebanon, marmite et ponpon, party, printables, qatar

Advent calendar – Santa claus beard

Posted on December 1, 2016 | 1 comment

Welcome to that time of the year that works magic on my serotonin! They say in each one of us there is a hidden child… mine really likes to have an appearance around Christmas time.

…Everything gets dressed in festive look; windows at the shops are more joyful, same food and desserts taste better, red and green are not just ordinary colors anymore and all eyes are on that enchanting sky hoping to see the red nose between the stars…

It’s the time when we all pause and reconsider our values, belief and attitude.

It’s the perfect quality and happiest time with the family, especially for those living abroad, but unfortunately this year we can’t make it back home for the reunion… It’s sad we are not sharing this Christmas with the family, but thinking positively, Santa got me an early gift this year, I have a new friend. And this is what Christmas is all about; something new and precious is born…

Today is the first day of the festive month and i am aaaaaaall ready for Christmas, this buzzword “Christmas” you will be reading zillion times in my posts during December until we reach the D day. So let’s start the countdown folks!

This year i have to prepare 2 advent calendars, one for Nady and one for Joud! They are both about Santa’s beard; one is trimming it while counting down to reach Christmas and the other about growing it, since Joud is only 16 months and can’t use scissors, sticking cotton balls on the beard was a good and fun idea for his age.

If you are wondering about the fun part, the daily sweet or toy, Nady will find it written behind each strip he will cut and Joud will collect it from the christmas tree 🙂

If your kid’s age let you take the advent calendar to the next level, don’t just offer sweets or toys, you can teach them the real meaning of Christmas by putting words of values (such as faith, forgiveness….) instead or along with the daily surprise.

Click here to download the trimming option and click here for the growing one.

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Posted in design, DIY, special occasions, way to play

Tagged advent calendar, art and craft blogger, beirut, christmas, countdown, craft, create, design, DIY, doha, festive season, kids activity, kids blog, lebanon, qatar, Santa Claus, santa's beard, way to play

melting crayons art

Posted on June 21, 2016 | Leave a comment

It’s been a while i saw this fun art and wanted to explore it with my son. I was delaying it being afraid my younger boy would be scared of the dryer noise. But surprisingly he likes it :), so lets melt some crayons.

So easy to do, all you need is a canvas or a thick cardboard, wax crayons and glue to stick them on. When you peel the crayons, leave a small part of the paper to be able to stick them on the board. Use a hair dryer to melt the crayons down and create an arbitrary bold art piece.

This project focuses on the fun of making it rather on precision and final outcome. That’s why it’s a fun art project for kids, they will have a blast melting down the crayons.

When satisfied with the end result and stopped melting the crayons, it takes maximum 15 minutes to dry. Make sure to cover the surface where you are playing because it’s a really messy game but trust me it’s worth it.

Turn it upside down for a more fun crayon art frame. I am sure you will hang it on your wall and plan for another session to explore more of this fun project.

This is our final piece of art!

We will return back to this game and i will promise more fun introducing new design elements and a theme of course.

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.