Hand-drawn giftwrap
Brown paper + silver pen = nice giftwrap!
It’s easy, quick and un-squashable and the designs are really simple.
If you are not that confident at drawing then sketch your doodle in pencil first. Easy!
This is more for grown ups than kids so i’ll post something more kid orientated later in week.
Happy Monday everyone! (I’m kinda wishing it was Friday already!!!)
Beadcrafty giveaway winners
A huge thanks to all the lovely people that entered the beadcrafty giveaway. Well done Danielle (velveteenmama.com) and Luci Soni you are the winners. I’ll be contacting you by email today. If you didn’t win but would still love to get your hands on some cool beads check out the beadcrafty website.
For those of you who are curious I use a wordpress plugin called ‘and the winner is’ to choose my giveaway winners.
Christmas craft coming up later on in the week!
Magic wallet
Imade a magic wallet for my four year old this weekend (I remember playing with them when I was a kid). Anyway he loved it (….and I mean really loved it). He loved it so much he took it to bed with him. My three year old didn’t really ‘get it’ but he thought it was ace too!!
For those of you not familiar with magic wallets here’s a quick explanation of what they do. Basically the wallet opens both ways. If you pop some paper money on top of the green cross, close the wallet, and open it again, it will appear underneath the green cross. If you close and open the wallet again it will appear underneath the yellow lines.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t make brand new bank notes appear out of thin air….blast!
If you are intrigued, and want to know how to make one, please find full instructions after the jump.
{giveaway} by beadycrafty.com
I‘ve not done a giveaway for ages so it’s ace to come back with a good one! (…and one that I secretly would like to win myself!).
Beadcrafty.com are sponsoring this giveaway and are giving away 2 x £25 vouchers to spend in their online shop….pretty good eh!? (£25 = $40 USD approx).
Beadcrafty’s shop is chock-a-block with some really lovely beads, charms and findings. They also provide excellent service to all their customers including free next-day delivery (UK customers only) and pre-paid, no-hassle returns.
If you wish to enter the giveaway please leave a comment below…then pop over to the beadcrafty website for a little window shopping. Easy!
This giveaway is open to everyone but remember only one entry per person. Entries close on the 8th November. Good luck everyone! (And a big thanks to beadcrafty for sponsoring such a generous giveaway).
Shadow puppets
I wrote an article for Handmade Living on shadow puppets last month. My sons have always loved playing with torches in our downstairs cupboard so the shadow puppets have had a lot of use.
Me eldest son has also become interested in putting on ‘plays’ for us lately….he’s getting into that whole storytelling thing…(very funny + cute)!
Templates are here to download (there are a few extra ones on the template that aren’t pictured including a pacman inspired ghost).
You can print them out onto thin black card (and you should should be still able to see the outlines). You will need little split pins for the robot and sticks to attach them to.
Holly from chezbeeperbebe also put together some wonderful shadow puppet templates this year so check those out too!
Hope you all have a great Halloween! We are off to buy a pumpkin today so if anyone knows of any good designs please shout out!! I have only ever carved one pumpkin in my life so it’s new-ish territory for me!
{sponsor} Gaspard + Zoé
I want to say a big thanks to Gaspard + Zoé for becoming mini-eco’s newest sponsor. Their shop promotes the baby and kids clothing brand Gaspard et Zoé, as well as other international designer brands.
I have to admit that I have a real soft spot for the baby mocassins. So, so cool! (I also remember finding it really hard to find nice soft shoes for my sons to wear when they first started walking).
I have also had some really lovely emails from Valerie, the founder of Gaspard et Zoé, which I know isn’t really relevant but it’s kinda good to know you are dealing with nice people….!!
Oh, and the site has full english/french translation. Just click on the little flag at the top of their webpage!
{macramé: half knot spiral} washer & wingnut bracelet
Hello there! I finally got around to posting after a hectic few weeks. I’ve been working on a big project which is all done and dusted now so I will be making more frequent updates between now and Christmas…phew! I sincerely wish there were more hours in the day!
I’m hoping to post another Halloween craft in the next day or so. Between now and then here is another macramé bracelet.
It’s comprised of a’half knot spiral’ (and is even easier than the square knot bracelet I showed you previously).
A few people left comments about the last bracelet saying it looked like it may take too long to make. Rest assured, once you have sussed the knots, you can knock one up in ten minutes! (They are much quicker to make than friendship bracelets). If you don’t like the nuts/washers/wingnuts then just use beads instead. (Speaking of beads…I have a great giveaway coming up later on in the week so stay tuned).
By the way thanks to all you lovely people who ‘liked’ my facebook page. You made me feel very welcome! I’ll be posting all my favorite crafts from around the web there so check it out.
Full tutorial after the jump!
crafty envy #1
Illness of the week = chickenpox.
Sleep = not a lot.
Crafty endeavors = none.
Soooo….I thought I would throw a bit of eye candy your way and see what you reckon! (If you like it we could make it a regular-ish feature??…well as regular as things get around here!).
I’m not normally a wreath kind of girl but this one really did cheer me up! Go check out the whole tutorial. Via Dana Willard’s Pinterest board.
Fine little day’s ace collection of hama bead baskets.
Seat cushion made by Annie Larson’s great grandmother. Check out Annie’s blog. I’m digging the hats! (and the super pics). Via Sugarpie Project Pinterest board.
Hope all you lovely people are having a smashing week!
facebook = hurray!
Yeah! I have finally set up a facebook page for minieco. I would love very much for you to come and ‘like’ my page. (I have ’0′ friends at the moment so it’s a bit lonely over there!!)
On my facebook page I am going to share all my favorite crafts from around the web. I’ll also post about any new minieco crafts as they pop up. The best thing is that you can post content too!
I’m not entirely sure what I am doing(!) so there may be a few hiccups to begin with. The world of ‘social media’ is a scary, unfamiliar place at the moment! Ha!
Pacman Halloween garland
I vividly remember playing pacman when I was younger and I used to get the heebie-jeebies just before one of those little ghosts gobbled me up. Anyhow…I still think they are a bit spooky (in a friendly kind of way) so thought they would make an excellent Halloween garland.
The shapes are pretty simple, so very easy to chop out. I’ve been making mine, feet up, in front of the telly. Can’t beat a bit of multitasking…haha!
I’ve left my feet in this picture to give you an idea of how big the cut-outs are. If anyone wants a full tutorial then leave a comment. Full instructions after the jump!
Want to play pacman? Check out the google version here…it’s a great time waster!
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