• easy handmade flower pot snowpeople
    Christmas - crafts - garden crafts - handmade - tutorial - upcycling

    Winter activities for small people

    December 27, 2013 - By 

    I hope you’ve all had a lovely Christmas. Not that our winter holiday is over but I have let out a small sigh of relief that presents have been opened and enjoyed and several big meals have been cooked and eaten. My two little people have not let Christmas get in their way and have been wanting to be crafty regardless of their piles of presents. We’ve had playdough, practising our writing, colouring and stamping as well as outdoor family activities including a couple of walks, a trip to the park with their scooters and taking my son’s model boat…

  • Christmas - crafts - gingerbread - handmade - Recycled crafts - tutorial

    Crafting with lightbulbs

    December 17, 2013 - By 

    Have you ever crafted with a light bulb before? I was set a challenge from LightBulbs-Direct to redecorate an old and plain light bulb into an exciting new Christmas ‘light bulble’ bauble! Easy. I turned to Pinterest and found tons of inspiration, so much in fact it took me a while to decide exactly what to make. Lightbulbs are always burning out in our house so there was actually a couple by the back door waiting to go out with the recycling. I chose the largest one I could and gave it a light spray with a white acrylic primer to…

  • Toilet roll angels
    Christmas - crafts - handmade - Kids crafts - Toilet roll crafts - tutorial - upcycling

    Toilet roll angels

    December 2, 2013 - By 

    Have a plethora of toilet rolls in your house? We seem to go through lots so are always on the look out for some crafts to help use them up. Our latest one is very seasonal – toilet roll angels! Toilet roll angels craft for kids What you will need: cardboard tubes white paper silver paint scissors sticky tape yellow pipe cleaner The great thing about toilet roll crafts is  that they come together really easily. The first step was to paint them silver and when they were dry we added a face. Then we drew around both children’s hands…

  • Felt peppermint Christmas ornaments
    Christmas - crafts - handmade - sewing - swap - tutorial

    Felt peppermint Christmas ornaments

    November 11, 2013 - By 

    Last week I signed up for my first Christmas craft swap organised by Laura at Dropstitch. It was the first one I’d seen and swapping parcels of crafty goodness always gets me in the mood for the festive season. The swap was simple – make four oops five (so glad I re-read the instructions!) handmade Christmas ornaments. Felt peppermint Christmas ornaments I had a good look through my craft books and Pinterest boards and found some very cute felt peppermint Christmas ornaments which I knew would be perfect. I love working with felt and the felt version of any Christmas…

  • HOW TO MAKE EDIBLE SPARKLERS
    Bonfire Night crafts - crafts - handmade - Kids crafts - tutorial

    How to make edible sparklers

    November 3, 2013 - By 

    I love this time of year as there’s so much going on – Halloween, Bonfire Night, Remembrance Sunday and of course Christmas. We were out shopping yesterday and Toys R Us were playing Christmas music and John Lewis had their decorations up! I felt a little festive but it does seem to start earlier each year. Anyway, the children really enjoyed Halloween this year; they dressed up, insisted on our pumpkin being lit every evening for a week and especially loved seeing the local children knock on our door whilst they were out trick or treating. I’m not sure if…

  • Creating the Vintage Look
    book review - tutorial - upcycling - vintage - What I'm reading

    What I’m reading: Creating the Vintage Look

    October 30, 2013 - By 

    A new book recently landed on my doormat which combines my love of upcycling and home-making. Creating the Vintage Look by Ellie Laycock encourages you to discover how to make unusual and unique homeware through 35 gorgeous step-by-step projects. What I’m reading: Creating the Vintage Look Upcycling is about taking something old, vintage, treasured, or possibly even broken and giving it a new lease of life by trying it into something new. It’s a thrifty way of decorating and enhancing your home that avoids waste, but is also stylish, and Ellie Laycock shows you how you can make truly beautiful…

  • baking - gingerbread - Halloween crafts - tutorial

    Gingerdead men for Halloween

    October 24, 2013 - By 

    Today was the school Halloween party and the toddler has been very excited about it. This morning we went last minute shopping for some outfits and when we got home we baked some extra special gingerbread men, or gingerdead men, to get us in the mood for the party. I made my favourite gingerbread recipe but with an added dollop of black treacle to give them some extra flavour. Lyle have launched a limited edition ‘Trick Or Treacle’ which we used last year to make some sticky ginger cakes which were delicious. After the biscuits had baked we decorated them with…

  • easy washi tape pumpkin for kids
    crafts - Crafts for adults - Halloween crafts - handmade - Kids crafts - tutorial

    No-Carve Pumpkin ideas

    October 21, 2013 - By 

    As much as I love Halloween I never actually want to spend my time pumpkin carving. This year we’ve done things a little differently. We purchased our pumpkin from Waitrose along with a couple of cute munchkins (mini pumpkins) and they make a great display on our dining room table. The toddler has been going on and on about carving the pumpkin but instead of reaching for the knife I grabbed my washi tape collection instead. Easy No-Carve Pumpkin ideas How about using washi tape for a no carve pumpkin? No mess and you can change the expression as often…

  • crafts - Halloween crafts - handmade - Kids crafts - tutorial

    Spooky Halloween sun catchers

    October 16, 2013 - By 

    We like to make sun catchers for our windows so thought we’d make something fun for Halloween. We already have munchkins on the mantlepiece and a Happy Halloween banner. The toddler has made Lego pumpkins and ghosts but there are still so many things to make and do! I cut out some spooky houses from black paper using a self healing mat and scalpel. I did this the evening before as I didn’t fancy using a scalpel with the children around. The children tore out pieces of coloured tissue paper and stuck them to the houses with glue. The tissue…