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.

Paperbark hanging basket liner

I love my hanging baskets, especially when I've remembered to keep them well watered! 

I have some pretty old ones where the coir fibre is falling apart - the birds love stealing it for their nests. While I like the metal part of hanging baskets, I don't like the coir fibre so I decided to try out paperbark since I have a tree in our garden. It is a little fiddly getting it to sit nicely but I think it looks great!

With all the movement restrictions due to covid I've been trying to make do with what we have rather than my usual "quick trip" to Bunnings to buy everything I need for my brilliant ideas. But hey, all this creative thinking also means that I'm saving money!

This basket has a cherry tomato plant called "Blue Berries" in it. Normally I grow them in the ground but with all the rain we were having I decided I'd put some under the patio to stop them all being cracked from overwatering - although the chickens do love them! So far they're doing well and they taste great, I just make sure I water and fertilise them regularly.

Sattelite Dish Planter

When we got our roof repainted it meant removing the old satellite dish and I insisted that I had to keep it to create a succulent garden. And much to my husbands annoyance it sat in the way until I figured out that the remaining stump of our palm tree was the perfect stand! It was a tough decision to permanently cover up the cut end of this stump since it made a great background for my agate pendants, but I think the end result was worth it.

I had the draft of this post written many years ago and I've just recently changed this part of my garden so I'll have to do an update once all the plants have settled in.

Motherboard clock

My hubby likes building computers and because family and friends know that, he tends to be given their old computers. Generally, these computers are destined for landfill so I decided to use one of the old motherboards as the background of a clock for my hubby.

I started by using pliers to pull all the components off but it was taking forever so I used our multi tool to cut all the bits off. Then I cut the motherboard to fit a square shadowbox photo frame and drilled a hole in the centre so I could install the clock.

If I ever make another one it will probably be five times quicker and a lot easier than this first one!

Tissue Paper Flowers

My grandma gave me a flower punch for my birthday, which happened to be around the same time that I found this tissue paper flower project on the Fiskars website.

This is one of those projects that I, for some reason, just made more and more of without any plan of what I am going to do with them!

They look really pretty individually, so for now I will just keep filling up the box until I figure out how I want to use them. Either way, it is another good project to work on while watching tv.

I reused some of the tissue paper from gifts I have received, so perhaps I will continue the gift wrapping theme and use these flowers rather than the stick on bows I normally buy.

Stone mushrooms for the garden

Back in January I glued together some river rocks and painted them to look like little mushrooms. Because I wanted them outside I varnished the first one and set it aside to cure for the required two weeks... then I wondered if all that time and extra effort was necessary. So on the 7th of February I put one painted, varnished and cured mushroom and one painted mushroom in the garden as an experiment.

Painted and varnished

Painted only

Nearly four months later, and both of my mushroom rocks are still looking great! You can see that the shiny one in the front with lots of spots is the varnished one.

What prompted the idea that the varnish might be unnecessary? Every time I clean the bathroom I see that bit of blue acrylic paint still stubbornly sticking to my sink! If regular cleaning with bleach doesn't remove it, in theory a painted rock should look great in my garden for quite awhile.

Mattress to Floor Cushion

Ages ago we bought a new mattress to replace my old foam mattress - which I kept (you know, just in case) until I started to get sick of all that space it was wasting! But I still didn't want to throw perfectly good foam away...

So when Trixie was a puppy she got adult doggie sized mattress pieces as beds and the rest was cut into squares to eventually become floor cushions - and those squares have sat, wasting space for nearly two years! 

Until yesterday when the first experimental cushion was finally completed!

And of course, I didn't find a tutorial on making boxed cushions first - obviously I love to waste time unpicking fabric. After unpicking I just had to try and figure it out myself with some spare fabric, after more frustration I finally googled the solution! If you are interested in how to create the perfect corners just look at the pictures on this web page - you don't even need to read it since the picture explains it all.

Since I have furry pets everything has to be easily removed for washing so I added a nice big zip that extends  over the two corners.When I saw the price of the long zips at Spotlight I almost considered just using velcro, but luckily I noticed the rolls of zips underneath the racks. The zip I chose was only $3 for a whole metre!

Now I just have four more cushions to finish. I've been thinking I need to have a go at using piping for the first time...

Belly chain to bracelets

My mum brought over her belly chain the other day as it has started to tarnish and she can't get it clean.

Even though there are some badly tarnished sections, mum wanted me to make her some bracelets from the cleaner sections.

So far I have made two bracelets which look quite nice on - I just need to check if they are a good size for mum before I finish any more.

I found the belly chain to be made a lot differently to other jewellery I have pulled apart, which unfortunately means I can't nicely reconnect the different sections. Either way, it certainly has been interesting to pull it apart and see all the different techniques used!

And if you don't have any belly chains, you could easily try this with old necklaces!

Denim Cat Cushion

Last month I posted about Trixie's new denim jeans dog bed, which she loves. I had lots of scraps left over so I decided to make a cushion for our cat Dash as well.

Being a small cat he only needs a small cushion so I created patchwork pieces like I did for the bottom and sides of Trixie's bed. For Dash I decided to do a square cushion so it would fit nicely in his favourite spot on the desk without wasting too much space.

If you saw the photos of Trixie's bed you might have noticed that I used a pair of Ray's jeans which had red accents on them. I brought the red into Dash's cushion as well by playing with red thread and the decorative stitches on my sewing machine on every seam. I also used red zips on both cushions, not that they are really seen.

Luckily, after all the effort, they both love their new jeans bean bag cushions. Now I just need some more old jeans to cut up and create with!

Denim Jeans Dog Bed

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A long, long time ago (probably last year) I was walking past a window display and saw a rug and bean bag made from jeans. They looked great and of course I had old jeans with ripped knees that I no longer wore.

Rather than make a traditional style beanbag I wanted to make her a round cushion type bed so I made a template and spent forever coaxing thick layers of our old jeans through the sewing machine... I finished the top and then it got put in a box and forgotten about!

Trixie had a beanbag that she loved as puppy which has been sitting in the garage since her and Alfie ripped holes in it while playing tug of war with it. Since she already spent one winter without her snuggly bean bag I thought I had better get her new denim cover finished for autumn.

Now that it is finally finished I'm happy with how it looks, Trixie thinks it's comfy and she has a ball when I put her toys in the pockets!

The bottom and sides were much easier to sew since I cut the jeans up and simply used them as fabric. I quite like the bottom, and I'm thinking of making a denim cover for our Poang armchair... that hasn't been added to my list yet!

What did I learn with this project? That bean bags need long zips, otherwise it is a pain to fill them with beans. It is horrible and frustrating to sew through multiple layers of old jeans! The wrong side of denim sometimes looks really cool - I mixed and matched the different jeans as well as using the right and wrong sides for this project!

Just because it is cute, I thought I would share this scrapbook collage of Trixie on her new bed.

All I need to do now is figure out where to put her bed, at the moment it is in her favourite spot at my desk - where I have to move it constantly and climb over it!

Trixie's new bed was featured over at I Gotta Create!



Linking up here:
Manic Monday @ Serendipity and Spice
Transformed Tuesday @ PJH Designs
Sew Darn Crafty @ Sew Many Ways
Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts
Fluster's Creative Muster @ Fluster Buster
Wildly Original Link Party @ I Gotta Create!

Alfie's new jumper

I looked after Alfie recently as his owner was in hospital

I have to say anyone who fosters dogs must be saints! I am lucky in that I knew Alfie and had some idea of what to expect when I brought him home. As for the people who foster dogs from animal shelters without knowing anything about the dog and having the patience to work with that dog until it finds a new home, I honestly don't know how they do it!

I realise now that Trixie is a really well behaved dog. Sure I don't know what she would be like if she was in Alfie's situation, but for now I am going to believe people when they tell me she is a good dog.

In Australia it is Autumn and the last two nights have been pretty cold. Alfie is a destructo dog so there are only 2 blankets left for the dogs. I recently made Trixie a test jumper from an old sheet which turned out pretty good even though it was too long. Because Alfie has such short hair and very holey blankets I decided to attempt a jumper for him as well.

Because I don't have any large  pieces of material hanging around the house, I had to get creative and recycle! I used the cover from an old foam mattress for the outside of his jumper - I have no idea what the material is but it seems like it may be water resistant which will be good if he needs to go to the toilet when it is raining. For the inside I used an old cotton curtain from when we moved into this house. And sandwiched between the outer pieces for warmth I used the polar fleece blanket we have on the couch - luckily I was considering giving those to Trixie and Dash once it got colder!

As someone who still isn't confident with or good at sewing, I am very happy with Alfie's jumper! There are a few things I need to tweak but its good enough. I guess the added bonus is that he kept it on all night without getting it off and destroying it. It really is impossible to get a good photo of Alfie, so here is one where he was at least standing still showing off his jumper! And Trixie in her too long jumper.

All that white fluff is from Trixie's pillow that she has had since she was a puppy. The orange, yellow and grey scraps are from 3 destroyed blankets. Like I said... destructo dog!

And here is a photo where Alfie is looking at the camera!

Puzzle Magnet

When I was little I used to make puzzles using magnets and stickers. It is so easy to do, and a fun craft for kids to make and play with.

The easiest way is to use stickers, but you can just as easily make a magnet of your favourite picture using double sided tape or glue.

For this tutorial I have used a panda photo cut from a calendar. You could use photos, magazine pictures or even artwork you have drawn yourself.

The best thing is that you can use magnets that companies use for advertising. Yes, I do have a lot of these ready and waiting to be used for craft.

1. Glue or stick your picture to your magnet and trim the magnet to fit your picture.
2. Mark out your cutting lines for the pieces.
3. Cut each piece carefully so they line up properly.
4. Assemble either on your fridge or the back of another magnet.

Please excuse the bad quality photos, the weather has been terrible again and my lights don't help!

Coiled Magazine Coasters

I thought I would show you my coiled magazine coasters.These are the coasters I made for our first house. We didn't really have any spare money to waste on things like coasters when we needed things like furniture, vacuums and microwaves. So a late night search and I found photos of coasters people had made from strips of magazine pages.

Perfect - old magazines and sticky tape. I never bothered putting felt on the bottoms or decorating the edges with ribbon, I like them how they are. After 3 years I am only down 3 coasters - they have lasted longer than the ones I bought at a store!

I did an internet search and found this tutorial which explains how to make the coils. I kind of made it up according to what I thought was easier when I made mine.

A quick run down for my way of folding the paper (let me know if you would like me to create a photo tutorial).

1. Cut strips from your magazine lengthwise that are 2 inches wide - you will need a lot of them so use a paper cutter or guillotine.
2. Fold each piece in half lengthwise.
3. Now fold the 2 lengthwise edges down into the middle.
4. You will now have strips of paper that are 1/2 inch wide. One side will have 1 folded edge, the other will have 2 folded edges.
5. When making my coasters I flipped my strips each time. Coil your first strip as tight as you can with the 1 folded edge facing up, then use a little bit of tape to tape the end to your coil. 
6. Take your next strip and with the 2 folded edges facing up this time, tape your new strip to your coil (make sure you butt it up against the end of the previous strip).
7. Coil it around and tape the end.
8. Keep repeating, ensuring to alternate the folded edges.

The tighter you wind your coils, the better it will look, and the better it will stay together. You will know if you are coiling tight enough when you feel your hands cramping!

And yes people will play with these. The will push the centres up and in some cases destroy the coasters. If you don't want this to happen, I suggest you glue felt on the bottom. People just don't realise how long it takes to finish one of these coasters!

Phonecard Magnets

After sharing my bee magnets with you, I thought I would share my favourite magnets with you.

All of these magnets are simply old phonecards. My dad used to work overseas and had to use phonecards to be able to contact us while he was away. Of course we loved seeing all the different pictures from the different countries he visited. I had a bag full of old phonecards, so rather than having them sit in a bag where they never get seen, I chose a few that would look cute as magnets!

I don’t use these magnets to hold anything on my fridge – they are purely there to look pretty!  If you happen to have a collection of old phonecards sitting around put some magnets on the back. My magnets are 3.8cm x 2cm and I only used 1 of them, I would suggest you use 3 if you want them to hold notes.

All of these phonecards are from Singapore. Now my dad has email and satellite phones to use while he is at work – luckily he still brings back different lollies and chocolates!

Cute Jar Lids

I like to keep glass jars instead of throwing them away as they are always useful to keep little things together, but I hate the ugly lids. I had a quick look online for ideas on how to decorate them using paper. I didn't really like any of the tutorials that I found so I did a little trial and error, after all if it didn't work I needed to throw a few out anyway.

So here is how I have made my cute little jar lids - which cost me nothing as I already had all the supplies!

Supplies:

• Jar Lid/s - I did a production line after my trials and errors
• Decorative Paper - I used a thick glossy gift wrap with geishas
• Acrylic Paint
• Sealer - I used Jo Sonja's Gloss Varnish which I get in the craft section at Bunnings
• Glue - I stole my husbands super glue as it dries fast and is thin
• Paintbrush
• Pen
• Scissors
• Blu-Tack
• Bottle/Cup/Glass (to trace your circle and also to sit your jar lid on while painting)

Step 1: Start by wiping your jar lid clean. Use your blu-tack to stick your jar lid to the top of a bottle or plastic cup. This will allow you to paint the bottom edges at the same time as the top. Start painting and do as many coats as needed for full coverage. I didn't bother with the centre of the jar lid as it will get covered with the paper.

Step 2: You now need to find a bottle that fits on the inside rim of your jar lid. Now place the bottle on top of your paper and trace a circle. Cut out your circle and check that it fits your lid. 

Step 3: Put your super glue around the centre of the lid, don't put it right to edges, then place your circle of paper down and smooth the glue out to the edges. If you put too much glue on the lid, make sure you wipe the excess away or it will bubble up look like my lid at the top left of my second last photo. Don't be afraid of super glue, just wipe it off with your finger then let it dry on your finger before you touch anything else. You can peel it off your skin later.

Step 4: Stick your lid back onto your bottle and start sealing the lid. Make sure you do the bottom edges as well. I did 4 coats of sealer on each of my lids.

And after your jar lid has dried you can fill up your jar and pop your cute new lid on top!

Now I can have my jars of craft supplies on display on my shelves instead of hidden out of sight.

The blue lid is for my husbands little computer screws - if he asks I can tell him they are in the blue jar!

I cleaned the paper glue from the labels off my jar by soaking them in hot water then scraping off as much as I could using my fingernail. After drying them I wipe off any excess sticky sections using a cotton wool ball and eucalyptus oil. I also removed the best before date by wiping with a cotton wool ball and metho.

I also put bi-carb in my jars with the lid screwed on until I want to use them, this absorbs most of the smell.

Scrappy Curtains

My wonderful husband bought me a sewing machine for my birthday and I needed to learn to sew, practice sewing straight lines and figure out what I can do with my machine.

When we moved into our new house we gave up one of the bedrooms to the cats and the snakes. It is great because it gives the cats their own safe room, stops the puppy getting into the cats food which is on a shelf in the cupboard and also stops the puppy getting into their kitty litter. My cats are very scared of visitors and unfortunately our new house doesn't have any built in cupboards for them to hide in (and fortunately for me I don't have to rewash and fold the laundry because of them!). Which leads to my idea to make a curtain to cover the tables that my snake cages sit on, then put a couple of their beds behind it.

The snake cages in the cats bedroom.

For the cats curtain I decided to use our old flannelette pyjamas - thanks to Trixie as a little puppy our clothes got lots of holes in them which lead to rips and piles of unwearable clothes. I normally recycle scraps from old clothes to make cat nip mouse toys for the cats but that pile would take a lifetime to use! 

I used some dodgy red thread I bought from a cheap store (I urgently needed it to fix my outfit before a party) since the whole thing could have ended up as a big disaster anyway!

As a beginner sewer I thought I could show you the steps as it may help others learning to sew.

For my curtain I measured the height and width of the two tables as one and added 6cm to each measurement for seam allowances. I didn't really decide on the length to make the complete curtain, instead I decided to add 60cm to my measurement as a minimum.

When cutting the strips I kept the length of each strip the same, but I did all different widths. Because I am lazy instead of measuring the width for each piece I made strips that were one, two or three ruler widths wide.

After I had cut the strips I sorted them into the four different piles to make it easier to lay them out ready for sewing.

Next I used my coffee table to lay out the pieces as I wanted to sew them. I used the length of the table as a guide so I knew if I had cut enough strips. Make sure to overlap the pieces to account for your seam allowance if you decided to measure it my lazy way.

Now all we need to do is sew all of the strips right side together along one side only. The first one is easy but for all of the following strips make sure check that you have added the new strip to the last one you added. Use 1 row of the simple straight stitch as we will be using decorative stitching to stop the fraying.

Once I finished sewing all of the pieces together I held the curtain up to the snake tables to check the length - and I ended up adding a few more pieces. 

As you can see all of the edges stand up so we need to iron them flat in order to do our decorative stitching.

Now you just need to select one of your sewing machines decorative stitches. If you don't have decorative stitches you can just use a zig zag stitch to stop the fraying. Grab a scrap piece of material and try them all out. Make sure you look at both sides as I found that some of my stitches looked better on the side that faces the top when sewing. 

The other thing you need to work out is which guide you need to line your material up to. I found that I had to start the material further back as the decorative stitch moves the material front to back and left to right and would cause the material to get stuck. 

Next I ironed the bottom and side hems so that I could sew around those three edges in one go.

Note that I folded and ironed the corners in so there were no raw edges.

As you can see I chose a different decorative stitch for my edges - this stitch only looked good from the top. 

I found that because of all the seams sitting on top of each other I had to pull the material through the machine a little at each strip. Be careful when pulling your material as it can bend your needle.

I chose to use some rope instead of a rod to hang my curtain. Place your rope at the top of your curtain and fold the material over the top then press it down.

Again I folded and ironed in the corners.

Now sew your rope hole down using your decorative stitch, making sure you catch those corner edges.

If you like you can trim any excess edges from the seams.

Use the safety pin method to pull your rope all the way through the hole.

I used 3M brand removable hooks to hang my curtain as I didn't want to bother with screws.

Tie a knot in your rope with a loop at the end, then repeat as tight as you can for the other end.

And now you are finished your scrappy curtain!

If you have any questions, just ask.