Felt Circles Lampshade

I'm not the most adventurous when it comes to buying key items for my home.  I tend to stick to plain colours and that often means white.  Some may think that's a bit boring but it means it's always easy to change a few bits and pieces and update a look quite easily.

I was looking for a new lampshade and couldn't find much that I liked that didn't cost a fortune so opted for this large white one - yep, creature of habit!  Nothing wrong with it though....I like the shape and size and it does the job perfectly well.

But just to add a little bit of something to it I thought I would add some colourful felt circles.....random sizes and colours all stitched together in one big chain and then draped around the light shade. 
 

It's now hanging in our playroom and ties in well with the spotty pictures and colourful stripy rug. And the great thing is that if I get fed up with this, it's easy to change it again to something else.

Simple!

Cheep Cheep! Little Spring Chicks Shoe Box Farm

Shoe boxes are fabulous for turning into all sorts of things.  You might remember a while back I made this doll's house from a couple of shoe boxes?

Well this time we made a little farmyard scene with spring chicks and a little pond for them to swim in.  

Fabulous for imaginative play!

There's not a lot to it but we've had lots of fun.  You can easily make it in minutes by simply painting a mixture of PVA glue and water over the box, and layer on tissue paper.  

When it's dry just complete the scene with some chicks, fences and flowers.  

Simple, easy fun. 

Easter Chicken

This week when my fabric order arrived I was lucky to receive this cute little pack of goodies for free.  What a lovely treat, I just love a freebie!

But what can you make with such itty bitty bits of fabric?  

Well I decided I was going to make my 5 month old baby girl an Easter treat and here it is.

A cute and cuddly Easter chickeny-bird-type-thing!

I've tried to make it interesting for a baby by combining all the fabrics, colours and textures and I only allowed myself to use the contents of the pack.

The bird has:
A head crest made from ribbon loops and scalloped felt
Felt feet with crinkly-noisy paper inside
A hidden bell in his tummy
A hidden squeaker in his tummy
A felt beak and wings

If you want to have a go at making him here's a very rough guide....

Cut two squares or rectangles roughly the size you want the bird to be - mine was roughly 15cmx18cm including seam allowances.
Cut out two sets of feet (4 feet in total)
Cut a beak shape, a scallop frill for the head and two scalloped shaped wings (with heart detail if you like)
Cut the legs - two strips about 5cmx20cm
Cut two eyes using the spotty fabric
Cut six lengths of ribbon that can be looped - so cut double the height you want them to be




In addition to the contents of the pack, you will also need:
Thread (white, and black for the eye)
Toy stuffing (and rice is optional)
Crinkle paper
A bell
A squeaker
Double sided Bondaweb


I think that's everything?

so here's what you do...

1. Sew the feet together leaving an opening at the heel of the foot of about 2cm, insert the crinkle paper if you have any (I just used cereal packet paper)

Fold the leg parts in half and stitch from top to bottom (seam allowance 1cm) and then stitch across one of the openings.  

Now turn both legs through to the right side.  A chopstick or similar makes this easier.  Press each leg piece with the seam running up the middle.

Push the closed ends into the foot opening and stitch across to secure.


Fill the legs with toy stuffing.

2. Stitch the hearts onto the wings and then position and attach the wings onto the body fabric.






3. Fold the loops and sew them onto the head frill

Head frill tucked in at the top, beak to the right 

4. With right sides together, sew around the body shape ensuring that the head frill/ribbon and beak are tucked correctly into position.  Leave the bottom of the body shape open.


5. Turn the body through and gently press it.


6. Now add on the eyes - I ironed some Bondaweb onto the back of the eye shapes and then ironed them into position.  Then sew the pupils on - I just stitched a couple of french knots.

This is the bottom opening with the side seam (where the beak is)
now running up the middle.
Place a leg inside the chicken on either side of this seam.

7.  It gets a bit fiddly here.....
Turn the body back to the wrong side and twist the bottom opening so that the seam sits in the middle of the body.  

Insert the legs so the are fully inside the body (and on either side of the seam) with just a little bit sticking out at the opening.  

Pin them in place and then stitch the opening closed, leaving a small gap to turn the whole thing back through.

8. Fill with toy stuffing - you can also fill with rice if you want it to be heavier.  I filled 3/4 stuffing and 1/4 rice.



9. Hand stitch the opening closed.

That's it, you should now have a cute birdy-chickeny thing!

If you're unsure and need more guidance, please get in touch and have a Happy Easter!!

Easter Potato Printing

Create colourful prints with potatoes and paint!

First cut the potatoes in half - try to ensure you have an egg shaped potato when it's cut in half.

Then, very carefully, carve out some patterns.  We did zig zags, stripes and attempted spots but that wasn't very easy - maybe some sort of special tool would have made spots easier.



Now you can either dip the potato straight into the paint and start printing or if you want different colours on each print you'll need to paint the colours onto the potato with a brush as we have done here.

Happy Easter!

Baby Sensory Bottles

Baby girl is nearly 5 months old already and so keen to touch and explore anything she can get her hands on. 


Clear plastic bottles can be filled with a whole range of objects that baby can safely explore, just make sure the lid on on super tight!! 







This particular bottle has been filled with water, daisies and colourful sequins from one of the pound shops. 


Fascinating!

Cereal Box House (on fire!)

Recycle cereal boxes into buildings for play in these easy steps!



This particular building was to accompany our fire engine play which is why it has flames.

If you want to try, here's what we did......



Turn the cereal box inside out.  Tape up the sides

Draw on some windows and doors with a black pen.

Glue on some colourful flames cut from card or tissue paper .

Add on a roof - made from some card folded into a triangular shape

You could also add a little hose prop made from a pipe cleaner and some more tissue paper.

Loads of fun!

5 Currant Buns Finger Puppets

It's amazing what you can achieve if you put down Candy Crush for an evening!

We were singing this song at bedtime the other night - a fairly new one for my two year old - and he really liked it.  

So as a surprise for him I decided to make some little finger puppets that we could use while singing the song.








As soon as they were both in bed and I could sit down with a cuppa I got out the box of felt and got started on these little currant buns.  They're completely made from felt which is great as it means you don't have to finish edges - just cut it!  And the currants are just french knots using darker thread.

I left a little gap at the bottom so little fingers can slip in and out easily.

He was delighted to find them lying out for him when he came down the next morning and we've been doing lots of singing, buying, eating and counting too!


Here's the song we sing (there are different versions)

5 currant buns
In the baker's shop
Round and fat with a cherry on the top
Along came (child's name) with a penny one day
Bought a currant bun and took it right away

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