Before I became the founder of PoppyloppStudio, I was a primary school teacher — a job I loved for its constant energy, creativity, and the meaningful connections I made with children and their families.

One year, I had twin girls join my class. They were three years old when they were adopted, and it was clear that their bond as sisters was something truly special. Watching them settle into their new family, grow in confidence, and flourish at school left a lasting impression on me. As a mother of daughters myself, I found it incredibly moving to see them not only thrive but also remain together. It reminded me how powerful and beautiful a loving, intentional home can be.

After having three children of my own, I found myself searching for a better balance between work and family life. I’ve always been drawn to creative projects — especially those involving felt and hand stitching — so what began as a hobby slowly evolved into something more. I’m completely self-taught, driven by a love of needlecraft and the satisfaction that comes from making something meaningful by hand.

My inspiration

My children continue to be my greatest source of inspiration. Their curiosity, imagination, and sense of wonder shape many of my designs — from colour palettes to playful details. I’m always keeping an eye out for the little things: a scribbled drawing, a nature walk treasure, a made-up story. These moments spark ideas that eventually take shape in the pieces I create.

Each of my felt garlands is made from sustainable material that’s soft to the touch and gentle for little hands. Unlike mass-produced nursery décor, handcrafted items have a soul. They carry intention and individuality, and they help make a space feel truly personal and warm. I believe a child’s environment should reflect the love that surrounds them, and a few thoughtfully chosen pieces can transform a room into something meaningful.

     Each piece is handmade with wool felt and stitched with care

My very first felt name garlands were created for friends who wanted a thoughtful gift to welcome newborns. They were looking for something personal — not just another toy or outfit — but something lasting and sentimental that wouldn’t be quickly outgrown or tidied away. Those first few garlands led to more requests, and before long, PoppyloppStudio was born.

Celebrating new beginnings

Now, I create handmade felt name garlands and decorations designed to celebrate new beginnings. They’re a lovely way to prepare a nursery for a little one, especially when welcoming a child into a new forever home. Whether it’s to mark an adoption day, a birthday, or just to make their space feel special and truly theirs, these decorations add warmth, personality, and a touch of fun.

One piece I particularly love is my Heart with Wings decoration. It’s a simple yet powerful symbol of love and belonging — something many families connected to adoption will resonate with deeply.

Every garland I make is stitched with care, love, and the hope that it brings joy to a growing family. Because for me, it’s not just about crafting beautiful things — it’s about celebrating stories, names, and the moments that make a family.

To see all of my designs, head to the website where you’ll find out more about me, and how to sign up to my newsletter to be the first to find out about new products and discounts. You can follow me on Instagram to find out about new designs, special pieces, and a behind-the-scenes look at how each creation comes to life.

Head to the homepage to read all of the new articles above parenting, adoption, wellbeing and more.

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Our children come to us with their own personalities, routines, trauma and so much more. In the early days as we try and understand them, finding something that’s quick and easy to do that will also help to develop a connection and trust is a win-win.

This article is written by Claire Carney about the benefits of balloon games for helping children develop physical and cognitive as well as emotional skills. The games are a great way of connecting with your child. Claire asked my family and me to review her book “50 Fun Balloon Activities” and kindly gifted us a copy of it and a balloon kit so we could try out the games.

Why balloon games are far more than just a bit of fun!

The adoption process creates a minefield of emotions including anxiety, trepidation, excitement, hope, and worry. It’s a big step for everyone involved so any resources and activities that can help to make the path a little smoother are worth exploring.

A simple, fun, and inexpensive option is to play balloon games together. For many, especially children, balloons have a tactile, magnetic quality which makes them a perfect choice for activities that a child is likely to be happy to engage in.  The games are fun to play and can help develop or retain a range of emotional, physical, and cognitive skills, which the players won’t even realise they are doing.

Before you start, check that there are no latex allergies. If there are, latex balloons can be substituted for something light like a sponge ball or beach ball, depending on the activities you will be playing. If any players are nervous about balloons bursting or the bang may act as a trigger, don’t blow them up fully. Instead, inflate them a little bit less so the latex isn’t as taut making them less likely to burst.

Balloon games to help you connect

Activities involving balloons are suitable for most environments and can be played with any number of players. The games can be non-competitive to ensure that there is no pressure on the players to win, helping to keep the atmosphere as relaxed as possible (unless all the players enjoy and thrive on a bit of competition!).  

They are also great as an icebreaker activity as most games can be adapted to suit a range of abilities. This can help make introductions between family members or bridging generations a fun, enjoyable event, offering the opportunity to use the activity as a conversation starter.

When choosing the best games to play, try to find a balance between being enough of a challenge to bring a sense of achievement without making it so hard that the player gives up trying.

Emotional skills

Balloon games can help to unlock our inner child, and seeing others enjoying playing a game can be infectious. It can almost give permission to take part for others who may feel nervous or worried about joining in.  

Being part of an activity can help encourage eye contact and verbal exchanges, leading to a sense of belonging and feeling more secure. This social interaction can then enable relationships to begin to form and develop. Adults show they can be trusted by doing what they say they’ll do or helping the child(ren) to complete the objective of the game (for example, consistently returning the balloon to them in a balloon rally).

Balloon games can create a safe environment in which to learn many different emotional skills, such as how to handle situations where things go wrong (e.g., a burst balloon) or ways to cope when things don’t go the way they want (e.g., their team loses a game). These skills build over time to create resilience, develop an awareness of others’ emotions and learn how to work with others.

Physical skills

Sometimes just a basic release of energy is required, and balloon games can certainly be energetic! Physical activity develops gross motor skills such as running, jumping, and catching, and encourages the release of happy hormones. These are important contributors to a positive mood and mental well-being.

As many games have variations to suit a range of physical limitations, the level of complexity can be increased as the player’s ability to complete the task develops. With repeated attempts, the player is likely to improve how well they complete the task and this will help to build their confidence.   

Most children love to get wet or play with water so games involving water can provide an incentive to get active without them even realising it.

Some games are much more calming and meditative, helping to diffuse any tension that has built up from stressful situations. Even activities as simple as throwing a balloon in the air, catching it, and counting how many catches are made can be very mindful, requiring complete focus on the activity at hand. This can be done as a single-person activity if some time out is required. It will help provide some processing space for the brain, allowing heightened emotions to settle.

Cognitive skills

There are ways to help children with homework and revision using balloons to make it more fun. Balloons with letters written on them can be placed in a pile so that the correct letters need to be selected for spelling practice. Writing numbers on balloons can be used to help make sums more engaging, and can be adapted to be as complex (or simple) as is appropriate.

Balloon games are inexpensive, quick to organise and can be played multiple times if the children are enjoying themselves. Once you have bought your balloons and a hand pump (much easier than inflating by mouth!) you can use what you want as you need it. Why not try some balloon games and experience the magic of seeing how they help people to connect?

Claire Carney is the author of ’50 Fun Balloon Activities’ which is available to buy from Amazon. Please note, this is an affiliate link which means if you click on it and buy the book, I get paid a fee from Amazon. A kit containing a selection of large, small, and water balloons with a hand pump is available to buy with or without the book from Claire’s website.

If you enjoyed reading this article, why not buy me a coffee to help support the magazine and keep it free for everyone to read? To read more articles about adoption, health and well-being, and parenting, head over to the home page and have a look at what’s new.

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Craft activities are such a great way to keep the kids entertained, and can help them develop a wide range of skills too. For example, reading instructions can be great for working on literacy skills, particularly with reluctant readers. Counting out supplies and timing how long things take to dry is also good for numeracy skills. Crafts are also a great way to spend quality time bonding with children, where there’s no pressure or expectations on either of you.

Here are some tips and ideas to help you use crafts to keep the kids entertained and learning over the summer holiday.

Start a recycling box for crafts

Add toilet roll tubes, bottle lids, tin foil, and tubs that are all great materials for crafting with. Encourage children to be a part of the activity from the start if possible, for example, ask what they would like to make, or what theme of activity they would like and involve them in gathering the supplies. Or why not ask them what they think they could make from a certain item of recycling?

Get the basics together- scissors, glue and some pens are a great start. Glue dots are good because they don’t require any time to dry and don’t make any mess. Prepare your space, you could use a wipe down tablecloth or even newspaper to cover the table.

Summer crafts: create a scrapbook

At the beginning of the holidays, you could start a scrapbook. Then encourage your children to save mementos throughout the holiday- cinema tickets, receipts from going out, a leaf from a walk, etc. They can doodle on the pages, jot down memories from the day and add photos. They then have a lovely record of their time off and it’s a great way to spend time as a family.

Make a moneybox

Take a butter/spread tub and cut a slit in the top big enough for coins, decorate with stickers, label with their name etc. If it’s a bit sharp cover the edges in tape. This could encourage children to save any pocket money they might get!

Make a door sign

Cut open a cereal box and write your child’s name in bubble type writing on the biggest side. Cut up sparkly paper/card/tissue paper/stickers- anything they can find and fill in the letters. This can then be a door sign, popped in a frame or on the fridge! They could also do others names as gifts.

Handprint crafts

Draw around children’s hands and turn them into fun characters with faces on their palms. They could decorate the fingers as hair, turn them upside down so the fingers are arms and legs or even turn them on the side and make fish! Use googly eyes for a bit of fun!

Make cards

Write a list of birthdays or occasions you have coming up over the rest of the year. Buy card blanks or simply fold some card in half and children can choose who to make a card for each time they want something to do! They could use stencils, draw, stick on stickers, gems, the list is endless and you aren’t then panic buying a shop bought card.

I hope this shows you that crafts don’t need to be over complicated or expensive. Whether you are looking for activities for children to do on their own or to do with them, the beauty of crafts is that they are really adaptable! You can prep loads of elements or leave it for the kids. Whatever they make the children will enjoy doing it.

Summer craft club

If you’d like to find out about my summer craft club, follow Creative Little Crafters on Facebook and head over to the website to find out about my personalised children’s craft box subscriptions.

If you enjoyed reading this article, why not buy me a coffee to show your support for the magazine? If you’d like to read more articles about adoption, head over to the home page and have a look at what’s new.

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Read on to find out how Sunshine & Rainbows came to be. I love the meaning behind the name and the products they create.

Sunshine & Rainbows: for adopters, by adopters

About me

I’m Joanne, and I’ve been married to Adam for nine years and together for 20! We are the very proud parents of two beautiful children, who we adopted in 2018 and 2020.

Our journey to becoming a family started way back in 2012, the year we were married. We’d always spoken optimistically about ‘when’ we would have a family rather than ‘if’. Never in a million years did we think the journey would take us such a long time and have so many ups and downs. Not to mention the emotional rollercoaster of twists and turns. But here we are, we made it and are now a family.

We welcomed out second child during lockdown. After 12 months of adoption leave, our little one still required more time, structure, and routine to help her fully settle into family life. It was just too soon for me to return to work.

This inspired us to create Sunshine and Rainbows. We’ve always been strong advocates of adoption, and this new venture allows us to use our passion and experience to support others going through the adoption process.

Why Sunshine & Rainbows?

The name has lots of special meaning to our family. The name ‘Sunshine and Rainbows’ was inspired by our two very special little people. ‘You are my sunshine’ and ‘Somewhere over the rainbow’ are songs forever linked with our children.

I’ll always remember the final day of introductions, otherwise known as moving in day, with our first little one. The car journey home, our son in the back, tears streaming down our faces. It was a mixture of pure happiness, equally balanced with pure sadness. Yes, it was the start of our family life together, but it was also a time for our little one to grieve yet another loss after been with his foster carer from birth.

It was an incredibly emotional day for all concerned. As we drove home for the first time as a family, the song ‘You are my sunshine’ started playing on the radio. Since that moment, this has become ‘his song’ and is very special to us.

Our second little one came to us in 2020 during lockdown. Images of rainbows were everywhere. They were a symbol of hope and a promise that everything will be ok. It was a natural connection to make and a sentiment that was so important, especially considering the journey she’d been on already.

One day on the way home from her foster carers  during introductions, our son burst into the song ‘Somewhere over the rainbow’. He said he’d like to sing it to his ‘sister’ next time he saw her. Our hearts melted right then and there. And so, this song became ‘her song’. It is equally fitting that the first letters of the words Sunshine and Rainbows are their initials. It was all meant to be.

Ethos:

Our little one’s early life experiences are well documented. It makes for sad and traumatic reading. People talk of the process, and how pleased and relieved they are once it is finally ‘all over’ and the adoption order is granted.

But we believe the journey doesn’t end there. It’s a continuation. A new chapter perhaps? One story doesn’t end, and another begins. It’s all part of one story, one journey. As adoptive parents, we have a responsibility to respect and continue their story.

At Sunshine and Rainbows, we want to celebrate that all families are different. Every story is personal, and each journey is unique. We understand and appreciate the intricacies involved with adoption. The long journey, the emotional turmoil, alongside the pure joy of finally ‘becoming a family’.

The world is made up of a whole range of diverse families. Parenthood is a wonderful thing, no matter how it comes to you. This is something we feel passionately about and was another driving force for us to get Sunshine & Rainbows up and running. Let us help document the memories, the unique moments, and celebrate the love that makes a family.

Inspired by Introductions

Our adoption training and learning taught us how incredibly important introductions are. This wasn’t only a chance for us to meet our little ones and get excited about our new family life together. More importantly, it was a very carefully planned series of events, put together with utmost care and consideration. Introductions served to keep the needs of the child at the centre, build trust, and to nurture a bond between adopter and adoptee.

When we were going through the adoption process, we found it difficult to find appropriate introductions gifts. We wanted something personal, child friendly to start the process of building bonds and attachment. Nothing seemed to encapsulate our feelings or have the right sentiment. It seemed that the adoption community were very much underrepresented. Most gifts and cards were centred towards birth families. We found this incredibly frustrating and disheartening to say the least!

With this at the forefront of our minds, we started to put together a range of age-appropriate introduction buddies. We welcomed ‘Bertie’ the journey bear and ‘Sweep’ the scruffy dog into our collection. I’m so proud knowing there are Berties and Sweeps dotted around the country, helping to capture happy family memories.

As well as introduction buddies, we stock a range of books to help and support families through the adoption process and beyond. Most of these books sit proudly on my own bookshelf. I still dip in and out of them from time to time, three years on. All the featured titles have been recommended by adoption agencies and provide a thorough overview of all things relating to adoption no matter where you are on the journey.

We also offer a range of keepsake gifts. Amongst these are our ceramic wall hangings. They celebrate adoption and give thanks to the important people connected to your journey, such as foster carers and social workers. The keepsakes can be personalised with your little one’s name or your family name in recognition, thanks, and celebration of the adoption journey.

What’s next

You can keep up to date with our own personal adoption story and product offers by connecting with us on Instagram and Facebook.  I’m always keen to connect with the adoption community and I invite you to join our new Facebook group ‘Adoption & beyond – chatter and support’. A supportive group of like-minded people. A safe place to discuss all things adoption, wherever you are on your journey to parenthood. You can join the group through our Facebook page.

I’d like to wish anyone embarking on this wonderful adoption journey, the very best of luck. Just remember, it’s all worthwhile in the end!

Joanne

To read about more adoption small businesses, click here.

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Zoe’s beautiful products help us celebrate our children and acknowledge that although they’ve had a traumatic start to their lives, they aren’t defined by that and are loved and celebrated by all of their family. They also help us say thank you to the wonderful social workers and foster carers who keep our children safe until we’re able to bring them home.

In this article, Zoe shares some of her journey to becoming a mum through adoption, and why she started Mumaduke designs. You can follow her on Instagram

I wanted a baby for as long as I can remember. When my sister and I were smaller, we often joked that I would have a house full of children and she would give birth to a monkey or some sort of animal.

I always had a doll, buggy and handbag! I couldn’t wait to grow up and have a  family.

When I was in my teens my aunty went through IVF and had twins. My eyes were opened then to the difficulties one may have in conceiving. I did used to say, if I have to have IVF, I will have twins too! Little did I know then that IVF doesn’t always work.

Skipping forward many years, I married the boy from the top of the road (true story!). We decided that we were ready to start a family. I’m an impatient person at the best of times, but waiting each month to find out if I was pregnant was hard. I knew straight away something wasn’t quite right.

Fast forward five long years, two rounds of IVF and no pregnancies, we started the adoption process.

Adoption

Adoption was a route to parenthood I’d thought about long before trying for a biological child.

We heard a radio advert for our local adoption agency. They were having a drop in event. So, we gathered our parents and headed over. Apparently it was the first time prospective adopters had brought their parents along! For us it was about everyone finding out the same information at the same time. It was also a chance for our parents to ask questions.

Our journey through the process was pretty straight forward. Our only hold up was one reference and overseas checks. From start to approval panel was nine months (the assessment should now take around six months). Any delays I found frustrating at that time were nothing to the feeling of being out of control and impatience when we were waiting for our match.

I took matters into my own hands and scoured Link Maker. We enquired about several children, but we weren’t the right parents for them.

Three long months later (I’m aware matching is taking a lot longer at present) we had a call from our social worker. She told us about our soon to be little boy. That night I slept, properly, and dreamt about him. Any concerns I had were laid to rest and as we found out more and more about him, the more he sounded like our son.

We had a very positive two weeks of introductions with Cub sleeping over earlier than planned. Then he moved in forever.

Being a new mum

Adjusting to being a mother took me longer than I thought it would. In hindsight, I put far too much pressure on myself and I do seem to look back and remember more of the tough times, mixed in with the wonderful.

We had a tough time with sleep for three years. I won’t go into now, or this will be pages long! I talk about it in my blog and will no doubt speak about it again. All has now settled down and Cub is generally amazing. So all our hard work has paid off.

A year into being parents I found myself feeling like I had lost who I was. I was everything I had always wanted to be, but surely I didn’t have to swap one life for another? I started hobbies such as crochet and sewing, which I loved. They gave me a bit of myself back. Me time. Which looking back was really me needing to look after myself.

Mumaduke Designs

One day, five years ago, I looked high and low for an appropriate card to send birth family. I went into 13 different shops and couldn’t find anything. So, I went home and made my own.

I then got thinking, I wanted a bauble with Cubs special dates on, and milestone cards specific to our journey. I couldn’t see anything available. So I chatted with a good friend and started getting Mumaduke Designs off the ground.

I started with prints celebrating adoption, then brought out the adoption milestone cards and then greetings cards. The last five years has been a huge learning curve. Every year I tweak the products I offer to ensure I am being as inclusive and respectful as possible.

Running a business with no business background at all hasn’t been easy. Everything is learnt from scratch, but I do love it. Hearing stories and messages from my customers is wonderful. I’m sometime the first person to know they’ve decided to adopt which is so special. So, thank you all for supporting me.

Cub loves my shop, he has stolen each of the sample teddy bears! He also wants to help ‘teach’ people about adoption.

I have virtually and physically met so many wonderful families through adoption and I couldn’t be more grateful. I am excited for the future, to learn and to see how Cub grows and develops.

Adoption hasn’t been easy, but I put a lot of that down to me being a first time Mum (I would also say a very anxious and stressed first time Mum). I have made heaps of mistakes, but I have also got some things right.

Community

As we say in our home, its ok to make mistakes, as long as you learn from them and always try your best. I am definitely stumbling my way through (I also don’t think I’m alone) reading books, listening to stories on Instagram and from friends. But I don’t feel alone. Not anymore.

Having a community around me has been vital. I have a blog about setting up your own adoption support group. In the early years of being a Mummy, I needed those other adoptive parents. Other families like us who understood.

I feel like I’m finally finding my feet. Getting a work life balance has been hard, but I feel I am getting better at it (famous last words!)

I can’t thank you all enough for your support and guidance over the last five years. I can’t wait to see where the next five takes us!

If you’d like to read more Small Business spotlight features, click here

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One of the hardest parts, I think, about being an adoptive parent, is not always being able to answer our children’s questions about things that happened before we knew them. Notes on scrap bits of paper are better than nothing. But having a notebook filled with anecdotes, facts and information about their time with foster carers, is such an amazing life story tool.

That’s exactly why Holly she created her notebook range. They’re a great way for foster carers to record our children’s time with them and a wonderful tool to use for life story work.

Who I am

Hello! I’m Holly Marlow, parent to both biological and adopted children and author of various children’s books about foster care and adoption, including “Delly Duck: Why A Little Chick Couldn’t Stay With His Birth Mother.” My husband and I have two amazing children – a 6 year old biological daughter and a 2 year old adopted son, who has been part of our family for about 18 months. I also sell adoption and fostering related notebooks.

What inspired me to create notebooks

Our foster family gave us a contact record that was essentially a little notebook that she put in the bag for every contact session that my son had with his birth family. The foster carer wrote notes to his birth parents to say what time he was likely to need a nap, milk or food, whether his nappy had been recently changed, and what kind of mood he had been in that morning.

She also included little snippets of information about milestones he had reached and particular games and toys that he was enjoying, to help them to have the best possible experience in their contact visit. The birth parents replied in the book, sometimes asking questions or just saying how the visit went.

I think this book will be a real treasure to my son when he’s older and can read things that his birth parents and foster carer wrote about their time with him.

An adult friend who was adopted as a baby told me that he wished that he had contact with his foster family, as he felt that an important part of his story was missing. It occurred to me that a simple notebook could be a wonderful tool to support life story work and help fill these gaps in the stories of adoptees.

Adoption notebooks

First I created a notebook for foster carers to record anecdotes about the child’s time in foster care, then another that adopters can use during the introductions process or early weeks together, when getting to know their new child. There are so many emotions during that time, I felt that a diary or journal to record special moments, anecdotes and feelings would one day be precious to a child and perhaps help them to understand another important part of their story.

I then decided to create some more notebooks that could be used as gifts for social workers and foster carers, because I found it difficult to find anything that seemed quite right for ours! I just love the illustrations that my sister created for Delly Duck and hoped that some people might like to see those familiar characters on their notebooks.

Charity donation

I recently decided to donate the profits from sales of my Delly Duck themed notebooks to a charity. I ran a poll on Instagram so that people could vote for their preferred charity from four options that I felt were really worthwhile adoption and fostering related charities.

It was a landslide! 79.7% of the votes were for Home for Good, a charity registered in England and Wales that exists to encourage people to foster and adopt, and inspire and equip churches to welcome and support families that foster and adopt. It’s wonderful to see that so many people feel it’s a worthwhile cause.

Plans for the future

The notebooks available at the moment simply have lined pages, but I am thinking of creating some with guidance – headers to help the person filling it out, so that they remember to record the key things that might be important to a child reading it later.

I am also working on some workbooks for adopted children, to help them to process their feelings about being adopted. I’m taking my time with these and waiting until I’ve had more input from adoptees, to make sure they are as helpful as possible.

Holly Marlow’s “Delly Duck” themed notebooks are available to buy on Amazon now!

This post includes affiliate links to Amazon. That means if you click on the links to the book and notebooks, and then buy them, I get paid a fee from Amazon.

If you’d like to read about more small businesses who’ve created adoption products, click here.

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