Day to Day

Hip Hip Hooray for Holidays - More project sharing

Some Hip Hip Hooray for Holidays sharing:

Joanna emailed through a cute photo of her daughter Chloe.  Chloe is seven and created this softie using Bella's pattern:

Glenyce and her girls have been busy creating some chipmunk pencil tins. They look so sweet all lined up:

Lissy's two girls (plus a friend) creating their marble house:

Ruby's three children have been busy creating some seriously cool string boards - aren't they cool?!! 

Narelle emailed me through this photo of some puppets and necklaces that her Julia created.  I adore the little drawings on the puppets:

Lusi made wagon wheels for her crew - they look so yummy:

There were lots more lovely projects created that I've spotted over the last few days too.  Thanks so much for playing along with us.

Hip Hip Hooray for Holidays - Day 10

Today is the last day of our 'Hip Hip Hooray for holidays' series.  I really hope you've enjoyed playing along, it's been a lot of fun creating all of the projects for you all.

My final project is actually something that needs an entire year for commitment.  Eek - I hear you say, but really all of the preparation is done in a morning or afternoon and then a quick 5 minutes, just once a month for the full year.  Then, at the end of the year you've created a beautiful memory banner of your year.

The hardest bit was photographing the bunting - why is bunting so hard to photograph?  Plus it was a pretty dreary day here yesterday, so please excuse the darkish photos.

So, basically you whip up an easy peasy bunting for each month in the year.  Then you add an extra flap of plain fabric on each triangle to use for recording a memory or experience every month.  Your little one can draw on their picture and then pop it back on the wall until the next month rolls around.

Here's the material list:

♥ Textas

♥ Lightly coloured plain fabric

♥ Patterned/colourful fabric

♥ A couple of metres of bias binding (or ribbon/fabric strip)

♥ Sewing machine (for Mama use - unless your little one wants to sew)

♥ Pinking shear scissors (optional) & pins

Let's get started!

Step 1:  To begin with you need to sew up a basic banner to use as your background.  Mine is just a set of simple triangles (x12) of fabric (cut out with pinking shear scissors) and then sewn together at the top with bias binding.  You could also use ribbon or fabric strips at the top, instead of the bias.

Step 2: Draw up a template (half circle) that fits nicely on the triangle - cut out 12.  We used pinking shears to eliminate fraying.

Step 3: Write the month and year on each piece of memory fabric and have your little one draw on a memory for January.  Bella really wanted to record her new Blythe doll (Emily-Jane) for January, even though she received her for Christmas in December - so we just went with the flow :)

Step 4: Pin each memory banner onto the bunting and machine stitch along the top to hold.

Step 5: Hang up the bunting and enjoy! 

Make sure you pop over to Tamar's blog to see her final project too.  It's been so fun and we've both really loved sharing these projects with you.  I know my Bella has thoroughly enjoyed creating lots of different goodies in the holidays too.

I'll be sharing a few more projects on here tonight that some lovely little people have created using our tutorials, so please pop back this evening.  

Tomorrow Tamar and I will be telling you about our next Hip Hip Hooray series, which is coming very soon :)  I'll also be putting up my auctions for the Flood Appeal on Saturday - so please stay tuned for that too - I have lots of goodies to auction including several new craft books (one pre-release), a yummy fat quarter fabric pack, fabric checkers set, mini doll quilt and quilted journal.

See you then xoxo

 

 

 

Hip Hip Hooray for Holidays - Day 9

Yesterday Bella had a lovely afternoon at the table playing with salt dough.  We've used this for lots of projects over the years - decorations, winter displays and all sorts of other things, but today I'm sharing how little ones can make their own trinket holder.

You'll need to ensure that the salt dough recipe isn't too wet for this activity - you'll want it more on the dry side so that it has the strength to hold into position during the drying process.

Here are the materials and instructions for the salt dough:

• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 cup salt
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup cooking oil
• Food coloring (optional)

Add the flour, salt, water and cooking oil together in a bowl, mixing it until combined with a spoon.  Then add a few drops of food colouring and mix through with your hands until the colour is even.  Sometimes it's necessary to add an extra dash of flour - you want the mixture to be firm and not too wet/sticky - we added an extra handful of flour to ours yesterday to ensure it wasn't too soggy.

Make a circular base for your trinket holder. 

Roll out a sausage of salt dough.

Start coiling each sausage around the base of the circle - keep going until you're happy with the height.

You can leave your salt dough creations out to dry for a few days or else pop them in the oven on a low temperature (we did ours on 150 degrees celsius) for a few hours.

Ta-da! After they're dry you have some lovely decorative boxes to keep all sorts of treasures in:

Here's the little trinket box:

And the big one:

Don't forget to pop over to Tamar's blog to see her project for today.  I'll be back later on this evening with a sneak peek for tomorrow :)

 

Special offer - last days

Just a reminder that the special offer (see below) ends tomorrow:

As a very special offer for our lovely Hip Hip Hooray readers, Quilt Fabric Delights have put together a super deal for you all, running until 14th January 2011:

Free postage on all orders plus a lucky dip 'scrap bag' of fabric added to all orders over $50 (contents vary). 

{Lucky dip 'scrap bag' examples have been shown in the special offer banner above}

Go HERE to start shopping! Enjoy xoxo

P.S. You will need to enter the following code in at checkout to receive the discount:

Hooray

Hip Hip Hooray for Holidays - Day 8

We're on the home stretch of our Hip Hip Hooray projects now - just two more days to go.  I hope you're enjoying our posts and tutorials so far.  Today I'm sharing some messy play activities.  They're super easy, use basic ingredients and are great for rainy or long days.

Goop and slime! I used to make these two mixtures up quite often for James to play with when he was smaller, but Bella has missed out quite a bit on the messy play experience.  I thought she might be a bit old for this activity, but she thoroughly enjoyed playing with the different textures this afternoon - actually we all had a bit of a play with both mixtures!

Let's start with the goop!  James was happy to help his little sister mix up both concoctions and it was quite cute to watch - he was telling her all about when he was small and played with goop and slime.

♥ Goop ingredients - 1 packet of cornflour, 1 cup of water, colouring (if desired)

♥ Gradually add the cornflour to the water and mix until there are no lumps.  

♥ We pre-mixed in a bucket first and then decided to move it into a flat container for easier playing.

Have you ever made goop before? It's incredibly cool and amazing stuff. 

Then there's slime! Equally as fun to play with.  

♥ Slime - You'll need 1 cup of soap flakes, 2 litres of warm water and an egg beater or hand held mixer.

♥ Dissolve the soap flakes in the warm water and whisk with the beaters.  Let your goop stand for a good 30 minutes - an hour. It will turn to slime - really cool stuff.

Also, I wanted to mention my microwave puff paint recipe - a very easy recipe that we love to make here and watch *puff* in the microwave.  HERE is the link if you would like to peek and create your own.

Don't forget to pop over to Tamar's blog to see her project for today.  I'll be back later on this evening with a sneak peek for tomorrow :)

 

Hip Hip Hooray for Holidays - Day 7

Welcome to day 7 of the Hip Hip Hooray series :)  My project today is totally fun and easy adaptable to any sized box that you happen to have lying around.  Another option it to make one out of cardboard - just tape some sides on so that it can stand up happily.

Here's the material list:

♥ Cardboard box - any size

♥ White paper to cover the box (we used a4 photocopy paper)

♥ Sharp knife or scissors

♥ Textras/pencils

♥ Marbles

♥ Glue

 

Step 1:  Draw up your marble house design on the front of the box and cut out with scissors or a sharp knife.

Step 2: Cover the box with white paper - we used photocopy paper.

Step 3: Decorate the marble house :)

Ta-da! Your marble house is ready for play.  We had competitions to see who could get the most marbles through the holes - 1 point for the big hole and 2 points for the little holes.

Don't forget to pop over to Tamar's blog to see her project for today.  I'll be back later on this evening with a sneak peek for tomorrow :)

 

 

Hip Hip Hooray for Holidays - Day 6

Welcome back to our final week of 'Hip Hip Hooray for holidays' projects.  Today Tamar and I are both doing a little bit of child friendly cooking to share with you.

Although both of my children can happily cook a cake and ice it on their own and independently bake semi-complicated dishes, sometimes when they ask to cook I like to keep it simple.  Simple means less mess for them to clean up and fast action on a completed recipe.

So, I thought I'd share my easy peasy wagon wheels!  They're a big hit here and super fast for children to make.

Ingredients:

♥ Chocolate

♥ Marshmellows

♥ Round biscuits - we used plain Marie biscuits by Arnotts

♥ Strawberry or raspberry jam

♥ You'll also need a micowave!

Step 1: Spread the biscuit with jam and pop a marshmellow in the centre.

Step 2: Pop the marshmellow and biscuit in the microwave for about 10-15 seconds.  You'll need to watch the marshmellow carefully - as it starts to squish and melt, remove it from the microwave quickly and pop the top biscuit on.

Step 3: Melt some chocolate and spread over the top of the biscuit.  When it's dry, flip over and coat the other side with chocolate.  Ta-da! Easy peasy wagon wheels!  For the fuss-pots of the family that don't like jam (we have two of those in our family) just omit the jam.

Here are some more of my easy peasy favourites for little ones to make:

♥ Fairy bread

♥ Milkshakes

♥ Popcorn

♥ Icy poles - chop us some fruit to add in

♥ Make your own pizza

♥ Toasted sandwiches

♥ Jelly

♥ Banana split - banana sliced in half with ice cream, nuts and topping.

Don't forget to pop over to Tamar's blog to see her recipes for today.  I'll be back later on this evening with a sneak peek for tomorrow :)

Hip Hip Hooray - project sharing.

I thought I'd share a few projects that people have been busy making from our 'Hip Hip Hooray' for holidays series.  

Miss Emily made her very own play mat yesterday to play Littlest Pet Shops on. I'm in love with the tractor - so cute.

Nicky's two children have been busy creating some hand puppets and a felt pencil tin.  Sweet +++

Lovely Miss Rachel created her own string board design - I think it looks so pretty and striking with the white background.

Olivia and Jake have been super busy creating their own pencil tins. Totally adorable :)

If your little ones have created something from our Hip Hip Hooray series, pop me through your blog link to a photo as I'll be sharing more projects next week :)

Hip Hip Hooray for Holidays - Day 5

Welcome to day 5 in the 'Hip Hip Hooray for holidays' series.  Just a reminder that over the weekend I'll be back to normal blog posting and day 6 of 'Hip Hip Hooray' will go up on Monday :)

My project today is a children's softie.  Just before Christmas Bella appeared out of her bedroom with this softie (Ellie, as she has been named).  She had drawn up the design roughly on paper, created her own pattern pieces and stitched everything up within the hour - I had no idea until she appeared with the softie.  The following day she downsized the pattern herself to make a baby for Ellie and has since made another one for her friend.  

I love that Bella now has the confidence to create and sew by herself.  One of my inbox's most frequently asked questions is when did I teach my children to sew and how?  Well, they both started at about the age of 5 (actually Bella might have been 4). I can't remember what James' first sewing experience was, but Bella drew up a simple picture onto a piece of calico and I showed her how to embroider it.  Once she became more confident with her stitching we progressed to working with felt (still her favourite texture to sew with) and she created simple softies. clothes for her dolls, teddies etc...  Bella has a good eye for being able to dream up something in her mind and translate this exactly (in size and vision) into a project, which is something that I really didn't have as a child and often still struggle with now.  She's a fast stitcher too, which helps keep her interest in the project from start to finish.

So, I thought it would be fun to share Bella's first pattern with you - and she's very excited at the thought of another little person using her pattern to create their own softie.

Here's the material list:

♥ Felt 

♥ Needle

♥ Embroidery cotton

♥ Scissors

♥ Buttons

♥ Stuffing

♥ Printable PDF -  Download Softie pattern download

Your little person might even prefer to create their own softie instead, which is a simple process of drawing up a design on paper and then breaking down the design to pattern pieces so it can be stitched up.  Felt is a great medium for children to work with because it doesn't fray.

If you're creating Bella's softie, simply print out the PDF file (found in the material list above) and follow the cutting instructions listed on the PDF. Next you'll need to stitch on the buttons, lips and scales.

Stitch the softie together, catching the legs as you and then stuff.  Sew a family of them by upsizing and/or downsizing the pattern :)

I hope you enjoyed the final project for the week - Tamar and I are looking forward to sharing lots of new tutorials with you next week too.

Don't forget to pop over to Tamar's blog and peek at her cute projects for today as well :)

Hip Hip Hooray - special offer

As a very special offer for our lovely Hip Hip Hooray readers, Quilt Fabric Delights have put together a super deal for you all, running until 14th January 2011:

Free postage on all orders plus a lucky dip 'scrap bag' of fabric added to all orders over $50 (contents vary). 

{Lucky dip 'scrap bag' examples have been shown in the special offer banner above}

Above are some snapshots of our favourite picks from Quilt Fabric Delights - fabric, patterns and suitcases.  How delicious are those suitcases!! ♥ So, so good.

Go HERE to start shopping! Enjoy xoxo

P.S. You will need to enter the following code in at checkout to receive the discount:

Hooray