My Jar of Hearts...

Howdy pretty people! I thought today I'd brush the cobwebs away and pop back into my sadly neglected blog to share with you a quick little project I got up to over the weekend... I shared an image I discovered recently on my Facebook page  and lots of you loved it; I loved it too! It was just an inspiring image, no tutorial but I knew it would be super easy and it turns out it was! This was my original inspiration:

... and here's what I whipped up in literally 15 minutes on Saturday afternoon:

This little jar of hearts makes me super happy and can perch merrily on a sunny windowsill, or perhaps be used as a party favour, or propped upon a shelf... so many options! Fern prefers to use hers as a must ache....

If you like this little jar of hearts and would like to make your own, heres a simple instruction guide just for you!

You will need:
- Coloured felt
- bamboo skewer or similar
- Wadding
- Needle and thread
- Sewing machine (or handset if you are keen)

1. On a scrap of paper, fold in half and draw half of you love heart shape so that when you cut around you have a perfectly symmetrical love heart!

2. Use this folded piece as your template, tracing around your folded felt piece and cutting out. You will need two of each colour to make one love heart.

3. Pin the two felt shapes together and sew around the outside leaving a few cm's down one side. Remove pins and turn inside out. Stuff with wadding, then sew side closed with needle and thread. Stick the pointy end of your skewer up the pointy end of your love heart ;) ........... step back, and admire your handiwork!!

4. Continue until you have lots or just a few and smile... don't you just love your jar 'o' hearts? xx

Make: Girl's Butterfly Headband!

Over the weekend, Fern and I did a little craft we thought we'd share with you...

Fern's handmade headband!

We made girlie headbands! So super-duper easy-peasy that YOU can make some too! We made one for Fern and one for a friend. Want to know how to make one too?

We visited the $2 shop to start with and chose the following materials at a total cost of $7.50

You need:

Headbands (obviously!)

Embellishments: flowers, butterflies, beads, birdies, ribbons, crochet bits -- anything goes!

Hot glue gun (or strong craft glue)

Fabric scraps

The first thing we did was tear a thin strip of fabric and wrap it tightly around the whole headband, fastening at each end with the hot-glue gun.

Then, I glued a piece of vintage crochet I found lying around and one of the butterflies from the $2 shop onto the side. (ooops no pic of this step!)

We then started twisting the fabric flowers around the side and top of the headband:

And truly, the whole thing took <30 mins and this is the finished product:

As mentioned previously, we made two -- one for Fern and one for a friend at preschool who will be getting a little surprise in her cubicle this week! We hope she likes it!

Give it a go with your little girl one rainy day... you can't get this project wrong and you can go to creative town! Enjoy! xx

How to store your pencils in style...

How do you store your pencils? Scissors? Knitting needles and the like?

For too long mine have shoved unglamorously in jam jars, the kids Easter-hunt buckets, old fruit bowls (I'm serious) and in pencil cases from the 1980's.

Not any more. Over the weekend I whipped me up a pencil storer, and it cost me nothing more than half an hour of my time.

Want to make one yourself? You really don't need instructions... but in case you think you do:

You need:
- A container of some sort: an old tin, jar or (in my case!) can of drinking chocolate - yum!
- A hot glue gun or good craft glue
- Fabric
- Scirssors
- Other embellishments as you see fit!


Instructions:
- Place your vessel on the wrong side of the fabric and roll fabric around, fixing with glue (leave a little overhang

- Trim overhang with zig-zag scissors if you have them and glue down so you have a nice finish.

- Trim overhang on either end, leaving a little to tuck under and glue down.


- See how easy this is?
- Decorate with wilful abandon!


Have fun and do share your pencil-holding-work-of-art should you make one!
xx

Make a "broom broom" Nursery Wall Hanging for your baby BOY!

Today I'd like to share with you a little project I have been working on for Elli-Boo's bedroom. Following on from the original embroidery-hoop fabric wall hangings I designed before I knew he was a he, I've been wanting to update them a little - make them a little more 'boyish,' playful and fun. A bit like my sonny boy.

I've been playing with an idea in my head for a few weeks and over the weekend, I made this:

... and I'm a little chuffed at how it's come up! I don't know if you can see from my image, but those are actual toy cars stuck onto chalkcloth, upon which I've drawn a 'road.' Mine is on the wall, but it would be equally cute leaning on a bookshelf or somesuch. 

Want to know how I did it? It's pretty easy folks!

You need:

- An embroidery hoop 

- Some fabric (I chose a natural linen)

- Some chalkcloth or other fabric for the lettering

- Glue (preferably a hot glue gun)

- Scissors

- Toy cars (Matchbox or whatever you can grab from the $2 shop!)

Method:

1. First, stretch the linen over the hoop and secure into place.

2. Draw your child's initial onto your chosen fabric (I've used chalkcloth, and drawn on the back of mine). Print it out first onto paper and cut around if this is easier. 

3. Cut initial out.

4. Glue (or sew) onto embroidery hoop.

5. Draw your "road" on the initial using a ruler and chalk.

6. Finally, attach your cars onto the "road" using a hot glue gun. Cut excess fabric away from the back of the hoop.

7. Hang with pride!!

 I'd love to know what you think of this idea and if you do decide to give it a go yourself do DO send me pics! x

Birthday Cake Bunting...

With little Elli-Boo's birthday just around the corner, I'm starting to iron out the details... I've already mentioned we're having a Teddy Bear's picnic; and I think I'm the one most excited about it!

I like designing my birthday cakes myself, like I did with Fern's My Little Pony cake earlier this year. But I was a bit stumped on what to do for Elliott... until I found a tutorial for this:

Birthday cake bunting!!

And now my cake design is clear in my head, and I am tres excited about it! I'm planning on making my own bunting and I'll be sure to share with you how it went next week when Im back from NZ and have access to my sewing machine again! But for now, I thought I'd share the tute I found on Twirling Betty (blog eye candy - beware) for anyone else who cares to give it a go! The instructions look super-simple and the cool thing is that you can then use the bunting as decoration afterward! Brilliant!

I bought myself a little set of letter stamps from Typo (I've been eyeing them off for ages) to print Elliott's name onto the flags with; I think I'll use black paint rather than ink. Not sure whether I'll ust use one colour of fabric or perhaps a mix? Back with the results next week!

Tutorial - Make some Baby Leg Warmers!

For ages, I searched high and low to buy my son a pair of leg warmers. For lots of reasons... I think they are super cute, for starters. And toasty warm in the cooler months, of course. You don't have to pull them off to change a nappy. And they are  super easy to get on and off which is extremely appealing when you have a child that makes poking your own eyeball with a knitting needle more appealing than attempting to pull a pair of pants or a nappy over his wriggling, contortionist body. Seriously, the boy flips with more gusto than a pancake in a hot pan. No sooner do I manage to get one leg in that sonny pulls it back out. Again and again until I could literally weep.

not the best photo, but YOU tell Elliott to sit still and smile for the camera!

So yes, leg warmers are a great idea. Particularly the not having to remove them whilst changing a nappy bit!

Sadly though, baby leg warmers are hard to come by! You can buy them online, but I am yet to find a pair in any store I've been to. And so I set about researching making them. And delightfully, it not only turns out to be super easy but cheap too, meaning you could whip up several pairs for your bubby-o (and a friend's) in all manner of colours and patterns and sing tra-la-la-la at your own marvellousness!

The hardest thing about the whole process, as it turns out, is finding some knee high socks! But knee high socks you do need, and I finally located some in Hot Dollar (women's, but oh well) for $3.95. I grabbed a pair, but I'll be returning for more!

I considered making some of these to sell in my shop, but decided to share this process with you instead so you can make your own super cute leg warmers and use the $$ you save from not having to buy more expensive pants on some other glorious items in my store!! ;)

Anyway, without further ado, here's how you make a pair of baby leg warmers:

Ingredients
- 1 pair of knee high socks (mine were adults size 2-8)
- A sewing machine or a needle and thread
- A pair of scissors

Time
About half an hour, tops!

Recipe
1. Grab your pair of socks and cut the foot off each from above the heel. Then, cut the toe off the foot. Finally, cut the heel of the foot off.

2. Throw away the toe and heel sections - you won't need those. The bit that is left of the foot section will become the cuff at the bottom of your baby leg warmer. Because your baby probably has a narrow little ankle you might want to make the cuff a little more tailored than the piece of material you have on hand. So, simply cut 1-1.5cm's from one of the lengths of the tube. 

3. With the square of fabric that is left, fold it in half with the patterned side facing in and sew with either your machine or by hand, recreating your (now smaller) tube. 

4. Turn your tube the right side out and then take the top of the tube and fold it inside, so that you have a folded edge at the top, and two rough edges at the bottom.

5. Pull the cuff over the bottom of the sock, so that all the raw edges are lined up. Pull the sock and cuff over the arm of the sewing machine (or prepare to handsew!). Sew around the bottom of the cuff, ensuring all your edges line up.

6. Pull the sock off the machine, cut the loose threads and sew up your second sock. Fold the cuff down and admire your handywork with a sense of pride -- you've done it! At least, I hope you've done it. Otherwise blame me and my dreadful instructions!

7. Dress your baby and sigh with pride... Elliott looked so cute in his! I love it! I tried to take a picture of him modelling his leggies, but it was fruitless. Hopefully he'll do better soon, cos I made this pair to go with some other little pieces I've created for Bubby Makes Three, which I'm hoping to share with you this week! Here are some of the outtakes from today:

so Fern is in the way?... not a problem... just up-n-over the top! She'll be right!