my ramblings

The Easter bonnets and Easter bunnies

The Easter Bonnet.

Sadly my girls are getting a little old for Easter bonnets. So I've gone back through old photos to find our Easter hats/bonnets which the girls have made over the years. Our Easter Bonnets always had a very handmade look to them.

• We start with Phoebe in 2002 (above left), these big ears were made at pre-school and they were worn around the Sydney Easter show ALL DAY.
• Next is Emily in 2003 (above middle), she was in Year 2 and this was her hat for the Easter hat parade at school - real chocolate eggs dangled from the hat in true Aussie-style on a very hot day!
• Phoebe in 2004 in her 'hat' made in Kindergarten. Eggs, bunnies and fluffy chicks. (above right)

• Bunnies and girls sometime in 2004 (above left).
• Phoebe with her fluffy chicks hat in 2005. I think this hat is the same one used by Emily in 2003.
• Phoebe in 2006, she was in Year 2, her last year for an Easter hat parade at school. This hat was decorated with her own designs of bunnies and eggs, and finished with rick rack.

I'm sure there are more hats, but these are just from the digital images I have on our computer, I haven't gone back through our film photos.

We did make Easter bonnets this year... for the bunnies. Emily found these cute little cowboy hats, and they were a perfect bunny size. The ideas we used for these hats could be easily adapted to a slightly larger version if you wish.

Here are the little hats.

We wrapped ribbon around the hat, holding it with double-sided tape. Then pierce a small hole in the centre front of the hat, and use a brad to hold the fabric flowers in place. Attach fluffy chick. Our chicks kept falling off, so I would suggest using a hot glue gun, place a small amount of glue on the chicks feet, and attach to the hat.

And here are our Easter bunny photos.

Bubbles and Butterscotch were initially reluctant to model for their Easter photo shoot, turning their little cotton tails towards us.

But Bubbles did come through with some nice modeling poses for the camera.

She couldn't decide which hat she preferred.

Butterscotch did not cooperate at all. She wore her bonnet and then lay on the grass and did not move.

Here's one photo we really liked, no Easter bonnet though.

Marty couldn't help get in on the act also.

Rachel Richter has a very, very cute idea on her blog for Easter cards. You have to go take a peek. This is such a clever idea.

I'd like to wish you all a happy Easter. I'm taking a small break from blogging for the long weekend. Thank you for visiting and commenting. I will choose the RAK winners early next week if that's OK.

HAPPY EASTER

Cheers

Fiona

x

Easter {cooking} project #4

I'm moving away from Easter craft projects for one post. This is an Easter cooking project.

Easter Egg {surprise} Cupcakes

Make your cupcake mixture. Place mixture into cupcake tins.

Place a small solid chocolate Easter egg in the middle. You do not have to cover the egg with mixture.

Bake. As the cupcakes rise in the cooking process, they cover the chocolate egg. Here is a photo taken from oven cam about half way through the cooking time.

Now while I was waiting for the cupcakes to cook I thought I'd take some photos of my other cupcakes baked by Bacio Beads, Lovelinks and Bijoux.

Here's the baked cupcakes, and the chocolate eggs are now safely hidden inside the cupcakes.

Decorate the cupcakes with icing and eggs or little fluffy chicks (just make sure you remove the fluffy chick from the cake before taking a bite.) And when the cupcakes are being eaten a nice chocolate eggy surprise will be discovered inside each one.

 

Emily had some friends from her new high school over on the weekend, and they decorated cupcakes for afternoon tea.

I must thank Mel, who sent me the gorgeous Easter egg patty papers which you can probably just see in the photos. They were so gorgeous and made our cupcakes very special!

And make sure you visit Mel's blog, she has some more Easter crafting ideas over there. I love the Easter bunting she's made, very clever.

And lastly for this post, thank you to everyone who has been visiting during the last few weeks, and for all the links back to my Easter crafting posts. I really do appreciate the fact that people are reading.

I was asked by Georgie in a comment if my Easter ribbon is for sale over at Ribbons Galore. No, it's not and I only have a small amount of the three Easter ribbons (the carrots, the eggs and the Easter bunny which Mel used in the bunting). So if you'd like to win some, leave me a comment and I'll choose a few winners.

Till next time.

Cheers

Fiona

Easter craft project #3 and a DCM challenge card

The mid week challenge over at the Daring Cardmakers blog is "These are a few of my favourite things" set by Mel. We had to use one of Mel's favourite things on our card (embroidery cotton/thread, buttons, felt or fabric) and combine it with one of our own favourite things.

This is the card I made.

I thought it would make another good Easter project, so here we go...

Materials: Urban Lily Secret Keeper Cards, pattern paper (I've used new Paper Salon KN Easter Sorbet paper), cardstock, embellishments (felt ribbon, buttons, flowers, brads, etc) and greetings stamp for the inside of the card (I've used some new Paper Salon Easter stamps which I've just received).

Just case you haven't seen them, this is what an Urban Lily Secret Keeper card looks like when it's open. They are very versatile, but I find they make fun interactive cards.

1.  Cut an oval/egg shape from pattern paper. Make sure it will cover the UL Secret Keeper card if you are using one, or that it covers whatever base card you will be putting this on. If you are using pattern paper, you may wish to back it with some cardstock to make the card a little more sturdy. I've cut another egg shape from yellow cardstock. Glue the paper and cardstock together.

2. Cut the egg in half. I've used a zig-zag line to {hopefully} resemble a cracked egg on my finished card. See my other sample below where I've just cut straight across the egg.

3.  Embellish the egg. I've used felt ribbon which I've attached to the egg by sewing buttons onto the egg and have used brads through the felt flowers.

Make sure your cracked egg can still 're-join' when the card is closed. I actually removed the larger green flowers (third row from the top) and left the smaller ones, as my egg wasn't closing properly.

4.  Stamp your greeting to the inside of the UL Secret Keeper Card. As the surface of the card is shiny, use StazOn ink. I've just received this gorgeous little Easter stamp set from Paper Salon, so was very keen to use it.

Add some colour with doodling. I've used Sharpie pens for this, again they are a permanent marker suitable for shiny surfaces.

5.  Turn your egg over, matching the two sides. Position the closed Urban Lily Secret Keeper card and glue in place. Leave the glue to dry before opening and closing the card.

And it's finished. Here it is closed...

and opened.

This is another Easter egg card which I made. This was a bit simpler. I cut the egg in half and added flowers around the edge before gluing to the Urban Lily Secret Keeper card.

And this one open.

Thanks for visiting. Hope you're having a great week.

Tamar has suggested I make Easter bonnets next... mmm will have to see if I have enough time before Easter.

Till next time.

Cheers

Fiona

Easter craft project #2

The next Easter project has hatched....

Project: Little Felt Easter Egg Bags

These are very quick and easy felt bags which can hold several little chocolate eggs. You can obviously make them bigger or smaller depending upon your chocolate easter egg needs :-)) Materials used: felt, embroidery thread and ribbon.

1.  Cut two pieces of felt. My pieces were about 10.5cm x 14.5cm. They were this size as I was able to cut four pieces from a small piece of felt (the size which is sold in craft stores).

2.  Cut four slits into each piece of felt, approximately 3cm - 4cm from the top edge.

These become the slits for threading the ribbon in a later step.

3.  Sew around three edges of the bag. You can use running stitch or blanket stitch.

4.  Now thread a length of ribbon through the slits around the whole bag.

5.  Bring the ends of the ribbon through to the outside of the bag.

6.  Fill bag with chocolate Easter eggs.

7.  Pull the ribbon tightly to close bag and wrap the ribbon round the bag to the opposite side.

8.  Tie a bow with the ribbon.

That's all there is to it. These would be easy for the kids to make too.

Now the RAK which I mentioned a couple of posts ago. I had three ladies leave me links to their easter projects. They were:

1. Sophia decorated her chocolate Easter eggs.
2. Trishia covered her eggs with tissue paper.
3. Mel has also shared some decorated eggs and a very cute bunny.

I'm going to send out a pack of ribbon to you ladies. If you'd like to email me with your favourite colour/s and I'll try to accommodate you with some ribbons.

Hope you have a great week, and I'll be back with another Easter project very soon.

Cheers

Fiona

PS: the bunnies have had their photo shoot, but Marty bear kept stealing their Easter hats. Will post some photos when I've sorted through them.

Easter craft project #1 {and a RAK}

Easter is just over three weeks away, so its time to start some Easter craft. Though I'd share some of our Easter projects here on the blog over the next few weeks.

Project: Decorating Easter Eggs

I've used the white foam eggs you can buy from craft stores as I'm not very good at the blown eggs which are traditionally used at Easter time. I've used two mediums to colour the eggs, paints and inks, before decorating them. Here's the steps...

1.  Collect supplies. Polystyrene (white foam) egg shapes, Ranger Distress Crackle Paints and Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks, acrylic paint and toothpicks.

2.  To make handling the eggs easier while painting, stick a toothpick in the base of the foam egg.

Using paints to colour the eggs

1.  Paint the egg with acrylic paint. Let dry.

2.  Once thoroughly dry, paint the egg with Ranger Distress Crackle Paint.

3.  Once completely covered leave to dry, again.

4.  It's dry and the paint has crackled. On this egg I've used a fuchsia acrylic paint under a lighter pink crackle paint. At this point you could use a clear sealer to add a little gloss to the egg if you wanted.

5.  Now decorate. Tie a ribbon around the egg and tie a double knot.

6.  Tie a bow. If you need to secure your bow, use pins to hold the ribbon in position. Try to hide the pins in layers under the bow.

And it's finished.

 

Tip: I painted an egg with the distress paint (with no acrylic paint undercoat) and as the crackle paint dried, it peeled off the egg. It seems necessary to paint the foam eggs with acrylic paint or gesso first before painting with the distress paint.

Using inks to colour the eggs

1.  Dab the Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink onto the surface of the egg. Leave to dry.

2.  While you have your inks out, you can colour some old clear buttons which you can use to decorate the eggs later.

Dab the ink onto the top of the buttons and leave them to dry.

3.  Cut short lengths of fine gauge wire (I used some scrapbooking wire that I'd had in my stash for ages).

4.  Thread the wire through the holes in the button.

5.  Apply a small dob of glue to the egg where you will place the button.

6. Pierce the egg with the wire and push the button in place. Continue around the egg until a row of buttons is formed.

This one is finished too.

Another way to decorate an egg is to wrap with ribbon, form a loop (bow) and top with a flower held in place with a pin. This little crocheted flower is a new one from Maya Road.

 

The gingham ribbons used on these eggs are new in store at Ribbon Galore.

And now for the RAK

I'd love to see any of your egg-y creations that you make for Easter, either following my steps above or your own. Leave a comment to this post with a link to your creation. I'll draw out a name to win an Easter RAK next week some time.

Thanks for visiting, hope you're having a great week.

Cheers

Fiona

A few cards to share...

Over the last couple of weeks I've received a few good things in the mail (that is, they were not bills).

First to arrive was the PaperCrafts "Paper Crafting with Photos" magazine from the US. I was so excited to have two projects included this edition {extra excited in fact as this is my first time published overseas}.

Here's one of my projects from Paper Crafting with Photos with our gorgeous little bunnies. {papers are from the KN Hip Hip Hooray collection by Paper Salon}.

Last week Stamping and Papercraft magazine arrived in the post. I have a set of cards/tag in this edition (vol 13 no 6). This is another first for me, first time published in this magazine (and my tag is on the cover). Here is the set, there are how-to instructions in the magazine for each card. Love this paper collection from Paper Salon, its called Prestine {Paper Salon is available from Bumblebee Crafts here in Australia}.

So with Easter just around the corner {yes, the chocolate Easter eggs have taken over the supermarkets}, I'll be sharing a few Easter projects here on my blog very soon, so stay tuned.

And my Easter loving buddy, Mel, has already sent me an Easter goodie bag. I haven't taken photos of it yet, but I will and share the very cute things that she sent me. Thanks Mel :-)

That's all for today. Thanks for visiting. Hope you have a great week.

Cheers

Fiona

Paper Salon CHA-W 2008 sneak peeks

Paper Salon has some gorgeous new projects being released at CHA-W very soon. They can be seen over at the PAPER SALON BLOG. Be sure to keep checking back there as new things are being added every couple of days.

I just have to share a couple of my favourites...

Just in time for Easter there's the new KN Sorbet Easter & PS Hoppy Easter Tailored Tin being released. These co-ordinate with the Sorbet collection released at the end of last year. I just have to share two papers which will be so cute for all those Easter projects... Glitter Bunnies and Thermography Chicks (there are six new double-sided papers in this set, as well as die-cut stickers and stamps, so make sure you peek at the Paper Salon blog to see them all)

Another new product for Paper Salon ... Lovely Lace 12x12 double-sided die-cut papers. They have die cut holes around the edges perfect for threading some beautiful ribbon and so much more... These will be available in four colour collections. Take a look at the Paper Salon Blog for some Lovely Lace projects by the design team girls.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you're having a great day.

Cheers

Fiona

Maya Road CHA-W 2008 sneak peek

There are lots of sneak peeks from some of my favourite companies around with CHA just around the corner.

Maya Road have so many new fantastic products being released and it has been very exciting to work with a few of them. The new Maya Road CHA-W 08 catalog can be seen HERE.

Here's the first of some projects that have been sent to Maya Road for display at their booth.

This is an EASTER banner created from pages of the Round Scallop Sheer Book...

• I've coloured the pages with Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks by Ranger {Colour = Lettuce}.
• Large circles of Luxe Designs Papers {Cashmere Sweater collection} have been sewn onto the sheer pages.
• The chipboard letters are Maya Road Philadelphia Lowercase Alphabets painted with Ranger Distress Crackle Paints.
• And the gorgeous new chipboard set is BUTTERFLIES AND BUGS. There are six designs in this set, so, so cute. These too were painted with the Ranger Distress Crackle Paints {Colours = Worn Lipstick, Peeled Paint & Scattered Straw}.
• Lastly, the pages are attached to each other with BUTTONS, which are also new from Maya Road from their new TRINKETS Collection.

That's all for now, but I'll be back with more!

Thanks for visiting. Hope you have a great week.

Cheers

Fiona