Chametz Hunt House - Easter Hat Parade

You may mistake this hat as the Easter Bunny's house, but that is far from reality. So without further ado, we present to you the Chametz Hunt House Easter Hat.

I didn't get around to sharing this Easter Hat we made for the Parade at school last year. It was close to not happening due to lock-downs, but it did go ahead, and parents were even allowed to watch. It was the first time I have been able to go to school for the Easter Hat Parade. I was able to take time off work for it because I have been permanent long enough to have some leave built up.

Anyway, it felt a bit weird sharing an Easter Hat too long after Easter, so I figured I would just keep it for this year and this year's hat can be shared next year too. It gives me a bit more time to get the blog post done.

After modifying the same paper mache hat we made for the last three years, it was time to make something new. The last three years were a sort of trilogy, with a prequel (Hosanna! Palm Sunday Easter Bonnet), the main event (Spectacular Spring Lamb Easter Bonnet), and a sequel (Magnificent Butterfly Resurrection Easter Bonnet). 

I intend to do another trilogy of hats for the next three (although not re-using the same hat), but we'll see if Tahlia remains interested.

The foundation of Jesus death, burial and resurrection is presented in the Biblical feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread and First-fruits respectively. In anticipation of fleeing Egypt, the Israelites ate unleavened bread as instructed by God because they did not have time to wait for the yeast to rise. Yeast also represents sin as it causes dough to puff itself up (like pride) and so when God gave the instructions for commemorating the flight from Egypt in the festival of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Israelites were told to rid their homes of any yeast (Chametz in Hebrew) and yeast breads ahead of celebrating those feasts.

As part of the festivities, a game for the children developed called the Chametz Hunt. The mother cleans out the yeast products from the house, but hides 10 pieces or crumbs for the Dad to help the children find. They go on a hunt using a candle for light and when they find the crumbs, they use a feather to scoop the crumbs onto a wooden spoon and take them out of the house to be burned.

In a similar manner, we need to seek out our sins and get rid of them. Perhaps there are 10 pieces of bread to remind us of the 10 Commandments.

There are plenty of hiding spots on this hat to hide bread. Thankfully, I had made way too much bread to go into Pharaoh's Baker's baskets in our Genesis 40 - The Baker's and The Butler's Dreams Quiet Book Page so we used that to hide behind doors and windows. 

Tahlia sewed the windows and doors on. The completed roof was hot glued onto the walls rather than sewn. 

I think I sewed the walls and roof together. The chimney idea worked, which was a relief! I sewed the chimney together leaving about 1.5cm open at the bottom to fold out underneath the roof and sew down around the edges of the chimney hole in the roof.

At Tahlia's request, rather than securing it we made the hat to fit over the top of this felt St Patrick's Day Hat we had in our dress-up collection so it could still be used separately from the Easter Hat. I covered it in plastic food wrap to prevent any hot glue accidentally getting on the other hat while we were gluing the roof and things on.

We made a bin to burn the bread by covering a plastic shot glass I obtained from a supermarket sampling stand with some grey corduroy, securing it with hot glue. We scrunched up some red cellophane for the fire. 

We added pom pom bushes, a rik rak vine, and embroidered flowers as a decorative touch. They were all hot glued onto the side of the felt house rather than to the base St Patrick's Day hat.

Our fake battery-powered candle, toy wooden spoon, and feather all fit nicely into the chimney for storage.

We hope you will use our free Chametz Hunt House - Easter Hat Parade - Template Pattern to make your own version. It is a great way to help your kids share their faith in an exciting way. Why not seize the chance to develop their witnessing skills?

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Inspire us with your Christian themed Easter Hat ideas!

Car Travel Dice

Now you can roll dice in your car!

If you are taking a long trip with kids in the back, you can now play dice games...

I came up with a way to make rolling a die in the car easy and at the same time, difficult to loose. We recently went on a car trip, and as Tahlia is getting a little older now, she doesn't sleep a lot like she used to. She gets bored. At one stop there were various gum ball machines filled with small toys and trinkets packaged in small round plastic containers - apparently they are termed "toy capsules". They ensure the gum ball machine will function properly when the dial is turned. We bought one.

As the top half of the plastic is clear, it enables you to see through to what is inside. If you put a die or dice inside, you can shake, rattle and roll your way to a happy road trip! The dice are rolled in the comfort of your hand and no longer require a large flat surface to be turned out on. They also can't roll off the edge and into the Never Never. Of course they can still be dropped, but a plastic gum ball is quite larger than the dice and much easier to find in an overstuffed car.

I guess what I came up with is similar to the Pop-O-Matic function in a game of Trouble. Another re-invention of the wheel.

Image Source

You can sometimes find acorn capsules in gumball machines, which have a flat bottom, and would be slightly better for rolling more than one die. However, you could also use any plastic container you have on hand, such as an empty sippy cup or small kitchen food container.

Acorn capsules - Image Source

Although not all of these will work in a car, and for now Tahlia is happy just rolling, here is a link to a list of

9 Simple Dice Games for Kids for Ultimate FUN

Enjoy your next car trip 😍😃😌

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Is there a dice game you wish you could play in the car?

Sew a Hexagonal Game Board

I have been wanting to make a hexagonal game board forever... You can play lots of abstract strategy games on this board, including hexagonal chess and three player hexagonal chess.

I've been thinking about how to make a hexagonal board with ease, and when I went through my material stash and found this material with hexes already printed on it, I knew exactly what I was going to do with it. But if you are a sucker for punishment, here is a link to a blog post by Candice of Sew Says You with awesome pictures of how to make quilt-as-you-go hexies.

So, this is the not-really-quilted game board I mentioned I was working on in my Placemat Game Boards post.

It is double sided, with a 91 cell honeycomb board (the more common one) on the blue side, and a 127 cell honeycomb board on the pink side.

Board Game Geek has a list of games you can play on a few different sizes:

• 37 cell; 4 hexagons per side
• 61 cell; 5 hexagons per side
• 91 cell; 6 hexagons per side
• 127 cell; 7 hexagons per side
• 169 cell; 8 hexagons per side

127 Cell Honeycomb Board set up for Batalo

I went through the internet printing off a myriad of board game rules and boards quite a few years ago, and I remember a game akin to paper scissors rock played with a queen, horse and bishop on a hexagonal board. I can't find it again, but I'm hoping it is with the stuff I printed off. I can't access it at the moment as it is in storage, but when I can, I'll have the board ready.

I did find a similar game on another site Pair of Dice Games where you can download a printable board, rules and counters.

Materials Needed to Make a Hexagonal Game Board:

• wool quilt batting
• hex printed material (in two colours)
• thin ribbon to outline the board
• thick ribbon for edging
• co-coordinating and contrasting thread

How to Sew a Hexagonal Game Board:

Decide how many cells you would like in your honeycomb board. Cut a square of batting slightly larger than the area taken up on your material by that number of hexagons. Fold it into quarters and mark the center with a pin.

Unfold the batting and place your first colour of hex printed material on top. This will be your smaller board. Line up the center pin with the mid-point of the central hex of your board. Pin the material to your batting.

Pin each hex and batting together around the outside edge of your board to make it easier to follow where you are going for the next step.

Sew through the middle of a ribbon along the outer edge of your game board so you can easily see where it ends when you are playing. Remember to melt the ends with a match to prevent the ribbon fraying.

With your needle firmly planted in the corner of each hex edge, lift the foot and pivot your material and ribbon ready to sew the next edge.

 Pin back the material out of the way. Turn your board over and place your other colour on top, again lining up the center pin with the mid-point of your central hex. Also make sure your boards are oriented the same way. Pin each hex and batting together around the outside of your larger board. You can turn the batting over to check they are lined up OK before you sew the next step.

 Sew a line of fancy stitch in a contrasting colour around the edge of your larger board. A fancy stitch is wider and will be more visible than a normal stitch. You will need to to this on the actual side you are outlining so you can see where you are going. My picture is of the other side so you can see why you need to pin the under side back (that way you won't get two outlines on the smaller board).

Unfold the fabric from underneath and Cut off the excess from your board. Leave enough room for your binding ribbon to stay clear of your contrast stitching.

Sandwich your thick ribbon around the outer edges of your boards and sew down. I stopped and started a new line of sewing for each side. 

At the corner I only sewed until I reached a pin I had placed perpendicular to the outer board hex, and then back stitched. That gave me room to fold the ribbon for the next side. When you get to the end, fold the ribbon under itself before sewing the last section down.

Enjoy!

And why not take the opportunity to talk about different strategies - Satan's, God's, and ours in how we can reach other people with God's love...

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Do you like to play any games on a hexagonal board?

Placemat Game Boards

I enjoy playing a variety of board games, but it can be quite expensive buying them all. So, a few years ago I made these board games myself. I had visions of teaching my children how to play, but having no time to make the boards, so I got ready early... I love how there are so many different strategies to learn in so many different games. What may appear simple, might turn out to be a little more complicated than you originally thought.

Nine Men's Morris

Alquerque

Brandub

You can find the rules for all these games and many others on the Masters Traditional Games website.

Out of these three, my favourite is Nine Men's Morris, but I had the most fun making the Brandub board.

Making your own board games is a great way to up-cycle old place mats. I chose ones with black or gold edging. You can buy plain MDF place mats from craft shops, but they are way more expensive than ones you can find in an op shop, and lack such imagination fueling features. For the Nine Men's Morris and Alquerque boards, I printed the board directly onto scrap-booking paper which I cut down to size to fit into my printer. The Brandub board has a scrap-booking paper background, but the squares are made from vinyl scraps. I used gold scrap-booking stickers to embellish the Alquerque board. Everything got stuck down with a couple of layers of Mod Podge. For the counters I used glass pebbles.

I am currently working on a not-really-quilted game board, so here's hoping it works out OK so I can share that with you too!

Tahlia surprised me the other day when we played a game of Carcassone with a friend. She did really well, and was able to participate (with a bit of help of course). So I'm looking forward to introducing her to these when the time comes.

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Which are your favourite board games to play?