Craft Gossip

Independent craft blog since 2007

All the ways to get your CraftGossip fix

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Our editors post a lot. Around 25-40 posts a day. And strangely a lot of people complain (yes, we know!). But there is so much crafty goodness to be found that it is necessary to post several times daily to keep up.

So here are the tips on how you can keep up:

  1. Come to the site directly (http://craftgossip.com). Scan the items on the front page, right click on items that interest you and open them in a new window or tab. Then scroll right to the bottom and click to go to page 2. Repeat the scrolling and right clicking. If you do this daily, you will not miss out on any good ideas.
  2. Go directly to the blog (s) that interests you the most. See all our blogs in the section on the left. Repeat the above process.
  3. Like us on Facebook: http:/facebook.com/craftgossip. Do some socializing while getting your daily CraftGossip fix.
  4. Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/craftgossip. Make sure to retweet everything that interests you.
  5. Subscribe to our newsletter. It sends you everything via email that the editors posted in the last 24 hours.
  6. See all posts made yesterday via the “All Daily Posts” link (see to the left under the blog names). Similar to the newsletter.

Whew! With so many ways to get the updates, there is no excuse now not to stalk us. Go ahead. And please show some appreciation by using our link to us buttons.

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Comments

  1. Thanks for this – I thought I’d got the hang of blogs but there are a couple of tips here that will make keeping up with you guys easier.

  2. You can also sign up for the RSS feed using Google Reader – that way you can easily track what you’ve already read and get caught up quickly! You can sign up either for the individual blogs you want to follow, or get everything from the CraftGossip homepage! 🙂

  6. Don’t forget the RSS feed! That’s how I subscribe. Makes the many posts per day more easily manageable. 🙂 Not complaining!

    I do wish, though, that each of the blogs had its own feed (so I could subscribe to just the ones I am most interested in instead of all of them in the same feed) AND the full feed enabled — it’s frustrating to have to click over to the site just to click on the “get the tutorial” link at the end of the post about a project.

Have you read?

Learning about Finland for Kids

Finland is a country in Northern Europe bordered by Sweden, Norway and Russia, as well as the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Bothnia. Let’s learn more about this Nordic country. 

Finland Basics

Finland is 130,678 square miles, or 338,455 square kilometers, and is home to about 5.7 million people. 

Its capital and largest city is Helsinki. The official languages are Finnish and Swedish.

The area now known as Finland was first settled around 9000 BC, and it was part of Sweden from the late 13th century until 1809, when it became an autonomous grand duchy within the Russian Empire. It declared independence in 1917 and it officially became a republic in 1919. It lost some territory to Russia after World War II but retained its independence.

It was the first country in Europe to grant its citizens universal suffrage, and the first in the world to allow all adult citizens to run for office. It is a Nordic style welfare state with an advanced economy and is often ranked as one of the countries with the happiest people in the world. 

It has a unitary parliamentary government, with a president and prime minister.

The name in Finnish is Suomi, and it’s not clear where the name came from but it seems to have a common original with the Sámi, indigenous people from the Nordic region and Russia. 

Finland National Symbols

The flag of Finland has a white background with a blue Nordic cross (which looks like a Christian cross on its side) in the center. It is said that the blue represents the nation’s thousands of lakes (there are more than 180,000 recorded lakes in the country) as well as the sky.

The national anthem, “Maamme” in Finnish or “Our Land” in English, was originally written for the 500th anniversary of the town of Porvoo and was first performed in 1848. The song is not officially the national anthem but has been commonly used as the anthem since the nation’s independence. Estonia‘s national anthem uses the same tune. 

Finland’s coat of arms is a crowned heraldic lion on a red field, with the right front leg replaced by a human arm holding a sword. He’s also standing on a sabre and surrounded by nine roses. 

The Eurasian brown bear is the national animal, and the Finnhorse is the national horse. Finland’s national insect is the seven-spot ladybird and the national fish is the European perch. 

Lily of the valley is a floral emblem of Finland, and their national dog is the Finnish Spitz. In addition, granite, the silver birch, the Whooper swan and the holly blue butterfly are all considered national symbols. (You can read about several of these here.)

Finland Learning Activities for Kids 

Grab resources for teaching about Finland from Teachers Pay Teachers. Artsy Craftsy Mom also has a printable fact book you can purchase.

Make a tape resist Finnish flag with this idea from taidekoti. Or use watercolors to make the Northern Lights, which can be seen in Finland, with this project from The Pinterested Parent. And learn more about the Aurora Borealis in this video from Little School.

Learn more about the boreal forest/taiga biome, which covers the majority of Finland, with this resource from Let’s Talk Science. Talk about the differences between brown bears and grizzly bears, and pull out horse crafts and learning activities. 

Take a listen to some music performed on the kantele, the national instrument of Finland. 

Check out the Moomins, described as “with and roundish trolls with large snouts,” developed by Finnish author and illustrator Tove Jansson.

The national food of Finland is rye bread, so give it a try with this recipe from Zingerman’s. (It will still be good even if you don’t have freshly milled rye.)