I know how much my son loves getting messy so thought we would break out the paints for St Patrick (in honour of our Irish heritage). We cut an ordinary green pepper in half and dipped it in some green paint. Sounds simple but somehow we ended up breaking the plate – oops! Then the toddler was let loose, creating pretty shamrocks over sheet of paper. Four-leafed clover anyone? Our version of the shamrock, symbol of Ireland and associated with St Patrick.
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I love making personalised cards. We made our own wedding stationery, Christmas cards and announcement cards when both children were born. This year we wanted to make a ‘thank you for our Christmas card’ featuring both their hand prints so got out the paints… We knew Big Brother had a limited attention span so got everything ready to make it as simple as possible. We bought ready made blank cards, envelopes and pots of paint. We put a dollop of paint on an old plate and used a sponge to paint on his hand, then put his hand firmly on…
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I really want to encourage Big Brother to be crafty and get over my fear of mess by planning a couple of messy craft sessions a week. Today we made our own Valentine Day cards with some help from a potato. First I cut a potato in half and cut a heart into one half using a cookie cutter. I put a generous dollop of red paint onto an old plate and let BB have a go at printing heart shapes on a piece of paper which he loved. Then I folded a piece of A4 paper in half and…
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I’ve been feeling sorry for Little Sis as virtually everything she has is second hand from her Big Brother. Last week (before she arrived!) I was sorting through bedding and blankets and found one cream blanket which had hardly been used. So I thought I would give it a bit of a makeover with some dye! I had a packet of Dylon Intense Violet dye which was suitable for hand dyeing (my husband won’t let me use dye in the washing machine yet!). After Edward was in bed I made up the dye and put the cream blanket in the…
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‘Tis finally the season to be jolly which means I’ve been snapping up everything gingerbread to show you over the next couple of weeks. My energy levels are disappearing but I have a few swaps to honour before the arrival of Second Baby. This week I’ve been making a new type of gingerbread house for one swap partner, very simple with a red and white bead hanger and a metal heart on the door. I’m hoping my crafting mojo will return soon. I’ve been struggling to pull out my sewing basket after Edward has gone to bed yet there are…
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I’ve mentioned before how much I love Pinterest and find it really inspiring, and pinned quite a few fun Halloween projects. I loved making (and eating) Halloween cake pops and wanted my son to have his own spooky tshirt to wear at our Halloween party. I saw a fab design for shadow puppets in the latest issue of Handmade Living by minieco.co.uk. I thought that my son was too young for shadow puppets but the patterns would translate really well onto a tshirt. So I picked up some cheap tshirts from H&M and copied the scary robot template on to…
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Is it too early for a glimpse of the big red guy? On my latest thrifting trip I spotted a small paper bag hiding on the haberdashery shelf. It was printed with Your Woman and Home FATHER CHRISTMAS. I can’t resist vintage Christmas decorations so took a closer look. It contained a single piece of fabric, pre-printed with a pattern for a Father Christmas decoration. I think it must have been a free gift with the Christmas issue of Your Woman and Home. I haven’t been able to find out any information about the magazine – perhaps it was related…
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We try to recycle as much as we can so always have a full recycling bin. It seems a shame to put it out for the binmen to collect but I’ve never really thought if we could use the material for anything. However with a little bit of inspiration boxes can be turned into cars or dollshouses, played with, and put back in the recycling. How? With the aid of an ingenious little kit from makedo. makedo is a reuseable connector system for creating amazing objects and spaces from recycled materials. We were sent a car kit which contained a…
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Pinterest is my newest love and I’ve been busy pinning lots of gingerbread ideas for those quiet moments I have (after my son goes to bed!). I came across a pattern for a lovely gingerbread house which I thought I would make. I amended the pattern slightly and added a couple of spooky touches for Halloween. For the full pattern take a look at craftideas.info This is my Monthly Make for October