Arts and Crafts Archives | Mommy Plannerista

Space Science Activities You Can Do With Your Kids

March 25, 2020 · Leave a Comment

These past few months in our homeschool, we did a space science unit study. My son, Ziggy, and I were really excited going into it because he loves anything space.

I initially wanted to purchase a ready-made space science curriculum but eventually decided to DIY our own because I found a lot of reliable sources on the Internet. I was also able to find a lot of ideas for fun space science activities. I’m sharing them all with you now because I know that a lot of us are quarantined at home with our kids due to the ongoing Corona Virus pandemic.

I will link all of my sources for the following activities so that you can all check out the instructions and list of materials needed. Just click the titles to go to the links.

Squish Painted Sun Craft

One of the first topics we tackled was the sun. I wanted us to do an art project about the sun that was fun and easy but also mess-free. Thankfully, I found this activity from the blog 123homeschool4me.com. I loved how simple it was but also really fun because it involved paint! Promise, it is still mess-free even if you’re using paint. This is great even for younger kids.

Pastel Aurora

Did you know that NASA has a website especially for kids? It’s called Space Place and it was such an awesome find. I used it as our main resource and got a lot of our activities there including this art project about auroras. It’s also very simple and doesn’t require a lot of materials.

Edible Asteroids

Who doesn’t love projects that you can also eat? We cooked these edible asteroids when we were learning about the difference between an asteroid, comet, and meteor. They’re basically just mashed potatoes that you bake afterwards but one thing I loved about this recipe is that it includes cheese. The asteroids were so yummy! We decided to add cheese on our mashed potatoes from then on.

Comet on a Stick

This is one activity that even my three-year-old, Zander, was so excited to do. It requires only four types of materials and is so easy to do. We ended up making two – one for Ziggy and one for Zander. The boys are still playing with their comets until now.

Oreo Moon Phases

Among all the space science activities that I planned on doing, this was the one I was most excited about because – OREOS!!! There are a lot of Oreo moon phases activities on the Internet but I chose the one from 123homeschool4me.com because it was part of an entire Moon Unit Study. It includes a printable moon phases booklet, worksheets, and this guide for doing the Oreo moon phases. You bet we all enjoyed eating the Oreos afterwards.

Space Telescope Model

Ziggy and I initially wanted to create our own space ship. However, that changed when we found out about the James Webb Space Telescope. Set to launch in 2021, this telescope is actually the largest and most complex space telescope ever made. We watched a video about it and were amazed! We were even more thrilled to find a printable model of it that we built ourselves.

Edible Constellations

This was the last space science project we did. We were super excited about it (again!) because it involved marshmallows. (Yes, we love to eat!) We used the constellations mini book by 123homeschool4me.com as a guide for this. All we used were some mini marshmallows, toothpicks, and sparkly black paper for the background. It was tricky making some of the constellations but Ziggy and I still had fun. Zander was just excited about eating them after. Haha!

There you go! There are a whole lot more space science activity ideas available online but I hope that these will help you get started.

For more of our homeschool journey, follow me on Instagram. I share a lot there. Happy learning!

Functional Planner Stickers from Papers and Colors PH

April 21, 2018 · 17 Comments

I love decorative planner stickers as much as the next planner girl. However, there’s a special place in my heart for functional planner stickers – you know, the headers, checklists, dots, flags, and what-not’s. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of local (Philippine-based) planner sticker suppliers that sell a lot of them. The only ones I see most of the time are those that come with the decorative kits.

Thankfully, last year I discovered Papers and Colors PH in Instagram and I instantly fell in love with all their functional planner stickers. I was really happy with all the stickers I purchased from the store then that I knew it wouldn’t be the last. Well, the store recently came out with new releases and since I was running low on functional stickers, I decided to purchase some of them.

Here’s what I got.

I got 23 sheets of functional stickers but the owner, Bridget (don’t know if I spelled the name correctly, sorry!), gave me a lot of freebies. Those are the small ones you see on the entire middle row on the photo above.

Let’s see the stickers up close, shall we?

Here are my favorites from this purchase. These are what’s called the Peel Off Planner Sticker Essentials. They are available in sets of different colors – Orchid, Floral, Gray, Pastel, Onion, Escape, Galaxy, and Nude. Each set comes with the following stickers: Today, To Do, Bill Due, Heart Checklist, Quarter Boxes, Weekend Banner, and Quarter Boxes.

For my purchase though, I only chose the colors Orchid, Floral, Escape, and Galaxy and only the Today, Quarter Boxes, Little Things, and Weekend Banner stickers. I love how they are the perfect fit on the weekly insert that I’m using in my planner right now. I also love that although they come as a set, you are free to choose individual sheets as well.

Next up are these icon stickers. The big one is the Lala & Kiki icons while the smaller ones are Icon Peel Off stickers in the colors sunset, summer, nude and pastel. These are the types of stickers I use a lot on my planner. As you can see, the stickers are all about household chores. Definitely the type of stickers planner moms like me need to have in their planners.

These last ones are the Lala & Kiki blank labels and Television Peel Off stickers.

I super love all of these stickers because not only are they functional, they are pretty too! Coz who said functional planner stickers can’t look nice as well? There’s a wide range of colors, the sizes can fit in all sorts of planners, and they are super useful. I LOVE them!

Anyway, Papers and Colors PH released a lot more stickers and I definitely can’t wait for my next purchase. If you wish to see them all, you can check them out on Shopee (papers.and.colors) and on Instagram.

Happy planning!

Arts and Crafts Galore at the Sky Life Color Explosion 2016

May 18, 2016 · 19 Comments

We love arts and crafts events. It gives an opportunity for us to expose our kids to lots of different ways to express themselves and make things that help develop their creativity. This is exactly why I made sure our whole family (hubby, kids and even my mom) got to join the Sky Life Color Explosion this year. Last year, only hubby and our son, Ziggy were able to make it.

This year, it happened the same day as Mother’s Day, on May 8, at the SM Mall of Asia. We got there right when the program was about to start and the first up was this balloon twisting show.

Yup, it really was a show, compared to the usual balloon twisting activities we see at parties where the balloon artists aren’t really that entertaining. These guys really performed and the show was quite long. They even invited kids to go up the stage several times to participate in the performance.

Our Ziggy was able to go up once (he’s the one wearing the red apron on the right) and of course, he got to take home some balloons in the shape of a helmet, a shield and sword.

Aside from this, there were a lot of other games and activities that kids and their parents were able to participate in on stage.

Those who didn’t want to participate on stage were busy just going from one arts and crafts booth to another. There were plenty to choose from! In this booth below, kids got to play with clay.

Here, they got to decorate and take home their own pair of sunglasses. Our Ziggy wanted to try this but by the time we got to their booth, there weren’t enough materials left anymore.

But Ziggy was able to try the shirt tie-dyeing activity though. He was able to do this as well at last year’s event. Ziggy got some help from the hubby. They were supposed to put different colors of die on each portion of the shirt that was tied with rubber. However, Ziggy got too excited and just squirted two colors in whatever way he wanted. Haha! It’s okay though. The final outcome was still a cool shirt anyway.

Our girls, Zoe and Ziya, were also able to find some activities that they could join even if they’re now already 14 and 13 years old. They got to try sketching with these really cool colored pens that I too have to check out soon!

They also joined Ziggy at the lantern-making booth.

Ziggy also got to try the bead art booth that used Beados. The bead art is squirted with water and left to dry so that they will stick. Unfortunately, we forgot to return to the booth after the drying period and so we weren’t able to take Ziggy’s creation home.

There were also several workshops that kids and their parents could sign up for, such as this poster making activity.

There was also a calligraphy workshop for adults that I wish I was able to join.

I wasn’t really able to join any of the activities aside from helping Ziggy with his bead art and watching the program. I was busy documenting my kids’ experiences as usual. Haha! But I did get free ice cream because it was Mother’s Day. So yay!

Overall, it was a really fun event that we all enjoyed and a great start to our Mother’s Day celebration. Can’t wait for the next Sky Cable event! 🙂

Art Galore at the Sky Color Explosion 2015

September 8, 2015 · 7 Comments

Last August 16, my friend Chrissy invited our family again to attend another Sky Cable event called Sky Color Explosion at the Rockwell Tent. Unfortunately for me, I was still on the way home from Pangasinan that day (a trip I have yet to blog about) and so I had to miss the event.

However, hubby decided to go and take our Ziggy without me and met up with our other friends, Millie and Mike and their kids at the event. I really wanted Ziggy to experience the event because it was all about art, which he loves. Plus, I knew he’d get to play with Elsen and Wyatt, Millie and Mike’s kids.

Another great thing about Millie and Mike being there was the fact that they were nice enough to take photos of Ziggy during the event. Since I went on an out-of-town trip, I took our one and only digicam with me, plus my iPad too, which meant that hubby had no camera to use except for his cellphone camera, which doesn’t really take good photos. So, thanks to Millie and Mike for these photos! 🙂

Anyway, here are some of the activities that Ziggy, Elsen and Wyatt got to do.

They played with Legos, of course.

They painted pictures.

Ziggy was actually able to paint his name on a white T-shirt too but we weren’t able to get photos of that anymore.

They played with magnets….

And puzzles.

Ziggy also got to do clay art. See what the hubby is holding. By this time, Ziggy was getting cranky and tired already though, which explains the frown on his face. Haha!

There were a bunch of other activities that the kids weren’t able to try though as well as presentations and games on stage, such as this bubble activity.

Ziggy said he really enjoyed the event. Judging from the photos, I can see how fun it really must have been. He and hubby stayed there until the event ended. How I wish I got to join them too.

Thanks again to Chrissy for the invitation and to Mike and Millie of MR Lightworkz Photography for the photos!

#PlanningForPleasure with Planners and Journals

July 22, 2015 · 17 Comments

A few weeks ago I wrote about my latest obsession – decorating my planners – and that I’ve launched a new series here on the blog called #PlanningforPleasure.

I’ve always loved doing it since high school but I stopped when I started working. It was only last month when I rekindled this hobby of mine and since then I just became hooked!

Of course, because I became quite obsessed (haha!), I began researching a lot about planners and discovered so many wonderful things including communities of planner addicts like myself. I also discovered this amazing local brand called Planners and Journals that sells handmade planners made lovingly here in the Philippines.

Let me tell you something about Planners and Journals by quoting a post they shared on the Facebook page.

It all started as a personal thing for the love of design, paper and functionality and bloomed into a full business back 2014. Our objectives are to create unique designs, resource quality materials to use, develop and deliver useful product lines for the convenience of our beloved customers and last but not least, it is to form a community that shares the same interest.

Our design group has started crafting dividers and envelopes due to public demand of our products’ uniqueness and purpose, our line has branched out to locally made and affordable planners and eventually these evolved to other planner and journaling system which included fauxdoris and travelers note books.

To mark our 1st anniversary we have recently launched monthly subscription kits that are designed by local/ Filipino artists. This is P &J’s way of giving importance to creativity and originality. And all of P&J’s product only carries high level of excellence and value.

PNJ sells ring planners as well as faux doris and planner accessories such as dividers and inserts. Their plain ring planners are available in three sizes: Pocket, Personal and A5, while their printed planners are available in Personal only.

If you think these lavender set of planners are lovely, just wait until you see the rest of the designs. The first time I saw their planner designs I instantly fell in love. Here are just some of their amazingly cute designs.

Super cute, right? Planners can be purchased as a binder only or you can avail of the package which includes a year’s worth of monthly and weekly inserts and 4 plain dividers. Additional inserts and dividers may be also purchased separately.

Selling prices vary depending on the size you choose.

Plain Planner Package:

A5 at P1,800 (US$45)
Personal at P1,400 (US$35)
Pocket at P1,000 (US$25)

Printed Planner Package:

Personal at P1,600 (US$40)
– – – For binder only – P1,400

Aside from the ring planners, PNJ also sells faux doris, which hold traveler’s notebooks (TNs) inside that can be used for journaling, listing, calligraphy and even as a planner too. Their faux doris are available in different colors. Here are some of the designs.

I’m seriously drooling over these TNs, especially that pink Summer Faux Dori. I’ve never tried using a TN before but I’m thinking that I need one. (Hehehe!)

If you need planner inserts and other accessories, PNJ sells them separately too.

Above it was mentioned that PNJ recently started offering monthly subscription kits. They partner with a variety of artists and craftsmen to come up with a themed box of planner goodies. If you’re interested, you can avail of a one month trial package or a 3-month or 6-month subscription.

I had a chance to see for myself what these subscription kits contain when PNJ so generously sent me my own PNJ planner plus the July subscription kit. If you’ve been following my planner IG account, @PlanningforPleasure (follow me if you haven’t already!), you would have seen that it’s the main planner I’ve been using these days.

Check it out!

It’s so beautiful, isn’t it? PNJ gave me the Japanese theme planner together with all the goodies from the July kit, which are Japanese in theme too. I super love them all! Each one was lovingly wrapped, which gives you an idea how much care is given to each package.

Here’s what the July planner kit contained:

MT Slim Masking Tape and Pilot Juice Pen by @dolcesonline
Kokeshi Charm by #genndesigns
Japanese paper doll by @bookmarks.planners
Origami sketches by Chinky of @lionachinky
Kokeshi sketch by Summer of @cmsumera
Fan, Floral and Waves background by VNdigitalart in Etsy
Card stocks, transparent stickers, pockets, weekly and daily inserts, and dividers by the PNJ team

PNJ even had the names of those who purchased this kit written in Japanese Katakana on one of the dividers. I was just super amazed and thrilled because I love the colors and I love anything Japanese. So thank you, PNJ!

Oh and just check out what’s in store for kit subscribers for August.

It’s so adorable too, isn’t it? I love macarons too! Hahaha!

If you’re looking for a planner, I highly suggest you check out Planners and Journals. I am super happy with their products so far and looking forward to getting more.

For more information on PNJ, do check out their Facebook page and their Instagram account.