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
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I know we haven’t had Halloween yet but I’ve been itching to show you our wooden Christmas tree. I’ve seen lots of variations of wooden Christmas trees using driftwood so every time we were at the seaside I would scour the beach for suitable pieces. After months of looking and not finding I gave up and decided small branches from the local woods would do just as well! I also found a piece of scaffolding wood outside our house so knew this project was meant to be. How to make a wooden Christmas tree You will need: a selection of…
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My Christmas decoration making has begun! One of my favourite craft books is Fa la la la Felt which is full of festive inspiration, from ornaments, decorations and stockings. I’ve made a couple of projects from it, including the felt bird garland, as I just love working with felt. We’re not quite sure how to decorate our house this year with a toddler who can’t help but touch everything, but I would like to have a colour scheme. Red and white always seem very Christmassy which is why I liked the look of the Christmas Candy Garland. It’s a simple…
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The Knitting and Stitching Show is the highlight of my year. If you haven’t heard of it before it’s the textile event of the year, featuring hundreds of exhibitors, galleries from leading artists and groups, plus hundreds of workshops. I’ve gone every year since I heard about it but last year was really strict with myself and only bought items I actually needed or would make. This worked pretty well and I made everything I bought except one (due to an elusive Moda quilt pack). This year I was lucky enough to go with a friend and we took our…
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I’ve been busy participating in lots of fun swaps lately and received the most amazing swap parcel as part of the International Craft Swap from Gina. I asked her to make Edward a personalised muslin as he loves a small muslin square to hold whilst he goes to sleep. She completely surpassed what I expected and made him a beautiful quilt which features a giraffe (his favourite animal) and his name. As soon as he saw it he realised it was for him and he’s been snuggling under it on the sofa and wrapping it around himself – very cute.…
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I love bunting and I love making my own gift tags and I wanted to share a way of making your own simple stamp to decorate gift tags which I originally saw on pinterest. We seem to have a glut of pencils, the type with a rubber on the end. I took one of these and, using a scalpel, cut three sides of the rubber away to leave a bunting shape. This can then be used on an ink pad to create your own small garland of bunting on a piece of card. To finish, punch a hole in your…
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It definitely feels like Autumn don’t you think? Not just the wind and the rain but the nights drawing in. You can’t walk through the park for kicking the fallen leaves. I’ve been dying to take my son for a walk in the park and when we did we made sure we collected tons of pretty leaves, twigs and conkers to show daddy. It made me wonder if it was possible to make something a bit longer lasting to brighten up the house and so we made autumnal felt leaves. I just googled for some templates of suitable leaves, cut…
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I’ve had a long standing relationship with patchwork. I made my first patchwork quilt when I was 16 using the traditional method known as English paper piecing. There’s something really satisfying about cutting out paper templates, choosing fabrics and watching it all come together. I’ve started lots of patchwork projects since then but I haven’t finished many! These medium sized hexagons look great when sewn together. I love making these smaller hexagons but they are so time consuming! They look good made into pincushions too. I was thinking of sewing my patchwork pieces into some kind of crawling blanket for…