Save the Planet Sunday #9

Little Miss J loves to paint....and no matter what project we start off with, somewhere along the line, it ends up with her painting her hand so that she can make handprints!!  So I try to come up with something she can do that's different to try and keep her attention focused......that's how we ended up painting some flowers fashioned out of empty egg cartons - although I have to say that did not deter her in any way from doing the handprints!!! 

This turned out to be a nice eco-friendly craft and she did enjoy doing it - although it does involve drying time so may not be suitable for very young children.  I had to boost Little Miss J's patience level by letting her do the handprints while we waited for the paint to dry!!!!

I cut up some empty egg cartons.

 Then she set about painting them.

The cardboard does get quite soggy so you have to keep an eye.

We had to wait until the inside dried to paint outside and here is what happened in the meantime!!!!

Once the inside was dry, we painted the outsides.

A lolly stick for the stem and some crumpled tissue paper for the centre.  And she had her 'present' ready for daddy, for when he came home from work just as all her craft projects are!

Save the Planet Sunday #7

It was chucking down with rain outside this weekend - so it was crafting to the rescue for a rainy afternoon.

I had seen these toilet paper tube flowers in a few places in blogland and have been meaning to try them - but they got used for a kiddie craft project - not to mention upcyling toilet roll tubes!!!!

We flattened a toilet roll tube and cut half inch strips.  Little Miss J did try to cut them with her scissors, but they're a tad difficult to cut with kiddie safe scissors, so I helped cut them and she glued them together.

 Then a few clothespins came in handy to hold until the glue held firmly.

 Then we glued a lolly stick to the back and made a pretty flower!

Next time around, I might get her to paint the 'petals' before gluing them together.

Happy recycling everyone!

Flip flop redo

Its the summer solstice today - the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, but have we seen any summer in England?? Nope - zilch - save a couple of days in April and that was it! I live in the vain hope that we will have some warmth in the coming months.  However, the shops are still stocking up on summer stuff and I picked up a cheap pair of flip flops for £1.50 from Primark, just to keep me believing that the weather will turn!

They were rather plain looking - so I made a set of flowers from lilac satin ribbon and stuck them on with velcro!

And I had some scrapbooking flowers lying around from an old craft kit - so I used a couple of those too.

Don't they look cute? Now to lie in wait for summer!

Fabric flower rings

I'm a big fan of rings!  I adore them and have always wanted the really large ones - but they cost about £12.00 in the shops! No way I was ever paying that! Coz as much as I love rings - I'm also tight!!!

But now that I'm crafting, I can make my own - here's a couple I whipped up tonight

One from felt

And one from a scarf I recycled. 

Mr. J doesn't really like the pink one! But its so over the top girly - I love it!

Felt flower choker necklace

I was working on a few flower pins to give as presents the other day, when I fancied making myself a quick choker necklace - the glue gun was hot! You can't let that go to waste! Now since I don't dabble in jewellery - I didn't have anything like a clasp or jump rings. But I really fancied this necklace, so here's what I did for a quick fix. I apologise for the quality of my pictures - I was more excited about the outcome and the pictures were a rushed affair!

I picked out some ribbon, a strip of felt and some velcro dots.

I cut the felt strip through all the way like so and then rolled it into a flower. A full tutorial of the felt flower can be found here.

I cut the ribbon to the size of my neck and then added velcro dots to the end.


I hot glued my felt flower to the ribbon.

And ta da - I had my quick fix choker necklace. Obviously this would keep better if made with a clasp, but for now this will do! Isn't purple the best colour ever????

Of felt and flowers

I saw this felt dahlia flower in blogland the other day and couldn't wait to make it..... if you want to give it a go, you can find the tutorial here with exact measurements.

Now my version isn't as lovely as the tutorial, but its not bad for a first attempt even if I say so myself. I did use a hot glue gun because it is much quicker and I don't have the patience to sit through waiting for normal fabric glue to dry!!! Me thinks loads of people I know will be getting brooches as pressies this year!!!!

This is what I started off with.



With a little bit of hot glue, I glued the ends of the cut felt together.



Like so to form the petals.

Then I glued a piece of cardboard (measurements in original tutorial link at start of post) with the felt.

And folded over the back of the felt. Don't worry about the messy look.


Because I will cover it with another piece of felt.

Now starting with the largest petals, I hot glued them to the base close together.

This is how it looked with one layer finished.


Then I added the second layer of petals (the mid sized ones)


And finally the smallest petals at the end. The middle wasn't very clean.



So I made a rosette out of a strip of felt and glued it to the centre.



Ta da - you could use it as a brooch or on a hairband or maybe even on a necklace!

I am waiting for my pin backs to arrive so I can use it as a brooch on my jacket!!!!