Matchbox cameras and party craft

I love that when the kids friends come over now, it is just expected that they will be making something. I always wanted to be a mum like that. And what do you know? I am here. So it was natural that we would be doing some kind of crafts while Esther and Ellamay's (un)party was on. I started with the photo booth idea, which lead me to camera's, which seemed like a good theme. Here I was "planning" an (un)party and I now had a theme. Typical. Anyway, this is the main craft we did. It was a big hit.

We used a matchbox, ribbon, card stock, scrap paper, double sided tape and scrapbooking bling.

I cut out some scraps of white card to fit the tray of the matchbox so the kids could draw their own "photos" onto them.

"Say cheese!"

Other (un)party crafts we did were decorating photos mounted on mat board. We used stickers, markers and bling for that one. I had photos of all the kids from another play day together and had them printed for everyone. That was very exciting to everyone because it was pictures of another fun time together. :-)

As a stand by, I printed some frames from here onto A4 sheets and then everyone could make their own masterpiece that was already in a frame. I am keeping a few of these on hand. You never know when someone will need to create a framed artwork.

Learning to crochet

One of my new years resolutions from last year which carried over to this year was to learn to crochet. I keep seeing all these very cool things that are crocheted and I haven't any idea how to make them. Last month, two things refreshed my determination to learn this craft. Finding this book for $2 at Spotlight and seeing this post about how to crochet an apple cozy. Now I feel an apple cozy is kind of pointless. But it does make ones apple not only cute but a bit silly and different and I am all for that.

Also, the book I mentioned above fills me of visions of whipping up little critters to leave around for Toy Society drops. I would love to have a go at that.

I got myself some necessary supplies and went to both my mum and my mum-in-law and got some lessons. My mum was a bit rusty. She got me started though. I practiced all that chain stitching above with help from her.

My mum-in-law got me started on a granny square. It was a bit tricky because she is left handed and I am right handed so we had to keep turning over the granny square to work out where we were up to. :-)

Not bad? I did another round on this one and ran out of yarn so I decided to have a go at starting one myself. It's fun. Things I've learnt so far though - I should really wear my glasses when I am doing this, I should have really good light to help with seeing what I am doing too, and it is going to take just a bit more practice to be able to work on the other projects I have spotted. :-) Also - No more projects, Glenyce! You are in the middle of enough now!

If you would like to have a go at crochet, here are a couple of links that may be helpful to you. Here is one with step by step photos. And here is a link to Meet me at Mike's which has a full run down on how to crochet a granny square. The other alternative would be to search out someone who knows how to crochet and have yourself some lessons off them. Happy hooking :-)

Little shoes

How cute is this picture? Amelia is holding some little shoes. She is so in love with them.

They don't quite fit though :-)

A little fabric situation

I have been having a little fabric situation. More of a big situation. I seem to have suddenly accumulated a lot of fabric. It was falling down out of the shelves and the big plastic box that I was using for storage was suddenly full too. It sounds like I have been buying up on it too much doesn't it. I will admit I have probably bought a bit extra lately. I have been sewing more too. (I was anyway.)

I saw this great idea to make mini fabric bolts. Mine are quite so neatly cut. I think they still look pretty good though.

I used foam board for the bigger pieces of fabric and small mat board for the fat quarters. I am not done yet. I still have some more to wrap around their new home but it already makes me feel like I have achieved something with the mess. I guess I will just leave the scrappy bits in a box for the moment until I can work out what to do with it.

Once it's all done, then I can go and buy some more...

Have a great week

Grey

The weather has been grey and cold. We have had sick kids and Tim has been feeling miserable too. We need a good dose of health around here. Esther and Ellamay are back to school on Monday after 2 weeks school holidays. I am glad to get back to routine again. I probably say it every time school holidays roll around. The girls like their school routine! So do I actually. Hopefully by the time the next school holidays come, we will have their bedroom finished. Tim is still working on their new beds and I am excited to see the finished product and get on with the fun decorating part.

I have been working on a few different projects lately, all of which I need to photograph and work on more. I am afraid I am still creating more mid-craft projects. I was trying really hard to resist starting anymore projects but have been unsuccessful. I keep finding all these fabulous ideas on the internet. How about you? Do you have that trouble?

Anyway, I hope to get a few more posts up in the next week. Don't hold your breath though :-)

Call him Art

It was my younger sister's birthday the day before Esther and Ellamay's. She is an artist. She is at university studying fine arts. Least I think that is what the course is called. Anyway, she is an artist. So for her birthday I made her a notebook and pen holder. It needed something else though. Here is what I made for her last year. We kind of have a running moustache thing. So I found out her favourite paint brushes and then turned it into a him. Meet Art.

He took me quite a while to stitch. Too many lengthy breaks in between. Anyway, I quite like him. I stitched on the face last and he suddenly had some personality then. Thankfully. I was terribly worried I was stitching him in vain and he would be neither funny or friendly.

I love the texture of his bristly hair. And the moustache of course. :-)

Photo booth fun

For Esther and Ellamay's birthday, they had some friends over for a little (un)party. See, it wasn't really going to be a proper party. There was no cute invitations. No party games planned. No big lead up. I just planned with my friend (who happens to be the mother of the kids friends - convenient, yes?) to have 3 of her kids over, if every one was healthy and we weren't busy.

My (un)party idea got out of hand of course because how can I look at all the cute stuff on the internet and not get inspired to just make a little bit of stuff? Okay, so I might have went a little overboard. Especially for an (un)party. It's what I do. I planned some making things for the kids to do.

I thought a photo booth would be fun too. I saw these photo booth props linked on facebook. I spent the tedious task of sticking them onto mat board and cutting them out. In hindsight, cereal boxes probably would have done the job... but they were pretty sturdy which is what you need with bouncy kids playing with them.

They went over well, although I think more fun was had with them after the kids left and the grown ups had a turn. :-)

Turns out chocolate malt sticks work as moustache's too.

I will get around to posting the crafts at some point too.

Esther and Ellamay turn 7

I can hardly believe our little baby girls are 7. They are acting so grown up now but are still happy to watch little kids tv shows. They still like to get a cuddle of mummy and daddy, though they are referring to us more as Mother and Father these days. I think that has come from watching Mary Poppins.

Here is Ellamay opening the felt sewing things, hoop and book. All "cool" presents apparently.

Esther opening the Littlest Pet Shop Blythe doll. I was on such a winner with that! The girls have been in love with all the Blythe dolls they have seen on the internet so it was pretty exciting to get their own little ones.

Here is Amelia with her new book. Not her birthday obviously. Does anybody else have to do presents for younger kids on siblings birthdays? I only gave Amelia a couple of things - I hope that by next year she will understand that it isn't her birthday so she doesn't get things.

Here are the birthday ice cream cupcakes the girls had that night. They wanted an ice cream cake. In the middle of winter! My hands were frozen by the time I was done! I saw some ice cream cupcakes that had brownies as a base. Yum. I kind of ran out of time to try that one though. If you are interested, here is the link.

It has been a month since their birthday. I am so slack with the blogging lately. The kids are on school holidays at the moment so I am still fighting for the computer. Perhaps since my birthday is coming up, I can drop a few hints for a laptop of my own (that works) *pretty please with sugar on top*. :-D

More birthday stuff to blog and some other crafty endevours too. See you another day :-)