School and Easter holidays are off to a wet start in Sydney.
We were looking for things to make and after a false start with some DIY glow-in-the-dark water (don't ask!) which was spilt all over a bed the girls settled into a mother-approved activity and got busy with some scrapbook paper and a stack of blank cards:
Happy holidays to all!
A bit of holiday fun: give the kids some washi tape and a pair of safety scissors and ask them to make a little "quilt" on a piece of card.
Mount each one on some matching folded card and you have some super cute gift tags.
More Wordless Wednesdays here.
It's Book Week in these parts and so I thought I'd do a little tribute to Lauren Child, who would be well known to anyone who has kiddes of pre or primary school age.
Image Source: Good Books for Young Souls
We did a very basic outfit for Book Parade based on That Pesky Rat (a huge favourite of Cee Cee's). Nothing fancy, just some faux fur ears and a tail teamed with some tatty shorts and a jumper.
Fortunately Pesky Rat doesn't need impressive clothes: he just wants to be loved and to be someone's pet.
Lauren's aesthetic in this and other books is a total delight to anyone of a crafty persuasion. She uses gorgeous origami paper, wallpaper and fabric motifs to create her collage-style illustrations, all of which are totally awesome.
And to top it off, she entered into a partnership with Liberty of London to create some truly amazing fabrics.
Check out this link in her official website milkmonitor which tells, in characteristic style, how she developed her inspiration for the fabric collection:
A doubly good reason to love Liberty! Long live Lauren.... (and happy Book Week!)
These simple gift tags were made by chopping up bits of coloured cardstock to gift tag size and running them through the machine using various decorative stitches in different directions.
They were lots of fun to make and a great opportunity to use those stitches that you never seem to use in everyday sewing.
The inspiration for this came from an old issue of Martha Stewart Christmas magazine in which a snowflake stitch had been used to decorate some gift tags and packaging. Alas, my humble Janome has no such stitch but I think these are pretty enough!
Just a few pics from Cee's Cee's 6th birthday party on the weekend. The theme: "Flower Power".
I figured I'd better take a snap of the birthday girl looking picture perfect prior to her getting tomato sauce stains all over the t-shirt.
I appliqued the t-shirt with a flower from a large scale flower print fabric and it did the trick for the top part of the outfit. A tutu completed the bottom half and we were in business.
Other handmade touches were some flowery bunting and some cute "Blossom" party favours made with a downloaded template from the lovely Go Make Me on etsy. Cate, the designer behind Go Make Me, is a multitalented Sydney-sider who also makes lovely jewellery and blogs here.
All in all a success. Oh, except for my cupcakes. There's a reason we put eggs in cupcake mixture I discovered after leaving them out in my rush to get them in the oven. The resulting "rock cakes" were disguised with some heavy-handed icing and liberal sprinkles and jelly-beans. I was mortified but noone complained! Lesson learned.....
Here is some of my haul from Mathilda's Market in Sydney yesterday:
Paper Doll Parade Notecard Set from My Messy Room, a gorgeous Vintage Storybook Tile with little mousies from The Red Thread and some wonderful Happy Camper fabric from Badskirt (check out that gorgeous puppy on Amy's postcard - what a face!).
I got lots of other little stockingfillers besides which have already been claimed or given away pre-stocking-filling-time! And the piece de resistance, my "i heart craft" badge. Sums it all up really....
You've gotta love a pretty package. I know I do and as such was chuffed to have one of my photos included in this round-up of gorgeous packaging shots on flickr.
Click on the link above to see the full gallery plus photo credits. (I can't resist showing just a few here to pretty up my post.)
Thanks to lovesdesign*'s for curating the gallery!
Quick and easy crafts are the order of the day during school holidays and with supplies picked up at the Spotlight sale a couple of weeks back we set to work.
Well, OK, origami style box-folding is not my forte and took a little while to master (the five year old was better at it than me....)
Covered buttons I can do (love that spotty fat quarter fabric!).
I'm a sucker for anything with little houses on it but alas Cee Cee has claimed these....
The buttons were put to use for hair ties and brightening up a simple denim skirt.
