• Mollie Makes gold succulent kit
    crafts - handmade - Mollie Makes crafts - tutorial

    Jenny Makes Mollie Makes Gold Succulent Kit

    December 29, 2015 - By 

    Every month I challenge myself to make the Mollie Makes magazine cover gift. I’ve subscribed since it first came out and have a drawer full of unopened kits but no more. I’ve been making more time for crafting and I love to try something new with each of the cover gifts. Issue 61 ofMollie Makes came with a Gold Succulent Craft Kit. The kit made 4 different things so you could choose to make whatever you liked which I thought was a nice touch. You could choose from a brooch, necklace, a key tassel or plant pot holder. I opted…

  • Christmas - handmade - sewing - tutorial

    Fabric holly and berries wreath

    December 23, 2015 - By 

    Last year I bought myself a sweet Felt and Fabric Holly Garland kit from John Lewis. Did I get round to making it? No! So this November I took out the kit and started to make it. I cut out the holly leaves using different shades and fabrics. Then I machine stitched them. Then I left them until this weekend when I finally had time to get them out. The kit included lots of different sized red buttons for the berries but I couldn’t decide if I wanted to use them. I sent these pictures to my sister to see…

  • hanging Christmas tree ornament
    Christmas - handmade - tutorial

    Hanging Christmas tree ornament

    December 20, 2015 - By 

    One of the decorations I love to get out each year is a sweet hanging Christmas tree we made a couple of years ago from some off cuts. I can’t believe I’ve never got round to blogging about it as I love it. Hanging Christmas tree ornament It’s actually been up for the whole past year. This could mean I am lazy about putting away Christmas decorations or it fits right in and looks good all year round. It was hidden in a corner of the dining room so I thought this year I would give it a festive makeover.…

  • How to make a wooden gingerbread house advent calendar
    Christmas - gingerbread house - handmade

    How to make a wooden gingerbread house

    December 4, 2015 - By 

    I know it’s the 4th already but I have to blog about the grown up advent calendar I made this year. I used a wooden MDF blank from Hobbycraft and decorated it exactly as I wanted, to make a wooden gingerbread house. Equipment used to make a wooden gingerbread house: Wooden Advent House Brown acrylic paint White acrylic paint Advent number toppers PVA glue Pack of white buttons How to make a wooden gingerbread house The MDF wooden house has 25 small cabinets so you can fill them yourself. You can also decorate these blanks any way you like, with…

  • Christmas - handmade - Handmade gifts

    Making personalised gifts with children’s drawings

    December 3, 2015 - By 

    I’ve spent this evening wrapping the majority of our Christmas presents and Christmas stockings. I’ve spent ages Pinning gift ideas and like to make my gifts nice and early so I’m not rushing to finish them off on Christmas Eve. Many of my gifts this year are handmade or bought from independent shops, I love to give something special. My children like to get involved with our handmade gift tradition too and this year we tried something a little different – we used one of my 5 year olds’ drawings on a cushion via Snapfish. Making personalised gifts with children’s drawings…

  • Christmas - gingerbread - handmade - Handmade gifts

    Gingerbread jumping jack decoration

    November 13, 2015 - By 

    I know it’s November but we got our Christmas decorations out of the loft at the weekend. I wanted to go through the boxes and have a sort out before the children start rifling through them, demanding we put up every Christmas decoration we own. I took out all our Christmassy craft supplies as the children want to start making Christmas crafts too. We love gingerbread and gingerbread crafts so today we’re going to share our gingerbread jumping jack decorations. They are a really fun craft, can be decorated however you like, and look great hung on the tree or…

  • Christmas - handmade - sewing

    Jenny Makes Prima Makes

    November 8, 2015 - By 

    Every month I challenge myself to make the Mollie Makes magazine cover gift. I’ve subscribed since it first came out and have a drawer full of unopened kits. The latest issue included a free calendar which was nice, but I missed my little crafty project. Luckily I picked up a copy of Prima Makes which had a cute little kit to make two festive finger puppet. Today I am bringing you Jenny Makes Prima Makes! Jenny Makes Prima Makes issue 9 Christmas 2015 The kit contained pieces of felt in light brown, light grey, white, dark brown and black. I…

  • Christmas - days out - handmade - sewing - Tower Hamlets

    Making handmade Christmas decorations with Jessie Chorley

    November 6, 2015 - By 

    A couple of weeks ago I went on a workshop run by Jessie Chorley. She is a designer/maker with a shop and workshop on Columbia Road. I’ve visited her shop a few times and was pretty excited to discover she runs workshops too. I signed up for a Christmas workshop. On arrival I was handed a little pack of paper items from which I could make three items: Stitched and collaged Christmas cards Collaged and stitched postcard decorations to be placed in your home once complete Decorating pre cut Christmas decorations that will then hang from a string in your…

  • Halloween crafts - handmade

    Getting ready for Halloween with DYLON

    October 26, 2015 - By 

    My children have been looking forward to going trick or treating for a while. This year it looks like we will be away over Halloween so, to make up for them missing out, I thought I would help them make their own Halloween costumes so we can have a little party whilst we are away. I’ve previously had fun experimenting with Dylon dyes so I thought I would make them costumes. Dylon sent us some plain white costumes along with a selection of Dylon dyes and a colourful Halloween palette for inspiration. When I showed my children the Halloween palette…