My AG Monopoly

My AG Monopoly

What a better way to spend Bank Holiday afternoon than spend lots of money buying lots of AG dolls WITHOUT actually spending any money at all :)

I got this "My Monopoly" game for my girls for Christmas last year, and it has been lying around unused as we haven't had any idea what to do with it. The game's instructions suggest to pick your favourite places or family memories to make your own Monopoly streets, but that did not appeal to us. Instead, one day, after buying yet another American Girl doll (I know, it's so addictive), I jokingly suggested we make My American Girl Monopoly, where we can all buy the dolls. Not just mummy :)

Don't worry, we play lots of different editions of Monopoly games and I am sure my girls will not grow up to want to buy lots of expensive dolls, just like they won't be buying Trafalgar Square, in real life.

I took the pictures of our favourite American Girl dolls and we made four streets - a GOTY - Girl of the Year dolls street, a Historical / BeForever dolls street, our Custom American Girl Dolls street, and of course, our Disney Princesses street. There are 30 pictures required for the board, and 4 for the tokens, but if you want, you can have different ones on the back, as the board tiles are double-sided/reversible. We've also added cut out letters 'AG' and stuck onto the board to make it look like 'My AG Monopoly'.

Oh, and if you're not familiar with My Monopoly game, it's just like normal Monopoly but you can put your own pictures on the tiles to create the streets and the tokens to make your own unique game. It's available in many toy shops or online shops like Amazon.

        

It's not exactly full on crafting, but still a bit of a "make your own" truly unique monopoly game. The pictures are uploaded to 'my monopoly' website, and you print them onto supplied sticker sheet. The print quality was not brilliant, but still fun enough for us to enjoy the game. And there's enough stickers to make more than one theme / game. I think the My AG Monopoly game is a must for any AG dolls collector!

$400 for a Kanani American Girl Doll, anyone? It's so much easier to accept that high price because it's not a real money you'd be parting with :)

...and if you want to see a little bit more of this American Girl Monopoly, we've made this quick stop motion video where Anna and Elsa, our "Frozen" Disney Custom American Girl dolls explain it all:

American Girl Dolls as all 13 Disney Princesses ~HD~

American Girl Dolls as all 13 Disney Princesses ~HD~

For the past couple of months I had lots of fun customizing our American Girl Dolls to look like Disney Princesses. In a house full of girls, pink is prevailing, but I was surprised how colourful the Princess collection ended up looking, with very little pink indeed!

I started with Anna and Elsa, because we absolutely adore Disney Frozen move. Then I moved on to see how many others we can make to look like Disney Princesses, because we also love all original Disney Princess movies, as well Once Upon a Time TV series and of course the latest Disney Cinderella movie!

There is 13 official Disney Princesses as of spring 2015, and here's the final result (click on the picture to view the full video). I hope you enjoy it!

P.S. Don't forget to leave us a comment and subscribe to our channel for updates on forthcoming videos :)

Fimo Clay modeling fun

Today we've been having fun with the kids learning how to do clay modeling.

Mummy, Daddy and Baby Bear

After starting with normal play dough, we moved onto cheap modeling clay from a pound shop.
The results were ok, we've made some Despicable me Minions, frogs and general random stuff, but I like to save kids' crafts (a mother can't just chuck it away, can she?), so we've moved onto polymer clay so it can't be baked in the oven.

I got a few Fimo soft clay kits from a local The Range shop at a bargain price, and off we went. It says it's a "soft clay" but it is still quite hard, if you compare it to some air drying clay, which seems like butter. On a plus side, it makes less mess than play dough so I love it already...

Anyway, we did some flowers, butterflies, love hearts - the usual, and some creations were better than others. We still have a few Fimo soft clay kits left - princesses and fairies, but I feel we need more practice on cheap play dough before we give it a go.

However, one kit I really fell in love with - the family of bears. Out of one kit we managed to make mummy bear, daddy bear and a baby, and still quite a lot of pink and white clay left. They are so cute that I just HAD to share them - and they're even more cuter for the fact that they were made by my 10 year old daughter - she's got a natural gift, I think. I especially love the daddy bear.

Cute first attempt at Clay modeling

I don't think I can match her skills, but I am keen to learn to make more things with Fimo clay - I'm hoping to make some flowers and other simple stuff to go onto cards.  

Loom Bands Craze Summer 2014

Summer 2014 is officially loom bands crazy, and if you can't beat them - join them. I have resisted the craze as long as I could, but in the end, since we're having yet another stay-at-home vacation, I've invested in a several looms and literally thousands of loom bands. But the truth is you only need a couple of forks, and it probably is much easier than using the looms.

The kids are spending hours on YouTube searching for best tutorials, not just bracelets, but 3D mini toys and bag charms  - so far we like OlgaCrafts best, as sometimes talk-free tutorials are the easiest to follow.

At the end of the day, the technique for making loom band bracelets are very similar to loom knitting, so once you've mastered the "hooking over" then you can knit anything. I am partial to flower designs, so I have joined the kids in doing a few starburst bracelets. Making loom band bracelets is surprisingly fun, and highly addictive! Each one took me just over an hour so that's about a day's work here:

Starburst Loom Bracelet

Hmm, which colour should I wear today?

I predict this loom band summer craze will last awhile, and I bet there will be lots of Christmas Decorations made this year out of loom bands.