(Don't forget to link up your Make it Up projects!)
We have a birthday party to go to this weekend. Or, as I should say, a Royal birthday party! We are to dress in our best prince and/or princess attire to celebrate. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?
So, what to give a princess?...Why a new crown of course! And, perhaps a fairy princess wand as well?
I set out making the crown. I made it out of wool felt and it has a bit of elastic on the back for stretch. There are four stars on the crown to celebrate the birthday girl turning four. And, while I was preparing the crown, Violet set to work on the fairly princess wand. She was very very excited to be a part of the making of this gift for her friend and kept talking about how much she thought she was going to like it!
But, then, seeing as though we are in the midst of "Make it Up", and I have been browsing through Show Me A Story: 40 Craft Projects and Activities to Spark Children’s Storytelling, I thought that it would be fun to add a bit more imagination to the crown and wand.
Why not give the birthday girl some storytelling tools! Of course the crown and wand can be storytelling tools as well, tools to get her to really make believe, but how about some "story sparks" as Emily calls them. When I suggested this idea to Violet she was thrilled! After seeing her pocket for Pippa on the computer and listening to me read her the story that she and I made up, she was even more eager to get to create and tell some more.
The first thing we did was to make up a story. About a princess of course. That is where I started Violet...and she was off, dictating to me this story...
And then she was off drawing this picture for the story...
Once we had a story and a picture it was time to make our story sparks for our storytelling kit.
We gathered some supplies and set about making some story dice, story stones and story disks to go with our birthday gift.
I let the kiddos help with some of the story dice. And help with ideas of what to put on the dice. And help with a bit of the modgepodging. I thought it would fun to search through my fabric for fun "story spark" characters to use on the disks, etc. I do have to say that I'm not totally thrilled with my people on the story stones, but that's okay, right?
I made the story disks double sided (I found so many fun ideas in my fabric!). So with dice, disks and stones, that's 64 things to start a story!
I made a quick little draw string bag and stamped it with "Make a Story" to keep everything together. And then we tucked everything into a box for a storytelling birthday gift that's fit for a queen (or king, or princess, or prince, of average joe...)
Making this story telling kit was so much fun, especially since the kids got to help too! This just might start to be one of our go to gift ideas!
PS, don't forget that you can get in on the fun too! Tell stories and make crafts at your house and then come back here to link them up! You can read more details here. If you link your "Make it Up" projects up next week you could have a chance to win your own copy of Show Me A Story: 40 Craft Projects and Activities to Spark Children’s Storytelling where you will find loads of other inspiring ideas to Spark Storytelling!
