easter buckets waiting to be filled

With Easter only a few weeks away, its time to start decorating some little buckets ready for some little chocolately eggs.

I've recently started stocking some very cute baby pom pom trim at Ribbons Galore, these trims seem to suit some Easter crafting perfectly. 

I've just used some glue to stick the pom pom trim and ribbon in place on the buckets.

And finished decorating them with some little grosgrain bows (also at Ribbons Galore).

Now we're ready for a little Easter egg hunt :)

Thanks for visiting...

Cheers

Fiona

easter

Easter is just around the corner, well about a month away, so thought I'd list some of my favourite Easter ideas I've made over the last few years.

I've also been adding lots of Easter ideas to my Easter board at Pinterest, if you'd like to see more gorgeous ideas.

Anyway, here's some old favourites.....

Pom pom chicks: (with tutorial) 

Bubble corduroy easter bags (with tutorial):

Little felt easter bags (with tutorial):

EASTER SOFTIES TO MAKE:

eggIE softie: (with pattern and tutorial)

Colourful bunnies:

Soft bunny:

Easter bunny packaging:

Decorating easter eggs:

I'd like to thank the EveryEtsy blog for featuring my pom pom chicks above in their 101 Handmade Easter Craft ideas post. As the name suggests there's 101 crafty ideas for Easter project, well worth taking a look at all the lovely ideas listed.

 

Thanks for visiting. Happy crafting.

Cheers

Fiona

christmas mini wreath decorations

I've been making more Christmas decorations, this time, mini Christmas wreaths.

They are similar to mini macrame Christmas wreaths I used to make as a kid, I've just used grosgrain ribbon instead of macrame cord.

I've tied grosgrain ribbon around a metal ring using a half square knots, and added large jingle bells and grosgrain bows to embellish the mini wreaths.

And I've used a short length of bakers twine to hang each of them up.

I sold my first hand made items at the age of 10 to a gift shop in Mudgee. These hand made items were all little macrame Christmas decorations. One of the decorations was very similar to these modern-day ribbon macrame Christmas wreaths.

These are very easy to make... a great Christmas activity for the kids too.

Cheers

Fiona x

Edited in 2012... If you would like to make some of these weaths, I have kits available. They have the supplies to make 3 wreaths (3 rings, jingle bells, ribbon, bows and baker's twine). All you will need is the hot glue gun or other adhesive to attach the bows.  The kits are available at Ribbons Galore.

Instructions can be found in the next post... or click here :)

christmas star decorations

There's a traditional Danish Christmas craft of making flettede stjerner from paper. These stars make such beautiful Christmas decorations and are made at Christmas time by children and adults.

When I saw them I thought they'd look pretty made from ribbon, so I set about translating instructions, cutting and folding ribbon as you would the traditionally used paper.

Here's the results, lovely ribbon stars ready to hang on the Christmas tree...

I found through trial and error that you need to use a stiff or firm ribbon, rather than the softer ribbons. The striped grosgrain I have at Ribbons Galore worked perfectly.

When I'd finished folding the stars, I ironed the edges lightly to hold the ribbon in place. You could also use a little fusible webbing inside the folded edges to hold the ribbon. I then threaded bakers twine through the stars so they could hand on the tree.

This is a side view of the star...

So now for a few instructions. I found some instructions that were mainly in Danish, but use google translate, and you'll work these out. Here they are:

Flettede stjerner, this is the instruction sheet I used, it in a pdf format.

Flettet stjerne instructions on julidannevang.dk

Sofie Legarth shares how to make fabric flettet stjerne in her blog post.

Hope you enjoy making some yourself for Christmas.

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Fiona x

polling booths and circus side show alley

With the state election all over, there will now be 1000's of cardboard polling booths stacked in the corners of school, community and church halls all over the state of NSW. It was at the last election (federal) last year that I walked from our local community hall after casting my vote, with my head full of ideas for those cardboard polling booths. You see, last year I was starting to think about ideas for the Year 6 end of year dinner, and thinking of our circus theme, and my thoughts turned to circus ticket booths and side show alley stands....

So along with my dinner decorator partner (ie. a fabulous mum who shared my creative idea maddness when I discussed my idea with her), we managed to secure a few of the dismantled polling booths from the school.

We set to work to cover these booths with coloured paper, using huge amounts of spray adhesive and double-sided tape, and a hot glue gun.

The booths then had to be further decorated to create the finished products. Fabric skirts were sewn, painted cardboard signs were added, and lots of little bits and pieces where found to create these fun decorations for the circus-themed event. Surprisingly, rick rack became my very good friend in decorating and covering joins on the booths.

Loving lettering and fonts the way I do, I searched for circus-themed fonts to use on the booths. {I have listed the fonts later in this post with the website links of where you can find them.} Circus-themed fonts really helped with the decorating (especially when working on a tight budget).

So here they are, the finished and decorated polling booths turned into circus stands. These photos were taken after the dinner, they survived the event with only a few tears and rips.

 
Font used for BULLSEYE: Tropicana

 


Font used for HOOPLA: CarnivalMF Open Shadow

 
 

Font used for MYSTIC READINGS: Cast Iron

For the MYSTIC READINGS stand I used some old velour fabric which I'd bought ages ago (with plans to make something for my girls when they were younger, and would wear purple velour). I created the curtains and top, held in place with the hot glue gun. A sparkly light was added on the night to make it look "mystic" 

 
 

Font used for SHOOTING DUCKS: Big Top

For the Shooting Ducks stand, layers of cardboard where created, so the ducks and target could be staggered. A toy gun was hung from the top of the stand.

 
 

Font used for SLAM DUNK: Masquerade

 

Font used for TICKETS booth: JFRingmaster

 

 
 
Font used for LOLLIES stand: CarnivalMF OpenShadow

FONTS list used on the booths and banners {with the links for download}:

• Tropicana
• CarnivalMF OpenShadow
• Cast Iron
• Big Top
• Masquerade
• JFRingmaster

To make the larger sized lettering banners, I created the wording on an A4 sized document and printed these off. Like this:

I then used a photocopying machine to enlarge the lettering. The photocopied letters were then cut out and stuck in place.

For some larger banners I enlarged one letter to the size on an A3 piece of paper.

 
 
Font used for FAREWELL YEAR 6 banner: JFRingmaster

The polling booths could be turned into other things like a puppet theatre or a "play" shop for the kids.

These booths were a fun additional to the school hall and to the circus-themed evening.

If you're quick, maybe there will still be some cardboard polling booths left in the corner of a hall near you...

Thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona

christmas ideas [day 4] : kids christmas party games

I've been totally caught up with end of school things and packing orders for Ribbons Galore lately. My Christmas crafting and ideas has taken a back seat.

Mel, on the other hand, has been keeping us inspired with lots of Christmas crafting and cooking. So make sure you visit her blog for lots of her goodness.

In this post I'm sharing some Christmas party ideas for the kids. Phoebe had a Christmas party with her school friends yesterday. We organised a few activities to keep everyone happy.

Here are a few of the activities....

Pin the nose on the reindeer

This was Phoebe's design. She cut the eyes, mouth and antlers from cardboard and stuck them in place on a cork board. She then cut red circles for the noses and placed her friends' names on each one.

Everyone had a turn, blindfolded, to place the nose in the right place....

Decorate the mini Christmas trees

This is an old favourite in our house.

Using little wire Christmas trees, the girls decorate them with ribbon.

The girls sat for a long time decorating their trees... and chatting.

Santa pinata

This is a store bought santa which we found at Spotlight. Again, having a pinata is a favourite at Phoebe's parties.

We made little mini lollie bags to fill santa, as well as some chocolates.

Not sure who gave the final blow to break santa, but it was chaos when the lollies finally fell...

I hope to get a couple more posts up, now I have a little more time to relax before Christmas. I'm actually working on some little Christmas ornaments, so will be back soon.

Thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona x

paper lanterns

Just thought I'd show a photo of some paper lanterns I made recently.

 

Each lantern is made from a sheet of 12" x 12" paper. I made them up in about half an hour to decorate our family room for Emily's birthday recently. They looked very pretty, and Emily's friends were suitably impressed!

So my beautiful girl is now 14! I don't get too many photos of her these days, but here is one I managed to take of her a few weeks ago. My gorgeous and talented girl... working hard at school and her music (yes, she's still drumming and has taken up singing as well).

 

My other gorgeous girl has been keeping us busy too. One of her acheivements from last week was winning the 11 year old age champion trophy at the PSSA Sydney North zone athletics carnival. A couple of weeks ago, she won her school 11 year old age champion, so she now has a matching pair of trophies. We're now off to regionals soon, there she'll be competing in the 800 metres, long jump and shot put.

 

That's about all for now. Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Fiona x

Day 5 of the Egg-ceptional Egg-xtravaganza

We are half way through our Egg-ceptional Egg-xtravaganza. In this post Mel and I are sharing a couple of kids Easter crafting ideas. Mel has made some gorgeous little Easter eggs made from dough, which the kids would love making.

My little project is making fluffy chicks from pom-poms. There are a few readers of my blog who will know of my love affair with little fluffy chicks at Easter. This year I've decided to make my own. Kids love pom poms, they are fun to make, and even more appealing if you can create little creatures from them. 

Here's a little step by step to making a pom pom fluffy chick.

Step 1: Make two pom poms, one slightly larger than the other. I've used the Clover Pom Pom Maker gadgets. They make whipping up pom pomsvery quick and easy. When you tie around the centre of the pom poms, do not cut the wool ties off.

 

Step 2: Separate the wool ties, matching one tie from one pom pom with a wool tie from the other pom pom. Repeat with the other ties.

 

Step 3: Tie the pom poms together, pulling the wool ties tight so the pom poms sit very closely to each other.

 

Tie a few knots to hold the pom poms together. Snip these wool ties off close to the pom poms. You now have the body of the chick made.

 

Step 4: Add a beak and eyes to the face of the chick. You can also add little wings if you would like to the body of the chick. I've used felt for these little pieces, cardboard could also be used. A little craft glue will hold these bits in place.

 

And there you have them... your very own little (or big) fluffy chicks.

 

Thanks for dropping by to see our Easter craft ideas. Mel and I will be back on Wednesday for our next Egg-ceptional Egg-xtravaganza post.

Hope you're having a great day.

Cheers

Fiona x

 

 

mid march catch up

We've been busy here since my last post. I've actually been on a road trip and driven to Lismore and Ballina since my last post. Paul and I drove Phoebe to Lismore to compete in the Little Athletics State Multi event. We had a lot of fun, even though it was very tiring driving such a long way in such a short time. Emily didn't come with us, she had a long weekend with her nana and poppa here in Sydney which everyone enjoyed (including Hugo the dog).

Last week Phoebe coloured her hair for the World's Greatest Shave. She went with blue hair and a purple fringe.

She had a few friends around to celebrate the event and help colour the hair.

We made colour co-ordinated cupcakes for afternoon tea ...

 

Phoebe has raised over $200.00 through online and cash donations. I know a few blog readers kindly sponsored her, thank you very much.

 

She has now washed her hair, and quite a bit of the blue remains, and possibly will for some time, I think.

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Emily recently worked on a project for school. Her task was to make a photographic essay for her Connected Curriculum subject. She has been out and about on excursions taking photos of her local environment. This project was pulling all her information together. She used a Maya Road sheer tab binder album, and made this book while we wereaway in Lismore. Here's a few photos of her book.

 

 

 

 

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A quick Ribbons Galore update. I have added a few very cute bunny ribbons which are perfect for Easter projects.

   

Speaking of Easter... I have some exciting things lined up. But you'll have to check back in a few days to find out more.

That's about all. Thanks for visiting my blog.

Cheers

Fiona x

cupcake pincushion and handmade bags

Last week I received a little box in the mail. Inside was this little bit of gorgeous-ness.

Lovely Kylie made this for me. I had admired Kylie's cupcake pincushion on her blog a couple of week's back. I was so excited to receive this little cupcake pincushion I took it out with me when I had coffee with some friends one morning to show it off! Thank you so much Kylie, you know I love it :-)

Last Friday was cold and rainy here, so it felt like a good day for some sewing and Kylie's pincushion was put to good use.

I started making a bag for a friend during the day, it's her birthday this week. When Phoebe arrived home from school she reminded me we'd planned on making her a bag. My friend's bag was sidelined for a while while we pulled out Phoebe's material and cut out her bag. She sat at the sewing machine quilting her fabric. Then I helped her sew the bag together. She likes sewing the straight lines, and isn't too keen on the curvy lines at the moment. Here's her finished bag, her quilting is so neat.

Saturday's weather continued to be miserable, so I finished my friend's bag. I used fabrics from Amy Butler's Midwest Modern Ohio Sky collection. This is the same bag as my pink bag I made back in July.

Last week I also received some gorgeous fabrics in the mail from the US. I'd bought some beautiful fabrics I'd been wishing for from a US store. My order arrived within a week. I'll post some photos of my new fabric stash in a few days when I've taken some photos.

Sophia sent me an award. Thanks so much Sophia.

There are so many wonderfully creative blogs out there in the blog world I find it hard to name just a few. As I come across blogs I like, I add their links to my side bar, so I hope that you might take some time to visit some of those.

One great list of creative blogs which I've discovered lately is this site:

{edited: I can't create a link from the button above, so here is the link to the big list of sewing blogs: http://www.suzical.co.uk/sewing-blogs.html }

Lots of my favourites are listed here, and I'm having fun visiting others on their list.

I've just made a big batch of cupcakes, which I need to go make the icing for now. Emily's school has a "system" (for want of a better word) where the girls take cupcakes for each other's birthday in their tutor group. At the beginning of the year a roster is worked out, and tomorrow it is Emily's turn to take cake for her partner's birthday. I love the smell of freshly baked cakes through the house.

Till next time.... thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona x