I’m not really sure how old this knitting bag is but I couldn’t resist its wooden handle or vintage fabric. I’m not a big knitter but it’s perfect for holding my latest sewing project. It’s currently holding my purchases from my rather extravagant trip to the Knitting & Stitching Show at Ally Pally. It’s my favourite sewing event of the year and I had the joy of visiting last week without children (thanks hubby!). Anyway, I admit I was excessive but living in London I just find it impossible to go searching for lovely sewing supplies. Faced with 200 sellers…
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We’re not big on celebrating Halloween but I can’t resist making some Halloween treats. I received a box of Ghostbusters Stay Puft Quality Marshmallows from my favourite sweetshop Cybercandy and thought I would turn them into spooky marshmallows. The marshmallows were tightly squeezed in the box, so I emptied them out and let them breathe and regain their shape. I then sorted out the best, evenly shaped ones (size-ist, I know) and got to work with my edible marker pen. What do you think of my spooky Halloween marshmallows? A great quick craft for kids big and small! Ghostbusters Stay…
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I mentioned the other day how we were aiming for a handmade Christmas. The first step was to make a start on our kid-made Christmas cards. There’s so much inspiration on Pinterest but I narrowed it down to simple ideas I could do with the toddler. He absolutely loves finger painting at the moment so we got the paints out, covered the table in newspaper and got stuck in! Kid-made fingerprint Christmas cards Christmas finger print lights This was so much fun. I opened four pots of paint and let the toddler loose. He’s pretty good if I give him…
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My toddler is Thomas the Tank Engine mad. He also likes making things so I thought we could combine the two. On a recent day out we saw the Troublesome Trucks and thought it would be fun to make them ourselves. We used some mini cereral boxes, which we painted grey. You can see I was really lazy and turned the boxes inside out as the paint wouldn’t stick to the shiny side of the cardboard. You could also cover boxes in grey paper, dependant on how impatient your toddler is. We then went through old issues of Thomas the…
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It’s that time of the month, the PinAddicts Pinterest Challenge. The idea is to choose something from your Pinterest boards to create and link up each month. Fabric alphabet for little fingers This month I was totally inspired to make this colourful fabric alphabet by Chez Beeper Bebe. I love reading her blog and she has some lovely free tutorials. I thought I would make a version for our fridge which is covered in magnets. I wanted to use a rainbow of colours so chose a range of fabrics from my stash. I then cut out the letters and pinned them…
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Over the summer I was busy swapping like a mad person, trying to give me something to think about other than nappies and wiping noses. I took part in two fab craft swaps around the theme of the Jubilee. First up was God Save the Queen swap! hosted by Hookin’ with Laa Laa. We had to send things relating to Britain and Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee. Items were plentiful and I sent a union flag notebook, Diamond Jubilee keyring, napkins and cross stitch, as well as some spectacular Jubilee sunglasses to my partner Crafty Mum. Hales sent me some lovely gifts including a…
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I’ve recently bought three lovely new craft books and have ear-marked a couple of projects to get me through the autumn and winter. You may know I love English Paper Piecing and have been carrying around a little hexagon project for a while. One it’s finished I’m going to start on my own version of the Union Jack Quilt which is one of the projects in Tacha Breucher’s hexa go-go. I thought I might make a cot-sized version for Little Sis’ first birthday in November. Her brother received a dinosaur blanket for his first birthday so I would love to…
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Not much to show this week. I am trying to finish some little projects and have brought a bag on them on holiday in the hope there will be some sewing time. At last years’ Knitting and Stitching Show at Ally Pally I bought a fat quarter of a fab print by Echino Ni-Co called Camera in turquoise. It features a vintage 35mm camera in repeat and I thought I might make something for my husband who loves taking photographs. That never happened when I realised a fat quarter wouldn’t be enough to wrap around a lens, let alone his…
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I can’t believe the summer holidays are nearly over. We’re going away visiting family next week so I thought I should pull out all the stops to ensure we’ve had lots of inexpensive fun this week. We’ve been dodging the weather and making sure we spend as much time outdoors as we can. I bought the toddler a box of chunky chalks and he’s been having great fun drawing on the patio. Don’t forget there are lots more ideas for inexpensive play from Play England on Morrisons website. Yesterday we made our own modelling putty for the first time. I…
