Day 361 - Hot air balloons with messages inside

This is another anniversary present for my hubby for our 10th wedding anniversary. I had the idea of making some hot air balloons with messages in them a while ago, but wasn't sure how I would do it. Then a couple of weeks ago these string lanterns stopped working, and it occurred to me today that they would be perfect for making mini hot air balloons. There are even ten of them, for the 10 notes I had planned.

Lanterns.

I got the lanterns, some cardboard icecream cups, and some string I recycled from packaging.

I tied strings to the bottom of the lanterns.

Then I punched a hole in each side of the icecream cups, threaded the string through and secured the string with a bead on the inside of the cups.

Then I wrote some notes.

Rolled them up and tied them with string.

And buried the notes in shredded paper, recycled, from a birthday gift.

Here are my balloons swaying in the breeze outside.

Day 358 - Shaker toy from a slurpee sipper

Today I made a simple shaker toy for Mr D using a slurpee sipper we got at the kite festival on Sunday.
I put some rice, pasta, gumnuts and wool inside.

Beautiful Kites

Happy little man making some noise.

Day 349 - Japanese Kokeshi Dolls

Juliet and I went to a workshop at the Bendigo Art Gallery during the school holidays. We learnt how to make dolls from toilet rolls based on traditional Japanese Kokeshi dolls.

Here's what we got up to.

We decided to make some more today. We used an old calendar for the dresses.

Day 332 - Paper flowers - little golden books and maps

These are some flowers for my valentine. Valentines day my style.

Paper flowers from little golden book pages, with sticks from my backyard as stems. These are in a wine bottle with a tea towel wrapped around it. I love the pretty colours and I hope Mr Crafty does too. x

Then I made a map paper flower using a cheese box as the base to glue on to and just cutting out lots of petal shapes and layering them up. I used a scrap of doily for the centre, which I painted with a glue paint mixture, and dressed up a pesto jar with a baby jumper sleeve for the vase. (The jumper had holes in the wool :-( )

Happy Valentines Day everyone. xxxxxx

Day 288 - Beach Tote

Today I have made a tote bag from a skirt I made a couple of years ago when I started sewing a bit. The way I did the panel was by using iron on applique and then sewing it to the base fabric, but it never sat the way I wanted it too. The iron on stuff was too stiff and I really should have just sewn the fabric as a panel. Live and learn.

Here's the skirt.

First I cut it down the two side seams.

I then cut the pockets off some old jeans.

These became external pockets on the bag. I sewed them to the plain side of the skirt. (The back) And sewed up the sides and bottom of the bag.

I found some gingham scraps in one of my craft tubs to use as a bag lining. I had to join a couple of pieces together but since it will be on the inside I didn't mind having a seam.

I added two more old jeans pockets to the lining. I can't stand foraging in my bag all the time for my mobile phone and keys. Conveniently these also had a little pocket that fits a pen. Again I sewed the sides and bottom, tracing the size from the bag outer I had already made.

Then I put the lining inside the bag.The bag is right side out and the lining is inside out.

I use the method of pressing an inch or so of fabric under at the top of each bag and sandwiching the handle in between the layers before top stitching around the entire top of the bag. In my case I decided to use the waistband of the skirt as the handle so it has a bit of a frayed look from where I cut it off the skirt.

Here's my bag.

 Lining.

I'm ready for the beach now. If only it wasn't 200km away. :-)

Day 275 - Embroidery Hoop Notice Board

I have seen some embroidery hoop notice boards around and admired them, so I decided to make one today. This is also for my mum for Christmas.

Here's how I did it.

We had these old cork mats that were in the house when we got here. I knew they would come in handy.

I glued them to the embroidery hoop.

Filled in the gaps with some old pillow stuffing.

Covered the front with fabric and the back with cardboard.

And here it is.

Day 254 - Recycled book page Christmas decorations.

This year I've decided to make all of our Christmas decorations using recycled materials. Today is my first effort, using recycled book pages to make these onion shaped hanging decorations.

First I cut strips in three different lengths.

Then I glued the strips at the top and bottom so that they looked like this, with the shortest strip in the middle.

Finished! I punched a hole in the top to hang them.

 My little golden book paper was a little too thin so I glued two layers together to give each strip a bit more body, and hung them up using some metallic thread.

They are hard to photograph properly, but they do look quite good.

Day 253 - Recycled Toy Packaging - Little box of love

As sometimes happens when you look ahead to a day for a while, planning and making it special as Dylan's first birthday was to me, I have been feeling a bit flat the last couple of days, and low on creativity. It's hard sometimes to maintain it every single day.

To combat this today I decided I needed to get back to some sort of recycled craft, and I worked with a wooden box used to package toys. This one had some lacing cards in it, and I have another that had a couple of instruments in it.

Boxes.

And here is my creation. I love it because I just sat down with the box and a pile of craft supplies and began creating, with no plan. It was fun to make and it makes me smile when I look at it, in my kitchen at the moment. It has no use or purpose but to bring joy and sunshine into my life.

My flowers are made from toothpicks and beads, and I have felt bunting and some trims, and scrunched up tissue paper (recycled) to arrange my flowers in.

I hope you are having a bright and happy day, wherever you are.

Here is a map of all of the countries who have visited my blog since I added my flag counter a couple of months ago. Awesome! Thank you to each and every one of you.

Day 242 - Bath mat trousers

Before I share today's craft I want to share with you what my 5 (almost 6) year old daughter did this week when I went to Melbourne for the Coldplay concert. As she is one of my frequent models on the blog you may notice something odd going on with her hair.

Here's what she did to it when she was supposed to be going to sleep the other night.

She did this with some small school scissors, cutting a little and liking the shaved feel, she kept going. She's a trouble maker this one! Now she is bald at the front for about 5cm :-/.

Sadly there is nothing the hairdresser can do for us. So here's my solution for the foreseeable future. We are looking at a fair bit of time for her hair to recover.

So today the little rascal got another of my creations. Last weekend I found this chenille bathmat / baby mat at the thrift shop for $2. It's got a little bit of patchwork and I knew Juliet would love it. My love for vintage chenille is well documented I think, and things made out of it sell for an absolute fortune at craft markets.

It was double thickness, so I cut three of the sides and opened it up.

Then cut some 3/4 pants pieces and a pocket choosing my favourite sections of fabric for the front of the pants. I took the size from one of the the other pair of pants I had made for her earlier.

It they came out looking pretty cute!

And here are the boys getting in the act too. 

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!