Bags

I can’t believe I forgot to take photos!  I gave one of my crafted bags to my friend before I took a photo of it.  Oh well.  I took a photo of the other one.  They are pretty similar (well except for different material and different ribbon for handle).

Anyway in my exploration of the web to find things to make for a friend’s baby shower I stumbled over Lazy Girl Blog and this easy make gift bag.  I pulled out the material I made a gave it a go – making Emily her own little doll carry bag with some off cuts.

 

The bag I made for a baby shower gift

 

Full of presents (I created the ultimate emergency baby bag – full of  nappies, wipes, hooded towel, baby wash, bath thermometer, pram toy and lots more)

And of course Alexander couldn’t not get in on the act and wanted a photo with the bag

So a great easy first craft for me.  Instead of making handles for the baby bag I used ribbons.

New Sewing Machine

For Christmas I requested a sewing machine which surprised my husband a bit but he joined forces with my inlaws and we went shopping and found a sewing machine in our budget.  It sat around in its box for about 2 weeks while the bedlam went around me and then it came out and I have been so happy and excited by it I have been sewing away.

Here was my first crafty item I made.  A crayon roll, I had made a couple in the past so had had some practice and I was pleased how well this one turned out.  Plain but useful.  Here are some blogs that show you how to make it Nested  and  The Pleated Poppy

Project 2 I cannot show yet as I have not gifted it yet.  I am pleased with how it turned out, very easy and I made less mistakes making it then I did making project 3.

Project 3 is still a work in progress but here is today’s part of the journey.

I have a pile of old sleeping bags the children have outgrown which are not in good enough shape to regift but I didn’t want to throw them out as they hold such good memories (part of me wants the ones that have gone out the door back now I have things to make out of them – anyway I digress) so I was thinking what could I make out of them that was simple.

SO what do I do?  I go to google.  I wanted to make a cat and found lots of great ideas but some required things I didn’t have (quilt foot) so I found this cute little thing -  Hedgehog softie and I tried my hand at tweaking it my way.

Attempt 1

I forgot to leave the opening in the right place (the middle) and instead left it down the bottom, I also put the ears on the inside not the outside and forgot to sew on the facial features and put the pocket in upside down so now there are 2 pockets.  I sewed it close without stuffing it.  Perhaps I can use it for my ipod?

Attempt 2

This one I forgot the pocket, one ear didn’t get sewn in properly and not sure what else went wrong – the face was ok but did it in white so it doesn’t really show up.  Oh yeah and I seem to keep pinning the templet upside down on ALL my attempts!  You think I would learn – I put the face on the patterned bit and the body on the plain so when I am sewing and halfway through I realise so I start improvising!

OK Attempt 3 which has a few too many mistakes but Emily loves it and straight away took it and started cuddling – even before I finished sewing it up.

She looks pretty happy with it, she took it to bed so there is no close up which is just as well.  So I finally sewed on the face in different colours, tried to do it on the machine but didn’t work so well so I ended up hand sewing the mouth.  I now realise why the pocket is double up material and should be put on upside down.  The tail didn’t get sewn on while I was sewing it together so I ended up sewing it on when I was sewing up the close after stuffing ( I also tried doing this on the machine as was too lazy to do it by hand – next time DO BY HAND!)

But it is soft, squashy, lovable. I wish I had a photo of Emily wearing the sleeping bag now to put next to it

Paper Chain

I remember having great fun when I was little making paper chains with my sister and stringing them around the house at Christmas time so I thought I would like my children to have a go at making them.  So on the 5th day of advent they pulled out of their advent calendar a mini paper chain with the words written on it – Make your own Paper Chain.

Emily had her go first and I cut up some strips of wrapping paper that were too small to wrap presents. She decided she wanted to put them all face down ready for the glue to go on.

We ended up with two colours – red and white and so we ended up doing a bit of maths with a pattern of red and white.  Emily would repeat the pattern and managed to be able to say what would come next.

We were also working her motor skills with threading the strip of paper through the last loop.  She loves using glue but I would help her form the loop in the end.

Alexander had fun with his but he kept wanting to put the glue on before he put the strip through the loop and then the next strip would stick to the loop and he needed to be untangled.  His is not as long as Emily’s – he lost interest way before she did.  His was a 3 colour pattern of red, silver and blue which he had fun designing what order his pattern would go in.

Still Going

It’s almost as tall as Emily!

Advent Calendar

My sister is staying with us and wanted to make an advent calendar for her boys back home.  SO feeling crafty I went looking on the internet for inspiration and found this origami advent calendar.

So inspired I grabbed my 6×6 papers and folded into four – so they were a bit smaller than the ones on the website but ended up very cute and just the right size.

We stamped them from 1 to 24 and then arranged them in a diamond and Christmas tree shape on card

We then attached them with glue dots and I punched holes in the side of the card and tied together with ribbon.  We then stamped the front (should have done this BEFORE attaching the pockets but oh well)

Here it is standing up open

Now closed – I accidently dropped the tree stamp so we ended up with lots of trees

Lots of fun and very very easy!!!!

Second Day of Advent

A couple of years ago I badly sewed a felt advent calendar and out it came this year, filled with ornaments, chocolates and other fun activities.

So today the children got paint your own angel ornament for the tree and Emily got stuck into it…

Finished!

Stained Glass Christmas Craft

Having a read of no time for flash cards blog inspired today’s wet weather craft. They did a leaf print but since Alexander is so mad keen on Christmas trees I started Christmas early.

I grabbed the bag if crayons we made by melting and putting in party cases. They didn’t really work so happy to sacrifice to this craft. I whirled them up with my stick blender, instantly regretting it but with hot water all the crayons came off. Unfortunately I dropped the container so it is now cracked so no whirling liquids in it.

Then Emily spread it on the wax paper, we covered it with another piece of wax paper and got out the hot air gun. (It is nearly Christmas – that’s a Christmas lily peeking in at the side of the photo)

Meanwhile Alexander had some thin pieces of crayons which we were turning in a pencil sharpener. Alexander’s first go, slow and not much success. Sharpener a little small and fiddly.

Then he had a turn at the hot air gun.  The gun was better than a hair dryer but Emily ran out of patience probably as she had more shavings to melt than Alexander. Alexander did a good job of persisting.

Then I drew some basic pictures on card, sticky taped wax paper on ( be careful wax fragile). Then up on window.

This is Alexander’s tree

and this is Emily’s bell…

They look nicer with more light but still November rain here. A messy craft but fun and I think we will do it again.

Road signs

Both my children’s favourite game in the car at the moment is spotting street signs. When we play outside on our bikes I draw paths in chalk and shops and churches and lights and stop signs. Every time it rains I have to redraw. When we walk around Alexander loves being a traffic light changing between red and green.  So I decided to make one for his cars inside. Two nappy boxes later, some crayons, paddlepop sticks and card and we have our town. Add some cars and blocks and blue tac to keep the signs upright.

Collage elephant

My first idea was pasta or rice but the pasta too big and rice too….. Anyway hunting around I found these holographic shapes. Which led to talking about shapes and colours. She had a bit of fun but she was being a bit miserable being sick so only wanted to do so much.

Here are the finished results.
My favourite elephant book is ” the elephant and the bad baby”.

E is for elephant and Emily

Emily has a cough so we didn’t go to playgroup today and since it is raining out came the paints.

Very intense concentration on her painting face. We started with water colours and then moved to paint brushes with the paint in the handle. The idea came from the blog No time for flash cards. An E with a long trunk and an ear. The only downside to using the paints is waiting for it to dry so I can cut out the E and glue on the jungle background Emily is painting. Oh well on to the elephant collage while it dries.

Treasure maps

Alexander has been showing interest in maps recently. He brought home a map he had drawn at preschool the other day so I thought I would further this interest. Yesterday I printed off some maps off the internet, one of the world, Australia and then one of our local neighbourhood and we marked on it our house and two of his friends’ houses.

It was more just for a colouring exercise and just seeing the pictures, I didn’t name any of the countries on the world map though I did point out where Australia was (0k I named one) and then I marked where his grandfather lives in the US and showed how far away that was. On the map of Australia I pointed out how far away his cousins and uncle and aunt live.’

So today we were stuck home again with no car so I printed out another map of our neighbourhood and we were going to follow it and go for a walk, hopefully to the library, a treat drink at the cafe and back home again but as soon as we stepped out it started sprinkled. I walked a bit further umming and ahhing and then we turned back. Emily was in the pram and well protected but Alexander was on his bike and I did have a rain jacket for me but I wasn’t sure it was worth the risk so we headed back home.

So now I had to come up with some ideas. I had found an empty tissue box this morning so I decided to make a treasure box. The kids continued colouring in their maps while I covered the box and then I told them what I had made. I mentioned that the box was empty and so we pulled out the play doh to make money to go in the box.

I hurridly drew up two bad maps of our house (NOT going to show those) – not to scale or rooms in the very correct place but it was the basic idea. I then found 3 containers – 1 a plastic easter egg left over from easter where I folded one map very very very small and put a couple of lollies left over from a party we went to a couple of weeks ago. One tin got apples sliced into it and the map stuck around it and then the treasure box was filled with a book, a crown, a pipe cleaner necklace, a lolly necklace (from same party), some fake and real coins and some musical whistles. I then stashed them around the house and wrote a note about where the first treasure could be found. A house in Alexander’s bedroom.

The egg was hidden in the house and happily opened, lollies eaten.

I gave broad hints to help with the map reading – it was Alexander’s first time and we worked it out together. He discovered the next tin behind the couch. We then sat down to open it and eat the apples and read the next map.

We then followed the map to Emily’s room and found it again behind something.

We then opened the box, read the book, wore the treasures and ate the mini marshmellows in there, then played the instruments which led to me getting out the box of music instruments and us singing and dancing and making lots of noise.

So for lunch I continued the theme and made treasure food. I love recycling ideas and so I gave the kids the same food they had yesterday but with different presentation. I used vegemite to make a cross on the bread, I scooped up circles of avocado, I cut up some carrot to make a cross and boiled some eggs.

We enjoyed “opening” the treasure box ie cracking the eggs and finding the gold within! Lots of fun

I found these two websites with meal ideas but being without car I had to make do with what we had but they were interesting ideas though I am not sure about the banana and bean idea!
Treasure triangles

Treasure map quesadilla

At the end of it all I talked about Jesus being our ultimate treasure.