Superhero Party

Little Roo, our little super boy turned 5 on Friday - crikey 5 - doesn't time fly - which means, I've just realised, that this blog must be 5 too - birthdays all round!!  Little Roo, being 5, is very into his superhero's; Spiderman is his personal favourite but he loves superman, ninja turtles, batman, well in fact any superhero, so it wasn't difficult to come up with a theme for his party!  He is also a bit of a groover on the quiet - must take after his mummy! - so a superhero disco party it was!

I really enjoyed organising this party, I did a lot of lovely research, searching the internet for ideas and came across lots of amazing ideas.  I had had this idea that I would make everyone a superhero mask for their party bag and after a bit of searching around came across some gorgeous superhero masks by Slowmama, who had got the templates from Ambrosiagirl.  I loved the shape of the masks and the fact that there was a boy and a girl version.

I also loved the extra detailing of the star that Slowmama had added so I decided to add a star to the girl masks and a lightening bolt to the boy masks.  Luckily when it comes to making 20 superhero masks I didn't need to rush out and buy any supplies - no, being a horder and craft addict I had a whole box of felt - it did make me feel very happy (and virtuous) to be using up my stash!!  I made the masks double thickness and added the details on first before sewing the two sides together, catching in the elastic as I went!

I also found a great idea at Millybee for some superhero capes to add to lollipops and I added these to the party bag as well!  A lovely idea and so great that she has made the download available for everyone to use!  I managed to find some great pop art online too which I used to make some cake toppers for the cake!

Of course being nearly 8 Flopsy Bunny was far too cool for a pretty superhero mask and went for a black version instead which she can use when she is playing spy's!!  Little Roo loved his party, he had a wonderful day and it was lovely to watch my not so little boy and all his friends getting along so well and really enjoying themselves!  Happy Birthday my lovely boy!

Tutu for a budding ballerina

Flopsy Bunny had a little birthday last week - 7 years old - I still can't believe it.

My gorgeous, clever, funny girl has a number of tutu's but when I saw  Rachael Rabbit's Tutu Tutorial I knew I had to have a go at making one (in fact I made two!!)

So easy and so effective.  In fact the most difficult part was cutting the tulle.  The most fun part was tying everything on and getting creative with flowers and ribbons.  Just what was needed after a trip to the ballet to see Sleeping Beauty.  I might just have to make an adult sized one!

Finished Gifts

If last week was a 'making' week, this week is definitely going to be a 'finishing off' week - well it has to be as time is ticking by.  So remember these little gorgeous cut out Christmas shapes?  Well we left them to dry over night and they turned a lovely white colour and quite hard by the morning.  Then the fun began.  I decided on a minimal colour palette, mainly because the cost of the little bottles of acrylic paint would soon mount up.  So just metallic gold and silver and a blob of red glitter glue for Rudolph's nose!  Flopsy Bunny and I had a great time paining, leaving everything to dry and then painting the back.  Then the ribbon box came out and much ooooing and aaaahhhing went on as we selected the best ribbons.  And there we have it some very effective, if I can say so, Christmas decorations, I'm rather pleased with them, I hope the teachers will be too!!!

Well, they weren't all for teachers . . .!  A few managed to find their way onto our tree!

Making Gifts for Teachers

This post should really be called 'presents in progress', but I felt I had a bit of a 'making' theme going on this week so couldn't wait for the finished item!

 

As usual I've been totally inspired by SouleMama's blog and her post where they were making Christmas decorations which got me thinking that they would make really nice presents for the children to give, teachers, family and friends!  Especially as I had already made the teachers Peppermint Bark in the summer . . .  So I just happened to be passing Hobby Craft the other day and had a bit of a trip down memory lane when I ended up in the modeling isle and saw DAS.  It bought make memories of my mum making a nativity village out of boxes and then fashioning little people out of DAS which she painted.  We loved getting the village out every year, playing with the people and the crib scene but also loving the little people we had made.  It was that childhood memory which made me want to continue the tradition with my own children and prompted me to buy the crib set.  Anyway, I seemed to have drifted off the point!  DAS is a wonderful air drying clay which we just rolled out and using cookie cutters, cut out Christmassy shapes, added a hole to thread ribbon through later and we are now waiting for them to dry.  The next step - painting!!  Hopefully I'll have some finished articles to show you next week.

 

Have a wonderful weekend.  We will be spending the weekend making our house Christmassy and I can't wait!

Making Gift Tags

Its full swing on the making front at the moment.  Our after school activities are all geared up for present wrapping and card writing.

For the star stamp we used Flopsy Bunny's lino cut, but this time instead of a roller and some paint we used a gold ink pad.  It had varying results and we both got covered in gold - which was fun!  Flopsy Bunny went round the outside of some of the stars in glitter pen, we really did have some fun! 

 

I love this time of the year, there is something magical about Christmas and not just for the children.  I love decorating the house, getting presents together, wrapping them up into gorgeous parcels.  Lots of glitter and sparkle, just wonderful! 

 

PS . . .  the second roll of wrapping paper has been printed and I think I'm going to leave it as that (mainly because I don't have anywhere to keep the paper while it's drying!!)

 

 

Making Wrapping Paper

 

I got busted today.  DH had tootled off to see Flopsy Bunny in the Nativity and his parting question was 'what are you up to today?', 'Oh working' I said nonchalantly . . . Cut to 40 mintues later, the front door opened and DH was back (he was meant to be heading off to London on the train straight after) 'Ah working heh?' he said as he saw me, with a long roll of brown paper, a lino cut and some red paint . . .!

Well, what can I say, except when the mood takes you, you just have to go with it AND I've been itching to print my own wrapping paper for years now!  In fact I was looking back to this post, where I had mentioned wanting to do it!  I've always loved lino cutting, I got into it as a teenager and loved carving out my design.  I've had yearnings to print my own fabric one day and now that I've finally got round to printing the wrapping paper, who knows where that will lead . . .!

 

 

It definately has the home made look about it . . . but I'm happy with that.  One roll done, two to go and then there are the star gift tags and the 'hand' christmas cards!!  Watch this space . . .

 

Pre-Christmas preparations

There is a rule in our house - nothing Christmas related until the 1st of December.  It is one of DH's rules and I have to say that he is quite right to be laying down the law like this as I would start Christmassy things way back in September given half a chance!

But I couldn't resist a little bit of pre-Christmas preparations as I like to call them!!  I have been meaning to do a little bit of lino cutting each Christmas and using it to stamp onto brown paper as our wrapping paper.  This year I finally got it together and Flopsy Bunny and I (but mainly me) enjoyed a lovely rainy afternoon, drawing onto lino to create our stamps.

 

Here's an almost finished one - just ready for next week (as everything Christmassy starts on the 1st - my CD is lined up and ready for action!) when I will be rolling paint and stamping to my hearts content!

 

How are your Christmas preparations going?

Some half term craftiness

I can't quite believe how quickly this year is zooming by. We had an extended half term with inset days either side of the week and even that week seemed to go fast.  We made another Halloween trip to the Ashmolean museum.  They do some lovely craft activities for children.  They must get through A LOT of wooden spoons though as last time we made a spooky spoon ghost!

This year Flopsy Bunny made a snowy owl called . . . Snowy!!

Little Roo requested a dragon (called Fred), and helped to stick bits on.  There have been some very uncharitable comments about his wings looking like a bow tie!  As part of the creative craftiness the children were encouraged to write a poem about that spoon puppet and we had a fun drive home working out words that rhymed with Snowy and Fred.  Little Roo's poem was a little bit easier to compose, and Little Roo had his dragon falling out of bed and bumping his head! 

World Book Day

Poor Flopsy Bunny has been unwell this week, but she did manage to rally a little on Tuesday and decided that as Princess and the Pea hadn't been made into a movie yet (Disney are you listening!), she would make her own version.  So we worked out that we would need characters and scenery, although the scenery had to be forgotten as it had taken all day making the characters.  We finally came to the filming part which I did try to upload here - anyway, a very cute re-adaptation of the Princess and the Pea by Flopsy Bunny.  She is now worrying about marketing and how we are going to burn the DVD and sell it in the shops!!!  Hmmm . . . I have a feeling she will go far!

Of course there was really only one choice of character for World Book Day today - can you guess by the over-sized green pea?, whipped up yesterday on my frantic get things done day!!



Owls

Last year Flopsy Bunny was given a whole lot of crafty presents for her birthday from her friends - I'm not sure where people got the idea that we were a crafty household . . . !!!  Anyway out of all the lovely gifts that she was given, this one was the one I was the most excited about.  I bided my time, not suggesting that she should tackle the one I wanted her to do and then in the summer she bought the box to me and we got started!  I was so impressed with how quickly she picked up the back stitch and how little help she needed - just a bit of needle re-threading and untangling.  So here we have it, the Owls, finished at the weekend and looking lovely don't you think?  I'm so proud of Flopsy Bunny - she's done a great job!  The crafting gene is strong in this one I think!!!

If you are interested the kit comes from the Little Experience Company - and it is great.  It includes everything you would need, scissors, needle, thread, stuffing and good instructions.  Lovely packaging and design, you can also make two pairs of glasses from the box.  Can't recommend it enough! (and no I'm not getting paid for saying that either!!!!)

On the tenth day of Christmas . . .

. . . three little doves

Not a finished project yet, but I thought I would give you a sneaky preview of what I'm working on at the moment.  Imagine 7 more with embroidered eyes too!  I'm really enjoying this one - a little Christmas present to myself . . . !



On the ninth day of Christmas . . .

. . . I filled two tea cups with pretty bulbs

It is always tricky to know what to give my two grandmothers.  Yes I am blessed, both are going strong at 96 and 102 and its good to know there are longevity genes on both sides!  But then what to give . . .  This year, having seen this idea in a number of florists I decided to give it a go myself.  So off I popped to our local antiques and brick a brack shop - Oh how I love that shop - a real aladin's cave and I always find what I'm looking for!  Do you remember these? - well as I said this shop rarely fails to deliver, and this time I am really happy with my kingfisher cups - rather lovely don't you think?  Then it was just a case of putting some compost in, popping in a bulb and topping with moss and hey presto, gorgeous granny presents. 

On the sixth day of Christmas . . .

. . . a sparkly forest grew

Inspired by my holly leaves, Flopsy Bunny decided she wanted to do something with green felt and after her attempts at drawing holly - which didn't go as well as she hoped she settled on Xmas trees.  Using her template I cut out the felt trees and she set about with the decorating.  As you can see she definately believes more is, well, more!!  A girl after my own heart - you can hardly see the outline of the tree for all the sparkle and sequins.  These little trees have had ribbons added to hang them and are going out to family and friends this Christmas!!

On the fifth day of Christmas . . .

I made a holly decoration!

There must be something in the air at the moment with lots of thoughts of holly.  Over at Attic 24 there has been some lovely holly making.  I'm wondering if my holly looks a bit bat like?! Ho Hum!

As you can see I've got a little behind on my days - well there have been some very special birthday celebrations to prepare.  Now Little Roo is well and truely 3 and has been sung to everyday, I can turn my attention to Christmas!!

On the second day of Christmas . . .

. . . we made some paper stars

Flopsy Bunny was off sick this week with a little bug, so it gave us an opportunity to do some Christmas crafting together.  After much deliberation she choose these beauties.  Lots of fun to make and even more fun to decorate with the glitter glue!  We will be sticking them on to ribbon to hang in Flopsy Bunny's bedroom.

Three generations craft project

It started off as a Granny and Granddaughter craft project.  My mum had given Flopsy Bunny this gorgeous book on how to make princessy type things.  Flopsy Bunny had chosen the castle and we got everything together except we didn't have any paint.  Not to worry says my mum we will cover the boxes with fabric - ahh can you see where I get it from?!  Anyway, during this whole process Flopsy Bunny lost interest and decided to take on a more supervisory/overseeing role and somehow it turned into a mother and daughter project instead.  Which was lovely, I must say we both really enjoyed ourselves a lot - Flopsy Bunny came along to put on the finishing touches and here it is!  A princess castle!

My underwater girl

Flopsy Bunny could have gone to school as a mermaid for her underwater topic day - we'd borrowed a lovely costume - but no it wasn't quite the look she was after!  Instead on Friday I was faced with conjuring up a new outfit.  After a quick think, a hanging basket, some pink fabric and ribbon and a few hours later we had the ta da moment - a jelly fish outfit!  Flopsy Bunny is VERY pleased with this outfit (thank goodness) and she will be chasing after her friends all day today trying to sting them . . .!

Boxy loveliness

Yes, I'm at it again, covering boxes!  This time it's a box file - it's all part of me getting more organised (hope you are liking how I've managed to bring in some craftiness into all this organisation!!).  Anyway an annoying area of my kitchen was this big pile of correspondence, the pending stuff that requires some input before filing or recycling and in the past it has just sat in a big unsightly pile next to the kettle.  I've tried several things, like putting the pile on a lovely old silver tray that my grandmother gave me, but no it still looked like a messy heap on a tray!  Then flicking through a Cath Kidston catalog I came across these lovely box files but I bulked at the price and couldn't really justify it - even if it helped me get more organised.  Then the brainwave struck, boring old box file, big bottle of PVA glue and some gorgeous Zoffany wallpaper that I really really wanted on my dining room wall but the light in that room just didn't work for the paper and I still had the sample (which I think just proves why hoarding is such a very good thing!!).  So there you have it, one lovely box file, filled with lots of papery bits and bobs and when it gets full I have to chuck something out - a perfect system! 

Love is in the air : Part 1

We've gone all romantic here, well a bit heart obsessed if I'm honest!  These little hearts were such fun to make.  Flopsy Bunny and I had a very sticky time making them last week.  I found the idea on Ravelry (where else!!) if you are signed up to the site you can find the receipe/pattern here.  But they are just so easy to do, all you need is some wool, heart shaped biscuit cutters and some corn starch glue or I think PVA glue would work just as well!  Flopsy Bunny decided it was a bit too messy, which surprised me as she came home from school with glue in her hair and on her sweatshirt - maybe there can be too much messy play at times!!  She enjoyed cutting the wool and choosing the colours though and left the messy stuff to me.  Which from mine and the kitchen's sake was a result!!!

 

Anyway hope you have a Happy Valentine's Day!!

Cosy up your eggs!

I'm not sure how it got to be the 11th of December without a post but here we are, excuses at the ready!  It has been a sickly old time in our house recently with everyone succumbing to various bugs and viruses.  So not much craftiness has been done.  Although I have had a few little orders from my Christmas Fair which I'm very excited about.  Then I found an egg cosy that I didn't manage to sell and here it is!