I must admit that whilst I’m happy with a needle and thread in my hand I’m definitely a failed gardener. Every year I try and grow something other than weeds and usually fail. When I saw the Tots100 Centre Parcs challenge I knew I should give it a go. For the toddler’s introduction to gardening I thought we would try growing sunflowers. I thought this would be a brilliant way to encourage my little city boy and hoped that even I couldn’t kill sunflowers! How to make a Toy Story garden container: We went to our local garden centre and…
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It’s three weeks since I wrote about the Grandmother’s Flower Garden doll quilt I’ve been working on. You may remember I asked for some advice as I’d got to a mini crisis point. I loved reading everyone’s suggestions so I thought I’d share a little update. I was lucky enough to find a remnant of the green material I was using for the flower border which made things much easier. My first step was to square off each end with half flowers as someone suggested so the whole shape was rectangular. Then my problems started again! I realised it was…
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I love cross stitch and I love trying different things so when I saw an embroidered pegboard on Pinterest I knew I had to try it. Equipment needed to make an embroidered pegboard: Pegboard White paint Paint brush Sand paper Tapestry wool Needle How to make an embroidered pegboard: I bought a large piece of pegboard (also known as perforated hardboard) from my local wood shop, gave it a light sand then a couple of coats of white undercoat. I wanted it to look a little rough so I didn’t try too hard. When it had dried I embroidered big…
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Following the theme of hand print fun, last week we got messy with the paints to create some Easter cards. Hand print animals are really easy to do and require few materials. We added a good dollop of yellow paint onto the paint tray and the toddler sponged it onto one hand before carefully pressing his hand down on to a sheet of paper. We left the hand prints to dry over night and then I added some legs, eyes and a beak with sharpies. As we wanted to make these into cards we then glued them onto blank cards…
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My sister is moving to the country cottage of her dreams this weekend. When we visited a couple of weekends ago we drove out to see it and it is lovely, a typical ancient cottage and it even had a stable door for the front door with roses growing around it! We thought we would make her a card as she is really excited about moving from town to country. I set up everything the toddler needed – a paint tray, big dollops of his favourite colours and some corks. We’ve painted with corks before and they’re the perfect size…
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I just love the way a hand print can be made into anything you want it to. Yesterday Daddy celebrated surviving another year of being a father of two so we thought we would make him a very special card. We carefully painted the palm of the toddlers hand one colour and each finger a different colour to represent a birthday cake and candles. It was actually quite easy and fun, until I turned my back and the toddler started dipping his fingers into the paint pots! Fortunately we had two beautiful hand prints drying so it didn’t matter 🙂…
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I’ve been working on a couple of patchwork projects lately. As well as a Union Jack cot quilt, I’m also making some patchwork doll quilts for my daughter. I was really keen to get my hands on hand quilted with love by Sarah Fielke. The book is subtitled patchwork projects inspired by a passion for quilting and it’s a beautiful book. I think of myself as a pretty competent maker of patchwork, I’m not so confident at quilting. In Hand Quilted with Love Sarah Fielke encourages and inspires you to step outside of your comfort zone! The book includes 16…
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It’s been sunny and my thoughts are firmly on Spring. Our house has a beautiful bay window in the lounge which is absolutely perfect for our home-made sun catchers and bunting. We thought it would be fun to make paper daffodils and some extras to hang in the window. The toddler enjoyed this as it involved his favourite items from the craft box – scissors and glue! You will need: Selection of yellow and orange papers Craft sticks Glue Scissors Green marker pen Star cookie cutter We traced round the star cookie cutter on sheets of yellow and orange paper…
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If you ever ask the toddler what he wants to do he’ll answer painting. He absolutely loves sticking paper to the table, choosing a pot of paint and being creative. Hand print and thumb print animals are his current obsession so what better than hand print Easter bunnies for Easter gifts? You will need: paper, paint, black and red marker pen First of all stick your paper to the table, we use washi tape, to ensure the corners stay down. Choose which hand you want to use and sponge paint over the palm and fingers. Carefully press down the palm…
