How to Make the 'Alternative' Easter Bonnet!

Now I have two children in nursery I have to make two Easter Bonnets! I was really prepared with Isla's one - we started it weeks ago and finished it at the weekend, she did all the painting and I just did all the putting together. I love crafting with her - she gets so into it. However I wasn't as prepared with Noah's but when my work colleague Tim showed me what he'd made for his son, I just knew I wanted to do the same for Noah and share this really simple but fun idea with you. I said it was an 'alternative' Easter Bonnet and what I mean by that is it's a HOT CROSS BUN! Which is really appropriate for Noah at the moment as he won't stop eating the things! Here's how I made it:

You will need

Ideally Brown wrapping paper or I used 2 large brown envelopes stuck together 
White Card
Black Card
Stuffing to pad out the 'hot cross bun' - I used a load of carrier bags/ you could use bubble wrap
Glue/ Sellotape
Card to make the hat go round your child's head - I used card from a cereal box

How to make your Hot Cross Bun Easter Hat

Take the envelopes and make them into a square.

Stuff with carrier bags to pad out your bun

Fold the corners of your 'square' shape so that you make a more rounded bun shape.

Cut two lengths of white card and stick these to your 'bun' in a cross

Cut a few circles from your black card and stick these on to your 'bun' - these are your currants

Obviously this has to sit on your child's head so I cut the top off a cereal box and sized it to Noah's head and stuck it on to the bottom of the bun and voila you have your Hot Cross Bun Easter Hat! 

Isla also had to give it a try:

Happy Easter Everyone!

How to Make an Easter Bonnet

Recently we were lucky enough to visit Maggie & Rose family members club in Kensington for a baby event and Isla and I had a fab time, she got her face painted and made some cookies and generally had a lovely time. We don't have anything like that in our area and it was really fun, so when I was contacted by the people at Walker Books about a new Maggie and Rose Eco Friendly Activity Book for Isla and I to try out at home I accepted immediately.  We were sent the 'This Book is Totally Rubbish' Activity Book which is bursting with brilliant ideas for games and things to make and do - all based around the subject of art and recycling

Just before Easter I found the perfect opportunity to use the book when Isla and I got stuck into making an Easter Bonnet for her Nursery Tea Party. Since having a little girl I've always felt like I can't wait till we can do craft type activities together and this was our first go at a bit of messy creativity at home. I decided that we would make her Easter Bonnet using the instructions on how to do Paper Mache from the book - a great way to use up old newspapers. See below all the photos from our creative journey making an Easter Bonnet that eventually earned Isla an Easter Egg prize from the nursery for best Bonnet (not blowing my own trumpet at all......!!)

As you can see she loved the finished result and I'm really looking forward to making more things using this book - Eco Moulding Clay is our next project I think.

So following on from our fun using this book I have one copy of 'This Book is Totally Rubbish' to give away to one lucky person to have fun with! All you need to do to enter is:

Compulsory entry: comment below telling me your child's favourite craft activity or if too young something you look forward to doing with your child when they're old enough

Extra entry: Tweet the URL of this Giveaway post including twitter IDs @iheartmuthahood & @WalkerBooksUK and leave a separate comment below that you have done this.

UK Entrants only
Good luck and the competition closes midnight, Friday 20th May!