With half term upon us and Christmas spirits running high with the recent launch of Santa Stork, we thought now would be the perfect time for those Christmas craft activities. We encourage all of our ‘storklets’ to get involved in making decorations for what promises to be the best Stripey Stork Christmas tree yet, something for us all to be proud of and which truly represents what Stripey Stork is about. So, we are thinking lots of orange and turquoise (forget the standard red and green Christmas colours), our mascot Stripey, recycling, children and babies. What comes to mind when you think of Stripey Stork and how can this be represented in a Christmas tree decoration? If you have an answer to this, then get crafting!

The Christmas Tree Festival is being held at the Reigate Community Centre (High Street) on:

• Friday 7th December (from 12-6pm)
• Saturday 8th December (10am-6pm)
• Sunday 9th December (12-4pm)

We’d love to see as many of you there as possible, enjoying Stripey’s tree and all of the other fantastic trees on display. We are also one of the chosen charities being collected for this year, so do come and show your support. In order for us to have our tree Christmas-ready and for it to be enjoyed in its full glory at our offices, we ask that you drop your decorations off at our HQ by Friday 23 November. Here’s some inspiration to get you started.

Stripey goes Pixel

Thank you to Dylan (age 9) for inspiring us with this fantastic Quixels version of Stripey. So, it got us thinking, this would look great turned into a Christmas decoration.

We made versions using Hama beads (iron well on both sides to make sure that the legs stick together), plastic canvas and cross stitch.

What other materials can you make Stripey from? Here’s a pattern you may want to use.

A Star Reader

We love books here at Stripey Stork, in fact we try to include a bundle of age appropriate books for every child we help as we recognise how important they are for development. If you have books at home which are too well-loved to pass onto a new family, then why not make them into decorations and give them a different purpose?

Using an old annual, we made some origami lucky stars. Simply cut the pages into strips about 1 inch (2.5 cm) wide, stick them together with tape to get a long strip about 22 inches (55cm) long.

This tutorial shows you how to fold it into a 3D star shape. Adults may need to help here as it’s a little fiddly, but well worth the effort.

Once you’ve made your star, use a needle and thread to add a hanging loop through one of the star points. Beads can be added to the hanging loop to add some extra sparkle.

Here’s a tutorial for making different shaped baubles from book pages, where you can choose squares (like we have here on the right), circles or stars. And here’s another tutorial for making a different type of star. Who’d have thought you could do so much with just some old books?

Felt the Halls

Felt decorations can be nice and easy to make. For a traditional Christmas icon (snowman, holly, present etc.) all you need is the outline of the shape, you’ll be able to find lots of templates online – clip art is always a good source. Stick to simple, unfussy, designs.

If you want to make something more bespoke, you may need to design your own. For example, we wanted to make a baby vest decoration (orange and turquoise of course) to represent all of the bags of clothes we give out at Stripey Stork. Did you know that last year we gifted 633 clothes bags to local families in need? Using a piece of paper, fold it in half if the shape is symmetrical, draw the outline and cut it out. Then cut out two layers of felt using the shape as a stencil.

Decorate the front with embellishments, buttons, beads, ribbons and/or bells (we particularly like bells as they jingle). Pin the front of the decoration to the back. At this stage add a ribbon loop to hang on the tree later. Sew the front of the decoration to the back using either a double strand of sewing or embroidery thread. Just before you get to the end of the stitching, add a little stuffing. Then voila, finish off and it’s all ready to hang on the tree.

A Toy’s Story

Did you know that last year alone we donated 376 toys and book bags? And that’s not even including Santa Stork! At Stripey Stork we make sure every preloved puzzle that we pass on is complete, otherwise imagine the disappointment for a child when they get to the end of the puzzle only to realise that there’s a piece missing! These incomplete puzzles make great Christmas decorations.

Simply paint the puzzle pieces a colour of your choice (no pressure, but orange, blue and yellow are our firm favourites here), glue together in a snowflake shape and add a ribbon. We recommend adding some Christmas sparkle with embellishments or glitter. A little tip – we found it much easier to paint the cardboard back of the puzzle pieces, not the shiny front.

Have a think about other toys you could use? We thought some old, battered toy cars painted orange would look great.

Fabulous Fabric Decorations

At Stripey Stork we get so many great donations, but occasionally some of the clothes don’t pass our quality checks. We always like to say that if it’s not good enough to pass onto a friend, then it’s not good enough to pass onto any of the families which we support. We want our recipients to feel like they are receiving a gift and not a hand out.

So, if you have any baby clothes which are at the end of their life, then give them another life. Like we have here, by making mini fabric Christmas trees using this tutorial.

Other ideas for using fabric scraps can be found here and here.

If you are short of fabric, then you can always swing by our office (after half term of course), and we’ll be happy to help you out.

Let the Crafting begin…

We hope you’ve enjoyed our designs. If you have any ideas of your own then please share them in the comments below. One of our volunteers (Sam West) has already been busy as you can see.

Now, all you need is a day chilling at home and it’ll be the perfect excuse to set to work. We can’t wait to see all your creations on our Stripey Stork tree, we know you’ll do us proud, you always do! And don’t stop at our tree – make some keepsake decorations for your own tree too, and let us know how you get on.

Speaking of keeping the kids entertained, here’s our Stripey Stork colouring sheet too for them to enjoy this half term.

The post Stripey Stork’s Christmas tree – we need your help appeared first on Stripey Stork.

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Rachel’s Top Tips

You can also download the printer friendly version here: Top Tips Smartphone Photo Guide

1. Make sure your lens is clean

If your phone is anything like mine, it’s usually in the hands of my children, and quite probably sticky! So before you load up your camera app, give the lens a wipe, this will help keep your images looking as sharp as they can.

2. Get their attention with a sticker

When my boys were small, I struggled to take pictures of them looking at my phone. So I put a silly sticker on the back of it to encourage them to look at me. It captured their attention in the direction of my phone for just long enough to take the picture!

3. Think about what you want to capture, and what you don’t

You want a lovely picture of your little one in their new outfit, but you probably don’t want to remember the mess that might be lurking in the background! Look through the viewfinder and check if there is anything in the frame that you don’t want to show, and either move it or get closer to your child so that these things aren’t in the frame causing a distraction.

4. Choose where to focus

Most smartphones allow you to select a focus point for your picture. For example, if you were taking a picture of your child at the park, you want to make sure your child and in particular, their eyes, are in focus. When you have composed your shot, tap the screen in the area you want to focus on before you take the picture.

5. Think about the light

I know that there are certain places in our house that are great for taking photos, and usually they are when the children are facing windows. If your images are coming out dark, instead of using the flash, try turning on the overhead lights, as children often react in wacky ways to a flash. And if you have lights in the background, these can confuse your smartphone and give you a dark image, so try moving slightly and then focusing on your child’s face so that the smartphone can do it’s magic.

6. Get down or climb up

When I’m on a family shoot, you’ll often find me lying on the ground. That’s because I want to get down to a child’s level, and to capture the world from their perspective. A higher perspective looking down on your child can capture them from your point of view, so experiment with both, and see which you prefer.

7. Keep the phone as still as possible

This is often easier said than done, but especially in low light, any movement can result in blurred images. If this happens, see if you can lean against something, perhaps a door frame or a table. And if you are getting blurry pictures because your little one won’t keep still, try giving them a toy to hold, or asking them a question, they may just stay still for long enough for you!

8. Look after your memory

Isn’t it annoying when you go to take a picture and your phone says out of memory? That could be because your phone is full of pictures that you don’t realise you have kept and you don’t actually want to keep. I’m guilty of this myself, my phone has 11,629 images on it right now, and I’m guessing at least half of them are not worth keeping! So try to remember to delete photos on your camera roll that you don’t want, every week or so, and check that they are actually deleted and not sitting in a deleted items folder still taking up space! Images taken with features such as live view are a lot bigger than normal images, and video clips bigger still, so I’d recommend checking back, and for videos, trim them to just the good bits. If you are really struggling for space and have a computer, you can always move your saved pictures from your phone onto your hard drive.

9. Check your backup

The second reason I mention memory is to check you’re backing up your phone. I checked a month or so ago and despite having automatic cloud backup, it hadn’t been running for a few months for some reason. Thank goodness I noticed! You can back up your phone to a computer if that’s easier, but just set a reminder to yourself to do so once a week or month.

10. Print out your favourites

You probably have some favourite pictures of your kids on your phone, so why not print them out to enjoy everyday? There are lots of different companies online that print everything from magnets to postcards, so pick a few of your favourite phone pictures and stick them up on your fridge for everyone to enjoy. They’ll be sure to make you smile. And this will remind you how quickly the children are growing, and encourage you to take more! Perhaps even similar poses or places, and once you print new ones, put the old ones away in a memory box. Your children will love looking back through them in years to come.

So that’s it! Go forth and take photographs!

A huge thank you to Rachel for writing these tips, you can see more of Rachel’s award winning work here.

The post Top tips for taking better photos of your kids with a smartphone appeared first on Stripey Stork.