DIY Wooden Bracelets / Wood Bangles

While playing around on YouTube one day I found myself watching craft videos. Eventually I stumbled upon a video on how to make your own Wood Bangles, to see the video go HERE. (For some reason the video isn't loading for me today but you can also find out more on her web page) This lady made it look so easy that I thought I would give it a go.
I already had some fabric markers so that was a bonus. I got the gold pen and some of the bangles at Spotlight. I also bought some bangles online.

Now I am NOT a fine artist but I wanted to play around and have fun. Despite my lack of artistic skills I think they look ok.

I did one with different coloured hearts around it. One has random flowers and says 'Happy'. And the last one has my favourite quotes from Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar.

This would be a great project for artistic children to do. It would be a great school holiday activity. I have some spare blank bangles for my boys to make presents with. In the meantime, one of my boys used a bangle to make me a birthday present. He wrapped wool around the bangle and we glued the start and finished threads on the inside where they wont be seen. I have worn this bangle a few times already.

So if you are keen to try making your own bangles, then check out the video and have fun searching in Spotlight for materials.

Craft - Map of Australia

On Australia Day I was reflecting that I haven't done an Australian themed craft for a long time.  Many years ago I saw a lovely cross stitch pattern of 'Advance Australia Fair' that I was determined to do in the future. But now we are in the future my eyesight and my patience isn't as good as it once was. Big projects like that will never get finished so I set out to find a small project that was full of colour and quick.

I couldn't find anything suitable so I made this up as I went.  I got out my old school Atlas and photocopied a suitable map. I had to play around with the enlargement/shrinkage buttons to get it to the right size for my hoop. I probably should have shrunk it down a little further but it still looks ok.

 As I was doing this at night, my eyesight would have struggled to trace the image in the traditional manner. Normally you would place the fabric on top of the pattern and trace the shape. But as I was using a photocopy anyway, I just cut cut the template and placed it on top of the fabric and traced the outline with a water soluble fabric marker.

 When I was finished with the outer outline, I just cut up the map and traced the borders of each state.

I have a heaps of DMC threads from when I would cross stitch. I have them all sorted into numerical order in various craft boxes. I also have one box that holds random unknown threads or small leftovers from old projects. I just grabbed out several colours I like from that box. I used 2 threads as I was working on this project. I started with QLD and NT and did shorter rows. I am unhappy with how this looked so for the rest of the states I did one continuous line across from border to border.

Now somehow while I was working on the project I must have pulled the fabric in the frame and distorted the lines. Some of the borders then ended up wonky when I started to embroider.  Hopefully no one notices.

After I finished I trimmed the extra fabric at the back and it was done. I think I might do a kangaroo next or maybe some of our bright colourful bird life. If you have any ideas or seen any easy patterns then please let me know.

Craft - I heart buttons.

As a child I was fascinated by my Mum's button jar. It contained lovely old buttons. Buttons back then were far more interesting than buttons today. I remember buttons with shapes stamped into them, shell buttons, fabric covered buttons, metal buttons and different coloured buttons.

Recently I borrowed her button jar to use a few buttons for a project. Then seeing the jar was still here and tempting me I used a few extra buttons and made this heart.  I traced a heart shape onto the fabric with an erasable pen and then filled the space with different buttons.  It was a very quick and easy project. I bought the hoop from my local Spotlight store and the fabric is a scrap out of my basket.

The best thing about this project is that it is light and I have stuck it onto the wall with a tiny piece of blu-tac. This makes it easy to move around and is great for living in a rental house as there are no wall hooks required.

Now I'm off to raid the jar for interesting coloured buttons to use on another project.

Craft - Rope Swirl Tapestry Art

If you are a fan of Pinterest then you might have seen the stunning Rope Swirl Tapestry photos doing the rounds. The original photos come from HERE. If you haven't seen them then you must go look.

They were even kind enough to post instructions HERE. I think it is totally awesome of them to share the instructions. As soon as I found the instructions I rushed off to my local Spotlight store to buy wool.

It is a very fun project and easy to do. The one thing that isn't clear is that you need to skip a section in each row as you weave to keep the pattern going.

Here are my attempts so far. I haven't cut off the green twine ends yet so it looks messy. I will wait until I am ready to attach them all and then work out what needs cutting and trimming.

When I am ready to attach them I will add bright tassels and pompoms. I love the colour in the original photo and mine currently looks quite drab even though the wool is quite bright. The rope dulls the overall look so it definitely needs to be jazzed up. Don't hold your breath for the completed article, I think it will take me a few months of work.

Sewing/Craft - Using up fabric scraps on skirts and headbands

I love fabrics and have bought a heap over the years. These fabrics tend to sit in piles looking pretty waiting for the day when I learn to sew. Getting out to sewing classes is hard as a single mum with little kids but recently I have found a great alternative. It is an online site with craft lessons. It is called Craftsy.com and this site has fantastic courses on sewing, quilting, cooking, gardening, etc. There are some free courses but most you pay to access. I have done quite a few courses now and they are great value for money. If you sign up to their newsletters there are often sales on different courses. I recently bought a few courses when they were on sale so over the next few months I will watch those and make new projects. You can watch each course over and over again too.

Today I wanted to share some skirts I have made from the Project Upcycle course. In the course the Instructor uses old pillow cases for her wrap skirt whereas I have used fabric scraps from my stash pile. I made a Christmas themed wrap skirt and a fun summer skirt.

 Here are all the panels. I know it needs an iron but my iron died very suddenly.

 Here is my bright summer one.

 I think these skirts will be great for the hot summer days we are having. I plan to buy some plain singlet tops to go with them. I then wanted to make some headbands with the fabric scraps. I googled for a template for headbands and then made these. I plan to make a few more of these as they are very quick to make.

Next I plan on watching the photograph course so I can improve the quality of my photos. Let's face it, my photos look very basic. I have a new camera and need to read the inch thick manual to work out what all the buttons mean as well. It is one of my goals for the year to master my camera. That is when I am not sewing, cooking, painting, cleaning, and being Supermum.

Craft - Handbag upcycle

Happy New Year!!! Woohoo!! There is always something special about the start of a new year.

This year I am determined to do a lot of thing,  such as finishing last year's "To Do" List. I am also determined to sort out my wardrobe. Anything bland is going to get a makeover or will be donated to charity.

Today I have sorted out my handbags. Many of my bags are older than my boys and are very worn out. There are far too stains from baby bottle spills and those sticky leftovers that kids always seem to stuff into my handbag when we are out.

I have a few bags that are still in good condition, mainly because they were so boring that I never used them.

 Time to get to work to make this bag a little bit more me. I have used beads and ribbon from an old piece that was too worn out to fix.

My After Photos.

 

I have restrained myself from going too extravagant. I think it is fun but still a little classy at the same time.  I have a brown handbag to do next but I first I need a trip to my local Spotlight store to get inspiration and materials. 

I hope you have a wonderful New Year's Day and that this year is kind to you and your family. 

Craft - My fun new bedroom lamp

It is rather embarrassing to admit but this lamp project took me 9 months.... I'm not sure why either.  I painted the lamp around Christmas time and it has sat in the shed ever since. I just didn't get around to doing something with the lamp shade or finding that little black plastic bit that holds the lamp shade still. If anyone asks I will say I was letting the paint cure.

Anyway here are before photos.

And the before of the lamp shade.

The lamp base was in good condition but it was brown. I am trying to get rid of boring colours in the house so this needed a paint. The lamp shade was old so I really wasn't sure how I was going to upcycle it. This was another project where I was determined that I wasn't spending any money which really limited what I could do.

I got out the fabric markers and let the kids help me decorate it. I figured the lamp shade was so old that if it didn't turn out I would throw it away or recover it with fabric.  The boys took turns to decorate a panel each. Three of us went for an outdoor garden theme but one of my boys drew himself as a red Power Ranger. He currently has a Power Ranger obsession so I wasn't surprised with his choice. Here is his contribution. It think it is awesome.

My boys aren't into craft so a quick colouring in project is perfect for them. I have a few little craft projects for the boys to do over the school holidays as we need to make a start on Christmas presents and cards.

Now here is the finished bedroom lamp. I love it. The flowers were crochet flowers I bought on ebay a while ago. I also added a few random buttons that I found around the house. It is certainly unique and I know many people wouldn't like it but it suits my room and my personality. I still haven't found that plastic bit that holds the lamp shade still but it will turn up eventually... the shed isn't that big.

School holiday activity - decorating with fabric markers

This is another quick, easy and no mess activity for children that have short attention spans for craft.

Materials:
- plain calico pencil cases but you could also use pillow cases or cushion covers.
- fabric markers
- cardboard for placing between the fabric layers to prevent the ink from running.

The boys decorated a few pencil cases. One is for holding marbles and the other two are Christmas gifts to be used as make-up bags.

The artist at work.

 Even the Littlest Man was also having a go.

 Game Boy showing off his artwork.

 Two of the completed pencil cases/ make-up bags.

Decorating Party PomPoms

I was recently looking for party decorations and was shocked by the prices. For the tissue paper pompoms they were between $6 - $10 each. I wasn't paying that. So when I got home I googled instructions on how to make my own. There are heaps of sites offering advice. I picked one and was surprised at how quick and easy they are to make. I used the instructions on this site, http://www.polkadotbride.com and I was very impressed with the instructions. I made 3 of my own large pompoms in under 10 minutes and it only cost $6 for all of them.

These ones I made are currently sitting on a table. The string to hang them is underneath each one. I can't find my photos of them  hanging nicely. I think the editing fairy has been at my files again.

This is a very quick and easy project that children can manage easily. So if you want to put up more decorations for Christmas then this would be a good school holiday project.