DIY : masking tape christmas tree

Our super simple and virtually free Christmas Tree.

You'll need:
Green painters masking tape / or Washi tape
Washi or Blu-tack to attach decorations.

This year we won't be at home for Christmas so I didn't want to buy a tradition tree and have all the needles fall out all over the carpet while we are away. Also it's really difficult to get rid of a christmas tree when you live in the city. 

Moo decorated with existing decorations plus some cute mini christmas present decorations.
Which we made from empty raisin boxes and some curling ribbon. Moo loved these! 

Click here to see how to make the little paper stars, 3D paper stars and paper butterflies.

DIY : salt dough star decorations

Over the past week Mima and I have made some decorations for the Christmas tree and gifts. One is salt dough stars. I used the recipe in 'Recipes For Play', full of loads of great ideas, but there are recipes for salt dough on the internet.
Basically you make a dough from flour, salt, oil, lemon juice and warm water. Knead it and let it rest then get creating.
I rolled the dough out and we cut shapes with a star cookie cutter. I used a chopstick to put holes in the stars for the twine. I then placed them on a lined baking tray and baked them on low for 4 hours or you can leave it to dry for 48 hours.

Mima painted them and I added bakers twine for hanging to finish.

around my house : eight

The ultimate dollhouse.

I have recently completed a little project I have been thinking about for years, miniature interiors. I am slightly obsessed with thinking about interior spaces. As a print designer I am always thinking about patterns for fabric and walls. 
Each image has a real object (blueberries, flower, thyme, acorn) which illustrates the scale of these models. I have created and designed everything else.
At the moment they are nice prints hanging in our lounge which I love to look at, I hope you do too x

DIY : cloud mobile

Since we love clouds so much, I thought I would share the cloud mobile I made for Mima's room.
You will need:
Felt for cloud and raindrops, 2 of each (front and back)
Sewing scissors
Sewing machine
Pins
Embroidery thread for eyes and mouth
Thread to sew
Thread for hanging
Needle

Here is a template if you need it. You will need to print it A3.

1. First cut all your cloud and raindrop pieces. 

2. Use chalk to draw on the clouds face, then embroider the eyes and mouth.
3. Pin the two cloud pieces together, front and back, right sides facing out.

4. Sew and stuff.
5. Sew up the hole, I also did this using a sewing machine.

6. Repeat with each raindrop.
7. Lay out the cloud and raindrops on the floor.

8. Then connect each raindrop to the cloud using thread.
9. Hang and enjoy.

DIY : cloud light shade

Last week we had Mima's room painted, a lovely pale grey-blue colour. I wanted to create a new light shade for the center of her room, and thought a cloud would be perfect. 
Here it is...

To make one you will need:
LOTS of white tissue paper
white balloons - I used eight
double sided tape
vaseline
string
wallpaper paste
the top wire hoop and central hook from a paper lantern, you need to connect these two parts. I bent the wire around the hoop and then covered the wire ends with tape.

1. First blow up all your balloons and arrange them to create a cloud-like shape. I used small pieces of double sided tape to connect the balloons.

2. Tie the string to a hook on the roof, then slide the top wire hoop from a paper lantern on to this string, and tie the other end of the string to a balloon end within the cloud. The wire hop should sit snuggly at the top of your cloud.

3. Then tear your tissue paper into strips and mix up your wallpaper paste (it would be good to do this in an ice cream container or something that you intend to throw away).

4. Grease the balloons in a thin layer of vaseline.

5. Then start placing glue covered strips of tissue paper on the balloons. Starting at the top wire hoop, you need to make sure this is securely in place, so wrap strips of glued tissue around the wire and back onto the balloons. Completely cover the balloons in a few layers of tissue. 

6. Leave it hanging for a couple of days to completely dry. Then using something sharp pop the balloons and remove them. I crumpled the shape a little to make it more cloud-like.

Hang it up and enjoy.

easter bunny garland

To finish Moo's easter tree today I made a mini Easter Bunny garland. Then Moo decorated the tree (twigs in a vase which we painted silver) with our eggs and the garland. Now the Easter Bunny knows we live here. 

You'll need:
white felt
pen or pencil
embroidery yarn
needle 
card to cut your stencil from

I made a bunny stencil with kraft card, trace wrong side down onto your felt and cut out bunnies. Turnover to right side and using you needle and yarn thread the bunnies on spacing evenly as you go.

hand dyed eggs - easter decorations

Last year we painted the easter eggs for the first time for a little easter tree, so this year I thought we'd try something different and dye them. I've found it impossible to find white shelled eggs anywhere, brown still work but the colours are less vibrant. Green and blue dye showed up best.

Hand dyeing easter eggs with Moo was really fun, and incredibly messy because someone wanted to dye their hands.... 




You'll need:
blown eggs, clean and dried - we used 6
string to tie your eggs up.
food colouring
white vinegar
white crayon

 Method: 
1. draw on eggs with white crayon. the dye doesn't stick to any area with crayon
2. put 1 teaspoon each of vinegar, food colouring and water into a glass. and dye. to get the ombre effect dip the bottom in the dye, then slowly add a little more water to each time you dip to get the lighter shades, drying between layers.
3. hang eggs to dry outside if possible as the dye drips...
. 

DIY : tealight lanterns

SNOWFLAKE TEALIGHT LANTERNS

While researching decorations for my brothers wedding recently I came up with the idea of making our own tealight lanterns. I was inspired by an earlier Mima + Moo post of snowflake window markers as the couple were coming from the snow in Canada it seemed a perfect little symbolic deco to go on the lanterns.

YOU WILL NEED:

white tissue paper 

scissors

pva glue

jars

string

tealights

Make little snowflakes using only 4-5cm squares of tissue paper. Stick snowflakes  to jars with little dots of glue, don't use alot as the glue turns the tissue clear. Use 3-4 snowflakes per jar depending on the size of your jar.

Place tealights in jars, using a little dot of glue to secure them so they stay in place. Tie string around the lip of the jars if you wish to hang them. 

A pretty great way to up-cycle old jars.

The night before the wedding we had the bridesmaids and friends sitting around the kitchen table cutting out snowflakes. We did jars of all sizes for the wedding some for on the tables, others strung up in the trees and placed around the fishpond.

christmas : seven

CRACKERS

I have a strong dislike of store brought Christmas crackers unless you spend lots they are always disappointing. So after last Christmas I decided it was time to start a new tradition in our house of homemade Christmas crackers for the family Christmas lunch.
I like the idea of all three of us being involved. We collected toilet rolls all year, Mima's Dad was in charge of jokes, I made paper hats, brought cracker snaps and treats, we all helped make the paper to wrap them in.

First I made the paper hats. I used large sheets of white tissue, painted them with gold stripes (pictured). Then glued the two short ends together to create a loop. They were folded in half about six times, with the opening top and bottom. Cut this long folded piece in half (two halves pictured), then cut on an angle to create crowns (pictured).

We decorated the paper to wrap the crackers with Honey Sticks (beeswax crayons) and homemade natural food colouring finger paint (I will do a separate post on this). Then I added some gold spray paint.

What I used:
toilet roll
paper to wrap (A4)
paper crown
cracker snap
treat
joke
string to tie ends
double sided tape

I found it useful to put a small piece of tape at one end of the cracker snap to keep it in place.

Merry Christmas! x

christmas : four

We managed to find a little two foot Christmas tree which is perfect for our little house, on our way to the beach for our first swim for this summer. They told me they've been trimmed back to stay small but that's how they achieve the fullness too. I like how it looks fluffy.

So the next decorations we made these 3D Paper stars, I used pretty origami paper for the smaller ones and white craft card for large star at the top of the tree, which Moo helped handpaint long with the other decorations. We used the paper butterflies you may have seen on my previous post and the little stars from yesterday. Can you spot the peg doll fairy Louise gifted me for my first Christmas tree a couple of years back?

3D PAPER STARS 
For these stars you'll need: origami paper 15cm x 15cm, scissors, hot glue gun and fishing line or string.

Cut your paper into four smaller squares 7.5cm x 7.5cm. Right side together fold in half and, and half again. Wrong side together fold in half to to create triangle, and then half again for the opposing triangle.

Your square will look like this (above). Along your diagonal lines cut in 12mm. Fold in to create points of the star. Overlap the folded edges and glue together.

Create two identical stars, stick them together with the hot glue gun. Attach a loop of string so you can hang it on your tree.

christmas : three

I've only started doing my own Christmas tree recently since having Moo, actually this is only my second ever as we've had to move house twice in December in the last few years. Anyway I have decided that homemade decorations is the way to go. I like that I don't have to spend any money except for the purchase of the tree as I tones of paper and craft supplies already, and each year I get to make a whole new colour theme. This year is stars and butterflies in summery colours - white, yellow, pink, orange.

LITTLE PAPER STARS 

For these stars you will need: paper cut into 2cm strips - patterned paper or paints to decorate plain paper and yarn to thread stars together.

Make a knot with you paper strip, flatten and tuck the short end up. Fold the strip around continuing to create a pentagon shape.

Keep folding until get to the end of you paper strip, tuck the end under the triangle closest. 

Using your thumb nail make an indentation to shape the sides of the star like shown.

Decorate and string together using a needle and yarn.

paper butterflies

I made these DIY butterflies as cake toppers for Moo's birthday cake last week. They were so effective, and virtually free to make. So here's how I did them.

What you'll need:

black and white images of butterflies x 2 copies 

paints

scissors

craft wire

glue gun

Instructions:

1. Paint the butterflies in the colours you want, making the two layers the same leave to dry.

2. Cut out and pair matching butterflies

3. With your craft wire cut a piece 30cm long

4. Make a small loop to fit your butterfly wing size leaving a long tail about 15cm 

5. Twist and make a second loop, twist leftover length around tail

6. Glue your wire loops onto the backside of your top layer butterfly, in spots to attach the wings

7. Glue a large dot in the centre and place bottom layer butterfly attaching at the centre only, press with your finger.You can bend the top layer wings up to make it look like the butterfly wings flutter.

I think these will be going on our christmas tree!

fourth birthday : two

THE FAIRY GARDEN PARTY : part one

DECORATIONS
Well Sunday was the big day. After a big week of prep we were ready for a garden party fit for a few fairies. We decorated the garden with streamers and tissue paper pompoms and fans, I had a few helpers which was a fantastic.

THE FOOD
I decided to stick to fairy colour theme of pink, white and green and food appropriate.  
Here are just a few of the fairy treats we nibbled on.
cakepops
rainbow pretzels 
pink fairy potion
cupcakes
homemade sausages 
fruit skewers

THE GIFTS
Wow Moo was showered with lovely gifts from friends and family. Her favourite though has to be the guitar (ukulele) from her daddy. The birthday girl had a few specific requests and a guitar was on the top of her list.

to be continued....