A very clever customer recently asked us for a sheet with all our animals on it so that her and her kiddies could see which animals they had missing from their collection!

So, click here to access and download and print the poster of all the animals that we currently produce.

These animals are very special since they all started life as a drawing in my sketch book, and then the skilled craftsmen over in our wonderful factory in Indonesia, cut the shapes out of reclaimed rubber wood, spray them in gorgeous water based colours and then add their individual features using a traditional screen printed method.

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They are perfect for little hands as well as little purses since we sell them all individually.

Check out our favourites......Whale, Elephant, Tyrannosaurus Rex

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Our friendly Lion from our Safari Adventure Kit is used here to create this super simple activity to create a beautiful wall hanging filled with memories of your lockdown year together as a family.
All you need:
The free print out below
A small cardboard box
Black marker pen
Parcel tape, double sided tape or strong glue.
Simply print out the artwork from our free, downloadable page (either drag and drop from here or head over to our blog). Then carefully cut around the thick black line of the lion’s head, (we’ve left his mane as reference).
Next glue the head onto some card and trim to the same shape. To create the mane we used a cardboard box to cut strips from. Cutting is a wonderful, fine motor skill for your child to try and do, especially as corrugated cardboard allows the child to follow the groves of the card making it even easier for them to cut in a straight line.
You will need to cut around 20 strips, each one around 11-12cm in length and around 1-2cm wide. Arrange the strips in a circular shape, tape together in the middle as shown, (we used parcel tape), then join together using a strong glue or double sided tape.

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Now for the really fun bit! Get your family together and think of words which will remind you of your lockdown year together. This could be activities you’ve done or feelings you’ve experienced. For example bike rides, kitchen discos, lots of hugs, bird watching, woodland walks etc. Then start writing each one onto a strip of the Lion’s mane using a thick, black marker pen. Once you’ve filled in each strip your Lockdown Lion is ready to hang or stick on your wall to help you remember all those fun times in this crazy 12 months!

If all this talk about Lions has got you wanting to plan a trip to a zoo…the countdown is on with many UK Zoos hopefully opening their doors again on April 12. But in the meantime there are lots of fun activities on Zoo websites for families missing seeing these animals. Many have live web cams operating and blogs featuring their latest news. For example London Zoo’s blog has recent posts where you can meet their amazing wolverine family and white rhinos. There is also a wonderful post about how to create your own Home Hospital and perform your very own vet check on all your soft-toy animals! Check it out here:

https://www.zsl.org/blogs/education/ready-teddy-go

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For more Tender Leaf inspired safari animals check out these best selling toys here:
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The future is green!

We love seeing all the new flowers appearing this time of year, so to celebrate this and all things spring we have this fun, free activity.

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It features illustrations from My Botanical Press, our brand new flower press toy out next month.

Print out our spring time activity by either dragging and dropping the images below onto your desktop or going to our blog for a direct download. This activity also doubles up as template to make the beautiful daffodil too you can see below. Here’s how:

You will need:

1 Egg Carton

Yellow Paint

Yellow bead

Yellow pipe cleaner

Green card

Use our daffodil from our colouring in print out as a template to draw around on the flat part of the egg carton as shown in our photos. Then cut it out.

2. Next cut out one of the middle points from the egg carton and cut into

Petal shapes as shown.

3. Paint both pieces yellow and allow to dry.

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4. Next carefully make a small hole through the centre of both ‘petals’ with a cocktail stick or pin. Then thread the pipe cleaner through both petals to join together, tying the yellow bead onto the end which is closest to the centre of the inside petal.

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5. Finally cut the green card into a stem like strip and attach the flower onto the stem using the pipe cleaner. Or use a green straw as a stem to thread the pipe cleaner into. Ta da! You have a beautiful daffodil to give a friend or to pop in a vase to admire in your home!

My Botanical Press is available next month and is a based on a traditional wooden flower press with paper sheets and metal screws at each corner to tightly press the pages together. Fill your paper pages with flowers and leaves and press them to create delicate flat dried and preserved flowers, ready to use in any art and craft activity. Keep your eyes peeled on our instagram for sneak peeks at all new toys coming out this year!

https://www.instagram.com/tenderleaftoys/

https://www.tenderleaftoys.com/

Click here for the free printable

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Spring has finally sprung and while we are still having to endure the monotonous lockdown we can still look to the great outdoors and enjoy nature in all its glory as our local parks, woodlands and garden slowly emerge from their winter slumber.

St Patricks Day falls on Wednesday 17th this year and what better way to celebrate it than by going green for the day. How you choose to “go green” is totally up to you! Maybe that means wearing all green clothing head-to-toe! Perhaps you choose to eat and drink only green foods all day or for an entire meal. Maybe you simply choose to be extra eco-friendly (“green”) for the day and pick up litter or make crafts from recycled materials. There are so many fun ways to celebrate being green!

We have lots of printables here on our blog that feature using materials found round the house to create some wonderful crafts.

Spring means starting to dream about the summer garden... and a really lovely way to introduce seed planting with little ones is to start with cress or grass seeds in eggshells. All you need to do is save those eggshells from your breakfast (try to break just the tip of the shell off and pour out the egg). Fill the shell with potting soil and one seed. Push the seed down into the soil, but not too deep. Water the seeds and keep the soil moist (but not soaked). Put them in the egg carton (as a holder) in a sunny window and watch them sprout! When ready to plant, simply drop the entire egg into the soil. It will provide great nutrients and calcium for your plants.

We love feeding the birds in our garden and this is an easy thing to set up with the children. In winter birds need high energy, high fat foods for survival in the cold months and all these are easily available online.

Alternatively you could get creative in the kitchen and make your own culinary delights for the birds. There are lots of recipes and instructions online such as this one on the Eden website

This last week we have seen bright sunshine, sharp cold winds, and we even had a hailstorm! Watching the weather is most interesting this time of the year as it seems to change on the hour! Get your kids excited about rain by making a rain gauge to monitor how much rain you’re getting. All you need is a mason jar (or other glass container) that you can write/paint on. Have your kids use a ruler and make marks on the glass for each inch of water. Place the rain gauge outside on a level surface away from overhead trees or awnings. After each rain, go out and check the gauge to see how much rain you got! Check out our weather watch if you are the kind of family that prefers to be indoors when its raining!

Here are some lovely spring themed toys if you are looking to create a spring themed play table......

Pond dipping Garden Wheelbarrow set Flower bed

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Notebook

Our wonderful animal collection

Make a lockdown Lion!

Go green for St Patricks Day

Finding wonder in March