Summer Holiday Crafts - Day 12

Today Lara had a go at making some felt birds that we spotted on Etsy (via Pinterest of course). 

We used a paisley shape as a template for the birds bodies and wings and used some scraps of felt and fabric and a few buttons.

I think Lara needs a bit of practise with her blanket stitch but otherwise she did a great job.

Summer Holiday Crafts - Day 11

For today's craft we used some more of the the Merino Wool Rovings that I had bought to make the turtles last month. This time instead of making a 3D toy from the wool we made a picture. The idea was found on Pinterest and came from the Rosie Pink blog.

We started with a sushi mat and onto it we laid some pieces of white wool.

Then, we laid some blue and green wool to give the impression of sky and grass, and on top of this we laid a piece of tulle netting.

Then the fun started! We sprinkled the wool with some warm soapy water and started to gentle pat the wool down until it was quiet flat.

Then we lifted the net and added a wool sun and some flowers. The net was then put back in place and the patting began again. After patting we began rubbing the whole picture with liquid soap. It was very soapy!

One the wool had all matted together we removed the net and rolled the picture up in the sushi mat and rolled it. 

After rolling,the picture was removed and gently rinsed under the tap to remove as much of the soap as possible. The picture was then squeezed dry in a towel and left to dry in the airing cupboard.

 Once dry, Lara stitched some beads onto the picture to add some sparkle.

The finished picture.

The flowers are a little large ( more like trees than flowers LOL) but for a first attempt it's not bad and was fun to make.

Summer Holiday Crafts - Day 11

Todays craft project was found on Pinterest and came from the 'Zaby and Kuku blog'. 

I knew that Lara would love the cute dogs and so I bought some co-ordinating fabric for her to make one. 

When we made the worms last week we used the sewing machine but today Lara did all the sewing by hand. 

It took a little while and she got in a knot a few times. 

But, she persevered and finished the toy.

We have more fabric so may make another one another day.

Summer Holiday Crafts - Day 10

Todays craft was found on the 'Childmade blog'. We made puppies from toilet rolls!

We started by cutting a toilet roll tube into .5" strips.

Then following the instructions on the blog we folded and bent the strips and carefully stuck them together with tacky glue.

We then added a tongue cut from a scrap of red felt and pom poms for eyes and a nose. Unfortunately we didn't have black or brown pom poms so our puppies had to make do with pink and white.

The puppies took quite a while to dry but once dry they are quite sturdy and stand up on their own.

Summer Holiday Crafts - Day 9

Todays craft was a very quick, easy craft because Lara was at a Summer Trampolining and Gymnastics course most of the day.

A couple of years ago I sorted out our office and found a load of redundant 3.5" floppy disks. Do you remember them? I thought at the time there must be some use for them instead of just dumping them in the bin and after searching the Internet I found instructions for making a pen pot from them. I made one and ever since Lara has coveted it.

So, today I helped her make one for herself. We punched holes in the discs using my Crop-a-dile and then it was simply a case of fixing the discs together with electrical cable ties. A little bit fiddly but quite quick to do. Full instructions can be found on espritcabane.com. 

Summer Holiday Crafts - Day 8

Today we created 'Monster Pet Rocks' thanks to an idea on the WhiMSy love blog. 

Lara painted a few stones collected from our gravel driveway with various colours of acrylic paint.

When they were dry she stuck goggle eyes onto them and drew mouths etc with a black pen.

Voila! Monster Pet Rocks which she has named and told me all about their character. Such an imagination!

This next little green rock is a special rock. Lara gave this 'Lucky Green Rock Monster' to her big brother Christopher who today received his A level results and found out that he has secured his place at Nottingham University to study for an MEng in Electronic Engineering. Lara thought he would like the little green rock to bring him luck whilst he's away.

Congratulations Christopher. We're all so very proud of your achievement.

Summer Holiday Crafts - Day 7

Todays craft idea came from a Pinterest pin which I pinned nearly a year ago. It was an idea from the Darling Petunia blog which was a link from the Dollar Store Crafts website.

Our project was to make a toy from a microfibre cleaning mitt - the type of thing you perhaps use to clean your car. I hunted everywhere for the right type (it had to have a thumb) and then eventually I found some in Poundland. When planning summer holiday craft projects it's important that they don't cost a lot and so to find the mitt for £1 was great. I bought two!

A tuorial for this project can be found on the Darling Petunia Blog, but here's mine.

First Cut off the cuff and the thumb. Leave a little fabric at the base of the thumb.

Add some beady little eyes.

Turn inside out and sew the cuff portion into a point but leave the thumb open.

Turn the right way out.

Stuff!

Sew up the opening where the thumb was.

Add a pom pom nose and your hedgehog is complete. Lara called him 'Spike'.

We also made up the orange mitt and called him 'Prickle'

Scrapology - August Card Challenge

Today a new card challenge goes live on Scrapology. The theme this month is 'Two's Company' so the challenge is to use images with couples, doubles or pairs to make a card.This month's challenge is sponsored by Bev Rochester for Lili of the Valley and the prize for the winner is a £10.00 gift voucher to spend in the Lili of the Valley online store.  

For my card I used a Lili of the Valley 'Little Girl - Swing Time' image which I coloured with Promarkers. I also used patterned papers from a 'Papermania Me to You - Especially For You' 6x6 paper pack, Bazzill cardstock, paper doilies, die cut frame, flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts, self adhesive pearls from The Hobby House and a metal paw print charm from Mei Flowers. For added detail I machine stitched round the edges of the papers.

Do pop along to Scrapology and join in the fun.

Summer Holiday Crafts - Day 6

For today's craft we used a Dream Catcher Kit we bought from The Works for the princely sum of 99p. We actually bought two kits but this afternoon we made up the red kit.

Everything we needed to make a dream catcher (including instructions) were in the kit. The only extra thing we used was a little PVA glue to stick the feathers inside the beads.

Lara started by wrapping some suede cord round the metal hoop.

When the hoop was covered she then tied a long piece of thread to the hoop and began to wrap and twist and knot it onto the hoop. It sounds complicated but with a bit of concentration it was actually really easy to do.

The kit also included a selection of beads which were added to the knotted threads.

Once the thread had been knotted we tied it off in the middle and then tied more suede cord to the hoop and added beads and feathers onto the ends.

Dream catchers originate from the Ojibwe people and are meant to snare the bad dreams floating in the night air in their webbing and allow the good dreams to fall through the centre hole in the dream catcher and into your sleeping head. When the sun rises in the morning the bad dreams trapped in the web disappear. Hopefully this dream catcher will catch lots of good dreams.