starking crafty and party

cyan’s first sewing projects ... and hello! (it’s been a while!)

2012-01-13T23:47:00.003Z

Firstly - hello! It has been a while, 9 months to be precise (exactly - to the day today!) since I last posted here. It’s been a crazy busy 9 months that’s for sure.. I had no time for blogging, sadly. We worked hard, partied, got married; and I’ve been dying to blog about it all! So hopefully I can set some time aside soon to do just that, and catch up with what everyone else has been up to in the world of blogs...

Back to today’s post.. Cyan (my crafty 6 year old daughter) has been wanting to learn to sew, so for Christmas my mum made her up a starter sewing basket kit; and my sister Tressa, who is the other seamstress of the family, put together a collection of fabrics for her.

Cyan’s first project idea was for a cuddly toy, we made a start on cutting out the pieces last weekend and I’ll be sure to post on that when it’s done...

Cut to today - Cyan was home from school recovering from a nasty cough, and my mum came over to watch her while I was at work.

Mum had promised Cyan when she gave her the sewing kit that she would help Cyan to make her own needle case and pincushion, so that is what they did today...

She embroidered her initial herself “in chain stitch” she told me proudly :)

Cyan’s sewing on the pincushion base..

Her needles nestled in their new case..

Not bad at all for her very first “proper” sewing project!

seam binding crafty ribbons challenge

2011-04-13T15:55:00.000+01:00

I took part in another Crafty Ribbons challenge recently, after missing out lots of challenges since the Fun in the Sun challenge I did last year, for which I made a mini beach bag and some mini ribbon notebooks.

The challenge this time was to find new and different ways of using Seam Binding Ribbon..

My first thought was to try weaving it, so I made a woven panel using four different seam binding colours. I backed it with cotton with ironed-on interfacing, ironing the horizontal ends first to keep the ribbons in place while I wove the vertical ribbons through, then ironed the whole panel to fix them all.

This panel became the back of a little purse, with a handle plaited from three colours of seam binding..

And a seam binding ribbon which ties in a bow to keep the purse closed..

I had two ideas for beaded necklaces to make with the seam binding, the first did not work out, but I was very happy with this one, which is simply some wooden beads knotted onto a coordinated colour of seam binding, with a closure made using another smaller wooden bead, and a knotted loop..

mums for mother’s day

2011-04-03T20:46:00.002+01:00

Today was Mothering Sunday or Mother’s Day here in the UK. I made a card for
my Mum with some chrysanthemums which I cut out from wallpaper samples..

I also cut the word ‘mum’ out of the front..

.. through this you can see another cut out flower on the inside..

The flowers continue round onto the back of the card..

The kids made a hand-print trees card inspired by this one..

I gave my Mum this necklace pendant set with two carved mother-of-pearl flowers.

The smaller one is a beautifully carved vintage example I bought from Beau Papier on Etsy, I made silver wire wrapped bails for this and the new larger flower and threaded them onto a fine organza ribbon – I know mum has lots of pretty chains and the flowers could be worn on the ribbon or on a chain, either together or separately. I love convertible jewellery!

And of course some real mums! I was so pleased with these large ornamental pale green chrysanthemums I found, and teamed them with some smaller darker green ones and some white carnations (Mum’s favourite).

This is the first crafting I have had time to do in weeks, it was so rewarding and Mum loved her cards, gift and flowers.

links..
Christy’s comment got me wondering about the origins of Mothering Sunday which we celebrate here in England, and the origins of Mother’s Day as celebrated elsewhere in the world..

Check out the Wikipedia links:
Mothering Sunday
Mother’s Day

treasury ... take me to the sea

2011-03-16T23:36:00.000Z

...or bring the sea to me

‘Take me to the sea...’ by starking

Take Me To The Sea thewheatfield $15.00	Origami personal aq... Signoraluna $8.50	Aqua Turquoise Blue... UneekGlassFusi... $58.00	Petite Sea Glass an... myadobecottage $38.00
French Blend Soothi... aBreathofFrenc... $9.50	Driftwood Candle Ce... WoodenAle $45.00	One Pound of Bath S... TheDapperOwl $14.00	Air Plant Tillandsi... peacocktaco $10.00
STONE BUTTONS TO GO madeforfun $8.00	Under the Sea Guest... NorthBeachCraf... $4.00	Seafoam Green Sea G... BostonSeaglass $18.00	No-Bottle Shampoo a... EthicallyEngin... $19.95
La Fiole. Summer - ... pastelpetals $28.00	aqua glass - set of... jennilyons81 $39.99	Fish Net Treasure B... A2SeaCreations $18.99	Triple genuine Beac... CaliforniaBohe... $34.00

Treasury tool is sponsored by Lazzia.com A/B image testing.

Sharing at Aquariann’s Treasury Tuesday..

gannet, fairies, bunnies and other deadly creatures

2011-03-10T17:45:00.003Z

Some of the latest master-pieces from my kids..

“Gannet” by Oliver (7) .. a work of art.

“Deadly 60 line-art” also by Oliver.

Deadly 60 is Oliver’s favourite wildlife programme, all about the world’s deadliest animals. He is also just a wee bit obsessed with the accompanying Deadly 60 trading card game. Oliver drew the above outline drawings from the photos on some of his favourite cards.. (clockwise from centre top) great white shark, nile crocodile, piranha, gharial, spectacled caiman, orca, alligator snapping turtle, clouded leopard.

“Fairy queen and king” by Cyan (5).

Cyan cut shapes out of a separate sheet of paper for the clothes on the fairies and stuck them down, then coloured them and drew on the other features, all her own creativity.

“This is four Mumm and Dadd” bunnies also by Cyan.

I love these guys!

treasury ... love etsy

2011-03-08T17:21:00.000Z

It’s Treasury Tuesday! I’m making this a weekly feature here as I’m having so much fun making treasuries on Etsy!

This one’s inspired by how much I love Etsy..

‘Love Etsy’ by starking

L necklace monoGramdesign... $22.00	L O V E - Salvaged ... micerv84 $15.00	Monogram Letterpres... hijirik $8.00	Wood Letter 18 inch... VintageBluebyS... $44.00
Vintage music manus... ismay $11.00	T for Tea Party - A... justnoey $22.50	Vintage supply for ... Yebisu $7.90	Vintage Fabric Mono... exlibrishandma... $15.00
LoVE . Garland rennadeluxe $12.00	Extra Petite Garlan... greentrikepres... $14.00	I Love U set of tin... orlydesign $16.00	Romance novel paper... bookity $20.00
Fine Silver Valenti... happygolicky $38.00	I LOVE YOU AND YOU ... WildTiles $7.00	NATURAL HEARTS...6 ... madeforfun $17.00	The Hermes-Orange F... farragobags $65.00

Treasury tool is sponsored by Lazzia.com A/B image testing.

Sharing at Aquariann’s Treasury Tuesday..

beach treasure mosaic mirrors

2011-03-06T15:42:00.002Z

My sister Tressa and her boyfriend just recently moved home and the kids and I wanted to make a gift to take to their house warming party. Tressa loves the sea so we decided to make something using some of our collected beach treasures..

I thought we could make some mirrors with a mosaic border. I found these small round beveled edge mirrors cunningly disguised as candle plates for a £1 each! Exactly what I had in mind, don’t you love it when that happens!

The mirrors are about 4" diameter. I cut two 6" squares from 3mm plywood we have lying around. I then fixed the mirrors in the center using dual purpose tile adhesive/grout. I made sure to scrape off any excess around the edge. Ideally they should have been left to dry overnight at this stage but we were making them the morning of the party so I just left them for a couple of hours to dry.

I then got Oliver and Cyan to come and design their mosaic borders, using shells and sea glass from our collection. I also have some little tumbled glass mosaic tiles and they used a few of those too.

I was originally going to let the kids stick the pieces on, but I had a few concerns about this. I was not sure about the tile adhesive/grout on their hands as it’s not very skin friendly. Time was also an issue and I suspected it would be quicker to get them to work out their layout and then I would fix them after. I am so glad we did it this way, it is quite fiddly fixing the pieces on. I took photos of their layouts to refer to when I was sticking everything down:

Cyan’s design

Oliver’s design

I spread a fairly thick layer of tile adhesive/grout around the borders, working on a small area at a time, about half of one edge, to stop the adhesive drying too quickly.

Next time I make these (I am planning to make more for birthday gifts this year) I will make sure that the grout is up to the edges of the mirror at this stage. I didn’t – if you enlarge the above photo you can see there are gaps around the edge of the mirror. This meant I had to wait for it to dry and then go round and fill in those gaps which was a real pain, I discovered you can’t use the usual grouting method with these uneven objects!

Cyan’s mirror all finished

Oliver’s mirror all finished

Once they were all fixed and dry I painted round the edge of the plywood bases with white emulsion paint to tidy up the edges, I had scraped off excess grout around the edges when I was fixing the pieces on.

They turned out so pretty and Tressa loved them. I love both the kids’ designs – they are different but complimentary. Oliver was very proud of his symmetrical design and Cyan incorporated a little symmetry after Oliver explained symmetry to her, I love her combination of randomness with a little symmetry!

Linking up at some of the fabulous link parties in my sidebar, go check them out..

treasury... I’ll see you on the dark side...

2011-03-03T12:33:00.001Z

I am having fun with Etsy treasuries again, this is inspired by the greatest album ever recorded..

‘I’ll see you on the dark side...’ by starking

Pink Floyd ORIGAMI ... Amigami $13.00	Star Light - Small ... katiediditglas... $35.00	Colorwheel TShirt R... nonfictiontees $18.00	Tick Tock Air Plant tohold $28.50
Minature Window Mur... 3dshellart $65.00	Dollar Origami - Tw... BeanyTink $15.00	Vintage Binoculars ... amarchhare $25.00	SIX Mini Waldorf St... greenbaboondes... $20.00
Rainbow Maker, cast... AdrienArt $125.00	Dark Side of the MOON... sweetgrasstamp... $2.50	Prism necklace madewithloveby... $15.00	4" Pyramid Pri... TheForeignArch... $68.00
Triangles Card digtheearth $1.75	9" Diamond Sha... OriskanyGlass $49.00	Leaded Crystal Pris... sanchezism $120.00	Parallelepiped pris... iloveprisims $17.00

Treasury tool is sponsored by Lazzia.com A/B image testing.

Speak to Me.. Breathe.. On the Run.. Time.. The Great Gig in the Sky..
Money.. Us and Them.. Any Colour You Like.. Brain Damage.. Eclipse

giveaway winners

2011-02-26T11:36:00.001Z

Cyan picked the Alice winner out of the Mad Hatter’s
top hat.. and the winner is.. Becca!

Oliver picked the Dinosaur winner out of the hat.. and the winner is.. Christy!

This giveaway was a small intimate affair in the end, I didn’t really promote the giveaway because I was doing it to celebrate my blog anniversary, rather than to build followers! So I am very happy that our winners are two of my blog friends who I have been lucky enough to make contact with in the last year – thanks to blogging!

Congratulations ladies, I will be in touch soon!

Oh, and it’s one year today – Happy Birthday Blog!

wizard play.. cloaks, wands and spells

2011-02-25T23:26:00.006Z

Harry Potter is the new favourite in our house, the kids watched a couple of the films recently and have been running around playing wizards ever since!

They were off school on half term break this week so I offered to make them black cloaks to enhance their play, they love to dress up! I also suggested they decorate a couple of chopsticks for their wands, and made up a couple of blank ‘spell books’ for them to fill with their own spells..

The cloaks were made from two squares of the black fabric I used for Oli’s pirate dalek party flags last year – I had a lot left over!

I used the full fabric width, so just two hems needed, top and bottom, with a wider hem at the top to make a collar. I then ran the top through my sewing machine on the longest stitch and pulled the threads to gather it.

They each picked out a button from my stash, to fasten the cloaks. It only took me a couple of hours to make them, a quick and easy sewing project!

They decorated their chopstick wands with marker pens, metallic paint and glitter glue! The spell books I made by folding white printer paper in half with a black card cover. The kids then busied themselves coming up with their own spells..

A few spells from Oliver (7):

How to make a storm come
to make a storm come you need to mix 8 newt tails 1 fang of a cobra 8 great white shark fins or if you are scared you might lose your fingers then just 5.

How to turn parrots into dragons

Spell to Defeat dragons
Any spell you want as long as it fires the flames or the dragon away from you.

How to turn yourself into a dragon
to turn yourself into a dragon you have to drink something very special it is called the dragon personaliser and before you drink it you say how long you want it to last.

Some spells from Cyan (5):

how to electricute wizards (wizzs!)

how to make a lots of rain come down

how to make people little

how to turn parrots into dragons

They really cracked me up with some of their spell descriptions! and they have had so much fun playing wizards this week!

I’m going to get these two little wizards to work their magic tomorrow morning by picking my giveaway winners out of a hat! Last chance to enter, comments left on the giveaway post before we do the draw tomorrow morning will be in the draw!

treasury....tea party at three

2011-02-25T15:00:00.004Z

My Alice in Wonderland invitations are featured in another beautiful Etsy treasury today.. so wonderful, tea and cookies anyone?

‘tea party at three’ by StoneSavvyJewelry

Long sleeve Layer L... themorningtea $32.00	10 alice in wonderl... starking $10.00	oldE circle clock ArtmaStudio $55.00	3 Blue Melmac Cups Modred12 $9.00
FREE SHIPPING - Pet... smafactory $25.00	White Scroll Chairs... CameraQueenPho... $30.00	Frozen Drops froste... theothermagdal... $22.88	Spot of Tea Govna AnniePants $115.00
Spring Bolero for W... EWMcCall $40.00	Footed Coffee or Te... TummyEarthFash... $65.00	Eloise and Ramona r... flapperdoodle $5.00	Silk aqua blue copp... Lbtoyos $10.90
Lavender Almond Sug... saoirseangel $7.50	Lace Leaf And Cryst... sparkleandposy $5.00	Cake Stand Dessert ... elizalee17 $32.00	Romantic Baby Blue ... kuniqueboutiqu... $35.00

Treasury tool is sponsored by Lazzia.com A/B image testing.

treasury....spring is springing!

2011-02-22T12:34:00.003Z

I just made my first Etsy treasury! It was so nice to be featured in one the other day I thought I would share the love and have a go at making one myself..

‘Spring is springing!’ by starking

MAC DADDY - Repurpo... timelessNchic $14.95	Sweet Dreams Illust... woodyloo $20.00	Bird Nest Flower Gi... braggingbags $49.99	rise and shine - 12... jellytoast $19.95
Wooden Yellow Rose ... lucie0ellen $16.00	bright sunny yellow... cpstudios $18.00	rusty springs 5x7 thelittleprint... $8.00	1920s/30s Toddler G... fieldsofdreams $15.00
UpCycled ReCycled B... BootsNGus $30.00	Bunny Wire Sculptur... WiredbyBud $35.00	Multi Layered Shabb... TrueRebelCloth... $45.00	Swan Princess State... bionicunicorn $96.00
Primitive Easter Le... oldgoatprims $10.00	Green and Yellow Ha... TeaJennys $52.00	Tweet Little Yellow... feltmeupdesign... $12.64	Little Bird Notecar... lettercdesign $7.50

Treasury tool is sponsored by Lazzia.com A/B image testing.

Here in the UK it really feels like spring is on it’s way! So that is my treasury theme: upcycled springs, rabbits, birds, flowers, and sunny yellow colours.

It was so much fun to make, I think I’ll be doing it again soon..

treasury....tea party with a march hare....easy on the mad

2011-02-20T21:30:00.003Z

‘Tea party with a march hare....easy on the mad’ by amarchhare

the march hare . ea... shrimpsaladcir... $11.00	10 alice in wonderland... starking $10.00	Vintage Shabby SILVER... harlowmonroevi... $30.00	Dreaming 8x10 Fine ... lucysnowephoto... $35.00
Organic Hemp Linen ... BobkaBaby $32.00	Antique Victorian C... VintagePolkaDo... Sold	GOOEY COCONUT HAYST... gammyscandy $10.00	Dewdrop Bow Headban... SavoyFaire $20.00
Wedding Day Mini To... BoringSidney $150.00	Vintage Alice in Wo... FunkyChicDesig... $10.00	FREE SHIPPING Milk ... magiebelle $48.00	Earl Grey Tea Cooki... thefatandhappy... $8.50
Lift me like an oli... chiffonier $280.00	big size transparen... lifelittle $6.99	EllenVINTAGE SILK C... ellenVintage $75.00	Lewis Caroll - vict... SilverMangoSho... $15.00

Treasury tool is sponsored by Lazzia.com A/B image testing.

My Alice in Wonderland invitations were featured in a wonderful Etsy treasury by amarchhare today! So pretty.. I fell in love with the sweet blue antique victorian child’s dress which also featured and just bought it for Cyan!

happy valentine’s day

2011-02-14T23:22:00.003Z

Cyan wanted to make Valentine’s cards for some of her school friends.. she picked coloured card which I trimmed into some little rounded cards using a corner punch. Pink for the girls, naturally, and purple and blue for the boys. She drew a different picture on each card, and added some heart stickers, gems and sequins.

A fairy and a princess..

A dragon and a T-rex for the boys..

Even the envelopes looked cute, she added heart stickers on all the ‘i’s..

I included the little toadstool in the photos at Cyan’s request, when I asked her not to seal the cards in the envelopes so I could take them out later and take a picture of them she told me “I’m finding pretty things to go in the picture with my cards”. Amazing, five years old and she’s thinking about staging photographs!

This laser-cut wooden heart was my alternative to a Valentine’s card for Karl, from Timber Green Woods on Etsy. I love that it has the year – 2011 – worked into the design, it commemorates this the year of our wedding.

double giveaway time!

2011-02-11T21:00:00.005Z

I apologise for my lack of crafting and absence from the world of blogging..

Apart from the usual pressures of work, family, friends etc. I am getting started on plans for our wedding in October. Expect to see posts on this in the coming months, needless to say I am planning to craft a lot of things for our wedding.

I just realised that it’s my blog anniversary this month (where has the year gone?!) so I have decided to do a giveaway. Entries welcome from anyone anywhere, instructions below.

You could win a cute fabric party bag with some fun goodies for your child,
and some cute little extras (yet to be decided) for yourself..

I will be giving away an Alice in Wonderland and a Dinosaur fabric party
bag, yes – that means TWO winners!

To enter:

leave a comment on this post stating your preference for Alice or Dino
if you are a follower please leave an extra comment for an extra entry
giveaway closes Friday 25 February 2011 21:00 PM GMT
the two winners will be picked at random, announced here,
and contacted via email
please make sure your email address is accessible via your profile,
or include it in your comment like this: you (at) domain (dot) com

The two winners will get to choose which bag they would like, there are 6 Alice character bags to choose from (Alice, Queen of Hearts, Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat, White Rabbit, Caterpillar), and the Dinosaur winner will get to pick the prints from my stock and the colour for the handles (green, orange, blue, pink)..

Each fabric goody bag will come with colouring book, shaped crayons, stickers, and other fun goodies to match the Alice or Dino theme..

There will be extra little gifts included just for you, I haven’t decided what exactly yet, but they will be cute/crafty/handmade!

Good luck! and thank you for taking part..

winter woolies

2011-01-10T22:10:00.000Z

Some gratuitous cuteness.. Oliver and Cyan modelling their stylish new hats and scarves knitted for them by my Mum..

We took some photos the same day of the kids with my sister, Auntie Arwen – Oliver wanted a photo of them to go in his picture frame which he made at school..

gingerbread playdough

2011-01-08T19:12:00.000Z

I made some gingerbread playdough for the kids, a little stocking filler for Christmas.. completely inspired by Christy’s gingerbread playdough over at from glitter to gumdrops..

When I came to make it (on Christmas Eve) I realised I had neglected to buy the cream of tarter necessary for Christy’s recipe.. a moment of panic, then google to the rescue! I figured there must be other recipes for playdough right? Yes indeed! There are many! I found this site PlaydoughRecipe.com with a multitude of recipes for playdough..

I decided to try the simplest sounding one – oatmeal playdough.. all you need is flour (1 cup), water (1 cup) and oats (2 cups)! I used porridge oats and ground them fine first in a food processor.. I added ground ginger, cinnamon and mixed spice for the gingerbread ‘flavour’. You simply stir together the dry ingredients and add water and food colouring (I used a little yellow and red colouring added to my cup of water) gradually until you have a dough, then knead it and add a little flour and/or water as necessary until you have the desired consistency! Easy as pie – or should I say gingerbread!

As an afterthought I decided to add some coppery glitter, it really did smell good enough to eat (it isn’t – I tried – before adding the glitter!), I thought the glitter would look pretty and put the kids off eating it!

I had bought some cookie cutters, cute gingerbread men and snowflake buttons, and mini cutter embellishments with this little project in mind.. I wrapped the gingerbread dough in cling film, one lump for each child (and some left over which I wrapped and put in the fridge for later), and placed in some empty body butter pots I have been saving..

Lastly I printed out some labels to stick on the lids..

What an easy gift, the kids loved it, and it was super quick and simple to make! Thanks Christy!

oliver’s school makings

2011-01-07T18:28:00.000Z

Well, I have some serious catching up to do here in blog-land.. I’ll start off with a selection of some of Oliver’s school work and projects from last year 2010..

This was a project he worked on through the Autumn term, and he got to bring home the finished article just before Christmas.. it’s a picture frame which he designed, planned, fabricated from wood, painted, and decorated all by himself! He is very proud of it, rightly so!

This is a table centerpiece he made at school the week before Christmas, it came home with him to grace our Christmas dinner-table, it was lovely with the candle lit..

A beautiful still-life artwork, a pastel drawing he made at school of a vase of flowers and foliage.. this is going in a frame up on the wall..

This was a homework project from back in May, he had to produce an piece of artwork relating to The Wild Woods – a book by Simon James, a local author of children’s books; who incidentally my Dad used to teach to play the guitar many years ago, we have a copy of Simon’s first book The Day Jake Vacuumed in our family signed by Simon with a sketch of Jake playing the guitar!

Simon visited Oliver’s school shortly before this to give a talk and presentation to the kids on his work processes for writing and illustrating children’s story books, which I was also lucky enough to attend. Oliver found it very inspiring..

While I was in school Oliver showed me his monster puppet, a project he worked on last year, again designing and making it himself, stitching the felt shapes together and gluing on the features..

I love that there are so many opportunities at school for the kids to get crafty and creative, and I’m sure it helps that we do a lot of crafty stuff at home!

children’s christmas cards

2010-12-12T23:18:00.001Z

We always make our own Christmas cards.. this year we continued the tradition we started last year of using drawings by Oliver and Cyan. They drew their seasonal characters which I scanned and made up into cards..

Cyan drew Santa.. a snowman.. and two Christmas trees, one with legs?!

Oliver’s featured a penguin.. a Christmas tree.. and a robin..

Cyan had copied this Christmas message reading ‘Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year’ from a Christmas card we had been given, so I scanned it in for the inside of her cards, she had also written her name beautifully with lovely curly letters, I just had to add this to the back of her cards, along with the harp-playing angel from the top of one of her trees..

I asked Oliver to write a greeting to go inside his cards, he came up with
‘Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!’

They have both been very busy colouring all their cards, and writing them out to all their friends and teachers..

By the way, Oliver is 7 and Cyan is 5.

Here are their card designs from last year.. Cyan’s with an angel..

and Oliver’s.. a penguin.. yes, the boy has a thing for penguins!

matchbox christmas tree advent calendar

2010-12-06T21:12:00.003Z

Michele of michele made me inspired me to get my act in gear and make an advent calendar! She made a really cool advent clock calendar with her son using frozen juice containers with a seasonal joke inside for each day. I love the idea, especially the jokes – my kids love a good joke and so do I!

I thought I might make an advent calendar out of matchboxes, so there would be a little drawer to open for each day.. then the idea came to fix them together in the shape of a Christmas tree. This came from my memory of our childhood advent calendar, which was a felt hanging made by my Mum, with a large Christmas tree on it, and little felt tree ornaments, so each day you would pick an ornament to hang on the felt tree. I always loved this, by Christmas day the advent tree would be all decorated!

First task was to pop to the shop and buy 25 boxes of matches.. assuring the lady who served me that I was not about to go burn something down, just make an advent calendar! I got some strange looks, that’s for sure!

I arranged the matchboxes into a tree shape I liked, keeping 4 to make the base. I took a photo so I could remember the arrangement later.. I had gold spray paint left over from making the décor for Oliver’s dalek pirate party in the summer, so I decided to start by spraying all the boxes gold..

I used double-sided tape to fix all the outer boxes together into my tree shape.. I love double-sided tape! I use it all the time.. I then gave the whole structure another coat of gold paint..

I actually love how it looks like this without the drawers, it looks Japanese to me.. also the sides of the matchboxes look really cool with the golden strike texture..

Meanwhile I made up a design in Photoshop to print out for the drawer fronts, I used a photo of a fir tree for the top part and a pretty red snowflake pattern for the base. With numbers 1-25 on the drawer fronts..

.. and matching backs without the numbers, which I added mini ornaments to – some little flat-back gems, sequins, glass beads, charms and a star shaped bead-cap to make a star for number 25 at the top of the tree..

The idea being that each day the kids take turns to open the drawer to find a joke and a mint-choc inside, then turn the drawer around and re-insert, so just like I remember as a child – by Christmas day the advent tree will be fully decorated!

As it turned out the finished tree did not look quite how I had pictured in my head, and I kind of prefer it without the drawers.. but, the kids LOVE it! So it’s a success.. thanks Michele for the inspiration.. (and the jokes, you’re too kind :)

Sharing at some of the fabulous link parties in my sidebar, go check them out..

remember remember the fifth of november

2010-11-12T18:29:00.005Z

Remember remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot..

Last Friday on the fifth of November we celebrated Bonfire Night here in England.

Oliver’s school homework last week was to produce something related to Guy Fawkes/Bonfire Night.. On Friday night we went to a bonfire and fireworks display on Plymouth Hoe, and Oli was inspired to make a picture of the fireworks and bonfire.

He also has a keen interest in poetry so I suggested he write a poem to incorporate into his picture. We were given a whole load of activity sheets when we went to a Japanese craft day at our local museum in September, and a couple of them were on writing poems – Haiku and also Acrostic poems – poems in which the first letter of each line spells out a word.

Oliver’s acrostic BONFIRE poem:

Burning bright
On the Hoe
Never ending
Fire
I saw fireworks
Rocketing up
Ending the night.

He was really proud of his work, as was I.

Cyan naturally wanted to get in on the glittery action, and made her own fireworks and bonfire picture:

The inspiration.. some photos I took of the fireworks display..

The bonfire..

Smeaton’s Tower lighthouse on the Hoe..

Cyan and I..

Oliver and Karl..

The funfair was there too..

Read all about Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night on Wikipedia..

halloween fabric trick-or-treat buckets

2010-11-11T20:39:00.000Z

I made the kids some fabric trick-or-treat buckets for Halloween this year. I was so happy with how they turned out! I found this fabric bucket tutorial which inspired me to do the contrasting fabric turnovers, they look great and help them hold their shape, I used fusible web between the two fabrics which also helped. They are quite a bit smaller than the ones in the tutorial, I just worked out the dimensions for the size I wanted.

I picked out fabrics to go with the kids’ bat and pterodactyl costumes. I bought a fat quarter of the purple bat print, the other fabrics and the ribbons for the handles were from my stash.

I had a fat quarter of the orange and black dinosaur print leftover from the fabric party bags I made for Oliver’s dinosaur birthday party a couple of years ago. It’s actually a Jurassic Park fabric, which is not readily available anymore. I was saving it for something special.. which turned out to be Halloween!

I had an Etsy customer last month who ordered some party bags and favors for her little girl’s 3rd birthday, and she had mentioned that her daughter’s favourite dinosaur was triceratops, and that she was dressing as one for Halloween. What fun!

I don’t think I would have thought of dinosaurs for Halloween if not for this. It then occurred to me that the dinosaur ribbon I use for party bag handles would make cute hair-bows, and that the orange one was perfect for Halloween! So I made a couple of hair-bow-clips to send with her order as a little thank-you..

This led me on to the idea of making dinosaur trick-or-treat bags, and other Halloween related ideas which I didn’t get to this year, but I have a year to work on them now, and hopefully I will list some Halloween related goodies in my Etsy shop next year..

terrors of the skies halloween costumes

2010-11-10T20:54:00.000Z

Terrors of the skies, or terrors in disguise?!

Cyan knew exactly what she wanted to be this year for Halloween – a bat! She was so delighted when we saw bats while camping in the summer, I’m sure this inspired her costume choice! It was a really fun yet simple costume, so quick and easy to make – I made it in an evening.

We started with black leggings and long-sleeved T-shirt..

I cut two wing shapes from an old pair of my black leggings, machine stitched them along the bottom of the sleeves and up the sides of the T-shirt; and I used the leftover waist part of the old leggings to make a little skirt. I made a mask from black craft foam. Cyan made such a cute little bat!

Oliver, after some deliberation (and a little persuasion from me) decided to wear his pterodactyl costume, which my sister Tressa made for him for Christmas a few years back. He’s had a lot of wear and play out of it, but hadn’t worn it for Halloween before, and I think he will probably have outgrown it by next year.

I think Tressa used a couple of adult-size T-shirts for the fabric and the dark coloured details are in fleece. The two long pieces which extend from his hands and support the wings are stuffed with recycled plastic bags!

The pterodactyl mask is from a book Oli was given which has different card dinosaur masks to make.

last year’s halloween costumes

2010-11-09T21:42:00.006Z

I thought I would share the costumes we made for Halloween last year.. The kids wanted costumes like in Angelina’s Halloween. Cyan loves the Angelina Ballerina books (Oli likes them too, though he probably wouldn’t freely admit it!).

Cyan wanted to be a firefly like Angelina, and Oliver wanted to be a red devil like Spike and Sammy (the big boy mice in the stories). Oli’s costume was pretty straightforward – red clothes, a trident donated by my sister Tressa, and I made a mask from red craft foam.

Cyan’s firefly costume was like Angelina’s but different colours. I made a tutu and ribbon streamer over-skirt. I used pipe-cleaners and beads attached to a hairband to make the firefly antennae like Angelina’s.

Last year after a little trick-or-treating the kids went to stay with grandparents and Karl and I went to a Halloween party thrown by my sister Arwen and her housemate.

Karl made an excellent Joker – he got so many compliments! He’d bought himself a replica of the shirt worn by Heath Ledger in the Dark Knight Batman movie. I found a green waistcoat on ebay and replaced the back part with pinstripe from a pinstripe skirt, to look like Heath Ledger’s, and also to make it fit Karl.

I made my Jack Skellington suit from various pinstripe garments I found in charity shops. I made a paper pattern adapted from a jacket and added tattered tails (which you can’t see here). I couldn’t find pinstripe leggings anywhere so I made some converted from a pair of stretchy pinstripe trousers! I already had the Jack mask, I had bought it on sale a few years ago from the Disney Store; I made up my face with face paints to match. One day maybe I will be Jack again and then I will make the bat-bow-tie which I ran out of time to make..

Karl carved one of his scary pumpkin jack ‘o’ lanterns to take to the party..

I love Karl’s scary pumpkin heads, here are a couple more from past years..

batteries recharged

2010-11-08T22:28:00.004Z

This is strange, not having blogged in just over a month. Apologies to those who may have missed me. I think I needed this time to take stock of where I am, and how I spend my time. It has been a crazy year for me – at the beginning of the year:
• I went from working 3 days a week to 4 days..
• around the same time I set up my Etsy party supplies shop..
• and started this blog..

Enough craziness for anyone!

Add into the mix the excitement (and hard work) of both kid’s birthday parties to plan over the summer..

Then Cyan started school in September, so now we have both children at school, with two lots of homework to be done each week.. September was also my most intensive blogging month so far, and I was sleep-deprived and rather burnt out at the beginning of October.. then both kids got sick, twice, one after the other. We even ended up in hospital with Oliver a couple of weeks ago, he had a viral cough and got so wheezy he was having trouble breathing. Scary stuff. They are both better now.

I have caught up on a lot of sleep in the last few weeks, and Karl and I have spent some quality time with friends. Batteries are feeling recharged :)

Consequently I haven’t done much in the way of crafting, just a couple of little projects for Halloween; and I really didn’t have the time or energy to devote to blogging. I have missed it though. I will write about Halloween stuff soon, and will aim to post maybe a couple of times a week, and I really need to catch up with all you other lovely bloggers too..

I was looking for a random photograph to add to this post, and found the above photograph of a peacock butterfly, taken in August, one happy weekend when the kids and I went to stay with my sister Arwen in her new home in Exeter, the next city up from us in Plymouth. I intended to blog about that weekend, but haven’t got to it yet, so here are a couple of photos of the kids from that weekend, a bit of gratuitous cuteness for you.. as my good friend Clara commented recently: “Let’s face it, if we don’t post stuff about our kids, the cuteness factors in our blogs drops down dramatically.” Very true!

Picking flowers and blackberries in a gorgeous Exeter park,
on a gorgeous summer evening.

Playing on a twisty tree in another gorgeous Exeter park.

alice in wonderland party bags and favours

2010-09-30T23:43:00.009+01:00

I made these necklaces as favours for Cyan’s Alice in Wonderland birthday party. I found the coloured aluminium chain when I was buying the charms for Oliver’s pirate dalek party. I had lots of the little key charms left over, I then found little gold heart charms – but I was having trouble finding the right charms for each necklace.

The cute little acrylic faceted teapots in all the same colours as the chains were a lucky find on ebay the week before the party! I love how they look with the chains. The necklaces fasten with a heart shaped clasp..

I was going to make some charms with pictures on, using Michele’s tutorial here using printing onto tissue paper and mod podge, my first try didn’t quite work out as I hoped, and I just didn’t have the time to do more trials. I will be playing around with this idea again though..

The party bags are made from different colours of gingham, with coordinated grosgrain ribbon handles; and a shaped felt pocket for each character. Featuring..

Alice

The Mad Hatter

The Queen of Hearts

The Cheshire Cat

The White Rabbit

The Caterpillar

I made the heart and cat bag styles back in July for the felt week of CraftShare 2010 at Sew Can Do..

The stickers I designed for each character were included.. (Thanks moo!)

And I made up colouring books – also using the John Tenniel illustrations..

Sadly I ran out of time to make the heart shaped crayons I was planning to do, luckily I had bought these cute mini gel pens as a back-up.

Shutter Love Tuesdays @ Trendy Treehouse – Cyan as Alice

2010-09-28T15:31:00.007+01:00

I haven’t taken part in Trendy Treehouse’s Shutter Love Tuesdays in a while, when I saw this week’s theme is Blue I immediately thought of this photo..

This is a photo I took of Cyan (named for the colour – blue) dressed as Alice in Wonderland (blue dress) back in June, when I had just finished her pinny to complete her Alice outfit.

This is one of my most favourite photos of Cyan, I tweaked it a little for Shutter Love to enhance the blues.. See the original photos here..

cyan in wonderland birthday party

2010-09-26T23:22:00.010+01:00

Yesterday we held Cyan’s mad birthday tea party..

More on the party food and tiered vintage china cake stands here..

We had some fun Alice themed games and activities here..

See the invitations here.. stickers for favours here.. party bags and favours here..

We even had a little caterpillar visitor who was happily munching on my mint.. if only he was blue..

The Eat Me birthday cake..

.. with a surprise inside! (and another surprise when you eat it – the blue marbled cake layer is mint flavoured and the red marbled cake layer is strawberry flavoured, the white icing square on top is also minty – unusual and very tasty!)

We made garlands from playing cards to decorate our yard..

And we had a couple of white rabbits to follow up to our front door as promised in the invitations.. I had planned to do full rabbit cutouts but I ran out of time, and my Mum kindly cut these out in the shape of the white rabbit pockets on the party bags (which she also helped me out on by sewing most of them), Cyan drew the faces on..

See our fun Alice themed games and activities here..

All in all it was a wonderful day, I myself enjoyed it immensely (despite only getting two hours sleep the night before – utter madness I know!), Cyan had the best day and informed me today she wants exactly the same party next year! (I’m sure she’ll change her mind a gazillion times before then) and I’m pretty sure all her friends had a blast. Once again huge thanks to my Mum and Karl without whose help I could not make any of this happen.

Sharing at some of the fabulous link parties in my sidebar, go check them out..

alice in wonderland party games

2010-09-26T23:18:00.005+01:00

We had some fun games and activities on an Alice in Wonderland theme for Cyan’s birthday party..

Pass the teapot – I adapted the idea from The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party at Anthony House we attended earlier this year.. They passed a teapot around and when the music stopped the child holding the teapot was given a jam tart. For our version I put a prize (a cute Alice charm bracelet I made – but forgot to photograph!) inside our teapot, which was taped shut, and then the teapot was wrapped in layers of paper – so it was more like traditional pass the parcel..

Flamingo bingo – again adapted from a game played at Anthony House – picture bingo with pictures from Alice in Wonderland.. I added numbers 1-20 to the pictures and used Oliver’s bingo game to pick the numbers, when the kids had crossed off all their numbers/pictures they had to shout “flamingo!” then pick a prize..

Then we had Painting the roses red. My youngest sister Jinni kindly helped me out last week by making up all the [white] paper roses using this tutorial. I was dressed as the Queen of Hearts for the party, and I informed the kids that somebody had picked me white roses in error and they must all be painted red or it would be off with their heads! Not really of course! They all got into the spirit of it and took great delight in presenting me with their painted roses!

We put the roses outside to dry in what was left of the sunshine, so they could take them home with them at the end of the party..

They also played musical chairs which I didn’t photograph..

I realised today we didn’t get a single picture with me at the party, so I had to dress up again (Cyan was already wearing her Alice dress again!) so we could get a picture..

My only real disappointment was another activity I had planned but ran out of time to prepare – which was going to be making mad hats. I had saved a whole variety of yoghurt etc. pots which I was going to add card brims to make into hats and spray paint them as a base for the kids to decorate as they saw fit. This would have been a lot of fun..

One of Cyan’s friends gave her a balloon modelling kit as a gift, and Karl did end up making balloon hats for some of the kids – so at least there were mad hats of a sort!

tiered cake stands from vintage china and party food

2010-09-26T23:17:00.005+01:00

I made these tiered cake stands for Cyan’s Alice in Wonderland birthday tea party from a collection of vintage china teacups, plates and saucers. Some pieces I already had, I bought a couple of lots on ebay and the rest were found in charity shops.

I was inspired by this one made by Anji (yes – the same name as me!) of multi-purpose wings, the first time I had seen this idea. I used my hot glue gun to stick them together so it should be possible to take them apart later, as per this very helpful tutorial from Sherry of Creations From My Heart. Actually I am so pleased with them, I don’t know if I want to take them apart now! Not sure what else to do with them though..?

Here they are in action..

Filled with sweet treats..

Cupcakes with toppers I designed..

Jammie dodgers, jam tarts (pastry by my Mum and baked by Karl), and mini jammie dodgers.. grapes and mini marshmallows on sticks in a sugar bowl..

More cupcakes, marshmallows and marshmallow mushrooms; and the two-tiered stands in-between held sandwiches and carrot and cucumber flowers..

We had mismatched vintage china teacups and saucers for the kids to drink out of – which they loved – and not a single thing got broken!

Tea was served (apple juice tea or orange juice tea!) in two little teapots from our play tea-sets..

Sharing at some of the fabulous link parties in my sidebar, go check them out..

wonderland party favours sticker designs

2010-09-17T23:35:00.005+01:00

I designed some more moo stickers on a Wonderland theme.. The stickers we had for Oliver’s party favours turned out so well, I had to do some for Cyan’s party too..

I spent many hours colouring up more of the original illustrations by John Tenniel, like the ones I did for the invitations.. There are six sets of designs, with six stickers on each sheet. These correspond to the six characters I have designed the party bags around – the Queen of Hearts, the White Rabbit, Alice, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat & the Mad Hatter..

I think my favourite is the Queen of Hearts.. Off with their heads!

The icon designs with the coloured gingham backgrounds relate to the party bags..

Oliver’s favourites are the Cheshire Cats, the Caterpillar and the Rocking horse fly designs..

Cyan’s favourite is the Don’t be late! one with the White Rabbit looking at his watch.. she was fascinated watching me add colour to the illustrations in Photoshop, and wanted to have a go..

I set her up a file with the layers she would need, then I showed her how to pick the colour she wanted to paint with, and to use the ‘E’ for Erase key to swap to the Erase tool if she needed to erase an area, and then to hit the ‘B’ for Brush key to swap back to the brush tool.

Here is Cyan’s White Rabbit, she’s not quite finished with it yet, but he’s looking great..

cyan in wonderland birthday party invitations

2010-09-15T18:13:00.005+01:00

I finally got the invitations done for Cyan’s birthday party.. I know, I know – her birthday was two weeks ago.. We had planned to delay her party anyway as she was starting school for the first time last week, so that she could invite new and old friends..

We decided months ago that Cyan was going to have an Alice in Wonderland themed party, a no-brainer considering our Alice craze this year.. I also decided months ago that I would use the original book illustrations by John Tenniel when I found out (after seeing them used in some art on Etsy) that due to their age they are in the public domain, and safe to use. I love these illustrations, they are magical and of a different time..

The illustration above is possibly my favourite of all the Tenniel Alice illustrations, with Alice looking over her shoulder at the White Rabbit hurrying off down the corridor, I love the composition and the perspective.. I thought it would be perfect on the front, with the script Follow the White Rabbit...

I thought we could cut some rabbit shapes from white card for the party, and fix them to the walls outside our house, so they actually do follow the White Rabbit to the party.. Cyan likes this idea..

I like party invitations which are folded, that you ‘open’ like a card, and I also like to offer guests the choice of RSVP via phone/email or a reply slip.. I wanted the proportions of these invitations to be more like a book than the other square format invitations I have designed before, and to almost tell a story..

Inside.. You’re invited to A Mad Tea Party! To celebrate Cyan’s 5th birthday
(notice not A Mad Hatter’s Tea Party – true to the book).

Don’t be late! The RSVP flap folds down to reveal the time/date/place, and doubles as a tear-off reply slip.. (address edited for this pic – we don’t actually live on Wonderland Road.. I wonder if there is one?)

The back is finished off with the illustration of Alice and the Cheshire Cat and the legend Cyan in Wonderland (I couldn’t resist!) I also repeated our phone number here for those who may need to call after having returned the reply slip..

I am really pleased with the vintage look and feel of these invites, I used just a little muted colour to pick out the characters in the illustrations..

Onto the rest of the party preparation now.. Among other things I have to make up the other party bag designs, you may remember I prototyped my idea for the Queen of Hearts and Cheshire Cat party bags for Craftshare back in July..

Sharing at the fabulous link parties on my sidebar, go check them out..

making samurai helmets and swords at the museum

2010-09-15T15:21:00.000+01:00

As I mentioned in my last post, on Saturday we went to our local museum here in Plymouth for a Japanese themed family craft event – making card samurai swords and helmets!

There has been a series of family craft days on a Japanese theme, to tie in with the current exhibition on Japanese Sashiko Textiles. This is the first one we have been able to attend.

Instructions and materials were provided so the kids could make their own samurai helmets, and swords..

Cyan (wearing one of her new hairbands) busy cutting out the card for her helmet.. she has amazing fine motor skills for a 5 year-old..

Oliver got finished with his helmet and sword first.. Cyan spent about 20 minutes decorating hers with patterns..

The photos I took here inside the museum (without flash) didn’t come out brilliantly, but I love their poses!

I snapped this outside, waiting for our bus home afterwards..

first week of school and hair accessories roundup

2010-09-11T00:44:00.075+01:00

With my daughter Cyan starting school for the first time, I decided to document this first week, with a photo of her each morning, all ready for school; and I crafted a hair accessory for her each evening, utilising my lovely stash of green (our school colour) ribbons, all from the fabulous craftyribbons.com..

Click the title for each day to read the full post, with tutorials for each hair accessory..

Monday.. interchangeable bows for hair clips..

Tuesday.. ribbon hair bun covers..

Wednesday.. hair ribbon streamers..

Thursday.. ribbon covered hair clips with buttons..

Friday.. embellished hair bands..

Well Cyan certainly enjoyed her first week at school, and big brother Oliver had a good week too (once he got over the cough he was suffering with earlier in the week), he is now in Year 3 which is his first junior year.. so exciting times for both my kids!

We are all worn out (especially me, I won’t be writing daily blog posts again for a while!) and looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend.. we are off to our local museum tomorrow for a Japanese themed family craft event – making card samurai swords and helmets – that should be fun!

Sharing at the fabulous link parties on my sidebar, go check them out..

fifth day at school and embellished hair bands

2010-09-10T23:59:00.009+01:00

The last day of Cyan’s first week at school..

Cyan’s favourite things about school this first week:
seeing her old friends and meeting all the new children, playing with ‘threading toy’, playing with ‘funny animals toy’ (sounds like construction toy to make funny mixed up animals using body parts of all different animals), counting up to 100 (which she demonstrated effortlessly for me on the way home today).

It didn’t surprise me that from the hair clips I made last night she picked the velvet ribbon and star button pair to wear today (they were my favourites too)..

I was trying to think of another different hair accessory I could make tonight, then I remembered we had a couple of hair bands saved for school, in green and white of course, which I could decorate with some more of my school ribbon stash.. so Friday’s hair accessory is..

Hair bands embellished with bows and flowers

You will need:
Ribbons
Buttons
Hair bands
Hot glue gun
Needle and thread
Sharp scissors

I made a bow to go on the green spot hair band, using 3 different ribbons, sewn together in the middle..

Then fixed to the hair band with a little hot glue and a few stitches around the band..

Get the hot glue out again to fix another ribbon around the middle of the bow..

A medley of polka dots..

For the white band I made some simple rosette flowers.. to make these you need a length of ribbon about 4-6" long, hand-sew a running stitch along one long edge (didn’t photograph this stage), pull thread to create the rosette shape, tie thread off to secure, then sew button in the centre.

Work out arrangement so they sit nicely next to each other on the band..

Attach flowers with hot glue..

And now we have two much prettier hair bands for Cyan to wear..

fourth day of school and ribbon covered hairclips

2010-09-09T23:57:00.006+01:00

Day four at school for Cyan.. she is loving it! Wearing her green and white striped summer dress today.. Striped school summer dresses are not so common as gingham ones, we do like to be individual!

We were given a book from school with pages for Cyan to fill in about herself, she drew this picture of herself today, with her striped dress – and hair accessories!

I really wanted to use the grosgrain polka dot ribbon on something, it didn’t work on any of the accessories I made so far, and I also found some lovely green velvet ribbon with a striped texture while going through my stash of ribbons.. so Thursday’s hair accessory is..

Ribbon covered hair clips with buttons

You will need:
Ribbons
Buttons or other embellishments
Hair clips
Craft glue
Hot glue gun
Sharp scissors

Cut ribbon lengths to fit around hair clips..

Apply craft glue to half of ribbon reverse, snap into place in clip..

Apply craft glue to the remaining half of ribbon reverse..

Fold up around front of clip..

Wrap round to the back, the end should line up with the other end trapped in the clip..

Pick out some fun buttons or embellishments..

Use hot glue gun to stick on the buttons..

These were really simple and a lot of fun to make, and they are completely different to Cyan’s other clips with bows that I made on Monday..

third day of school and hair ribbon streamers

2010-09-08T23:58:00.002+01:00

The next installment of Cyan showing off her school uniform..

Grey tunic dress paired with a white blouse with cute flower embroidery on the collar (the blouse is another of my mum’s charity shop finds)..

You can see her hair in buns with the bun covers I made last night, which almost worked.. they were just a little too small to stay put :(

Onto today’s hair accessory, this is the most simple hair accessory to make with ribbon, we have made them before with various different colours and lengths of ribbon.. so Wednesday’s hair accessory is..

Hair ribbon streamers

You will need
Assortment of lovely ribbons
Hair elastics
Sharp scissors

Cut lengths of ribbon.. for these I used 6" lengths..
(I didn’t end up using the grosgrain polka dots in the above picture, they don’t hang right, the organza and lighter weight ribbons work best)

Tie each ribbon tightly onto the hair elastic, and pull into shape.. done!

Seriously these are so easy, and little girls love them.. I kept these fairly short for school.. I have made them before with much longer lengths, so they are like proper streamers, and Cyan called them ‘princess hair ribbons’!

second day of school and hair bun covers

2010-09-07T23:58:00.016+01:00

Second day of school for Cyan.. Oliver unfortunately is trying to kick a cough, he was just well enough for his first day back yesterday, but the day took it’s toll and he was up coughing in the night again so he’s been at home with Daddy today.. (How is it they have a 6-week summer holiday and Oli manages to get a cough the week before school starts?!)

Cyan’s first day went really well yesterday, sounds like she had a lot of fun; and she is so excited about making new friends – and catching up with her old friends who went to the same pre-school. She came down the stairs this morning from brushing her teeth at 8am saying “I’m ready, can I go to school now?” (We live very close to the school and don't normally leave until 8:30-8:40!)

Today Cyan chose to wear her proper ‘big girl’ ensemble of grey skirt, white blouse and tie! She was most insistent that she wanted to wear her tie today, and is loving the fact that I am letting her choose a different uniform outfit each day this week! (Usually I like to get a few days wear out of clothes to reduce my laundry commitments! And yes, this does sometimes cause arguments..)

With the green cardigan.. This cardigan is labelled as age 3-4 and is still too big for Cyan, she’s not even so dinky anymore after this summer’s growth spurt, and she just turned 5! The cardigan stayed on just long enough for me to snap a photo, Cyan is a warm child, doesn’t like wearing extra layers (except for princess dresses/cloaks and the like!) and she won’t really need to wear it until the weather gets a lot colder.

And the hair accessory craft of the day.. I was thinking.. what other (practical) styles could we do with Cyan’s hair, apart from the obvious plaits, pigtails, ponytail etc.? I thought it might be fun to put her hair in two little buns, but her hair is quite fine and thin, and very slippy so it won't stay in a bun without a bun cover (like the crochet ones you wear for ballet)..

I don’t crochet, so for Tuesday we’re going to make..

Ribbon hair bun covers

You will need
Organza ribbon and/or lace type trim

Before you start you will need to put your girl’s hair roughly in a bun and work out the length of ribbons you will need.. With Cyan’s hair in two buns, the length I needed to fit across one bun was approx 3.5". Add 2" for casing allowance. I cut 2 x 5.5" lengths of polka dot organza ribbon (from my school colours ribbon collection) and 1 x 5.5" length of this cute cotton lace type trim which I found in my stash.. I used 3 lengths for each small bun cover, for a single bun cover or if your girl’s hair is thicker than Cyan’s you will probably want 4 lengths or more..

Fold the ends and sew to make the casing for the ribbon tie, check your pieces will end up the right length before sewing..

Then sew the lengths together in the middle.

Thread ribbon tie through the casings..

Tie in a bow to secure onto bun.

Quite simple really, although it took a bit of trial and error to find a method which (I hope) works..

the next morning: Here are the bun covers in action, they do work in principle, unfortunately my measurements were a little on the small side (either that or Cyan’s hair grew thicker overnight!), so they don’t quite stay put.. Another inch on the lengths I used would probably fix this.. whether it’s worth remaking them I don’t know.. or perhaps I’ll just ask my mum if she would crochet some for Cyan ;)

What do you think?

Brushing up on her alphabet before school this morning.. Thank you Aunty Arwen for the alphabet jigsaw puzzle birthday card ;) You can see the ribbon bow hair clips she picked to wear from those I made last night..

first day of school and hair bow tutorial

2010-09-06T23:58:00.018+01:00

It was our first day back at school today.. first day ever for Cyan!

The school colour is green, which I love..

I had bought hair clips, and a whole selection of lovely ribbons in green and white.. gingham, striped, polka dots, organza..
The ribbons are all from craftyribbons.com

I am planning to craft a hair accessory each night this week, to go with Cyan’s uniform..

Tonight I decided to add some bows to the hair clips.. so on Monday we have..

Simple interchangeable bows for hair clips tutorial

You will need:
Assortment of lovely ribbons (see above!)
Hair clips
Fray-check or craft glue
Sharp scissors

Take a length of ribbon, about 8" worked out well with the 10mm ribbon..

(For wider ribbon you would need a slightly longer length, for narrow ribbon slightly shorter.)

Snap the hair clip onto the centre of the ribbon length..

Tie in a knot, twice, pulling tight each time, this means the bows can slip on and off the clips later..

Tie bows, according to this method for simple bows on the crafty ribbons blog.. keep adjusting and pulling tighter until bows look the right size and shape, then trim the ends with sharp scissors..

I fray-checked the ends and also added a dab of glue under the bow knot, top and bottom..

I made five pairs of bows with different ribbons..

They can all be swapped onto different clips..

They turned out so cute and they are really so simple to make – I think I may have to do more in non-school colours, I have a HUGE stash of ribbons and Cyan has LOADS of hair clips which we could slip bows onto..

Why don’t you make some really simple interchangeable hair clip bows..

After all the comments on the uniform, I added this photo crop where you can see the detail on this dress more clearly – it really is a lovely one (click photos to enlarge). Gingham dresses in the school colour are standard summer uniform for girls here, you can buy them from a variety of retailers and the style does vary a lot. This particular dress is one my mum picked up in a charity shop a couple of years back and we’ve been saving it for when Cyan started school.

cyan’s 5th birthday.. um dress for barbie

2010-09-05T20:46:00.007+01:00

It was Cyan’s birthday on Tuesday, my little girl is now 5!

I bought her these collector’s edition Alice in Wonderland and Queen of Hearts barbies for her birthday. They were released a few years ago apparently.. I was struck by the similarity of the Alice barbie’s dress to some of the dresses worn by Mia Wasikowska in the new Alice in Wonderland film..

I decided I would try and make the Um dress for the Alice barbie, Cyan was very keen on this dress when we watched the movie.. it is the dress which the Red Queen orders to be made for Alice when she is very large, and calls herself Um (from Umbridge)..

“Someone find her some clothes, use the curtains if you must,
but clothe this enormous girl”..

I made the base dress, using ribbons for the bodice and fine tulle for the skirt.. but with everything we’ve had on over the last few weeks I just ran out of time.. I wrapped it up anyway and Cyan is very happy with it as it is.. I will make the overskirt which I planned to make as a separate piece anyway.. soon.. when I find the time!

I found black barbie ballet pumps on ebay, which work well as Um shoes with the addition of little red ribbon bows..

Alice barbie had to try on her Um dress within minutes of being unwrapped! (I knew I had to make this dress!)

This is the Um dress we are trying to replicate:

I think I might possibly be making another version of this dress soon.. perhaps a five-year-old girl sized one?

Naturally Cyan then had to go and dress herself as Alice for the day..

And of course Oliver was Spider-man?!

We are planning a party for Cyan in a couple of weeks, after she starts school (tomorrow!)

We had cake of course, and used some of the vintage tea set pieces I have been collecting to use for Cyan’s party.. you’ll never guess the theme for her party ;)

A mini birthday tea party..

holiday and camping

2010-09-04T23:55:00.009+01:00

It’s been two weeks since I posted here.. This will be a long post but mostly pictures..

Karl & I had a couple of weeks off work and we spent some quality family time..

A day out to Paignton beach..

We took along the leftover cupcake flags from Oliver’s party to use for sandcastles.. (inspired by Joey's Dream Garden sandcastle flags)
Oliver made a sand dalek!

Cyan made a sand castle..

Oliver made a speed boat in the sand, and marked the edge with cocktail swords and mini daleks!

Got chased by waves..

Determined to transfer as much sea water as possible from the sea to the sand..

We also went camping for a few days at local River Dart Country Park..

This was the kids’ first time camping..

Happy campers! They loved it..

There was an awesome adventure play park in the woods..

The assault course was a big hit!

Oliver climbed all the way to the top of this rather large ‘spider-web’..

There were zip-wires..

A tree house..

A pirate ship!

Which you had to ‘walk the plank’ to get to/from it..

A little sandy beach..

A Victorian kissing chair by the house..

(Notice the white roses..
Cyan insisted I help her paint all these roses with imaginary red paint before the imaginary red queen who lived in the house (‘castle’) woke up and caught us!)

There were swings and climbing frames galore to keep the kids happy..

A full moon on our last night camping..

We had another day out later in the week when the weather was sunny again, to Woodlands this time..

More sand play..

Cyan found a zip wire just the right size for her, which she was very happy about!

Lots of rides and stuff, most of which I went on - so didn’t photograph..

The kids love this merry-go-round..

And they loved these goat kids even more..

They were cute! Kids feeding kids..

They didn’t want to leave..

plymouth lido

2010-08-21T15:11:00.005+01:00

This is Tinside Lido – an Art Deco outdoor, sea water swimming pool – one of my favourite things about living in Plymouth. It is situated right on the seafront, near the Plymouth Hoe. The venue for our wedding reception next year is just around the bay to the left of these photos.

The Lido was closed for years, but was fully refurbished and reopened in 2005. It has lots of cool Art Deco features.. I love this ceramic tiling in the interior, and the sign here which reads ‘To the sunbathing terraces’..

The pool water is filtered salt water taken from the sea.. it is not heated so seems quite cold at first, but once you get used to it it is quite pleasant on a hot summer’s day..

I regret to say that this gorgeous sunny day back in June is the only day we have managed to get down there this year.. I just found out that you can buy a yearly season ticket though, so I mean to take advantage of that next year, and get out for a swim at least once a week in my lunch break.. I work about 10 minutes walk away..

I never in a million years thought I would be posting a picture of me in my bikini here.. but my mum snapped this photo of me with the kids!

I really hope we get a few more sunny days before the end of the summer so we can get down there again this year.. August has brought rain, rain, and more rain..

Linked:

the dalek pirate party

2010-08-20T23:11:00.017+01:00

To round up my posts on the dalek pirate party we held for my son Oliver’s 7th birthday..
• Invitations
• Party favours
• Décor, flags and stencils
• Pirate party games

• Food
I had this idea to make all the food
on sticks, so we had:

Fruit & marshmallow kabobs, cheese & pineapple on sticks, grapes & mini-marshmallows on sticks, breadsticks, sandwich bites on cocktail sword picks, pepperamis on cocktail swords, chocolate dipped orio pops.

We also made cupcakes with dalek pirate flag toppers, and chocolate dipped pretzels which were yummy (salt and chocolate is my new favourite taste combo!) and they went down really well with the kids too!

• Party masks
For our first activity the kids (and my two attending sisters!) made pirate dalek masks. I bought the dalek party masks, and the kids sat down and customised their dalek masks with pirate foam stickers, gem stickers, feathers, and brass curtain rings for earrings!

This was a lot of fun and we certainly had a colourful and interesting collection of masks! I never knew boys (other than Oliver – he’s a magpie like me!) loved bling so much! The boys asked if it could be a competition – they are so competitive!

Karl (Daddy) picked the best mask and the winner chose a prize from the Treasure chest lucky dip.. We played lots of fun pirate party games..

Oliver’s mask completed his look with the T-shirt I stencilled for him..

Cyan dressed up as a pirate princess!

Tucking into the feast..

• The birthday cake

I have seen a lot of cakes around the blogosphere made up of cupcakes.. which led to the idea for Oliver’s cake this year..

Karl baked and iced the cakes, which were made from three sizes of cupcakes stacked up to make an army of individual daleks! With chocolate buttons and mint matchmaker sticks for the appendages..

Each guest took a dalek cake home at the end of the party.. they went down a storm!

The party bags with custom made favours..

Cyan took this lovely photo of Karl, Oliver and I at the end of the day..

The whole day was a lot of fun, with just a few little stresses (mostly down to the bad weather necessitating last minute improvisations), all the kids had a blast, and Oliver had a really special day to remember.. Yes – all the hard work and planning is worth it!

A big thank you to Karl, my mum and sisters; without their help these parties would not happen!

Linked:

pirate party games

2010-08-20T22:18:00.008+01:00

The theme for my son Oliver’s 7th birthday party was dalek pirates. I selected and adapted some fun party games on a pirate theme. I ran all the game ideas past Oliver before the party and he was really excited about playing all of them!

These are the games we played..

Shipwreck
To play this game you need a large room or outdoor area with different items of furniture etc. which the kids can climb on. One person acts as Captain, then all the kids run around until the Captain shouts “Shipwreck” and calls out an item which the kids must run to and climb on it. The last one to reach it has sunk in the sea and is then out. As there are less and less players left in the game, the Captain calls smaller and smaller items to climb on.

It was raining so we played it in our dining room; we used a wooden pallet (we were going to use these to make a deck in the backyard had the weather been fine) which was ‘the deck’, a plank of wood ‘the plank’, a long floor cushion ‘the bridge’, a square floor cushion ‘the Captain’s chair’ and a large round wooden chopping board ‘the crow’s nest’. We played it so as each player got out they acted as Captain and called the next “Shipwreck”. I didn’t get photos of this game being played.

X marks the spot
This game is basically musical chairs, but we used Xs made from strips of black card instead of chairs. So all the kids run and dance about until the music stops then try and get to an X until there’s only one player left.. you all know how this one works!

Port and Starboard
There is a list of commands with actions, when each command is called the kids have to do the appropriate action, once they get used to all the actions the last player to comply with each action is out. I adapted the commands and actions to make it a bit more piratey..

• Port : all run to the left
• Starboard : all run to the right
• Captain’s aboard : raise fist and shout “Aaargh!”
• Hoist the mainsail : run on the spot like climbing the rigging
• Mess deck : sit cross legged on the floor ready for lunch
• Davey Jones : climb on anything so you are not on the floor
• Land ahoy : hold hands to eye as if looking through telescope

This was really fun – and I got Captain Jinni (my youngest sister) to call the commands so I did manage to get a few pictures (not great, but you get the idea)

Treasure dig
We planned to do this in the sandpit in our backyard but due to the weather had to improvise on the day by using a large shallow plastic box indoors with play sand. We buried a load of booty in the sand and the kids had a blast digging it all out.

They loved this activity so much in fact that a few (Oliver included) were begging me to let them re-bury all their treasures so they could dig them out again! If we had been outside I probably would have let them, but by this time we had sand pretty much all over our dining room floor! The booty included marbles, gold and silver plastic pirate coins and these cute little charms – anchors, coins and keys.

Sleeping Pirate
For this game you need a blindfold and a big bunch of keys. All the kids sit in a circle, one child is selected to be the pirate, they sit blindfolded in the middle with the bunch of keys in front of them. One of the other kids is nominated to try and swipe the keys and return to their place without the pirate hearing them. The pirate then has to guess or point to who has the keys, they then take the place of the pirate in the middle.

This was the last game we played, and the boys took some rounding up at this point, they all wanted to just run around and play, so we nearly didn’t play it – but Oliver insisted and rounded a few friends up.. they loved this game best of all I think, as they were playing the others gradually came and joined the circle, I think we had all but one guest in the game by the end. They wanted to keep on playing and playing, they all kept getting the giggles when someone was trying to quietly sneak the keys and then there would be a little jangle of keys and the pirate would know who was the culprit!

Treasure chest lucky dip
I found this really cool pair of treasure chests on ebay (I think they are supposed to be for wine bottles or something?!), the large one was just perfect for the treasure chest lucky dip I was planning for prizes.

We made lots of shrinky plastic pirate daleks in different colours, I bought brass keyring parts on ebay and we made them up into key fobs, each one was placed in a little paper bag and the winner of each game picked one out from the lucky dip.

At the end of the party anyone who hadn’t won a prize yet picked a keyring from the lucky dip, and then we all sat round and they had the option of attaching their little charms from the Treasure dig to their keyrings if they wanted (some did – some didn’t). This was a nice way of calming down at the end before everyone went home.

Many of these games were from (or adapted from) this site:
Little Cherry eco-friendly party supplies.

Linked:

dalek pirate party stencil décor

2010-08-19T22:48:00.004+01:00

For my son Oliver’s 7th birthday party on a dalek pirate theme I enlarged
the stencil designs I created for the invitations and used them to make flags
and other items for the party..

I made one large and three small flags with our dalek jolly roger design..

The large flag and two small flags were put up in our back yard,
and one small flag we put up at our front gate.

I used lightweight black poly-cotton for the flags, and gold spray paint
for the stencil designs.

I made a backdrop to hang up with a (almost) life-size dalek stencil..

It rained on the day of the party, so we hung the dalek backdrop indoors
in our dining room..

I stencilled a T-shirt for Oliver to wear – he wanted to ‘be’ a dalek!
I used special T-shirt spray paint for this, which is machine washable and everything..

I also re-used the stencil from the invitations for the party favour bags
which the kids took their booty home in..

Linked:

dalek pirate party favours

2010-08-13T23:58:00.022+01:00

Here is a little peek at some of the favours which will
be going in party bags for Oliver’s dalek pirate party..
moo stickers with our dalek pirates on..

I love the “ooh, sticky!” flash on the corner!!

I also ordered some cool custom pin badges from DayzeeLoveDesigns on Etsy, which are winging their way to me.. see a sneak preview on her blog.. they look awesome too!

Last night I made a test shrinky-plastic dalek..
he shrank from this..

to this..

I will be printing more out for Oliver and Cyan to help me shrink..
they are going on keyrings for prizes/favours..

dalek pirate party invitations

2010-07-31T00:09:00.008+01:00

I really wanted to do a pirate party for Oliver’s 7th birthday this year.. he was fairly keen on the idea but his main obsession is Doctor Who, and Daleks in particular.. so I thought, why not combine the two – so we are having a Dalek pirate party!

I designed some pirate daleks, with (of course!) hooks instead of the usual sucker arm! I also designed a dalek ‘skull and crossbones’. I designed them to be made into stencils, these are going to end up getting stencilled onto all kinds of stuff for the party!

First task – invitations.. I based the layout of these on the dinosaur invitations I designed for Oli’s 5th birthday. I printed the stencil designs onto card, and cut them out with my trusty craft knife..

I had this idea that I could paint the stencils with a couple layers of mod podge, which I thought would strengthen and seal the card stencils. It kind of worked.. the only thing was, I was doing this in a rush – we had to get them made up and given out before the end of the school term. So the mod podge was not really 100% dry when the kids and I started on the stencilling! This actually helped I think, because the stencils were a little tacky so they stuck to the paper while we stencilled!
(I imagine this is a bit like using freezer paper to stencil onto fabric – I just bought some freezer paper to try this out on some stuff for the party!)

Cyan did the paint for the dalek ‘skull and crossbones’ on the fronts, and Oli painted the dalek stencils.

I designed the other parts of the invitations with a parchment paper background which I mocked up in photoshop, I printed these onto standard white printer paper, and roughly tore the edges. Karl and I then had a rather late night (I should say early morning!) singeing all the edges and sticking the invitations together.. I love Karl so much for humouring and helping me in my crafty madness!

I did have fun coming up with the dalek/piratey wording.. which Oli loved!

I have so many ideas for this party, I have researched some fantastic games to play, and have some fun ideas for food.. we are going to transform our backyard into a pirate ship (hopefully – weather permitting), with sails, dalek pirate flags, a deck made from pallets..

Linked:

mini bag, notebooks and other yummy gifts

2010-07-26T23:54:00.003+01:00

I made more mini notebooks last week, as a little thank you gift for Oliver’s teacher and teaching assistants. They are the same as the crafty ribbons mini notebooks I made, in that they have perforated pages and are stitch-bound; the covers are a little different in style – I wanted them to be personal, and I thought rather than Oliver drawing cards for his teachers I could use his drawings as the cover of the notebooks, they will be reminded of him every time they write a note! He wrote a little thank you to each teacher on the first page of their notebook.

Oliver drew some lovely little birds (he loves birds). He drew a blue-tit, a cockatiel and a robin. I added polka-dot fabric behind his drawings, which was fixed onto the card cover with bondaweb, then the drawings were trimmed to fit and stuck in place with double-sided tape, then I machine-stitched around the edges. We also bought some yummy dark chocolate mint truffles (we can testify to the yumminess as we shared a box at home too!) and used a green (school colour) gingham ribbon to tie each notebook with the choc box.

I also made another little bag like the crafty ribbons mini beach bag I made, this one was a birthday gift for one of Cyan’s friends. We gave her a play dough ice cream set (a bargain buy – I bought a few to use for gifts over the summer) so I used the ice-cream Fun in the Sun ribbon I had from the Crafty Ribbons challenge. Cyan made another of her cute little bracelets – it has become a habit making bracelets for her friends birthdays.

I was going to make another mini ribbon notebook to match.. but time was short.. and I remembered we had some mini princess colouring books left over which I made to go in party bags for Cyan’s birthday last year. They were covered with cute scrapbook prints and the cupcake one went nicely with the ice-cream bag!

*starking crafty and party*

cyan’s first sewing projects ... and hello! (it’s been a while!)

seam binding crafty ribbons challenge

mums for mother’s day

treasury ... take me to the sea

gannet, fairies, bunnies and other deadly creatures

treasury ... love etsy

beach treasure mosaic mirrors

treasury... I’ll see you on the dark side...

giveaway winners

wizard play.. cloaks, wands and spells

treasury....tea party at three

treasury....spring is springing!

treasury....tea party with a march hare....easy on the mad

happy valentine’s day

double giveaway time!

winter woolies

gingerbread playdough

oliver’s school makings

children’s christmas cards

matchbox christmas tree advent calendar

remember remember the fifth of november

halloween fabric trick-or-treat buckets

terrors of the skies halloween costumes

last year’s halloween costumes

batteries recharged

alice in wonderland party bags and favours

Shutter Love Tuesdays @ Trendy Treehouse – Cyan as Alice

cyan in wonderland birthday party

alice in wonderland party games

tiered cake stands from vintage china and party food

wonderland party favours sticker designs

cyan in wonderland birthday party invitations

making samurai helmets and swords at the museum

first week of school and hair accessories roundup

fifth day at school and embellished hair bands

fourth day of school and ribbon covered hairclips

third day of school and hair ribbon streamers

second day of school and hair bun covers

first day of school and hair bow tutorial

cyan’s 5th birthday.. um dress for barbie

holiday and camping

plymouth lido

the dalek pirate party

pirate party games

dalek pirate party stencil décor

dalek pirate party favours

dalek pirate party invitations

mini bag, notebooks and other yummy gifts

starking crafty and party