Toddler wrapping paper

 Toddlers, well mine at least, love painting! I've been getting her to paint useful things as Ray is getting quite the stack of Lily paintings on his desk.

This one was just from a roll of brown kraft paper that I normally use as wrapping paper with some pretty ribbon. But this time I put blobs and swirls of paint on the paper (cut to size for the intended present) and let Lily do whatever she wanted with the brush or her fingers, then repeated with the next colour.

For the cards and envelopes we do the same thing, but let it dry in between.

The kids presents for Christmas were painted and stamped the paper grocery bags, and we have done the blob and swirl technique on them as well, but they weren't big enough for this gift.

Paint, Xmas stamps and paper bags

 We get groceries delivered and with Woolies no longer using plastic bags we have a ridiculous number of paper bags! So with a little creativity, a 3D printer, a little paint and a 2 year old, I now have some cute Christmas great gift bags!

The green paint definitely covers the green logo better so I'll have to remember that for next year.

These stamps (there are lots, so I've just linked the creators bio for you) are actually meant for cookies but I added this handle to turn them into stamps suitable for a toddler. If you want to print your own, I scaled the stamps up to 110% and the handle down to 80%.

Definitely my go to wrapping for gifts from now on - easier for me, and a fun activity for Lily.  We just wrote the recipients names using a white crayon, but I think next year I'll make name stamps or use a paint pen.

Mother's day candle holders

 We live 15 minutes from a main town, but it really is limited with what shops there are, as well as what they stock. Needless to say I am very quickly learning that I have to be a lot more organised - unless I feel like driving 40 minutes to the bigger shops - which I don't as I hate driving!

Unfortunately I was not organised as usual, so while I planned to paint terracotta pots with Lily for her Grandmother's and Great Grandmother's, we had to settle on these candle holders from Kmart. Which made the zygocactus I bought a bit pointless (yes, I am great at buying plants without even thinking about pots).

Our two year old did a bit of painting once or twice a day until we had enough paint on there (if this pot happens to move into the brush that the toddler is holding,  she is still the one painting right?!). They turned out pretty cute, and we already have our plan for next year, assuming I buy everything in advance!

Custom Camera Case

After finally getting my new camera, I realised I would need a case for it! But of course I don't want to carry around a camera bag as well as a handbag so I opted to buy a small camera case that I could then put in my handbag.

I found a cheap one on eBay that was plain black and would fit in my handbag along with all of my other necessities... but I got this one with Canon EOS written on it!

For the price I paid, I quickly got over it and decided I might as well see if acrylic paint lasts on a camera case as well as it lasted on my stone mushroom (which is still going strong in my garden).

So I painted that front section blue, which means I no longer have a Sony camera in a Canon case. I wasn't expecting it to turn out that well, but I have to say it actually looks good! I painted it the same way I would if I was stenciling - brushing the paint on just moved it all around the vinyl (I think it is vinyl). It took quite a few layers to get the coverage I needed.

So far the paint is holding up well, if it stays nice I plan on painting flowers on it similar to my blog banner. The blue paint has to last for a couple of months worth of general wear and tear before I decide to put in the time and effort!