Making Home Link Up #32: 101 Budget Friendly Ideas for Your Summer Adventures

Welcome to the #MakingHome weekly link up!

Be inspired by posts all about moving house, home decor, DIY, crafts, family activities, recipes, gardening and more. It’s all here under one roof at Mrs Crafty B’s.

Don't forget to join in and link up your own posts. The linky is open from Friday until Tuesday. Find out how to take part at the end of this post. 

With the icy cold winter months finally starting to fade in our memory, the recent heatwave starting to warm us back to life and the summer holidays just over the horizon you may be starting to plan your summer adventures.

If your bank balance is already showing the early signs of a panic attack with the endless requests of day trips to theme parks and pricey soft play centres, you may be thankful to hear about this fab new ebook. Created with the input of over 100 of the best British parenting bloggers, the book contains a serious plethora of budget friendly activities and destinations.

101 Ideas for Having Fun with the Kids this Summer 

A Crafty Sparkly Christmas with Pink Pear Bear

Today for #CraftyChristmas we are joined by the lovely Louise of Pink Pear Bear who is giving us a lesson or two in making Christmas crafty and sparkly. What more could you want?! Louise is drawing inspiration from this fabulous looking Usborne book '100 Christmas things to make and do'.

I'm lucky enough to have several shelves jammed full of craft idea books, many of which are kiddy ones, as I can't resist when I see an offer on. In actual fact, all the ideas came from just one book. It was small and light enough to take out and I ended up finding so much in there I didn't even need to look at the others.

My craft bible for this post.

A Craft Box Subscription for #MiniMakers: A JacDo Review

Over the last few weeks my #MiniMakers have had the pleasure of dipping in and out of their very own JacDo 'treasure chest'. If you haven't yet discovered JacDo; this is one not to miss. Especially with Christmas around the corner.

Halloween 2015 With Dylon

Here at Crafty B's HQ we are big fans of dressing up. The Little Bs have a dedicated storage unit in their room with all manner of costumes and items to use in role play. With a few ideas of what the Little Bs might like I was keen to find out what Dylon had come up with for this years Halloween palette. I was not disappointed. 

A Cardboard Dream House with Ocean Finance

We have taken a different stance on #MakingHome over the last few days and I am excited to show you what me and my #MiniMakers have been up to. A few weeks ago we were invited to take part in the Cardboard Dream House campaign with Ocean Finance. Baby B (aged 4) was so excited when the house arrived and we wasted no time in putting it together. Armed with a brief dictated by Baby B, we set about creating his Cardboard Dream Home; with a little supervision from Littlest B (aged 2) 

How to Make a Pom Pom Rain Cloud

You may remember a few months ago that I acquired a neat little gadget that gave me the ability to make up to 20 pom poms in one go. The Multipom has been hiding away for a short while with the busy summer we have had at Crafty B's HQ but the list of pom pom projects is ever growing. In this post I am going to give you a little instruction on how to make a cute little rain cloud with all those pom poms you will be making. Perfect with the coming of September. See, rain isn't all bad! 

A Simple Craft Guide For Beginners by Sykes Cottages

Here is something I thought you Crafty B's would enjoy. I have recently discovered this Simple Craft Guide which was put together by a collection of bloggers for Sykes Cottages. It gives you instructions for several simple craft projects to try your hand at. Perfect for a bit of inspiration or to get you into the crafting spirit.

Homemade Hanging Bird Feeders with Moulds and Pine Cones

On visiting a friend of ours when Baby B was around 2 years old, he enjoyed putting seeds out each morning and watching the birds fly down to feed. Always keen to encourage wildlife in the garden (and create a welcome environment for anything that will eat plant eating bugs) we then began to make our own bird seed 'cakes'. 

With the colder weather in sight and our feathered friends always being glad of a little extra food, these are great to make and store in the freezer ready for hanging.

Handmade 3D Butterfly Wall Art With Ikea

Very recently my niece became the proud owner of her very own bedroom! Adamant that she wanted it to be pink and yellow, I decided to make her something special to put on her wall. At first I thought I would make a box frame or some bunting; but then I spotted a pack of gift tags in my local IKEA store and became inspired to make this! 

Top Tips For Keeping Your Little Ones Entertained Over the Summer Holiday

The summer holidays have started and I've decided that I need to have back up entertainment plans for when the TV time has been exhausted and the Little Bs are (ahem…I am) bored of playing cars and football aka kicking the ball in random directions. We tend to do quite well in filling our days with random window shopping trips and lunch in Ikea (the boys love the showrooms), trips to the park, garden antics, crafty stuff and 'picwics' but sometimes we need a little inspiration to think outside of the box. Rather than save 1000 links to unachievable ideas or spend lots of money on big day trips, I decided to ask fellow blogger their top tips for keeping little ones entertained over the summer. Then I thought I would share them with you lovely lot! So here goes…

Chocolate Oat Crumblies With Sally Akins

Sally Akins is a UK Food and Lifestyle blogger who lives in Shropshire with her husband and their two sons. She blogs at SallyAkins.com and can also be found on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Today she is sharing her super yummy looking chocolate oat crumbles.

Mini Maker Activities with Science Made Simple

I am always on the lookout for fun activities to keep Baby B entertained on different levels as he becomes more inquisitive about the world. We are a massive fans of fun learning activities and encouraging a genuine desire for wanting to find out new things and there is great value in doing science experiments with your #MiniMakers…aside from the fact they are SUPER fun and sometimes a bit messy!

How to Sew a Frozen Art Carry Case - Free Tutorial

I have teamed up with Plush Addict to show you how to make this art carry case for your #MiniMakers

Pirate Party Food Treasure Chest

Last year, we had a pirate party for Baby B's 3rd birthday. I hunted all over for good decoration and food ideas and this treasure chest for party snacks is one that cropped up many a time. At first I thought it was a waste of a loaf of bread but I decided to go for it and the kids loved it! Plus, we used the left over bread to feed the ducks later that week in the local park. Win win.

So here is how to make your very own pirate party centre piece!

Re-Create Upcycled Plant Pots with Scraps of Fabric

Continuing with a bit of upcycling, here's a cute way to jazz up some simple plastic pots.

I found these plastic pots in abundance in a Scrapstore along with

Re-Create Upcycled Stamps

It's no secret that I love a bit of upcycling. Sometimes I'm on the hunt for materials for a specific purpose and sometimes I just grab stuff or save 'bits and bobs' because one day, they might be useful. I decided that my die cutting machine could be used for more than cutting shapes from card and I wanted to make some stamps from the lovely dies that I had. 

My local scrapstore had plenty to inspire but I grabbed some black foam stuff that looked like old packing material for something and some flooring material.

Lego Letter Frames

This post is all about what I have been up to with Lego; especially for you and your friends & family!

I recently decided that in keeping with the Lego craze in my house right now, I would create something personal for the Little B's room and for my desk space.

Homemade Individual Jelly Pots with Heinz Baby Pots

How many of you Mummies out there re-use the Heinz fruit/custard medley pots? We are a big fan. Rather than throw out (or recycle) the pots, we wash them out and use them for SO many things; they hold just the right amount of homemade pasta sauce for the boys, a handful of raisins for a day out, hummus for the lunch box and most recently, individual portions of my infamous chocolate cheesecake! More about that in another post. I also use them for paperclips and other stationery items, crafty bits and more; but I don't get them mixed up with the food ones!

A Week of Puke and Puffy Paints (and other crafts)

I would say 'we're all crafted out' this week, but that would be a total fabrication. See, I can't escape it!

This week we have had sickness bugs, colds, more sickness bugs, teething and more colds. Alongside Hubby B being away, it has been a long old week. Or has it? I remembered how much messy play I used to do with Baby B and with us all being home a few days, we made the most of the energetic moments and I got totally involved with just the boys and ignored everyday chores (that would still be there, waiting…sadly). The boys were immediately calmer and seem satisfied with the one on one attention so much so that they were happy for independent play afterwards. Baby B was also SUPER excited and proud of his puffy paint picture. Littlest B didn't much enjoy the taste of the play dough but seemed strangely happy with the taste of the shaving foam we used for the puffy paints. That boy eats all sorts!

I also made the most of evenings for crafting rather than staring at my phone! Of course The Great British Sewing Bee started this week (#GBSB) and I also got blogging about my pursuit of craftiness at an ICHF event in March.

Here are a few snapshots of our crafty week:

Oaty Banana Muffins

Today, we whipped up yummy oaty banana muffins with some bananas that were otherwise going in the bin.

Here is the recipe we used inspired by Baby B's favourite breakfast; porridge with bananas and honey!

• 230g of plain flour
• 50g of porridge oats
• 1 tablespoon of baking powder
• 1 tsp of ground cinnamon
• 115g of caster sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tsp of vanilla essence
• 6 tablespoons of oil
• 250 ml of milk
• 2 medium eggs
• 3 tablespoons of clear honey
• 2 large mashed up bananas