Crafty Mum - Sensory Bottle

One of the main reasons I became a Mum is that I needed more justification for my craft stash. I'm joking* but I really do love to make things. My Mum always tells me that one of my favourite things to do as a kid was 'cutting and sticking' for hours on end. I wanted to be a teacher because I thought it meant you got to do Arts and Crafts all day long (I now have friends who are teachers and this is definitely not the case).

I had a bit of a dry spell with crafts but now that I have Ruby it has motivated me to get stuck into making things again, and I thought that I would share my crafty adventures with you all. I wanted to start off with something fairly straightforward so I decided to give my first sensory bottle a go. 

I found a great tutorial from a little delightful via pinterest and gathered my materials:

• Empty water bottle (cleaned, dried and label removed)
• Foil star confetti 
• Beads 
• Glitter
• Glue gun
• Baby Oil (or Glycerine, I used baby oil because I had some at home)
• Washing up liquid
• Water

How To

It is super duper easy to make this type of sensory bottle, I basically made the whole thing during Ruby's morning nap!

• Half fill the bottle with water
• Add your glitter/beads/confetti (or whatever you want to add)
• Add one tablespoon of baby oil (or Glycerine) 
• Top up the bottle with water (but not right to the top)
• Replace the lid and give it a shake to test. You may find you want to add more beads etc or you may feel you need a bit more oil (or Glycerine). Keep testing until you feel you have it the way you want it to be and that there is enough in the bottle. 
• TIP - if the items in the bottle seem to be clumping together add a small amount of washing up liquid (I found this tip on another site and it did the trick for me).
• When you have finalised what is in the bottle use the glue gun to glue around the rim of the bottle, then quickly screw the lid on (do I need to remind you that the glue will be hot so be careful? I feel I should just in case!).
• Once the glue has dried, your sensory bottle is ready to use! 

Ruby enjoying the first attempt

It's a nice super easy craft and we have enjoyed playing with it and it's cheap and cheerful. I will definitely be experimenting with more in the future. If you have a go, please share your results here, or over on my Facebook page. 

*or am I?