• 14 ways to upcycle a Monopoly game
    Crafts for adults - Handmade gifts - Recycled crafts - upcycling - vintage

    14 ways to upcycle a Monopoly game

    August 30, 2015 - By 

    Growing up I loved to play board games with my family. My favourite was Monopoly and I’ve picked up a couple of vintage  sets on recent charity shopping trips. Did you know that the game is named after the economic concept of monopoly—the domination of a market by a single entity? Yep, it’s not just a fun board game, it actually reinforces the idea that wealth creation is a good thing. You may not believe in the ideas behind Monopoly but I’m hoping my children will enjoy playing it one day. I think it’s a useful way to learn about…

  • hand stamped plant markers - the gingerbread house
    Crafts for adults - garden crafts - tutorial - upcycling

    Hand stamped plant markers

    July 7, 2015 - By 

    I have a small addiction to San Pellegrino sparkling fruit drinks, especially in the Summer months. The only problem with this is our recycling bin is full of empty cans. I’ve been looking for ways to recycle them and made some hand stamped plant markers for the garden. I don’t have the greenest fingers but this is a great craft for the garden which anyone can do. Time to make: 30 minutes You will need: Empty drinks can Dremmel Tin snips Metal alphabet stamps Centre punch Hammer How to make hand stamped plant markers: I used a Dremmel to cut…

  • Scrabble tile coaster for Father's Day
    Crafts for adults - Father's Day - Handmade gifts

    Scrabble tile Father’s Day coaster

    June 13, 2015 - By 

    We celebrate Father’s Day with handmade gifts in our house. We’ve already been busy with decorating candles and drawing pictures. I thought I would try something a little more grown up with my stash of Scrabble tiles. Vintage Scrabble tiles 2mm cork sheet UHU POR glue Swann Morton scalpel How to make a Scrabble tile Father’s Day coaster We kept our Scrabble tile coaster simple with the words ‘I love you Dad’. We arranged the Scrabble tiles, using blanks to make each line the same length. We placed the tiles on a sheet of cork (purchased from eBay) and glued…

  • How to make Scrabble tile badges - the gingerbread house
    Crafts for adults - Handmade gifts - tutorial - upcycling - vintage

    Scrabble tile badges

    May 21, 2015 - By 

    Did you know it’s Scrabble Week? This May over 6,500 new playable Scrabble words join the Collins Official Scrabble Wordlist. To celebrate the biggest update in 4 years, Collins are hosting Scrabble Week which runs from May 21-28 2015. I love playing Scrabble and crafting with my vintage Scrabble tiles. I felt I should make something special to mark Scrabble Week so I made some fun Scrabble tile badges. My two favourite things (after my family of course) is sewing and drinking tea so I made simple badges using my Scrabble tile stash. I used: Vintage Scrabble tiles 2mm cork…

  • how to build a mud kitchen - the gingerbread house
    Crafts for adults - Kids crafts - playing - Recycled crafts - tutorial - upcycling

    How to build a mud kitchen

    May 16, 2015 - By 

    A few weeks ago we made our children an outdoor kitchen or mud kitchen. It is quite a basic construction from some unwanted wood but that’s what I love about a mud kitchen – it can be as simple or elaborate as you want. My children love to spend time outdoors and it wasn’t hard to give them some more space, with some spare utensils, to have fun and learn outside. We’ve wanted to make a mud kitchen for our children since we moved house 2 years ago. We managed to stockpile an old pallet and a few scaffolding boards…

  • Scrabble tile dishwasher magnet
    Crafts for adults - Recycled crafts

    DIY Scrabble tile dishwasher magnet

    April 16, 2015 - By 

    I have a fun little make to share with you today. I don’t know about you but my husband is forever putting dirty dishes in the dishwasher when in fact it’s clean and needs emptying. My children also love to help tidy up but needed a little visual help to understand if the dishwasher was clean or dirty. This is such an easy project. I love crafting with Scrabble letters so I have hundreds of tiles to play with but you should be able to pick up a vintage Scrabble set from your local charity shop for a few pounds.…

  • DIY magnetic Scrabble board
    Crafts for adults - Pinned it made it - Recycled crafts

    Pinned it made it – DIY magnetic Scrabble board

    April 7, 2015 - By 

    Ages ago I Pinned an image on Pinterest of an old picture frame which had been filled with Scrabble tiles. You could use it to make your own words and phrases. I love Scrabble and I’ve been meaning to get round to making one for ages and I finally did. Equipment needed to make a DIY magnetic Scrabble board: Old picture frame or similar Magnetic Scrabble tiles Chalkboard paint Brush How to make a DIY magnetic Scrabble board: I used a Wilko chalkboard frame as a base for my Scrabble board. It cost £8 and is a large chalk board…

  • easy chalkboard Easter eggs
    Crafts for adults - Easter - tutorial

    How to make chalkboard Easter eggs

    March 31, 2015 - By 

    Earlier this month I bought a huge tin of chalkboard paint at my local DIY store. I made a magnetic Scrabble board which I keep meaning to tell you all about. There was a lot of paint leftover so I used some to make chalkboard Easter eggs. Here’s how I did it – Equipment needed to make chalkboard Easter eggs: Styrofoam eggs Chalkboard paint Brush White Spirit Chalk How to make chalkboard Easter eggs: First I painted my styrofoam eggs. This was a little tricky as they were small and slippy so I found an empty box, put four pins…

  • Vintage Playmobil figure badge
    Crafts for adults - Handmade gifts - Pinned it made it - upcycling

    Vintage Playmobil figure badge

    March 11, 2015 - By 

    Ages ago I bought a bag of vintage Playmobil figures from eBay. They were mainly from the 1970s and I really wanted to craft with them and bring them back to life. You may remember the Playmobil clock and the Playmobil jar toppers I’ve made. I thought it would be fun to see if I could make some badges from a collection of vintage toys and game pieces so collected some badge backs and epoxy glue and a very old tablecloth and got to work. How to make a vintage Playmobil figure badge: Collect your materials. I used an epoxy…