• Upcycled jigsaw puzzle magnets
    crafts - upcycling - vintage

    Upcycled jigsaw puzzle magnets {A-Z Play at Home}

    July 7, 2017 - By 

    Each week I’ve been taking part in the A-Z Play at Home blog hop. This weeks’ letter was J and for once I kew exactly what to make. My children love spotting birds in our little back garden. We have quite a large tree which we’ve hung with bird feeders and the children love nothing better than sitting at the table and spotting the birds. Over the last few weeks we’ve seen robins, starlings, blue tits and goldfinches. We invested in a pair of binoculars so we could easily see them. Upcycled jigsaw puzzle magnets We have a gorgeous vintage…

  • How to build a bug hotel - the gingerbread house blog
    crafts - garden crafts - Toilet roll crafts - upcycling

    How to build a bug hotel {Part 2}

    June 3, 2017 - By 

    A few weeks ago I mentioned how we started work building our own bug hotel. The kids love learning about all the different animals they see in the garden so we thought a bug hotel would be fun. What we used to build a Bug Hotel bricks flower pot corrugated cardboard bamboo sticks cardboard tubes How to build a bug hotel A bug hotel can be as simple of complicated as you want. Our garden is quite small but we found a quiet corner we thought would be perfect. We roughly measured where we wanted the bug hotel to go. It…

  • How to make a cable reel fairy house
    crafts - Fairy garden crafts - garden crafts - Pinty Plus Ambassador - upcycling

    How to make a cable reel fairy house

    May 23, 2017 - By 

    A while ago now we spotted a couple of wooden cable reels and knew they would be fun to upcycle into a fairy toadstool house for the children to play with. My 5 year old loves her fairy play and I thought this would be a great little upcycling project, as well as making something for her to play with during the summer months. As a Pinty Plus ambassador I used some of the Pinty Plus Basic range which has a range of brilliant bright colours. I also got to try out the the new spray gun which makes spray…

  • Creating an Easter crate for kids
    crafts - Easter - Pinty Plus Ambassador - upcycling

    Creating an Easter crate for kids

    April 2, 2017 - By 

    I’ve always enjoyed celebrating Easter. Since our children came along Easter has got bigger and bigger. Before there was giving Easter eggs and enjoying a family meal. Now there are Easter Egg hunts, Easter baking, Easter crafts and gifts. My kids love Easter as much as I do but I’m glad it’s not on the scale of Christmas. I thought it would be fun to put the children’s gifts into an Easter crate this year. I did something similar with a Christmas Eve crate which they enjoyed. So today I’m sharing our Easter version! Creating an Easter crate for kids What…

  • Wooden Advent tree {Ikea hack}
    Advent crafts - Christmas - crafts - upcycling

    Wooden Advent tree {Ikea hack}

    November 30, 2016 - By 

    Earlier in the summer I attended a tablescaping event as part of the Ikea Autumn/Winter press show. I saw some great Christmas products and knew I would be going to buy some in store. We went to Ikea in October and I was so happy to see they had set up their Christmas displays. I bought quite a few new decorations, a gingerbread house and a lovely wooden tree. The tree was quite a simple design with 28 branches, each with a small hole at the end to hang a decoration. I thought this would make a great wooden Advent…

  • Advent crafts - Christmas - crafts - upcycling

    Our homemade wooden sleigh {Book Advent planning}

    November 15, 2016 - By 

    Last year I really wanted a way to display our Book Advent. A pile of 24 books takes up quite a lot of room but I wanted them to be accessible and not look out of place amongst the Christmas decorations. In previous years I’ve experimented with wrapping them up. One year they were covered in simple brown paper and string, this year they are wrapped in festive red and white paper. You can add numbers to each packet or let your children have a lucky dip every day. Anyway, we had a wooden crate made with plywood which I…

  • painting with Annie Sloan
    crafts - homestyle - Orla Kiely - upcycling

    Orla Kiely inspired stool

    October 14, 2016 - By 

    I’ve been needing to inject a bit more colour into our living room. I had some Orla Kiely wrapping paper left over and thought it would be perfect for updating our little stool. A while ago I painted it with a Miffy face but it’s been looking a little sad, definitely in need of some TLC. I gathered my supplies: Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Emperor’s Silk and a paint brush. I love using Chalk Paints as you don’t need to do any prep! I simply covered the legs and underneath of the stool in two coats of paint and…

  • DIY constellation pin badge holder
    crafts - homestyle - upcycling

    DIY constellation pin badge holder

    September 27, 2016 - By 

    It can’t have escaped your notice that pins are really popular at the moment. My collection has been growing steadily for weeks, thanks to my Lucky Box subscription and Instagram. I can’t help but see a pretty pin and have to follow the trail until I have it for my collection! My enamel pin badge collection is getting out of control. Two of my favourites are the Custard Cream enamel pin by Nicki McWilliams which I picked up at one of her workshops, and my seam ripper No Regrets enamel pin badge from Colette. I do have a few more…

  • Customising our children's playhouse with a blackboard
    crafts - garden crafts - tutorial - upcycling

    Customising our children’s playhouse {Ikea hack Mala easel}

    August 9, 2016 - By 

    We’ve had an Ikea Mala easel for a few years and it’s in constant use. You may have seen one before, with a blackboard on one side, a whiteboard on the other. It also has a roll of paper which can be pulled up and over the whiteboard for more drawing possibilities. It’s a good design (as you would expect from Ikea) and folds flat when not in use. It has been brilliant for encouraging the children to get creative and we’ve used it whilst both children have been learning their letters and numbers, as well as for general creativity.…