Hello crafters! This is Zeyna from Mummy On My Mind with my debut post for the Pretty Paper Studio Design Team, and I am beyond excited! I will be sharing with you some Mom & Child crafts with you over the coming months, which I hope you will want to recreate yourself!
For this month’s “Anything Goes” theme, I decided to create a Number Recognition game for my three year old toddler, using supplies from the Pretty Paper Studio store. I am always trying to find fun and creative ways to educate my little one, and I thought what better way to fine tune his skill of number recognition than with a game where he has to count the number of colourful buttons, and then match it with the corresponding number by placing the correct number tag, and thus improving his motor skills at the same time!
For this project I used the following PPS Supplies:
- Fancy Back Decor Canvas 2/Pkg – 6×6″
- American Crafts Sticky Thumb Sticky Flat Dots .5″ 300/Pkg
- Buttons Galore Button Theme Pack – Cupcakes / Star / Let’s Play Ball
- American crafts Dear Lizzy Saturday Chipboard Number Tags
- Gold Foil 4″ Doilies
- Craft Medley Natural Hemp Cord
- Prima Marketing Paper Pad 6″X6″ 48/Pkg – Lady Bird
To start off, I began by tracing out five equal circles on each of the Fancy Book Decor Canvases. These will act as a guide later on for when you have to stick the flip open circles. After this, cover the canvases with some glue and place some crinkled tissue paper on top. The more scrunched up, the better, to give the background some much needed texture. 
The next step is to cut out 10 double circles from the Prima Marketting Paper Pad, making sure it is the same size as the circles you drew on the canvas. The circles will be cut so that there are two next to each other, with a small space in between, to allow the paper to fold on top of each other. When cut, they should look something like Harry Potter’s spectacles, as seen above. I chose five different papers from the paper pad, to draw out the ten double circles on, to give a varied colour backdrop.
Now it is time to decorate your mini “circle spectacles”. The outer coloured side of this will be decorated using gold foil doilies, and the inside (plain white side) is where the buttons will be stuck on. I traced out how much of the gold foil doilies I will need, ensuring some of the coloured paper was on show, cut it to size and stuck it on the right side of the “circle spectacles”. I repeated this for all the other “circle spectacles” until complete.
To ensure that my toddler could hook on the number tags to the outside of these number circles, I encircled the edges using Craft Medley Natural Hemp Cord, ensuring that I added a tiny metal hook to sit at the top of each circle, sticking it into place. Again, repeat this process for all the number circles, and leave to dry.
Once the number circles were decorated on the outside, and dry to work with, I turned them over to the inner plain white side. Taking the Buttons Galore buttons of different themes and snipping off the backs of them, so they were flat to stick, I placed the buttons on each of the ten circles in consecutive number order. I stuck these on using the American Crafts Sticky Thumb Sticky Flat Dots, which are so easy to use!
Again, using the Sticky Flat Dots, I stuck on the number circles on top of the canvases, using the pencil guide I had drawn at the start, and folded the circles shut, as if they were tiny circle booklets. When sticking, ensure the hook is facing the very top, and your game is now ready to play!
Ask your toddles to flip open the tiny booklets one by one, counting the number of buttons inside, and then hooking the right number tag on top of it. By dividing the numbers in between two canvases, you can decide to concentrate on just five numbers at one time, or do all numbers all together. You could also use the game’s principle to teach your child his/her alphabets, shapes or even spellings!
I hope you enjoyed this photo tutorial. If you have any questions, feel free to ask away in the comments section below, and don’t forget to share your projects with me if you decide to recreate them! Happy Crafting!
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Are you ready to join in this month’s challenge? Here is what you need to do:
1. Create a project with the theme “Anything Goes”.
2. Upload your project images to the challenge photo album “November 2017: Anything Goes” on the PPS Group Facebook page (not on the main feed).
All entries are due by November 30, 2017.
Challenge winner will receive a prize pack worth AED50.
