School Holiday Activities - Bunny Ears Tutorial

Another Easter Craft - here is a gorgeous tutorial by Amy from Actually Amy, sharing how to make some DIY Felt Bunny Ears.

Amy shares the bunny ears tutorial on her blog here.

Depending on the age of your kids, you could vary this activity by making bunny ears from cardboard and scrap paper, or cardboard and decorated with fabric scraps. There are lots of options!

If you are looking for a few more ideas to entertain your kids this school holidays, check out the list here!

Felt Pocket Christmas Advent Calendar - Tutorial

This is a sponsored post for 3M via Digital Parents Collective. This project and all opinions are my own.

This Christmas is the first one where my eldest daughter is really aware that it is coming. There has been a lot of excitment and discussion about Christmas around here lately (and it's still only November! Eek!) She is almost four and the thing she is most excited about is the decorating, so I've been really mindful to include her in my Christmas craft projects this season. She helped me with many of the steps for this project!

This advent calendar is simple and fun, and the best part is you can use it year after year! This is also a great Christmas project for older children to make.

You need:
- 2 packs of 3M Command Clear Decorating Clips
- wool blend felt (I bought 30cm off the roll at my local fabric store and had left over)
- embroidery floss & needle
- Number Stickers (I used Kaisercraft Advent Calendar Stickers from my local craft store)
- Hole punch and scissors

Use your scissors and cut your felt pieces. You need 24 squares measuring 6 x 6cm for the front of the felt pockets, and 24 rectangles measuring 8 x 6cm. My Christmas Day pocket was larger, with the pieces measuring 9 x 9cm and 11 x 9cm.

Once you have your pieces cut, use 3 strands of embroidery floss and do a simple running stitch around the sides and bottom of the felt to create the pockets. Once they are finished use the hole punch and punch a hole in the middle of the top of the pocket for easy hanging.

Use your numbered stickers and decorate each pouch to create the advent pockets. (This is a great step to include your little ones in the project!)

Choose your location for your advent calendar. I had two options - the windows in the back room or the sliding door between our kitchen and dining room. I chose the sliding door for the white background, and also in case I want to put chocolates in the pockets - they would melt if I chose the window! The Command Clear Hooks can be used on a huge range of surfaces including glass, plaster, wood and laminex - and they are just the surfaces I've tried!

I chose a random pattern and started with my Christmas Day pocket in the middle and placed the other pockets radiating out from that middle pocket, in no particular order. The hooks are easy to position and reposition if you need to - I repositioned a couple of hooks about four times to get the pockets where I wanted them.

   

All done! The clear hooks are great because they don't distract from the project and they coordinate with any choice of colour. They come off cleanly so if you'd like to use your felt pocket advent calendar in another location next year there are no left over marks or nail holes. Perfect if you live in a rental property! 

You can pop chocolates or sweets in the pockets but I plan to put little messages with a Christmas related activity to do each day with the girls - for example "Write and post a Christmas card to Nan Nan & Papa" or "Wrap Dad's Christmas present".

Command Clear Hooks are perfect for all your Christmas decorating and projects, and are available in a range of sizes for different weights including mini, small and medium hooks and utensil and decorating clips. They are priced at $6.99 (RRP) and can be purchased at leading supermarkets and retail outlets. You can have a look at this great Christmas decorating idea using 3M hooks

Giveaway! *now closed*

I've got five 3M Command Clear Hook packs containing the whole range (mini, small, medium hooks, utensil and decorating clips valued at $36.35). All you have to do to win a pack is leave a comment telling me about a sentimental Christmas decoration that you love or remember from your childhood. (Mine is a reindeer I made from pegs when I was 6. I still have it and hang it on the tree every year!)  

I will choose my five favourite comments and winners will be notified by email. The competition closes on Thursday 29th November 8pm AEDST. Open to Australian readers only.

Linking up with these lovely ladies: 

Hosted by Three Lil Princesses

Love Birds

Inspired by Valentine's Day, I spent yesterday evening stitching these lovelies -

 

They were fun to make, I really enjoy working with felt. I cut the felt shapes, hand stitched them together and glued the bird cabochon to the front. The back has a simple brooch catch attached.

You may have noticed lately that I have recently achieved one of my goals for 2012 - I opened my own etsy shop! I have added a tab at the top of my page, so feel free to check it out. I intend to add more bits and pieces in the near future. You will find these Love Bird brooches in the shop!

Hope you have a lovely Valentine's Day, even if you are like me and do nothing to celebrate it. I tell my husband that he should treat everyday as though it's Valentine's Day ;)

Bright Owls Mobile

Here is a project from before I started blogging. Before I even bought my sewing machine! The dark ages...actually about a year ago.

While I was pregnant with Lucy, I wanted to make something for her but we were still unsure if she was a boy or girl. So this was pre 20 week scan. I think I might have been about 15 weeks when I made this.

I used some felt, buttons from my huge op-shop stash, and ribbon to hand stitch these little owls and create a mobile. I used some white felt to make the moon and stars hanging down the centre.

The mobile hangs above Lucy's change table. It is in front of a mirror so she likes to look at two mobiles - the real one and the reflection! The ring for the top part of the mobile is just a wire circle I picked up for a dollar at my local craft store, and I wrapped the ribbon all the way around. The whole project was very thrifty and probably cost around $5.

I love their odd eyes, makes them look extra rustic and handmade. The owls were inspired from the Owl & Pussycat mobile in the book The Crafty Minx by Kelly Doust - lots of fanstastic projects for beginner crafters and budding seamstresses.

Have you entered my giveaway yet? You have until Sunday - don't miss it!!

Linking with lots of other lovely creative people here today.

Animal Friends Hair Clips - Tutorial

Here is some cuteness I thought I'd share. Anna is finally enjoying wearing hair clips so I made her some little animal friends to wear. She has hair that is in between - too short for a pony tail but too long around the face, so clips are perfect for her right now.

You will need:

Metal prong hair clips (I bought a box of 50 on ebay for a few dollars)

grosgrain ribbon (dollar store)

fabric glue

cigarette lighter / matches

felt scraps

craft googly eyes (dollar store)

scissors

scrap paper

pencil and thin tipped black marker

Using your hair clips as a size guide, sketch a couple of basic animal shapes on your scrap paper to use as templates. Once you are happy with them, cut them out. Google images of 'animal silhouettes' are handy if you are worried about your drawing skills!

Use your template and cut your basic animal shapes out of the felt.

 

Once you have cut your basic animal shapes, cut any additional pieces you need - eg. for the pig I cut a small circle for the snout, for the owl I cut some wings and a small triangle for a beak.

Glue extra felt pieces and googly eyes with fabric glue.

How cute are they looking? Use your black marker to add any further details - I gave the whale a smile and the pig a couple of nostrils on his snout.

 

Put your animals aside, and grab your hair clips and ribbon. To stop the ends of the ribbon from fraying, gently seal it with your cigarette lighter or a match.

Put a thin line of glue down the length of your ribbon (not too much - you don't want it too ooze out the edges) and glue the ribbon starting from the inside of the clip.

Glue your ribbon around the clip and finish on the inside of the other prong. It should look like this:

Once the glue on the hair clip is dry, attach your animals. You will have some very cute clips that look like this:

There are heaps of different animals you could make - birds, cats and fish were other ones I considered as they are relatively easy shapes. Whatever your little girl's favourite is! The ribbon covered clip is a great base for any kind of decorations, I also use buttons and little fabric yo-yos.

Place it in their hair and away you go!

If you make some I'd love to see them - please share a picture over at my Flickr Group!