Birthday party planning

It's all about Minecraft with the boys at the moment, so we are busy planning a 10th birthday party with a minecraft theme. There are plenty of ideas out there on the net, including some amazing looking cakes!
So far I have the piñata and party bags made & ready to go-





This is the quickest piñata I have ever made. Much as I love the paper mâché, creepers are cubes! So the quick version is made by covering an A4 photocopy paper box with plain paper, then pasting on random green squares & a face. Party bags are green paper bags, with a sharpie stencilled face! Too easy! Just waiting on the pearler beads to arrive now, to make some party bag goodies!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Jeans bag

Recycled another pair of jeans for a special birthday present for a special 10 year old...


And thinking of making one of these for another special soon-to-be-10 year old! found on the indestructables website. Been looking up a lot of minecraft ideas for a themed birthday party!




By the way - the Sister's Market is on this Saturday 10-4at the Coburg Town Hall, Coburg Farmer's market at Coburg Nth PS is on Sat morning too.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Mixed bag...

Firstly- free to good home-


DIY hair clips - you cover the solid piece with fabric, clip together - like self cover buttons. I taught myself to embroider grub roses, from a Women's Weekly or Family Circle craft story I'm sure- and made a few hair clips and things years ago. Like really years ago... Just found these unused clips, so if you want to make some hairclips (I'm sure they would look better in some bright funky fabric than the chambray & roses ones I used to make!), let me know.Otherwise they go to the opshop.
One still has the price ticket on it from "Bargain Box" fabrics! Ah, memories...

Speaking of op shops,I had a couple of interesting find recently. This intriguing little gadget, complete with instruction book


At first I thought it was a travel Spirograph set, but then I noticed the word "Janome" on the lid, which really got my attention! In fact it is a type of Spirograph kit- for a sewing machine! A "spiral stitcher" it is called. Haven't been game enough to try it out yet, I want to take it on to the Janome shop first to check if it will work on my machine, and find out how to work it. Would be effective on denim fabric I think, especially with the rainbow thread I am crazy about at the moment!

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Text talk pillows

1 finished (with buttons) and the other nearly done. Trying to think of another suitable "text" but all I can think of is "WTF" which is a little bit rude really! -although I'm sure people would buy one if I made it!
Does't show up so much in the photo, but the letters are zig-zagged on with rainbow thread - works really well against the denim. Only catch- I need to find a good clear sans serif font to use, too tricky to get all the corners right with this font! I used a pack of chipboard letters bought from the Fiskars garage sale a few years back, very handy for tracing around. But I think maybe Helvetica or something similar might be easier to sew!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Craft markets in Coburg this weekend!

The "Round she goes" vintage market is on at the Coburg Town Hall this Sunday, 10 -3. And the Pentridge Farmer's and Artisans' market is also on Sunday, 9-2pm. Forecast is for 14 degrees and 60% chance of rain, which means a 50% chance I might venture outdoors this weekend!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Knitty necklace

Have you seen the "seven sisters six loops" knitted necklace on Ravelry and artemisadornments.com (posted in 2011)? I really like the idea of knitted jewellery - kind of in between a necklace and a scarf. I saw this one (featured from etsy) in "Knitsy" a free downloadable knitting magazine from the UK -



Love the colours, and when I saw it it reminded me about the Ravellry one, and got me thinking... So I found my double pointed needles, got out a knitting book to re learn how to make i-cord.



The yarn is acrylic, bright multi shades of green. I only made 3 loops, 6 or 7 seemed to bulky for me. Love the colours. It got a lot of compliments at the craft show!
So now I am trying a few other colours-




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Off to the craft fair!

I headed into the craft fair yesterday afternoon after work. I had a small list of specific things to look for- a yellow fat quarter for a sewing project; some nice bright washi tape in yellow, green, orange and blue; some new stamp pads to replace my nearly 20 year old ones which are pretty faded now!; and some jewellery bits & pieces for a lovely girl at work to make some necklaces with ( after she admired some of mine, and I told her I made it from bits & pieces from the craft show!).
I found plenty of washi tape-


Ok, so the music, keyboard and birds were not on my list, but I figured that last year I bought some Elvis fabric to make a bag for my son's piano teacher for Christmas, so I will make something (not sure what yet!) with the music themed washi tape this year! And the birds- I just had to get it! I'm sure to find plenty of opportunities to "put a bird on it"!

If you are going to the craft show & looking for washi tape, I have to recommend stall C26 "the paper craft hub". $3 a roll, and they have all the washi on a brilliant display, so you can see all the rolls, and even have sample tags for most colours. I bought some for $2.50 each/ 5 for $10 at another stall first ( maybe art stamps? Forgot to take note of the name, but it was in row A or B. Had to dig through a tray of tape to find colours. Then when I got to "Craftqueen" where I had intended yo buy the washi, having seen the amazing range on their website, I was very disappointed to see that you had to dig through a deep tub of random colours (at $3.50 each too) - so I went back to the paper craft hub and told the stall holder their that her washi display was head and shoulders above the rest, and bought 2 more rolls!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad