• crafts - handmade - London - sewing - tutorial

    Pinned it made it – how to make an embroidered pegboard

    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…

  • Crafts for kids - handmade - Kids crafts - tutorial

    Recycled sweet wrapper decorations

    If you are looking for a fun craft for toddlers, look no further. We’ve been busy making festive baubles from sweetie wrappers! I’m sad to say I’ve been saving colourful sweetie wrappers for a rainy day and then I thought of a great activity for the toddler. Equipment you will need to make recycled sweet wrapper decorations: card scissors double sided sticky tape ribbon I cut 6 circles from black card and then cut smaller circles out of them (using baby food jars as a template). The toddler adores sticky tape so I gave him small pieces of tape and…

  • Crafts for adults - Sports crafts

    Wimbledon cupcakes

    I’m quite looking forward to Wimbledon starting next week as for me that’s when summer starts. I was thinking how nice it would be to have some summery cupcakes to eat whilst watching the tennis and came up with these. Easy Wimbledon cupcakes For the cupcakes I tried Dr Oetker’s Shake it! Vanilla Fairy Cake Mix as I was baking with the toddler. The mix is fantastic as you simply add milk and shake. Easy peasy. After the cakes had cooled I mixed up some royal icing. I seem to have mastered it so am now using it for everything!…

  • baking - Olympics - Sports crafts - tutorial

    Olympic cupcakes

    As we passed the 100 day milestone to the Olympic Games last week my thoughts turned crafty! What could we make? We applied for tickets for three events and we know we’ve got some tickets, we’re just not sure for what events or if we’re able to take Little Sis as we applied when I was pregnant. We have less than 100 days to find out. Olympic cupcakes We haven’t been baking in a while so thought we would make the basic fairy cake recipe from Mary Berry’s Baking Bible, a recent birthday present which I am enjoying working my…

  • Christmas - crafts - handmade - Recycled crafts - toddler - tutorial

    How to make a wooden Christmas tree

    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…

  • crafts - handmade - tutorial

    Make a bunting stamp

    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…

  • Autumn - crafts - handmade - sewing - tutorial

    Felt autumn leaves

    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…

  • Cath Kidston - crafts - sewing - tutorial

    How to make a duvet cover

    A couple of weeks ago Edward got his first pillow (which he is slowly getting used to!) and as the weather has been so cool we also thought it was time to introduce a duvet too. His nursery has a Cath Kidston vibe so I thought I would make a patchwork duvet cover using some of my favourite blue fabrics, mainly Cath Kidston, Amy Butler, Michael Miller and Orla Kiely. I wanted to make it something that Edward will be able to use for a long time so picked fabrics that he will like, including plenty of cowboy and Indian…

  • A Monthly Make 2011 - crafts - Crafts for adults - handmade - reviews - tutorial - vintage

    How to use fabric dye on wool

    I was recently asked if I would like to try some DYLON fabric dyes and I umm-ed and ahh-ed for a few minutes, quickly racking my brain just how I could use them. I soon remembered that I had always wanted to dye a woollen blanket so purchased a beautiful vintage cream blanket with a Snugdown label (which shows it was produced by the Co-operative Wholesale Society). How to use fabric dye on wool You will need a wool blanket and some Dylon fabric dye (for hand use rather than machine) The blanket I bought was huge so I cut…