Easter garland
This is my first ever Easter craft! A ‘miffy’ inspired rabbit garland. It’s very sweet and would look cute in a babies room too!
All you have to do it print, cut and attach to cotton.
I printed the template onto pastel coloured card (175 gsm).
You can download a template here if you want to try!
Eye-bombing (the new yarn-bombing)!
I saw this great post at flutterflutter last week which was all about ‘eye-bombing’ and ever since reading it I have had an overwhelming desire to stick googly eyes to absolutely everything. It’s a great activity for the kids too!
Sugar-sprinkle monster. Sadly he is no longer with us.
Sheepish venus fly trap.
Sad string.
Cute cactus
Hungry holepunch
Prudish door handle!
Do join in! It’s lots of fun. If you want more inspiration then there is a whole website dedicated to the art of eye-bombing here! Thanks flutterflutter.
Happy Friday all! x
Teddy bear toast
I‘m always on the lookout for really easy recipes that my sons can make (there’s not always enough time for baking). I saw this super-cute teddy bear toast idea here and had to try.
All you need to make this sweet breakfast is toast, banana, raisins, butter/margarine, cinnamon and sugar*.
Pretty lovely huh!
Check out the full recipe at kidssoup.com. *For the sugar/cinnamon sprinkle we just mixed a teaspoon of caster sugar with a pinch of cinnamon. Yum!
Crafty envy #3
Hello folks! It seems I have been taking a little blog-break of late (do any of you fellow bloggers ever feel the need?). I thought I would break the silence with a little round-up of all my favorite colourful crafts that I have seen on the web of late.
Colourful, easy DIY art from Little Helsinki.
Lovely geometric giftboxes from ruffledblog
Amazing DIY decorations by Alexey Danilin (I know they are hanging on a christmas tree but they would look great all year round!)
Judy from cute and useful wrote to me to show me her version of my string tied envelopes. They are super-cute and you will find the free, printable papers on her site.
Hope all of you in the northern hemisphere are enjoying the arrival of spring. The kids and I are loving it and have been trying to beat the garden into submission! (I really don’t have green fingers so I always find it a bit of a challenge). My boys have been making friends with the worms and have been having lots of (muddy) fun.
My book popped through the door last week so I’ll pop some pictures up next week…I will also be back on Monday with a new craft. Oh, and I’ve been putting together ideabooks for houzz in the last few months. Much fun…check out my top picks here.
Until then, have fun!
Space crayons
Hello! We’ve been struck down by some nasty bugs in the last few weeks so sorry (once again!) for the lack of updates.
Last night, I finally managed to peel myself off the sofa(!) and made these galaxy crayons for son #1 (he is currently fascinated with stars and planets).
If you, too, are interested in the night sky then did you know you can download high-res images from the hubble site? {Thanks Oh Happy Day for the heads up}. (I can feel a project coming on!)
Anyway, the crayons are really easy to make and fun to draw with. If you wanna have a go then see the tutorial after the jump.
If your little ones (or you) prefer bright colours then you can also make regular glitter crayons! Yay!
More starry links:
Galaxy playdough here!
Amazing ‘Stardust’ fashion photography by Ignacio Torres.
(I do still regularly pin my favorite crafts at Pinterest by the way…so if you wanna pop over then that would be cool!)
DIY string-tie envelopes
Hello! Sorry about the little break. My son has been off on his half-term holidays so I had a blog-free week!
Now I am back, I just want to give a big shout out (and a big thank you) to my new sponsors, pi’ikea street and paper glitter….do check their sites out!
I also wanted to say a massive thanks to all the people who have left comments lately (and to those who have sent me lovely emails). It’s been especially great to hear from people who have been making the projects…and ace seeing all your pictures…hurray!
I do confess that I have always had a ‘thing’ about string-tie envelopes. They seem impossible to get hold of though so I thought it would be fun to make my own. They are very easy to do!
These dinky little envelopes are great for all-sorts of things (storing paper ephemera, housing invitations/gift cards, storing seeds). I have also been making some for my sons to play with (as they are obsessed with letters/post offices at the moment). I reckon they would also make a cute gift.
By the way, now my kids are getting better at using scissors they have been really enjoying making their own envelopes using the template from my previous post.
You will find a full tutorial and templates below! Happy Monday all 
You will need:
Paper
Card
String
Glue stick
Scissors
Tiny brads/split pins (the heads of the brads I used were 3mm in diameter)
How-to
1. Print out the template onto paper. Cut score and fold.
Template one (tiny envelope, print out on A5 paper)
Template two (C7 envelope, print on A4 paper)
2. Cut out some small, card disks. Paper will work just as well but card will be a bit more hard-wearing.
3. Using a needle, pierce two holes in the envelope and a hole in each disk (marked on template).
4. Attach card disks to envelope using brads. (If you don’t have any brads then you can sew them on. See this tutorial at simplymodernmom.com).
5. Fold the three edges of the envelope up and glue.
6. Attach a piece of string to the top disk and tie off. Wrap round disks to fasten.
If you are not keen on the rainbow brights then I think pastel/neon would be a great combination. For example, make a pale pink envelope with neon pink disk and string. (Note to self: must buy neon card/paper!)
Job done!
{Valentines day} pixelated popup card
I‘ve been scratching my head trying to come up with a card for my hubby {AKA the non-romantic type}. I finally decided to make this pixely popup heart card!
*EDITED TO ADD: NEW TEMPLATES FOR THIS CARD CAN BE FOUND HERE
They are really minimal (which I love) and take about 20 minutes to make (that includes the card, insert and envelope).
You can even make some pixely confetti to put inside the card (if you are a big kid like me!).
Full instructions and printable templates below!
(BTW I remember seeing something similar in a popup book years ago. If anyone knows of the book then do let me know!).
How to
1. Download the popup insert template and print out. I used paper but a thin card would probably be OK too. Using some scissors trim around the edge of the template.
2. Using a craft knife and ruler cut and score your card. See diagram below for more detail.
(If you have a cutting machine then see note at end of post!)
Cut along the black lines and score the grey lines.
3. Make the four valley folds as show below (thin yellow lines shown in fig. 3).
4. Slowly fold the top of the card inwards and the bottom half of the heart should begin to push out. (You don’t need to tape it to the table…I did because I was taking pictures at the same time!)
5. Fold card completely in half and smooth down
6. Make outer card and glue/tape popup insert inside. I just used a plain piece of paper which measured 9.5cm x 19cm and then folded it in half.
7. Print out the envelope template. Cut, score and fold.
8. Pop card inside and tape envelope shut (I added some pixely confetti too)!
Edited to add: The lovely Kayla from saynotsweetanne has send me a .dfx file of the card which you can use if you have a cutting machine. I have never even heard of a cutting machine…let alone used one so this is all a bit of a revelation (for me, anyway)!! You can download the file here. Thanks Kayla! You’re a star! (Please leave a comment to let me know if you find this file useful…if you do then I’ll try to find out how to generate them for all my print/cut posts).
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