Patchwork mod podge land

Here is a photo of our mod podge table efforts with the visiting girls the other day.  Such a happy little vignette to me!  And look, after getting tired of yet another tin to cover, one young lassy came up with the brilliant idea of covering my sticky tape dispenser.  I love it!!

Kusudama flower fun

 

Have you seen these Kusudama flowers?  They are origami flowers where you form each petal and then glue five together to make the flower.  I really love them, not surprisingly, as they combine two of my favourite things - paper fun with an aesthetically pleasing result.

We had two lovely girls (adopted nieces as it were) over for a sleepover and playdate and I had fun making a few of these flowers with one of the girls.  I say only a few of these flowers because with the folding, gluing and drying it takes a little while to make them.  I aim to fill a vase with them in all pretty papers (hence me enlisting some child slave labour to help).  Now, because they are a little tricky, I made an instructional sheet (I didn't want to take my computer downstairs to read these excellent instructions from Folding Trees as we were doing it).  This helped my little helper pick it up in no time.  I have it on good authority she is still making them back at home now.

Note:  to make it easy to cut out the 7cm (3in) squares, I did two things.  First, I used papers I designed in powerpoint and just overlaid squares the correct size before printing.  Secondly, I cut out a square template to use to draw around directly onto other decorative papers I have.

Scrapbuster project - tin can recycle

 

I have been so busy over the last couple of weeks.  Kids are on school holidays still and I have been crafting with them plus I have about 10 projects all on the go (I am so bad for that) but most not completed (I am bad for that too).  Anyway, here is one that I have actually finished enough to show you.  Empty pineapple tin, meet scrap paper pile (and my beloved mod podge!).  I have a bunch more tins and scrap paper for more as I am sure you could rustle up too.  I think I almost like these more than the ones with just the one design of paper on them.  I can't wait to have a whole row of them on the desk.  Along with all my jars with covered lids.....

For a quick instruction on the process, I literally just cut all my scrap paper into squares and rectangles (hmm, maybe circles would look cute too) then mod podged them on making sure they were overlapping.  I didn't bother painting this tin first as I like the touch of the industrial look with the metal (plus I just couldn't be bothered!).

Sock owl no. 1

 

I saw this very cute tutorial over at Whimsy Loft (via Whip Up) and felt like some calming hand sewing so decided to do one straight away myself.  I didn't have a large sock to use so I have made a miniature version out of a toddler sock.  So easy and all the kids (we had a group at our house today) loved him.  I plan on making a bunch of them with any of my holey or lonely socks now (which is why this post is titled 'no.1') so I can give use them as gift/stocking fillers etc.  I need to go and raid Princess E's sock drawer for any old pink socks.  I am feeling the need for a pink one too.  I am such a girl.

Hearty Paper - free printable

In for a penny, in for a pound so the saying goes!  We are getting right into the whole Valentine's thing here now.  Here are two different versions of heart garland decorated paper.  Enjoy!

Download here:
Garland of Hearts
String of Hearts

Magnetic valentine hearts

I couldn't avoid the lead up to Valentine's Day I guess.  We don't normally celebrate Valentine's together but this year I thought I would do some decorating and sweet notes for my kidlets as Princess E is writing valentine notes to me already.  It is fun for them so why not?

I made these cute little magnets using those flat sheet advertising magnets that seem to breed on the fridge.

I started with a motley collection of said magnets:

I used a cookie cutter (it could be from the playdough set actually) in a rather obvious heart shape and then cut out the shape.  I also drew some freehand to use up smaller pieces of the magnet.

I used Mod Podge to glue them face down onto the backside of some pretty scrapbook papers.  I also remembered I bought myself a cool booklet of adhesive backed paper prints whilst in Australia and I used a couple of those as well.  So easy...

After they dried for awhile I cut them out using fine scissors and added a topcoat of Mod Podge to protect them from grubby fingers on the fridge.  Here they are again (with some little apples sneaking in because I just love apple shapes).

Aren't they cute?  No advertising magnet will be safe from now on.  These would look lovely if you did a coordinating set with the covered bulldog clips for your office (or as a present for someone else's office), don't you think?

Plate display shelf makeover

 

When we moved into our house here in Uruguay, this old display shelf was in the wood pile for burning.  Admittedly it is not great quality but I thought it could still be saved and used for a little while yet.  This was a very quick and easy makeover.

Firstly, I just cleaned it all down.

Then I added a strip of timber to the bottom shelf with some strong wood glue.

I forgot to take photos of this step but I just undercoated (primed) the whole thing and then spray painted it in a soft, almost Wedgwood, blue.  I really wanted to paint it red but I am giving it to my housekeeper when we leave and she wasn't too keen on having fire engine red in her house!  The red will have to wait for another project for Lord A.

 

Here is a closeup of the pretty decorative ends too.

 

What do you think, worth the effort?

Lined felt storage basket - quick and easy!

 

I got the idea for this from some little girls' handbags my sister made a number of years ago for a market stall we were running.  We have a few leftover that are still in storage at our Mum's house and, whilst I was visiting over Christmas, I was trying to think of a way to reinvent them.  So I thought of removing the handles and lining them to make little storage baskets.  I actually forgot to bring the little bags back with me so just used a sheet of craft felt I have here.  These take just one sheet of craft felt and the same amount of fabric.  Craft felt is all I have at the moment but I imagine a whole shelf lined up with ones made of wool felt would be so gorgeous too.  Here is how I made it:

1. Take your sheet of  craft felt and cut out your lining fabric to the same width and just a little longer in length (for the folded over stitched lining look).

2. Fold both in half (fabric right sides together) and stitch up both sides.

3. Open them both out, mark a stitch line to create your base (I measured it to be 4.5cm in from the point).  Stitch the bases on both the felt and the fabric.  You can make the base on your fabric slightly smaller if you like but it won't make that much difference to the 'fit'.  You can trim those triangles off as well after stitching but I left them on for added sturdiness.

4. Turn your felt inside out so the seams are on the inside.  Place the fabric inside to check the fit.  Fold the excess liner over twice towards the outside of the felt so it is sitting snugly around the top.

5. Take the lining out and iron this so it sits neatly while you are sewing it on.

6.  This is where I deviated from my original idea of just felt and lining and decided a cute little label holder would spruce it up nicely.  This needs to be stitched on before the liner.  I was winging this part so I just cut out a base of felt and a slightly larger piece of my lining fabric.

7.  I then butchered my fabric in the middle and folded it over the felt and stitched it down around the inset and then folded the outside around and stitched that down close to the outside edge.  If I hadn't been so impatient to see the end result I would have done this a lot neater!!  Just ignore that bit.....  As a side note, I used a felt core for this because the lining fabric is so lightweight but I like the end 'quilted' result anyway.

8. I then stitched this on around the sides and the bottom edge (leaving the top edge open to slot the label in).  Fit your lining back into the felt and stitch around the top edge securing the lining to the felt.  I cut out a rectangle from some clear plastic packaging and slotted that in to protect the label as well.

Then you can fill it with bits and bobs in your child's room and admire your handiwork.

(and make a mental note not to rush so much next time and get the seams straight!)